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Chapter 711 Financial Instruments
"Wang Chengen, do you think someone is stealing my money?" Oyani left, and went to Cining Palace with her full harvest to take advantage of the queen. But Hong Tao couldn't fall asleep while lying on the sofa, and suddenly blurted out a sentence after a while.

"Your Majesty, I was negligent and deserve to die." As a result, these words woke up Wang Chengen, who was dozing on the stool, from all sleepiness. His legs went limp and he knelt on the ground, and tears began to sound in his voice, which was not deep to begin with.

The emperor was not greedy for money, nor was he stingy, but he hated corruption and waste. As long as there was a reasonable excuse for not doing things well, there would be no severe punishment, but if anyone was involved in these two things, he would be close to the wooden pole on the city wall.

As the emperor's head of household, he also led the Cuju team and the geckos, and the accounts of the imperial estates in various places were in his hands. Now that there was not enough money to spend, and no one had been found to have tampered with it, but it was pointed out by the emperor first, it was difficult to wash away this guilt.

"Then why do you think I have so much silver but never enough to spend?"

"…It's because the court officials are incompetent. Armaments, disaster relief, and road construction all rely on subsidies from the imperial treasury from His Majesty. Naturally, there are areas that are not taken care of." Wang Chengen thought about it, but still didn't think that anyone would dare to tamper with the imperial treasury.

"Well, that's well said. I like it. Go, take a nap and come back for dinner. Oh, and the person assigned to Oyani should be back. Send someone to get her the records of her time in Luzon."

Hong Tao did not suspect that anyone had touched the treasury. With the assistance of the Cuju team and the Imperial Stables, all income and expenditure related to the royal family had detailed accounts. It was possible to make false reports, but it was difficult to embezzle a large amount of money.

He just lamented that it was too difficult to do things, and he couldn't find anyone to talk to, so he had to grind his teeth at Wang Chengen. At the same time, he didn't forget to check Oyani. It was impossible to rest assured. At most, he could do it with limited suspicion under surveillance.

I am really alone, and this situation will become more and more serious as the power in my hands grows. There is no way to alleviate it, and I don't know when it will end.

The second half of the 1617th year of Jingyang () was relatively peaceful for the people of the Ming Dynasty. There were no battles at the border, and the court did not conscript people for labor on a large scale.

The riots of the Caojun army that occurred in some counties and prefectures of Northern Zhili, Shandong, and Southern Zhili at the beginning of the year were quickly put out under the drastic measures of the Navy Governor Wang Sheng. Although many people died, it did not spread to other provinces.

Ordinary people in ancient times have never cared much about civil unrest, or they have been kept out of the loop on news. As long as it does not interfere with their lives, they would at most talk about it after dinner, and it was not even easy for them to know about it.

But in August, an article published almost simultaneously in Banyuetan and Shangbao sparked heated discussions among the public. The article was titled "What is a Bond?" and was signed by Jianghu Baixiaosheng.

Bond? This name is indeed unfamiliar to the people of the Ming Dynasty. But after this Jianghu know-it-all explained it, everyone immediately understood. Bond, as the name suggests, is a certificate of borrowing money, commonly known as an IOU.

But why would these two largest newspapers in the Ming Dynasty, which were also the only two that could be published in the two capitals and thirteen provinces, discuss such a simple topic on the front page of a paper that was worth every penny? Don't worry, as long as you read the article patiently, the answer will be clear on the page. It turned out that the largest money house in the Ming Dynasty, Sun Moon Bank, was going to issue bonds.

People in coastal areas are more or less familiar with this bank. It has seven branches in Tianjin, Jinan, Songjiang, Fuzhou, Zhangzhou, Guangzhou, and Manila, and six offices in Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Chaozhou, and Macau. All operators related to maritime trade, merchants engaged in the transportation of bulk goods between the north and the south, and government officials at all levels in the four provinces implementing the New Deal, have more or less dealings with this bank.

Because the Sun-Moon Bank has several original businesses, these people and institutions are reluctant to give up once they have used them, such as exchanging Victory Silver Coins, depositing silver with interest, as well as universal deposits and exchanges, mortgage loans, and agricultural loans.

For example, when merchants outside Shuntian Prefecture wanted to purchase large quantities of local specialties, such as glassware from Liuguangzhai, self-ringing clocks from Time Workshop, and wool from Haihe Woolen Mill, etc.

The first thing to do is to find a money shop or bank that has branches both locally and in Shuntian Prefecture, deposit the money for purchasing goods there, and then go to the manufacturers in Shuntian Prefecture to purchase goods with the bearer bills issued by the money shop or bank.

If there is no money shop or silver bank with a branch in Shuntian Prefecture where the merchant is located, he will have to take the silver to nearby towns to find other money shops or silver banks. Otherwise, it will be useless if he takes the bills to Shuntian Prefecture and the manufacturers do not recognize them.

But with the establishment of Sun Moon Bank, this process was simplified. As long as the province implemented the new policy, factories, merchants, customs and government officials all recognized the silver deposit notes issued by Sun Moon Bank. No silver was seen in transactions. Only the receipts could complete a series of links from shipment to customs clearance and tax payment.

Someone said, there is no Sun Moon Bank near my home, and it is inconvenient to go there to deposit silver and exchange bills. It doesn't matter. When doing business on weekdays, you can save the victory coins you receive. The ratio of that thing to silver is ten times. If you save dozens of coins, you can basically meet your needs as long as the purchase is not too large.

Someone else said, I don't have gold coins and nowhere to exchange them. Sorry, you can just do what you did before, and you won't die if you don't use the services provided by Sun Moon Bank.

As mentioned earlier, Sun Moon Bank's current business scope only covers the four new policy provinces and major industrial and commercial cities in coastal areas, and it is powerless to cover most inland provinces and cities.

Merchants in the four new policy provinces and some coastal cities would usually deposit the silver they didn't need at home into the Sun and Moon Bank in advance, and exchange it for bills of various denominations. This way, when the need arose, they could just take the bills with them and board the ship, saving a lot of trouble in running away.

In addition, unlike the traditional money shops and silver shops of the Ming Dynasty, the Riyue Bank not only did not charge any fees for depositing silver, but also paid interest. Depending on the amount, the monthly interest ranged from half a cent to 2 cents.

That is to say, if you deposit 100 taels of silver in the Sun Moon Bank, based on a monthly interest rate of 2%, you can get 102 taels of silver plus the principal and interest after one month, and 124 taels of silver plus the principal and interest after one year, which is an annual interest rate of 2%.

The traditional banks and silver shops of the Ming Dynasty also had lending business. The interest rates in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were slightly higher, and those in Guangdong and Fujian were slightly lower. The monthly interest rate was generally 3% to 5% and the annual interest rate was 3% to 6%. There was no specific regulation on the interest rate, which depended entirely on the social relationship and credit of the borrower, as well as the amount of the loan.

(End of this chapter)