I am one year older than Chongzhen

On the fifth day of February in the sixth year of Chongzhen, Huang Yi presided over a commendation meeting for those who had contributed to the Denglai quelling the rebellion. Medals were awarded to the soldiers who had made meritorious services, and silver rewards were given to all soldiers.

It is not only issued to soldiers who have performed meritorious service, but also to all regular soldiers and auxiliary soldiers who participated in the war, including servicemen.

Ordinary servants were given two taels and five taels of silver, auxiliary soldiers were given five taels, and regular soldiers were given ten taels.

But what they got was not silver ingots or broken silver, but copper plates, silver coins, and banknotes.

There are one penny, five penny, ten penny, fifty penny, and one hundred penny in copper plates.

In order to prevent the value of the coin from being lower than the value of the raw material, the copper plate of a penny is only a little larger, and it is still an alloy of three parts copper and seven parts lead.

If someone charges a penny for a copper plate to smelt copper, he will lose 70% of the money if he keeps it.

It is certain that no one could have purchased the 5, 10, 50, or 100 copper plates that contained 70% of the copper for smelting.

Because it is even more uneconomical, the loss will definitely exceed 90%.

According to the method of doubling the weight of copper plates, a five-cent copper plate is one circle larger than a one-cent copper plate and weighs twice as much. A ten-cent copper plate weighs twice as much as a five-cent copper plate, and so on.

A fifty-penny copper plate contains no more than two pence of copper, which of course eliminates the possibility of purchasing copper for smelting.

There are two types of silver coins. A silver coin weighing five cents is half a tael, which is also five hundred cents. The rest is of course equivalent to a thousand cents and one tael of silver.

The composition of the silver coins in the base is similar to that of Yuan Datou during the Republic of China, with about 80% silver content.

Banknotes are the most valuable. The reason why Huang Yi opened a bank to issue banknotes at this time is because of the successful development of coinage paper.

If it breaks with just one tear, it means that at least five taels of silver have been lost. Who dares to use banknotes?

Of course, the reason for success is that Huang Yi gave many instructions, especially on anti-counterfeiting technology. Huang Yi followed the instructions saved in his mobile phone.

The Han people have no shortage of skilled craftsmen. The population base in the base area is large. There are hundreds of craftsmen who know how to make paper, and more than a dozen of them are family crafts.

Since the day he established the base, Huang Yi has set the tone: giving priority to military personnel, giving preferential treatment to skilled craftsmen, and not discriminating against women...

Craftsmen who are valued and respected earn more and are more enthusiastic about their work.

According to the local regulations, every time a great craftsman trains an apprentice, he will receive 10% of the apprentice's salary after reaching the master's level, and he can enjoy it for life.

If the apprentice is unwilling to give money, he is deceiving his master and destroying his ancestors, and faces a penalty of five years of reform through labor.

This regulation successfully broke the self-respect of craftsmen, and many great craftsmen with inherited crafts recruited many disciples.

More than a dozen papermaking craftsmen from different sects cooperated sincerely, and Huang Yi gave the most correct research and development direction and provided a lot of financial support.

Not only coinage paper, but also cheap and high-quality pen writing paper and toilet paper for women have been successfully developed.

Diapers are already being produced in the base area.

This kind of product cannot serve the working people, but is intended to earn money from high-ranking officials.

In the Ming Dynasty, there was a specific group of people who should like diapers.

That is a group of hundreds of thousands of eunuchs.

Nine times out of ten, castrated people can't hold back their urine, and there is always a smell of urine on their bodies. Huang Yi doesn't like Wang Kun coming up to talk.

Because Huang Yi's nose is very sensitive, he felt that Wang Kun's body was full of stinky smell.

Then Huang Yi thought of diapers, and guided paper craftsmen to develop them, so that he could make a lot of money from the eunuchs in the future.

There is no need to worry about the proliferation of counterfeit currency, because the currency paper used in the base is difficult for others to imitate.

Moreover, Huang Yi has an army at his disposal. If anyone dares to make counterfeit coins, Huang Yi will kill his whole family. There are four denominations of banknotes. The smallest denomination is five thousand coins, which is equivalent to five taels of silver.

The maximum denomination is one hundred taels, and there are two other denominations, one hundred taels and fifty taels.

Anyone who has taken political classes in later generations will know that the issuance of banknotes requires reserves. With gold and silver in stock as an anchor, banknotes will not depreciate in value.

Huang Yi was preparing to fight for the world and lead Han civilization into a new era. He was not prepared to be a white wolf with empty hands.

Xinghe Bank does have gold and silver reserves, with a total value of more than four million taels of silver.

After the currency is issued, all cities and forts in the base must be traded with "Xinghe coins".

It doesn't matter if the people don't have "Xinghe coins" in their hands. Every city in the base area has a "Xinghe big bank".

Larger farms and castles will also have the "Xinghe Bank Savings Office", where you will not be exploited for equal value exchange.

Not only in the base areas, but also in Zhangjiakou, Xuanfu, Datong, and Taiyuan. Preparations are also underway for those in economically developed areas such as Beijing, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Yangzhou.

However, in order to avoid irritating Emperor Chongzhen prematurely, the "Xinghe Bank" in the capital did not publicly exchange "Xinghe coins". Like other banks, it did exchange business.

In private?

Of course it has the same function as the base area.

"Xinghe Big Bank" serves the people with integrity. If you save money here for a year, you can get 3% interest.

Huang Yi originally planned to absorb savings through high interest rates, but he slapped his head and got an annual interest rate of 10%.

It was Geng Yueru, Xiaojiu, Ye Huiling, Wang Baishan, Lan Jinkui and other civil officials who gave advice. Huang Yicai accepted the advice humbly and agreed to an annual interest rate of 3% on the money deposited.

The reason why Huang Yi was willing to pay 10% annual interest to absorb savings was because he knew that the Ming Dynasty was deteriorating and the price of food, especially food in the north, was soaring.

If you buy grain with silver and store it for a year, the price difference will definitely be much greater than 10%, and doubling of the price often happens.

However, what Xiaojiu, Wang Baishan, etc. said makes sense.

Since the Ming Dynasty, there has never been a bank that deposited money and paid interest. There was also a heavy handling fee for depositing money and exchanging it for banknotes.

The people in Shengdou in the base area believed that the family owner believed in the Xinghe Army, and the three percent interest was enough to attract everyone to deposit their money in the "Xinghe Big Bank".

If it were other banks, even if they offered 10% annual interest, not many people would dare to save money.

Credit is king! With Huang Yi and the Xinghe Army in the base area, currency can be issued even if there are not enough reserves.

With a strong army in hand, there is no fear of malicious squeeze.

Huang Yi figured it out. After the "Xinghe Bank" has been successfully operating for a period of time, it can completely over-issue some currencies. As long as the risks can be controlled in a timely manner, there should be no big problem.

Lending business is of course the main business of "Xinghe Bank".

As long as there is a guarantor or collateral, you can borrow money from "Xinghe Big Bank", with an annual interest rate starting from 3%, and the maximum annual interest rate will not be higher than 12%.

In order to better improve the social status of soldiers, all regular soldiers in the Xinghe Army can use their personal credit to guarantee loans for themselves or others.

The amount is no more than one hundred taels of silver! The annual interest rate is only 3.6%.

This means that the business of "Xinghe Big Bank" for military personnel is entirely service-oriented, with almost no profit.

Literary teachers at all levels and all regular soldiers are obliged to participate in publicizing the benefits of using "Xinghe coins".

(End of this chapter)