Chapter 339: Very Detailed Accounting
At this moment in the Lin'an Palace, the false emperor Zhao Bing and the prime minister Shi Zizi were both thinking about money. It was not that they were short of money, but they had been short of money for a long time.
Shi's son said helplessly that they had no choice but to print money to make ends meet.
Zhao Bing wanted to do something, so he held up the new Song currency he had obtained and said, "Look how good Zhao Qi'er's coins are. If we can also make paper money like this, would we still be afraid that the people will not want them?"
Shi's son spread his hands and said, "We don't have the technology. Even if we can make it, people will not want it, because the paper money must be exchanged with silver coins at a one-to-one ratio. How can we do that without silver?"
If it cannot be exchanged for silver coins at an equivalent value, it is just a piece of waste paper.
Zhao Bing touched the new banknotes of the New Song Dynasty with some reluctance, and murmured that the price of money had fallen below 20%, and if he printed more, he was afraid that he would not even be able to recover the cost.
This guy actually knows that printing money crazily to defraud people's money is like killing the goose that lays the golden eggs, but he still keeps his eyes on this quick way to get rich.
Shi's son said with a dull look in his eyes that after all, it was just a piece of paper money, and the profit was still big enough. Besides, Yujie was still waiting for us to pay the army, so we could use the money as military pay for him, and the army would have a way to use it.
The army certainly has ways to use it. Soldiers have swords and spears in their hands. When buying things, they pay money to settle the matter. If anyone refuses to accept the money, they will kick him down and leave. If they dare to chase them to ask for money, they will pull out their swords and spears and yell at them. Ordinary people will not obey obediently.
In Chengdu, Zhao Yulin is still worrying about the issuance of his new currency.
Ma Linger came back and told him that Mr. Ding was going to give red envelopes to the officials in advance. Each person would receive one month's salary, which was rounded off and calculated in guan.
He said that the old man could do whatever he liked, and it would be distributed sooner or later.
He asked Ma Ling whether there were enough silver coins in the government treasury. Ding Gong quickly distributed the new coins, and someone was sure to exchange them for silver coins.
A few years ago, Chen Chen made a special trip to Jiading to supervise the production of silver coins. Knowing the situation, he told him not to be afraid, because Sister Yuqi had defeated two corrupt officials in the two streets and all the confiscated silver was used to mint coins, which was enough for Sister Ma Ling to spend.
Ma Ling'er refused to acknowledge it and said with a laugh, "You little girl, it's not your sister who is spending the money, it's your brother's new currency and the new Song Dynasty that are spending it."
Zhao Yulin asked Chen Chen to go to Fengyuan Prison in Jiading again to keep a close eye on the situation. Anyway, the construction in Jinguan City had not started yet, so he helped Sister Ma Ling to encourage more efforts.
The girl set off early the next morning.
When Zhao Yulin and Ma Ling'er arrived at the government office, all the officials came to report for duty happily.
This is the reform of the working system during the Chinese New Year by Mr. Ding. In previous years, we would work from the first day to the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, but this year, the old man gave the order to distribute money, and we had to report to work on the sixth day of the first lunar month.
After Ding Gong finished his opening speech about the good start of the new year, he immediately cashed in the red envelopes after showing the new currency. Li Gong immediately advised the officials to trust the court and not to go to the bank to exchange the new currency for silver coins immediately. He also said that after everyone gets used to it, they will definitely only use paper money and regard silver coins as souvenirs.
After hearing this, Zhao Yulin applauded Mr. Li.
He said: Gentlemen, please rest assured. Silver coins will always be exchanged for paper money at an equal value. In the future, people all over the world will surely fall in love with paper money that is easy to carry, and silver coins will inevitably become an item that every household will keep as a memory.
The gentlemen immediately applauded him.
Zhao Yulin said that not only will the silver coin become a commemoration, but in the future, during important national holidays, the Transportation Department will also specially make a certain number of commemorative coins with different denominations for collectors to purchase and collect. As time goes by, the value of the commemorative coins will exceed their face value.
The crowd gave him another round of thunderous applause.
The old men were happy and adjourned the meeting.
The next day, the Chengdu Weekly published a news report that officials had begun to use the new currency as salary and remuneration, and the new Song Dynasty had issued and used the new currency.
The paper money of the New Song Dynasty can be exchanged for silver coins at the same value.
Soldiers will receive their salaries in new currency.
Big red headlines rolled out in the newspapers, stirring up the ancient city with excitement in advance.
However, Qian Fuxing, the man with the most money in the city, was no longer calm.
This guy was sitting in the back garden under a beautifully trimmed red plum tree, flipping through that day's "Chengdu Weekly", which was full of content promoting the new currency.
Qian Fuxing had a premonition that Qian Yin's business was over. Not only that, the silver he had secretly replaced and hoarded would also lose a lot of value.
Not only will silver fall in price, but gold will probably fall as well.
Because the new currency is equal to the silver coin and will always be pegged to it, ordinary people will not be afraid of the depreciation of paper currency. If it depreciates, they can just exchange it for silver coins.
In this way, the imperial court would not need so much silver to mint coins, and there would soon be an oversupply of silver. How could the excess silver be sold at any price?
Silver will definitely depreciate.
The same principle applies to gold and silver. Gold has lost its function as a circulating currency, and the imperial court will not mint gold coins in large quantities. It would be strange if gold did not depreciate.
Therefore, the gold, silver, and even brass in Qian Fuxing's hands would all lose value.
He was struggling with this dilemma when his brother-in-law, the owner of Jiuzipu, came to him with two confidants to ask for advice. The market will open tomorrow, so what price should we set for our money?
A few guys asked him with their heads down.
Originally it was agreed to reduce the price by 5 cents, and then suppress the price for two days to increase shipments. Now looking at the propaganda stance of the imperial court, I am afraid that if the price is suppressed by 10%, someone will want to change it.
Jiuzi looked at Qian Fuxing expectantly, waiting for a reply.
There was a third shopkeeper named Ma Chenggui, who found someone to act as his agent and became a shareholder of Xicheng Bank. He asked: "Brother Chenggui, have you found out the news?"
What is the bank's exchange rate?
Ma Chenggui shook his head and said no, Ma Ling's wife was very tight-lipped and had not yet issued the exchange rate cards for various currencies. He only arranged in detail how the account office should keep accounts, and his people reported that the accounts were very detailed. Each account office also signed a performance guarantee letter, and those who made malicious mistakes would be handed over to the government for arrest.
Jiuzi said viciously that this time the government was headed by Zhao Qier, and things were done completely differently. Each bank also had a team of security guards wearing red armbands, who were claiming to be protecting the safety of the people, but their actual responsibility was to protect the safety of their banks.
At this time, Qian Fuxing opened his squinting eyes.
He said that if we lower the price by one cent tomorrow, the government will visit poor people , distribute red envelopes to officials, and make a big publicity in the newspapers. Zhao Qi'er must be trying so hard to create momentum that he hopes that money will fall into a piece of waste paper, and the prices of gold and silver will all fall.
We will take advantage of the situation to lower the price and buy another batch of Qianyin from him to reduce the loss. When the money market is in chaos, the kind-hearted Lord Ding will surely intervene and make the exchange rate of Qianyin go back up. Then we will make a lot of money from him.
This is what Jiuzi and the others are worried about. They had made a fortune before the New Year, but everyone still has money exchanged at a low price in their hands, hoping that when there is less money in the market, the exchange rate will be raised and they can make a lot of money.
After making up their minds, everyone went back to prepare.
At 9:00 p.m. the next morning, banks and money houses across the country were opening their doors to welcome customers with the setting off of firecrackers.
Ma Linger's Rongcheng Bank opened a head office with ten windows in front of the government office, and branches with six windows each in the four districts.
Si time is nine o'clock in the morning. Merchants generally open their doors to welcome customers at this time for good luck.
The procedures for opening Ma Ling'er's new bank were much more complicated.
This was something Zhao Yulin had intentionally asked Ma Ling to arrange. All the procedures had to be carried out properly, including burning incense to worship heaven and earth, worshiping the God of Wealth, and even inviting local celebrities and the chief officer to cut the ribbon together. It took almost half an hour just to get Shisanpu to post the exchange price first.
Sure enough, the SF agent who was in charge of monitoring Qian Fuxing's shop saw from afar through the telescope that the shopkeeper Qian had posted the exchange rate for money notes and silver, which was one cent lower than the closing price when the shop closed last year.
Damn, that's really cruel. The agent immediately reported to the head office.
This situation was exactly the same as Zhao Yulin's judgment, so Ma Linger immediately ordered the exchange price to be delivered.
Those who were watching the fun immediately saw the currency exchange rate of the government bank. Although the money note was reduced by 5 cents, it was still 5 cents higher than that of Shisanpu.
For ordinary people, the amount of money to be exchanged is too little, and five cents is insignificant.
However, it was different for wealthy families with a certain amount of savings. After the two sides communicated with each other, customers rushed to the newly opened bank. Ordinary people have the habit of looking for new things, not to mention the interest rate was 5 cents higher. They all lined up to exchange silver for new coins.
Qian Fuxing and the shop owners of Shisanpu were soon dumbfounded. The bustling scene of the Qian Market in the past was gone. Instead, it was deserted, and every shop owner felt very disappointed.
Damn, it’s only been a new year and the wind has done a 180-degree turn, blowing away all the business in the money market.
At the end of the day, none of the families had made any business, and the shopkeeper became panicked and ran to Qian Fuxing's mansion to drink and seek advice.
After a group of people drank three cups of wine in a depressed mood, the shopkeeper of Jiuzipu spoke first, saying that he would wait for the bank's exchange rate to come out before listing the shares tomorrow. He didn't believe that the bank would not list the shares for a long time like it did today.
Ma Chenggui from the third shop shook his head repeatedly and said no, everyone does their own business, all shops open at the beginning of the Si hour and list the price. Today the bank postponed the listing because it was holding a grand opening promotion, so it makes no sense for us to postpone the listing.
If our shops all bid following the banks, customers will think we are following the banks' market trends.
Qian Fuxing was embarrassed because he didn't guess the beginning correctly and had his eyebrows cut by Ma Ling. He kept drinking and kept silent.
Jiuzi was anxious and asked his brother-in-law to talk about what to do tomorrow.
Qian Fuxing raised the wine glass to his lips and smelled it before stopping to drink. He slowly put down the glass and picked up a piece of sausage and put it into his mouth to chew. After eating the sausage, he said that we will raise the price tomorrow, which will be two cents higher than last year's closing price.
He said: The bank's interest rate is 5%, and ours is 7% higher than theirs. Those poor guys will definitely come to us when they see the 7% interest rate difference.
Several confidants nodded in approval, believing that the interest rate spread set by Qianxing was moderate. It was already quite high to raise it by 1.2% in one go, and the interest rate spread could not increase too quickly. If it did, everyone would know that they were making a market to grab money.
