The four pavilion elders gathered in the lobby again.
On the surface, the four cabinet ministers were discussing Enke's exam questions, but in fact they were all a little absent-minded, and even talked about it like chickens and ducks.
Needless to say, the four cabinet ministers are waiting for news about the bond issuance by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The results of this bond issuance will definitely not be bad. There has been a consensus on this for a long time.
After all, the more than a thousand carriages blocking Gongyuan Street cannot be faked.
But Shi Kefa and the four of them could not imagine how good this bond issuance would be.
In the end, Jiang Yueguang couldn't hold back his anger and asked first: "How many bonds do you think the Ministry of Internal Affairs can sell?"
Gao Hongtu said: "Shao Shao, a Jinchuo merchant who came to Nanjing from eight prefectures and one state to buy bonds, said there were thousands of them. Calculated based on a family's fifty thousand taels of silver, it would be at least fifty million taels!"
"Fifty million?" Jiang Yueguang said, everyone was stunned, "So much?"
Jie Xuelong felt a little guilty, shook his head and said, "There should be no family with as much as 50,000 taels."
The other families don’t know much about it, but the Jie family raised 100,000 taels of silver to buy bonds.
"Jie Ge is a conservative." Gao Hongtu snorted, "I have asked someone to inquire privately. Most of the people who come to Nanjing to buy bonds this time are respectable gentry or wealthy businessmen. Those with only tens of thousands
There are not many small gentry or small businessmen with two or even several thousand taels of silver."
"This matter is not surprising." Xie Xuelong said, "Those small gentry and small businessmen may not be well-informed, or they may be greedy for money and dare not take any risks, so it is understandable that they are indifferent to this. After all, bonds are caused by
It was the first creation by the Holy One, and no one can say what the future will be like.”
Opportunities are always reserved for those who are half a step ahead.
This logic has always been true from ancient times to the present.
Jiang Yueguanghu asked again: "If the Jin gentry and merchants really prepared 50 million taels of silver, how many bonds will the Lord sell? Will it still be the 20 million taels mentioned before?"
"How is this possible?" Gao Hongtu said, "Who would think that there is too much money?"
"I don't think so." Jie Xuelong said, "The Holy One will definitely increase the bond temporarily."
Only Shi Kefa remained silent from beginning to end, frowning and not knowing what he was thinking?
While Gao Hongtu and the others were talking, Zhang Youyu, the left minister of household affairs, suddenly ran in panting.
"Four cabinet ministers, they're sold out!" Zhang Youyu gasped, "The bonds of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are sold out."
"Ah? All sold out so quickly?" Gao Hongtu asked anxiously, "How many bonds were sold in total?"
"Twenty million taels." Zhang Youyu said, "I just sold the 20 million taels of bonds I agreed on before, and I didn't even get one tael more."
"Ah?" This time it was beyond Jiang Yueguang's expectation, "The Holy One really only sold it for 20 million taels?"
"Your Majesty is confused." Gao Hongtu said with a stamp of his feet, "With so many gentry and merchants rushing to send money, why can't the Ministry of Internal Affairs sell more bonds? The Ministry of Internal Affairs can't spend all the money, so it can give it to the Ministry of Household Affairs. The Ministry of Household Affairs is now
We’re also short of money!”
This time Jiang Yueguang did not agree with Xie Xuelong and gave the money to the Ministry of Revenue? Gao Qangzhai, what are you thinking?
It would be nice if the Holy One didn't come to collect money from the Ministry of Household Affairs.
…
At this time in Nangong.
All the bonds worth 20 million taels of silver have been sold out, and the merchants and merchants who bought the bonds were very happy. Although the amount purchased was only half of the expected amount, it was still good.
The next step is to deliver the silver and verify the quality of the silver.
This is the inconvenience of using silver as currency. Silver is of high quality.
Silver from different origins and silver produced from different silver mines have different fineness.
Therefore, during the circulation process, the fineness of silver needs to be verified to determine its value.
For example, if silver is of sufficient fineness, it is called full-color silver. If the fineness of silver is insufficient, it will be discounted. This requires experienced professionals to evaluate the silver and determine its discounted color, which is 90%, 80%, or even 70%.
Therefore, the steps of delivering and verifying the silver need to be very careful and time-consuming.
Jin gentry merchants drove their carriages to deliver and verify the silver in order.
"Weng Sun, these are bonds, you can keep them." Ma Mingluan handed two bonds with denominations of 10,000 taels and 5,000 taels to the merchant in front of him, and warned, "Also, remember, the bonds are not
It can be transferred or resold, and can only be redeemed by the person or his immediate family members. Once the bonds are donated or resold to others, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will not recognize them."
"Okay," the merchant said hurriedly, "I will never transfer or resell the bonds."
Ma Mingluan also recorded the merchant's personal information in detail: Sun Tinglan, a local cloth merchant in Nanjing, has lived in Cangcao Lane for a long time. He is five feet five inches tall, has a round face, a short beard and triangular eyes, and a large mole on the right face. If he buys it for twelve years, he will get one year.
The debt is 10,000 taels, the repurchase is 20 and the debt is 5,000 taels in three years, and the money is settled.
After copying it in duplicate, a scholar next to him took a large seal and stamped it twice.
"Sun Weng, please keep this document. It must be presented together with the bond when redeeming it. Either one is indispensable." Ma Mingluan gave one of the documents to Sun Tinglan and gave the other to the scholar to send to the warehouse for archiving.
Sun Tinglan took the document, dried the ink and put it away carefully.
After receiving two more Jin gentry, Ma Mingluan waved to Gu Gao to come forward: "Gu Zifang, you are in charge here."
Gu Gao responded, sat down on Ma Mingluan's seat, picked up a brush and started recording. Not to mention, Mr. Gu's calligraphy was really good.
However, Ma Mingluan went straight to the other courtyard on the right side of Nangong.
Nangong is a typical Jiangnan garden. There are two smaller annexes on the right side of Nangong. The annex at the back is where the Yongwang Zhu Cizhen lives, and the annex in front is where the prince currently lives.
After the prince's wedding, he no longer lived with Chongzhen in the Imperial College.
Instead, he temporarily moved to Nangong and lived in the other courtyard in front of him on the right.
But Ma Mingluan came to see Chongzhen, who was currently in the prince's other courtyard.
Ma Mingluan came to Chongzhen to ask for someone. It had been more than ten days since the Ministry of Internal Affairs was established. However, except for him as the deputy chief, only the official officials in the mission department were assigned to Ruan Dacheng.
Ruan Dacheng doesn't care about anything except writing music scripts and recruiting people to rehearse plays.
Therefore, all matters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, large and small, had to be supervised by Ma Mingluan himself.
There is no problem in doing this for a short time, but if you do it for a long time, you will be exhausted.
Therefore, Ma Mingluan came to Chongzhen to ask for someone. No matter what, he had to assign a group of subordinate officials to the internal affairs. The candidates could be selected directly from the students of the Imperial College and the Qinwang scholars.
Ma Mingluan thinks Wu Yingji and Gu Gao are good.
Seeing that Chongzhen had performed a great ceremony, Ma Mingluo said: "Your Majesty, this won't work. I'm really too busy by myself."
Chongzhen took a sip of tea and said: "Didn't I ask all the students from the Imperial College and all the diligent scholars to be at your disposal? Aren't more than six thousand students and scholars not enough for you to command?"
More than four thousand scholars gathered in Nanjing.
Moreover, scholars continued to gather in Nanjing.
Ma Mingluo said: "The students of the Imperial College and the Qinwang scholars do not have official status. They can only help with many things. I can't trust them to take responsibility."
Chongzhen asked: "Do you want to assign an officer to the Ministry of Internal Affairs?"
"Yes." Ma Mingluan nodded, "At least fifty."
Chongzhen nodded: "So do you have a suitable candidate?"
"Yes." Ma Mingluan replied, "Gu Gao, Wu Yingji and the others are competent enough."
"This won't work!" Chongzhen flatly refused, "Not for the imperial examination students and the Qin Wang scholars! At least not now!"
Chongzhen's reaction was somewhat beyond Ma Mingluan's expectation. He immediately raised his eyebrows and questioned: "Why can't the Imperial Academy Jiansheng and Qin Wangshizi do the same? In the past, whether it was arresting local sticks, returning tax money or selling bonds this time, these bachelors
Their expressions are very good, and now the people in Nanjing are praising them for their clean and upright conduct."
Chongzhen asked: "Then how long do you think their Feng Qingqi can be maintained?"
"This..." Ma Mingluan was speechless immediately, and he was not sure how long he could last.
Ma Mingluan was promoted all the way from county magistrate, prefecture magistrate to magistrate. He has a rich resume as a local official who is close to the people, so he is well aware of some of the long-standing abuses in officialdom.
It is said that officials in the Ming Dynasty were corrupt.
It is said that the subordinate officials in the Ming Dynasty were naughty and cunning.
But in fact, the officials of the Ming Dynasty were also very enthusiastic when they first entered the officialdom. At least most of the officials with Jinshi background wanted to do something for the court and the people of the world.
And those subordinate officials are not so naughty and cunning as soon as they enter the yamen.
When many subordinate officials first entered the government office as errands, they actually wanted to do something, and they also thought about relying on their abilities and status to protect the people in their neighbors.
But in the end, all the officials and subordinates were lost.
As they drifted along in the officialdom for a long time, they all forgot their original intentions.
After thinking about it, Ma Mingluan said seriously: "I will supervise them!"
"Just you?" Chongzhen smiled, "You are so busy, do you still have the energy to supervise them?"
Ma Mingluan was speechless again. Yes, he was so busy. How could he still have the energy to supervise his subordinates? The subordinates below him even less had the energy to supervise them.
But Mingluo would not be easily persuaded.
He added: "A whole set of strict regulations can be formulated."
Chongzhen said: "Yes, this view is a step higher than before. It has risen from the rule of men to the rule of law. However, laws and regulations also need to be implemented by people. Do you think the Imperial College Jiansheng and Qin Wang Shizi are competent now?"
Ma Mingluan was silent for a moment, but still shook his head: "Most students and scholars are not competent."
"So, don't think about selecting officials for the Ministry of Internal Affairs from among the Imperial College students and Qinwang scholars for the time being. In the future, the achievements of these scholars and students will be limitless, but now they have not been polished, so it may be difficult for them to take on major roles.
." Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "Fortunately, after the bond issuance is completed, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will no longer be so busy."
"That's it, I understand." Ma Mingluan bowed his hands and turned to leave, but was stopped by Chongzhen again.
"Wait a minute." Chongzhen waved and said, "Ma Qing, since you are here, don't leave in a hurry. I just want to talk to you about the errands of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the next few months."
