Compared with later generations, the financial industry of the Dachu Empire was naturally very primitive and backward. However, after several years of development, a basic financial network system was basically built.
This financial system has the Finance Bank affiliated to the Ministry of Finance as the core, and there are also other government-run banks established by local finance, plus many private banks participating in it, thus forming the banking industry in the Dachu Empire.
The core of this banking system is financial banking!
The Finance Bank is under the direct management of the Finance Department. Its main businesses include currency issuance, savings, loans, and check businesses.
Savings are the basic business of banks, and it is worth noting that there is no interest for depositing money in the banks of the Dachu Empire... let alone interest. If they don't charge you custody fees, that is a great reform and progress. .
As for loans, we mainly provide policy loans, especially industrial loans.
This deposit and loan also allowed the funds within the Chu Empire to circulate, and the business community was able to gather more funds for development.
Money is of no use if kept in the cellar...it must be circulated to create value for society.
Currency issuance is also the main business of financial banks. It is not only responsible for the issuance of national currency, but also responsible for recycling countless old and messy currencies.
The current currency issuance includes coins and banknotes, and the face value is based on the currency face value established in the second year of Chengshun.
There is only one kind of gold coin, a gold coin with a gold content of 37 grams. However, this kind of gold coin is often not used in daily life. It is basically used as large-scale trade or bank reserves.
Silver coins have three face values, including standard silver coins with a silver content of 37 grams and a face value of one tael; silver coins with a face value of 50 cents, silver coins with a face value of 2 cents, and silver coins with a face value of 1 dime.
Between the two corners of a silver coin, the decimal system is used.
Further down are the copper coins, which have a face value of twenty cents, a face value of ten cents, a face value of five cents, a face value of two cents, and a face value of one cent.
However, it is worth noting that the Dachu Empire currently implements the standard silver standard, and all taxes and economic data statistics use silver as the standard unit.
However, there is no forced linkage between gold and silver, nor between silver and copper coins.
How many copper coins can be exchanged for how many silver coins of one or two face value, how many silver coins can be exchanged for one gold coin, let the people decide for themselves, the government will not interfere...
However, the financial bank will promptly adjust the exchange ratio between copper coins, silver coins, and gold coins based on changes in precious metal prices on the market.
Currently, one tael of gold can be exchanged for about ten taels of silver, and one tael of silver can be exchanged for one thousand yuan of the newly minted standard copper coins of the Dachu Empire.
The ratio between gold and silver has been relatively stable in the past ten or twenty years, maintaining around one to ten. Although the price of silver has fallen, it will take a long time to reach this level.
The standard exchange between copper coins and silver coins is because when copper coins were minted, the mint had already considered the issue of being linked to silver coins, and basically used the metal content of one tael of silver to equal a thousand copper coins. .
In other words, when it was first issued, one thousand coins could be exchanged for one tael of silver.
However, with the increase in overseas trade in recent years, a large amount of silver from the Americas has been imported into China, which to a certain extent has led to a decline in the price of silver in the Chu Empire. Now one tael of silver can only be exchanged for 990 in China. Ten copper coins.
On the contrary, the ratio between gold and silver has remained at an initially stable level, because in the foreign trade of the Da Chu Empire, not only silver was collected, but gold was also collected.
Amid the huge trade surplus, a large amount of gold and silver continued to be imported into China.
However, copper as the material of copper coins is not imported in large quantities, which is why the price of copper coins has increased.
Because of the huge foreign trade surplus, a large amount of silver was imported, which in turn led to domestic silver depreciation and inflation. It was also learned that the exchange ratio of gold and silver in Europe was even worse... A large number of European merchants were transporting silver for trade. When exchanging goods and gold, the Chu Empire also responded in the winter of the twelfth year of Chengshun.
Foreign trade is priced in gold instead of silver as in the past, and the ratio of gold to silver in international trade is increased, giving priority to the collection of gold.
This is when the Ministry of Finance began to increase the input of gold, increase gold reserves, and prepare for the subsequent gold standard system.
With a large amount of silver being mined in the Americas and even Fuso, the depreciation of silver has become irreversible. In order to avoid massive losses, abandoning the silver standard and adopting the gold standard has become a necessary choice.
If you want to adopt the gold standard, let alone other things, you must at least have a large amount of gold reserves!
Before adopting the gold standard, the Chu Empire still needed to reserve a sufficient amount of gold and further promote the issuance of banknotes.
Strictly speaking, the banknotes in the Dachu Empire today are not banknotes or banknotes issued directly by the government. Some are only financial bank banknotes issued by the financial bank that has obtained the exclusive right to bank banknotes!
This thing is essentially a deposit certificate, one is a registered bank note, and the other is a bearer bank note.
A registered bank note is a bank note with a fixed object. It has no circulation value and is different from the concept of banknotes.
What truly has the concept of banknotes and has circulation value is the bearer banknote issued by the financial bank.
People can go to a financial bank, deposit a certain amount of cash, and then get a bearer check of the corresponding denomination.
These bearer banknotes have complex anti-counterfeiting measures, and use very special paper and watermark technology, steel plate engraving and gravure technology, and specially developed confidentiality inks. Many technologies are combined to ensure that these bearer banknotes It will not be easily cracked and copied!
Of course... in fact, relying on these anti-counterfeiting measures alone is still unreliable. After all, there are always smart people, and there are many of them. At the same time, distinguishing authenticity is also a small skill. Not everyone can accurately identify authenticity.
Therefore, the anti-counterfeiting technology of bearer banknotes in the Dachu Empire only protects against gentlemen, but the real protection against villains is the law!
The punishments of the Da Chu Empire are clearly stipulated: Once those in the manufacturing, transportation and other counterfeit industrial chains are discovered, their homes and clans will be confiscated and their families will be exterminated at the worst, and the three clans will be punished for the main offenders. Those with particularly egregious circumstances will be regarded as treason and nine clans will be punished!
There is clear evidence that anyone who knowingly uses counterfeit banknotes will be punished by death, or may have their homes confiscated and their families exterminated. Anyone who maliciously uses counterfeit banknotes in large numbers will be regarded as a counterfeiter, and the three tribes will be punished!
The laws of the Great Chu Empire have always been so strict. Not to mention that the laws of the Great Chu Empire are inhumane. The law is not about humanity, but about deterrence!
How should I put it? When any law maker makes laws, it is not to punish those who break the law, but to make people fearful and not break the law!
Everyone knows that killing requires a life, so people will not kill casually.
If people know that killing does not require life... then it's over. You look at a certain big brother one more time on the street, and then he stabs you without saying a word... He doesn't even bother to say 'what are you doing?' explain……
At the same time, the concept of family and clan in China is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Sometimes it doesn't work if you threaten to kill him, but if you threaten to kill his whole family, the effect will be much better.
Before people do something, they will consider the cost.
You catch all the people who spit everywhere and fine them one by one, and send those who refuse to change their ways to jail. In a few years, China will be full of people who would rather swallow a mouthful of thick phlegm than spit everywhere!
Whether it's illegal behavior or morality, they're all pretty much the same thing.
Therefore, whether people will break the law cannot be determined by their own volition, but must be deterred by the law... So you can see that among the many laws of the Dachu Empire, it is common to confiscate homes and exterminate clans!
So... when it comes to counterfeiting, the Finance Department's idea is: If you have the guts, just forge counterfeit money. If I don't punish you, I will lose!
With sufficient anti-counterfeiting measures in place, once the bearer banknote is issued by the Finance Bank, the Finance Bank will recognize the note but not the person. Even if a dog comes with the bearer banknote to exchange for the corresponding gold and silver, the Finance Bank will Redeem it...
At the same time, in order to ensure the circulation and credit value of bank notes, taxation agencies in various regions of the Dachu Empire also collect bearer bank notes issued by financial banks when collecting taxes.
The official tax collection directly ensures credit, and at the same time, you can go to the local financial bank to exchange cash at any time. Therefore, the effect of the bearer banknote issuance in the Dachu Empire Financial Bank is quite good.
In addition to bearer banknotes, there are also registered banknotes, which are actually deposits and have been gradually replaced by passbooks in deposit accounts.
Then there are checks used for large-value transactions. These checks are generally only used by strong merchants and individuals who have reserves in the bank. They deposit a certain amount of funds in the bank in advance, and then obtain checks with anti-counterfeiting technology. Then the merchant writes a check to others, and the payee goes to a fixed bank to exchange it. After the bank checks that the drawer's bank account has sufficient funds, it then debits and redeems the check.
What is questionable is that all the above-mentioned financial businesses, except for bearer banknotes, which are circulated nationwide, are basically limited to the bank where the account is opened.
For example, deposits and registered checks can only be withdrawn or exchanged at the bank where the account is opened.
To a certain extent, every branch of a financial bank is actually operated independently... No way, the exchange of information these days is too slow, and banks cannot report the flow of funds between accounts in a timely manner!
If you dare to use inter-bank withdrawals, someone will dare to travel hundreds of miles a day, and then use the information time difference to conduct large-scale fraud and cash out.
This also makes long-distance capital flow very troublesome, which is not a problem for enterprises. Financial banks have specialized bill of exchange services for corporate customers.
To put it simply, the company opens a special money order account in the local area. After depositing the corresponding funds, it obtains a large-amount money order with an anti-counterfeiting mark. Then when paying to a foreign customer, it fills in the customer's name and restrictions in the large-amount money order. Information such as withdrawal times, financial bank branches, etc.
After receiving the money order, the foreign customer returns to the local area, takes the company's foreign money order and company certificate, and goes to the designated branch to exchange and withdraw money.
Because long-distance money orders are large in amount, complex and cautious, in addition to watermarks, steel plate printing, and specific paper, there are also traditional seals, handwriting comparison and identification, and regularly changed digital passwords to ensure that they are foolproof.
In order to ensure the operation of money orders, financial banks need to regularly organize personnel to identify and memorize handwriting, fix people to write as much as possible, and then change passwords regularly.
This strict measure ensures the safety of funds, but it also limits the scope of business. Basically, this kind of long-distance money order is only limited to prefecture-level branches, and is divided by region. Guangdong, Guangxi, Huguang, The Pan-Jiangnan region, East China, North China and other regions are all separated.
The transfer of money orders across regions can only be carried out in specific provincial branches or a few big city branches, which is very troublesome.
In the era before telegraphs, information transmission was too troublesome, and the financial industry was accordingly limited.
This also made it very troublesome for small businesses in the Chu Empire to mobilize funds across regions.
Not to mention if ordinary people simply make money to go back to their family members far away...if the funds are below a certain level, the financial bank's money order business is not open to them at all...
Therefore, in the past, when ordinary people sent money, they literally sent money... directly sending coins or banknotes in cash through the post system, but the cost was not low, and it was prone to risks and troubles.
After all, money is anonymous, so if it gets lost in the mail or other troubles arise, it's easy to get entangled.
In order to avoid this trouble and at the same time open up new business, the Postal Service applied to its superiors to open a new business: remittance!
The remittance business is actually a bit similar to the money order in a financial bank...but there is a difference here!
The remittance business opened by the Post Office is an internal process and is registered in both directions.
The sender sends money to a large post station in the local county town, gives the money to the post station, and leaves the payee's address, name and other information.
Then the station will issue a remittance order, which will be sent to the payee as a letter.
In addition, within the station, a document with remittance information will also be issued to the receiving station.
In this way, the synchronous arrival of information is implemented, and only the internal circulation of the post station is carried out.
After receiving the remittance order, the payee takes the remittance order and proof of identity to the local post station to withdraw the funds, and then issues a receipt and mails it back to the sender.
If no one comes to withdraw money for a long time, the local post station will send a payment failure receipt to the sender, and the sender will readjust the payment information to send money or withdraw funds.
The internal accounts of the station are regularly compared and balanced.
This completes the entire remittance business!
From this, the inn naturally wants to make money, and remittances are charged according to the distance and amount.
If the postal service could accomplish this... it would not be as simple as sending money, but relying on this system to create a nationwide bank in minutes...
You can send money, save money and lend money, there is no problem...
In this regard, the Finance Department has strong opinions and believes that the Postal Department of the Ministry of Transport has gone too far: as soon as you deliver the letter, you should deliver your letter properly and engage in a wool bank... This is not a joke!
The Ministry of Industry and Commerce cautiously stated that the financial risks here are not small and they need to consider it carefully.
This kind of national bank now has a financial bank. This supervision has given the Ministry of Industry and Commerce a big headache. The financial system risks of this kind of national bank are extremely high.
If another one comes, the financial regulatory agencies under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce will be even more troubled, so they are extremely cautious about this.
What needs to be made clear here is that in the Dachu Empire, the Finance Department was responsible for treasury management, revenue and expenditure, currency issuance, and direct management of financial banks, etc. To put it bluntly, it was the empire's money bag...
However, the supervision of the entire financial industry is not the responsibility of the Finance Department, because it cannot regulate itself, and by the way, it can also regulate its large number of private competitors...
The regulatory power of the financial industry, like the regulatory power of other industrial and commercial industries, belongs to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
