Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 282 Daming's Economy Becomes More Active
"My lord, do you want to borrow money to produce and sell quinine cream? Tell me, how much do you want to borrow?"

In the VIP room of the Nanjing headquarters of the Central Bank of Ming Dynasty, Yang Mingshen, the deputy head of the household department's right servant, looked at Xu Wenjue, the Duke of Wei, who was rather cramped, with a smile on his face.

"1000 million silver dollars, you don't know that this thing needs to use a lot of Western glass, and it must be good glass, and it must use Westerners who can make glass bottles of different shapes and specifications, and even many Westerners who can do experiments. People, I plan to spend a certain amount of money first. If it is impossible to go to Macau, I will send people to Xiyang to hire more people. First, I will set up the shelf, and then I have to contact the major drugstores, and I have to go to Yunnan to buy. The bark of the cinchona tree, based on a preliminary estimate, will cost 1000 million silver dollars in the early stage, this is under the care of His Majesty, do you think it can be loaned?"

If His Majesty didn't value this, Xu Wenjue wouldn't be willing to bother so much. He was afraid that Yang Mingshen would not agree, or the loan interest rate would be too high, so he couldn't help but smile wryly.

"Mechanical manufacturing, drug development, and water conservancy project construction are all drafted by the Ministry of Household Affairs. His Majesty personally approved the first key support industry. You will be charged a profit a year, that is, for every 1000 silver dollars you loan every year, you will receive [-] silver dollars in interest. With a loan of [-] million, you need to repay the interest of [-] silver dollars every year, may you accept it?"

Yang Mingshen, vice president of the right servant of the household department, asked Wei Guogong Xu Wenjue.

"It's so low! Three-point monthly interest is considered very low among the people, and your annual interest is only one-point profit, isn't it a free gift?" Wei Guogong Xu Wenjue stood up in surprise, and looked at Yang Mingshen in disbelief.

"That's right, it's free!"

Yang Ming replied with a deep smile, and then told his subordinate officials: "Take the Duke of the country to pay silver coins. In the future, those with less than 100 million silver dollars and those involving the first key support industry for the development of this drug will be specially approved and handled. through this officer".

"Zheng Bing, you want a loan of 2000 million, no problem!"

"Guo Yuanwai, you want a loan of 300 million, right? No problem, I'll arrange someone to take you to pay the silver coins!"

"Old He Ge, if you want to borrow 200 million yuan to repair the garden, it's fine!"

As soon as the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Central Bank of Ming Dynasty issued an announcement on low-interest loans, countless dignitaries came to Yang Mingshen for loans, especially when they learned that the annual interest rate on loans in some industries was only one cent, and there were many merchants who had ideas about the manufacturing industry. There is a rush for this.

Originally, many merchants suffered a lot of losses due to tax payment, but now the low-interest housing loans of the imperial court undoubtedly promoted their enthusiasm for loans to expand production scale and increase profits.

Now Yang Mingshen has undoubtedly become the most popular person in Nanjing City, and he is even directly called the God of Wealth. There is no other reason. Anyone who has the relationship with Yang Mingshen can easily get a loan from the Daming Central Bank. It can be said to be throwing money everywhere.

……

Not only large-amount loans, but small-amount loans also began to spring up in Ming's economy and society like mushrooms after rain.

Under the guidance of the government, the Guangming Daily propaganda, and word of mouth, more and more small merchants and ordinary people came to the Daming Central Bank to borrow money everywhere. In order to promote people's borrowing, the Daming Central Bank directly announced that the total loan amount was less than one If you can repay the principal within three months, the interest can be waived directly.

All in all, now the central bank of Daming is using the lowest interest rate to put the funds of more than 9000 million silver dollars into the market, and even distribute them to the common people almost for free for them to use.

"There is such a good thing in this world. As long as the net worth is clean, the household registration is registered, and the three of you are insured, you can easily borrow a thousand silver dollars, and even free of interest within three months. Isn't this equivalent to spending money from the government for nothing?" ?

All of a sudden, teahouses and restaurants in Nanjing City were talking about this matter, and the horse dealer who had traveled all over the world asked in surprise.

"It can be seen that the current emperor of Ming Dynasty is a really good emperor. I have a relative in the north who is a carpenter and tried his best to escape to the south. I borrowed [-] silver dollars from the bank, and now I bought a house and opened a furniture store in less than two months, and I paid back the principal, without paying any extra interest!"

A cloth dealer in a watermelon hat eating melon seeds spoke up.

The horse dealer couldn't help showing his face full of excitement: "Since that's the case, I also want to borrow four or five thousand silver dollars to buy a batch of horses outside the customs. After this, the north and the south will not be the same country, and the price of horses will definitely rise. I Earn more!"

In the second half of the 18th year of Chongzhen, such news was transmitted in the streets and alleys, extending from Nanjing to surrounding counties and counties, then to Hangzhou, Suzhou, Ningbo and other prefectures, and then to the entire Jiangnan and even Jiangxi, Huguang, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou. Both Sichuan and the areas ruled by the Qing court are discussing the government's low-interest lending.

In the blink of an eye, it was golden autumn and October. Wang Jiaqin, the deputy governor who was at a loss because there were more than 9000 million silver dollars in the central bank's treasury, was no longer worried about this matter. Almost all of the more than 9000 million silver dollars were invested. We can continue to recycle and print silver coins in a steady stream, and begin to gradually reduce the precious metal components of coins through the method of revision, according to the improvement of technology, but the level of anti-rust and anti-piracy begins to gradually increase.

In any case, after the more than 9000 million tax silver collected from the privileged classes such as officials and gentry was put into the market, the commodity economic market in the entire Ming Dynasty became more active than before.

Large-scale construction projects began in the entire city of Nanjing and even in the entire Jiangnan area. There were much more house construction, workshop expansion, and large-scale procurement of bulk goods than ever before.

After the increase in money supply, the production of economic crops such as silk and tea and food crops such as rice and wheat began to increase significantly, and people became busier than before, busy creating more wealth, which also made the empire that only appeared prosperous began to grow. Become truly thriving.

Because the Ming Empire at this time is no longer the singing and dancing of the scholar-bureaucrats, but the people of the entire Ming Dynasty are actively participating in the creation of wealth.

Xu Wenjue, Duke of the State of Wei, began to personally bring huge sums of money to Macau to purchase glass products and look for Westerners who could make glass.

Because his family enjoys the tax-free privilege of foreign trade, Zheng Zhilong began to purchase vegetable leaves, silk and even porcelain on a large scale. Tea farmers can only sell their tea to shops designated by their Zheng family. They buy it at a price of one cent and one stone higher than the market price, and even help them bear the tea tax.

Yang Mingshen's own Yang family also began to recruit a large number of craftsmen to weave silk threads, and even started to set up textile companies according to the suggestion of Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian, raising the salary level of mechanics in the same industry and implementing the labor contract system, stipulating working hours and implementing overtime systems. , set up a special textile machine research and development institution.

Yang Mingshen's play directly attracted a large number of folk women into his textile company's silk reeling factory, forcing other silk merchants to also raise the wages of mechanics in order to compete for more human resources.

In this era, there was no mechanized production, and the only way to increase production was to compete for more people and manufacture more looms. As a result, there was a shortage of labor and looms in the Ming Dynasty, and some carpenters even started to manufacture only looms to meet their needs. Market demand.

(End of this chapter)