On the first day of March, on the recommendation of his father-in-law Cui Wending, Li Zhi and Cui Wending went to find Qian Laoer, who was said to be the best banknote craftsman in Tianjin.
Cui Wending rode a horse and walked side by side with Li Zhi. Halfway there, Cui Wending looked at Li Zhi's gorgeous ceremonial guard with some regret and said: "My lord, I still remember how you looked when you came to my house to propose marriage. At that time, you were still
A deputy of a thousand households. Who would have known that a few years later, the Duke of Jin has become the Duke of Tianjin in the Ming Dynasty."
Li Zhi heard that there was something in Cui Wending's words, so he smiled and said nothing.
Seeing that Li Zhi didn't say this, Cui Wending thought for a while and said directly: "My lord, Cui Changwu is now the commander of the third-grade guard. He wears a black gauze hat and a bright red official robe all day long. He is very majestic.
I can't stand it in front of him!"
Li Zhi looked at Cui Wending and guessed what Cui Wending meant. Cui Wending is less than fifty years old now, in good health, and still wants to be an official.
Cui Wending saw that Li Zhi was still silent, so he had no choice but to introduce himself and said: "My lord, when a suitable position becomes available, how about you let me work under you?"
Li Zhi asked: "The father-in-law's business is not going to be done?"
"For small business matters, let Cui He's younger brother, my son Cui Xuesheng, who was born by my concubine, do it. He is also twenty-five years old. When others heard that he was the younger brother of the Duke's wife, they all respected him, and no one
Dare you lie to him!"
Li Zhi smiled, nodded and said, "Okay, if there is a suitable position in the future, I will ask my father-in-law to take it and let him also become an official."
When Cui Wending heard the last sentence, he laughed loudly and gently patted Li Zhi's shoulder several times.
Seeing that Li Zhi agreed to his request, Cui Wending was in a good mood, raised his hand and said:
"Guo Gong, the Qian Laoer I introduced to you is said to have a skill of making 'watermarks' passed down from his ancestors. He specializes in making paper for banknotes for major banks in Tianjin. The paper made by Qian Laoer has something like
All kinds of watermarks can be seen by looking at the light. So whether Qian Laoer's printing workshop is doing well, it is said that Qian Laoer charges one penny to make a banknote, and can make a net profit of six or seven taels of silver a month.
"
Li Zhi is looking for money, naturally, to print banknotes. As long as Li Zhi is willing to spend money, the cost of counterfeit banknotes will be greatly increased, and the probability of counterfeit banknotes will be reduced. To prevent counterfeiting of banknotes, it is natural to use special
Material production requires the use of watermark technology.
Li Zhi followed Cui Wending into the Printing Alley and saw large printing workshops on both sides of the alley. In the largest courtyard in the alley, Li Zhi found Qian Laoer.
Qian Laoer, a middle-aged man in his early thirties, was producing banknote paper in the yard. When he saw Li Zhi coming, he and all his employees knelt at the door of the yard. However, although Qian Laoer was kneeling on the ground, his attitude was very
The philistine knelt down and looked Li Zhi up and down with his eyes.
Li Zhi also took a look at Qian Laoer and saw that his feet were bare and there was a piece of dog skin plaster on his head. He looked really indecent.
Li Zhi waved his hand vaguely and asked Qian Laoer to stand up.
Cui Wending said loudly: "Second Qian, the Duke came to you to discuss printing a new type of banknote. You have been making banknotes for so many years, so you must have done some research on anti-counterfeiting methods?"
Qian Laoer got up, looked at Cui Wending, and then stared at Li Zhi for a while, as if he was wondering what kind of banknote Li Zhi wanted to print, and then said: "Master Guo, this matter of anti-counterfeiting is up to you.
How much money are you willing to spend? As long as you are willing to spend the money, there is a lot to be said about the anti-counterfeiting of this bank note. If the Duke of Guo spends enough money, it is impossible for ordinary forgers to spend so much money to create a set of counterfeiting equipment."
"For example?"
"For example, the government-printed banknotes follow the method of the Yuan Dynasty, using mulberry paper as the main material of the banknotes, and adding a large amount of discarded official paper into pulp as ingredients. The banknotes produced in this way have a unique blue-gray color.
It is extremely honest, and although it is heavier, it is difficult to imitate.”
"For example, all banks in Tianjin now ask me to use paper to make watermarked banknotes for their banknotes. After I make a blank banknote, I send it to another workshop to print the pattern, and then stamp it with the bank's signature
The big seal, the private seal of the bank keeper, makes it impossible for forgers to imitate it."
"If the Duke is willing to spend money, he can also go to the capital to find Liu Mingtao and ask him to make extremely fine carvings. Liu Mingtao's carving skills are very good! The lead plates he carved can be printed on half a palm-sized piece of paper.
There are dozens of small characters, and ordinary forgers cannot afford to spend so much money on such fine engravings."
After Qian Laoer said this, he took a blank piece of paper with a watermark from an apprentice next to him.
"My lord, take a look, this is the watermark paper I made."
Li Zhi took the piece of paper and looked at the sky. He saw the four watermarks "Zhan's Bank" printed on the inside of the paper.
Li Zhi looked at Qian Laoer, nodded, and said: "Okay, Qian Laoer, I intend to hire you as the supervisor of the mint, responsible for the production of watermarked mulberry paper banknote paper. I will give you ten yuan a month."
How about two silver coins a month?"
Qian Laoer's eyes lit up when he heard that Li Zhi hired him. He then became respectful to Li Zhi, tore off the dog skin plaster on his head, bowed to Li Zhi and said, "Okay! Why don't you think about it? Follow me.
The Duke of Guo's work is done by officials. As long as the Duke of Guo thinks highly of Qian Lao Er, Qian Lao Er will have no problem with him!"
Li Zhi saw that Qian Lao Er secretly asked for an official position from him as soon as he came up, and he was a little dissatisfied with Qian Lao Er's philistine style. However, technical talents are rare, and Li Zhi could not ask a technician to be selfless and caring for the world.
Li Zhi said calmly: "If you do it for one or two years without making mistakes, one hundred households will not be able to escape."
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On March 15th, the first branch of Li Zhijinqi Bank opened in Fanjiazhuang and began to issue banknotes.
The minimum denomination of Li Zhi's banknotes is one cent of silver. There are five denominations in total, including five cents of silver, one cent of silver, five cents of silver and one tael of silver.
In order to publicize the opening of this bank, "Tianjin Daily" conducted a full five-day warm-up, analyzing the convenience of this bank's banknotes from various angles, and encouraging people to deposit their money in Tianjin Bank in exchange for banknotes.
Of course, convenience alone cannot make people develop the habit of using banknotes as currency. The front page of "Tianjin Daily" published Li Zhi's big trick to promote the use of banknotes. If citizens use banknotes from Jinqi Bank to pay taxes,
A banknote of one tael denomination can be used to offset the tax of one tael or two cents of silver.
In other words, if you deposit your money in Jinqi Bank and exchange it for banknotes, you can save 2% in taxes.
This is a free bargain. Although the 2% tax discount is not a big sum of money, you can get such a discount simply by depositing money in the bank. Who would not do such a good thing? The people of Fanjiazhuang
They crowded into Li Zhi's first bank and queued up to change their banknotes.
Even other vendors near Fanjiazhuang and even vendors from Tianjin Acropolis came. These vendors all had to pay commercial tax, and there was a long queue in front of the bank.
However, the bank's counters are limited and the speed at which banknotes can be changed is limited. Many vendors looked at the long queue stretching on the road and knew that they would not be able to change banknotes within a long time, so they gave up.
Although these vendors did not receive banknotes in exchange, the scarcity of Jinqi Bank banknotes was deeply imprinted in the minds of these vendors. In the days to come, if customers use Jinqi Bank banknotes when buying their goods, these vendors will be
One hundred and twenty happy. Even if the customer takes one tael of silver banknotes to add one tael of silver to buy goods, these vendors are willing.
