At night, Guo Song carefully admired the banknote printed by the Ministry of Finance in his study. Of course, this was just a sample, and the exchange system had not yet started. The key to the issuance of this banknote lay in papermaking technology and special gold thread sewing. In addition,
There are also special symbols. These are numbers invented by the Tianzhu people, which are today's Arabic numerals. They were introduced to the Tang Dynasty along with Buddhism decades ago, but they were not taken seriously by the Tang Dynasty.
Guo Song discovered these numbers in the Engraving Society not long ago, and he considered applying them. This time the numbering of the banknotes was the first time they were applied.
Of course, where there is a spear, there is a shield. The existence of this special paper will soon lead to research and development and imitation by other major paper manufacturers. There will also be people with superb embroidery skills among the people who can embroider better gold threads. It doesn't matter.
Legislation can be used to limit it.
In addition, a real-name system is required. Just like the transfer of a check requires a document, the transfer of a banknote also requires a seal endorsement on the back. If it is a counterfeit banknote, it can be easily traced back to the counterfeiter through the endorser.
At this time, his son Guo Jincheng's voice came from outside the door, "Father!"
Guo Song nodded, "Come in!"
After a while, his son Guo Jincheng walked in, knelt down and saluted: "My son, see your father!"
"Get up!"
Guo Song really loves and cares about his eldest son. He works in the newspaper office. Guo Song always pays attention to his son's movements. In the past six months, his son has changed a lot. Needless to say, he has grown a lot taller. He is already taller than Guo Weiwei. At home,
Second only to myself.
More importantly, Guo Jincheng's long-term dealings with the people at the bottom have given him a deep understanding of the sufferings of the people, and he is no longer as introverted as before. These changes really make Guo Song deeply gratified.
Guo Song took out two newspapers. He had already folded the people's livelihood column. He pushed the newspapers in front of his son and asked with a smile: "These are the newspapers on the 13th and 14th of this month. The prices of the nine types of food in them are exactly the same.
Not a penny has changed. Is it a coincidence or because I didn’t investigate?”
Guo Jincheng blushed and said, "This is an oversight on my part. When I sent it to spelling, I got the wrong manuscript. I used the manuscript for the thirteenth day twice."
"Is it your responsibility? Tell me the truth!"
Guo Jincheng was silent for a moment and said: "Actually, the writer made a mistake, but he is older and younger. If it is determined that the responsibility lies with him, he will lose this job, which will have a great impact on his family, so the child will bear the responsibility for him.
Take this responsibility.”
Guo Song nodded, "You can take responsibility for him once, but you can't take responsibility for him all the time. I just want to know if you have found out why you made this mistake? How to avoid making similar mistakes in the future?"
"The reason is indeed that he was careless. The format of the two manuscripts was exactly the same and they happened to be placed together. He was in a hurry and did not read carefully. Now in order to prevent the same mistake from happening, we have placed a red wooden box on the table.
, the day’s manuscripts were placed in wooden boxes, and the contributors were no longer asked to find them on the table. This was the child’s suggestion, and the newspaper adopted it.”
Guo Song stopped mentioning the newspaper and handed the banknote to his son, "Look at this again!"
Guo Jincheng took the banknote and looked at it. He suddenly became interested and asked, "Does this mean one hundred taels of silver?"
Guo Song explained with a smile: "This is called a silver note. It is similar to the flying money of the counter shop. It is made by the Ministry of Accounts and uses special paper and gold thread to prevent counterfeiting. If the Ministry of Accounts issues a silver note of ten thousand taels of silver, it must be issued in the warehouse.
There is a corresponding ten thousand taels of silver. This special warehouse is called the exchange warehouse, but the silver or money in the exchange warehouse is not actually from us. It is taken out by the merchants and will be exchanged in the future.
It seems simple, but banknotes are very convenient for merchants. They don't need to carry a large amount of silver coins, but can travel far away with just a stack of banknotes. More importantly, it solves the current big problem of insufficient copper coins in the market."
Guo Jincheng thought for a while and asked: "Is there only silver? No copper coins? I think that apart from silver dimes, real silver is rare in the market. The main thing is copper coins. I'm afraid many businessmen need more money tickets."
Guo Song nodded, "There are silver notes, and there are also money notes. This is just a sample. In the future, there will be small notes such as Wu Guan, which can be used to drink and eat in restaurants, and can be used to buy things.
At a certain time, the court gradually took them back and issued new money notes, but that is another thing, the large-value banknotes or money notes I am talking about now."
Guo Jincheng touched the back of his head and said, "My child still doesn't quite understand. What should I do?"
Guo Song took out a piece of paper, picked up a pen and wrote down the process on the paper, and explained: "Actually, it is the same as Feiqian, but it is issued by the Ministry of Accounts and is common to all counters. For example, the Ministry of Accounts issues one million taels of silver.
The banknotes should be handed over to various counters for handling.
A merchant wanted to go to Guangzhou to buy goods worth 10,000 taels of silver, so he took out 10,000 taels of silver and bought 100 silver notes from the counter, and the counter handed the 10,000 taels of silver to the imperial exchange treasury.
The merchant went to Guangzhou with the banknote. After he got the goods, the other party could use the banknote to exchange for silver at any counter shop, or he could use the banknote to go to Suzhou to buy silk. After the batch of banknotes were exchanged at the counter shop,
The main store responsible for the final exchange will apply to the imperial exchange treasury to get back the 10,000 taels of silver."
"Is it possible that the counter thinks the banknote is fake and refuses to exchange it?" Guo Jincheng asked.
Guo Song shook his head, "Our requirement is that as long as there is no obvious fraud, all counters must exchange it, and then a special inspection agency will investigate. What is the problem?"
Guo Song put down his pen and smiled again: "I am considering transforming the internal security guards into an inspection agency in the future."
Guo Jincheng pondered for a moment and said: "In this way, the court does not need to prepare silver or copper coins for such large-denomination bills or money bills. In fact, they are all merchants' money. The court only uses credibility as a guarantee to guarantee payment, right?
!”
"You are right. This is actually the same as Feiqian. It is just guaranteed by the court to ease the inconvenience of bulk goods transactions. Previously, several cabinet shops were planning to jointly issue a Feiqian that everyone recognized, but I vetoed it.
This kind of thing can only be done by the imperial court. It happened that Wang You discovered this kind of paper in Xuanzhou that could be difficult to copy, which prompted me to make up my mind."
"What does a father need from his children?"
Guo Song took out an article and handed it to his son with a smile: "This is an article I wrote about banknotes and money bills. You can take it to the newspaper and print it in the newspaper the day after tomorrow. In addition, you can tell Deacon Li of the newspaper that it may be
Ask the newspaper to open a column about money tickets, and hope he will be ready."
.........
On this day, "Chang'an Express" and "Tianxia Xinbao" both published an article titled "About the use of bank notes and money notes." This article immediately aroused heated discussion in the streets and alleys of Chang'an, especially among businessmen.
Extremely sensitive to this, they immediately realized that this would be an event with far-reaching consequences.
However, ordinary people do not feel much about this. After all, large-value banknotes and money bills are far away from them.
At dusk, the restaurants on Xi'an Menwai Street were full of guests and business was booming. Almost all the diners were discussing the matter of bank notes and money notes. Although the news of the assassination of Yao Guangping in Quanzhou was also published in the newspaper that day, no one cared.
.
News of Liu Shining's execution was also published in the newspapers a few days ago, but it only made everyone lament that a tiger father gave birth to a dog son. Everyone was already numb to the expansion of the imperial court's territory.
There were two officials sitting by the window on the second floor of Mingzhu Restaurant. One was Miao Ji, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, and the other was Du Siye, the doctor of the Ministry of household affairs. Four years after Du Siye became the governor of Shang Dynasty, he was transferred back to the imperial court as the doctor of the Ministry of household affairs.
That is his jurisdiction.
Of course, Shaofu Temple is responsible for minting silver coins, but how much money needs to be minted each year, how many silver coins are issued, and how much silver is issued are decided by the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Miao Ji and Du Siye's father, Du Zongwu, were classmates when they were young. Although Du Zongwu was five years older than Miao Ji, it did not affect their friendship. The two took the imperial examination in the same year. Miao Ji had the shadow of his father and went to Bashu.
As an official, Du Zongwu had no chance to get ahead.
But Du Zongwu's son Du Siye was very courageous. After he failed in the imperial examination, he led a group of scholars to Hexi to join the army. He soon stood out and became Guo Song's second secretary to join the army.
Fast forward more than ten years, Miao Ji still served as a doctor in the Ministry of Industry, but Du Siye, who was ten years younger than him, was already a doctor in the Ministry of Household Affairs. Moreover, Miao Ji had reached the top of his official position, but Du Siye had a bright future.
"Why does my nephew object to money bills? I think this is a good thing, which can greatly promote the development of commerce. Don't you know that it used to be very laborious to transport thousands of copper coins from Bashu to Chang'an. Now, using silver bills or money bills, the court stipulates
Wouldn’t it be a great convenience for merchants to pay unconditionally?”
Du Siye shook his head and said: "What I object to is not the large-value bills, but the small-value bills mentioned later in the article. As a substitute for copper coins, they are used for eating and buying things. This kind of thing can be used for free.
Restricting printing, if there is gold and silver as collateral, it is okay, but I am afraid that the court will get a taste of the sweetness and start printing in large quantities. What is the difference between this and the previous issue of copper plates worth ten coins? They are all exploiting the wealth of the people."
"Your opposition is entirely based on something that may happen in the future. Such opposition is meaningless. I estimate that neither the King of Jin nor the court will accept it!"
"I am not the only one who opposes this. After the newspaper came out at noon today, the entire household department was in a panic. Most people are opposed to it, including our minister!"