"You two...have we reached an agreement?"
When he met the two profiteer Earls Huang Jiang and Su Sheng again, Wu Sangui actually felt like he was jealous.
This is really ridiculous, Wu Sangui! The great warlord who held a large number of troops and separatized the northwest, making the whole of Shaanxi tremble when he stomped his feet, was still the uncle of the Ming Dynasty! Such a powerful person would actually be in awe of two profiteer bankers...
Wu Sangui also knows that such a thing is ridiculous, but he just doesn't have enough confidence now!
He vaguely felt that he must not offend the two people in front of him...because it would be too easy for these two profiteers to bring down Wu Sangui!
"That's it." Su Sheng smiled kindly. He looked neither treacherous nor vicious. He was completely a good businessman based on integrity.
Su Sheng continued: "The Maritime Commercial Bank and the Salt Commercial Bank helped the Duke's feudal town issue 3 million taels of vassal debt notes, which were used to exchange for the old debts owed by the Duke... The coupon rate is 6 per annum. The interest will be paid on August 15th of each year. On the day when the vassal town is dismantled, the court will be responsible for paying the principal and the interest for the last year."
"Dazhong Shang" Huang Jiang said with a smile: "My lord, as long as your feudal town is not cleared for one day, the principal of the 3 million taels of feudal debt does not need to be repaid. However, the interest of 180,000 taels still has to be paid annually. .....”
"But there's not even 180,000 taels..." Wu Sangui shook his head and spread his hands, "There's no money!"
"No, just borrow more!" Su Sheng smiled, "Continue to issue debt notes and borrow money to pay interest... This matter will be taken care of by the Maritime Commercial Bank and the Salt Commercial Bank."
Huang Jiang continued what Su Sheng said: "My lord, as long as you sign a contract and entrust the issuance of feudal bonds to Maritime Bank and Salt Merchant Bank, we can continue to issue bonds and borrow money for you.
Of course, the interest on the new debt will definitely be higher... It is impossible for the annual interest rate to be six cents, and ten cents or so is more appropriate. "
In fact, it didn't matter whether the carte blanche contract was signed or not. Wu Sangui could not find a third financial institution that could underwrite the feudal debt.
And now only these two major banks can give the feudal debt a certain degree of liquidity - if the feudal debt cannot be circulated, it will not be able to borrow ten percent of the annual interest. These days, annual rates of thirty or forty percent are commonplace and not considered usury at all.
...
After the autumn grain of the first year of Hongxing came on the market, he had been living in Yao Daqiao on Yaojiazhai Street in Hankou City. As usual, after breakfast, he called two servants, took his accountant and master, left the house and walked to the house. Just two or three miles away from the rice market teahouse.
The Rice Market Tea House is naturally located in the largest rice and grain trading market in Huguang. It is a teahouse next to the rice market on Hanzheng Street. It has a brick and wood structure, eight bays, three floors high, and is decent and elegant. The first floor is the lobby, and the second and third floors have private rooms. Because it is close to the Hanzheng Street Rice Market and the Wuhan Branch of Salt Commercial Bank and Wuhan Branch of Maritime Bank, it has become a place where Hankou's rice and money merchants meet every day to discuss business, discuss the market, and reach deals.
The Hanzheng Street Rice Market is just to the right of the Rice Market Teahouse. It covers a vast area and extends from Hanzheng Street to the Hanshui Rice Wharf. This rice market was invested and built by the Royal Chamber of Commerce. Half of the land rent rice and land redemption rice collected by the Juntun Division in Huguang will be publicly sold (auctioned) here - Juntun land rent rice and land redemption rice are added together. With more than 50 million stones, it is now the main source of income for the Ming Dynasty. However, the Ming Dynasty had a lot of money to spend, so it had to sell about half of the rice.
Selling rice and taking care of it is a troublesome thing, otherwise Zhang Juzheng would not have paid silver in lieu of various physical taxes when he reformed the whip law during the Wanli period.
However, the problem of paying taxes on silver is not small. First, the development of various regions in the Ming Dynasty was extremely uneven. The south was rich in silver (all the silver flowing in during the Age of Discovery was in southern China), the north had little silver, and the northwest was poor in silver. The one-size-fits-all payment of silver actually increases the burden on the poor areas in the northwest, and at the same time reduces the burden on the rich areas in the southeast - this is equivalent to reducing taxes on the extremely rich Jiangnan, Huguang, Sichuan, Fujian and Guangdong, and reducing taxes on the miserable people. Shaanxi and Gansu increase taxes! Then the Little Ice Age hit, and people in Shaanxi were still waiting to starve to death?
The second problem is the "price revolution", because too much silver flows in, causing the purchasing power of silver to continue to decline. Therefore, the total tax revenue received by the Ming court was actually declining.
Moreover, after the rise of Hou Jin, military expenditure in Liaodong became a bottomless pit. Therefore, the place where the Ming court spent money was in the Northern Zhili and Western Liaoning areas (actually an economic circle), and there were not many industries in this area. Even the most basic agricultural products could not be self-sufficient and had to be transported through costly water transportation. Therefore, a price high point has been formed. The value of the money received by the Ming court was severely reduced in Northern Zhili and Western Liaoning.
So this money is spent like water, but it has no effect...
Of course Zhu Cixiang knows about the "price revolution", so he will not fall into the big pit of "fixed currency rent". But he won't collect a bunch of messy stuff, which will be difficult to cash out. The land rent, land redemption fees, and land taxes that will be resumed are all paid in the form of rice and wheat (which will be converted into rice and flour when recording accounts).
In order to facilitate the preservation and sale of rice and wheat, the Ming Dynasty built large-scale grain depots in Wuhan and Nanjing, while Zhu Cihong used money from the Royal Chamber of Commerce to invest in the construction of Hanzheng Street Rice Market and Longjiangkou Rice Market.
In addition, Emperor Zhu also instructed the two major banks to provide all necessary financial support for transactions in the Hanzheng Street Rice Market and the Longjiangkou Rice Market.
Therefore, the Hanzheng Street rice market area has not only developed into the center of Huguang's rice trading, but has also become a financial center in Huguang.
What was negotiated in this eight-bay rice market teahouse was not only the price of rice and wheat, but also the exchange rates for gold, silver, and money, as well as the interest rates for loans.
Starting from late August, a new trading product has become one of the focuses of discussion among people in the teahouses on Mishi Street.
This new trading product is Fan Bond, a tradable bond issued by Fan Town!
Although it has not been officially released yet, it is already a bit popular, at least a hot topic.
Yao Daqiao, who has always been keen on the smell of money, of course also immediately noticed the huge benefits hidden in the feudal debt.
"Have you heard? The imperial court has agreed to pay for the feudal debt!"
"How is it possible? With debts of millions and tens of millions, can Emperor Hongxing take the blame?"
"Hehe, you can't be wrong...Emperor Hongxing relented and promised that when the feudal town is abolished in the future, the imperial court will take over all the feudal debts!"
"When it comes to withdrawing the vassal? How many feudal lords can agree? If we really want to withdraw, why not start a fight?"
"Why doesn't the feudal lord agree? Now the court doesn't agree..."
"Is there still such a thing? Is there anyone who the imperial court doesn't want to withdraw from the vassal state?
"That's right, I have news..."
"Then when can the vassal state be withdrawn?"
"I don't know... maybe it will never be withdrawn. Maybe after three or five years, the emperor will change his mind and withdraw... But someone will finally cover the debt of the vassal! Those old Westerners The profiteers have made a profit!"
"Earn? Haha, it's just a loss... Now that the court has taken care of it, the interest on the feudal debt has to be re-determined. It is impossible to earn three cents of monthly interest. It is said that the old debt can only have half a cent of monthly interest, and The principal cannot be paid until the vassal state is withdrawn. How much would such a debt note be worth when taken to Hanzheng Street? I'm afraid it would have to be discounted in half, right?
Is it okay to discount it in half? Yao Daqiao did not participate in the discussion, but silently calculated the value of these feudal debts that could only be fully realized when the feudal clan was withdrawn in the future.
If there is no guarantee of "withdrawing the vassal's money", no one will necessarily want a discount on the vassal debt.
But with this guarantee, the vassal debt has value...but the value depends on when the vassal will be withdrawn? If the feudal clan can be withdrawn in five years, then the yield on the half-discounted feudal bonds will be equivalent to three-cent monthly interest, which should be affordable.
If the date of withdrawal is far away, it would be hard to say...
