The Water Conservancy and Grain Bank is located in Baling, the capital city of Yuezhou.
Chongzhen immediately sent his flying cavalry to Baling and asked Qian Mo, the big boss of the Water Conservancy and Grain Bank, to come to Wuling, the capital of Changde. Qian Mo rushed to Wuling the next morning after receiving the imperial edict.
Qian Mo is a scholar from Jiashan and is only nineteen years old this year.
At the beginning, together with his elder brother Qian Xi and his brother-in-law Xia Wanchun, he was ordered to serve by King Qin.
It's just that the Qian brothers were mediocre in military talent, but quite talented in business. They were later selected by Chongzhen to serve as the chief managers of the Shipping and Shipbuilding Bank and the Water Conservancy and Food Bank respectively.
"I, Qian Mo, would like to bow to the Holy Spirit, Jin An." Qian Mo paid homage with a great salute.
"Get up." Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "Qian Mo, I heard that you use white slips to buy grain from the people?"
"There is such a thing." Qian Mo did not deny it, nodded and said, "Because the water conservancy and grain bank has only more than eight million taels of silver left, but the project to strengthen the Yangtze River embankment has been fully rolled out, so I dare not use these eight million taels.
If millions of taels of silver are misappropriated for other purposes, we can only write white notes to the people first, and then pay back after the grain is sold."
Chongzhen frowned and said, "If you don't have any money, you can borrow it."
"I went to borrow it." Qian Mo shook his head and smiled bitterly, "But I can't borrow it."
"What do you mean, you can't borrow it?" Chongzhen said in disbelief, "The Royal Bank refuses to lend you money?"
"It's not that I refuse, it's that I don't have it." Qian Mo smiled bitterly again and said, "There are only 40 million taels left in the Royal Bank's bank. The Crown Princess said that is a reserve fund. You said, Your Majesty, not to use it easily."
"Ah?" Chongzhen said in disbelief, "The Royal Bank's bank account only has 40 million taels left?"
Chongzhen really didn't expect that when he left Nanjing, there were more than 100 million taels of silver in the Royal Bank's bank, but now there are only 40 million taels left?
All the other money was loaned out?
Isn’t the speed of borrowing money too fast?
So what is the total amount of currency circulating in the Ming Dynasty now?
You must know that the Ming Royal Bank is equivalent to the central bank.
Qian Mo added: "I also asked the Industrial and Commercial Bank and the Shipping and Shipbuilding Bank to borrow money, but they were even tighter on money, and they turned to borrow money from me. It's really evil. This year, there is a shortage of money everywhere in Jiangnan.
"
"Everywhere in the south of the Yangtze River is short of money?" Hearing this, Chongzhen suddenly came to his senses.
Good guy, this is due to lack of liquidity and a money shortage. It is a bit beyond Chongzhen's expectation that Ming Dynasty will have a money shortage so quickly.
Insufficient liquidity, simply put, means there is a shortage of currency on the market.
The currency of the Ming Dynasty was silver, which meant that there was not enough silver circulating in the market.
The reason is that with the vigorous development of Jiangnan handicraft industry, various commodities are produced in large quantities. Then, because workers in the workshops receive wages, they also have a demand for consumption. The consumption of workers also promotes the development of the service industry.
Various service industries have also been able to flourish.
This means that the number of people participating in economic life has greatly increased.
The population participating in economic life has greatly increased, and consumer demand has also greatly increased.
But consumption requires payment, so the frequency and total amount of money used have also greatly increased.
A simple calculation can be made. The poor people in the agricultural era lived like animals. Except for selling grain for money when they needed to pay taxes, they rarely had a few taels of silver in their pockets throughout the year. These people hardly participated in economic life, so
There will be no shortage of money. Those officials, nobles, gentry and merchants have a lot of money in their hands. Naturally, there will be no shortage of silver, so there is no chance of a money shortage in the market.
But the situation has changed now.
Now the 10 million or even 30 million people in Jiangnan are deeply involved in economic life, because they all receive wages from workshops or factories, or make money by opening restaurants, teahouses, restaurants, etc., so
He had a few taels of silver in his pocket, and had even accumulated a considerable fortune.
These small households have not developed the habit of depositing money in bank accounts. This is mainly for convenience, because they only have so little money in total. They can’t earn much interest by depositing money in bank accounts, but it is troublesome to deposit and withdraw money.
The situation is tight, so the willingness to deposit in bank accounts is very low, resulting in a large amount of money flowing into the private sector.
Jiangnan has a population of 30 million, and each person holds an average of 10 taels of silver in his hand, which is 300 million!
The total amount of silver in the Ming Dynasty is about 700 million taels. Excluding the silver in the hands of Jiannu, hypocrites and Zhang Xianzhong, the total stock of silver in the Ming Dynasty should be about 400 million taels.
Among them, a considerable part was hidden in the cellar by the rich man.
The total stock of silver is 400 million, and 300 million taels have been dispersed into the hands of the people, and part of it is buried deep in the cellar. It is no wonder that there is a money shortage in the market. Even the Royal Bank has only 40 million taels of silver left in reserve.
Because of this, Qian Mo couldn't borrow money to buy grain even though he searched everywhere.
But fortunately, I made a lot of money from Yunnan this time and got a lot of money.
At that moment, Chongzhen asked Qian Mo: "Have you calculated how much money you need?"
Qian Mo said: "I have already made a rough estimate. According to the Wanli Fish Scale Book, the total cultivated land area of Huguang Province is more than 91 million acres. Previously, due to military disasters and tax evasion, the cultivated area was once less than 30 million acres."
However, the situation has improved greatly in the past two years, especially this year. Before the autumn harvest, I visited various prefectures and nearly half of them were abandoned, but most of them were barren mountainous lands, and the fertile paddy fields were basically cultivated."
Chongzhen said: "That means nearly 50 million acres have been planted. Is that what you mean?"
"Yes." Qian Mo said, "And we basically grow one season of wheat and one season of rice. This year's harvest is good, and the average harvest is three stones per mu. There is no problem."
"So even if we calculate it as 40 million acres, we can still harvest 120 million dan of grain."
"According to the number of dings recorded in the fish scale atlas, there are more than 4 million dings in Huguang Province, and the population should be around 12 million. Taking into account the population loss, the population of the entire Huguang Province should now be around 10 million, even if
Calculated based on the per capita ration of four dan, leaving 40 million dan is enough to eat."
"So, the surplus grain in Huguang Province is at least 80 million dan."
After a pause, Qian Mo continued: "Even at the price of one stone, one penny and five cents, it will require at least 12 million taels of silver. I really don't have the ability to collect such a large amount of silver now."
"How can one stone and one penny be five cents?" Chongzhen said, "This price is too evil."
"I also think this price is too shady." Qian Mo said, "But the price of food in Huguang this year is only this."
"The price of grain is too low, which will hurt farmers' enthusiasm. Then they will not grow grain next year. This is not good." Chongzhen said flatly, "Just buy grain at the prevailing price in previous years."
Qian Mo said: "In previous years, the going price was five qian per stone, so it would cost 40 million taels."
Chongzhen said: "Forty million taels is forty million taels. I will figure out a way to deal with the money. You just go and buy it. I want all the 80 million shi of grain to go into the granary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Not a single grain is allowed to flow into the hands of black-hearted grain merchants."
hand."
"Accept the decree." Qian Mo responded respectfully and said, "It's just a matter of money, Your Majesty?"
Obviously, Qian Mo was still worried that if he didn't have any money, he would still have to make an IOU to the people.
Chongzhen said: "That's right, I got more than eight million taels of silver from Yunnan this time plus jewelry worth fifty million taels, so you don't have to worry about the silver."
Qian Mo was really relieved now.
After sending Qian Mo away, Chongzhen began to think about how to solve the money shortage.
To be honest, the arrival of the money shortage caught Chongzhen a little off guard. He originally thought that the money shortage would not break out until the end of next year, but he did not expect that it would be more than a year in advance.
However, this is enough to prove how rapid the development of Jiangnan's handicraft industry has been.
Chongzhen is even a little impatient to go back to Nanjing to see how much has changed?
As for how to solve the money shortage, the silver standard requires large-scale mining of silver, and the gold standard requires large-scale mining of gold. As long as there is sufficient supply of silver or gold in the market, the phenomenon of money shortage will naturally disappear.
The Ming Dynasty was a silver standard, but expecting to mine silver to alleviate the money shortage was obviously not feasible.
Because even Yunnan, which produces the most silver, only mines a few hundred thousand taels a year. How can this small amount of silver alleviate the money shortage? Even if it is stuffed between teeth, it is not enough.
So there are only two ways now.
One is to plunder the money of hypocrites and slave builders.
Loot all the 300 million taels of silver from the hands of the hypocrites and Jiannu.
However, this method can only provide temporary relief, but it can only cure the symptoms but not the root cause. Even if all the 300 million taels of silver are plundered, it will not last long. At most, the money shortage will break out again in one year.
Therefore, the most fundamental way is to issue bank notes and give them circulation properties.
Only by adopting the bank note system can the Royal Bank become a true central bank. Then the Royal Bank only needs to invest 100 million equivalent bank notes in commercial banks such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank, the Shipping and Shipbuilding Bank, and the Water Conservancy and Food Bank.
, it can generate 300 million or even 400 million liquidity in the market.
The multiplier effect of the base currency can reach up to 7.5 times.
But given the level of industrial development in the Ming Dynasty, it would be great to have a threefold multiplier effect.
Chongzhen estimated that the Royal Bank would need to issue at least another 100 million silver notes, which would create liquidity worth 300 million to 400 million taels in the market. In this way, the total amount of currency circulating in the market would increase from 300 million taels of silver to 100 million taels of silver.
If it becomes 600 million taels of silver, the money shortage will disappear, and inflation may even occur in turn.
The so-called banknotes are actually the Ming Dynasty version of RMB. Regarding this, Chongzhen even had prepared banknote printing technology.
Once necessary, the bond printing factory can directly print in large quantities. Of course, the anti-counterfeiting technology, especially the encryption technology, needs further optimization.
[Note: Some readers have reported that the author has deviated from the main line and is too confusing, but it is not true, because now the plot has been fully unfolded, and the people and things that should be explained must be explained, otherwise it will appear abrupt when used later, so
It is recommended that those who like to watch the plot of slave building can jump to the chapter and read]
