Chapter 124 The war begins
A strong dragon doesn't overwhelm a weak snake. If you can't defeat it, then join it. This is a normal choice.
In fact, as far as Ding Xian himself is concerned, there has never been a choice between the new method and the old method. It is just a matter of which song to sing on which hilltop. His political foundation leaves him with no other choice. In terms of making money, Ding Xian actually prefers to hang out with He Xi.
There were even times when he regretted why he couldn't bear it and followed He Xi back then. He was not like this now.
However, when I dreamed about it at midnight, I figured it out. Even if he held it back at first, there would be a day when he couldn't hold it back anymore.
At that time, he looked down upon He Xi ten thousand times.
After all, He Xi had only a limited foundation in Confucianism, but compared to him who had studied hard for ten years, the difference was huge. As for other aspects, there was nothing outstanding about it. Just some fresh ideas, how to convince him.
The jealousy deep in his heart made him determined not to be reconciled to nepotism.
Getting to where we are now is both accidental and inevitable. However, it is clear that there is hope for a comeback.
Regarding Ding Xian's strategy, these people immediately shook their heads and said, "No, absolutely not."
Face is a very imaginary and practical thing. Directly related to status.
In the Jiangnan area, there are many businessmen who make money by opening the sea, but they still cannot hold their heads high in the countryside because the traditional order is controlled by scholars, and those who have money are just nouveau riche. It’s also impossible to get on the stage.
And there are countless ways to get these people's money away.
For example, when building an ancestral hall in a clan, do those with money contribute money or those with power contribute efforts? Then those who contribute money really contribute money, but those who contribute may not necessarily do so.
Furthermore, the rich people with a good reputation are naturally the big ones when assigned by the county government. Having money but no status is worse than having no money. It is not without reason that when ancient Chinese businessmen had money, they had to buy land and transform themselves into gentry, or urge their children to study and become scholars.
Lizi and face can also be transformed into each other. If you don't keep your dignity, you will lose face sooner or later. Nowadays, many gentry in Jiangnan are facing this problem. In terms of becoming an official, although the Imperial College is recommended in parallel, the number of recommendations is gradually decreasing. The number of students admitted to the Imperial College is limited. It was He Xi who was in control before. Even if he did not elect those who supported the new law, he would not elect those who insisted on opposing it.
Now even if the Nanjing Imperial College is back in the hands of Confucianism, it is unlikely that too many people will graduate from the Imperial College at one time.
Then in terms of money, before the arrival of He Xi, the richest group of people in the world were the scholar-bureaucrats. If nothing else, take the Jie family as an example. From the Southern Song Dynasty to the present, they have been officials for generations and have not changed. However, even in the Ming Dynasty, it did not affect the Jie family's influence in their hometown.
Occupies a large amount of land and owns a large amount of hidden fields. And owning acres of land does not mean that these people make money from the fields. To put it bluntly, how much money can you make by farming? Rather, he relied on the invisible power that owning large amounts of land gave him.
As for tenant vassalage, power in commerce after strength in numbers. Influence on the ground. Control the power of the county government and so on.
This can bring them money, and even some things that money can't give them.
Let them bow their heads. Once they lose face and let others see that they are strong on the outside but weak on the inside, the loss will be too great.
Of course this is absolutely impossible.
Ding Xian said: "The only option is to find a way to isolate the banks in various places and let them know that strong dragons cannot suppress local snakes. Find a few mistakes and get rid of the banks."
The stewards looked at each other and left without saying anything.
They didn't get any useful information from Ding Xian. As for Ding Xian's next move, it was something they had already done.
Ding Xian frowned slightly when he saw them leaving. He was also a little worried at the moment, whether these people could compete with He Xi. He Xi did very well in Beijing.
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Bank of Beijing.
He Xi was extremely depressed. She had countless things to say but couldn't.
At this moment, He Xi felt that it was a little too confident to expect these people to support him in launching a reform to change the face of the Ming Dynasty for thousands of years.
He Xi has always felt that unifying and improving the financial market would be a great benefit to businessmen. Needless to say, treasure banknotes have been depreciating in value. Although after Zhu Yuanzhang stopped large-scale issuance, the face value of treasure banknotes that lost people's trust was also unstable, because the imperial court basically had control over this aspect and just kept it free. Even if no one manipulates it on a large scale, it will not be too stable.
This instability itself affects business.
Not to mention silver coins.
Silver tael seems to be one unit, but no, it is hundreds of units.
The silver turned over to the treasury in various places is a standard, the silver in the treasury of each province and the customs silver are a standard, the silver used in the palace is called Jinhuayin, which is a standard, and the silver stored in the Ministry of Households is called Hubu silver, which is another standard, not to mention , officials are different, some have tampered with it, some have not, and the weight of silver is also different between different batches.
The above are the reasons why gold and silver shops are everywhere, and why gold and silver exchange can become a specialized business.
But even so, the Ming Dynasty was considered good. In the Song Dynasty, each province issued its own coins. The most typical one was the iron coins in Shu, which could not leave Shu at all. The divisions in various places are evident.
He Xi felt that by doing this, he cleared the way for the Ming Dynasty to unify the market. Aren’t these businessmen the ones who benefit the most?
But He Xi discovered that these people didn't think so.
Because almost all businessmen in Beijing have joined forces to hoard treasure banknotes, hoping to push up the price of the banknotes and make a fortune. Just make it like this. As a result, the price of treasure notes increased by 10%. This means that He Xi has to pay more money to exchange it.
Some people may say that it’s okay if you don’t exchange it.
Anyway, there is a time limit for this, just cancel it when the time comes. Didn’t these people throw precious money into their hands?
The same operation depends on who does it.
If he were an ordinary businessman, He Xi would naturally be able to do this. Just ignore it.
But this is no ordinary businessman. There are nobles and nobles behind him, and He Xi cannot ignore them. He Xi even suspected that this was their test of He Xi.
It is normal for a good person to be bullied and a good horse to be ridden by others. He Xi threw out all the chickens that laid golden eggs and gave them to them. I wanted them to be grateful, but there wasn't much. However, if they are grateful beforehand, they will think more about it afterwards.
Let’s see if He Xi is willing to give up more things.
This incident is probably such a temptation.
It is important to make a sum of money from the exchange of treasure notes. But we also need to see how confident He Xi is?
After all, He Xi had his own very good reasons for transferring these industries, but this reason was difficult for these nobles to understand. What they can better understand is the law of the jungle, and He Xi does this because of them.
Of course, if you get the benefits from He Xi, you will naturally have to pay them back in the future. This is the rule of the upper class and they do not deny it. But the problem is the price tag. Can you squeeze in and let He Xi pay more benefits?
However, here in Beijing, He Xi has a way to deal with them. The biggest problem is that you need to be careful when tidying up. After all, there are still many areas for cooperation between the two parties in the future, which need to be fought but not broken. If nothing else, as I said before, it is very profitable to rely on banks to do some business.
After all, the banking system established by He Xi has too small branches for the entire Ming Dynasty. In Hebei and Liaodong areas, you can even go to counties, which is not available in some southern provinces. If someone exchanges treasure notes below and then comes to the bank to exchange silver coins, it is not impossible to pay the price difference.
But the question is, when was this price difference given to them? Rather than forcing He Xi to give in.
This is to distinguish who is the big and small king.
Without saying a word, He Xi found Yang Shiqi and asked him to give instructions to the bank, and so on.
In this era, these nobles seem to have not realized the impact of banks on other economies. They gave He Xi eye drops, and He Xi only needed to dial the bank to let them know what it means to have no way to heaven and no way to earth. .
However, things in Beijing are easy to deal with. He Xi was a little worried about the affairs of the banks in the south.
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Everything was peaceful in Nanjing, as if nothing had happened.
After all, even if these people were dissatisfied, they would not dare to mess around under Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes. But it’s different elsewhere in the South.
All kinds of messy things.
Huang Zicheng was also troubled.
It was a bit helpless. He Xi was far away in Beijing and was beyond his reach to many things in the south. As the Shaofu Cheng in the south, Huang Zicheng was considered an important minister. So, He Xi asked Huang Zicheng to exert his influence. Take care of one or two.
It's just that Huang Zicheng didn't take care of him.
In cities that are close to the sea and open to the sea, bank promotion work is still easy to do. But those places that are a little further away from the sea will not be able to do it immediately, and there will be no losses. It's completely a decoration.
No business at all. The only business is probably money transferred from other cities. Apart from that, there is no other way.
If it weren't for the fact that the bank was also within the imperial system, killing the people in the bank would be equivalent to killing the imperial official. It is estimated that many people in the bank would not be unscathed.
But what can He Xi do? Nothing can be done.
This is a long war.
Unless He Xi can take ruthless measures to transform the entire southern economic structure into that of Hebei. Otherwise, this situation will continue for a long time.
However, this also proved that what He Xi did finally had a national impact, and at the same time, it intensified the confrontation between the two sides.
If we say that before this, many people had no feelings about the new law, but now that the new law has come to them, many scholar-bureaucrats also feel the pain.
Some people died, but not completely...
