In the capital city, at the southeast corner of Nanxunfang, east of Zhanshi Mansion, a newly built yamen-style building was officially listed: Daming United Savings Bank. The bank, also known as the "Federal Reserve Bank of the Ming Dynasty" or "Federal Reserve Bank", is the first and only financial institution in the Ming Dynasty that was established in the form of private capital but has legal "minting rights."
The bank not only had the right to mint coins, but its form of power was clearly stipulated and endorsed by the emperor's edict, the cabinet and the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Imperial edicts, cabinet orders, and ministerial documents have given the bank huge powers from a legal perspective, among which the most important powers are as follows:
Exclusively issues national unified banknotes "Federal Reserve Banknotes"; manages import and export trade profits (collected by the Ministry of Household Affairs); manages the court's war reparations income (currently only in Myanmar); acts as an agent for the emperor's internal treasury and is responsible for investments; provides financial consulting to the court Services; making loans to local yamen above the prefectural level; holding and keeping reserves for the issuance of Federal Reserve banknotes; providing necessary loans to other large banks (or banks); providing loans for imperial wars or profitable construction; providing loans to large private enterprises (enterprises) The words have already been reviewed and approved by Jinghua Investment); three types of bonds related to war, construction, trade, etc. are independently issued.
As a national special financial institution and the second "bank" in the country (the first is Jinghua Bank), the Federal Reserve Bank of China will initially have branches in Nanjing, thirteen provinces and Liaodong in addition to its head office in Beijing. , the Ming Dynasty Jin Kingdom (formerly Tumote, now including the Ordos Department) established sixteen branches.
These branches are mainly responsible for exchanging "Federal Reserve Banknotes" on behalf of the head office, and acting as agents for investment, loans, bonds and other related businesses assigned by the head office. At the same time, there is also an important task, which is to reserve part of the reserves for the issuance of treasure banknotes in each province as a countermeasure to deal with possible vicious runs.
Needless to say more about the inland provinces and Gyeonggi, the Daming Jinguo (Tumote) branch deserves a separate mention. The branch's treasury is not guarded by Tumote Mongolian soldiers. Instead, a fortress-like satellite city is built on the edge of Guihua City. Thousands of the bank's "mercenaries" are stationed in the city to ensure the safety of the treasury. There is no doubt that this branch The mercenaries came from Jinghua Trading Company (controlled by Cao Gan, who was in charge of the inland import and export trade).
However, Tumut's Khan Naji also promised to "do all we can to protect" the satellite city.
Han Naji's words are not a diplomatic term. He sincerely wants to protect the "Treasury City", because the "Treasury City" is also his cash machine to a certain extent - as long as his idea of withdrawing money can be obtained. Just ask for approval from the Federal Reserve.
The key to why the Federal Reserve of the Ming Dynasty has such power and prestige lies in two points: First, its capital is extremely strong, with its original share capital reaching 30 million taels of silver, which is several times more than the national stockpile of silver.
As for the second point, it is even more critical: its two largest shareholders are called Jinghua and the other is internal funds. Jinghua invested 10 million of the 30 million, and internal funds invested 5 million, directly accounting for half. In addition, almost all the nobles of the two capitals, senior officials of the capital, generals from all over the country, and even a bunch of clan princes have invested in the subscription - oh, by the way, Han Naji Khan also participated in the shares as the "King of Shunyi" , and even his investment was as high as 400,000 taels.
Is this okay? Behind the Ming Fed, almost the entire ruling class of the Ming Empire stood. Anyone who dared to oppose the Ming Fed would basically be extinct from the world.
Business gangs in the north and business gangs in the south also took shares. However, due to Gao Pragmatic's restrictions on the identities of shareholders (mainly due to the influence of Shilin), wealthy businessmen from both the north and the south all took part in the shares. - Westerners call it white gloves, that is, agents. Many of the shares invested by the officials in the capital were held on behalf of the business gangs behind them. Only they themselves knew what other contracts they had signed privately.
In short, the Ming Fed completed the process from inception to birth in just a short period of time. As soon as it appeared on the stage, it shocked the world and raised eyebrows.
The most interesting among them are probably the officials of the Xin School, who either themselves or on behalf of the Southern Business Gang, invested in the Ming Fed.
Gao Pragmatic initially planned to exclude the Southern Business Gang from the Ming Dynasty Federal Reserve, but later Liu Xin helped him make detailed calculations and found that as long as they did not randomly invest in shares without setting an upper limit, after controlling the shares of the Giving Heart School, they could be released It actually makes more sense to invest in them than to exclude them.
The appeal of the Ming Federal Reserve was so great that even in the eyes of later generations, it was still a very special institution. Because although it mainly existed as the central bank in the actual sense of the Ming Dynasty, it also retained many functions of commercial banks.
As we all know, the central bank exists mainly for the financial stability of the country, while commercial banks exist to obtain their own interests.
Therefore, it is usually explained that when the Federal Reserve acts as a central bank, it does not need to consider profits. However, its high pragmatic requirements determine that it needs to rely on profits to win the favor of the "ruling class", so commercial banks' profit methods - at least part of them - must still be retained.
This creates such a powerful freak as the Federal Reserve Bank of China.
Now that it is already at the freak level, it must not be left to its own devices and must have means of control and supervision, so two supporting systems were born.
The first set of systems is very simple: at the beginning of the establishment of the Ming Fed, it was clearly stipulated in three levels of administrative instructions: imperial edicts, cabinet orders, and ministerial documents: Gao Pragmatic, the convener and main founder of the Ming Fed, shall be the lifelong president, and according to the Ming Fed Based on the internal voting results, it enjoys the voting rights for daily affairs of the original share capital held by Jinghua Bank, the royal family's internal funds, the vast majority of nobles, the majority of generals, and some practical officials.
In other words, in addition to the voting rights of 10 million taels of original shares of Jinghua Bank, Gao Pragmatic also enjoys the voting rights of a series of original shares including 5 million taels of the emperor's internal funds, and the term of power is for his entire life. This means that as long as Gao is pragmatic, he has the final say in the daily affairs of the Federal Reserve.
The second system is a bit more complicated: Although the Ming Dynasty Federal Reserve is a joint-stock system, its board of directors does not have a chairman (because the official cannot be greater than the emperor), and the power of the board of directors is actually represented by Gao Pragmatic, the "lifetime president". Therefore, Gao Jingzhi's status on the board of directors is the lead director (based on share capital), but the board of directors does not usually hold meetings.
The absence of a board meeting does not mean that major shareholders give up supervision. Supervision power is given to the board of supervisors. The supervisory board is still set up according to the share capital, but stockholders can appoint members of the supervisory board to represent themselves.
The members of the supervisory board are set up according to the original share capital of 500,000 taels per person (one vote). In principle, the total number of valid votes at the plenary meeting is up to 60 votes.
However, considering that some major shareholders have more than 500,000 taels, while some small shareholders have far less than 500,000 taels, there are other regulations: major shareholders can appoint one person to "generally hold the votes of the supervisory board", or they can appoint separate representatives. Small shareholders can hold together to keep warm and negotiate on their own to "jointly hold the votes of the supervisory board on behalf of others."
In the case of total agency holding, dispersed agency holding or joint agency holding, the maximum error in the original share capital of the "supervisory board vote held on behalf of the agency" shall not exceed 50,000 taels of original shares. This article may lead to errors in the total number of votes. Generally speaking, there should be more than 60 votes most of the time - for example, the total number of votes for this session of the Supervisory Board ended up being 63 votes.
Members of the Supervisory Board are elected for three-year terms and can be re-elected indefinitely (as long as the shareholders are willing to appoint them). In principle, they will not be elected during their term of office except for special circumstances such as breaking the law (national law), violating regulations (internal regulations), death, serious illness, worries or resignation. Temporary adjustments.
Members of the Board of Supervisors (one vote or more than one vote on behalf) can supervise all daily work of the Federal Reserve Bank of China, and can also require the Federal Reserve Bank of China to produce their designated accounts for inspection at any time. However, considering that this cannot seriously affect the daily work of the Federal Reserve Bank of China, the same category, There is a one-month "cooling off" period for auditing the same matter.
This supplementary clause illustrates another system: members of the Board of Supervisors are not allowed to interfere with the daily work of the Federal Reserve Bank of China, and of course they are not allowed to hold cross-appointment positions.
In addition to auditing accounts, the daily powers of the board of supervisors are basically the same as those of the supervisory boards of later formal companies. The standard expression of its main powers is: supervise and inspect the financial accounting activities of the Ming Fed; supervise and inspect the life-long president, general manager, manager and other management personnel of the Ming Fed when they perform their duties. Whether there is any behavior that violates Ming Dynasty laws and regulations and the Ming Fed's internal charter; requires the general manager, managers or other staff to correct their behavior that damages the reputation and interests of the Ming Fed; proposes to convene an interim board of directors (but as long as Gao Pragmatic is alive, this article can only regarded as theoretical authority); perform other powers granted by the Federal Reserve's charter.
The board of directors system "initiated" by Jinghua has now been understood by the top management of Ming Dynasty. This time, the board of supervisors system has been added. To a certain extent, almost the core of the modern joint-stock company system has been introduced. Judging from the degree of acceptance, the results are gratifying, so much so that Gao Pragmatic is considering whether he can find an opportunity to launch the "Company Law" - of course, if he really wants to launch it, he will probably change its name, such as changing it to "Company Law" Enterprise Law".
Banking, joint-stock systems, and company law, linking these things with high pragmatism is no fun. To a certain extent, he is actually copying the work of the Dutch in original history - but copying the work of the 17th century, decades in advance.
In fact, the first bank did not appear in the Netherlands. When the Mediterranean region was still the economic center of Europe, the original bank was born in Italy.
At that time, banks were mainly engaged in the safekeeping of property. Merchants deposited currency in banks and needed to pay management fees to the banks. Moreover, banks at that time did not develop lending functions, so they could not be regarded as banks in the modern sense.
In 1609, the Bank of Amsterdam was established in the Netherlands, the world's first modern bank. The Bank of Amsterdam used a large amount of idle funds in the Netherlands to absorb deposits from the Dutch people while providing loans to businessmen. This is the earliest credit business and the core function of modern banks.
With the further development of the Dutch banking industry, everyone from the king to the common people, including other European countries, participated in the operation of the Dutch banking industry, and the Netherlands also made a lot of profits.
Jinghua Bank first evolved from Jinghua Bank. The main factor that evolved from a "bank" to a "bank" was its start in the loan business.
However, although Jinghua Bank has the golden name of Jinghua, the target group of loans is still limited. Basically, it provides loans to businessmen who have business dealings with Jinghua Group. It is rarely expanded and it is difficult to expand.
This time, Jinghua Bank spent a large sum of money to invest in the original share capital of the Federal Reserve Bank of China, which to some extent expanded its business scope. Southern businessmen dared to boycott Jinghua Bank openly or covertly, but they certainly did not dare and would not boycott the Federal Reserve Bank of China. This made Jinghua Bank The bank actually completed a "shell change and listing".
The Netherlands' "business" in the 17th century was not just banking. On the one hand, the banking industry in the Netherlands continues to develop and has accumulated a large amount of capital for financial activities; on the other hand, as the number of enterprises in the shipping era continues to increase, the people's enthusiasm for participating in commercial activities continues to increase.
In 1602, the Netherlands established the first joint-stock company, the East India Company, which was the first company to raise funds from the public and pay interest to the people after the company made profits. The East India Company was the world's first joint-stock company and innovated the type of modern enterprise.
The company was the first to adopt a joint-stock system for development. The company's funds were continuously raised from banks and the Dutch people. The Dutch government also became a shareholder of the East India Company for a time. With abundant capital and government support, the East India Company soon became the largest enterprise in the Netherlands and occupied a pivotal position in the Dutch trade with India.
But this time, the world's first joint-stock company did not have a share in the Dutch East India Company. Some of the "joint ventures" under Gao Pragmatic Jinghua were obviously nearly twenty years earlier than it. From Jinghua, it started to cooperate with the Jingnan clan. From the beginning, a number of "joint-stock joint ventures" appeared under Jinghua, and shareholders also received interest (dividends).
However, company law is not the first of its kind in the Netherlands. The earliest legislation related to companies can be traced back to the world's first commercial law - the "Commercial Ordinance" promulgated by King Louis XIV of France in 1673.
In September 1807, France was still the first to promulgate the world's first commercial code - the "French Commercial Code". In 1892, Germany promulgated the world's first Limited Liability Company Law.
These commercial laws created a suitable environment for the great development of enterprises in that era, and promoted further business prosperity from both a legal and social perspective. Gao Pragmatic felt that with the great development of Jinghua and southern businessmen uniting to compete with Jinghua, the Ming Dynasty could consider enacting a special law to make "the production system consistent with the development of productivity."
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