I

  Chapter 908 904【Issuing Notes】

   "What's wrong with Mr. Song Ge?" Zhao Han asked.

  Famous doctor Zhang Lu replied: "Exogenous wind-cold and damp pathogens cause the meridians of the whole body to be blocked. This is arthralgia."

   "Speak in human language." Zhao Han said unhappily.

  Zhang Lu popped out two words: "Rheumatism."

  Zhao Han asked again: "Very serious?"

  Zhang Lu replied: "The bones in the knee and ankle have been deformed, and the pain is so painful that I can't get off the ground. I need long-term treatment and care."

   "Understood," Zhao Han said, waving his hands, "You should do your best to heal."

  Zhang Lu resigned.

  Zhao Han buried his head in Song Yingxing's resignation letter, and replied with two words: No.

   It is false to refuse, but you have to ask three times and resign.

   Immediately afterwards, Zhao Han added an official to Song Yingxing, a vain title of honor. This is to prepare for Song Yingxing's retirement. Once he resigns, he will be promoted once, and he will be able to return to his hometown when he officially retires.

   Song Yingxing is about to retire from illness, and Fei Chun is in Ding You.

   There is also Xiao Huan, who has been Ding You for a year and a half. Xiao Huan first engaged in intelligence, and then took charge of the criminal law for more than ten years. After joining the cabinet, he is also responsible for legal affairs, revision of old laws, and promulgation of new laws. He knows these things best. The Ministry of Punishment handed over the plan to the cabinet, mainly relying on Xiao Huan to review it, and the chief assistant and the emperor were responsible for the final decision.

  Zhao Han continued to review the memorial, but it was Zhang Guowei's memorial, requesting an additional 2 million taels of silver to build the dam and gate of Anshan Lake.

  Zhang Guowei artificially diverted the Yellow River, half of the river route is different from the Yellow River hundreds of years later.

  The Yellow River of later generations suddenly turned to the northeast in Lanyang (Lankao County), which was caused by the breach of the embankment of the copper tile chamber.

  The collapse of the copper tile chamber is not only a natural disaster, but also a man-made disaster.

  The Qing Dynasty followed the way of the Ming Dynasty to manage the Yellow River. In order to maintain water transportation, embankments were built on the north bank every year, forcing the Yellow River to flow into the Huaihe River. In the Huanghuai River section, a large amount of sediment was silted up, causing the eastern section of the Yellow River in Henan to breach all the year round. Every time the breach was completed, dams were built, drinking poison to quench thirst and maintaining water transportation.

  In this case, in the early years of Yongzheng, a breach occurred near the Tongwaxiang. At that time, the river bed was not high, so embankments were blocked and embankments were built. Over time, it became dangerous work. By the end of Qianlong, the situation was even worse, and it could no longer be blocked, so water could only be released in the middle to release the flood. By the end of Jiaqing, the situation was extremely dangerous, and money had to be spent every year.

  Until the Daoguang period, this dangerous road along the Yellow River had become a hard-hit area for corruption. The imperial court allocates funds for governance every year, but less than one-tenth of the funds actually used for projects, and more than 90% of the money has been embezzled.

  Corruption aside, if the flood does not come any year, the officials will take the initiative to break the embankment, flooding countless villages on the north bank, and take the opportunity to ask the court for money to build the embankment.

  The embankment was built every year, but it fell into disrepair for a long time. The Yellow River broke through here, and it happened to coincide with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Qing court directly destroyed it.

  If it is flooded, it will be flooded, let’s lie flat, and the Yellow River will change its course as it likes, gradually forming the Yellow River waterway hundreds of years later.

  The situation faced by the Datong New Dynasty is different. The Tongwaxiang is not dangerous at this time. The real danger is the Huanglinggang area, where there have been various breaches since the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

   So Zhang Guowei diverted the water in Huanglinggang, widening the channel of the water (Zhaowang River) several times. In the future, the main road of the Yellow River will flow through Caozhou (Heze) and Yuncheng, merge into Anshan Lake and intersect with the Grand Canal, and then merge with Dawen River and Guangji Canal on the west side of Dong'e.

  Anshan Lake is the Dongping Lake of later generations, but it is several times larger than Dongping Lake and extends all the way to Liangshan.

  The Guangji Canal is the Jindi River.

  If Zhang Guowei does this, the Grand Canal from Liaocheng to Jining will be messed up, and it will be difficult to sail when the flood breaks out in summer. As time goes by, the sediment accumulation is serious, and that section of the Grand Canal may be completely abolished. This is also the reason why the Ming and Qing dynasties did not want the Yellow River to divert. Once the canal is abandoned, what about water transport?

  In addition, the Yellow River flows into Anshan Lake. After tens of hundreds of years, the area of ​​the lake will continue to grow, and it is very likely that it will become Liangshan Lake again!

  The overall situation is like this. Compared with the Yellow River hundreds of years later, only the river course from Henan to Dong'e is different. Since then, it has been exactly the same. They are all in the territory of Dong'e, and flow into the ocean through the Daqing River. There will definitely be no Daqing River in the future, and the Daqing River will become the lower reaches of the Yellow River.

  The Grand Canal is still extremely important. Zhang Guowei asked for money this time because he wanted to build multi-level dams and gates in the north and south of Anshan Lake to prevent the Yellow River from flooding the canal as much as possible.

   One opening is 2 million taels!

   There are other funds invested. Both Caozhou City (Heze) and Dong’e County have to be relocated to avoid the Yellow River. If you don’t pay attention, the two cities will become yellow flooded areas. (Hundreds of years later, Dong'e County was relocated by the Yellow River diversion, and the location is far away from this time)

   To relocate and rebuild the two cities, a huge amount of silver has to be poured in. Including the Yellow River Project, the total budget will definitely exceed 10 million taels.

   "It's really time for Guowei to ask for money." Zhao Han sighed helplessly.

  The advice given by the cabinet is to let Zhang Guowei postpone for two or three years. First allocate a part of the silver taels to make preparations, and then add more silver taels to complete the work after the financial situation is abundant.

   Zhao Han took a pen and wrote down the instructions: order Datong Bank to lend 2 million taels to the Ministry of Industry, and this loan is dedicated to the management of the Yellow River.

  Although the treasury does not have much money, Datong Bank has money, and it has absorbed a lot of private funds!

  Money houses in the Ming Dynasty were mainly engaged in money exchange at first, and gradually began to absorb deposits. There are three types of depositors: officials (private deposits), firms (corporate deposits), and clubs (collective deposits).

  Officials and company deposits are easy to understand, and clubs are various social organizations. For example, it is not appropriate to put the collective funds of Fushe in anyone's hands, so they should simply deposit them in the bank.

  As for the big landowners in the country, they are too lazy to deposit money in the bank, and just dig cellars to bury their silver.

  Datong Bank naturally also has a deposit business, and more and more ordinary citizens have begun to deposit their surplus money at home to earn interest. But the bank also has a rule that the minimum deposit is one tael, and deposits below one tael will not be accepted. This is because Datong banknotes (storage slips) use special paper, and the banknotes themselves have production costs.

  In comparison, the banknotes of private banks are of much inferior quality, and it is easy to accidentally wash them.

  Zhao Han called the cabinet ministers over: "An additional 2 million taels for Yellow River governance can be used to allow Datong Bank to lend. The loan period should be limited to five years, and the national tax revenue will be used as collateral."

  Although the Datong Bank was also opened by the imperial court, the rules must be followed. It cannot be left-handed and right-handed, and loan collateral must be provided.

  The ministers did not object, but felt a little awkward.

  When it was changed to Daming, the emperor’s internal treasury ran out of money, so he reached out to the treasury, and finally let the eunuchs take charge of the keys to the treasury. The treasury is also exhausted, and taxes are collected from the common people. The most typical one is the "three rates".

  The Datong court is strange. First, it clearly distinguishes between the internal treasury and the national treasury, and it is absolutely not allowed to confuse them. The funds in the treasury were not enough, and suddenly there was a war, so they issued bonds to the people, and the imperial court actually borrowed money from the people. Even if there is no additional tax for water conservancy construction, the normal practice is to ask merchants to "donate money". I have never heard of asking for a bank loan.

"There is another thing to call Zhuqing here," Zhao Han said. "In the past few years, civil and military officials have been complaining, saying that it is inconvenient to use food as the amount of the official ticket and military ticket. It will start from New Year's Day next year." , the face value of official tickets and military tickets are all changed to Yuan, Jiao, and Fen.”

  A dollar is a tael, a dime is a denarius, and a penny is a penny.

  Liu Ziren asked: "Can the previous tickets still be used as usual?"

   "Of course it can be used," Zhao Han said, "but it has to be recycled year by year. When Datong Bank receives old bills, it will not release them. They will all be deported to the central government for centralized destruction."

  Zhu Shunshui said: "If the bills use silver as their face value, they will be the same as Daming banknotes. This thing...cannot be issued indiscriminately."

Zhao Han said: "Just like the printing of food notes in the past, the issuance of one stone of notes by the imperial court is equivalent to borrowing one stone of grain, which must be included in the national treasury. Printing those money notes in the future, for example, printing 1 million taels next year, is equivalent to borrowing 1,000,000 taels by the imperial court." Ten thousand taels, these are all subject to interest."

  Zhao Han has no money, so he wants to print money!

   But you must not print indiscriminately, and you must keep the bottom line.

  There is a phenomenon to be mentioned here. Although China has a silver surplus every year, the purchasing power of silver has not declined, but has been steadily increasing.

   The reasons are, first, that business is becoming more and more prosperous, and more and more silver is needed. The second is that many domestic businessmen neither deposit their money in the bank nor use the money to expand investment, but just store their silver in the cellar. In some local areas, there is even a shortage of silver, and printing a small amount of banknotes can fill the market demand.

  As for the stock exchange, Zhao Han doesn't want to touch that thing for the time being, and he also knows a little about stock trading.

  In the Ming Dynasty, there were securities transactions. The second was created by businessmen in Suzhou. Cake coupons, rice coupons, and meat coupons are also equivalent to futures. As a result, when Japanese pirates invaded, a large number of investors ran on the securities, and all the merchants who issued the coupons went bankrupt.

  Although industry and commerce are booming nowadays, it is not enough to play stocks, which will affect too many civilians, and businessmen lack money and have their own financing channels.

  Don't look at the stock exchange that has already appeared in the Netherlands, but it has long been reduced to a tool for big businessmen. Shorting, dishwashing, knocking on the counter, sitting on the bank... Various methods are staged in turn. At present, the Dutch government has banned shorting. Decades later, after the stock market crashed in the United Kingdom, secondary market transactions were banned for decades, and only royal chartered companies could issue shares.

  With the current level of development, securities trading is too early.

  By the way, the Dutch stock market crashed this year.

  The stock price of the East India Company was fired too high. The Netherlands first lost to the United Kingdom, and then was driven out of Southeast Asia by China. The continuous bad news caused stockholders to lose confidence and frantically sold the stocks of the East India Company, and the stocks of other companies also plummeted.

  The Dutch East India Company is frantically transforming merchant ships, rebuilding a powerful fleet in Asia, and trying to capture Portugal's last colonial port on the east coast of India. Only by winning there can the stockholders regain their confidence, otherwise the East India Company will not be able to continue.

   All the officials dispersed, Zhao Han sat idle.

  He didn't know that after his death, there would be some stupid king who would issue money indiscriminately and make a mess. But banknotes are the general trend, and issuing a small amount at this time is good for both finance and the market, and this is enough.

  On New Year's Day next year, 1 million yuan banknotes will be issued first, and the central bank will send them to local banks, and then hand them over to local governments and armies, as salaries for officials and soldiers. Only when officials and soldiers approve, will the people have confidence in banknotes. The amount of banknotes to be issued next year is tentatively set at 3 million yuan.

  3 million taels of silver banknotes are distributed in all provinces of the country, and the impact is not big or small.

  (end of this chapter)