Chongzhen Wiretapping System

Chapter 182 The Great Ming Financial Crisis Breaks Out (Addition 22 for Hall Master Han Leyu)

Another point is that it is impossible for ordinary people to have silver bills, because they usually use copper coins.One tael of silver is one thousand copper coins.Even if there is silver, it will not be exchanged for bank notes.For them, bank notes are far less secure than silver.

Therefore, bank notes are only available to nobles of the royal family, civil servants and military generals, and businessmen with relatively large businesses.And even for these businessmen who have grown their businesses, they must have official connections behind them, otherwise they would not be able to grow bigger.

I have to say that Shanxi merchants do have a certain way of doing business.Although they do not know the country or nation, they do know their personal reputation. Therefore, the banks they run are not only large in scale, but also issue many banknotes, and their influence is great.

Earlier, Cheng Guogong and others were involved in the treason case, which was a shocking case.Therefore, they were frightened, and no one dared to jump out at the first time.

Now Cheng Guogong and others have been ransacked and exterminated for a period of time, and have experienced great victories and other things. The limelight seems to have passed, and the Shanxi merchants sent people to instigate them. Suddenly, various channels and methods began to explode. .

No, Emperor Chongzhen's sister-in-law, Emperor Tianqi's empress, and now Empress Yi'an all sent people to Emperor Chongzhen, saying that they had something to discuss.

This Empress Yi'an has made great contributions to Emperor Chongzhen's ascension to the throne and taking over Zhu Youxiao's position.Therefore, she sent someone over, and Emperor Chongzhen would go there no matter what.

Empress Yi'an saw him, and said straight to the point: "These days, there are some familiar wives outside the palace who heard that the palace is short of money, and worried that the slave's house is not enough, so they sent some banknotes, the amount is not enough. Not much, there are as many as 3000 taels in total. The slave family does not need to spend money. The emperor will use all these silver bills."

Speaking of this, she showed a slight smile, and before Emperor Chongzhen could speak, she said again: "Originally, this little money was originally intended to be sent to the Queen. But they said that Daming had actually won Jian Jian recently. This is something that has never happened before. The servants are very happy to hear that, so they want to meet the emperor."

Speaking of this, she said with emotion again: "Back then, the late emperor had no choice but to be a prisoner, and it was always a pity that he was appointed as a prisoner. If the late emperor knows now, he should be gratified that he didn't misunderstand the person back then!"

Hearing these words, Emperor Chongzhen immediately understood that someone had been kidnapping and using Empress Yi'an to test the emperor's attitude towards the bank note.At this time, he can guarantee that the banknotes in the hands of Empress Yi'an are definitely from Fanji Bank, not from other banks.

"Emperor's sister-in-law, don't worry, although Ming Dynasty is troubled." Emperor Chongzhen replied respectfully, "But I am confident that it will only get better and better in the future. Let the emperor's wife see the day when the Liaodong Jian captives perish."

For Empress Yi'an, there are emotional factors of the original Emperor Chongzhen, as well as the impression that he came from later generations, so I still respect her very much.

Hearing this, Empress Yi'an couldn't help but look at Emperor Chongzhen seriously, feeling a little confused in her heart, is the emperor proud or really sure?But when she saw Emperor Chongzhen's confident eyes and remained humble in front of her, she chose to believe in the emperor.

After reaching this conclusion, she couldn't help but feel very pleased, and asked the maid serving beside her to present the silver note to the emperor.

Emperor Chongzhen took it, turned it over a little, and found that, as expected, all these bank notes were from Fanji Bank.

He had already made up his mind to take advantage of this incident to nationalize the authority to print money, even if it was just currency certificates.Therefore, after looking at the banknotes in hand, he said solemnly: "Sister-in-law Huang does not know that the bank to which these banknotes belong has been arrested by me for allegedly colluding with the palace, and the bank has been seized. These banknotes have actually been It's a scrap of paper."

The case of treason against the prince was so sensational before, even if Empress Yi'an didn't care about foreign affairs, she had heard of it.At this time, she frowned when she heard that she was suspected of colluding with the palace.Originally, she was very disgusted with this kind of thing.It can even be said that she is also one of the victims of this kind of thing.

Therefore, she quickly said to Emperor Chongzhen: "Since this is the case, let the emperor see what to do. This collusion in the palace can be big or small. The emperor should be cautious first."

The implication is nothing more than an estimate of the seriousness.

Emperor Chongzhen nodded, and after a few chats, he resigned to deal with government affairs.He reckoned that if his attitude towards the bank note spread outside the palace, there would be a next reaction.

Sure enough, he was not wrong. In the afternoon, he received a memorial, which was jointly signed by the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, saying that Fan Ji Qianzhuang had colluded with the palace and asked the emperor to order a joint trial by the three courts. Conspiracy for treason should be severely punished, and if it is just a normal business relationship, there should be a break.

In response to this, Emperor Chongzhen just smiled coldly, and then approved it in the memorial, which was interrogated by Jin Yiwei.

Those who are suspected of treason and rebellion are generally dealt with by Jin Yiwei.Of course, sometimes, there will be a joint trial by the three judicial divisions, and the factory guard will sit in on it.

Seeing the emperor's reply, another memorial came up.It is said that a mere bank, with soldiers but no soldiers, is just a mere businessman, not enough to commit treason, so ask the emperor to send it to the three jurisprudence for a joint trial.

Regarding this, Emperor Chongzhen gave another reply, saying that if there is money, there will be soldiers. The previous case of treason was caused by money moving people's hearts. How can it be guaranteed that businessmen will not commit treason?
In this way, when those civil officials saw that the emperor insisted that they were suspected of treason, that is to say, they must question Fanji Bank, and they couldn't compete with the emperor, so they went straight to the point.

First, the emperor's family, Xungui, came forward and wrote a letter to the emperor to intercede, saying that his family had a little money, which was stored in Fanji Bank. Now Fanji Bank was sealed, and their money was also sealed.With the bank notes as proof, please the emperor return their money.Basically, it can be said that everyone in the Xungui group has a share, even Zhou Kui, who was grounded in his own house, also wrote a letter.Because it is true that he has the bank notes of Fanji Bank in his hand.

Afterwards, all the yamen in the capital also came forward one after another, saying that they also had banknotes from Fanji Bank, which were accumulated with great difficulty, and the imperial salary could not be released in time. If the banknotes became waste paper, they would all drink Northwest wind.

This time, even the many censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, who regarded themselves as clean and honest, all went up to play, crying poorly, and at the same time took out hundreds of thousands of silver notes and demanded to exchange them for silver.

They grasped a foothold, that is, the imperial court often defaulted on the salary, and even if it was paid out, the salary would often be discounted.If there is any additional loss of family property, the family will starve to death and cannot work.

If there were only one or two people, no one would dare to face the current emperor.But now there are many people, almost the entire Xungui Group, as well as the civil and military officials of the capital. a theory?
All of a sudden, all the yamen in the capital almost came to a standstill, and everyone was discussing this matter.Regardless of who is an official or an official, whoever does not have a bank note in his hand is related to his own interests. If adults and nobles take the lead, they will naturally make trouble.Those who are not qualified to write a letter can discuss it everywhere!

In this way, even merchants in the capital have joined the ranks of this discussion.They were also worried, even if the bank notes in their hands did not belong to Fanji Bank, if the bank was seized by the government, they would lose everything.

Not just for discussion, but for safety reasons, at first a small number of smart people hurriedly exchanged the banknotes in their hands for silver.As soon as word spread, others jumped on the bandwagon.As a result, a large-scale cashing of banknotes immediately occurred in the capital.

As a result, a large-scale bank run broke out suddenly and violently.

Who would have thought that other banks in the capital would encounter large-scale redemptions of their banknotes?Anyone who doesn't secretly print more banknotes and use them has always been fine.

None of the banks were prepared in advance, but on the first day, some smaller banks were liquidated and could not exchange money.

Silver is not copper money, it is a large amount of money.Moreover, those who hold bank notes are generally more or less influential. When they see that the bank can't exchange the money, they immediately become anxious. No matter what the bank explains to mobilize the money, or what they have to wait for two days, they are all angry. Started smashing and looting.Even if there are people behind many banks, it's useless.

The capital's bank, under the circumstances that no one expected, suddenly fell into chaos!
People were panicked, even more panicked than the Manchu and Qing troops raging in the pass.

Emperor Chongzhen originally thought that they were not causing enough trouble, and wanted the factory guards to secretly collect some examples of small banks running away with their money, and talk about it later.But when he heard what happened outside the palace, he was really surprised.

From this, he remembered a financial crisis in later generations, which was triggered by subprime loans. After the thunderstorm on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, it immediately swept the world in a very short period of time.Reminiscent of the financial crisis in the capital of Ming Dynasty, Emperor Chongzhen had to lament that one should be cautious when it comes to matters involving money. Once out of control, the consequences would be very serious.

But at this time, Emperor Chongzhen felt relaxed.After a day of commotion outside, Emperor Chongzhen held an enlarged court meeting, which was devoted to discussing the bank crisis.

After seeing the ceremony, looking at the concerned eyes of all the courtiers below, Emperor Chongzhen said straight to the point: "I have already heard about the matter of the bank. Since this bank note is so harmful, I ordered it to be banned. How about it?" ?”

"..." The officials were speechless when they heard this.It seems too willful for the emperor to deal with it so roughly, right?
Chief Assistant Xue Guoguan coughed, and went out to play: "Your Majesty, I believe that the bank note is indeed very convenient and beneficial to the people's livelihood, if it is sealed just because of today's incident, it is a little inappropriate! "

Needless to say, businessmen who are engaged in big business, go out to discuss business, and have to transport a large cart of silver. Not only will they be thieves, but it is also too inconvenient.Even those officials who usually take bribes and receive tens of hundreds of taels of silver back and forth are not dead, and they are not easy to carry.

Therefore, after hearing Xue Guoguan's words, a rare and unprecedented phenomenon occurred.Most of the officials, including Yang Sichang and others, immediately came out and agreed with Xue Guoguan's opinions.

Emperor Chongzhen felt happy when he saw that they were in a hurry, and immediately waved his hands and said: "Since this is the case, it is impossible to avoid the current affairs of the bank. What should I do if Zhu Qing loses again? For those businessmen who opened the bank, I can issue an order to ransack the house to compensate Zhu Qing for their losses, but what if this is not enough?"

Hearing this, these courtiers forgot for a while to argue that it was not their own business, but the common people's business.Everyone was thinking about the question raised by Emperor Chongzhen. Indeed, if this matter is not done well, it will definitely happen, so what should we do?
The civil servants in the palace all came from sage books, and this was the first time they encountered such an economic problem.It might be a little better than them if the merchants were present.But no matter what, in this era, the prevention of financial crisis is basically still in its infancy.

Seeing that there was no sound in the hall, Emperor Chongzhen turned his head to look at Xue Guoguan with a glance.

When Xue Guoguan saw it, he got the reminder, and immediately opened his mouth to play again: "There is nothing more holy than Your Majesty. I don't know if Your Majesty has a will for such a big event, and can there be a plan to get the best of both worlds?"

Some words, only if Xue Manzi asked them, others would not doubt them.After all, his mouth is famous.

Now that they heard him asking the emperor like this, the other civil servants couldn't help but look at it. They really hope that the emperor can really solve it!However, this kind of thing seems to be unsolvable. If there is a bank note, then there must be a bank. Then who can guarantee that the bank will not print more bank notes greedily, and some of these bank notes will become waste paper later?
Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen seemed to think about it for a moment, but then nodded and said: "I do have an idea that can solve the current problems related to banknotes in the capital!"

Hearing this, almost all the civil and military officials in the hall looked at Emperor Chongzhen with incredulous eyes. They didn't expect that the emperor really had a way?

So, no matter what the method was, the civil servants followed suit, and a frenzy of flattery suddenly broke out.

Emperor Chongzhen accepts this calmly. After all, his knowledge is four to five hundred years ahead of yours. Some things may seem difficult to you, but for future generations, they are just common sense.Today I am going to spread this common sense to you so many years in advance.

Thinking this way, after waiting for a while, he stretched out his hand to quiet the hall.

　There will be another chapter tonight for sure.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)