Although I don't know when some people say that "the emperor takes turns to sit and come to my house this year", no matter who the emperor in his Jinluan Palace is, for the common people, their days will always be Ah Gong eating Coptis chinensis and suffering.

Whether it is the emperor of Manchuria or the emperor of the Han family. For the people, taxes are always paid.

Although it has become colder and colder over the years, it will often snow in winter, even in Guangzhou. However, it is barely possible to harvest two crops of rice near Guangzhou.

Seeing that the rice in this field is getting more and more yellow, and the ears of grain are getting heavier and heavier, the mood of the old Song Tou is naturally getting better and better, he sits on the root of a big tree at the edge of the field, and the long pipe is placed obliquely beside him. In June, the hottest time of the year, even under the shadow of the trees, Lao Tongbao still felt the heat of the sun, and although he opened his clothes, the beads of sweat on his chin fell to the ground.

This year's harvest looks good!

Looking at the heavy ears of grain in the field, Old Song Tou only felt that his heart was hotter; It's a little itchy when it's hot. This grain grows much stronger than last year's.

"One more rain, a few more days of sun, and the harvest will be over!"

Old Song Tou said in his heart, and spit a mouthful of thick saliva. Then he looked at the river in the distance, and it was green, and there were not many boats passing by, and the embankment and the rows of mulberry trees on the banks were all swaying into a gray patch. This layer of mulberry trees, looking along the river, seems to have no end. Even in the nearby fields, there are also large mulberry forests, which are naturally used to raise silkworms, and compared with grain, planting silkworms and harvesting cocoons can sell more silver.

"When the rice is still confiscated, the cocoons are sold first, so that when the rice is harvested, the rice cannot be sold at a high price, and when the time comes, the government will urge the tax, and then it will have to be sold cheaply."

He unbuttoned his placket, grabbed the corner of his shirt a few more times, and got up and went home.

In fact, he is not the only one who is smart in the village, people see that the grain is growing better and better, and it is a good harvest year, people immediately come to life, thinking about how to make up the tax money of the government first, the harvest year is not abundant, this truth they naturally understand, every time there is a good year, the rice merchants will lower the grain price, and the millet can not be sold at the price of previous years. If it is time for the government to ask for donations, even if you are unwilling, you can only sell it at a low price.

But within a few days, the air in the village was changing day by day. The people who had to laugh a few times because they saw this good year are now full of gloom. The people who went to the market to sell cocoons brought news from the town one after another.

The price of the cocoon has fallen!

For a while, after the news came, all the villages were full of shouts and curses, and of course, sighs of disappointment! People would never have dreamed that this year would be a good year, but their days would be more difficult than usual.

For them, it was a bolt from the blue!

How so?

"No money!"

The silkworm merchant in the town was there talking, because there was no silver in the market.

"Leave me here, that is, at this price, no one can do anything if there is no money to collect!"

No silver!

There's nothing more annoying than that, and there's nothing you can do about it, even if you're in a panic.

That is, when everyone watched the ears of grain with sad faces, but they could not sell for a price, finally a glimmer of hope suddenly came again. Zhang Laoliu, from the same village, got the news from somewhere, saying that someone in Guangzhou City was collecting cocoons as usual, and the price was very fair. Although Zhang Laoliu is also the same farmer, but unlike other people, when there is no life in the field, he will follow the boat, which can be regarded as having seen the world, he said so, so the old Song Tou specially went to him and asked carefully, and then discussed with his son Ah Yuan to get the cocoon to be sold in Guangzhou Mansion.

As soon as he said this, he immediately turned on his face and yelled at his son as if he was arguing.

"It takes more than 200 miles to go to Fucheng by water, and it takes five or six days to go back and forth! But do you have any other way? I don't think of a way, in case the government comes to urge donations, what will I do then? When the time comes, I can only sell Ajuan to pay the donation! ”

was reprimanded by his father like this, thinking that if he couldn't hand over the donation, he might have to sell his daughter, Ah Yuan agreed, although the road was a little farther, but there was still some hope. So they went to borrow a boat, bought a few reed mats, rushed to the sunny days of those days, and brought the cocoons of Zhang Lao Liu and more than a dozen neighbors, and then set off.

Came to the provincial capital, the boat stopped, asked for the way, and the group picked up the cocoon to the cocoon line, the cocoon line was already crowded with people, listening to the accent is not from Guangfu, a question, sure enough, they are all from all over the world.

"Why come? It's not because of the cocoons here, the price is good, and the silver is returned! ”

Give the silver!

Compared with other cocoon shops, the price of cocoons offered by this cocoon shop is not only good. This is the reason why people come here hundreds of miles away, but as the team gets closer and closer, Lao Song Tou found that those who sold the cocoons were not holding silver, but palm-sized tickets, what was that?

"Isn't it a treasure banknote......?"

Old Song Tou's muttering made the person who was counting the silver dollar coupons look at him, and then said proudly.

"You old man, you must not have been here in the past, this is called a silver dollar coupon, issued by Jianghuai Bank, look at these big characters without a ticket to receive cash, where, go over there to get cash......"

Pointing to the same line in the distance, the man followed. Obviously, he was also going to exchange the silver dollar coupon for cash, after all, it was still cash. Finally, it was the turn of Lao Song Tou, like everyone else, when he went to the bank to line up to exchange silver with the silver dollar coupon, he looked at the silver dollar coupon in his hand, and still muttered/

"Can this really be exchanged for silver?"

When queuing, Lao Song Tou looked at the people who came out of the bank after changing the silver, and his originally uneasy mood slowly calmed down.

It seems that this ticket can really be exchanged for silver!

When Lao Song was queuing up, waiting to exchange the silver dollar coupons in his hand for silver, in the manager's room on the second floor of the bank, looking out of the window at the people waiting in line to exchange silver, Liu Bin asked with some puzzlement.

"Manager, since this cocoon bank is a cocoon bank of commerce, and they themselves are using bank loans to make acquisitions, why don't they just give them cash, but instead give them silver dollar coupons, and then let the people come to the bank to exchange for silver dollars, isn't this an extra procedure?"

Liu Bin, a native of Guangzhou, was recruited by JAC Bank after it set up a branch in Guangzhou, and he has never been able to understand why the bank always takes the trouble to go through an extra formality.

"Giving out the silver dollar coupons and then letting the coupon holders come to the bank to redeem them seems to increase our workload, right?"

Hearing Liu Bin's doubts, Liang Guobang walked to the window, his eyes cast on the cocoon more than thirty zhang away, and then asked.

"Section Chief Liu, do you think there are more people in the bank, or more people in the cocoon?"

When the manager asked, Liu Bin hurriedly counted it, and then said.

"There are a lot more people over there than here, but it's normal to sell cocoons over there, and three or four people sell cocoons together, as long as there is one person here."

"That's true, but there are always people who will just leave with the silver dollar coupon."

Liang Guobang took out a gold metal cigarette case, took out a jade cigarette holder from it, and then inserted another cigarette. This cigarette and cigarette box are the latest inventions of Jiangbei, compared with cigarette pouches and hookahs, this paper cigarette is more convenient to smoke, especially when using matches.

When the manager took out the cigarette, Liang Guobang had taken the initiative to take out a match on the table, scratched it on the windowsill, and then, the small wooden stick came out of a fire, even if it had been used for several months, he would still be surprised by this "tap fire", and he never knew what the method was to make it scratch. Matches are a new invention just launched in Jiangbei last year, but because of the price, it is not widely used.

That's half a penny!

When lighting a cigarette for the manager, Liu Bin muttered to himself in his heart, this half penny is the price of matches, and the cigarette ...... More expensive.

took a puff of his cigarette before Liang Guobang said.

"What is the purpose of setting up a branch in Guangzhou?"

"The purpose of the establishment of the bank is to concentrate the idle funds of the society and use them for investment ......"

Liu Bin's answer is a standard answer, banks are to concentrate idleness, and then support industry and commerce through loans, and get rich interest returns from it.

"That's not all!"

Shaking his head, Liang Guobang stared at the people outside, his tone was neither happy nor slow.

"Banks, too, have other functions, such as ...... now"

Liang Guobang's words paused slightly, and then he said.

"Since last year, King Jin Kefu Guangdong, we set up a branch in Guangzhou, the reason why we used silver dollars, with promissory notes, little by little to build credit, is for today, in order to let the people accept silver dollar coupons, and how to let the people accept silver dollar coupons?"

Looking back at Liu Bin, Liang Guobang's tone was still extremely calm.

"I didn't use silver at the beginning, but used treasure banknotes, but later because of the indiscriminate issuance, the credit collapsed, so that the people refused to use it, in this case, how to make the people believe in a bank's silver dollar bills?"

"This ......"

The manager's question made Liu Bin dumb, and he said after a while.

"First you have to give them access to the silver dollar bill, then trust that it can be exchanged for silver at any time, and then ...... I understand! ”

With such an explanation, Liu Bin immediately understood the reason and knew why he wanted to let Cocoon release silver dollar coupons.

"The purpose of providing a loan to the cocoon bank is to let the people get in touch with it, and in the process of exchanging, they can see that the silver dollar coupons can indeed be exchanged for real silver, so that the people will slowly believe in the silver dollar coupons, and this time ......"

When the time comes, the silver dollar bills issued by the Jianghuai Bank will be like silver in vain, and they will no longer be rejected by the people, and at that time, won't it mean ......

Just when he was flustered, he only heard what the manager said.

"Do you think that the meaning of paper money is just to exchange paper?"