The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 137 The Value of King Wu's Gold Ticket and Warriors

Zhu Jianxuan set up the temporary Wu court and immediately began to assign tasks to them:

“The Department of Reserves and the Department of Science are jointly responsible for preparing the Wu Kingdom’s Reserve Bank and for issuing Wu Kingdom gold notes.

“The Science Department develops anti-counterfeiting technology and designs paper that is stiff, strong and difficult to forge.

“The Reserve Department built a special printing factory to print the King of Wu’s gold notes according to my order.

“The Reserve Bank is responsible for the exchange and actual issuance of gold, silver and gold notes.

“Everyone must remember that the King of Wu’s gold note is not the treasure note of the past, but the gold deposit note of the Wu State Gold Bank.

"It is the same as the silver notes of the private banks in the Ming Dynasty, but there are only a few fixed denominations, and it is also anonymous and can be circulated freely.

“People are allowed to exchange gold, silver and copper coins for gold notes at any time, and gold notes for gold at any time.

“But it can only be exchanged for gold, because gold is more valuable, and Wu has more gold reserves, and we don’t have enough silver to exchange.

“In order to facilitate accounting and management, one gold note is issued directly for one gram of gold.

“The denomination is written as one gram, and there is only this denomination.

“But the value of one gram of gold is high and is only suitable as a commercial trade currency, not for daily use by the people.

“So additional silver and copper notes were designed as subsidiary coins.

“Silver and copper notes are only used as subsidiary coins. They do not directly correspond to the weight and value of silver and copper, but are simply anchored to the value of gold notes.

“They couldn’t exchange silver and copper coins, but they could exchange them for gold notes first, and then use the gold notes to exchange for gold.

“It is mandatory that one hundred copper notes be exchanged for one silver note, and one hundred silver notes be exchanged for one gold note.

“The denominations of silver and copper bills are 1, 5, 10, and 50.

“One gram of gold is a large amount for daily transactions, but it is quite suitable as a way to save money.

“As long as you have enough silver and copper notes to buy one gold note, you can exchange them for gold.

“On this basis, the King of Wu’s Gold Ticket follows three principles.

“First, lock in the issuance cap.

“The total upper limit of the cumulative issuance of gold notes is determined based on the weight of Wu’s gold reserves.

“Even if I have one ounce of gold in my vault, I can only print gold notes that are equivalent to one ounce of gold.

“Make sure all gold notes can be exchanged for gold, just like the silver notes in private banks.

"The upper limit of the gold notes issued that year will be determined based on the upper limit of the value of the important resources produced by the Wu State this year.

"We produced steel, coal and grain worth 100 taels of gold this year, so we will issue gold notes worth a maximum of 100 taels of gold this year.

“It is ensured that the new gold notes issued that year can be used to buy hard currency of corresponding value.

“Of course, both of these amounts are just upper limits, and we cannot really issue according to the upper limits.

“We need to consider the export of goods, the consumption and reduction of resources, and the accumulation of gold notes over the years.

“We need to consider that a large amount of gold and silver is actually stored in money houses, and only deposit certificates are used in actual transactions.

“The amount of gold notes actually needed for circulation in the market will be less than the actual gold and silver wealth that exists.

“The Science Department must cooperate with the Reserve Department to do a good job in statistical accounting in this regard and strive to ensure that the amount of gold bills is accurate and correct.

“The Science Department recruited PhDs and established a special research group to study relevant statistical and control methods.

“Second, the court regarded gold notes as gold.

“The gold notes issued by the King of Wu can be used to pay any taxes and purchase any goods as long as they are verified to be genuine when received.

"Within the territory of Wu, no official or private business may refuse to accept the King of Wu's gold notes.

“And gradually strengthen the penalties for refusal according to the year in which issuance begins.

“That is, in the first three years after the issuance, there will be no punishment, and after three years, actual punishment will be gradually introduced, ranging from a certain amount of fine to store closure.

“From the day of issuance, the imperial court agencies must not refuse and must give priority to accepting gold notes, and encourage the people to exchange gold and silver for gold notes.

“Third, private banks in Wu must provide a deposit.

"One third of the registration amount must be deposited directly into Wuwang Gold Bank as a deposit before the company can officially start business.

“During the course of business, one-third of the gold and silver stored by customers must be deposited in the vault of Wuwang Gold Bank.

"This gold is the bottom line for the Wu court to repay depositors when the bank defaults."

Zhu Jianxuan finished giving the order in one breath, but the atmosphere at the scene was a bit strange.

After a brief silence, there was a slight chaotic noise, and the officials lowered their voices to sigh in surprise and discuss.

Zhu Jianxuan said that this gold note is the same as the private silver note, but there are still essential differences between it and the private silver note.

If a private money house broke its promise, the merchant holding the silver bills could file a complaint with the imperial court, demanding that the money house use its remaining assets to pay compensation.

However, if the gold notes issued by the Wu court could no longer be exchanged or paid, what could the merchants holding the gold notes do to their king?
The people of the Ming Dynasty naturally distrusted the paper money issued by the imperial court...

Because the imperial paper currency had a bad reputation in the Ming Dynasty, there are two main reasons:

First, the credibility of the imperial court that issued banknotes in the past was very poor, and the process of issuing banknotes lacked scientific control, which led to the rapid depreciation of Baochao.

In addition, with the continuous inflow of silver in the middle and late stages, silver was more valuable than treasure notes, and the people and merchants were more willing to use and store silver.

Second, paper money was easy to counterfeit in the past. The amount of paper money issued by the imperial court was barely quantifiable, but the amount of counterfeit money by various people in local areas was uncountable.

As a result, by the Zhengtong period, there was basically no liquidity among the people. Chongzhen completely abolished paper money and directly used more and more gold and silver for transactions.

However, there is a demand for paper money in the commercial market, so the number of various silver bills in private banks in the Ming Dynasty is increasing.

Silver bills are also deposit certificates that promise to be redeemed, but many small-denomination silver bills are used as paper money.

Now Zhu Jianxuan wants to issue gold notes. Although he is very serious now and wants to issue them directly according to the amount of gold, it looks like a private bank. But Emperor Taizu Gao was also very serious back then. However, once the emperor was in a war and needed money urgently, he could not control his hands and wanted to issue more.

Moreover, many officials did not understand why their king needed to issue paper money when he was not short of money.
Zhu Jianxuan knew that the current Ming Dynasty was different from the Hongwu period.

The Ming Dynasty now has sufficient reserves of gold and silver, and its financial industry has become relatively mature.

The key is that I have more experience in mathematics and markets.

The court's administrative efficiency was actually higher.

In fact, we can do it now, and the time has come when we must do it.

Direct transactions with gold and silver impose too many restrictions on business.

Allowing private banks to issue their own silver bills would not only make it impossible to unify the currency in circulation, but more importantly, it would affect the power of the imperial court.

It was fine when the silver bills of private money houses could not be exchanged with each other, but by the time their silver bills could be exchanged with each other, a joint organization of money houses might have been established.

They would automatically acquire powers similar to those of a central bank, like the U.S. Federal Reserve historically has.

Of course Zhu Jianxuan cannot give up this power.

The officials on the scene were also able to consider some of the problems that Zhu Jianxuan was aware of.

They didn't think of the concept of a central bank.

But the king has now returned to his country, and Wu must break away from military control and establish civil institutions such as the imperial court and county government.

In the future, we will definitely start recruiting civilian immigrants, and civilian businessmen will follow.

There must be private banks that want to do this business.

Now that the Wu court has stepped forward to develop this industry, it is equivalent to taking the gold and silver bills and foreign exchange business into the hands of the court.

Of course, officials in the Wu court would not refuse such a thing.

Even if the king wants to over-issue money in the future and loses his credibility with the people, it will not affect the power that everyone holds now.

Moreover, the fact that the king entrusted the issuance of banknotes to the court departments also demonstrated that the king treated all officials as his own people.

Otherwise, the king could set up the Wuwang Gold Shop privately and do it, and the officials of the kingdom would have no way to stop him.

So after Zhu Jianxuan gave the order, after a brief consideration and whispered discussions, the staff of the Secretariat and related departments all stood up and responded:
"I obey your orders."

Zhu Jianxuan was quite satisfied with this and continued to arrange another matter:
"Cao Zhendong, you lead a fleet of steamships to escort Mr. Fei Chun back to his homeland.

"I will go to Yingtian Prefecture first to report my safety to His Majesty the Emperor. Tell him that I have arrived in the capital of Australia and am now living in the palace.

"At the same time, I will explain to my father that I plan to join forces with the Duke of Min to recruit low-level samurai ronin as mercenaries in Japan.

“Prepare for exploration and conquest of Africa, Oman, Ottoman, etc.

“Ask the emperor if he allows it, if he has any special instructions, and how the Wu Kingdom and the court should cooperate.

“If the emperor does not forbid my proposal, then after getting the emperor’s permission and instructions, I will go to Quanzhou to ask the Duke of Min for help.

“Let the Duke of Min assist the Kingdom of Wu and recruit Japanese warriors who can fight at sea.

“For every qualified warrior recruited, I will give the Duke of Min a silver dollar as recruitment fee.

"As for the treatment of the warriors themselves, for now they will only be provided with food and accommodation, and will receive a salary after they have performed meritorious services."

Cao Zhendong has a lot of seniority in the Wu army and is now the commander of the Australian Central Guard.

In fact, the most important thing is that Zhu Jianxuan had an impression of this person, which made him stand out from all other generals.

When Zhu Jianxuan was arranging things and couldn't remember who was who, he subconsciously called his name.

This will allow Cao Zhendong to directly obtain actual power beyond his position.

Cao Zhendong and Fei Chun did not dare to neglect it, and immediately stood up and bowed to accept the order:
"The ministers obey the order."

However, after receiving the order, Cao Zhendong and Fei Chun both had questions.

Fei Chun couldn't help but speak first:

"Your Majesty... As far as I know, Japanese samurai are the lowest class of nobles, and most of them have basic knowledge.

"We recruit warriors like this without paying any salary? I'm afraid it will be difficult to recruit people, right?"

Zhu Jianxuan casually explained:

“It is said that Japan has also suffered from drought. Now many Japanese people are lucky to have a way to survive. Why would they want a salary?
“What warriors pursue is status. Those who are willing to fight for me will be considered warriors of the Ming King Wu in the future.

"And there will be a salary after you have made contributions, but there is none now."

Fei Chun understood immediately:
"I understand."

After Zhu Jianxuan finished speaking, he looked at Cao Zhendong.

Cao Zhendong said with some trepidation:

"Your Majesty, why should we recruit the Japanese? We in the Ming Dynasty have plenty of people who can contribute."

Zhu Jianxuan continued to explain:

"When poor Japanese samurai go crazy, they don't care about their lives.

"If we leave them alone now, they will definitely turn into Japanese pirates again and affect the security of the coastal areas of Ming Dynasty.

"We may have to fight a tough battle next, and recruiting these poor samurai ronin can eliminate the security risks in our homeland.

"So letting Ming soldiers serve as officers and commanding them to fight these tough battles is a good way to kill two birds with one stone."

Cao Zhendong understood that it was not that the Ming people could not be used, but that the Japanese had to be consumed:
"I understand."

(End of this chapter)