At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 414: The implicated money industry and bankruptcy liquidation

August 5, the twelfth year of the Han calendar.

The economic crisis of the Han Dynasty was transmitted from various industries to the money-lending industry and began to turn into a financial crisis.

Compared with the future market, the money lending industry in the Han Dynasty can be said to be extremely healthy. There is no leverage, no financial derivatives, and the investments are also in real industries. There are no tricks to make money from money.

Compared with the financial tycoons who have always been a drag on the real industry in later generations, this group of financial practitioners in the Han Dynasty are really honest people and do their jobs in a responsible manner. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are model students.

But now, the situation is reversed for Tiangang. They are affected by overcapacity instead. The industrial crisis has begun to spread to them. The money that the textile industry borrowed from them can no longer be repaid. The major money houses in the Han Dynasty have suffered heavy losses.

But as the saying goes, when it rains, it never rains. Too many workshops went bankrupt, and the people of Han were worried that they would not be able to withdraw their money, so they took out all their hard-earned money from the banks.

However, affected by the economic crisis, the money houses had a lot of bad debts. The deposits were already at the lowest, and they were simply unable to pay back the money to the people. As a result, the first money houses began to go bankrupt, and the people who had deposited a lot of money suffered heavy losses.

This then caused a stampede effect, and a large number of people felt that the money houses were unreliable and withdrew their money from them.

But the consequence of doing so was that the crisis was aggravated. More and more money houses could not bear the pressure and went bankrupt. Finally, it even affected the official money houses of the Han Dynasty, forcing Xu Fan to announce the news of the gold and silver mines on the Japanese island to the world.

At the same time, the gold and silver of each bank were covered with a glass cover so that all the people could see it clearly. This resolved the people's distrust of the government-run banks.

The bankruptcy of a large number of private banks affected the people of the country. At this time, the Han Dynasty's Money Supervision Committee came into play. They first took out 30% of the deposit reserves to stabilize the people's emotions.

Then they would find the backers of these money houses and ask them to pay off the money they owed to the people. When they failed to do so, the Han money houses would use their vassal states and fiefdoms as collateral, and the imperial court would pay first to repay the money owed to the people.

Of course, the Han Dynasty government had undertaken infrastructure projects worth tens of billions and could not come up with so much money. However, the Han Dynasty government had good credit and the people were willing to support the government. As long as the financial industry had credit, there was money. The debt was transferred to the Han Dynasty's official money house and turned into a deposit again. This deposit could only be withdrawn after being sealed for one year.

Such a request would certainly be difficult for people to accept in later generations, but now the court not only helped them get back 30% of their deposits, but also found a way to help them get back the remaining deposits. In the eyes of the people of the Han Dynasty, the court was on their side and was one of their own, so they were naturally willing to accept this condition, and the bank run crisis was easily resolved by the court.

On August 7, the twelfth year of the Han calendar, Yingchuan County, Changping County.

"Marquis Changping, you are the boss of Yingchuan Bank. The court knows this very well. You don't need to make any excuses."

Xu Lun, the Marquis of Changping, said helplessly: "The bankruptcy of the bank cannot be blamed on me. It is all because of those unruly people who refused to pay back the money. Your Majesty should arrest them all."

Because money houses had huge profits, Xu Lun used his own resources to open a money house in Yingchuan County, and used the profits from the money house to subsidize his own construction costs.

Unexpectedly, since the economic crisis, not only had he lost all the money he had earned in the past few years, but he had also lost a lot of his original capital.

The bank manager asked, "Does the Marquis of Changping think that these people can be repaid if they are arrested? How much are those workshops that were used as collateral now worth?

Face the reality, Marquis Changping. Yingchuan Bank owes 30 million yuan, and you, the owner, need to pay back all this money. His Majesty has already said that no bank anywhere can owe money to the people of the Han Dynasty. "

Xu Lun said with a bitter face: "My money has been used to build my fiefdom, so I can't afford this money."

The bank manager took out a contract and said, "Lord Xu, you are a meritorious official of the Han Dynasty. Even if the court ignores you, the emperor will not ignore you either."

Xu Lun seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw and said, "Yes, yes, yes, the emperor will not ignore us, the heroes."

"The court gives you two options. The interest on the debt will not be yours, but you must use your fiefdom as collateral and repay the debt of 300 million yuan every year. After 10 years, you will be debt-free. But if you cannot repay the debt, the court can only take your fiefdom to get back the money."

Repaying a debt of 300 million every year is not an easy task, not to mention that the fiefdom is his foundation. Xu Lun said decisively: "What is the second way? The court injects capital to assume the debt, and the Shaofu takes % of the shares of Yingchuan Money House. In the future, the Marquis of Changping and the Shaofu will be his own people."

The Han Dynasty court did its utmost to protect the interests of the people, and also gave the princes and nobles of the Han Dynasty a way out. If they were willing to continue to run money houses, the court would inject capital into them and they would work honestly for the court in the future.

For those who still wanted to make another effort, the Han court formulated a strict repayment plan for them, requiring them to fill the hole with the wealth they had accumulated from running the vassal states and fiefdoms over the years.

And tell them that they should settle accounts clearly with each other. If they fail to do so, their states and fiefdoms will be confiscated, and they will have to repay the debts they owe. Of course, their titles will be retained, but they will no longer be passed on to future generations.

Xu Lun thought for a long time and finally decided to change the name of his Yingchuan bank. He went from being a nobleman to a timid worker.

The reason why Xu Fan liked these nobles to become the backers of the money houses was because these nobles had heavy assets, such a large piece of land in the Han Dynasty. Even if the money houses went bankrupt, they could still provide collateral.

What Xu Fan despised the most was the so-called asset-light management in later generations. This kind of business model was clearly designed to facilitate escape and would only leave a mess behind.

There is a saying that goes like this: the country is Mr. Zhao’s biggest backer. Just look at who suffers and who profits when a crisis breaks out, and you can tell who Mr. Zhao is.

There is no such thing as bankruptcy in the Han Dynasty, and there is no problem of debt. This is essentially a decree that benefits workshop owners.

But in the Han Dynasty, all debts owed had to be repaid, and this was true for ordinary people as well as for the princes and nobles of the Han Dynasty.

In the past ten years, the Han nobles have developed many formerly barren lands into fertile ones.

According to Xu Fan's idea, once these lands have been fully developed by the nobles, they will find a way to bring these lands under the direct management of the Han Dynasty court.

But forced confiscation would obviously hurt the hearts of hundreds of princes and nobles of the Han Dynasty. Now that you can't pay off your debts and your states and fiefdoms have been confiscated by the court, no one can say anything. After all, paying back debts is only natural.

August 10th, in the lobby of Feihai Money House.

There were 10 banquet tables in the hall, making it look more like a restaurant than a money house.

The place was filled with Hu Hai's assistants and managers. It should have been a lively scene, but now it was completely silent. Hu Hai, with red eyes, forced a smile and raised his wine glass and said, "Everyone, this is our farewell dinner. It was your hard work over the past few years that made Yue a wealthy merchant in the Han Dynasty. It was my incompetence that ruined this family business overnight."

Fei Hai Money House also went bankrupt. Although Hu Hai became alert because of the court's actions and reduced the scale of lending, he also hoarded a lot of deposits to deal with risks.

But after all, he had never really experienced an economic crisis, so it was naturally difficult for him to imagine the scale and intensity of the crisis.

According to Hu Hai's estimation, as long as one or two percent of the Han Dynasty's textile workshops went bankrupt, the vacant market would be enough for other textile workshops to survive. Other industries still had development prospects and should not be affected. Therefore, he also diversified his investments into other industries to prevent being affected by the collapse of the textile industry.

But after the real crisis broke out, all walks of life in the Han Dynasty were affected. Hu Hai's diversified investments were of no use at all. All his assets were insolvent and he could only get a lot of unsecured bonds.

This was a financial innovation invented by Xu Fan. The debtor would take out half of his salary every year to repay the debt. How much debt could be repaid each year depended on the debtor's salary. The higher the salary, the higher the debt repaid, and the lower the salary, the lower the debt repaid. The repayment period was until the debtor reached 60 years old, which was the legal retirement age of the Han Dynasty. If the debt was not repaid by that time, the money house could only admit its loss.

Before the economic crisis broke out, Hu Hai thought that only 5% or % of the textile industry would go bankrupt. However, the impact of the crisis far exceeded his imagination. More than % of the textile workshops in the Han Dynasty went bankrupt, and most of them were small and medium-sized textile workshops.

However, these small and medium-sized textile workshops happened to be Hu Hai's key investment areas, so 80% of the recipients of Hu Hai's loans went bankrupt, and the remaining 20% ​​were struggling to survive and had no way to repay their debts.

Fei Hai Money House had a large amount of bad debts piling up, and at the same time, people began to run on Fei Hai Money House. Hu Hai sold all his assets, but still could not withstand the wave of runs.

In the end, he lost all the money he had earned in the past few years, but still failed to save the Feihai Money House, which led to today's farewell dinner.

Zhuzi choked up and said, "This is not my fault, brother. Who could have known that the world was fine, and how could such a crisis break out? We obviously did not do anything wrong, but we were implicated and went bankrupt. The court is so unfair. Why did they only help the people and not us? If the court also helped us to bear the debt for one year, our Feihai Bank would also be saved."

Zhu Pei stopped him and said, "Don't talk nonsense."

Then he looked at the door and found that the big man outside the bank clerk didn't care about what was going on inside, so he breathed a sigh of relief and said, "The court people are outside, do you want to drag us all to death?"

Hu Hai also said: "The court also makes money based on ability. If we lose, we should admit it."

If we were to say who the biggest winner was in this economic crisis, it would definitely be the Han court. The workshops of the Shaofu sold out their goods in advance, hoarded funds, and survived the most difficult six months.

Although some small workshops in some places went bankrupt, the large workshops in Dahan were still doing well.

What impressed Hu Hai the most was that when the economic crisis was at its worst, the court's workshops waved their money and aggressively acquired high-quality local workshops. Even if the price was only 20% or 30% lower, it still made people grateful. The court did not even change the craftsmen. The owners directly became shopkeepers, and they worked directly for the court.

The Shaofu of the Han Dynasty not only did not suffer any losses during the crisis, but also acquired a large number of high-quality assets to become even stronger.

If the Han emperor had not warned of overcapacity in advance and provided detailed data, Hu Hai would have suspected that this crisis was staged by the Han emperor himself, a scheme to kill pigs by using the Shaofu to swallow up private workshops.

Because they are so similar, all classes in the Han Dynasty suffered losses in this crisis. For example, in the money banking industry, except for the four major money banks of the Han Dynasty, only a handful of money banks can still operate normally with the support of the Han Dynasty. Other money banks have either gone bankrupt or been swallowed up by the Han Dynasty's money banks. The money banking industry has gone from occupying less than 30% of the market share to 80% now.

All the deposits of bankrupt money houses like Hu Hai were transferred to the four major money houses.

This crisis allowed the Han Dynasty to not only control the money-lending industry, but also control the fiefs of many princes.

The Han people were all cultivating new lands. Originally, not many people were willing to go to these places, but now a large number of bankrupt workshop owners were burdened with debts and could only go to the Nanyang Baiyue area where the salaries were high to develop.

The court said that they would double their salaries, but in fact they were given salaries equivalent to those in the Han Dynasty. The other half of the salary was used to repay debts, but these debts were transferred to the court along with the workshops that were annexed by the court.

The imperial court used them to complete a wave of immigration and was praised by all the immigrants, because without the help of the imperial court, they would not even be able to find this way of survival.

Hu Hai was both horrified and frightened by this fantastic method. The Han Emperor's method was too clever. He was really sold out by him and still counted the money for him.

The meal was very hasty. At the end, Hu Hai said, "Fortunately, the commercial bank bought us. The court promised not to lay off any of you. Your job is saved. This is a blessing in disguise."

Zhuzi said, "Brother Hu Hai, I will follow you."

Other Qixiang people also said: "We will follow the host too."

Hu Hai smiled helplessly and said, "Even if you want to follow me, I can't afford to support you. So when I make a comeback, if you are still willing to trust me, I will recruit you as my employees."

After Hu Hai finished speaking, everyone was immersed in a sad atmosphere. At this time, a voice called out: "Please hurry up, we also need to hand over. We will open here tomorrow and we will also attract new customers."

Hu Hai wiped the tears from his face and said, "This is the end."

The waiters packed up their dishes and Hu Hai left his bank.

"Take down this plaque and hang up the plaque of our commercial bank." Several guys brought a ladder, took down the plaque of Feihai Money House, and hung up a brand new plaque of a commercial bank.

This scene made Hu Hai feel heartbroken, even more than when the Qin Dynasty was destroyed. At that time, Hu Hai was just terrified by the fall of the Qin Dynasty, but he did not feel much heartache, after all, he did not even serve as the second emperor of Qin for three months.

But Feihai Money House was different. He had worked hard to build it bit by bit. Now all his years of hard work were gone in one day. He was heartbroken.

Hu Hai asked: "Can you leave this plaque to me so that I can have something to remember me by."

The steward said, "Take it if you want it, it's useless anyway."

Hu Hai hugged the plaque of Fei Hai Money House and left here step by step.

(End of this chapter)