I

Page 212

I can only feed myself and cannot feed my family.

Because the village chief spends most of his time farming by himself.

Persuading people to collect food and organizing road construction, these activities are all in the slack season, so there is nothing to do.

As for mediating disputes, I went there with a bowl during meal time, and the disputes could be settled while grilling rice.If you are big-hearted, you can let the villagers do it first, and then talk about it after you finish the meal.

This level of salary is equivalent to raising one more teacher per village.

By the way, the salaries of rural teachers are now provided by villagers in each village, mainly to relieve financial pressure.You may question that this is not compulsory education, but this is how New China came about. Farmers are willing to support teachers in their own villages, and they respect teachers very much.

Even so, the financial expenditure is still too high, because this year there is a need to provide relief to the disaster-stricken people in Huguang and Guangdong, and to immigrate a large number of people to areas severely affected by military disasters.

"Baoquan Bureau has been built, and several kinds of money molds have been made, and money can start to be minted this month."

Fei Chun and Song Yingxing came to discuss the matter with Zhao Han, and they also dragged Li Banghua and Huang Shunfu along.

Fei Chun said: "The Department of Finance and the Department of Government Affairs have disputes over which kind of money should be minted more. To be honest, there is no way to discuss this issue. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages."

"You can't make too many ten coins, otherwise the people will suffer." Huang Shunfu, who is in charge of the Department of Administrative Affairs, said.

Fei Chun argued: "Even if you don't mint ten coins, you should mint five more. Otherwise, if you mint flat coins or two coins, we will lose as much as you want!"

Li Banghua suggested: "It is too much to exploit the common people by discounting [-] yuan, and it is bound to lose money if it is equal to [-] yuan. In my opinion, it is [-] yuan for all castings, and it is announced that all grain stores will not accept [-] yuan discount."

"If the grain bank announces that they won't accept ten percent discounts, who will use them? The ten discounts in the hands of ordinary people will be thrown into their hands?" Huang Shunfu is concerned about people's livelihood.

Fei Chun said angrily: "If we accept it, Chongzhen will keep making it. Why should we be used to Chongzhen?"

The two chief officials of finance and civil affairs quarreled in front of Zhao Han, and each had their own reasons.

The root cause was the financial distress of the Ming court, so printing money became more and more outrageous, divided into flat money, two-fold, five-fold, and fourteen-fold.Not only are the denominations of copper coins getting bigger and bigger, but the quality is getting worse and worse, which leads to a crazy decline in the purchasing power of copper coins.

Coupled with the deflation of silver, the copper-silver exchange ratio is very outrageous in some places, and one tael of silver can even be exchanged for four thousand copper coins!

If Zhao Han's Baoquan Mint dared to mint a large number of flat coins and double coins, it would definitely lose as much as it minted.The better the quality and the smaller the currency value, the more merchants like it. They must sweep up the goods in the market, store all the good money, and then let Chongzhen's bad money circulate in the market.

This is a typical example of bad money driving out good money!

And there is no solution, because the circulation of Chongzhen's rotten money is too large.First, Zhao Han's coinage is too small to carry Chongzhen Tongbao; second, the circulation of Chongzhen Tongbao cannot be directly banned, otherwise Zhao Han's territory will fall into economic chaos.

After all these people had finished arguing, Zhao Han made a final decision: "Baoquan Bureau casts coins, and I have three requirements. First, a large amount of castings will be discounted at five coins, and a small amount of castings will be discounted at two coins. The quality of coins is comparable to that of Nanjing in the fourth year of Chongzhen; Second, use the current money models first, and immediately start making new models. It is still called Chongzhen Tongbao, but the word "Datong in the World" must be added; "

The quality of Nanjing copper coins in the fourth year of Chongzhen is worse than that of Beijing coins in the same period, but much better than that of the later ones. It can be regarded as a medium-valued copper coin.

As for still casting Chongzhen Tongbao, it is mainly to facilitate circulation in other provinces.

Adding the words "Datong under heaven" does not hinder the use of copper coins.

At the end of the Chongzhen period, there was also a kind of copper coin, which was of very poor quality and was cast with a galloping horse pattern, commonly known as "Racing Horse Chongzhen".This is a kind of private money. Some people think that it was minted by Li Zicheng. It is normal for Chuang Wang to ride a horse.When a horse enters the gate, it is a breakthrough. When a horse breaks into the Forbidden City, Li Zicheng will destroy the world.

Huang Shunfu reminded: "In the main town, if the grain store refuses to accept the ten-dollar discount, I am afraid that the ten-dollar discount among the people in Jiangxi will cost six thousand to eight thousand cash to exchange for one tael of silver."

"Even so, I still have to reject it," Fei Chun immediately snapped back, "Long-term pain is worse than short-term pain. We can't keep letting Chongzhen mint money to suck our blood. This is also sucking the blood of the people of Jiangxi. If we let it circulate again, Chongzhen is afraid that he will be able to make a lot of money worth hundreds of words!"

Zhao Han stopped and said, "Okay, don't say any more, it's settled like this. As for the people who have [-] cents in their hands, they can only consider themselves unlucky, and there is nothing we can do to help."

There is really no way, it is impossible for Zhao Han to take it back.

Once Zhao Han recycles it, the merchants will make a profit. They will deliberately go to Nanjing to buy it at a discount of [-] yuan, and then ship the whole ship to the grain store to exchange it.

Now that Zhao Han made a decision, everyone had no objection and immediately went to work on their own.

Song Yingxing was left behind by Zhao Han.

Zhao Han asked, "How is Fei Ruyi?"

"Quite talented, but the reputation is not good." Song Yingxing replied.

When Fei Ruyi was in Hanzhu Academy, he was already studying "Mengxi Bi Tan", and went to Suzhou to learn strange skills from craftsmen.

However, this guy's route has gone astray. His main direction of attack is fabric dyeing, and he studies how to dye brightly colored fabrics at low cost.At the same time, he likes to design his own clothes, jewelry and hats, which fits perfectly with his title of "clothes demon".

At the end of last year, Fei Ruyi came to find Zhao Han. After learning about the current situation, Zhao Han threw him to Song Yingxing as his assistant.

Zhao Han said: "Tian Younian has always been acting as the agent for the affairs of the Public Works Department. I decided to promote him to be in charge."

"You don't have to ask me, Zongzhen, I don't mind." Song Yingxing said with a smile.He is living a fulfilling life now, leading craftsmen to do research and development all day long, and even handing over the daily affairs of the weapons store to his confidants.

Song Yingxing didn't care about it, but Zhao Han had to appease him: "You are still in charge, but the affairs in charge are different. This is a special case and will not happen again in the future."

Song Yingxing clasped his hands and said, "Thank you, General Town, for your concern."

"Look at this." Zhao Han threw a silver dollar over.

This is a Spanish eight-real silver coin with "8" on one side and "P" on the other side, which is actually "8 pesos" when connected.

This kind of silver coin exists in large quantities in Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong.Merchants especially like to use it, because there is a fixed denomination, and there is no need to weigh the silver when trading.

Why didn't the Ming court mint silver coins?

Because Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that gold and silver should not be used to make money!

Silver bullion is not money, at least not legally.

However, after Zhang Juzheng's reform, Daming levied taxes and only collected silver coins, not copper coins.

Song Yingxing asked: "The chief town wants to mint silver coins?"

"I have this plan." Zhao Han nodded.

Song Yingxing played with the Spanish silver coins and commented: "The quality of this coin is poor. If we mint silver coins, we should make them more exquisite."

The Spanish silver dollar is really inferior in appearance, so don't substitute it for the late Qing Dynasty.

At this time, the Spanish silver dollar has a very high silver content and very little impurity filling.This is for the convenience of casting. The purer the silver, the softer it is, and it can be suppressed by very rubbish machines.

However, the pressed silver coins cannot be guaranteed to be perfectly round, and there are even various gaps and cracks that have not been flattened.

After a long period of use, the soft silver coins will be even more disfigured by the collision.

The silver coin in Song Yingxing's hand had become an irregular oval.

Zhao Han said to Song Yingxing: "This kind of silver coin is not minted, but pressed by machinery. I hope to make a machine that can hammer out harder silver coins."

Song Yingxing said: "If you want silver to harden, you have to add a lot of impurities, will the common people recognize it?"

"I will recognize it," Zhao Han said. "Adding impurities to silver coins has three advantages. First, it makes the silver coins more delicate and not easy to deform after a long time of use; second, it can earn more income by making coins. The most important thing is the difference in the price of impurities; the third is to prevent the people from scraping off the silver edge, the silver coin in your hand, and the outer ring is scraped off."

Never underestimate the people's love for money, not to mention scraping the edges of silver dollars, they will scrape copper coins.

Jiajing Tongbao has several high-quality coins that are often scraped off the edge of copper coins.It was mainly scraped by illegal merchants. After scraping off, the copper was melted and used for other things.

Adding more impurities to silver coins can effectively prevent silver coins from being scratched: First, the texture becomes hard and difficult to scratch.The second is that there are too many impurities, and it has to be re-smelted after being scraped off.Significantly reduce illegal profits.

Song Yingxing nodded and said, "When I get back, I will organize people to develop the coin press machine."

Zhao Han said: "Jiangxi's water network is criss-crossed. It is best to make a hydraulic coin press. In the future, I will not only suppress silver coins, but also copper coins. Daming copper coins are too chaotic. At least half of the country will be occupied before we can start reforming the currency value. The coin press is very useful. I will gradually replace copper coins with copper coins!"

Song Yingxing felt that it meant a lot, and immediately stood up and cupped his hands: "We must do our best."

Zhao Han sighed, looking forward to taking Guangdong as soon as possible.

The significance brought by Guangdong can not only intervene in maritime trade, but also alleviate the silver shortage.

Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, a large amount of silver has flowed into China.

It is hard to say whether there was inflation or not, because the economy of Ming Dynasty was also developing at a high speed at that time, and the rise in prices was certain.Especially in the Jiangnan prefectures, the social economy is constantly increasing, and if prices do not rise, there will be problems.

Many of these silvers flowed into the cellars of rich merchants, which also promoted the industrial and commercial upgrading of the various prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River.

After Zhang Juzheng's reform, instead of inflation, there was a shortage of silver in all parts of the country, because the government only collected silver for taxation.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Spanish Empire declined, and the inflow of silver decreased, and now there is a general silver shortage.

On the one hand, silver was scarce, and on the other hand, copper coins were made indiscriminately, which led to an increasingly outrageous exchange ratio between silver and copper coins.

According to statistics from later generations, in the four years of Chongzhen alone, the amount of silver imported into Macau from the Philippines was as high as 1400 million taels.Regardless of whether the data is true or not, one thing is certain, Macau is the main silver importer of Ming Dynasty.

As long as Guangzhou is occupied, the silver shortage under Zhao Han's rule can be alleviated, and the impact of Chongzhen's excessive issuance of copper coins can also be slightly offset.

Chapter 257 [Military ticket?banknotes? 】

"This is the first batch of minted coins, please take a look at them!" Fei Chun came in with two strings of copper coins.

Zhao Han took it closer and looked at it carefully, and couldn't help laughing, the imitation of this thing is too realistic.

Except for the slight difference in color, it is exactly the same as the copper coins minted in Nanjing.As for the "Chongzhen Tongbao Datong Money in the World", the money molds are still being made, and casting can start in two months.

Zhao Han nodded in approval: "Not bad."

Fei Chun handed over another stack of paper tickets: "This is the first batch of military tickets."

Zhao Han didn't dare to issue banknotes rashly, mainly Zhu Yuanzhang's Daming Banknotes, which had completely ruined the reputation of banknotes.

Daming banknotes, as many as you want to print.Moreover, after the damage, the government refused to accept the account at all, and did not exchange the old coins for new coins, which caused complaints from all officials, civilians and merchants.

With this kind of lessons learned, ordinary people are afraid when they see banknotes.

Therefore, Zhao Han only dared to print military tickets, which were only used in the army.Soldiers are paid and issued directly to military tickets, which can be exchanged for food at any time and any place in the official food bank.

In this way, it is convenient for frontline soldiers to pay their salaries during the war.

Moreover, it is also very convenient for soldiers to carry it. They can return home after the battle and take the military ticket to the food store in their hometown to exchange for food.

The material of the military ticket follows the Daming banknote.

The main material is mulberry paper, and the auxiliary material is recycled official document paper.The two kinds of paper are mixed together to make pulp, which is blue-gray in color, thick and durable.

There are many kinds of anti-counterfeiting signs——

First, miniature carving.Ask the master of micro-carving to finely carve patterns on the printing plate.

Second, color printing.Red, blue, and black three-color overprinting was done by Jiaozi in the Song Dynasty.

Third, the watermark.The watermarking method originated in the Tang Dynasty. There are two types of bright flowers and dark flowers. Modern banknotes still retain watermarks for anti-counterfeiting.The military ticket of the Datong Army uses the dark flower watermark method.

Fourth, the seal.On the military ticket, there must be the seals of the three major agencies of the Financial Secretary, the Public Works Department, and the Military Academy. If there is one less seal, it will be a waste ticket, and cinnabar ink pad is used.In addition, the main pattern of the military ticket is also made of special ink, which is added with lead sulfide, which is also the anti-counterfeiting symbol of Daming banknotes.

Moreover, as long as the military ticket is genuine, even if it is soaked in water, the grain bank must admit it.If it is torn into several pieces, as long as more than 60% of it is complete, it must be counted as a whole ticket.

When the military ticket system is in operation, a lot of transportation consumption can be saved, and more grain stocks can be kept at the same time.

After credit is established, civilians are likely to use military tickets as banknotes.

Zhao Han put down the military ticket and said, "Now that money has started to be minted, the grain store will be changed into a money and grain store in the future. Especially the 'World Datong money' can be exchanged at the money and grain store after circulation."

The food bank under the Financial Secretary cannot exchange copper coins, but only accepts silver and grain. Chongzhen Tongbao is really disgusting.

After the issuance of "Tianxia Datong Money", the business of copper coins can be increased.

Everything has to be perfected step by step.

When the reform of the currency value is completed and the banking system is established, the Qianliang Bank must be separated from the Financial Secretary and be directly managed by the central government.

After half a month, the salary will be paid at the beginning of the month.

The personal guards of Ji'an General Military Mansion became the first batch of soldiers to lead the military ticket.

These people held a stack of paper bills, although they understood how to use them, and even though they trusted Zhao Han, they still couldn't help feeling guilty.

"Can this ticket really be exchanged for food?"

"Will Zongzhen still lie to us?"

"Why don't you... go and try?"

"..."

A few soldiers took advantage of their rotation to go to the food store in Fucheng together.

"In exchange for food!" A soldier took out his military ticket.

The grain official asked, "How much?"

The soldier said, "Replace them all."

The denominations of military tickets are one dou, two dou, five dou and one stone.

I saw that the grain bank began to move out grain, and it was obvious that it could be cashed in.

The soldier suddenly laughed and said, "No more, no more, I don't have time to take it home."

The officials of the grain bank looked depressed, and they didn't dare to offend the soldiers, so they could only turn around and complain quietly.

The soldiers were very happy. There were food stores in their hometowns, and there was a line in every three towns.From now on, when visiting relatives during holidays, you can just bring your military ticket, you don't need to exchange money in Fucheng, and you don't need to carry a big bag of grain on the road.