Chapter 136 Official Supervisory Business Office, Market Exchange
Ma Mingluan agreed and stayed where he was.
Chongzhen said to Zhu Cihong again: "Chong'er, please invite your father-in-law and the crown prince to the front hall to discuss matters."
"Yes." Zhu Cixiang responded, and immediately went back to the back hall to invite Kang Wanwan and Kang Xi out.
Seeing Uncle Kang and the Crown Princess saluting Chongzhen, Ma Mingluan felt a little strange. He could understand asking Uncle Kang to discuss matters, but what the hell was asking the Crown Princess to do? Let a woman get involved in such an occasion?
Only Chongzhen knew best that the Crown Princess was a real business wizard.
From now on, the royal business will most likely be left to the Crown Princess to take care of.
"Sit down, everyone, sit down. There are a lot of things to be discussed today, and it's really tiring to stand." Chongzhen motioned for everyone to sit down, and then continued, "Let me tell you about the bond issuance first."
"Everyone in the world thinks that I issue bonds to raise wages."
"Even the Dukes in the court think so."
"Yes, they guessed it right. The purpose of issuing bonds is to raise wages."
"But they guessed wrong again. Issuing bonds is only the first step."
"The second step to do next is the key, and that is the transaction!"
"Bond trading?" Ma Mingluan couldn't help but ask, "Your Majesty, isn't it forbidden to trade bonds?"
"That is to prohibit private transactions among the people." Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "If bonds can be traded privately among the people, then the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be unprofitable, and my salary for training troops and fighting will be gone."
After doing so much, he did not hesitate to return tens of millions of tax dollars recovered, not just to raise wages.
"What profit can be gained from bond trading?" Ma Mingluan looked confused, "The bonds sold are bought back again? Then the money earned from selling the bonds will also go out? What's the use?"
Bond trading is like a layer of window paper, and it is very easy to pierce it.
But before it was revealed, I couldn't even think of it.
Chongzhen explained patiently: "Bonds are sold at one price, bought back at another price, sold again at another price, and returned at another price. Do you understand what I am saying?"
"This?" Ma Mingluo said in shock, "The Holy One said to buy low and sell high, is this possible?"
"Why not?" Chongzhen asked, "Is it okay if some people buy and some sell? We can set up a market exchange specifically for buying and selling bonds. All the officials and gentry of the Ming Dynasty can trade on the market as long as they provide their identity information.
A special account is created, and as long as money is deposited into this account in advance, you can participate in bond transactions."
"Transactions on the exchange must be conducted every day except holidays, with two hours each in the morning and afternoon."
“When selling bonds, you only need to report your account number and the type, quantity and price of the bonds sold, and the exchange staff will help you list the bonds. When buying bonds, you need to report your account number.
and the bond number and quantity that needs to be purchased, and an official from the stock exchange will buy it for him."
This is very close to modern securities trading.
That is, there is only one type of securities traded for the time being.
Kang Baiwan, Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong all have a refreshing feeling.
Kang Xi cast an admiring look at Chongzhen and said in her heart that the emperor was really a business genius.
"But..." Ma Mingluan was a little confused, "Those gentry merchants are not stupid either, will they be fooled?"
"Ma Qing, you are wrong. This is not cheating. This is just business." Chongzhen smiled and said, "For example, in about a month, I will lead Prince Qin to Xuzhou and conduct a military exercise to strengthen the military power.
, after the Tang newspaper was sent back to Nanjing, the Jiangnan gentry and merchants would be more confident about the Northern Expedition. Then, at this time, if someone sells bonds, even if the price rises above the original price, there will still be people willing to buy it."
"This." Ma Mingluan was speechless.
Chongzhen continued: "If the Ming army wins another battle at this time, even if it just defeats the bandits, the price of bonds will rise again after the news reaches Nanjing, and more people will open bond accounts on the stock exchange.
"
"Your Majesty, I understand." After hearing this, Ma Mingluan finally came to his senses.
After a pause, Ma Mingluan continued: "At this time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be able to sell the second and third tranches of bonds, right?"
"Yes, this is the best time to sell the second phase of bonds, and no matter how low the interest rate of the second phase of bonds is set, there will still be people buying it, because by this time, the entire Jiangnan gentry and merchants may have discovered that buying bonds
, you can still make money without having to pay at maturity, and you can make a lot of money!”
How many people who speculate in futures will actually take delivery?
Ma Mingluo said: "So what the Holy One means is that the Ministry of Internal Affairs should organize the market exchange, right?"
"No, the market exchange cannot be organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs." Chongzhen waved his hand and said solemnly, "The exchange that provides bond transactions can only be organized by businessmen, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs only has the power to supervise."
Official supervision and commercial management have been proven to be a feasible method.
Pure government agencies are prone to corruption and are not very efficient.
Pure business operations can easily lead to chaos in the economic order. The profit-seeking nature of capital has determined that once supervision is lost, the canal water that irrigates fertile fields will evolve into a flood that destroys everything.
Therefore, only the government-supervised commercial operation is the most reasonable solution.
This is not only the case for the market exchange, but also for all the industrial and commercial systems of the Ming Dynasty in the future.
"The market exchange can only be organized by businessmen?" Ma Mingluan was stunned. Kang Wanwan and his daughter Zhu Cixiang also didn't expect that such a yamen, which often involves tens of millions of taels of silver, could be handed over to businessmen?
"Why?" Zhu Cijiong asked, "Wouldn't it be better to leave it directly to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to organize it?"
"No." Chongzhen said seriously, "The daily turnover of the exchange will be an astronomical figure. Faced with such a huge amount of money every day, no one can be indifferent!"
"So, if the market exchange is placed under the control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs,"
"I'm afraid the chief, deputy chiefs and staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will have to be changed every six months."
Ma Mingluan remained silent. He was also asking himself whether he could withstand this huge temptation.
The answer is, he doesn't know. He doesn't know if he can resist the temptation and how long he can resist it.
Zhu Cijiong frowned and said: "But if the exchange is handed over to businessmen, wouldn't the price difference of buying low and selling high go to the businessmen who organized it? What will the Ministry of Internal Affairs get?"
"Dividends." Chongzhen said, "The Ministry of Internal Affairs does not participate in the preparation, but it does hold shares!"
"Obtaining shares?" Ma Mingluan said in astonishment, "What does the Holy One mean, is there a lot of businessmen buying shares in the exchange?"
"Of course." Chongzhen smiled slightly and said to Kang Baiwan, "My dear, I'll leave this matter to you. I've thought about it. The number of shares on the stock exchange is tentatively set at 10,000 shares, and the principal of each share is tentatively set.
Set it at ten thousand taels."
After a pause, Chongzhen said again: "The total equity capital is tentatively set at 100 million taels!"
"One hundred million!" Ma Mingluan couldn't help but gasped, so much?
Kang Baiwan also felt a little dizzy and a little frightened.
One hundred million taels? Your Majesty, this is too cruel. Where can I get so much money?
Besides, if you set the capital of the exchange so high, you will scare away interested merchants.
After all, it is quite stressful to take out so much equity capital at once, and it takes too long to recover the capital.
Chongzhen seemed to have guessed Kang Wanwan's thoughts and said with a smile: "Don't be afraid, my relatives. I won't force you to take out 100 million taels at once. I allow you to only subscribe part of the principal for the time being."
"This, that..." Kang Baiwan said, "May I ask, Your Majesty, how much is the pledge?"
Chongzhen thought for a while and said: "The Ministry of Internal Affairs holds 5,110 shares, but it does not participate in operations and is only responsible for supervision. The remaining 4,900 shares are management shares. Your relatives can subscribe first, and then find other colleagues to subscribe.
At the end of this month, you only need to subscribe for 10% of the capital, and the rest will wait until the end of the year. If the profit of each company is not enough to cover 30% of the principal, I will also return the previous 10% of the capital, and each company can do so at any time.
You can all exit."
Kang Baiwan thought for a while and asked: "What if each company's profit exceeds 30% of the equity capital at the end of the year?"
"Then there's nothing to say. Each family must pay off the remaining equity before the end of the year." Chongzhen said, "Including your in-laws, you must also pay off the capital. A business that can pay back its capital in three years is considered a good thing no matter what.
The business is stable, so there will be countless people vying for the top spot, and there is no need to worry about selling."
Kang Wanwan accepted this and asked: "Then, the stock exchange must have a spokesperson. Is this spokesperson selected by us businessmen who have invested in the stock, or is it appointed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs?"
"Recommend." Chongzhen said solemnly, "The Ministry of Internal Affairs will not appoint."
"That's it, I understand." Kang Baiwan breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this.
As the Holy One said just now, the market exchange is really a good business.
Fang Wenzhen, Zhang Han and businessmen from various places should be very interested.
As for the equity capital of 4.9 million taels, it is not worth mentioning at all.
But for Chongzhen, it is a huge amount of extra income.
Counting the 20 million from the debt sale, plus the 4.9 million equity capital that will be acquired, and the more than 1 million taels left from the Yangzhou Tax Bank and Nanjing Tax Bank, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will soon have
There must be 26 million!
With this large sum of money, Chongzhen could finally do some of the things he wanted to do.
The first thing to do, of course, is to make firearms, make firearms, make firearms!
The late Ming Dynasty was already at a critical juncture of the alternation between cold weapons and hot weapons. Although the advantages of hot weapons on the battlefield were not yet so obvious, and under certain conditions they might even be crushed by cold weapons, the historical trend was so great that it did not necessarily mean that
If anyone's will is changed, the world will definitely enter the era of hot weapons.
Furthermore, financial speculation will not promote industrial development.
Therefore, only by investing huge amounts of real gold and silver into military industry production, and then driving the development of industries in various other fields through the military industry, might it be possible to give birth to an industrial revolution in the Ming Dynasty.
This was also the first national policy established by Chongzhen for the Ming Dynasty.
Use the military industry to drive other industries!