() "Your Majesty, there is a saying in my time that whoever controls finance controls the world."
"What's the explanation?" Emperor Chongzhen was confused when he heard this.
Zhong Jinwei explained: "This is about the ultimate and biggest benefit of banknotes. Whoever controls the issuance of banknotes can hold the neck of the country that settles banknotes."
Emperor Chongzhen and Wen Tiren had a lot of question marks on their heads. How could it be possible?
Zhong Jinwei continued to explain with the little knowledge he had: "Of course, it does not mean that the court can just print banknotes. There are also a series of things that work together to achieve this effect."
In fact, what Zhong Jinwei was talking about was the power of modern finance. Why the country did not dare to open up the financial industry was because it was afraid of being controlled by foreign capital. This has nothing to do with banknotes, but banknotes are just one of the ways of expression.
"Master Zhong, please speak more carefully, I don't understand something." Emperor Chongzhen asked Zhong Jinwei in a very honest manner.
"Then let's take it step by step." Zhong Jinwei said, imitating an expert.
"The reserve system was established. The common people took the banknotes and used them. They found it very convenient and preserved their value, so they were happy to use it. But in the early days, the imperial court only printed one thousand taels of silver banknotes, and the people didn't have enough. Why?
manage?"
Wen Tiren calmed down and said nothing, but just looked at Zhong Jinwei. Emperor Chongzhen was young after all, so he was moved by Zhong Jinwei's words and asked: "What should we do?"
"Ask them to bring their silver coins to the court, and the court will give him banknotes. Then he will have banknotes to use."
"What's the benefit?" Wen Tiren stared at this.
"The good thing is that the court doesn't need to prepare a reserve fund, so the court can print banknotes."
"Printable banknotes are not imperial banknotes, they are just substitutes for common people's silver." Wen Tiren pointedly pointed out that the original function of banknotes was actually a substitute for physical currency.
"Take your time." Zhong Jinwei replied with a smile.
"If this continues, will the imperial court's reserves be sufficient? Theoretically speaking, no matter how many banknotes there are in the market, they will be in a one-to-one ratio with the imperial reserve reserves, and can handle any size of exchange."
This is conceivable, and neither Emperor Chongzhen nor Wen Tiren had any doubts.
"At this time, the court can print more banknotes. For example, if the reserve is one million taels, the common people may only come to exchange for 800,000 taels at most. This is equivalent to an extra reserve of 200,000 taels. The court will print
A banknote of 1.2 million taels comes out. The extra banknotes of 200,000 taels can be used."
In this way, the imperial court can get an extra 200,000 taels out of thin air without having to worry about depreciation, which would be great. Emperor Chongzhen thought beautifully that he was short of money right now. If he could print out 200,000 taels immediately, one million taels would be enough.
Better.
Unexpectedly, Zhong Jinwei came to a turning point: "However, these two hundred thousand taels cannot be used casually."
"Why?" Wen Tiren listened carefully now and could no longer feel that he hadn't eaten much and was hungry.
"Because you came out to fool around, you will have to pay back sooner or later." Zhong Jinwei inserted a famous saying from later generations, feeling a little secretly proud.
Not understanding, Emperor Chongzhen became a little anxious and asked hurriedly: "Master Zhong, what do you say?"
"Because there is actually no real reserve fund for these two hundred thousand taels. If the court uses it directly, it may be okay this time. However, what about once, twice, three times, and then? The final result
There is definitely only one ending: more and more banknotes are in the hands of the people, and eventually they are afraid of the devaluation of banknotes and exchange them for silver. As a result, there will be an embarrassing situation of insufficient reserves for exchange, and credibility will be lost."
"Then how should we use these two hundred thousand taels?" Emperor Chongzhen was very concerned about this issue.
"Follow a principle: when paper money goes out, the real thing comes in; when the real thing comes in, the paper money goes out."
Now even Wen Tiren was stunned: "Uncle Zhongxing means that all banknotes must have corresponding reserves? Doesn't that mean there is no extra two hundred thousand taels?"
"No, the physical objects here do not necessarily have to be silver. They can also be other assets, such as jewelry, jewelry, houses, fields and other valuable things."
"Master Zhong, please explain more carefully." Emperor Chongzhen and Wen Tiren asked each question, and I cooperated with Zhong Jinwei.
"It's still the same example as before. Didn't the imperial court have an extra two hundred thousand taels of banknotes? At this time, Zhang San, a common man, didn't have any silver taels in his hand, but he wanted to do some business or buy something urgently needed, so he could take his
He would use his house and other valuable things mentioned above as collateral for the loan, and the court would give him banknotes at a discount based on the value of his house. In this way, the banknotes would be used."
Wen Tiren vaguely understood, isn't it just some business of the ticket office now?
Zhong Jinwei didn't know Wen Tiren's thoughts, but he still said: "As for Zhang San, if he wants to return the banknote within the specified period, he can also pay a certain amount of interest or handling fee. In this way, Zhang San will return the principal.
After that, the extra 200,000 taels of banknotes printed by the imperial court were still in the hands of the imperial court, but Zhang San got the interest. Wouldn’t the imperial court benefit from it?”
"Your Majesty, the loans mentioned by Zhongxing Bo are similar to Wang Anshi's Qingmiao Law of the Song Dynasty and folk usury. But they are better."
Zhong Jinwei watched Wen Tiren report to Emperor Chongzhen without saying anything, just to see how much Wen Tiren understood.
"How to be better?"
"Both the Youth Law and private loan sharking require capital, but Zhongxing Bo said that there is basically no capital. In fact, it is a waste of money."
Emperor Chongzhen nodded, "Well, I like this business without capital."
"However, I think Zhang San can also borrow money from other people, such as wealthy private individuals, banks, banknotes, etc. The court may not be able to earn this interest money." Wen Tiren poured cold water on it again.
Wen Tiren understood quite well. Zhong Jinwei nodded secretly, but he did not say that he wanted to praise Wen Tiren, but answered his question: "The imperial court can compete with them, but they cannot compete with the imperial court. And, the most important thing is,
These banks and bank accounts must be controlled by the court and slowly be released when they mature in the future, and private lending must be cracked down on. This is very important and has a lot to do with people's livelihood."
Then, Zhong Jinwei put aside the bank issue for the time being and said to Emperor Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, this is just one of the benefits. There is more to say."
"Oh, Master Zhong, please continue." Upon hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen turned his gaze from Wen Tiren back to Zhong Jinwei.
"It is conceivable that this kind of banknotes issued in the form of reserves will not be able to meet the people's banknote usage requirements in the end. Because there are not so many silver taels. Even if gold is added as reserves in the future, there will be a day when it cannot be satisfied."
"So what to do?"
"The transformation from this form of reserve funds to credit banknotes means that reserves are no longer needed. The court prints them based on the total amount of banknotes that the people want to use."
"Isn't that the same old path of devaluation?" Wen Tiren frowned.
"So there is a need for a recycling system. If banknotes are found to be depreciating, they must be recycled. The method of recycling can be to use the court's tax revenue in the coming year as a guarantee and issue additional banknotes to recycle the previous banknotes."
The two ancients didn't understand again. This banknote and that banknote were confused.
Zhong Jinwei looked at their expressions, made a guess, and explained: "The banknotes guaranteed for taxation in the coming year can be renamed bonds. It is a bit special. Bonds can earn interest. This also attracts people to take out their banknotes to buy these bonds."
The reason. The bonds have a certain period. After this period, the court will take them back and pay the principal and interest to the people who purchased them."
"Master Zhong, doesn't that mean I still gave you banknotes?"
"The key lies in this period. For example, this year the court printed an extra 200,000 taels of banknotes, which caused the banknotes to depreciate. Then the court uses bonds to recover the 200,000 taels of banknotes, and next year it will print less 200,000 taels of banknotes.
, and then return the 200,000 taels of banknotes purchased by the people, so that the banknotes will not depreciate."
In fact, there are also issues such as economic development involved here, but if you really want to explain everything in detail, Zhong Jinwei doesn't have this ability, and people in the Ming Dynasty probably would have a hard time understanding it, so it's better to skip it.
The young man's thinking was still very fast, and Emperor Chongzhen immediately drew inferences from one instance to another: "Master Zhong, it's still in the reserve stage, isn't it possible to do the same?"
Zhong Jinwei didn't expect it. He was stunned for a moment, and then after thinking about it carefully, he couldn't help but praise: "Your Majesty is really amazing."
Then he added: "Your Majesty, this is possible, but it is best to establish the credibility of banknotes first."
Emperor Chongzhen and Wen Tiren both nodded, but maybe because as the king of a country, he always kept in mind what Zhong Jinwei said before.
Seeing that Zhong Jinwei seemed to have stopped talking, he asked: "Master Zhong, what you said before about pinching the neck of the country that settles banknotes, what do you mean by this? You haven't explained it yet?"
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My current pleasure is watching the number of clicks, red tickets, and collections slowly increase every day. Of course, there are even greater pleasures, as you know, but the number of words is too small now, so I don’t dare to ask for it. Here, thank you
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