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Chapter 428 Bank 3

"...Please forgive me for being presumptuous. Your Majesty's request is almost impossible to achieve. Even if you invite the best bank manager in Italy, there is nothing you can do!" The Baroness listened very seriously, with tears still hanging on her eyelashes. , but the brain is already thinking at high speed, but the calculated result does not seem to be optimistic.

"Oh! Can you tell me why?" After hearing this answer, Hong Tao immediately sat up from the recliner and stretched out his index and middle fingers to make a V sign.

When the eunuch serving in the room saw this, he immediately took out a box from under the desk, pulled out something as thick as a little finger and as long as a palm, carefully placed it between the emperor's fingers, and then offered the exquisite lighter together. superior.

“His Majesty’s galleons and cannons are powerful, his silks and palaces are beautiful, his food is richer than in Spain, and even more exquisite than in Italy, but his currency is so confusing that I am very confused.

In addition to silver ingots and silver coins, there are also copper coins and banknotes. I have seen more than ten kinds of copper coins alone, each with completely different weight and value. It is said that this is not all!

Holy shit, I don't know how a bank would run without a currency with consistent prices. Just calculating prices between various currencies requires a lot of manpower, and any mistake may cause banks and customers to suffer heavy losses!

Is His Majesty the Emperor smoking Holy Cross? Can you let me see...it's actually rolled up? Can I give it a try? Phew...yes, it's Holy Cross grass, but it tastes much better than the wooden pipes that the natives of New Spain smoked. "

At first, the baroness only talked about her feelings about the Ming Dynasty's economy, but she was soon attracted by the taste and began to pay attention to what the emperor was holding in his mouth. After getting permission, I also learned to take a small sip and made a very professional comment.

"Let's put aside the issue of currency for the moment. Banks will first use silver as the unit of account. You should have seen the new accounting method at the Queen's place. It is not difficult and easy to master, and it is suitable for bank accounts.

Let’s set up the bank’s headquarters on Qipan Street for the time being. I’ll have people prepare suitable housing. In terms of manpower, I will send you 20 people first. They can speak Latin and keep accounts, but are not familiar with bank work. You can choose the suitable ones from them and keep them, and ask me for the ones that are not enough. "

Holy cross grass, Europeans like to rely on religion for everything, and Hong Tao smokes tobacco. In the fourth year of Jingyang, most of the seeds that I asked the Portuguese captain to get back were cultivated. Among them, tobacco has been cultivated on a small scale in Kaifeng Prefecture, Henan Province after several years of selection. These cigars are produced in Xuzhou.

But tobacco leaves alone are not enough. If you want to make cigars, they must be fermented and aged. Hong Tao knew the general process flow, but he didn't know how to execute it specifically. He could only let the imperial supervisor try it.

No, the first batch of finished cigars was delivered just the day before yesterday, with only two boxes of 40 cigars in total. If the emperor feels that the taste is not right, then the formula and process will have to be changed. Mass production will begin when the emperor agrees.

In fact, Hong Tao is also subjective. He always feels that tobacco has not been introduced to the Ming Dynasty. In fact, it may have been cultivated in the Ming Dynasty for longer than his age, mainly around Zhangzhou, Fujian. It was introduced from Luzon and is called Luzon grass. It is not dried and smoked much, but chewed is more common.

Does it taste right? What's wrong? Tobacco origins are different, processing methods are different, and the taste is naturally different. Hong Tao has never touched tobacco in his life, and has long forgotten the taste in his memory. Now he is quite happy with anything he smokes.

But what excited him more was not the tobacco, but the foreign woman in front of him. Don't get me wrong, I'm not excited about someone's body, but my brain. The Baroness actually thought about currency issues. This is not just familiar with banking business, it should be called having an economic perspective, and it is also macroscopic. There are indeed serious problems with the Ming Dynasty's monetary system. No, that is too superficial. It should be said that the Ming Dynasty had no monetary system at all. Zhu Yuanzhang was a hero in troubled times, and his ability to take advantage of the situation to dominate was unparalleled.

But as the ancients said, it is easy to conquer a country but difficult to defend it. He really doesn't know whether a country can be managed like a landlord. He has no business or economic concepts in his mind, and he doesn't think the monetary system is very important.

Since him, the currency of the Ming Dynasty has never been a system. First, he printed banknotes. In fact, banknotes are not unplayable, but the banknotes he made did not have any standard concept, that is, they were not linked to any precious metal or value, Lengfa!

He may not know that in a few hundred years the whole world will link currency to illusory credit or government credit, letting go of all values ​​and harvesting everyone without any scruples. From this point of view, Comrade Lao Zhu should be considered too advanced, comparable to a time traveler.

Along with banknotes, there are also copper coins and various types of copper coins. Some were cast legally by the government, while others were cast privately by private citizens in large quantities. For a period of time, the bank's main business was not exchange, but the circulation of private money. They even went on strike to protest against the imperial decree strictly prohibiting private minting of copper coins.

So far, privately minted copper coins are still an open secret. The imperial court does not know how much is minted privately every year, nor does it know how much the government should mint, let alone how much the country needs.

Treasure banknotes, copper coins, silver ingots, and silver coins have always been mixed together in circulation, and each place has its own exchange rate. If you don't straighten out this set of things and want business to prosper, you may really have to ask the gods to come down to earth.

But at present, Hong Tao really does not have the ability to reform the currency system, or in other words, currency issues are not yet a priority. The most important thing at the moment is to compete with the courtiers for military power, not one of them. If the reform of the currency system is proposed again, the courtiers will probably rebel if they can be in court. This is too bullying.

So let’s just say, prioritize everything. Some things may be urgent or even fatal in the eyes of the common people, but they are not worth mentioning in the eyes of the rulers. So whose interests should come first? This is a matter of butt deciding head.

If Hong Tao were a commoner or businessman, he would definitely feel that the court should first solve people's livelihood issues such as currency. But from the emperor's perspective, seizing military power is extremely important and is basically equivalent to life.

Without military power, the throne cannot be secure. Without military power, there can be no change. Without change, the people will still have to live in the original state.

But, the emperor can't tell the people these orders. Even if he watches them suffer every day, he still has to move forward steadily in order. He can neither be anxious nor soft-hearted. The ancients said that kindness does not lead to soldiers, justice does not manage finances, and kindness does not lead to officialdom. This is the truth.

(End of this chapter)