Although this number is still far from the 30 million taels promised by Chongzhen, it is still scary.
You must know that at the peak of the Ming Dynasty, the total tax revenue per year was only 20 million taels of silver, but the profit of one institution of the Stock Exchange reached 18 million taels!
And this is just less than half a year's profit.
If we operate all year round, wouldn’t our profits double?
At least this is what the major shareholders present here envision.
But not long after, when the entire bond market collapses, they will find that this is just a wishful thinking. When the bond market collapses, the trading on the stock exchange will fall off a cliff.
But at this time, these shareholders are unpredictable.
So at this moment, including Ma Mingluo who attended the meeting on behalf of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, all the shareholders present at the meeting had only one idea. The enlightenment of the Holy Sage Meishan was absolutely true. Otherwise, how could the current exchange be possible?
Before Meishan became enlightened, it was very difficult for the Holy Master to raise hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.
But after Meishan realized his enlightenment, the Holy Emperor just set up an exchange at random, and the money flowed into the Ministry of Internal Affairs like running water, not to mention the Royal Bank, which can really scare people to death.
…
To say it scares people to death is an exaggeration, but it is true that it scares people.
And the people who were frightened were none other than the four cabinet elders of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Youyu, the left minister of the household department, Shen Shaofang, the right minister of the household ministry, and other senior officials of the cabinet and the six ministries.
Today happens to be the first day after the annual holiday ends.
Shi Kefa called Gao Hongtu and other three pavilion elders, as well as two household officials, Zhang Youyu and Shen Shaofang, to his duty room to discuss the matter of backpay to the officials in the capital.
At the end of last year, because the Ministry of Household Affairs could not come up with any money, only half of the salary was paid.
At the beginning of this year, relief packages were finally delivered to various provinces, and back wages can be paid back.
So Shi Kefa called Gao Hongtu and Zhang Youyu together to discuss a plan to pay out all the arrears of salary for Beijing officials and New Year's gifts.
Originally this was a very happy thing.
But when Gao Hongtu received a piece of news and told others, all the senior officials attending the cabinet meeting suddenly lost their good mood, and it was impossible to live this day.
The exchange actually made a profit of 18 million taels in the first half of last year?
At present, the entire Ming Dynasty’s tax revenue is only 10 million taels!
But the Ministry of Internal Affairs made a profit of 18 million taels from just one exchange!
In addition to the market place, the Ministry of Internal Affairs also has arsenals, ironworks factories, weaving factories, etc.
So last year, how much money did the Ministry of Internal Affairs, chaired by Ma Mingluan, earn?
Just now, they were extremely happy because the 1 million taels owed by various provinces were sent to Nanjing. However, compared with the 18 million taels from the market exchange, this 1 million taels suddenly became unpalatable.
"This is really unbelievable." Gao Hongtu said quietly, "How come it has been so easy to make money since Your Majesty became enlightened at Meishan? You can raise 60 million taels by issuing bonds, and you can just set up an exchange in a year.
It can also make a profit of 18 million taels, and this money is really flowing into the Holy Emperor's Ministry of Internal Affairs like running water!"
Shi Kefa and other senior officials were still digesting this shocking news.
Because this news is so shocking. At the beginning of last year, the Holy Emperor was still worried about not being able to raise a mere 500,000 taels of town salary. However, in less than a year, the Holy Spirit’s internal funds had reached nearly 100 million taels!
This does not include the silver in the Royal Silver Number that can be used at any time, there is more over there!
Limited by time and knowledge, Shi Kefa and the others naturally couldn't figure it out.
But what Chongzhen did was actually nothing unusual. It was nothing more than gathering idle funds in society through financial means and then harvesting leeks.
This kind of technique has been used sneakily by the kings and princes in Europe.
The capital of the Dutch East India Company was raised through the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
A small Netherlands, with a population of just over one million, can obtain powerful capital power through financial instruments, which can then support the crazy colonization of the world, not to mention the Ming Dynasty.
In essence, the Ming Dynasty did not lack silver. What it lacked was just the tools to make the money flow.
What Chongzhen did was to provide a financial instrument that was convincing enough and had enough room for appreciation to make the money accumulated in private cellars flow.
This is the situation, and those who understand this will naturally understand.
Those who don’t understand this will not understand even if they want to break their heads. This is a dimensionality reduction attack.
The financial economy, compared to the small commodity economy in the late Ming Dynasty, is really a dimensionality reduction attack.
However, it should be noted that the financial prosperity at this time was nothing but a false prosperity.
If these gathered financial capital cannot be directed to industry or overseas colonization, and more wealth is generated through industry or overseas colonization and fed back to financial capital, this false prosperity will soon be disillusioned.
And soon, the new financial economy of the Ming Dynasty would face a severe storm.
…
After the Lantern Festival, the stock exchange market was booming for two more days.
However, on the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, Sun Tinglan suddenly came to Wang Tao and said: "Wang Gong, quickly sell all the bonds you have on hand, don't keep even one or two!"
"Why is this?" Wang Tao asked in surprise.
"I think this heated situation will continue for a while."
"It's almost over." Sun Tinglan whispered, "Wang Gong, you might as well calculate the general ledger. Based on the current bond price and the total number of bonds before and after, it is already close to 300 million taels!"
I have to say that there are still smart people in this world.
Let's just say that Sun Tinglan is just a small cloth merchant. He doesn't understand liquidity depletion and financial speculation at all, but he has a keen sense of smell.
"So what? It's only three hundred million taels."
Wang Tao's thoughts were similar to those of other Jin gentry merchants.
This is also the common view of most people. Ming Dynasty must not have billions of silver?
So, three hundred million taels is just a small thing, and it has to go up, so there is plenty of money to be made!
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! But Sun Tinglan shook his head and said: "Anyway, I feel very bad. I sold it anyway. Wang Gong, you can do whatever you want."
After saying that, Sun Tinglan called his clerk and asked him to put all the bonds in his hand at a 50% increase in price. As a result, it took a long time before someone else bought the bonds.
"Wang Gong, I will go to the Royal Bank to redeem the money. You can do it yourself."
After saying that, Sun Tinglan took the banknote to the Royal Bank on Chaoku Street and withdrew all the 30,000 taels of silver from his account.
Seeing Sun Tinglan being so determined, Wang Tao was also a little shaken.
In the end, Wang Tao decided to trust Sun Tinglan's vision and put up all the bonds he had, but only half of them were sold, and no one took the remaining half.
At this point, the exchange’s liquidity has officially dried up.
[Note: Let me explain the liquidity depletion here: Suppose that two members, A and B, each have 10,000 taels of silver on hand. One day, member A went out and picked up a stone. He felt that the shape of the stone was particularly good, so he sold it for one tael of silver.
Member A also thought the stone was special and bought it. Then Member A regretted it and wanted to buy it back, so he priced it at two taels of silver. Member B thought it would be profitable and agreed. Then Member B also regretted it and bought the stone back...
...In this back and forth transaction, the price of the stone rose to 20,000 taels and was bought by member A. At this time, member A had the stone in his hand, and member B had 20,000 taels of silver in his hand. The total wealth of the two people did not change, but
The price of the stone has risen to 22,000 yuan, and members of the second group can no longer afford it, and their liquidity has been lost]
[Because the bonds in the book are dispersed and not sold as a whole, the liquidity will not dry up immediately, but will gradually fall into crisis. The specific manifestation is that as the bond prices continue to rise, the buying orders are getting smaller and smaller, and the selling orders are getting smaller and smaller.
There are more and more, and after it exceeds a critical point, it can no longer be sold. At this time, liquidity will dry up, and no one will buy it!】
[Note: These three hundred words are not counted and will be supplemented in three chapters later, with more than ninety words in each chapter]
Wang Tao happened to catch up with the critical point and sold half of the bonds, which was considered to be half of the capital.
But the remaining half of the bonds could no longer be sold. Wang Tao lowered the price from a 50% markup to a flat price, but no one sold it. At this time, he thought of what Sun Tinglan said and panicked.
Therefore, Wang Tao decisively reduced the price of the bonds he held by 10% and put them up for sale.
Wang Tao originally just wanted to sell the bonds in his hands as soon as possible, but inadvertently caused a stampede. In an instant, the platform was filled with selling orders with a 10% price reduction, and then no one bought it, and even more people sold it.
Although Wang Tao was a little annoyed, he was not too worried, thinking that he would be able to sell the bonds the next day.
What we were waiting for was a sharp decline for more than 20 consecutive days. Although there was a slight correction in the middle, there were still very few actual effective buying orders, so Wang Tao's bonds were still not sold.
It continued to fall until mid-February, and the price was only 20% of its original value.
At this time, the bond has basically fallen back to its original price, and it is said that there is no room for decline.
However, at this time, another terrible news came from the north. Jiannu had raised an army of 300,000 and launched an attack on Xuzhou. What we have to consider now is not whether Kaifeng, Guide and Xuzhou can hold it.
The question is not, but whether the Ming Dynasty can withstand it.
If the Ming Dynasty cannot withstand it, these bonds will immediately become waste paper!
After the news spread, bond trading immediately went into avalanche mode, not only falling below the original price, but also falling by 10% every day.
If Chongzhen had not set a 10% range limit, it might have dropped by more than 90% in one day!
But even if restrictions are set, it is just a last resort for a market that has completely lost confidence, so it continues to fall every day, with no signs of recovery at all.
As a result, people drown themselves in the Qinhuai River, Xuanwu Lake and even the Yangtze River every day.
Almost every day, swollen corpses can be found on the painted boats on the Qinhuai River and fishermen fishing in the Yangtze River, and most of these corpses are well-dressed, which is very sad.
As a result, some imperial censors began to report and criticize the Imperial Household Office for competing with the people for profit.
The talented censor even listed the top ten crimes to the Royal Household Office, and even said that the Royal Household Office should buy back the bonds at the original price as soon as possible.
