Zhu Youzhen thought for a while, and then said: "As long as the president of the bank does not violate the laws of the imperial court, then I will not bypass the board of directors to appoint and remove the president. In the same way, both the court and the court will transfer funds in accordance with the bank's charter.

In return, of course, the central bank will become the only designated bank for the provincial taxes. In case of emergency, the Imperial Court will be assisted. The transportation of the bank's funds will also be protected by the imperial court..."

The emperor's explanation made Wang Fengyuan suspicious, and after thinking for a while, he asked euphemistically: "The pawnshops south of the Yangtze River are mostly operated by Hui merchants. However, the pawnshops north of the Yellow River were dominated by Jin merchants. I don't know if His Majesty wants to invite Jin Shang to join..."

Before he could be sure whether this central bank was a good thing or a bad thing, Wang Fengyuan thought of dragging Jin merchants in. I think the emperor will not risk the collapse of the entire Ming economy and attack the Jin merchants and the Hui merchants at the same time.

Zhu Youzhen looked at him and said, "Since I have chosen you, I will naturally no longer choose Jin Shang. After the establishment of the central bank, all industries that deal in money will be brought under the leadership of the central bank.

If the Jin merchants could not comply with the rules set by the central bank, then they would have to withdraw from the pawnshop industry. ”

Wang Fengyuan suddenly chuckled in his heart, with his rich business experience, he knew one thing very well. With the combined financial resources of the Hui merchants and the support of the imperial court, the loose Jin merchants could not resist such a force.

And the reverse is the same, the emperor said this, not only to reassure him, but also to warn Hui Shang. If they did not accept this condition, the emperor could also join forces with the Jin merchants against them.

Thinking of this, Wang Fengyuan also dropped his hesitant thoughts, and immediately said to Chongzhen: "Xiaomin must do his best to complete this matter for Your Majesty." ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at the gray-haired Wang Fengyuan for a while, and then said quietly: "If you can build a central bank for me, then I will not only support you to become the first governor of the central bank, but also choose the right time to canonize you." ”

Wang Fengyuan's heart suddenly rippled, from a businessman to the noble class, the Wang family has since stepped into the sky, this business has obviously been done.

The last trace of hesitation finally disappeared from his mind, and he said to Chongzhen wholeheartedly: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty, the villain guarantees with his life, and this matter will be done." ”

Zhu Youzhen clapped his hands, asked Wang Chengen to take out a stack of bound papers, and then gestured to Wang Fengyuan and said: "This is what I sorted out, some ideas for the establishment of a central bank, Wang Lao, you take it back and think about it carefully, and see how it should be revised into a practical and operable charter."

Wang Chengen handled a sign for Wang Lao, Wang Lao, if you have any ideas, just write them down and send them to the Daming Times, and they will naturally pass it on to me..."

After communicating with the three leaders of the Huizhou merchants, Zhu Youzhen went to meet with the other Huizhou merchants. The delegates had apparently been persuaded to express their allegiance as soon as the emperor arrived.

When Chongzhen left, he also asked two representatives of Huizhou merchants to send a message to the Huizhou merchants who operated the salt industry, and he would add seven additional imperial examination places to Yangzhou to solve the problem of Huizhou merchants settling in Yangzhou.

After convincing the merchants of Huizhou, Chongzhen had no other ideas about the remaining provincial representatives. He inspected the branch venues of the representatives of businessmen from other provinces, but did not leave any useful news.

The merchants of Shanxi were a little uneasy, and they vaguely knew that the emperor was communicating with the representatives of merchants from other provinces, hoping to pass a reform plan for the collection of commercial taxes. These Shanxi merchants had intended to cry when the emperor proposed a plan to resist any change in the current tax.

They were also ready, and if they really couldn't resist, they would also find a way to exchange some benefits with the emperor. They even thought about pulling Zhu Qiugui, the king of Jin in Taiyuan, and Zhu Dingwei, the king of Kang in Datong, to ask Chongzhen to reduce the business tax of Shanxi merchants.

However, apparently they did not have time to make preparations, and when the emperor arrived at the meeting of the Shanxi merchant representatives, he simply asked the names of the delegates, and left after a few casual conversations, without asking them to support the plan for the reform of the collection of commercial taxes.

If something goes wrong, something will go wrong. The representatives of the merchants of Shanxi, after the emperor left, frantically launched their own relations, trying to find out what the emperor had said to the representatives of the merchants of the previous provinces.

The most important thing for them was to know what the emperor had promised to the Hui merchants. However, the Jin merchants, who were well-informed in the past, were unable to find out the exact news this time. Even the Shaanxi merchants, who had always advanced and retreated together with Shanxi merchants, were silent about their inquiries this time.

The Jin merchants had nothing to do, so they could only wait for the general meeting of merchant representatives to be reconvened in three days to obtain the information they wanted from the conference.

Zhu Youzhen inspected the branch hall of the representatives of the Jin merchants, but he did not hear the names of any of the representatives, which were attached to the eight emperors and merchants of the Manchu Dynasty in his memory, so he left a little caution behind.

Chongzhen got rid of half of the merchant representatives of the Ming Dynasty, but unexpectedly, the merchant representatives of Beizhili, who he thought were nine out of ten, had an opinion on his decision.

In fact, these representatives of the merchants of Beizhili are all shareholders of the Four Seas Commercial Bank. They were a little bitter about the emperor's plan to reform the collection of commercial taxes, but they also accepted it.

After all, most of the commercial taxes will first be used to build water conservancy, industrial and mining industries in the Gyeonggi region, and through these Gyeonggi workers, the money will eventually flow into the Sihai trading houses.

In the short term, the profits of Sihai Commercial Bank have suffered a certain loss, but the increase in consumer groups can bring more benefits to Sihai Commercial Bank.

Therefore, under the temptation of long-term returns, they approved the emperor's reform plan to levy a commercial tax.

But the emperor now wants to divest the currency exchange business in the Four Seas Commercial Bank and hand it over to the Hui merchants to set up a central bank, which is suddenly unacceptable to these merchants.

The shareholders of these four sea trading houses originally thought that it would not be a profitable business to exchange the full amount of silver taels for the paper money they printed.

According to their understanding, those who get the banknotes will definitely exchange them for silver in the shortest possible time to avoid the loss of property.

This was true when banknotes were first issued. Although currency exchange points have been set up in various districts of the capital, people still can't wait to get the banknotes and exchange them for silver of full color, for fear that they will be exchanged for silver of insufficient color if they fall behind.

But more than a month later, in front of the currency exchange points of the Four Seas Commercial Bank, there were more people exchanging paper money than silver taels.

The reason for this situation was that the imperial court issued an edict that the Taicang silver in Nanjing and Beijing was under unified management, and both places could exchange paper money for a full amount of silver.

Most of the merchants in the capital trafficked goods from the south to the north to sell, and then returned to the south with silver taels from the north.

This kind of long-distance silver transportation always has a great risk. After all, the current Ming Dynasty is not an era of peace.

However, if you take the banknotes back to Nanjing and exchange them for silver, although you lose some loss costs, it is simply insignificant compared to the cost of long-distance transportation of silver taels. And the ease of carrying banknotes is an excellent advantage for merchants.

In addition to these merchants, the common people of the capital began to accept paper money for another reason. The money method in the capital is exchanged for one tael of silver for every six hundred gold backs, but there are more copper coins in poor condition or private coins with insufficient weight.

In the past, when the people in the capital received bad money, they would naturally hide the good money and spend the bad money first. After the advent of paper money, the people of the capital naturally spent the paper money first and kept the copper money.

Only when the people of the capital discovered that the paper money did not become worthless as they imagined, but could be spent at any time in the Four Seas Commercial Bank, and the value of the currency has been very stable.

Naturally, the people of the capital changed their thinking, leaving paper money and throwing copper coins in the ever-changing ratio to silver. In fact, the merchants in the shops in the capital began to welcome the payment of bills with paper money and rejected copper coins.

In the capital, the original silver-copper money system began to slowly transform into a silver-paper money system, and the use of copper coins began to decline slowly.

Whether it is the handling fee of exchanging silver taels from the hands of merchants, or the fact that these people in the capital have become loyal customers of the Four Seas Commercial Bank because they keep paper money. All of them have brought unexpected additional benefits to the Four Seas Commercial Bank.

Some shareholders of the Four Seas Commercial Bank have even begun to connect with each other, hoping to propose to the emperor at the next board meeting that the power to issue banknotes be handed over to the Four Seas Commercial Bank, so that the Four Seas Commercial Bank can achieve more rapid development.

After receiving this information, Zhu Youzhen did not take it lightly, but took the initiative to gather the shareholders of the Four Seas Commercial Bank and explain to them why he wanted to spin off the currency exchange business and hand it over to the Hui merchants to operate.

“… You should know that the focus of the currency exchange business is not to print banknotes that are difficult to counterfeit. It's about having enough capital and people who can take care of the currency exchange business.

If you want to make the currency exchange business obtain higher returns, then you need to establish enough exchange points in Daming, and even set up exchange business outside Daming, which is obviously a very large project in the early stage.

In addition, just by training qualified currency exchange practitioners and personnel with basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills, we can only meet the needs of the currency exchange offices opened in the Gyeonggi area.

Besides, although I and you invested in the establishment of the Four Seas Commercial Bank, the capital of the currency exchange business, I used the silver deposit in the inner treasury as the capital for the issuance of banknotes, and you have not contributed any money. ”

Wang Benren, a Huizhou wood merchant who provided timber for the three major halls and unexpectedly became a shareholder of the Four Seas Commercial Bank, subconsciously said: "Your Majesty, we are also willing to contribute to the currency exchange business." This practitioner only needs to be trained for a few years, so why give it to those Huizhou courtiers for such a big business. ”