Chapter 39 Crisis and Risk
Fang Xiaoru said: "In my opinion, the head office of Daming Bank should be established in Nanjing, take over all the branches below, and exchange banknotes. The old Hongwu banknotes of Daming Bank should be replaced by new Jianwen banknotes. From now on, the bank can also be used by His Majesty."
Zhu Yunwen heard the implication of Fang Xiaoru's words.
Perhaps, they can also over-issue currency like Beijing.
Fang Xiaoru actually felt the financial crisis more than anyone else. It's just that he really doesn't have any solution.
Increase business taxes?
The premise for He Xi to increase the commercial tax is to establish a strong Shuntian Prefecture official, as well as the entire banking system, and the cooperation of all parties. Finally, the commercial tax can be collected using the simplest means. It should be noted that taxation has always been a technical live.
Otherwise, a one-cent tax will be set at the bottom, and the lowest level will have to pay one yuan, and the rest of the money will be exploited layer by layer by the middle links. In the end, the higher-ups felt that I had only made a little money, and the lower-level people were already revolting.
Chongzhen can be regarded as a negative example in this regard.
Fang Xiaoru naturally didn't know about Chongzhen.
But it doesn't stop him from having insights on it.
Fang Xiaoru was unable to carry out drastic reforms in the civil service system that he supported. Even with corruption and poor governance, Fang Xiaoru is in a state of decline, let alone institutional reform.
There is a saying that if you prosper because of this, you will surely perish because of it.
Although this sentence gives people a fatalistic feeling, it is correct in many cases. This is path dependence. When a person succeeds because of a method, he feels that he can use this method to win the next success. Maybe he can, but one day, this method will not lead him to success. Instead, he became the main culprit for his failure.
Fang Xiaoru won over many people and made himself the spokesperson of the civil service system, forming a force that even Zhu Yuanzhang could not ignore.
But how much control does Fang Xiaoru have over this power?
Does Fang Xiaoru rely more on this power, but the other way around?
The force itself is old-school. It is simply impossible for Fang Xiaoru to make reforms. This is more difficult than slapping himself in the mouth, because it represents the death of Fang Xiaoru's political credibility.
You can't do this, you can't do that. Fang Xiaoru still has to solve the problem. After thinking about it, Fang Xiaoru has only one solution.
That is over-issued currency.
Repeat the mistake of Bao Chao.
From the perspective of later generations, many people's actions seem stupid, but if you put yourself in this person's shoes, it may be the most exquisite response he can make.
After all, in Fang Xiaoru's opinion. If He Xi can save Baochao's situation, it won't be too late for him to find a way after Beijing is pacified in the future.
Zhu Yunwen also understood Fang Xiaoru's thoughts and said, "Mr. Fang, the situation is not good now, so I won't say anything. No matter what you do, there will definitely be no financial problems. Just take care of yourself."
Zhu Yunwen understood Fang Xiaoru's thoughts, but he did not stop him. Not only did he not stop him, he was already prepared on how to cut off from Fang Xiaoru.
He will not give Fang Xiaoru any orders in this regard. In the future, when the world is full of complaints, it will be when Fang Xiaoru leaves the throne.
Fang Xiaoru didn't feel sad about the current situation. Anyway, the position of prime minister did not last long. This was also the practice since the Tang and Song Dynasties. After all, the longer the prime minister's position lasted, the emperor's authority would be affected.
Fang Xiaoru said, "I understand."
Zhu Yunwen discussed some other things with Fang Xiaoru, and then asked Fang Xiaoru to leave.
After Fang Xiaoru left, Zhu Yunwen suddenly asked: "Mr. Ding, what do you think?"
Ding Xian came out from behind and said, "Your Majesty, the chief assistant's response is certainly good. It's just that the chief assistant may have overlooked one thing."
Zhu Yunwen said: "What happened?"
Ding Xian said: "Money is just money. Many times, even if you have money, you can't buy anything. I think we should check and fill the gaps for the chief assistant."
Zhu Yunwen said: "It's good that Mr. Ding has this intention. It's just that
There is something wrong there. "
Ding Xian said: "For some time now, I have been wanting to build another iron factory to supply front-line weapons. After visiting many places, I finally determined that Xuzhou is a suitable place. It is close to the front line. We can replenish supplies nearby."
"I have been worried about the imperial court's financial resources before. I didn't mention it now. Now it seems that with Fang's chief assistant in charge, all this is not a problem."
Why is it not a problem? Ding Xian knows better than anyone what the consequences will be if the bank issues too much money, but he doesn't care. If Fang Xiaoru does something like this in the future, he will naturally not be qualified to hold the position of chief assistant.
This position is his.
What's more, Ding Xian also saw Zhu Yunwen's thoughts.
Zhu Yunwen acquiesced.
After all, making money in other ways is too troublesome. Spending money is easy.
In particular, He Xi made countless reforms in order to raise commercial taxes. The work in Shuntian Prefecture and the work in Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture are simply not from the same era.
The resistance inside was so great that Fang Xiaoru thought about it and decided to drink poison to quench his thirst.
Ding Xian is not afraid of this. After all, Ding Xian's foundation is different from Fang Xiaoru's. He actually doesn't mind killing people. However, all his foundations are on Zhu Yunwen, so his opinions always change based on Zhu Yunwen's opinions.
Now that Zhu Yunwen has changed his mind, he will naturally change his mind as well.
Zhu Yunwen said: "You go down and write a charter, and I will take a look at it."
There are advantages and disadvantages to building an iron and steel plant in Xuzhou. It has coal and iron, is more convenient than the Taiping Iron Works, and is very close to the front line. This is an advantage and a disadvantage. The benefits are naturally available and convenient. The downside is also the ease of supply.
Zhu Yunwen still needs to think carefully, this is a big thing after all.
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Beijing.
Wenyuan Pavilion.
Yao Guangxiao looked at all aspects of information in his room. He then saw that Fang Xiaoru was preparing to open the Bank of Nanjing and had the idea of exchanging banknotes.
Yao Guangxiao thought to himself: "Fang Xiaoru is still very keen."
Yao Guangxiao had always known about He Xi's plan to overissue currency and let the entire Ming Dynasty bear the consequences of inflation. It's just that He Xi insisted on obtaining the maximum benefit. Since the war started, He Xi has spent a lot of money from above to subsidize military expenses. But overall, not much.
Therefore, prices are relatively stable.
Fang Xiaoru now felt that something was wrong in this regard and came up with a way to abolish Beijing's minting power. This is also a good way to cope. It's just a pity. Fang Xiaoru thought too wonderfully.
He had no idea that Beijing had many plans for this matter. The person in charge of this plan is Yao Guangxiao.
During this period of time, Yao Guangxiao became quiet a lot.
It can’t be done without silence.
It cannot be said that Yao Guangxiao has made no achievements in the military, but the problem is that the war today is completely different from before, and the tactics Yao Guangxiao is familiar with are outdated. He was too lazy to learn new tactics. Military and financial affairs were not Yao Guangxiao's strengths.
Yao Guangxiao could only sort out intelligence from various places for He Xi every day. As He Xi's intelligence secretary, of course, Yao Guangxiao also had another task, which was to keep an eye on the palace.
This task is very important. But it's not that important.
the reason is simple.
He Xi didn't want to fall out with Zhu Xiongying at this time, and Zhu Xiongying didn't want to fall out with He Xi at this time. The two sides felt like they could tolerate each other for the sake of the country.
The two sides had some minor frictions in some places and also gave in to each other.
Yao Guangxiao also knew what the overall situation was now. He could only stare and couldn't do anything else. He naturally fell silent, so much so that many new arrivals to Beijing had forgotten He Xi's chief aide Yao Guangxiao.
Yao Guangxiao didn't pay attention to these.
He was just waiting for the opportunity, and now it came.
Yao Guangxiao followed He Xi to open a bank. He was particularly aware of how much effort He Xi put into setting up a bank and how many methods he used.
. And Fang Xiaoru's thoughts were just taken for granted. Changing banknotes is not an easy task.
It's time for He Xi to replace his treasure banknotes that year. How many things have been done to complete the smooth transition. It's just that those who are good at fighting have no outstanding achievements, so later people think this incident is very common. Little did they know that it contained huge risks.
The risk here is Yao Guangxiao's opportunity.
