"Your Majesty," Yang Qilong, who was about to be the governor of Jiangbei but was currently serving as Zuo's military advisor, stood up and asked, "I wonder what kind of supplies Wu Yingqi and Dengzhou Tianwang Mansion should have? Should the imperial court buy them for them, or should they buy them themselves? The court only pays the merchants?"
As soon as he mentioned "paying money", Zhuge Sanhe, Yu Zhongxian and Ma Chenglong looked melancholy... There was no money!
Zhu Heji said with a smile: "A purchasing yamen can be set up in Nanjing, which will be managed by Wu Yingqi's people and the subordinate officials of Dengzhou Tianwang Palace and officials sent by the court. What to buy, Wu Yingqi's people and the subordinate officials of Tianwang Palace will make a list. As long as the amount is within the limit, the officials of the imperial court will be responsible for bidding and issuing contracts to merchants. As for payment...of course it will be transferred from the official bank account.
You can pay a deposit first, and wait until the goods are delivered to the border between us and Wu Yingqi or to Songjiang Prefecture and Shanghai Port. After being inspected by people from the Wu family or Tianwang Mansion, the remaining money can be transferred to the merchant's account.
In addition, for large purchases by the imperial court and local governments, centralized procurement, public bidding, contracting and transfer payment must be gradually implemented. However, it does not need to be tightened too tightly. The original financial and administrative rights of each yamen do not need to be changed, and small purchases do not need to be managed. It is only necessary to set up a procurement office in Nanjing and Hainan and the provincial capitals to handle bidding and contracting. That's enough... What do you think? "
The current Ming Dynasty is still in its infancy, and all systems are incomplete and there are many loopholes.
Corruption in the court and local procurement processes is simply unavoidable. However, the purpose of Zhu Heji's establishment of the Procurement Office to conduct centralized public bidding and contracting was not entirely to combat corruption and save procurement expenses. Also to speed up the construction of the financial system!
Nowadays, the financial system with Dongyinqian Factory and Dongchang Guanyinhao as the core is only relatively spread in Nanjing, Guangzhou, and Chaozhou. It can be considered that it has penetrated into the local civil society, industry and commerce, and formed a system. In other places, it is just a little bit set up, not a system at all.
Moreover, in Guangzhou, Chaozhou and Nanjing, the newly emerged financial systems are still in their infancy.
Although the interbank market and commodity trading market have been established, they are still immature and relatively small in scale, and various systems are still being explored. There are not too many merchants opening accounts in Dongchang Guanyinhao or in banks, banks, banknotes, and pawnshops that have close financial dealings with Dongchang Guanyinhao and accept the supervision of Dongyinqianchang.
Therefore, Zhu Heji hoped that by establishing procurement and bidding offices for the imperial court and various provinces, he could help the Edong Silver Coin Factory and the Dongchang Guanyinhao extend their tentacles to every prefecture under the rule of the Ming Dynasty.
If a supervision, lending, exchange, and issuance system can be formed with Dongyin Coin Factory and Dongchang Guanyinhao as the core, then issuing some public bonds will not be a problem at all.
And once this system is established, the huge amount of silver that flowed into the Ming Dynasty through trade in the past can be sucked into this system, and then put into operation, completing the gorgeous transformation from "stone" to capital - it is not necessary for all "stones" to become As capital, there is a base currency of 200 million silver dollars, plus a doubled multiplier effect, which is enough for turnover.
"Your Majesty," Zhuge Sanhe didn't understand Zhu Heji's intentions, but he still supported it, "I think this method is very good... but it is too late to fully spread this matter this year. How about trying it on the imperial court first? The imperial court's procurement budget this year is several million, plus the purchases from Tianwang Mansion and Wu Yingqi, it will be tens of millions. If the account period can be postponed, maybe the turnover can be opened .”
Zhu Heji raised his voice and said in an intensified tone: "It's not tens of millions of taels, but tens of millions of yuan... The matter of abolishing liang and changing it to yuan must also be carried out at the same time."
"Yin Liang" and "Yin Yuan" are not the same thing!
This is a question of monetary sovereignty!
Silver yuan is exclusively manufactured by Dongyin Coin Factory. Privately minted silver yuan and privately minted copper coins are both capital crimes!
Silver coins are dug out of the ground and can be mined by anyone, and the main producing area is New Spain.
At first glance, using silver taels as a currency seems like nothing. After all, it is a precious metal, and you can’t just dig it up in the backyard.
But in this way, the country cannot control currency issuance, and it also loses the possibility of levying an inflation tax in emergencies.
Historically, Chongzhen's "death of poverty" and the Qing Dynasty's loss of financial sovereignty were due to the country losing its ability to control currency issuance and manage finance after silver coins became circulating currency.
In contrast, the country next door, Japan, has been casting "silver coins" and "gold coins" and issuance of all kinds of weird vassal notes (paper money), so it has always been in control of issuing currency and regulating finance. ability. Therefore, after the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese firmly controlled their country's currency and finance, and guarded their money printing press...
Zhu Heji, who is well aware of the power of nuclear-powered money printing machines, certainly knows that the country must firmly grasp the right to issue currency!
"Your Majesty," Ma Chenglong, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, stood up and asked, "The people have been using silver taels for many years and have long formed a habit. We can't force them not to use silver taels, right? Although silver yuan is indeed more convenient than silver taels, everyone who has used it has I know...but if I haven’t used it, I still don’t know how good it is.”
Eunuch Pang, who supervises the Dongyin Coin Factory, took over Ma Chenglong's topic and said, "Isn't that true... there are still many people who cut up the good silver coins and use them.
There was obviously a small amount of silver coins and copper coins, but they refused to change them and had to use scissors! "
Zhu Heji said with a smile: "The Gu family knows that the common people are used to using silver and scissors, and many people can also melt and refine silver by themselves. They are quite capable! But the Gu family also has a way to speed up the process of converting waste into two. a little!"
It was not surprising that Mrs. Pang listened to Zhu Heji and said that there was a way. She also smiled and said: "Non (I) know that the king has a way. This way is..."
"Of course it's the imperial examination!" Zhu Heji said.
"Imperial examination?"
"What is the relationship between the imperial examination and the abolition of Liang and the reform of Yuan?"
Neither Eunuch Pang nor Ma Chenglong understood. It seems that the relationship between the imperial examination and silver yuan and silver taels cannot be made public, right?
"Of course it does matter!" Zhu Heji said, "Since you want to take part in the imperial examination... you have to travel far! You can't take the imperial examination at home, right?"
"That's true." Eunuch Pang nodded, "I understand how difficult it is for a poor family to be rich, and the families of those who came to Beijing to take the exam have very few assets, so they have to take dozens or even hundreds of taels with them when they go out. If they can be allowed to exchange this silver into silver yuan or banknotes, the progress of abolishing the two yuan and changing it to the yuan can be greatly accelerated."
Zhu Heji nodded: "A nine-thousand-year-old's brain is still very fast. Jiu-thousand-year-old, please think about how to get those movers to exchange the silver into silver yuan or silver notes?"
Eunuch Pang touched his bare chin, rolled his little eyes, and said: "We still have to find a way from the customs... Now the customs has given merchants a tax-free quota of one thousand taels of cash. , I suggest that this amount be adjusted downward to fifty taels.
At the same time, notify the local magistrates and ask them to exchange their money for banknotes before going out... It is not necessary to exchange them all for official banknotes, they can also be exchanged for banknotes from big banks in various places. . The official bank account can take advantage of the opportunity to exchange money for the brothers and bring these large local banks into the interbank market, so that it can help them with exchanges.
As long as we can bring in all the big banks and bank accounts from all over the country, all the money will turn into silver dollars as soon as it passes through the interbank market. "
"Are there enough silver coins?" Ma Chenglong, the Minister of Household Affairs, asked, "How many silver coins does the Dongyin Coin Factory cast in a year? Just a few million dollars per day, right?"
Zhu Heji took the question with a smile and said: "Ma Shangshu, don't worry... Millions of silver coins a year are for market circulation, which is enough for now. Interbank Market Settlement Statement Silver Yuan Most of them are virtual, and you can also cast large amounts of silver yuan, fifty yuan, one hundred yuan, or even one thousand yuan! If the silver is too heavy, then use gold to cast it."
