1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 197: Got plundered?
"So much money?" Zhu Lin was surprised.

She earned foreign currency by submitting articles to foreign countries. Not to mention her, even in later generations, 90% of people have never heard of such a thing.

She looked at Jiang Xian curiously, "More than 20,000 US dollars, how much is it in RMB?"

The average exchange rate in 1980 was approximately 1 US dollar = 1.5 RMB.

Yes, it is that low.

In the early days of reform and opening up, in order to promote exports, the RMB exchange rate was lowered in order to obtain sufficient foreign exchange for importing equipment.

Jiang Xian's 3 US dollars is actually just over RMB when converted.

"Then you are a millionaire with three million yuan!!"

The term "ten thousand yuan household" is very popular nowadays. Last year, an article in "People's X Newspaper" titled "Live a prosperous life through hard work" deified the pig farmer "Huang Xinwen" and made the term "ten thousand yuan household" completely popular.

Huang Xinwen's name became famous all over the country overnight. The People's X Newspaper called him a "peasant entrepreneur". He became the "first ten thousand yuan household" and the "first person to get rich". His name was similar to Ma Yun in later generations. He was a nationally famous financial tycoon of this era.

Wherever he went to hold a meeting or share his experience, local officials would line up to welcome him, and even put up signs saying "Welcome the representatives of the ten thousand yuan households!"

Fans from all over the country would write to him, asking how he became rich by raising pigs, and reporters from all over the country would go to his home for interviews.

When describing how wealthy Huang Xinwen was, a reporter from the XinX News Agency said: There are two toilets in their yard!

Huang Xinwen said that although there are not many people in his family, two toilets can avoid fighting for the toilet in the morning. After all, as a millionaire, he is very busy from morning to night.

People whose imaginations are not enough to imagine the level of wealth of a "ten thousand yuan household" immediately have a picture:

One millionaire = 1 toilets.

Jiang Xian is now a 3-yuan household. By this calculation, that is enough for 6 toilets!
There are only four people in their family, and with Zhu Lin in it, it makes five, so one toilet is enough for each person.

The next day, Jiang Xianxian went home to get his household registration book, and then went to the street office to get a certificate.

After that, I went to the Beijing Film Studio and asked Zhang Guangbei and Zhu Shimao to come and support the team. They both served in the army. Although they were art soldiers, they were tall and strong, and definitely stronger than Ge You and Chen Peisi.

Jiang Xian told them to take their stuff and go straight to the bank.

At present, remittances are made by giving a receipt first, and then taking the receipt to the bank to process. Jiang Xian handed the receipt over, and the counter clerk wearing large sleeves took the receipt and glanced at it, "It's from the United States."

"Ah."

She took another look and couldn't help rubbing her eyes. She looked closely at the row of numbers and was shocked.

So many zeros, so scary!

There are still so many 1s, it's too cruel!
Looking at this amount, the counter staff didn't dare to proceed.

At this time, relatives and friends overseas send remittances to overseas Chinese, but it is at most a few hundred, or a few thousand at most.

What do you mean by these tens of thousands of dollars?

Are your overseas relatives and friends not accepted? Or have you also been chosen by the rich woman?
This matter is so strange. How could there be such a huge amount of money? Not many people are doing cross-border trade at this time.

"Where does your foreign exchange come from?"

"The New Yorker. I write for them."

"Write a manuscript?"

The counter clerk was skeptical and said, "Please wait a moment."

"Okay." Jiang Xian agreed.

Zhang Guangbei was a little nervous when he saw this. "Comrade Jiang Xian, is there any danger?"

"It's okay, it's just that the amount is a bit too large." Jiang Xian replied calmly.

"Screenwriter Jiang, how much money did you withdraw?" Zhu Shimao couldn't help but feel curious.

This would alarm the bank officials. How much money would this be? Thinking of this, Zhu Shimao nervously gripped the big hammer at his waist.

While the three were talking, a cadre came and invited Jiang Xian to the small house for tea with a smile.

"Comrade, what is this money?"

"I made the money by writing for foreign magazines."

“Can you earn so much just by writing?!”

The cadre was surprised. There were two staff members sitting on the other side, checking the information provided by Jiang Xian.

Jiang Xian answered some simple questions fluently. The people in the bank were not fools, so their attitude was naturally friendly and they followed the normal process.

After checking his ID and information one by one and confirming that there were no problems, the cadre looked apologetic and held out his hands: "Sorry for the trouble, this is also part of our job, I hope you can understand."

Jiang Xian shook hands with him and said, "It's okay. You are also responsible for national security. It's not easy for you."

"Thank you so much for your cooperation." The bank official was quite moved.

These days, there is a rule of compulsory foreign exchange settlement.

Chinese, foreign nationals and stateless persons living in China must sell foreign exchange remitted from foreign countries and Hong Kong, Macao and other regions to the Bank of China. In other words, Jiang Xian could not keep a single cent of the 20,000 US dollars.

Of course, the country also knows that this will dampen the enthusiasm of overseas Chinese to bring back foreign exchange, so it will allocate remittance coupons according to the official exchange rate as compensation.

Overseas Remittance Coupons can be regarded as the predecessor of Foreign Exchange Coupons, which originated in the early days of planned economy.

At that time, the country strictly controlled foreign exchange, and U.S. dollars, British pounds, and Hong Kong dollars mailed to the country were equivalent to a piece of waste paper.

Overseas Chinese had no use for mailing foreign currency back home, so they had to send biscuits, canned food, butter and other physical goods back home. But for the country, these physical goods were of little significance, and the country also needed a large amount of foreign currency for international trade.

Under such circumstances, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Committee decided to issue remittance vouchers.

With overseas remittance vouchers, one can go to overseas Chinese stores to buy daily necessities or popular high-end goods.

In this respect, it is similar to foreign exchange coupons, but overseas remittance coupons are different.

Foreign exchange coupons are similar to currency, while overseas remittance coupons are tickets that need to be used together with RMB cash and are a kind of material supply voucher.

It is a large collection of tickets, which vary from province to province, and are attached with various tickets such as grain tickets, cloth tickets, cotton tickets, food purchase tickets, industrial product purchase tickets, etc. The remittance coupons of some provinces also have rare tickets such as soap tickets, coal tickets, and oil tickets.

Apart from shopping coupons, you need to cut off the piece of ticket for other things and then pay for them. You have to use them all at once. You can buy less, but not more.

At this time, the overseas Chinese remittance coupons in the capital were printed by the Beijing Commercial Bureau. There were four types of tickets: food purchase coupons, shopping coupons, grain coupons, and oil coupons.

The staff counted the money for Jiang Xian and found that the more than 3 US dollars he had could be used to buy more than tons of food coupons, more than coins of oil, more than shopping coupons, and more than food coupons.

"Comrade, overseas remittance vouchers have a time limit, right?" Jiang Xian confirmed.

"Of course there are."

The bank official and Jiang Xian explained: "The general period of use is one or two years."

"One year or two years? You gave me so many food coupons and oil coupons, how can I use them all in one or two years? How can I eat?" Jiang Xian frowned.

The annual ration for each laborer in a rice-producing area is 600 kilograms of food coupons.

Based on this standard, if he ate as much as he wanted, this amount of food coupons would be enough for him to eat for ten years, not to mention that he already had a monthly ration of food coupons.

“Your problem is indeed quite rare.”

Because the Overseas Chinese Remittance Coupons are a collection of tickets and are issued uniformly, the quota on each Overseas Chinese Remittance Coupon is fixed, so there is no such thing as more or less.

Several bank officials quickly discussed and sent out the oldest one, who smiled flatteringly:

"Since you have secured so much foreign exchange for the country and are a director of the Beijing Writers Association, you may continue to write for foreign magazines in the future. Our bank can temporarily not fill in the date on the remittance voucher. I hope you can continue to earn foreign exchange for the country in the future."

"Uh"

Is he addicted to it?

The date on the overseas remittance voucher is the same as that on the industrial voucher, and needs to be filled in. If you don't fill it in, you can fill it in as long as you want to use it, which means it will not expire.

The bank in Longfu Temple was not doing this recklessly, because at this time, every unit had to complete the task of earning foreign exchange, even taxi drivers had to earn foreign exchange. Can you believe it? Taxi drivers had to complete the foreign exchange task every day, and the drivers were forced to be very anxious.

Wang Shuo wrote in his novel that in order to complete the task of earning foreign exchange, taxi drivers at that time would not pick up individual passengers unless they were paid with foreign exchange coupons.

Therefore, when encountering a high-quality customer like Jiang Xian, who has great potential to continue to contribute large amounts of foreign exchange, the bank will of course give the greatest preferential treatment.

One manuscript costs 30,000 yuan. If you write three or four articles a year, the task of writing 100,000 yuan will be completed!

"It's rare to see such a large amount of foreign exchange, and it was earned from royalties. Thank you for your contribution to the country's modernization drive."

"Don't worry about the expiration date. Just keep working hard on your manuscripts."

Although there is no need to worry about expiration if you don't fill in the date, Jiang Xian knows that remittance vouchers actually have an expiration date.

Because by the 1990s, overseas remittance coupons and foreign exchange coupons were basically abolished, and the remaining value is collection value.

He is not the kind of person who would take advantage of the situation. If he can't use this thing, he can just dispose of it privately.

Not to mention the overseas remittance coupons, food coupons and oil coupons were all in short supply. Thirty kilograms of food coupons could be exchanged for ten eggs by finding a farmer in the suburbs of Beijing.

After saving the money in the account, Jiang Xian's royalties of more than 20,000 US dollars amounted to more than 30,000 RMB. With his previous savings, he now had more than 40,000 RMB in his account.

Jiang Xian carefully held the bag full of overseas remittance vouchers and left quickly under the protection of Zhang Guangbei and Zhu Shimao.

"Comrade Jiang Xian, how much money did you get?" Zhang Guangbei stared at Jiang Xian's bulging bag with his eyes wide open.

"Don't show off your wealth. Come back to my house first." Jiang Xian whispered.

Longfu Temple was not far from Jingshan East Hutong. The three of them arrived at his yard in a short while and finally felt relieved.

Zhang Guangbei first strolled around the yard, looked around, and was secretly surprised by the yard of more than 500 square meters. He returned to the house and looked at the table full of overseas remittance vouchers.

The knees went weak.

He finally understood why a big director like Xie Jin was so polite in front of Jiang Xian.

(End of this chapter)