Chongzhen and I became partners

Chapter 226 Charges
After arranging this matter, Emperor Chongzhen did not ask Concubine Tian Guifei to take someone to copy the contents of the mobile phone this time, but took the mobile phone to read the content sent to him by Liu Weichao.

One was about the bank, and there was a lot of information. He had read it for a long time just for this item.

Although, judging from the current conditions, it is not a good time to set up a bank. The focus must be on strengthening the army. At least the Jianlu must be defeated. After winning the Battle of Kaifeng, it is possible to start the step of setting up a bank.

The first step here is to reform the currency, switch to the silver dollar system, and give different face values ​​to different silver dollars according to the mixing ratio of different metals. Although it is not as cheap as the Daming Banknote, it can have more money than directly issuing silver. money!

This is what Emperor Chongzhen liked very much.

In Liu Weichao's information, it is suggested to use a steam engine to make a large stamping machine to stamp silver dollars, making it more difficult to counterfeit, so that the output of silver dollars is all controlled by the imperial court.

Regarding this point, Emperor Chongzhen had no opinion at all.

Not to mention silver, but for copper coins, many powerful landlords secretly make money.What is this, this is stealing money from the court, how can it be allowed?

In addition, Liu Weichao's materials stated that the amount of currency in circulation in the market should be linked to the output of commodities.If the output of commodities is more, more silver dollars can be printed; if the output of commodities is less, less silver dollars can be printed to ensure that the currency will not depreciate or increase in value, and it will be controlled within a reasonable range.

In this regard, Emperor Chongzhen was actually puzzled, because he felt that there was no way to know how many commodities were produced?
This thing about the bank is difficult to say, but it is a bit difficult to do.

For another example, Liu Weichao also suggested that the bank carry out universal deposit and withdrawal, that is, the silver deposited by the capital can be withdrawn in Nanjing with the deposit slip.

However, how to prevent fraudulent deposit slips is a problem.Also, how does Nanjing reconcile with the bank on Jingshi's side?
In short, it is still quite difficult to open this bank and use money to generate money to make money.

However, Emperor Chongzhen also decided in his heart that this matter must be kept in his heart and must be brought up when the time is right.

By the way, the talents needed by banks can also be cultivated from now on.

Thinking of this, he sent a voice message to Liu Weichao, told him this idea, and asked Liu Weichao to see if he could prepare a suitable teaching material for him.

Banks can not only make money, but also affect the national economy. Emperor Chongzhen must open them.

In addition, regarding Jiangnan's purchase of materials and transportation to the north, there are many issues to be confirmed involving the priority list of materials, procurement rules, delivery channels, etc.

Emperor Chongzhen thought about this, and after thinking about it, he didn't know when he fell asleep.

As soon as he woke up the next day, he convened the cabinet and six ministries to hold an imperial meeting in Wenhua Hall.

Before the Emperor Chongzhen could speak, He Fengsheng, the chief assistant of the cabinet, came out to play first and said: "Your Majesty, the cabinet received the Yangzhou prefect, and Ying Tianfu inspected the memorial to impeach Wang Dehua, the admiral of Dongchang, for colluding with the guard army in Yangzhou. , the people's resentment is boiling, and there is almost a trend of people's upheaval!"

After finishing speaking, he held two memorials in both hands and presented them to the royal audience.

Obviously, these two memorials should have just arrived, and they haven't arrived at the Supervisor of Rituals yet.

After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen also expected it, and immediately said lightly: "I have also received Wang Daban's report on the fast horse. The so-called fish and meat people, I want to know whether the salt merchants, or the big salt merchants, are the same as the common people?"

"..." He Fengsheng and the others were a little surprised when they heard this. For a while, no one answered.

Theoretically speaking, no matter how big or small the salt merchants belong to the common people, that’s no problem; however, in reality, the fish and meat common people and the people’s grievances are definitely not referring to the salt merchants, especially the big salt merchants.

In Yangzhou, Wang Dehua used a sharp knife to cut through the mess.

After he arrived in Yangzhou, he immediately went to see the Yangzhou local guard, and used threats and lures to make the guard directly obey him. This can be seen from the fact that he allocated nearly 100 million taels to the local guard.

Of course, Wang Dehua's list clearly indicated the significance of this expenditure.If you don't mobilize the army, just relying on the Dongchang fan service he brought with you is not enough to quickly raid the top ten salt merchants.

Afterwards, in fact, there was no investigation at all, and the property was directly ransacked according to the list of the top ten richest salt merchants in Yangzhou.The crimes are found when the house is raided, and they are nothing more than common crimes, such as selling illegal salt, exceeding restrictions on housing, clothes, travel, etc., raising slaves and raising private soldiers in an attempt to rebel, and so on.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at them, and then said: "I summoned the ministers today because it is related to the matter of Yangzhou. I have a report from Wang Daban here, please wait and see."

Wang Dehua used to be the eunuch who was in charge of seals, so of course he knew what would happen in the court.Therefore, when he thoughtfully presented the report, he wrote it separately.Among them is a memorial, which is for the officials in the court to read.

It was this memorial that Emperor Chongzhen asked them to read.

Seeing the ministers reading the memorial, the Emperor Chongzhen asked directly without waiting for them all to read: "You think what Wang Daban said is untrue?"

If the emperor might be kept in the dark about what is going on in the region, these people who have been in the ups and downs of the officialdom for decades are actually well aware of it.

If the big salt merchants only sold official salt, it would be impossible for them to be so rich.

As for the problem of exceeding the limit, in this era, almost everyone exceeds the limit, let alone the rich.

The issue of slavery is bound by the court's legal system, but it is almost the same as exceeding the system, it is also a piece of waste paper, and almost no one cares about it.However, it is basically impossible to keep slaves as private soldiers, that is, domestic slaves are used to show off and order, not to rebel.

For these crimes, everyone usually doesn't care, because everyone does it.But now, if it is true, those big salt merchants are accused of treason, and it is okay to punish the nine clans.

There is a reason why Wang Dehua is so old and cunning that he directly used these charges to report.The court wants to check, and every check is accurate.

He Fengsheng and the others, after receiving the report from the south of the Yangtze River, knew the reason just by looking at it.Then Wang Dehua must have followed the emperor's will to do this.

Otherwise, Wang Dehua, the admiral of the East Factory, has never been to Jiangnan.It is impossible to run suddenly!

However, this matter cannot be put on the bright side, because the big salt merchants have a lot of money, so they came to kill pigs.

After all, it is not surprising that Emperor Chongzhen ransacked all kinds of homes before, including civil officials, military generals, Shanxi merchants, and salt merchants!

However, you can't make this statement, and the emperor will definitely not admit it.

At this time, they were speechless in the face of Emperor Chongzhen's words.

But they also know that doing so is definitely problematic.Just for a while, they couldn't figure out how to tell the emperor.

Emperor Chongzhen didn't care about them, took the two memorials transferred by his servants, threw them down without reading them, and shouted at the same time: "This side of Xichang, check whether these two people have colluded with the salt merchants, and they are trying to slander What is Wang Daban's intention?"

As soon as Wang Chengen heard this, he immediately stepped forward, picked up two memorials and said: "Your maid obeys the order, so I will send someone to Yangzhou!"

"..." Seeing this, the cabinet and six ministers couldn't help but look at me, and I looked at you. For a while, no one dared to speak.

The emperor's meaning is very clear. Whoever speaks for the big salt merchant is colluding with the big salt merchant. This hat is not small!

Emperor Chongzhen glanced at them, did not name them, but said to himself: "I plan to use all the proceeds from Yangzhou this time to buy the supplies needed in the north, please think about it, if you need anything, just ask!"

Upon hearing this, everyone couldn't help but be overjoyed. The emperor didn't keep the money for himself, but spent it himself, so it's fine.

No one wanted to stand up for the salt merchants, and immediately started to report the urgently needed things one by one.

After they finished speaking one by one, Emperor Chongzhen presided over, and then sorted them according to the importance he thought.

First, food and grass, this is the most important.If there is no food, there is no need to talk about anything.In addition to daily life, it is also necessary to ensure the supply of military rations, famine relief, etc. In short, there must be no shortage of food.

Second, cotton.Seeing that half a year has passed, the weather will be cold next, and we need to make cotton clothes to keep out the cold, which is also a rigid need in the north.

Emperor Chongzhen was most concerned about Yongwei Camp and Jingying Camp, and their winter clothes should also be prepared.

Third, steel, not iron ore.It is not cost-effective to transport iron ore from the south, and it is better to smelt it into steel first.

Emperor Chongzhen didn't think about going to the south to build a new steel factory, because he couldn't control it.At least in the territory he can really control, he can rest assured to build a new type of steel plant.

Fourth, it is still a kind of grain, which is sweet potato.The production of sweet potatoes in the south is large, but it has not been promoted in the north, and a large amount of sweet potatoes needs to be transported to the north.

The purchase of sweet potatoes by the imperial court in large quantities will greatly stimulate farmers to plant sweet potatoes, which will further increase the production in the south and accelerate the deployment of sweet potatoes in the north.

As for other purchases, it will come later.

But it’s more than 2000 million taels, plus the property of the top ten salt merchants’ shops, etc. With this purchasing power, you can buy anything. It doesn’t really matter what the ranking is. Anyway, you can’t run out of money, and you can buy it for many years. .

All the money stays in the south, and the people in the south will naturally benefit in the end.

With the list, Emperor Chongzhen didn't take any rest, and immediately discussed with these courtiers how to purchase!

Before the ministers spoke, he first talked about the procurement methods introduced to him by Liu Weichao, and then handed it over to the ministers below for discussion.

However, there is a problem here, that is, these ministers in the Wenhua Palace are basically not proficient in business.Emperor Chongzhen could refute any suggestion he made, and even question them.

(End of this chapter)