Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1799 The thoughts of the merchants

"We exchange it, we accept it, it doesn't matter, the quality is high or low, it is always silver. If the people recognize it, it is a good thing that benefits the country and the people. If the people don't recognize it, it can't be our fault." He held it up and said.

"But this fineness..."

"The fineness is easy to say. Our silver is not pure silver. As for the common people's silver, it has never been inferior. But the money that cannot be put into the crucible has to be considered." Gao Jian said and patted the wooden box by his hand. The extremely exquisite original wood grain joinery box is flat and flat, which is exactly what the Australians sent out to hold "money samples".

Everyone naturally understands what Master Gao is talking about, that is "Australian treasure notes".

Such things as treasure banknotes, money notes, and money posts are no strangers to Chinese businessmen.The Song, Jin and Yuan dynasties are in the same line, and they all have a fairly mature paper money issuance system, especially the paper money issuance and circulation in the Southern Song Dynasty, which can be called a miracle in the history of China's finance. It can be called proficient in use.In the Yuan Dynasty, paper money was simply used as the basic currency in circulation.

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the banknote law collapsed, and the banknotes depreciated extremely, but the influence and credit of banknotes among the people still existed.After Zhu Yuanzhang came to power, he banned the circulation of copper coins and fully restored the use of banknotes. He did not encounter much resistance. After all, the people are no strangers to banknotes. Zhu Yuanzhang’s decision to use banknotes is naturally related to his own experience as a citizen of the Yuan Dynasty. .In his view, this is a very normal thing.

There is no reserve fund for Daming banknotes—this is not a big problem. The banknotes are guaranteed by the authority of the government, as long as the banknotes can be accepted by the market and circulated.At the same time, it is not unacceptable to keep the speed and magnitude of depreciation within a certain level.We must know that throughout the period of the Republic of China, there were hundreds of kinds of banknotes passed through the upper reaches of China, most of which had no reserve funds, and the value of the currency was not very stable, and they were still in circulation for many years.

However, in the era when the Daming Banknotes were born, the Ming government had no effective grassroots administrative capacity, and the countryside was not fully infiltrated by the market economy like the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.And Zhu Yuanzhang's misunderstanding of banknotes made the government regard banknotes as a means of "creating money out of nothing". Zhu Yuanzhang rewarded Zhu Di with 30 super-large denomination banknotes at one time, which showed his ignorance of banknote policies. Not to mention inflation, the government adopts a discriminatory policy on the "legal currency" issued by itself.Except for a limited number of banknotes across the country, it cannot be used to pay taxes.This eccentric policy amounts to a declaration that the issuer itself does not trust the value of the notes being issued - which is probably unique in currency issuance.

Self-discrimination and unrestrained excessive issuance of banknotes made the Daming Banknotes continue to depreciate and shrink in the market, and finally had to withdraw from the circulation market. In addition to leaving a bad name of "creating a name and competing for profits with the people", there is a little positive Nothing was left.Although some literati claimed in their notes that the Daming banknotes were knocked down in a short period of time by merchants who did not trust banknotes, in fact it barely circulated until the Zhengde period, although by this time its value and circulation range had already Insignificant.

Although most of the merchants gathered in this shop have never seen the circulation of precious banknotes, they have heard about it from their ancestors.Now that Gao Ju mentioned "Australian Circulation Notes", everyone couldn't help but raise their hearts—compared with Australian silver dollars, they care more about this banknote.

After the treasure banknotes withdrew from the market, these people have more or less seen similar money posts, banknotes, money orders used by foreign merchants, and even money chips in the Jiangnan area, but most of these things are self-governing checks and money orders.

They have already seen the new currency notes. Compared with the old currency notes they have seen in the past, the notes are slightly larger, but they are much smaller than the money stickers and silver notes on the market.The old circulation coupons were already exquisite, but now the new ones are even more exquisite. The paper is crisp and thick, and there is an indescribable pleasure in touching it between the fingers.

Compared with the silver dollar with only three denominations, there are more types of banknotes, not only three equal denominations of silver dollar exchange coupons, but also several small denominations of auxiliary currency coupons.Each has a pattern, very beautiful.

How to convert it has been explained at the meeting, and there are also detailed graphic instructions in the currency sample box.As long as you can read, you will not be confused.Moreover, the currency conversion of the Australians is very simple, that is, the conversion method of every ten to one.

"This banknote is extremely solid. I don't know what kind of paper it is."

"About mulberry paper." Someone said.

"How can mulberry paper be so smooth and flat?"

……

"Stop arguing, this paper is only made by Australians. This is their secret skill." Old Huo, the leader of the paper company, whispered.The paper business was the first to be hit by Australian goods, and then it was the most tightly controlled business.In the early years, a large amount of Australian paper from Lingao was dumped to Guangzhou. From high-end to resist, all the large and small paper workshops in Guangzhou were forced to close down. Only the distribution channels for selling paper were left because Australians needed distribution. of retained.Apart from selling some special paper from other places, most of the products of the paper shop are purchased from the branch of the cooperative in Hong Kong.

Except for the paper, the patterns and patterns on it are also a hundred times more complicated than the old circulation coupons in the past. All the businessmen here know the key point: the best engraving masters in the Guangdong market can't make such a plate—even if it is made by the capital. He didn't have the ability to find the craftsman of the Ministry of Industry who engraved various official documents for the six engravings.

"In this way, this circulation coupon cannot be counterfeited." Someone said.

"Exactly." Liang Chenlong, the leader of the Qian Industry Guild, said slowly.Because the Qianye Guild bears the brunt of this currency reform, they are related to them. Before coming to Jufeng, thirteen of the same size in Qianye had already held a closed-door meeting to discuss countermeasures.There was a lot of discussion at the meeting, but the countermeasures were never discussed, so we had to "see the limelight before we talk."In fact, the benefits of the Australians issuing new money can be seen by their peers at a glance.

"Everyone is a businessman, and they deal with silver and copper coins all day long. The money they receive every day must be based on the fineness of the silver, to judge whether it is good or bad. Even so, they often receive bad money. "

Everyone nodded.The energy that the shopkeeper spends on identifying the silver is indeed not small.Silver depends on color and weight, and copper coins also depends on the color of copper, whether the weight is enough or not.There must be some tongue-in-cheek communication with customers.If you encounter guests who are not easy to get along with, there will be a famine to fight.There are also ordinary villains who use rotten silver and private money to "crash shop" to buy things from various shops. , The store has to spend money to eliminate the disaster.

Even with such care, the inventory will always find some lead lumps, rotten silver, and crab eyes and sand shell pennies.When the broken silver is sent to the dumping shop to cast ingots, it will be a struggle with the dumping shop on the fineness.In short, it is indescribably troublesome.

"Nowadays when Australians take out silver dollars, no matter how good they are, one dollar is one dollar, and half a dollar is half a dollar. As long as there is no shortage or a lot, everyone has to recognize it. Merchants are of great benefit." Liang Chenlong said, "However, Australians still have precious money, so that's something to worry about."

"Let's not talk about small coins." Liang Chenlong said, "Nowadays, there is not enough copper coins, and most of the money in circulation is privately minted and government-made bad money. It is not much better than this paper note. It is easier to use paper notes. It's just this silver dollar circulation certificate..."

He said with a look of worry on his face.The hesitant attitude drew everyone's worries away.

It is not uncommon for merchants in the Ming Dynasty to circulate banknotes and silver dollars in equal amounts. Since banknotes circulated in China, banknotes have been circulated in the same amount as copper coins in theory. Both are "wen" and "through".But in actual use, the "text" and "pass" of banknotes have never been comparable to copper coins.It was common practice in the Ming Dynasty to buy a few bowls of muddy wine with tens or hundreds of banknotes.

But now the circulation coupons correspond not to copper coins, but to genuine silver.There is also an equivalent circulation exchange.Merchants are naturally worried. First of all, do Australians have so many silver dollars that can be exchanged at an equivalent value? Anyone who has a little understanding of finance will definitely consider this issue.Although businessmen in Ming Dynasty don't understand finance, they still know the concept of super hair.It is said that the various "shop tickets" issued by various stores-that is, modern shopping coupons-are often issued in excess. If someone collects all of them and redeems them, many stores will be run out of bankruptcy immediately.

This is still the second thing. What the businessmen are more worried about is that the Australians have no intention of guaranteeing the value of the currency at all: whether they will buy up all the silver on the market by throwing out a large number of circulation notes.Leaving a pile of banknotes to let them depreciate-although they haven't personally experienced this routine, they have heard of it from old people.At the beginning, Da Yuan collected all the gold and silver in the Central Plains in this way.

In the final analysis, no matter how well printed a circulation coupon is, it is still a piece of paper, where there is real money and silver!Even a good copper coin that is yellow and green is more secure to hold than this beautiful floral paper.

"If only silver dollars are used, but no silver dollar certificates, this is great good governance. Our colleagues, large and small, must work together to handle the business." Liang Chenlong twisted his beard and said, "As for the auxiliary currency certificates, there is a shortage of small money in the market, and it is also possible to use them together with copper coins. No problem."

Everyone understood what he meant, and these words from the Qian Industry Association set the tone for the meeting.Everyone's eyes turned to Gao Ju.

(End of this chapter)