golden scales

At the beginning of June in the 19th year of Chongzhen, the war between Liaodong and Yunnan and Guizhou was still in a stalemate.

Zhu Cihong was more worried about Yunnan than Liaodong's continuous increase in troops and salaries to transport cannons and gunpowder.

First, Zhang Xianzhong gave up Chongqing and entered Guizhou, and then his adopted sons Zhang Dingguo (Li Dingguo) and Zhang Wenxiu (Liu Wenxiu) led their troops into Yunnan to expand their momentum.Liu Zongmin, the general officer of Sichuan, hung the seal of General Pingxi, led the Zhongzhen Battalion to chase into Yunnan and Guizhou, and wiped out the Xian thieves as soon as possible.

Yunnan seems to be a frontier, but its silver output accounts for half of the country's silver output. The almost stingy crown prince couldn't bear to lose such a treasure to his opponent.It's just that the fighting power and fighting will of the Zhongzheng Battalion are still worrying, and perhaps they still have a thought of supporting the bandits to respect themselves, so the war in Yunnan and Guizhou has been dragged on for a long time.

Fortunately, Yunnan and Guizhou are located on a plateau with barren land, and there is not enough food to feed too many people. This also ensures that Zhang Xianzhong cannot expand his army and prevent the situation in the southwest from festering.

On the central side, a total of [-] students from the Henan Administration College in the first and second phases were assigned to the Scholars Division according to their test scores, and a dozen or so hard-working students were selected from the Scholars Division to be promoted to the Scholars of the Wenhua Palace. .After three short years, the temporary institution of the Eastern Palace Attendant Room quietly withdrew from the stage of history. I am afraid that it will only be touched by accident when history students write papers in the future.

This time, the people selected for the Wenhua Palace also have one thing in common, they are all people who have work contacts with the household department on weekdays.Zhu Cihong allocated more time to instill various economic concepts with them, as a new force for the upcoming currency reform.But now Zhu Cihong's currency system reform vanguard general is a little-known chief, Jiang Chen.

Jiang Chen is a surname from Tongcheng, Anqing Prefecture, and the name Anhui in later generations comes from Anqing and Huizhou.In that place, most of them are writers and businessmen.Zhu Cihong was not interested in Jiang Chen's literary talents, but from Jiang Chen's "Three Discussions on the Country" submitted by Jiang Chen, we can still see his thinking on the national economy.

"Your Highness, if you want to make banknotes, it's really not a problem in terms of craftsmanship." This is the second time for Jiang Chen to board the legendary platform.In the Chongzhen Dynasty, platform calls belonged to the emperor's special pair.Full of opportunity and danger.For example, Yuan Chonghuan soared to the sky here, and received the emperor's robe and robe, and was unparalleled in grace; it was also here that he was arrested, sent to imperial prison, and left in the market.

"In the Wanli period, the Zhumo overprinting method had been spread in the south of the Yangtze River, with clear colors. Nowadays, there are few people who can do four-color overprinting. Banks only need to buy back workshops that can do four-color overprinting. It is strictly forbidden for folks to use overprinting methods other than Zhumo overprinting. , there is no need to worry about forgery." Jiang Chen said.

Zhu Cihong nodded: "I have sent ink and tissue paper to Shaanxi and Suzhou to try them out respectively, so it shouldn't take too long."

"It's more reliable like this." Jiang Chen reassured.

Banknote anti-counterfeiting and banknote circulation are twin brothers.During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, severe punishments and laws were used to suppress counterfeit coins. Zhu Cihong not only wanted to kill counterfeit coins legally, but also had to monopolize technically.Thinking of his previous life, the country wanted to prevent counterfeit currency.Even color copiers must be controlled, not to mention that this era has not yet achieved a significant technological gap.

Using the advanced four-color printing method, the banknote paper made of cotton linters, the ink formulated with tar, and the highest level of security technology from three provinces, the three-pronged approach makes it possible to make counterfeit money. drop to lowest.

Especially the Shaanxi ink, its raw material is oil.The tar left after refining the fierce oil cannot be found elsewhere, and it is a material controlled by the court.Quantities are to be registered.Except for banknote factories and printing houses controlled by the imperial court, it is impossible for folk printing workshops to get ink, unless they are willing to spend a lot of money to research coal tar.

The control of ink will affect the promotion and popularization of metal movable type printing, but relative to the further explosion of culture, banknotes are obviously more important.Sometimes Zhu Cihong even felt that it was necessary to take all printing workshops into public ownership, just like the country in his previous life.However, considering the resistance of the people in Jiangnan, this plan was finally put behind.

"In the initial issuance of banknotes, the scope must be well controlled. Establishing credit is the top priority. It is better to be slow than to be fast!" Zhu Cihong said with care.

Jiang Chen felt that the crown prince was too cautious about banknotes, and the scope of circulation was too narrow, which could not reflect the superiority of banknotes at all.A sharp weapon like this should be taken to Nanzhi and thrown away in large quantities in exchange for silver... However, the scope designated by the crown prince is: the army and prisoners, as well as a small number of officials.

Zhangjiakou belongs to the "Special Zone".It is the only place where private traders can exchange banknotes.

Zhu Cihong has self-knowledge.The first is that his economic and financial knowledge is not enough to stand on his own as the father of money.Secondly, the social impact brought by the currency is too great, and the currency issuance must be strictly controlled.Although he can memorize the calculation formula of circulation, that is: the total price of commodities divided by the average number of circulations of the same unit of currency.But how these two key values ​​come from, he is completely unable to figure out and count them.

The army is relatively closed, and soldiers can't see their own salary until they retire or change jobs due to injury, so using banknotes has the same effect as silver.Zhu Cihong decided to first set up a special store in the army, which only accepts banknotes, so that soldiers can get used to shopping with banknotes and build confidence in banknotes.As the force most loyal to oneself, fighters should have the least resistance and doubts about banknotes.

Prisoners have been receiving living expenses in the form of food stamps from the beginning, in exchange for food directly, and no major flaws or omissions have been heard.Now they are given half salary with banknotes. For them, if the banknotes can be used, it will be an improvement in welfare; Not too big.

Finally, there are a small number of officials who were born in the servants of the Eastern Palace.

They were originally small intellectuals, and they never dared to imagine being able to wear official robes under the original Ming system.These people already have a certain habit of following the crown prince. Even if they don't trust paper money, they should trust the crown prince; even if they don't even trust the crown prince, they have to pretend to trust and support him.Money can be used to buy carriages and plate glass, a small amount of official kiln porcelain, and cheap food, which should be enough for them.

Just to ensure their enthusiasm for doing things, Zhu Cihong still decided to distribute banknotes in the form of bonuses, and other salaries remained unchanged.This is also following the practice of the country: the salaries of officials include silver, real objects, and a small amount of precious banknotes.

Zhangjiakou has a large amount of accumulated goods to be sold to meet the necessary factors in the circulation link, so it belongs to the special zone.After the merchants sold the necessities of life such as food, cloth and silk, they collected money and then spent it in Zhangjiakou to exchange for the cheap goods they needed. There was no risk, but confidence was built in this cycle.

"Your Highness, can you inform the states and counties of the banknote tax payment method in advance, even if they don't see the banknotes, they should have an impression so as not to lose their records in the future." Jiang Chen said.

If a businessman took the banknotes out of Zhangjiakou, but went to the local government to pay taxes, it would be safe and sound if the payment was successful.If the local government doesn't know the banknotes, it will be in big trouble.

"After the sample banknotes are ready, you can distribute one set to each county, so that the county can have a foundation." Zhu Cihong said: "You can ask Yao Tao for some people, but the main thing is to train some people yourself. The two capitals of the Ming Dynasty and the thirteenth In the province, the heads of fifteen branches have to carefully screen and determine the candidates."

The branch is set up in the provincial chief secretary, and there are sub-branches and business offices in the counties below. How to ensure sufficient human resources is the biggest problem.With a solemn expression, Jiang Chen slowly bowed and said yes, taking over this heavy task.As for asking Yao Tao for someone, Jiang Chen thought about it and decided to forget it. That young female officer is more protective than the most nest-protecting hen, and she will not allow anyone to poach anyone with skills from her.

Maybe you can consider the accountant of Western merchants.

Jiang Chen turned his attention to those accountants who were sent to the hard labor camp.Zhangjiakou has a huge amount of goods traded, and of course there are a sufficient number of accountants and apprentices that meet the needs of social ecology.These people are no strangers to numbers and rules, and they can be used with a little training. It is a waste to enter the hard labor camp.

The bank that has not yet been named and listed is a yamen at the temple level. Using these prisoners will inevitably hurt the face of the court, and they are indeed helping the tyrants, and they deserve their crimes.What's more, even if he wants to, he may not be able to dig people from the labor camp.

The hard labor camp also needs a large number of literate people to deal with daily affairs, and they will never let go easily.And before Jiang Chen, the commissioner recently sent by the Ministry of Household Affairs to Zhangjiakou had already targeted these people, as well as those shopkeepers and shopkeepers, big and small, to register the stolen goods and set prices.The crown prince said that the goods would be sold cheaply to the merchants who brought the grain, but he did not say that they would be sold at a low price.

What is lacking in the entire empire today is not food, silver, cloth, or population... but people who can serve in public affairs.A new batch of specialized schools were soon established in Shuntian Prefecture. In addition to the accounting, legal, and administrative majors that are in short supply nowadays, there are also secretary majors that are more applicable and less professional.

As early as June last year, when the Henan Administration College started, Zhu Cihong was quite excited, imagining how many talents he could gain in a year.However, now, he found that the cultivation of talents did not rise in steps, but gradually entered a bottleneck. After the previous batch of seedlings worthy of education, there was a gap.

This gap is due to the population trough caused by the turmoil in the country, and the number of school-age children has dropped sharply, so that it is difficult for village schools and middle schools in various prefectures and counties to recruit students. Some people even think that it is a waste of money to open schools in every village. .Moreover, after the country is stabilized, it is not possible to adopt the crash-style education method for a long time, and it is still necessary to slow down the speed of training, so that the next generation of Ming Dynasty can grow fully and vigorously.

ps: Ask for a recommendation ticket, ask for a monthly ticket~~~!