In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 488: Hundreds of Years Ahead

Throughout the dynasties, private copper coins were minted by the private sector. If gold and silver coins could be minted, who would exchange them with you? The private sector would suffer a huge loss from the government, and prices would be hit hard, and the Song Dynasty could go into chaos.

Because in the past, the profit from making copper coins was not very high. After all, the copper content was there. The two Song dynasties even stopped the foundry because they would lose money when casting copper coins.

But now silver coins are highly profitable. One tael of silver coins contains only 20 grams of silver. Counting labor and other costs, the profit is not to mention 20 times, but 15 times. If the private sector can make it, it will definitely be messed up.

Zhao Yurui was full of confidence and tossed it casually: "Do you think the private sector can make such a beautiful currency?"

Qin Zhuo, the Minister of Household Affairs, said at this time: "Our coin minting machine in the Song Dynasty has just been developed. It uses steam and water power design, which is hundreds of years ahead of the times. As long as the machine is not dense, it will be impossible to build it outside."

Everyone couldn't help but touch the patterns on it, and it was indeed not something that could be imitated by ordinary machines.

Zhao Yurui then asked Huang Shang to take out a wave of gold and silver coins.

This was imitated by the imperial court using folk machines and methods. After it was distributed to the ministers, it was obvious at a glance that the quality was extremely poor, the pattern was not obvious, and the workmanship was rough.

In this era, money was mainly minted using the sand foundry method or the same mold method. The pattern produced was quite rough compared to the die-casting method of the coin minting machine.

Zhao Yurui explained that there are three lines on the back of this coin. No matter what the folk method is, the thinnest lines can be more than one millimeter, which is not thin at all.

But the imperial court's coinage method can make it slightly thicker than a hair, and it feels like a knife blade cutting your hand.

Just these three lines cannot be imitated outside.

The date, month, and handwriting on the front are all small and delicate, and cannot be reproduced outside.

Zhao Yurui is not worried about the outside world. He is worried about the future corruption of the dynasty, insufficient fiscal revenue, and an emperor who will overpay and cause prices to skyrocket.

Therefore, his main route and policy is to strictly control the quantity and then try to promote it to overseas countries in exchange for gold and silver from other countries.

While the court is issuing currency, it will also vigorously publicize it to make outsiders strictly guard against counterfeit currency, and there will be rewards for reporting it.

Ancient people often used fake copper coins because it was difficult for ordinary people to identify them.

But what is the most powerful thing about Zhao Yurui’s Song Dynasty? Of course it's propaganda.

His county officials and security chiefs from various places were all Zhao Yurui's professional propaganda team. It took more than ten years to replace all grassroots officials and security chiefs with retired Song soldiers.

They were able to implement the court's various propaganda policies perfectly and truly bring imperial power to the countryside.

In the two Song dynasties and later in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the local governors were all local bigwigs and landlords, which also prevented the imperial power from going to the countryside, and even allowed the landlord class to influence the imperial power's rule.

However, in the hands of Zhao Yurui, it has taken more than ten years to completely replace the grassroots officials and focus on weakening the local rule of landlords, officials and gentry in various places. This allows Zhao Yurui to have the ultimate effect no matter what he wants to promote. Good effect.

"Promote new currencies, promote anti-counterfeiting, and reward reports. I must see the results——"

In the article about reward for reporting, Zhao Yurui decided to give everyone the power to confiscate counterfeit coins.

To put it simply, for example, a common citizen named A is selling vegetables at the market, and someone B gives him a counterfeit coin worth one silver coin. After receiving it, A thinks it is a counterfeit coin and can confiscate it directly and report it to the government.

The government determined that this was counterfeit money. They first arrested the person who used the counterfeit money, and then confiscated the user's family property. Finally, from his family property, they took out ten times of what the whistleblower A received, that is, ten silver coins, and then rewarded the seller. A certain person of dish.

Everyone can confiscate counterfeit currency, and there will be a tenfold reward for reporting it. Under such policy promotion, Zhao Yurui believes that there will no longer be counterfeit currency on the market, let alone that it will not be counterfeited by the private sector.

The issue of new currency this time will be left to the Reichsbank.

The Imperial Bank of the Song Dynasty was established a few years ago and was converted from Sihai Bank.

Back then, Zhao Yurui used Sihai Bank to save money at high interest rates, which won the hearts of the people. He also used another bank to make a fortune. Later, Sihai Bank was officially converted into a bank.

However, in the past few years, the functions of banks are still to save money and lend money, mainly lending money. Saving money is always a pain in the hearts of people in the Song Dynasty.

After all, many people were tricked by Zhao Yurui back then.

The bank's promotion was slow. First, Zhao Yurui had the experience of cheating other people's money, and second, he was concentrating on military affairs and fighting Mongolia.

Now ready to promote the new currency and engage in financial warfare, he began to promote banks with all his strength.

In October of the tenth year of Yuanzhen, the imperial court issued a decree and promoted several things one after another.

The first is to establish a newspaper group. The imperial court will issue newspapers and periodicals in the future, and then distribute them to various places by inns and naval forces. The newspapers and periodicals will be issued every seven days. It may take several months for an issue sent from Lin'an to overseas, but it does not matter. Many places in the country still have It's relatively fast. This is his preparation for increasing publicity.

The second is to require all county governments across the country, as well as various units below the county level, to towns, villages, and bao, to set up publicity booths. In the future, new policies of the court will be posted to the village and bao level as soon as possible.

As for whether the village guards can read or not? There is no need to worry. In the past ten years, the imperial court has sent retired soldiers to various places. With the promotion of schools, it is no problem for a village or a guard to find someone who can read.

Moreover, when all new policies and publicity announcements are posted, officials will be on site to read them out.

This incident was also intended to increase publicity and consolidate imperial power in the countryside.

The county government yamen is specifically responsible for doing this, and the Jinyi Guards from various places are responsible for supervision. All announcements must be posted for more than seven days. The local Jinyiwei will visit and inspect at any time, and the Jinyiwei from the capital will form an inspection team to supervise all places.

The third is to establish banks at the provincial level and allow private banks to upgrade to banks.

Private banks will first give five places, and each bank needs to hand over a deposit of more than 10 million yuan to the court. Only this deposit alone, not many businessmen could come up with before.

However, the Song Dynasty has become richer and richer in recent years. Many merchants along the coast have followed the Song army to make fortunes everywhere, and the merchants who followed Zhao Yurui when they started in their early years have also become prosperous.

Coupled with the prevalence of maritime trade, there were many wealthy people in the Song Dynasty, and there were actually more than a dozen companies competing.

One of them is Guo Chengzhang from Lin'an.

In his early years, Guo Chengzhang had a good relationship with Zhao Yurui during the period of King Yi, and he clearly sided with Zhao Yurui when they seized power.

Later, Guo Chengzhang went to Zhejiang and Zhejiang to restructure the salt factory, which was equivalent to joining a state-owned enterprise.

Over the years, Guo Chengzhang has prospered in state-owned enterprises, and his family has been taken care of by Zhao Yurui. Although the Guo family has no real power and no previous military power, they have made a lot of money.

This time the imperial court opened banking to the outside world, Guo Chengzhang immediately sensed business opportunities. He wanted to find his former partner Qin Chen. Qin Chen had now been sent overseas to serve as governor. For this matter, he also sent a letter to contact Guo Chengzhang to support him in banking.

Qin Chen's visitor said that the banking matter was strongly recommended by His Majesty the Emperor. You can do it regardless of whether you can make money or not. The key is your attitude. Can His Majesty still make you lose money?
Guo Chengzhang heard that it made sense, so he and Qin Chen's family each contributed 5 million yuan to jointly set up a bank for fun.

They also thought of a name for their bank, Weimin Bank.

Because the imperial court required that it be opened first at the provincial level, Guo and Qin's banks were placed in Jinan, Shandong.

Release of Fuzhou was also a decision made by Guo Chengzhang and Qin Chen after careful consideration, and they also specifically consulted Emperor Zhao Yurui.

Zhao Yurui explained to them, how do banks make money? Of course, by lending. So who will lend money in Song Dynasty now?
Those who took the most loans in the Song Dynasty were those who were engaged in maritime business.

Nowadays, maritime trade in the Song Dynasty is developed, and the shipbuilding industry is also developing crazily. There are more and more private shipyards along the coast. However, because the imperial court controls the best and largest ships, the best and largest ships are still relatively expensive.

Maritime trade is so developed that everyone wants a piece of the pie, but not everyone has the capital to buy a ship or purchase goods.

Whether it is a ship of silk, a ship of sugar, or ceramics from the Jiangnan coast, the cost is tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands.

Once the ship capsizes, they will lose all their money, and many people can only rely on loans to get back on their feet.

So now along the coast, in places like Fujian, Jiangnan, Zhejiang, Shandong and other places, small businessmen with a little more courage dare to take out loans to buy ships and then go into maritime business.

Of course, some people can make money and some people can lose money.

This is not important, what is important is that someone in Song Dynasty is willing to lend money.

After the imperial court vigorously promoted that America was full of jewelry and gold, more and more people took out loans to buy ships and then went to sea to find gold.

More and more people will dare to participate in overseas colonization.

Therefore, loans can still be done in Song Dynasty. As long as they are done well, they will basically not lose money.

Of course, in addition to running overseas, private engineering bosses, including many students, will take out loans, and the imperial court also has special student loans.

Now the imperial court is running schools and universities everywhere. Many students from poor areas have the opportunity to go to school. If they have no money or travel expenses to take exams, they can get loans.

It is better to go to a bank than to find a private loan, and the interest rate is still low. This is the main force of Da Song's lending at present.

Anyway, after listening to Zhao and Rui's face-to-face explanation, Guo Chengzhang must have believed that running a bank would not make a loss. Even if it was a loss, in Qin Chen's words, this was something that His Majesty wanted to promote, and he must support it.

In mid-October, not long after the imperial decree arrived below, Guo Xiong, the son of Guo Chengzhang, arrived in Jinan Prefecture.

Guo Xiong was only seventeen years old. He graduated from a school in the capital last year and failed the imperial examination. He originally wanted to be a civil servant, but his family was rich and multi-millionaire, so Guo Chengzhang didn't care and temporarily arranged for his son to live in Qingzhou. Salt factory, working as a state-owned enterprise employee, hanging around.

This time he wanted to run a bank and asked his son to resign directly.

According to the rules of the imperial court, people like him who supported His Majesty the Emperor in the past can arrange a job for his son. After resigning this time, he will not be able to enter again in the future.

Of course Guo Xiong doesn't care. He wants to be a big boss and still cares about a small employee position.

At this time, the prefect of Jinan Prefecture was still an acquaintance of their family, which was why Guo Chengzhang wanted to open a bank in Jinan.

The magistrate is none other than Zhong You, the same companion who spent all day with Zhao Yurui and Guo Chengzhang.

At that time, Mrs. Zhong and Zhong You's siblings all supported Zhao Yurui. After Zhao Yurui came to power, they first arranged for Zhong You to be a county magistrate. However, Zhong You was not cut out to be an official and his political achievements were mediocre. Fortunately, after so many years of experience, he has made some progress and has now become the prefect of Jinan.

On October 16, Guo Xiong came to Jinan Mansion with his entourage to meet his Uncle Zhong.

Guo Xiong knew that Zhong You worked hard to be his official, which could be described as quite diligent.

Zhong You was a playboy when he was young, and he was never expected to be an official. Later, he met Zhao Yurui, which was a turning point in his life.

After Zhao Yurui came to power, he arranged for him to be the county magistrate, but his job was a mess at first.

Zhao Yurui had no choice but to cooperate with the chief bookkeeper and other deputy positions specially arranged for him, and then he slowly started to hone his skills.

In the past ten years, Zhong You has been promoted from county magistrate, to magistrate, to magistrate, and to magistrate. Among Zhao and Rui's close associates, his promotion is relatively slow.

There is no way, the ability is a bit lacking, but Zhong You is also working hard and does not want to embarrass Zhao Yurui.

And he is also young, one year older than Zhao Yurui. He is currently only thirty-six years old, and there is still a lot of room for improvement.

At about eight o'clock in the morning, Guo Xiong came to the backyard of the prefect's Yamen.

This is where the prefect's family lives, and there are usually no people there. There are only two guards at the back door.

Unexpectedly, when Guo Xiong arrived today, he saw four strong men at the door of the courtyard behind.

Seeing Guo Xiong and his group, the expression on the other side tightened, and someone immediately held the handle of the knife.

Doesn't this look like a government official? Guo Xiong could tell at a glance that these four people looked like elite sergeants.

What happened? There was something strange in his mind.

"What are you doing? This is the center of the government office, do you know?" Someone from the opposite side stepped forward and asked loudly.

"Little Guo Xiong, from Lin'an, came to visit his uncle Zhongyou Zhongzhifu." Guo Xiong quickly introduced that he came to visit his uncle.

When the person on the other side heard him calling Uncle Zhong You, his face softened slightly, and then he looked at him: "Wait a moment." He turned around and entered the inner courtyard.

Guo Xiong waited outside and looked at these men from time to time. The more he looked at them, the more they looked like sergeants.

Jinan Prefecture is an important town in Shandong. Of course, there are troops stationed there, but sergeants are rarely seen in the prefecture's Yamen. He couldn't help but wonder what happened.

After a while, the person who had just entered came out and his tone softened a lot: "Mr. Guo Xiaolang, please, Madam Zhong."

"Mrs. Zhong?" Guo Xiong was briefly distracted.

Of course he had heard of Mrs. Zhong's name, but he had never seen her before.

He had heard a little bit about some rumors outside, and had even asked his father about them, but Guo Chengzhang kept silent and told him not to inquire about them.

The man then accompanied him into the house, while his entourage stayed outside. While leading him inside, he said, "Prefect Zhong has gone to the countryside and may not be back today. What does Mrs. Zhong want to ask you?"

It turned out that Zhong You was not at the house. Guo Xiong was a little hesitant for a moment and immediately stopped: "Uncle Zhong is not at the house, so why not me?"

"Go in, Mrs. Zhong is summoning you." The man knew that Guo Xiong wanted to leave, so he said again.

Guo Xiong had no choice but to walk in. Soon he came to a courtyard and saw the door open with a creak, and then a little girl walked out.

The little girl was only about fourteen or fifteen years old. She was very beautiful. Guo Xiong looked a little distracted.

The little girl glanced at Guo Xiong, lowered her head quickly, a blush flashed across her face, and ran away like a gust of wind.

It's so beautiful, Guo Xiong secretly screamed in his heart, his expression a little lost.

(End of this chapter)