Wang Fengyuan had been arguing with Wang Benren for the past two days, so he wanted to give him some eye medicine in front of the emperor today, but he didn't dare to put up a stand to tease the emperor.

After hearing the displeasure in Chongzhen's words, Wang Fengyuan hurriedly explained to the emperor: "Xiaomin does not want to regret investing in the bank, but wants to report the good news to His Majesty.

In particular, several Huizhou salt merchants were willing to contribute an additional 2 million taels, and now the capital raised by Xiaomin has reached 7 million taels. ”

Wang Fengyuan, who was still a little proud in his heart, didn't hear Chongzhen's appreciative voice, and he suddenly looked up at the emperor with some surprise.

Zhu Youzhen did not feel happy about Wang Fengyuan's over-raised share capital, but he felt that it was a trouble.

According to the original capital allocation amount, although the shares of the Four Seas Commercial Bank, Gongzhong, and Hubu combined, they were just the same as the shares raised by the Hui merchants. But he once had a condition attached, that when the vote between the two sides on an issue was 5-5, he had the final say as emperor.

But now that the Hui businessmen have raised an additional 2 million taels of share capital, if they still only give them 50% of the voting rights, it is obviously unreasonable, and it will also make these Hui businessmen feel cold.

The best way is naturally for them to increase the share capital by another 2 million taels here to re-achieve the balance of the share capital, but now the 5 million taels of share capital raised is already the limit. Whether it is the palace, the household department or the Four Seas Commercial Bank, they are not able to raise a huge amount of 2 million taels.

"Your Majesty, do you feel that something is wrong?" After waiting for a while, Wang Fengyuan couldn't help but break the silence and asked uneasily.

Zhu Youzhen woke up from his thoughts, smiled at Wang Fengyuan and said, "No, you did a good job, I think it is indeed a good choice for you to be the first president of Daming Bank."

But I would like to state that even if these salt merchants invest in banks, they don't have to expect any special treatment from me in the salt industry. Even so, are they willing to continue to invest money? ”

Hearing that the emperor was worried about this, several Hui merchants were immediately relieved, and Wang Fengyuan hurriedly said: "This is a matter of course, the small people have already explained it very clearly to them, and they will never dare to use this bit of silver in exchange for anything extra from Your Majesty." ”

For Wang Fengyuan, raising 7 million taels of share capital is not his limit, if he really goes all out to do it, it is not difficult to raise 10 million taels from his fellow villagers.

Based on Wang Fengyuan and several other Hui businessmen's careful calculations of the bank's operation plan, they all agreed that the bank's new business was definitely profitable.

In fact, according to their calculations, this emerging industry can obtain rich and stable profits even if all the funds of Huizhou merchants are gathered together.

This is a remarkable achievement, you must know that with the funds owned by the entire Huizhou merchant group, even the salt industry, which has the most intensive capital in the Ming Dynasty, cannot accommodate such a huge amount of funds.

The emergence of this industry is inherently for businessmen, and the remittance of the exchange in different places alone is enough to support the operation of the entire bank.

Now the Ming Dynasty is in internal and external difficulties, except for the southeastern provinces, other regions may encounter thieves if they leave the county.

In this environment, it is clear that the risks of doing business long distances can become significant. However, the emergence of banks can effectively reduce this risk.

Banks that can rely on the power of the imperial court to open branches in various places will not only reduce the long-distance transportation of bank funds, but also rely on the power of the imperial court to reduce all kinds of unnecessary expenses.

However, if they could not guarantee that when the Hui merchants gathered so much money, the emperor or some powerful person in the palace would not think otherwise.

It was a very risky thing to expose their wealth in front of the emperor, and they were not able to protect themselves. If it weren't for the fact that the investment banks had enough interests to attract them, they wouldn't have taken such a risk.

This was the first time that Hui merchants had done business with the emperor, and they were naturally cautious. But even so, they want to expand their say in banking matters. Invest 5 million taels, just look at the emperor's face, but also look at the faces of a group of northern businessmen, it will be too unbearable.

Based on Wang Fengyuan and others' investigation of the currency exchange points of the Four Seas Commercial Bank these days, they found that the merchants of these Four Seas Commercial Bank also knew little about the new business of banking.

The entire procedure of the currency exchange office is still basically guided by the instructions issued by the palace. It seems that someone in the palace has a very clear understanding of the direction in which the bank will develop after its establishment.

Wang Fengyuan and several fellow villagers combined, and felt that the relationship between these shareholders of Sihai Commercial Bank and the palace was only a monetary connection, and a very close relationship had not yet been cultivated.

In this case, with the abundant financial resources of the Hui merchants, they tried to replace the shareholders of these international trading houses and become the commercial pillars that the palace relied on. This is the unexpected event of increasing the share capital by 2 million taels today.

After thinking about it for a long time, Zhu Youzhen still decided to accept this additional increase in share capital, after all, the current Ming Dynasty finance needs more silver currency in order to continue to operate better.

Wang Benren and other shareholders of the Four Seas Commercial Bank were naturally quite reluctant, but they also knew that it was impossible to continue to invest in share capital, so they could only accept the emperor's arrangement with a saglooning face.

After redividing the share capital of Daming Bank, Zhu Youzhen said to these satisfied Hui businessmen: "Establishing a bank is not a simple matter, first of all, we have to unify the specifications of the account books, the way of bookkeeping, and the business procedures and rules.

The currency exchange points of Sihai Commercial Bank have summed up a lot of experience in the past few months of operation. I thought that the head office of Daming Bank could be set up in Beijing, and the shopkeepers of all the pawn shops in the south could be called to Beijing.

First, we can discuss a charter for operation, and secondly, we can learn from each other and get to know each other, so that we can work together in the future. What do you think? ”

Wang Fengyuan whispered a few words with several fellow villagers, and then said to the emperor with a smile: "What Your Majesty said is extremely true, since it is the same bank, this unified charter is the most important. However, Xiaomin has a small suggestion, I don't know whether to say it or not. ”

"Say, if there is a problem, we should say it, otherwise how can we solve the problem. I think that most of the problems in this world are because of poor communication, you talk casually, and I listen to them all. Zhu Youzhen replied without hesitation.

"Xiaomin thinks that the Ming Dynasty is a vast place, the north-south transportation is inconvenient, and it takes at least 15 days to travel from Nanjing to Beijing.

If there is only one head office, then I am afraid that the urgent affairs of the southern provinces will be delayed. Therefore, Xiaomin thought that it was better to set up a head office in Nanjing.

In this way, the head office in the north is responsible for the affairs of the north, and the head office in the south is in charge of the affairs of the south, so that each can have its own place and will not delay things. Wang Fengyuan said quickly.

Zhu Youzhen thought for a moment and said: "The banking industry is a new thing in the Ming Dynasty, and it is better to do what should be done, and I don't know."

But we can cross the river by feeling the stones, and just change it as we go. No matter what, a person can only have one head, and if two heads appear, there will always be problems.

There is no doubt that the bank can only set up a head office, but in view of the current north-south traffic problems, it is also a practical need to set up a vice bank in Jinling to manage the affairs of the south.

In my opinion, it is better to deal with it like this: the northern and southern provinces of the Ming Dynasty are separated, the northern provinces are under the administration of Beijing, and the southern provinces are under the management of Nanjing. However, the head office in Beijing is located above the vice bank in Nanjing, and has the power to manage the Nanjing and southern banks, but the use of this power must be approved by me, what do you think? ”

Wang Fengyuan and a few others naturally did not object, but Fan Wuxi quickly asked him about the things he was most concerned about, "May I ask Your Majesty, after the establishment of this bank, how should the issue of paper money be handled?" ”

Fan Wuxi's problem is also the most concerned thing for several Hui merchants, paper money can be exchanged for silver without restrictions, they don't want the emperor to print paper money into treasure money, so that the bank will soon lose the trust of the merchants.

Zhu Youzhen took out a few silver dollars of different sizes from his arms and motioned for Wang Chengen to hand them to several Hui merchants.

"You may look at these silver dollars, these five silver coins come in different denominations, ranging from one dollar to five cents, and I intend to exchange them for those who exchange them for future money.

Nowadays, silver is only used as a high-value precious metal, slowly expelling silver from the market and no longer as a currency. ”

Listening to the emperor's explanation, Fan Wuxian and several others carefully checked the fineness and pattern of these silver coins. Fan Wuxian took the one-yuan silver coin and observed it for a long time before he cautiously asked the emperor: "Your Majesty, these silver coins do not seem to be smelted, and the patterns are also very exquisite, if every silver coin can reach this level, then Your Majesty's plan may not be unsuccessful." ”

Zhu Youzhen then continued: "As long as the Daming Bank pays the manufacturing costs, it can give the mint* an unlimited number of silver coins. As for the issue of banknotes, I have carefully considered it, and it is better to separate the printing of banknotes from the banks.

If silver is used as the principal to issue banknotes, it seems to lack flexibility. I'm going to slightly revise the way paper money is issued.

The Ministry of Household Affairs will set up a plan for the issuance of treasury bonds in accordance with the needs of the state expenditure budget. Repayments are made on a one-year, three-year, or five-year basis.

The size of each treasury bond issuance shall be negotiated between the household department and the bank. For example, this year's state budget of the Ministry of Household Affairs is 5 million yuan, and this year's tax revenue is used as collateral to issue one-year treasury bonds.

The bank collects 5 million yuan of treasury bonds, and the mint prints 5 million yuan of notes and hands them over to the household department, and the bank only needs to promise to exchange these notes at any time.

And if the bank needs paper money, it can use these treasury bonds as collateral and borrow from the household department. ”

Wang Fengyuan thought for a long time, and first came to his senses, he asked tentatively: "If this is the case, then in fact, the bank does not need to use all the principal, and the excess money can be used..."