The letter was written to his benefactor, Mr. Liang. The Liang family has always been his backstage and his important customer. As soon as the currency reform came out, Mr. Liang was very interested and asked him to always pay attention to the movements of Australians.
In the letter, he wrote in detail about the process of the meeting and everyone's attitude, especially Gao Zhi's attitude of sparing no effort to stand up for the Australians. It seems that this currency reform is imperative for Australians. At the meeting, everyone has reached a preliminary agreement. Each industry association will share the amount of new currency exchange according to its size and capital strength. The Money Industry Guild has the largest share, and needs to be exchanged for 200,000 silver dollars. This number is considered acceptable within the guild - after all, the exchange conditions given by the Australians are fair and the quality is considered good. Exchanging silver for silver dollars is not a loss at all.
However, Liang Chenlong also wrote down his concerns in the letter. He was worried that converting silver into silver coins was only the first step. The next step was to ask them to accept a certain amount of silver dollar circulation certificates.
As he wrote this, he sighed deeply, thinking that the next step would inevitably involve converting the collected copper coins into auxiliary currency certificates - this was almost a certainty. Although copper coins were not very valuable, they were still money, and it really hurt his heart to exchange them for pieces of paper.
After writing the letter, he sealed it, sealed it, called a confidant, and whispered a few instructions.
As usual, the letter was not sent to Liang's house, but to Miss Yue Wan in Fuchun Courtyard. Yue Wan was "combed" by Liang Cunhou, which is equivalent to his outer room in the courtyard. Many things that are not easy to be done openly are handled through her.
The servant took the order and left. Liang Chenlong looked at his back and couldn't help but let out a breath.
Liu Xiang sat at his desk and looked at the latest census table on the table. Based on the first household registration data after the establishment of the Guangzhou police system, he knew the exact population of Guangzhou Special City for the first time.
According to the administrative divisions of the two Fuguo counties of Nanhai and Panyu left by the Ming Dynasty, plus the areas outside the city that are expected to be classified as "suburban areas", including Henan Island and other places, the registered population totals 283,700. Hundreds of people. Includes all permanent residents with fixed residences in Guangzhou. Not including the "floating population" such as the Guandi Temple troops - this population is at least more than 10,000.
New household registration does not distinguish between non-agricultural and agricultural populations because the distinction between the two populations was not so clear-cut in the 17th century. In addition to the clerks, shopkeepers, and craftsmen in the city who return to their hometowns to help out when the farm is busy, and farmers from the countryside who come to the city for a short period of time to work, there are also many genuine farmers living in Guangzhou who farm in the city. Therefore, only major categories of occupations are registered - after all, in this era, a person's occupation is basically lifelong.
The registered population figures do not include the population of Dan people. The data on Dan people collected by Hebo are very old and are still from the Zhang Juzheng era. According to this outdated data, there were 22,000 Dan people registered in Hebo. However, the old officials at the Hebo Station who stayed there said that the number of Dan people was much higher than this. Since they have no fixed residence and wander around, it is difficult to accurately count their number. However, there are no less than 40,000 Dan people who have been active on the waters of the Xijiang and Pearl Rivers outside Guangzhou for a long time.
It is necessary to thoroughly find out how many Dan people there are, unless they are allowed to settle ashore. In 1950, the first large-scale practical project of the Guangzhou Municipal Government was to build residential buildings for Dan people to live ashore, thereby controlling this group that was outside the mainstream society for the first time.
Controlling the Dan people and allowing them to live ashore and establish households would be of great benefit to the public security of the Pearl River system, and even to the security of Guangzhou: rivers and lakes have been natural hiding places for lawless elements since ancient times.
But now Liu Xiang's Guangzhou Special Municipal Government is unable to do this, so he has to temporarily give up his attempt to control the Dan people. Focus mainly on the issuance of new currencies.
The key to the credibility of a new currency lies in whether its purchasing power can be guaranteed. Liu Xiang knows very well that once new currency is issued, the issuance of banknotes will be like a flood that breaks a dike.
The first is Guangzhou’s own currency circulation demand in the market. No one knows exactly how big this number is - there was no statistical bureau in the Ming Dynasty, and there were no banks in the modern sense. No one can figure out how many silver and copper coins were circulating in the market. The Ministry of Finance and Finance can only roughly estimate that approximately one million yuan in circulation coupons will be needed. Fearing that it would not be enough, the Ministry of Finance and Economics has ordered millions more banknotes to be printed at the Hong Kong Mint. The second is the expenditure of the Guangzhou Municipal Government. The expenditure of the Guangzhou Municipal Government has increased more than a hundred times compared to the previous Guangzhou Government. Many new agencies have been built and maintained in operation, the rapidly expanding number of public officials, sheltered old personnel, relief for victims, municipal projects... plus the unabated demand for military expenditures. All of these have dramatically increased the number of new coins that need to be put on the market. After Liu Xiang and a team of special commissioners from the Ministry of Finance and Economics made rough estimates, they were already worried about the inflation of the new currency.
Liu Xiang picked up another secret report, which was the latest Guangzhou grain inventory statistics. After the abolition of tooth merchants and the establishment of two wholesale markets for bulk goods, it was mandatory that all bulk grain transactions must be sold in the market. Foreign long-distance grain traders, farmers and landowners who sell grain in batches, and local grain shops and grain stores engaged in wholesale and retail business all operate in the market. The Senate's state-owned enterprises that deal in grain, cooperatives and Dachang Rice Shop also opened business offices in the market. As a window for operating and intervening in grain trade.
At the same time, through the Federation of Industry and Commerce and trade associations, the inventory statistics of large and small grain stores engaged in grain wholesale and retail in the city were carried out. In this way, the municipal government had a rough idea of Guangzhou's bulk grain stocks. Traffickers, local wholesalers, The retailer's total brown rice inventory is approximately 2,600 tons. This number can supply the entire Guangzhou market for approximately one month.
According to the city government’s past population estimates, 2,600 tons cannot sustain the population for even one month. However, Lin Baiguang believes that past estimates are unscientific. Although there is not much difference between the total population estimate and the statistics, the amount of food consumed per person per month of 14 kilograms is on the high side. First of all, the elderly and children cannot eat so much, and secondly, 11 kilograms per month is barely enough for urban residents. More than half of the city's poor people live in poverty, and their daily food intake cannot reach the level of 11 kilograms per month. In addition, most of the large households in Guangzhou had a considerable amount of grain in storage - this was common practice at the time. Large households often stocked up enough grain to last the whole family for two to three months. In addition, they could also obtain food supplies from tenant farmers in the suburbs. Food supply is not a problem. Since the household registration of large Jin gentry households also included a large number of slaves, with the population of each household ranging from twenty to thirty to several hundred, it can be said that a considerable part of the supply pressure was relieved.
In addition, in the past, the official warehouses left by one prefecture and two counties in Guangzhou confiscated grain from the "reverse production", which totaled 700 to 800 tons of bits and pieces. Part of this food has been allocated for use as salaries and funds for the Guangzhou Municipal Government. There are about 200 tons left now
In addition to these local grains, the warehouses in Guangzhou Great World and warehouses on Hong Kong Island also store 10,000 tons of brown rice shipped from Southeast Asia and Hainan in the past three months. This is the trump card held by Liu Xiang and the Ministry of Finance. The purpose is to deal with grain speculation.
Almost every major currency reform is accompanied by a frenzy of speculation on daily necessities such as food. Especially in a situation like Guangzhou City, even Liu Xiang, who had never been a businessman, knew that it was a good opportunity for food speculation.
Guangdong needs Guangxi to supply food. June and July in Guangdong and Guangxi are the time for early rice harvest. In previous years, food prices should have dropped by this time, but Guangdong itself is short of food, and Guangxi is still under the rule of the Ming Dynasty - Wuzhou has set up The water card strictly prohibited all ships from going up and down - the grain trade through Wuzhou also stopped. Normally, just the news of the suspension of grain water transportation in Wuzhou is enough to trigger a sharp rise in grain prices.
Fortunately, the Senate received reciprocation from the Chaoshan Grain Gang in banning the tooth merchants and clearing the teeth's arrears. Although the Chaoshan Grain Gang's wholesale price of grain in the market increased slightly, it remained stable. The Chaoshan Gang also took advantage of its own business gang network to transport grain from other places in Guangdong to supply Guangzhou. This greatly reduces the pressure on food supply. Chen Ce, who is fully in charge of economic and monetary policy in Guangzhou, will not use reserves on a large scale, but occasionally throws out small amounts of grain through cooperatives to curb the rise in grain prices.
However, it is not enough to rely solely on the "returns" of the Chaoshan Gang. Business ethics are profit-oriented. They are sacrificing profits now, not only out of gratitude but also because they know that the violent machine of the Senate is far from comparable to that of the Ming Dynasty. However, once the profits are large enough, neither conscience nor fear will be a problem. Therefore, in terms of curbing speculation and ensuring currency value, we must base ourselves on the Senate itself.
In addition to storing a large amount of grain in Hong Kong Island, the Planning Institute also transports salt, cotton and linen cloth, dried seafood and tea from various regions to Hong Kong Island, which can be transferred to Guangzhou at any time to stabilize prices.
In order to have enough channels for distribution, in addition to wholesale channels, commercial cooperatives, Dachang, and Wanyou have suddenly opened more than 40 branches in Guangzhou citywide through accepting offers, direct purchases, etc., and the retail network basically covers The entire urban area of Guangzhou and major suburban towns. In order to ensure supply to the towns and villages, twenty mobile vending ships were refitted, all equipped with shop assistants and supply sources, and went to the countryside to sell goods in the villages and towns that were basically peaceful. Zheng Shangjie instructs the sellers to sell goods and purchase rural local products according to market conditions to further activate the rural economy and prepare for the transfer of money to the countryside. (To be continued ~^~)
