Chapter five hundred and eighty third silver standard
Hearing that Li Zhi said that he wanted to build a bank to issue banknotes, Li Laosi was stunned and a little confused.
In fact, Li Laosi despised banknotes so much that he didn't even understand why Li Zhi, who always considered the interests of the people, would think of issuing banknotes.
There were banknotes in the Ming Dynasty, and the banknotes of the Ming Dynasty were called treasure notes. However, there is no doubt that this banknote was a complete failure. It was completely a tool for the government to plunder private wealth.
The problem of banknotes is ultimately a question of credit. Whether a government can issue banknotes for circulation ultimately depends on whether the government has credit. Banknotes in the Ming Dynasty also circulated in large quantities among officials and citizens. However, after all, because the government had no credit, it led to
Paper money depreciates rapidly and eventually becomes unused.
The issuance of a banknote should be limited in a limited market. The ultimate role of currency is circulation. In a given market, the demand for circulation is limited. If the currency issued exceeds the demand for circulation
, the currency will depreciate significantly.
After Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he began to promote banknotes. However, Zhu Yuanzhang did not attach much importance to the credibility of banknotes. In his eyes, the best use of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes was undoubtedly that they could be used directly as money, and they could be used to plunder private products and make a lot of money.
Compensation. During the Hongwu period, in the twenty-fourth year of the issuance of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes, an average of 5.15 million ingots were issued every year. In the twenty-third year of Hongwu period, the number of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes was issued to 15 million ingots.
The eventual consequences of issuing so many additional banknotes in a market where economic growth is slow and where silver already serves as currency can be imagined.
Under the huge monetary impact, the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes depreciated sharply. At first, Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes were always equivalent to one tael of silver, which could be exchanged for one meter or one stone. After that, they depreciated all the way. Lu Rong, a Jinshi during the Chenghua period, said: "The treasure banknotes are now only
It is used by the government, but it is always worth only two cents of silver and two cents of money."
After a hundred years, the treasure banknotes will depreciate to 0.2% of their face value.
However, for a long time in the Ming Dynasty, and even until the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming government forcibly used depreciated treasure notes to purchase goods and distribute military pay and salaries. It can be seen that the Ming treasure notes were actually completely used by the Ming government to plunder the people.
When Li Laosi heard that Li Zhi said that he wanted to issue banknotes, he pondered for a long time and said: "Master, we are not a government government after all. The banknotes issued may not be used by anyone. Even if they can make a little money at the beginning, no one will use them soon.
Forcing people to buy and sell with banknotes will probably cause dissatisfaction among the people."
Hearing what Li Laosi said, Li Zhi smiled, knowing that Li Laosi had misunderstood what he meant.
This is not to blame Li Laosi. After all, Li Laosi has only seen the Ming Dynasty's banknotes, and he has only seen this kind of banknotes that were a complete failure. In his eyes, banknotes are used by the government to plunder private wealth.
Li Zhi shook his head and said: "Li Laosi, our purpose of issuing currency is not to plunder people's wealth. If we have one tael of silver in the treasury, we will issue one tael of silver banknotes. Our banknotes can be sent to the bank anytime and anywhere.
When exchanging silver of equal value, there is no problem of depreciation at all. In this way, the total number of currencies on the market will not increase, and the currency will not depreciate. What we have to do is to give the people a set of currencies that they can use and collect with confidence."
"There is currency chaos in the market today. Not only is the quality of silver a problem, but also counterfeit coins and bad money are rampant. Once people get copper coins of better quality, they hide them at home and never take them out for use.
It is bad money mixed with lead. Depending on the type of copper coins used by buyers, sellers have different prices in the market, and the currency is very confusing."
"Such a confusing currency value sometimes makes it impossible to carry out transactions. Sometimes buyers buy goods with good quality and high quality, but the seller cannot tell the authenticity for a while, but does not believe that the buyer's money is good money and insists on buying goods with inferior quality.
The price of money was traded, and the two broke up in the end."
"The chaotic currency system has affected the prosperity of the market."
"When our banknotes are issued, people will no longer have such problems."
Li Laosi was stunned for a moment and said, "I misunderstood what my boss meant."
The paper money system Li Zhi mentioned, although it seems to use paper money, is actually still based on the silver standard. Each paper money corresponds to a fixed silver value, and can be exchanged for silver at any time at Li Zhi's bank. On the surface, the paper money is one
Paper is actually no different from using silver, it's just more convenient.
In fact, such silver-standard banknotes were not unavailable in the Ming Dynasty. The banknotes of major banks were actually such banknotes, but the scope of use was very limited. Some merchants with large transactions sometimes deposited silver in banks for convenience.
, and then carry out the transaction with the banknote. The party who receives the banknote takes the banknote to the bank to get the money and complete the transaction.
At the moment of transaction, the bank's banknote plays the role of silver standard currency.
In this way, the banknotes that can be exchanged for silver naturally do not have the problem of depreciation. Even if they are kept for ten years, a 100-tael banknote will still be worth 100 taels.
What Li Zhi has to do is to reduce the step of the payee going to the bank to withdraw money through long-term credit. Let the banknotes be used directly in the circulation link to facilitate both parties in the transaction.
Of course, if the banknote holder does not believe in Li Zhi's credit and insists on coming to the bank to exchange money, Li Zhi will handle it immediately.
Li Laosi nodded and said: "If the Duke issues money like this, not only will he not compete with the people for profit, but he will actually benefit one party." After a pause, Li Laosi said again: "If the court accuses us of issuing banknotes without authorization, we will also
It can be said that the banknotes we issue are actually just banknotes. Banks all over the world can issue banknotes, so what does it matter if we issue a few banknotes? If the people are willing to accept and use our banknotes, they can’t blame us."
Li Zhi smiled and said, "You are right! This bank is called Jinqi Bank. Who is the person in charge of the bank?" Li Zhi thought for a while and said to the bodyguard beside him: "Call Yue Shande."
Yue Shande was one of Li Zhi's childhood playmates, a man with an old-fashioned personality. Yue Shande defected to Li Zhi in the eighth year of Chongzhen's reign. Li Zhi saw that he was quite principled, so he made him work as an accountant under Xie Liangyou in these years. After nine years of training,
Yue Shande has become the chief auditor of the Accounting Department of the Shogunate and is very skilled and sensitive to money and numbers.
Now Li Zhi is the admiral of Tianjin, and he can be appointed to official positions below that of general. Although Yue Shande is only an auditor, he also has the official status of a guard commander.
When he saw Li Zhi, Yue Shande knelt down and saluted. When he heard Li Zhi's "no courtesy", he got up.
Li Zhi looked at Yue Shande and said with a smile: "Yue Shande, I will ask you to be responsible for opening a big bank. Are you interested?"
When Yue Shande heard this, he knew that Li Zhi was going to reuse him. He thought about it and felt that it was time for him to be taken seriously by the Duke of Jin after he had defected to the Duke of Jin for nine years. He said: "If he is under the protection of the Duke of Jin,
