Liu Xiang listened very carefully. It should be said that the plan of the Ministry of Finance and Finance is still very detailed. It is organized in every aspect and has strong executability. It was not a purely theoretical blind command - this was originally what he was most worried about.
After listening to the introduction of the plan, Liu Xiang coughed and said: "I think the plan of the Ministry of Finance and the Reserve Bank of China is feasible. However, there is still a lot of work to be done to implement this plan."
Issuing new currency requires a huge network to provide support, and their "relevant departments" in Guangzhou are not enough. Except for the police agency, which is beginning to take shape, the rest is basically blank.
Several necessary agencies and enterprises in the plan. Only Delong Bank started its layout half a year ago and added new branches, roughly covering the commercial streets of urban areas, various customs and major suburban market towns. Others either don’t even have a shelf or are too small to be effective at all, so they have to be built and enriched one by one. The staff gap is not small either.
"...My idea is that the Wanyou and Women's Cooperatives, which are now state-controlled, should come to Guangzhou to open branches as soon as possible. The location can be chosen, and there should be as many outlets as possible to attract citizens to use the new currency." Zheng Shangjie said, " The clerks can be recruited in Guangzhou, and just send some of the business backbone to serve as leaders."
Zhang Yikun also quickly said: "We have plenty of places. The big world is mainly to attract commercial enterprises from the Senate. Not only these enterprises, I think the commercial port can also open some new commercial enterprises. For example, the catering industry. Increase the channels for currency withdrawals. .”
Lin Baiguang said: "Is Dachang, like Delong, setting up some points in the urban area and nearby larger commercial towns? Its current importance is the same as Delong. These points can be used for both wholesale and retail. As a A bellwether for rice prices.”
Chen Ce made a few notes in his notebook: "This requires coordination, but I don't think it's a big problem."
Liu Xiang said: "Actually, I am very worried about one thing, which is our auxiliary coins. There is no metal currency in auxiliary coins - are ordinary people willing to exchange copper coins for banknotes? For ordinary people, they rarely use silver dollars. , what is in great demand is small-value payment methods. Nowadays, the smallest denomination silver coin costs almost 2 silver coins - a bit big."
Chen Ce smiled slightly: "Old Liu, do you know about money raising?"
"Not sure, chips?"
"This is a token. It is issued by the merchants themselves and is made of bamboo. Its properties are the same as banknotes. It is a kind of credit currency. It was once very popular in Jiangnan in the middle and late Qing Dynasty." Chen Ce said, "You know why Will such a thing happen?"
"Because of lack of small money?"
"Because the market was flooded with bad coins at that time," Chen Ce said. "It was exactly the same as the Ming Dynasty today, and merchants and people suffered greatly. But small payments were indispensable. So this kind of material appeared. It is a worthless token. Its credibility is maintained by the issuing store itself. It can also be circulated in a town, and some can even be circulated in more than a dozen towns."
"Are you saying that ordinary people will accept our small coins because there is too much bad money?"
"Yes, it's not just that." Chen Ce glanced at Meng Xian, "In the financial report Xiao Meng gave us, it was mentioned many times that there is a serious shortage of small-denomination coins in Guangzhou and even Guangdong as a whole."
"Yes," Meng Xian said, "many merchants mint silver beans privately as auxiliary coins."
The Ming Dynasty was a dynasty that did not pay much attention to coinage. Copper coins of all dynasties were mixed on the market. After the collapse of the banknote method, in order to solve the problem of insufficient currency, merchants were allowed to privately mint copper coins. The quality was extremely poor. Some of the copper coins that flowed out to Southeast Asia were regarded as "lead" by Europeans. piece". In order to solve financial difficulties, the Chongzhen Dynasty minted a large amount of coins in various places. The copper coins were both excessive and poor. The value of small-denomination tokens on the market is extremely confusing.
"...So we think it is feasible to use banknotes for small-denomination auxiliary currencies." Chen Ce said.
This rhetoric did not completely convince Liu Xiang, but he could not come up with a better solution.
In order to further reduce the current outflow of silver and copper coins in administrative expenses, the meeting decided to issue new coins before they are issued. A supply system was adopted for all cadres going north, and no cash was given; for those newly recruited and retained locally, only discounted rice and cloth were given. No silver or copper coins were issued. Except for necessary project payment settlement and on-site transfer of materials, the use of silver and copper coins for payment is strictly prohibited.
Liu Xiang said: "Before issuing new currency, another task we have is to stabilize food prices."
According to the Comprehensive Management Office's daily price report on the market, the average rice price in Guangzhou is about one, two or three yuan per stone - a yuan higher than before they entered the city. This is obviously a "panic rise" because the current situation is turbulent and citizens rush to buy rice and store it. But now that more than half a month has passed, the market is calm, and theoretically it should fall back. But rice prices are still rising steadily. This shows that grain merchants are not optimistic about the subsequent rice supply. However, this is still within the normal range: rice prices tend to go up at this time of year, and local and foreign grains have to wait until after the summer harvest. Food prices will fall.
The exact population figures of the entire urban area of Guangzhou have not yet been released, but according to existing figures and estimates, the permanent population of the two counties of Guangzhou City, Panyu and Nanhai is approximately 300,000. Even based on the standard of 14 kilograms per person per month, the monthly consumption exceeds 4,000 tons. This is an astonishing number.
Liu Xiang doesn't know the private grain storage situation in Guangzhou, but there is one thing that the elders know: Guangdong is a traditionally grain-deficient area, and even in good years in the late Ming Dynasty, the harvest was only enough to last half a year. Although Huguang in Jiangxi Province was the main grain-producing area in the Ming Dynasty. However, Wuling blocks it, so it cannot effectively supply Guangdong. Bulk grains are basically supplied by Guangxi. Therefore, the food stock in the city will not be very large. Now that grain shipments from Guangxi have been interrupted, the food supply of Guangzhou, a huge consumer city, falls entirely on the new government.
Now it is March again, a time when the rural areas are facing a lean period and there is insufficient food to supply the cities. In the past, the traditional foreign grain trade was interrupted, and the amount of grain seized was very limited. If grain prices could not be effectively stabilized, let alone the issuance of new currency, a "rice riot" would disgrace the Senate in Guangzhou!
But panic has crept in. Some rice store owners who have business dealings with Dachang are already worried about the arrival of rice from other places this year - rice from Guangxi obviously cannot be counted on, and only Lei, Lian and Gao Sanfu in Guangdong are major grain producing areas, so the supply in the second half of the year will be scarce. It's already a done deal.
At the meeting, it was decided that after the ban on rice shops, Dachang would serve as the general wholesaler of grains in Guangzhou and wholesale grains to various rice shops at "guided prices." First stabilize the market.
"The Planning Institute has promised to transport 5,000 tons of brown rice this month and 20,000 tons next month. These grains are exclusively for Guangzhou, and the goal is to ensure that Guangzhou has four to five months of reserves." Chen Ce said.
Liu Xiang was surprised: "The Planning Institute has so much food in its hands?"
He remembered that food had always been a relatively tight "controlled material" for the Senate. After all, based on their agricultural production capacity, supporting a large industrial population, administrative staff, military police and students was already a huge burden. Without food imports, it would be impossible for the Senate to feed such a high proportion of the non-agricultural population.
Although there was no unified purchasing and marketing system under the Senate, food was always the first level of control.
"Of course there is." Chen Ce said, "I can also tell you the truth. This is the result of the full coordination of the Government Affairs Council. Starting from this month, the staple food in all public canteens in Hainan Island, Taiwan, Jeju and other places will be changed to dried rice noodles. At the same time, the Planning Institute has also increased the quota for rice imports - so we can only succeed in Guangzhou and cannot fail."
The elders present at the meeting all realized the weight of their burdens from these words. Dried rice noodles are mixed with 25% dried potato powder; and if more rice is imported, the import of other raw materials will inevitably decrease. This is equivalent to sacrificing the interests of the public to support this currency reform in Guangdong.
Liu Xiang said solemnly: "This is using the power of the whole country to support us."
"That's right, it's good if you can realize it." Chen Ce himself said in a serious tone, "Now that we have just regained Guangzhou, people's hearts are unstable, and we have to carry out currency reform, it is a good opportunity for speculators and profiteers to make trouble. Things will not be smooth sailing. .”
…
Dachang Guangzhou branch originally only had a storefront outside Dongguan, Guangzhou, near the Pearl River waterway. The front door is not big and not conspicuous, but the warehouse courtyard and dock behind it are surprisingly large. Every summer and autumn, this place is bustling with people, and the pier at the back door is also full of ships transporting grain.
Dachang has almost no involvement in the rice and grain trade in Guangzhou. It neither buys nor sells. It only accepts grain sent from four townships and eight towns. Sometimes I also collect cash and various local products and groceries. The received goods are directly loaded onto the ship and shipped to Hong Kong.
March was originally the most deserted time in Dachang, but now the pier was full of ships. The waterline of the barge pulled by a small steamer from Hong Kong Island was very low, and it was tightly covered with reed mats.
The porters were carrying straw bags into the warehouse day and night - needless to say, they were filled with rice.
Not far from Dachang, the dedicated wharf of Big World is also full of barges from Hong Kong Island. Steam cranes make a popping sound, hoisting goods onto iron wheels and sending them to the warehouse one by one. District to go.
Lin Baiguang watched this scene from the observation deck at the highest point of the world. Since the liberation of Guangzhou, the number of tugboats from Hong Kong has increased several times. A large amount of grain, cloth, salt and groceries were shipped from Hong Kong Island to the big world. The originally empty warehouses were now mostly filled. The follow-ups are still coming. (To be continued.)
