The merchants who were invited were already mentally prepared for raising wages.
Originally, the emperor would invite them to Meixiang Pavilion to drink and listen to music for no reason? It was obviously impossible. It was obvious that he hoped that they could help the country and donate military pay.
As for Zhu Cixiang's statement that he would not let them spend money in vain, not many merchants believed it.
To be honest, many of the merchants would not have wanted to come to Meixiang Tower if Jin Yiwei Ti hadn't come to the door. This is clearly a Hongmen Banquet to force donations, so it would be fine if they didn't participate.
But what Zhu Cixiong said next was beyond their expectations.
Zhu Cixiang said: "The purpose of raising wages this time is not to donate money, but to borrow money!"
Some people sneered in a low voice, "What's the difference between borrowing something and not paying it back, and donating it?"
Zhu Cixiang went on to say: "Any private loan requires a guarantor or pledge. It is difficult for the court to find a convincing guarantor when raising funds, so it can only pledge materials of equal value."
Hearing this, the merchants below suddenly started whispering.
These merchants are all smart people, and they react quickly.
It turns out that the imperial court was not simply selling official land.
Instead, he had to use his land as collateral to borrow money from merchants all over the world to raise wages.
In the corridor on the second floor, a faint smile appeared on the corner of Chongzhen's mouth.
Of course, you can simply sell your land. As a time-traveler who knows a little bit about economics, if you can only simply sell your land, it will be a real embarrassment to the time-traveler.
The only land that can be sold now is 7 million acres in Xuzhou.
In addition to the seven million acres of land in Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Beizhi and even Liaodong, if you think about it, no one will buy it.
In other words, the two foolish men Zhang Youyu and Zhu Cijiong worshiped our father and took it for granted that all the merchants in the world would have the same confidence in Chongzhen as we did, so they would enthusiastically buy farmland in the north.
The fact is of course that. After Xiao Ming has built up a military force that is enough to push back the establishment of slaves, those merchants will definitely bet heavily, and they may not even be willing to buy the 7 million acres of land in Xuzhou.
The reason is very complicated, because it is too dangerous, and Xuzhou will fall on a certain day. Will the official land we bought for a small price be wasted?
So if you simply sell the land, it will definitely be sold.
Xuzhou's seven million acres can be sold for one million acres, which is already a low price.
How much can one million acres of government land be sold for? Seven taels per mu is only seven million taels! How can that little money be enough?
Therefore, selling land is just a bottom line, the key is to issue bonds, and issuance of bonds is the correct way to raise funds!
Originally, a court without national credit as a backing could simply issue credit bonds using collateral of equal value, and then the Jiangnan officials and gentry who had a small amount of silver lying outside the cellar would enthusiastically subscribe.
However, the reality is cruel. Since Zhu Yuanzhang founded Xiaoming, the national credit has been completely bankrupt.
Therefore, if you directly issue credit bonds, you may not even be able to sell the bonds for one tael of silver. You can only sell the bonds by pledging the seven million acres of official land in Xuzhou and issuing mortgage bonds.
That's why Chongzhen told his son later that he was selling land, but it was also selling land.
The merchants on the floor were discussing in a cold manner, but Zhang Youyu was also calm and just watched the merchants discuss with a smile.
It wasn't until the merchants started talking louder that Zhang Youyu said again: "The types of bonds to be raised this time are divided into seven types, namely one-year redemption, eight-year redemption, seven-year redemption and ten-year redemption."
"All bonds are stamped with the emperor's seal and will be paid upon maturity."
“The principal and interest of a one-year bond will be returned seventeen times before maturity, and that of an eight-year bond will be returned seventy years.”
"The principal and interest of a seven-year bond before maturity is 80 returns, and the principal and interest of a 10-year bond is 80 returns!"
"No one may be worried. If he says he returns seventeen times a year, he will return seventeen times a year? You have to believe what he says?"
"It's wrong. In those days, no one's guarantee was useful, but an independent guarantee was just as useful, so Guan Tian had to be used as collateral."
"The seven million acres of official land that will be taken out as collateral this time are seven million acres of official land in Xuzhou. The Ministry of Internal Affairs will use those seven million acres of official land as collateral to issue one-year, eight-year, seven-year and ten-year terms respectively.
The bonds are worth seven million taels each!"
"If there is no way to pay the one-year bond when it expires, one million acres of official land will be refunded for payment."
"Eight-year and seven-year bonds can be redeemed before maturity, and they can also be redeemed by Guantian."
"But please note that one-year, eight-year, and seven-year bonds have weak redemption clauses, which means that if the Ministry of Internal Affairs repays the principal and interest on time before maturity, it will not be eligible to be exchanged for Lu Chao.
"
"Only before the ten-year bond matures, the principal and interest can be exchanged for official land."
After a pause, Lu Chaozhen pointed at Kang Wanwan on the stage and said: "For example, Kang Weng bought a hundred thousand taels of twenty-year bonds. Before the expiration of ten years, he can choose to get back the principal and interest of 800,000 taels, or
You can choose to exchange the 800,000 taels of principal and interest into 170,000 acres of official land in Xuzhou, and the unit price of each mu of official land is still 7 taels."
When I heard that, there was an explosion on the stage.
The businessmen who seemed a little indifferent just now also participated in the discussion from home.
Because when the ten-year bond is converted, an acre of Luchao is less than four dollars! That is simply a robbery! Faced with such cheap official land, is there any businessman who can be moved?
Seeing that, Chongzhen smiled again.
As I said later, issuing bonds is the correct way to raise funds. If we simply sell land, the seven million acres in Xuzhou will only be sold for at least 20 million taels, and it may not be possible to sell them all.
However, by issuing one-year, eight-year, seven-year and ten-year bonds respectively, only one million acres of official land were sold, leaving Xuzhou’s seven million acres of official land without the opportunity to increase leverage by seven times!
Twenty million taels becomes forty million!
And according to the current sales method, it will sell better.
That's just the income from the bond issuance itself. The question is, is the bond issuance just the bond itself?
It’s ridiculous, the smallest benefit of issuing bonds is speculation, securities trading, and stamp duty!
The officials of Xiao Ming only focused on paying taxes on land, while Chongzhen directly reduced the dimension and brought the financial industry to the Ming Dynasty!
In fact, Jiangnan in the late Ming Dynasty was more conducive to the development of the financial industry than Europe at that time. Even with ten times the leverage, the Ming Dynasty’s 750 million taels of silver deposits could cultivate a financial industry with a scale of 7.5 billion!
The small-scale financial industry is considered the profit from bankers' speculation, and you can make a fortune by collecting stamp duty.
It's just that, for the time being, we have to reach this point. We have to eat one bite at a time. If we take too small a step, it will be difficult and difficult, so for the time being, we have to issue debts first.
…
Zhu Cixiang had a lot of things to do in those few days, so he went on duty a little late.
When passing the cabinet court room, I unexpectedly discovered that the lights were still on outside the mansion of the second assistant, Gao Hongtu. When I walked in, Gao Hongtu's mansion came to me.
"Old Beige, do you still have the highest value?" Zhu Cixiang bowed.
"Jinghan?" Gao Hongtu put down his pen, waved with a smile and said, "Come, sit down and talk."
Gao Hongtu's old servant offered him a cup of fragrant tea. Lu Chao thanked him and took the cup.
"Jinghan, it's been a hard work these days." Gao Hongtu continued, "As soon as possible, we will make a detailed plan for various state expenditures this year, and then send it to all provinces, prefectures and counties."
"Yes." Zhu Cihong responded and asked again, "Mr. Ge, has he heard about it?"
Di Hongtu smiled and said: "He is talking about the banquet held by His Majesty the merchants at Meixiang Tower?"
"That's it." Zhu Cixi shook his head and said, "This matter is really unprecedented. The emperor actually held a banquet in a brothel, and the guests at the banquet were businessmen. Shangguan really knows how to evaluate it."
"This is for evaluation." Gao Hongtu waved his hand and said.
Having said that, Gao Hongtu sighed heavily: "Speaking of which, Your Majesty is also a pitiful person."
From an ordinary person's point of view, Chongzhen was indeed a pitiful man. His wife was dead, his son was dead and the other was injured. The injured one fell into the hands of Jiannu. Then his home in the Forbidden City was robbed.
I almost hanged myself in Meishan. It can be said that I have tasted the bitterness of the world.
So a slight change in temperament is understandable.
Those of you who are ministers need to be considerate.
"That's right. If Shangguan had suffered something like His Majesty's, I'm afraid he would have gone crazy a long time ago." Zhu Cixiang nodded, and then asked, "This Shangguan is just commenting on His Majesty's personal ethics, and only said that I worked in Meixiang Tower.
matter."
"He's talking about raising wages?" Gao Hongtu said with a smile, "His Majesty's idea is still worthy of encouragement."
"But these merchants may not necessarily buy it." Zhu Cihong said, "Businessmen value profits and righteousness, but they will donate money for clothes, ancestral temples, or the country. Only scholars in your generation will care about the common people of their family and country."
Gao Hongtu smiled and said, "It's a matter of delay. There is no benefit in letting His Majesty hit a wall."
"That's right." Lu Chaozhen said with a smile, "If Your Majesty Ran really thinks that your Ministry of Household Affairs is just a decoration, and if the problem of state expenditure is really solved at home, what else will you do to wait for the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs and so few staff?
?”
…
Meixiang Tower.
No merchant has completed the subscription.
The first person to respond was Kang Wanwan: "Your Majesty, the Kang family of Yangzhou subscribes for one million twenty-year bonds."
As soon as Kang Wanwan finished speaking, Fang Wenzhen stood up and said, "Your Fang family in She County has subscribed for 400,000 yuan in twenty-year debt."
Immediately afterwards, Zhang Han also stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the Zhang family in She County also subscribes for 400,000 yuan in twenty-year debt!"
Hearing this, the other merchants present turned to look at the eight Kang people. After a few seconds of the warm-up, no merchants soon followed suit and actively subscribed for bonds.
"Your Majesty, if the Weng family of Yangzhou subscribes for 700,000 taels, it will cost you ten years of debt!"
"Your Majesty, the Xiuning Zhan family has subscribed for 700,000 taels, a ten-year debt!"
"Prince, if the Xu family in Yangzhou subscribes for 700,000 taels, it will cost ten years of debt!"
Those businessmen are all smart people, so naturally they can see that the ten-year bond has the lowest yield.
To be honest, the hundreds of merchants present are all short of money. Each of our houses has hundreds of thousands to millions of taels of silver buried outside the cellar. We are struggling to find a place to spend it. Now we have no chance to spend it.
That money has turned into official land that can earn 70% of the land rent every year, and an acre of land only costs four cents. How can you be firm? Hurry and grab it!
