Time has come to July 21st in the 17th year of Chongzhen. The day that the gentry and merchants in eight prefectures and one state in the south of the Yangtze River have been looking forward to has finally arrived. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is going to start selling bonds.
Before dawn, Gongyuan Street, where the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Nangong) is located, was already crowded with horse-drawn carriages.
Li Xiangjun got up early in the morning to dress up, but as soon as he opened the window, he saw that the Gongyuan Street across the Qinhuai River was densely packed with horse-drawn carriages.
There were few large squares in this era.
The entrance to the Ministry of Internal Affairs is so big that it can park more than a dozen carriages.
But this time, there were at least a thousand Jiangnan gentry and merchants who came to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to buy bonds. Most of these gentry and merchants came in carriages, and after all, they brought so much money with them.
These carriages can only park on Gongyuan Street.
There are Imperial College students patrolling the streets to maintain order.
When encountering an unruly slave or an evil servant, he will immediately reprimand him.
"What are you doing? What are you doing? Just line up honestly and don't act slippery!"
"As for you, quickly return to your original position, or you will bear the consequences!"
"Listen to me, don't cheat or cheat. If you are caught, you will be severely punished!"
"What? Your master is the same year as the right minister of household affairs? The son of the Nian family?"
"Let me tell you, it's not easy for the chief minister of the cabinet to say hello! We, the diligent princes, only listen to the Holy One!"
The students of the Imperial College were also domineering in the past, but they were usually only domineering towards businessmen, but it is different now. Now they dare to scold the officials, gentry and slaves, and even fight if they disagree.
If the powerful slaves of the officials and gentry dare to resist, it will be miserable.
Just say hello to the students, and dozens or hundreds of people will come over in an instant.
The rich slaves are like this, and needless to say, those rough-and-tumble gangsters.
In recent times, green-skinned clay sticks have become rare creatures in Nanjing.
As for bullying hawkers or molesting good women, they have disappeared.
In the words of the street vendors, Nanjing's public security has never been so good.
This was the intuitive feeling that Chongzhen brought to the people of Nanjing, so the people supported Chongzhen even more and felt that the current emperor was really a rare and good emperor.
…
Gao Hongtu's bullock cart was also blocked on Gongyuan Street.
Here I must praise Gao Hongtu's integrity. Gao Hongtu is now the second assistant of the Ming Dynasty and a first-rank official, but he still lives in Zhutanfang inside Jubaomen.
Zhutanfang, you know where it is just by the name.
Gao Hongtu still rented this apartment and did not buy it.
There are only three people in the house: one old wife and one sixty-year-old servant.
"Sir, Gongyuan Street is blocked." The old servant reported through the curtain, "We can only take a detour."
Hearing this, Gao Hongtu lifted up the oxcart curtain and saw that Gongyuan Street was blocked all the way to the Suohuai Bridge. Judging from the situation, it was estimated that it was blocked from the Suohuai Bridge to the Nangong House of Internal Affairs.
Seeing this, Gao Hongtu started to pull at his beard.
It's a pity, it's a pity, the money from the debt sales doesn't go into the household department's warehouse.
"Detour!" Gao Hongtu quickly lowered the curtain, out of sight and out of mind.
But Gao Hongtu knew very well that it was impossible to be in a good mood today.
…
Chongzhen, his father and his son were in a very good mood at this time.
Especially for Zhu Cixiang, it was a double blessing.
Chongzhen didn't like ostentation, so Zhu Cixiang's wedding was able to go through all the procedures as quickly as possible, and he married the crown princess last night.
Zhu Cixiang wanted to laugh when he thought of the wedding ceremony last night.
At that time, he was really in a mood to unveil the red hijab of the Crown Princess.
However, God gave him a rich gift, and the bride turned out to be surprisingly beautiful.
"Father, look at it, the emperor is giggling again." Zhu Cijiong said with a smile, "It hasn't stopped all morning. What's the matter, marrying a daughter-in-law will make you so happy?"
"Third brother, you are still young." Zhu Cixiang said with a smile.
"You will understand in two years' time when you also marry the princess."
"Hey, I won't marry a princess." Zhu Cijiong was very disdainful.
All little boys are like this, and every one of them is ashamed of having a wife.
Chongzhen next to him was also speechless, thinking that there was an old guy next to him who had tasted meat.
But having said that, it is not a big problem to choose a princess for Zhu Cihong, but it is very troublesome for him to find a concubine himself, and he cannot easily visit a brothel.
I can only hold it in for now.
While the father and son were talking, Ma Mingluan hurried in.
Ma Mingluan has been really busy these days and has lost weight.
Before taking office, Ma Mingluan was worried that the Ministry of Internal Affairs had nothing to do.
But when he actually took office, he realized that things were really different.
First, capture Han Zanzhou's followers and thousands of minions, then recover the property, and then calculate and return the tax money, and try to ensure that there are no mistakes in the process.
After finally repaying the tax money, we have to prepare for the sale of bonds.
Bonds are easy to talk about, but extremely complicated to prepare.
The first step is to prepare the paper for printing the bonds, which must be high-quality vellum paper.
After finding the paper mill, you have to find a carver, and it needs to be a carver who is good at micro carving.
Then there is the printing shop. To find a good printing shop, you need to find pigments and mix the pigments.
Thanks to the more than 2,000 students from the Imperial College and the thousands of scholars who served under the imperial edict, Ma Mingluan had sufficient manpower. At the same time, these scholars were also very familiar with things such as paper, pen, ink, and engraving. When classmates talked to each other, they immediately became friends.
You know where to find good paper, where to find the best printing studios, and where to find the highest-level micro-engravers.
After being exhausted, I finally got the job done.
Ma Mingluan said: "Your Majesty, the printing house has already sent the bonds."
"The bonds have been delivered? Let's go and take a look." Chongzhen stood up happily.
I took my two sons to the outside and saw two boxes in the hall.
Gu Gao and Wu Yingji stood by and saw Chongzhen coming, so they quickly opened the box.
Ma Mingluan picked up a stack of bonds from the box and handed them to Chongzhen and his son respectively.
Chongzhen took the bond and rubbed it, and suddenly felt an inexplicable kindness. This was banknotes.
Well, what Chongzhen asked Ma Mingluan to print was actually banknotes, but he just borrowed the name of bonds.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! If it is just a bond, there is no need to bother. You only need to ask the accounting office to register your name and place of origin, and then issue a receipt. There will be no forgery at all.
Things like bonds.
Because the bonds are useless even if they are forged, they must be paid in person.
Printing banknotes is much more troublesome and requires the best paper.
The printing ink must be specially prepared, and it must also have watermarks and code.
Therefore, Chongzhen printed bonds entirely using the same standards as printing banknotes.
Regardless of whether banknotes will be issued in the future, the technology for printing banknotes must first be reserved.
Of course, the conditions for issuing banknotes are definitely not met at the moment. After all, the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes are still in circulation, and the merchants of the Jin gentry feel that they are too smart to wipe their butts, and they are simply worthless.
The bonds Chongzhen asked Ma Mingluan to print were different from the Ming Dynasty banknotes.
The Ming Dynasty banknote is essentially a bill, but the bonds printed by Ma Mingluan are no different in style from later generations of banknotes, except that they are slightly larger and thicker than the hundred-dollar bills.
The bonds have beautiful colorful patterns on the front and back.
There are secret words hidden in these patterns, and they are also covered with Chongzhen's seal.
In the middle of the front, the words "10,000 taels of treasury bonds with a ten-year maturity" are written in capital letters.
In the middle of the back, 10,000 taels of 10-year treasury bonds are written in Arabic numerals.
There are only three bond amounts, namely 10,000 taels, 5,000 taels and 1,000 taels.
"Okay, very good, Ma Qing, thank you for your hard work." Chongzhen was very satisfied with the bond.
After hearing Chongzhen's praise, Ma Mingluan finally breathed a sigh of relief and said, "This is what I should do."
Chongzhen just smiled when he heard this, and now that he was not getting paid, he immediately said: "Now that the bonds have been delivered, let's start selling them. The gentry and merchants outside must have been waiting impatiently."
"I obey." Ma Mingluan bowed his hands and walked out of the hall and shouted.
"Come here, open the door, the sale of the first tranche of the Ming Dynasty's treasury bonds begins!"
In order to achieve a deterrent effect, Ma Mingluan specially mobilized two hundred Yiding.
These two hundred Yiding were all wearing uniforms and were pierced like javelins throughout the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Therefore, after the gate was opened, the Jin gentry and merchants who had been waiting for a long time did not dare to make any mistakes. Instead, they walked in according to the queue and entered their seats under the guidance of the scholars.
The sales site is still a waterside pavilion and cloister.
More than a thousand gentry and merchants were led into the surrounding cloisters.
Ma Mingluan walked to the middle waterside pavilion with great ambition.
"Everyone, since there are quite a few gentry and merchants present, the 20 million taels of bonds sold in the first phase may not be enough to sell. Therefore, in order to ensure that everyone can buy the bonds, I will change the rules here."
Dozens of Han generals quickly spread what Ma Mingluan had just said throughout the surrounding corridors.
Hearing this, many Jin gentry merchants who arrived late breathed a sigh of relief. They were really worried that they would buy bonds in order, so that when it was their turn, they wouldn't even be able to drink the soup.
Ma Mingluan added: "We will first count the number of people present and the expected purchase amount, and then set a ratio as appropriate, and then convert it according to this ratio. Don't worry, everyone here will be able to buy bonds."
Soon, hundreds of scholars took the roster and walked into the corridor to ask questions one by one.
After the scholar got the first-hand data, he quickly sent it to the accounting room and handed it over to the accounting clerk for statistics.
After a while, the final figures were presented to the Chongzhen Emperor. A total of 1,073 Jin gentry merchants were present, and the expected bond purchase amount was more than 60 million!
To be honest, Ma Mingluan was frightened by this number.
Sixty million! The maximum annual income next year will only be twenty million!
Chongzhen's mood seemed very calm, which was almost as he expected.
Although he has done a lot of groundwork, the change of concepts and habits does not happen overnight.
It is definitely not an easy task to get the entire Jiangnan gentry and merchants to accept and embrace the financial industry.
Chongzhen's psychological expectation was 20%. As long as 20% of private savings were mobilized, it would be a success.
Now it is almost exactly 20%, because he estimates that the private silver deposits in the eight prefectures and one state in the south of the Yangtze River should be around 300 million taels, which is exactly one-fifth of 60 million.
