At the same time, Ma Qianzhu looked at the newly received telegram in his hand. He just read the first line and took a breath. The word "Great Leap Forward" jumped into his mind. [Full text reading] Deposits, do they want to open a bank in Guangzhou? Things in Leizhou haven't been settled yet, is there going to be another financial crisis in Guangzhou?
If you look closely, you will see that it has nothing to do with banks, not even banks. This idea was not thought up by anyone from Guangzhou Station, but by Shen Fan, the big shopkeeper of Zizhenzhai. The reason why he put forward this suggestion was not because of his previous financial awareness, but because of the financial awareness at that time. A traditional form of financing for business.
Deposit your spare money in a well-run store and then withdraw interest annually. The shops obtained working capital, and the depositors received a certain amount of income from their spare money. This form, even after banks and even banks appeared, still existed in China for a long time. Until the complete bankruptcy of fiat currency credit in the 20th century, not only large commercial stores accepted deposits, but even small cloth stores and oil and salt stores also It absorbs deposits from nearby residents in varying amounts. Some stores with a long history and good reputation can even absorb deposits that are several times or dozens of times their own capital. Shanxi Dagan Fruit Shop in Beijing even had hundreds of thousands of taels in savings before the Gengzi Rebellion.
Jewelry shops, as an industry with strong financial resources and a large demand for capital, have long been able to attract deposits from customers. Seeing that his employer's trade name business was doing well and prosperous, and his reputation among peers and customers was getting better and better, Shen Fan came up with this idea.
The interest rate for absorbing this kind of deposit is much lower than borrowing money. The monthly interest rate is only one and a half cents, and the annual interest rate is 18%. According to modern standards, this interest rate is not too high. Guo Yi still remembers that the bank's one-year deposit interest rate reached 12% when he was a child. For stores with relatively large turnover and frequent borrowing needs, this is nothing less than an interest-free loan.
"Who is willing to make deposits?" I own a jewelry store. Although Zichengji is considered a comprehensive commercial bank, it does not operate in the financial industry. If it is said to take deposits for no reason, who will be a customer?
"This is the benefit of our business of making jewelry and toys." Shen Fan said, "If we can get in touch with the family members of the inner house, it will be easier to absorb their deposits. Wives, young ladies, aunts from wealthy families, and even those who are slightly favored The girls who live in the same house have some private money in their hands, and they all want to use it to earn interest. It can be as little as four or fifty taels, or as much as thousands or tens of thousands." He smiled, "Those who are brave and have influence in the family can get it. Money lending; but money lending requires very capable people, and it is inevitable to be exploited by the middlemen, and things are easy to leak, so most of them like to keep them on the cabinets of various large-sized brands."
After listening to Shen Fan's suggestion, Guo Yi was a little undecided - having more money on hand is naturally a good thing, but Guangzhou Station's money is not tight. Now that he has taken in deposits for no reason, he will have to pay an extra amount of interest. expenditure.
"Proprietor, the benefit of absorbing deposits is not for our own use." Shen Fan continued, "The money in the Guangzhou market is sometimes tight and sometimes loose. When it is tight, if you lend it out for a short period of time, you will get several times the interest if you flip it! "
"This kind of lending, for merchants like us who have no foundation, I'm afraid it's easy to lend but hard to get back." Guo Yi has been in Guangzhou for a few months, and he knows something about this.
"There is a second advantage here. It attracts the family members of those wealthy officials and gentry families," Shen Fan reminded. "The private money of women may be limited," Shen Fan said, "but once word spreads, others will I looked at Zizhenzhai’s skills and power in a different light.”
At this point, Guo Yi has already understood that absorbing this deposit will not only benefit his turnover, but also improve Zichengji's status in Guangzhou! Even if you don't use these savings to recycle money, you can still provide yourself with a protective umbrella. From this point of view, the interest rate of 1.8 cents per year is really not expensive.
Shen Fan took out a handful of small folders from his side and handed them to Guo Yi. Guo Yi took them and looked at them. On the folders, only some household names were written in regular script with ink pen: "Su Ji", "Jin Yan Zhai" and "Run Ji" "etc. At one point, there were almost twenty.
"These are the discounts that young people and outsiders have recently received from family members who plan to open accounts and make deposits in Zizhenzhai," Shen Fan said. "Because I didn't get your permission from the proprietor, I haven't accepted it yet, but The account discount has been opened."
"Who are they?" Guo Yi looked for a long time but couldn't find any names.
Shen Fan took out another small notebook, which contained many symbols that only he knew. Guo Yi knew that this was a business code, similar to Suzhou codes. The records are all things that cannot be "sunshine". At this time, I opened the accounts, the names of the people I interacted with, and the birthdays of the high officials and their old wives, concubines, aunts, young masters, and young ladies. Said: "Most of them are the treasured relatives of officials and gentry. I will copy a list and come out in a while, but this list must be kept secret-"
"I know this." Guo Yi thought that since it was private money, sex was very important. Unexpectedly, our country had anonymous deposits during the Ming Dynasty. It was really at the forefront of the world.
"With these twenty-odd discounts, you can probably receive ten thousand taels of silver." Shen Fan said, "This is a very good deal. If there are no major changes, it is usually just a collection of interest that does not cover the principal."
But after all, this matter is too big, and it also involves financial business. The three people at Guangzhou Station thought about it for a long time and decided that it would be better to explain the plan in person and get approval when submitting reports to Lingao every quarter. But he refused to accept the money that was delivered to his door, and he seemed to be unable to go on, and he was also suspected of offending the customer, so he agreed to Shen Fan to absorb all the deposits first, saying that the annual interest rate would be one cent and eight cents, and the monthly interest would not be charged. Moving book.
The matter was originally left alone. Until recently, the squeeze on the Leizhou Sugar Industry made the originally loose money tight. This project, which was originally just the icing on the cake, suddenly became a timely help. Guo Yi felt that there was no further delay and immediately brought it up to the executive committee meeting table.
Wu De finally felt relieved after reading the entire report. He originally thought that Guangzhou Station was preparing to engage in some kind of financial industry - Wu De had a natural fear of such things - but now it seems that it is just a preparation for Guangzhou Station. Regarding "illegal fund-raising", the interest rate seems to be higher, but it is a good way to alleviate the tight money and poor turnover of the foreign trade department when doing business. Although he inevitably thought of the risk of bank "runs" often seen in business war novels. After careful consideration, he decided to support the Guangzhou station on this issue.
After boarding Yingzhou to send a telegram to express his position, there was no conversation all the way. The ship finally arrived at Hai'an Port smoothly on the morning of the fifth day after departure. As soon as the ship entered the port, Wu De immediately went to the Huanan Sugar Factory to see what the situation was like. There was no immediate communication between them. What if the place was already in ruins? Wouldn't it be a shame to spend so much money transporting money there? jaws of death.
The people sent out turned around after a while and said that the gate of Huanan was still crowded with people, but it seemed that the candy sales were still going on, and nothing unusual was seen. Wu De felt relieved knowing that Huanan's capital chain had not yet been broken. He ordered the people on the ship to loosen up outside and tighten up inside to prevent anyone from making trouble or sabotage. He changed his clothes and prepared to go to Huanan in person to discuss picking up the shipment. The matter of silver.
Wu De's estimate was good. The South China Sugar Refinery's funds have indeed not dried up yet, but they are not far away. The night before Deng Yingzhou arrived, the amount of silver deposited had been reduced to less than one thousand taels. At this number, whether we can survive the next day is questionable. Everyone in South China became ants on a hot pot. Several people discussed it over and over again, but still couldn't come up with a charter.
Wen Tong desperately hoped that Chang Shide, who went to Zhancheng to sell rice, would come back quickly. If he brought back a boatload of rice, he would be able to get tens of thousands of silver to rescue the emergency, but the whale was like a kite dragging the string. No news. After waiting for several days, the executive committee sent someone, but they didn't bring the much-needed money, they just brought a radio station. This made Wen Tong desperate. What use could the radio station be? Fortunately, news came not long after: a ship had been sent to Guangzhou Station to pick up the silver.
Fifty thousand taels is still far from a safe level, but for Wen Tong and the others, they are struggling day by day. If they can transfer 50,000 taels, it will at least give them a buffer time of more than ten days.
But when the money will arrive has become unknown. Watching the savings decrease day by day. To be on the safe side, they also thought of various ways during this period: Liao Dahua and Liao Daxing both tried to go out to the market to adjust some positions for use, but the harvest season in Leizhou has always been a time when money is extremely tight, and none of the stores could adjust them. The only one who had a large amount of cash to pay was the sugar store under Haiyitang. In order to purchase sugar products, they had saved up hundreds of thousands of silver early on. Asking them to borrow money is like seeking skin from a tiger.
However, the fact that they went out to adjust their positions could not be hidden from anyone. Rumors spread everywhere that the newly opened South China Bank's money was tight, and they were afraid that it would go bankrupt soon. The news spread from ten to ten, and the sugarcane farmers who had settled down a little began to become commotion again. Even in the middle of the night, there were people rushing to sell sugar. The money was lost even faster.
Wen Tong felt extremely regretful. If he had known this, he would not have let the Liao brothers go out to adjust their positions. He didn't get the meat, but he was in trouble for nothing. This time it was like showing all his trump cards. If we can't reach Yingzhou, the situation in South China may be difficult to deal with!
As for foreign business travelers such as Xiao Gui and Mei Lin, they are even more helpless. Seeing that the situation was about to collapse, Chen Tianxiong said: "Today's things cannot be broken or established. I'm afraid we will be squeezed out of here without some extraordinary measures!" (!)! ~!
