Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 322 Tokens
Badar asked the Mongol how he knew this. The Mongol smiled and told Badar that not only he knew about this, but everyone in Zhenlu Fort knew about it.

The trade in Zhenlubao has been going on for a long time. The rule here is that the goods transported by the cooperation between the Mongolian tribes and the Tenger tribe must be registered and stored by the Tenger tribe first, and the same applies to cattle, sheep, and horses. However, the real trade is not carried out immediately after registration, because the trade between the Tenger tribe and other tribes is barter trade. After everyone transports the goods, they are registered according to the category, quality, etc. of the goods, and then converted according to the registered amount. The conversion number is the "trading ticket number" set by the Tenger tribe. These tribes trade according to the number of trading tickets and the ratio of goods from the Ming Dynasty to the number of transactions announced by the Tenger tribe.

This model was developed by the Tengger tribe with the aim of facilitating trade and avoiding cumbersome procedures.

To put it simply, for example, a cow can be divided into several categories according to its teeth, weight, condition, etc. For example, it can be calculated according to the three grades of upper, middle and lower. The upper grade can be converted into 10 trading numbers, the middle grade can be converted into 7 trading numbers, and the lower grade can be converted into about 5 trading numbers.

By analogy, the same is true for horses and sheep, but the trading number of horses is slightly higher, while that of sheep is much less. A lamb around one year old has only 2 trading numbers, but a strong and good horse can sometimes even reach 13 to 15 trading numbers.

The same goes for furs, tendons and even other goods. They can all be converted into transaction numbers according to their quantity and grade. In this way, when taking delivery and counting, the categories, grades, etc. of each material can be divided, and then the calculation can be completed directly according to the transaction number.

After the transaction amount is confirmed, the Tenger people will give the trading party a transaction voucher certificate. This certificate will detail the amount of the transaction held by the other party, and will be stamped with a saddle seal and signature. In addition, this certificate will have a number and a backing sheet, which can be used for anti-counterfeiting.

When the supplies from the Ming Dynasty are delivered, the tribes that need to trade can directly take the voucher and trade according to the corresponding transaction number of the supplies announced by the Tengger tribe, thereby directly exchanging the voucher for the required supplies.

Such operations were unheard of for the Mongols. Before that, there were only two types of trade between Mongolia and the Ming Dynasty: one was to trade with gold, silver and copper coins, and the other was barter trade.

The former is normal trade. You quote a price based on the value of your goods. Both parties reach an agreement after bargaining, and then pay to get the goods.

But there was absolutely no problem with such trade in the Ming Dynasty, because the Ming Dynasty had always implemented monetary trade, but it did not work with the Mongols.

Although the Mongolian nobles had no shortage of gold and silver, the problem was that ordinary Mongolian herdsmen did not have that much gold and silver, and even copper coins were pitifully few. In addition, the Mongolians had no concept of currency and rarely used money to buy things on weekdays. Moreover, the procedures for exchanging gold, silver or copper coins for selling goods and then trading with the Ming Dynasty were too cumbersome. Many Mongolians did not even recognize a single character, and had to count on their fingers for a long time to calculate a two-digit number. This way of trading was not suitable for the simple-minded Mongolians.

Barter trade is the simplest, which is to exchange your own things with the other party for what they need. This trade method is commonly used by the Mongols. Barter trade between tribes and tribes, and between herders and herders often occurs, and is more acceptable to them.

But barter trade also has its disadvantages. If it is a simple barter trade of a single item, it is fine. But when the goods to be traded are of many varieties and in large quantities, barter trade will cause all kinds of troubles.

The first thing is to assess the value of the goods. How much is your goods worth? How much is the other party's goods worth? This must be agreed upon first, and people are often selfish. They always hope that the value of their own goods can be overestimated, while the price of the other party's goods can be underestimated as much as possible, so that they can take more advantage.

In addition, even if the value assessment is agreed upon, you still need to consider whether the goods are what you need in barter. For example, if the goods you want to trade are needed by the other party, but the goods the other party wants to trade are not what you need, this trading method will not succeed even if the value is recognized. You must find two parties who can recognize the value and trade together. This will cause many problems and even extremely low efficiency.

The trade between the Tengger tribe and the Ming Dynasty was a bilateral bulk trade, so it was naturally impossible to adopt such a low-level trade method. In order to solve this problem, Zhu Shenzhui referred to the model of later generations and developed a special trade method, which was to use transaction vouchers to replace traditional currency and trade with various tribes.

In this way, the so-called trading tickets are equivalent to a special currency, or a token, or a check or IOU. According to the grade of goods, a fixed division is made, and the number of trading tickets corresponding to each kind of goods is determined first, and then the goods of each tribe are exchanged for trading tickets based on this.

Next, the materials from the Ming Dynasty are also converted into the number of trading coupons. This makes the transaction much more convenient. The materials needed by each tribe can be directly reflected in the number of trading coupons, and then the trade can be carried out with the converted number of trading coupons, thus saving a lot of trouble.

This can not only avoid the tediousness of trade, but also improve efficiency. In addition, the balance of unfinished trading tickets can be kept in hand. As long as you have the voucher, you can continue to use it until the amount is spent. To put it bluntly, this thing Zhu Shenzhui has made has actually replaced currency and is equivalent to a paper currency model. But it is different from real paper currency. Paper currency is issued with precious metals such as gold and silver as anchors, but Zhu Shenzhui's thing is issued with materials as anchors, which is at best a commercial voucher.

With the birth of this thing, trade has become much smoother and more convenient. Moreover, during the two months of its implementation, the tribes have transitioned from being unfamiliar at the beginning to fully accepting this model, which has led to the rapid promotion of this special voucher issued by the Tengger tribe.

Now in Zhenlu Fort, this thing in everyone's hands has been used as currency. After some tribesmen have made a transaction, the transaction amount in their hands is not enough to make another purchase, but if it is accumulated to the next transaction, it will take too long and inconvenient. So they simply use this thing to pay for food, drink, entertainment and daily use when they consume in Zhenlu Fort.

This further promoted the circulation and exchange of this kind of voucher, and made everyone fully recognize this kind of voucher. Now not only the Mongols are using it, but also the Ming people in Zhenlubao are using it. In the long run, it is inevitable that it will directly replace gold, silver, and copper coins.

In the trade with the Ming Dynasty, Hengtong Commercial Bank was in charge of the trade amount between the two parties. Both sides were controlled by Zhu Shenzhui, so except for the necessary cases, real currency was still used for trade, but other parts gradually used this so-called transaction number for pricing.

In this way, Zhu Shenzhui directly controlled the bilateral trade pricing power through this method, and also replaced the flow of currency through the securities model. The benefits alone can be imagined.

Zhu Shenzhu's real purpose was not only border trade, but also to completely replace the currency issue of bilateral trade between Ming and Mongolia with vouchers. Zhu Shenzhu started out as a smuggler, and he knew very well that the transaction link in smuggling was the most important. Often after the final transaction, he would need to return with a large amount of gold, silver or copper coins, which was extremely inconvenient.

How could Zhu Shenzhu let go of such an opportunity? Hengtong Commercial Bank will not only be a trading company in the future, but also an institution that only acts as an intermediary to preside over bilateral trade. Zhu Shenzhu wanted to establish a securities system through this model, or even a special currency to replace traditional currency, but for some reasons, Zhu Shenzhu could not issue currency as an official institution, such as the issuance of treasure notes by the Ming Dynasty.

Besides, Baochao has been everywhere for a long time. When Zhu Yuanzhang was in power, its value kept falling due to its excessive issuance. By the Yongle period, the role of Baochao as actual currency had weakened to a very low level.

Now, no one in the Ming Dynasty uses Baochao anymore. Not only does no one use it, but it can't be spent either. It's too hard to use even to wipe one's butt. Except for the fact that the court sometimes uses Baochao to pay salaries to officials or to give out rewards, the people who receive it can only keep it at home and can't use it as money at all.

The certificate that Zhu Shenzhui has come up with is actually not much different from currency in use, but it is not real currency because its anchor is only actual goods and it has no official recognition.

At best, it is just a kind of voucher that uses commercial means, which is guaranteed by actual goods and commercial reputation. But it does play a considerable role as currency. If it can be circulated within a certain range, it is possible that it will become a real currency in the long run.

In addition, Zhu Shenzhu also had considerations for the future of Hengtong Commercial Bank. Zhu Shenzhu planned to allow Hengtong Commercial Bank to further develop on the model of an ordinary commercial bank, thus becoming a new institution with financial functions.

It is more appropriate to describe this institution as a bank or ticket shop. Silver notes have been around for a long time. The "Jiaozi" of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Baochao of the Ming Dynasty are actually a type of silver note. However, the silver notes that really had practical effects were not circulated until the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and their birthplace was in Shanxi.

Shanxi now has institutions similar to money shops and bill shops, but it is just the beginning. Silver bills are still in the exploratory process and have not yet been recognized and promoted, and their scope of use is also very small.

But now Zhu Shenzui took advantage of the opportunity of border trade to directly launch this new type of certificate, which not only replaces the use of currency, but can also become real currency on this basis in the future. Hengtong Commercial Bank can also use this to enter the financial industry, open financial businesses, and officially issue silver bills for circulation.

(End of this chapter)