Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 425
All in all, after the introduction of bank notes, there are many people who scold their mothers.

But there are more people applauding, especially the workshop owners.

Due to the tightening of money, there is not enough liquidity in the market. As a result, most factory owners and workshop owners do not have enough money to buy more raw materials and hire more workers to expand production. In addition, upstream suppliers and downstream customers cannot receive payments. After returning, the production and operation of the workshop was seriously disrupted.

For example, Shi Jiuke, Xu Yingwei's elder brother-in-law, set up a silk cutting workshop and a silk weaving workshop in Huangtan Town, because the silk produced is of good quality, and there is no need to worry about selling it.

Well, it has nothing to do with the texture being good or bad.

But now no matter how much silk Daming produces, it doesn't worry about selling it.

Because it is profitable, Shi Jiuke wants to expand the scale of the workshop.

But if you want to expand the scale, you need to hire more workers, you need more cocoons, you need more looms and embroidered weavers, but you need silver to do these things.

Shi Jiuke was not short of silver, but all the silver was in the hands of downstream silk merchants.

But the silk merchant has no silver in his hand, oh, no, there is silver in the silk account, but there is no cash, because all the silver is deposited into the bank.

So, the whole business operation is stuck.

The silver bank has no money for the silk merchants, the silk merchants have no silver for the silk workshops, the silk workshops have no silver for the silk mills, and the silk mills have no silver for the silk merchants, and the silk merchants have no silver for repaying the silver bank's loans.

But at this moment, the bank suddenly had money, and the operation of the entire closed business loop immediately became smooth. Everyone suddenly had money, and the triangular and even seven anise and eight anise debts were repaid.

Because of this, the bank notes were recognized by industrial and commercial owners in a very short period of time.

Even the big and small grain merchants such as Maojia, Qianjia, and Xujia are scrambling to borrow banknotes to buy grain from the bank account of the household department, because borrowing money from the local rich to buy grain needs to pay high interest, but the bank account of the household department The annual interest rate is as low as one penny, which is almost the same as the bonds issued by the stock exchange.

As a large number of bank notes entered the circulation market, the money shortage in Jiangnan was easily solved.

The money shortage that has plagued Jiangnan Commercial Tickets for nearly a year has finally been alleviated.

……

The money shortage in Jiangnan has been alleviated, but the "grain shortage" has not been alleviated.

Even because of the ease of mobility, the food shortage has become more serious.

By the end of the first month, the Nanzhi grain merchants had bought nearly 1000 million shi.

But food prices also rose again, from six taels during the Lantern Festival to twelve taels a stone.

Then, on the second day of February, that is, the day when the dragon raised its head, a news about the price of rice suddenly appeared on the headline of the fourth page of Huangming Times: Long Yan was furious, and the emperor decided to increase the food supply.

After Qian Qianyi saw the news, he was stunned on the spot.

Because this article said that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has been transferring grain from Huguang to Nanzhi in an attempt to stabilize the rice price in Nanzhi since years ago. The price of Nanzhi rice is still high, so the Holy Majesty was alarmed and decided to transfer 2000 million shi from the Huguang official warehouse to Nanzhi in one go!

As soon as this article was published, the price of rice in Nanjing fell.

In just three days, the price of rice plummeted from twelve taels to five yuan.

The people in Nanjing clapped their hands and cheered.

Grateful for the kindness of the Holy One.

……

"After more than three months, it's finally over."

"Finally the common people no longer have to bear the high rice price."

Chongzhen asked Wang Pingshan again: "Wang Qing, where are the accounts?"

Wang Pingshan and Hu Renzhi have already donated to Wailang, a member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"Return to the Holy Master, here is the account book." Wang Pingshan quickly took out the account book.

Chongzhen took the account book, and just glanced at it, feeling that one head and two big.

Because Wang Pingshan is still using the old-fashioned bookkeeping, that is, using Chinese characters, and writing it vertically, such a booklet Chongzhen looks like a big head, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs has now switched to using Arabic numerals for bookkeeping, and writing it horizontally.

At that moment, Chongzhen returned the account book to Wang Pingshan: "Wang Qing, you should read it to me, and you don't need to say everything in detail, just pick the key points and read it to me."

"The minister leads the decree." Wang Pingshan opened the account book and said, "Let's talk about Huguang's food hegemony first."

"It's amazing to buy 970 million shi of grain at between three and five cents per shi and four kuai per shi, and the total expenditure is 740 million taels of silver."

"Later, in order to suppress the price of grain, we successively sold 900 million taels of grain at three renminbi per shi, with a total income of 270 million taels of silver."

"Borrow 500 million taels from Huguang grain merchants."

"Because the price of grain plummeted to 7000 cents per shi, Huguang grain merchants could not pay the principal and interest, so they could only use the grain merchants as offset. They received a total of 50 million shi of grain, which was equivalent to [-] million taels of silver."

"Huguang grain merchants still owe me more than 450 million taels that have not been repaid."

"Let's talk about Nanzhi's grain hegemony. My account has sold a total of 1000 million taels of grain to Nanzhi. The price is between 4000 taels and [-] taels per stone, and the total income is [-] million taels of silver."

"It is strange to borrow 2000 million taels from the Nanzhi grain merchants through the Royal Bank, the Ministry of Finance, and the Shipping and Shipbuilding Bank."

"Because the price of grain plummeted to 3000 qian per shi, the principal and interest protection clause was triggered. Nanzhi grain merchants could not pay the principal and interest, so they could only use grain as offset. A total of 500 million shi was strange in grain received, which was equivalent to [-] million taels of silver. "

"The debts are balanced, and the Nanzhi grain merchants still owe 500 million taels, which have not been paid off."

"Huguang and Nanzhi's income and expenditure are balanced. The total income is 20 taels of silver, and the grain is 950 million stones. In addition, Huguang grain merchants and Nanzhi grain merchants still have [-] million taels of silver that have not been repaid."

After reading the last sentence, Wang Pingshan gently closed the ledger.

"It's over?" Zhu Cijiong asked in disbelief, "No more?"

"It's over, it's gone." Wang Pingshan said, "All the accounts are here."

Zhu Cijiong gasped and said, "That is to say, this time the water conservancy and food bank did not spend a tael of silver, and got 20 taels plus [-] million shi of grain for nothing?"

"There are still 950 million taels that have not been recovered." Wang Pingshan said with a smile.

"Oh yes, there are still more than 950 million taels of silver owed that have not been recovered." Zhu Cijiong said in disbelief, "This matter is really evil, that is to say, an extra 1000 million taels of silver plus [-] million shi of grain?"

"These 1000 million taels of silver and [-] million shi of grain did not come out of thin air." Chongzhen said with a snort, "it was squeezed out of hundreds of large and small grain merchants in Huguang and Nanzhi."

"This time, Huguang Grain Merchant and Nanzhi Grain Merchant were squeezed out of their bones."

After a pause, Wang Pingshan said again: "However, these people deserve death. They are just a group of businessmen who dare to defy the holy orders and hoard them. Who will die if they don't die?"

"Wang Gong, is there really that much food in [-] million shi?"

Zhu Cihong also couldn't believe it, this is [-] million shi of grain.

17 years before Chongzhen, the annual grain tax collected by the Ming court was less than 3000 million shi, but now, only [-] million shi was squeezed out from Huguang and Nanzhi, which is a bit scary.

"Prince, there are really [-] million stones of grain."

Wang Pingshan said solemnly: "Among them, 3000 million stones are in the general warehouse of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 2000 million stones are in the Wuchang warehouse, and the other 5000 million stones are in the official warehouses of Changde Mansion, Yuezhou Mansion and Changsha Mansion. People go to check, and if there is a stone of grain missing, I am willing to pay with the head of the head.”

"No, no, Gu Jue has no intention of distrusting Duke Wang." Zhu Cihong said hastily.

"Xiao'er and Jiong'er, now you know that Huguang is familiar and the world is full, isn't this nonsense?"

Chongzhen smiled and said: "It must be nonsense to rely on Huguang alone to feed hundreds of millions of people in the entire Ming Dynasty, but it is more than enough to feed half of the Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Cihong frowned and said: "But father, Huguang didn't have so much official food before."

Chongzhen said: "In the past, Huguang only collected a grain tax of three liters, three ingots, and five teaspoons per mu, and the farmland under the name of each vassal did not need to pay grain tax. Naturally, less than a few stones of grain were collected."

"But now the arable land in Huguang is distributed to the common people."

"This year, people in Huguang have harvested two more seasons of grain."

"So you can take out half of the surplus grain and sell it to the court."

"Originally, this half of the surplus grain, which is 8000 million shi, would flow into the granaries of the feudal clans and local gentry in the form of rent, but now it all flows into the official warehouses of the Ministry of Internal Affairs."

"Oh, so it is like this." Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong understood everything now.

Zhu Cijiong said with a dark face: "Father, the feudal lords and local gentry from all over the world are really hateful, and they have eroded our Ming's grain tax?"

"Or else?" Chongzhen's expression turned cold.

"Where do you think the vast wealth of each clan comes from?"

To this day, Chongzhen is still deeply impressed by the more than 800 million taels of silver and rare treasures worth 5000 million taels that Sha Dingzhou snatched from the Qian State Mansion. The wealth of these vassal kings and nobles is the people's fat and people's anointing, which is how the Ming Dynasty was emptied.

In addition to the imperial family and ministers, there are also evil gentry and profiteers.

……

Qian's back garden.

"Master, master, don't be impulsive."

"We can still save money when the money is gone."

"As the saying goes, if you keep the green hills, you don't have to worry about running out of firewood."

While running fast, Liu Rushi yelled loudly at the top of the rockery.

On the top of the rockery, Qian Qianyi hung a white silk on the top of a willow tree, ready to hang himself, but after a few tries, he found that the willow tree was too thin to hang it at all.

After failing to hang himself again, Liu Rushi finally arrived.

"Master." Liu Rushi hugged Qian Qianyi, and said with tears, "It's just a few taels of silver, why don't you think about it, master."

"Ma'am." Qian Qianyi said with a long sigh, "That's not a few taels of silver, but a million taels, and it's all my husband's life savings!"

(End of this chapter)