Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 55
The next day.

Zhu Yuanzhang was ill in bed and ordered Zhu Di to preside over the morning court.

After the dispersion of the dynasty, Zhu Di led the officials from the Ministry of Revenue to the gate of Yingtianfu Yamen and ordered people to set up nine new currency exchange offices.

As soon as this news was announced, all the officials in the court, as long as they were sane, ordered their families to bring an appropriate amount of old coins and exchange them for new coins at the gate of Yingtianfu Yamen.

Some lower-ranking officials even rushed to the new currency exchange site in person.

They deliberately went to the Singapore Currency Exchange Office where Zhu Di was and queued up. The purpose was to look familiar in front of Zhu Di and leave a good impression on the future new king as a supporter of the New Deal.

At a quarter past noon, many people in the capital heard that His Highness King Yan personally presided over the exchange of new currency, and they rushed to the gate of Yingtianfu Yamen to watch.

For them, a lot of big things happened in the court in the past two days.

Just yesterday, the imperial court announced the regulations for the reform of the imperial examination and officially issued a new version of Ming Dynasty banknotes and coins.

The trial of the imperial examination reform and the implementation of the new currency were all fully responsible for the king of Yan, Zhu Di.

The people were very happy because Zhu Di had done a good job in political affairs in the past few years, and his reputation among the people was good and his credibility was extremely high.

Subject to the historical limitations of his growth environment, Zhu Yuanzhang's financial talents can be said to be relatively poor.

First of all, there is no reserve system for Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes. People can exchange gold and silver for treasure banknotes with the court according to the official ratio, but they cannot exchange treasure banknotes for gold and silver.

In order to prevent the people from being unwilling to exchange gold and silver into treasure banknotes, Zhu Yuanzhang actually issued a ban, stipulating that private transactions in gold and silver were not allowed, let alone barter, and paper currency or copper coins must be used.

As a result, people can only choose to use treasure banknotes or copper coins, and dare not use gold and silver openly.

In addition, there was no limit to the issuance of Ming Dynasty banknotes, and the court could print as many as they wanted.

At first, treasure banknotes could not be exchanged for new ones, and they would become invalid if they were worn out. Later, they were allowed to be exchanged for new ones.

The most troublesome thing for the people is that Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that when paying taxes, not all treasure banknotes should be used, but only [-]% of treasure banknotes and [-]% of copper coins or gold and silver.

When private gold and silver were insufficient, they had to pay high prices to buy them. As a result, the value of the treasure notes immediately depreciated.

By the 26th and 27th years of Hongwu, each banknote could only be exchanged for 160 copper coins, depreciating more than six times.

In fact, in the original historical time and space, only 50 years later, the treasure banknotes had completely become waste paper.

It was precisely because he knew that the imperfection of the imperial banknote law had a huge impact on the lives of ordinary people that Zhu Gaoxu informed Zhu Di of the shortcomings a few years ago.

As a prince, Zhu Di was ordered to govern, so naturally he wanted to do something to show his political ability and win people's hearts.

In order to increase the imperial court's reserves of gold, silver and copper, Zhu Di in the past few years, on the one hand, cracked down on corrupt officials who collected gold and silver into the national treasury, on the other hand, sent people to vigorously mine various metal minerals, and formulated procedures for exchanging and redeeming treasure banknotes. policy.

He once set up an exchange office in front of Yingtianfu Yamen, allowing people to exchange copper coins or grain for intact treasure banknotes in the hands of the people.

He also sent people to various government offices in Zhili many times to temporarily set up redemption offices to redeem old treasure banknotes from the people at market prices.

In recent years, during Zhu Di's reign, the imperial court successively recovered millions of coins from the private sector.

Therefore, Zhu Di established great financial credibility in the hearts of the people, and took the opportunity to stabilize the value of banknotes, laying the foundation for today's currency reform.

At this time, various discussions broke out among the bustling crowd.

"It turns out to be Gang Leader Zhu. I haven't seen you for several months. I almost didn't recognize him. I'm disrespectful!"

Bai Jinfu, the shopkeeper of Bada Restaurant, spotted Zhu Gaoxu in the crowd, who was wearing brown casual clothes and looked like an ordinary businessman.

He hurriedly took a few steps forward and said hello with great respect.

Zhao Junchen was standing beside Zhu Gaoxu. When he saw Bai Jinfu approaching Zhu Gaoxu, he hurriedly took a step closer to Zhu Gaoxu.Zhu Gaoxu naturally heard what Bai Jinfu said.

He turned around and looked down at Shopkeeper Bai, who was obviously getting fatter in his middle age. He nodded slightly and said, "You're welcome, Shopkeeper Bai."

"Now that the imperial court has implemented a new currency system, you can get a [-]% tax exemption when paying taxes in new currency. This is simply great good governance!"

The five-foot-tall Bai Jinfu raised his head and said to Zhu Gaoxu with a smile.

Zhu Gaoxu nodded and said, "Shopkeeper Bai is quite well informed."

A few years ago, under the pretext of controlling businessmen, Zhu Gaoxu specially reported to Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di for approval, and then used the business connections of his consort Ouyang Lun to establish the Sihai Business Gang.

With the imperial court backing the Sihai Merchant Gang, the Merchant Gang developed rapidly and gradually grew in size. At present, more than 100 powerful representatives from various industries such as restaurants, cloth shops, and inns have joined the Merchant Gang.

The scope of business activities of these business gang members covers almost most of the economically developed towns in the Ming Dynasty.

"Half a month ago, I submitted an application to join the gang to the Clerical Office of your gang. I also sent the revenue account of Bada Restaurant. I kindly ask the gang leader to urge the Clerical Office to speed up the process. I would like to thank you in advance."

Bai Jinfu is not tall, has a fair face and a fat body. He has a kind face when he speaks, which makes it difficult to make people feel disgusted.

Zhu Gaoxu was thoughtful, recalling the relevant information he had read not long ago, and then asked: "Does Shopkeeper Bai have a bank store under his name?"

"A month ago, I opened a bank store in Songjiang Prefecture. It has not been officially opened yet."

Bai Jinfu said in surprise: "The gang leader is really well-informed!"

Zhu Gaoxu didn't answer.

In the past few years, the Sihai Business Gang has provided him with a lot of business intelligence, and also provided a lot of useful information for the court to understand the economic development of various places.

With the Sihai Merchant Gang here, he would naturally know how many banks there were in Zhili.

What's more, for Zhu Gaoxu, financial institutions were a powerful tool to promote the progress of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, he has always paid close attention to any private shops or imperial offices that are related to finance.

This time, Zhu Gaoxu went on a tour incognito under the orders of Zhu Yuanzhang. In addition to bringing Wang, who was pregnant with Liujia, into the palace, he also wanted to find out the attitude of the people towards the imperial court's implementation of new coins.

"I'll hand in the materials when I get back next time, and ask the leader to take care of me in the future."

Seeing Zhu Gaoxu's silence, Bai Jinfu said with a smile.

Anyone who applies to join the Sihai Business Gang is not allowed to conceal assets or commit fraud, otherwise he or she will have to bear extremely serious consequences.

For example, last year, a businessman in the cloth business made false statements in his accounts. He was later discovered by the "Sentimental Affairs Department" of the merchant gang and was expelled.

Half a month later, this man was imprisoned for selling shoddy cloth. Later, the court found out that he had collaborated with local bullies and done many bad things behind his back.

As a result, this person was sentenced to confiscation of his family property. He has not been released from prison yet, and he is afraid that he will be jailed.

Bai Jinfu knew this very well, so Zhu Gaoxu didn't need to say more.

"Shopkeeper Bai just said that paying taxes in Singapore dollars can exempt you from [-]% of the tax. Is this true?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked with a deliberately suspicious expression.

PS: This is the second update today, and the first update tomorrow will be in the early morning.

(End of this chapter)