Paper money is nothing new in China. It was already used on a large scale in the Song Dynasty. By the Ming Dynasty, it was even more widely circulated.
However, the traditional feudal dynasties believed that their own shortcomings led to insufficient credit of banknotes, especially the Ming Dynasty. In addition to the relatively sufficient credit of banknotes in the early Ming Dynasty, by the middle and late periods of the Ming Dynasty, the credit of banknotes was basically getting lower and lower.
Among the many reasons that led to the collapse of banknotes, the most important one is that the authorities do not recognize it. When the government does not even accept banknotes, basically there is no hope that the public will recognize the value of banknotes.
The negative impact that paper money has left over the years has always been a stumbling block to the issuance of paper money in the Tang Empire.
For this reason, when the Tang Empire began to implement the paper currency plan in the early years, it adopted a curve-saving model, that is, the government did not issue banknotes directly, but the Royal Bank issued banknotes instead of banknotes.
The most important reason is that in the minds of the people, the government's credibility is really bad.
It’s not even as good as the bank notes issued by traditional bank accounts!
The definition of a bank note issued by the Royal Bank is actually a traditional bank note model, and its credit is endorsed by the Royal Bank, not by the state.
The essence of the banknote issued by the Royal Bank is not a legal banknote recognized by the law, but a deposit note issued separately by the Royal Bank!
People at the Royal Bank deposit real money into the Royal Bank, and then it is divided into many types according to personal wishes. One is registered savings. This kind of deposit opens a bank account for you, and the money is still in the account. Just take the passbook.
Can be taken out at any time.
In addition, there is a kind of bearer storage. After depositing the money, you do not open an account, but directly exchange it for the bearer deposit note issued by the Royal Bank. This kind of bearer deposit note issued by the Royal Bank recognizes the note but not the person. As long as
With this kind of note, you can withdraw the corresponding amount of real money from any branch of the Royal Bank.
The bearer deposit notes issued by the Royal Bank are all in a unified format, and the denominations are also fixed, ranging from a large denomination of one hundred taels, to fifty taels, ten taels, five taels, one tael, to five taels, one tael.
money.
Subsequently, small-amount bearer deposit notes with face values of ten cents, five cents, and one cent were issued.
The above-mentioned bearer deposit notes are also collectively referred to as bank notes!
Because it was endorsed by the Royal Bank and could be exchanged for real gold and silver from the Royal Bank at any time, it was accepted by merchants in the early days and gradually used as circulating banknotes. Later, it gradually extended to the circulation in daily life.
However, this kind of bank note is not legal currency in the final analysis. It is just a bearer deposit note issued by the Royal Bank itself.
In order to promote the use of banknotes, the officials of the Tang Empire also stipulated that bearer deposit notes issued by the Royal Bank could be used to pay taxes.
There are actually many kinds of such bills, but currently only the Royal Bank has the power to issue bearer bills, and other banks are prohibited. However, other banks are allowed to use checks and cashier's checks.
.
Needless to say, a check is a deposit in which a depositor deposits a certain amount of gold and silver in advance and then obtains a checkbook issued by the bank. When paying, the owner of the check directly fills in the amount, payee, and signature.
After stamping, the payee takes the check to the bank to withdraw funds. After the bank confirms that it is correct, it transfers the funds from the depositor's account.
This kind of check payment is specially issued for merchants. Without certain strength, you cannot enjoy check services. At the same time, because it is a registered mode, it also ensures the safety of funds and is welcomed by many merchants.
The cashier's check can be regarded as a large-value banknote that can be used under temporary restrictions. Before using it, the applicant needs to go to the bank to make a deposit in advance and then obtain the banker's check. Usually this kind of banker's check has a time limit. If it is within the limit,
If you do not withdraw cash within six months, the bank cashier's check will be directly invalidated and the relevant funds will be directly returned to the applicant's account. This kind of bank cashier's check adopts special features such as pre-deposit, registered, time limit, and unconditional redemption on sight.
Because bank cashier's checks are usually used for very large commercial transactions, the lowest denomination bank cashier's check has an amount of one thousand taels of silver, and there is no upper limit. As long as you dare to deposit it in advance, the bank will dare to issue you a bank cashier's check with the corresponding denomination.
Promissory note.
Small and medium denominations, bank notes that can be circulated and transferred for a long time, plus bank checks, plus bank cashier's checks, these three forms basically constitute the main commercial payment methods in the Tang Empire.
Of course, transferring money directly to the bank is also one of the ways.
It can also be seen from this that in fact, the various paper bills of value in the Tang Empire have nothing to do with the government. They are only related to the banks in the Tang Empire. People use banknotes not because of
A bank note is legal tender because it is a deposit instrument.
However, this situation cannot continue forever, because the Tang Empire will always issue legal banknotes, and it cannot be replaced by silver notes as it is now.
What's more, the only Royal Bank that can issue bearer deposit notes, that is, the banknotes currently in circulation, is a wholly-owned bank of the Royal Assets Division, but after all, it is still just a commercial bank.
It is naturally extremely inappropriate to hand over the country's currency issuance to a commercial bank.
However, Li Xuan also considered that people's current trust in the Royal Bank is obviously higher than their trust in the government, so when new banknotes are issued, he cannot directly abandon the Royal Bank.
To this end, with the intervention of Li Xuan, the Finance Department and the Royal Bank held relevant discussions and finally decided on the issuance model of the new banknotes!
First of all, in order to issue new currencies and better stabilize domestic finance, the empire will establish a new financial institution under the Ministry of Finance.
That is Datang Central Bank!
This bank is not a commercial bank like many existing banks in Datang, because this bank does not have any commercial functions. The functions of this central bank are to supervise financial institutions, currency issuance, financial regulation, etc. It is a serious company.
policy agencies.
The bank is responsible for the issuance of Imperial Yuan coins and banknotes. At the same time, it has been legally stipulated that no bank other than the Central Bank can issue banknotes or coins.
In order to better carry out the banknote issuance business, the central bank took over all the banknote business of the Royal Bank.
At the same time, in order not to cause any unrest, it is stipulated that newly issued banknotes and coins can be unconditionally exchanged for bearer deposit notes previously issued by the Royal Bank. At the same time, the Royal Bank will not issue new banknotes.
At the same time, in order to stabilize the credit regulations of legal banknotes, banknotes can still be exchanged for real money at any bank, instead of being limited to the Royal Bank as before, but from all regular banks.
Exchange for real money.
Of course, these banks can also take these banknotes and exchange them for real gold and silver directly from the central bank.
However, if major banks want to obtain banknotes, they also need to exchange real gold and silver from the central bank.
There are many other detailed policies, and all of them have only one purpose, which is to stabilize the credit of the new banknotes and promote the widespread use of banknotes.
For this reason, the imperial finances are also very cautious. When it comes to the printing and issuance of banknotes, they strictly limit the one-to-one standard, that is, how many banknotes will be issued based on the amount of gold and silver received.
Because to a certain extent, this new type of paper money is actually an bearer deposit note issued by the central bank.
All the early measures are to protect the credit of banknotes!
Through the issuance of legal banknotes and legal coins, a new currency system of the empire was completely established, allowing the concept of "yuan" to completely replace the current real gold and silver.
Li Xuan hopes to reverse the current monetary chaos through a new monetary policy and lay the foundation for the complete implementation of the gold standard system in the future.
Of course, even if the policy has been formulated, according to the relevant plans of the Ministry of Finance, it will still take a long time to prepare. It will take time to establish the central bank and it will take time to take over the bank note business of the Royal Bank.
Due to the current general environment, the Ministry of Finance estimates that the issuance of the empire's new currency will not officially begin until next summer, and it will take at least a minimum of time for the new currency, especially banknotes, to be truly popularized nationwide.
It’s also ten years.
This is a long and complex project that cannot be rushed.
For the huge Tang Empire, the implementation of a major policy requires full preparation, testing, and transitional periods. Caution is very necessary, otherwise, large-scale changes will be made as soon as the head is hot.
The empire will be ruined.
But this is for a huge empire, and for ordinary companies, especially private enterprises, it is much faster to make major decisions.
A number of merchants in the traditional textile industry in Changzhou, Suzhou, and several gentry families jointly established the 'Dayang Textile Company'. In cooperation with the Marriage Committee under the Fusang Affairs Office of the Tang Dynasty, the first batch of female Fusang workers were introduced.
After achieving good results, we are preparing to cooperate with the Marriage Committee for the second time and prepare to introduce a large number of Fuso female workers to work in the Shanghai headquarters textile factory.
Dayang Textile Company is a medium-sized textile company whose main business is machine-made fabrics, but its products are mainly sold to Fuso, not domestically!
It's not that they don't want to compete in the domestic market, but because the competition in the domestic market is too fierce. Many large textile companies, led by Jiangnan Textile Company, Zhili Textile Company, etc., fought fiercely to compete for the domestic market.
Dayang Textile Company, a small business, has limited technical capabilities, mediocre quality of fabrics, and poor cost control. It has no way to compete with those big companies and can only go overseas to pan for gold.
The textile company where Song Wanzi works is the Dayang Textile Company!