There is a Sanjin guild hall outside the Chongwen Gate of Jingshi, which was originally a part of the courtyard separated from the south of his mansion by Jia Renyuan, the secretary of the military department during the Jiajing period, and was mainly used as a gathering place for Jin scholars in Beijing.

Slowly, this place became a fellow villager hall for Shanxi scholars and merchants in Beijing, but when Jia Shangshu set up this guild, he never thought that this would become a stronghold for Shanxi people to contact their hometowns in the capital, he just wanted to turn this place into a separate courtyard for Shanxi scholars in Beijing to communicate with each other.

Therefore, when Shanxi scholars and merchants gathered in the guild hall, this place seemed a little cramped and cramped, and because the pattern was not large, the function was too monotonous. There is no special ancestral hall when worshipping the gods, and Shuowang Jidan and other people in Beijing and Jin Dynasty can not feast and socialize, which makes the Shanxi merchants in Beijing feel very inconvenient.

Although there were later people in Beijing and Jin who set up a Yanlao Pavilion in Dudi, and built a pavilion in Ciren Temple, this three-division guild hall model obviously could not unite the Shanxi merchants in the capital.

Therefore, the Jin merchants in Beijing jointly raised funds, bought a house in the Jiangjia Hutong in the east of Buxiang, and built a new compound according to the architectural style of Shanxi after demolition, as the Jin people's liaison hall in the capital.

This Jinji Hall lasted three and a half years and was finally completed in the summer of the first year of Chongzhen. The exterior of the whole building is majestic and magnificent, and the interior is also rigorously laid out and richly decorated everywhere.

The hall is filled with a large number of brick, stone, and wood carvings, which took hundreds of craftsmen nearly a year and a half to carve, and each pattern is very exquisite.

In front of the hall, there are dozens of large and small hollow brick carving pictures such as landscapes, flowers, birds and beasts, etc., in addition to the characters such as "Two Dragons Playing with Pearls" and "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea".

After bypassing the wall, there is a door leading to the small courtyard on the east and west sides, and in the small courtyard on the right is a two-story bell and drum tower, which tells the time up and down for the guild hall.

And along the Yong Road to the north through an archway, the eaves on the upper floor are staggered, and the bucket arches intersect each other, and the beauty is abnormal. Behind the archway is the main hall, with the hall, the roof is covered with cyan glazed tiles, it looks emerald and brilliant, just like the immortal dwelling.

There are 50 or 60 buildings of various types in the whole hall, with a construction area of nearly 10 acres, and the area occupied by the guild hall is close to 5 or 60 acres.

After this guild hall was put into use, the momentum of the Jin people in Beijing was greatly boosted, and it was very likely to overwhelm the momentum of the merchants and people from other provinces in Beijing except for the Sihai Chamber of Commerce.

However, the Jin merchants who presided over the Jinji Guild Hall were already satisfied enough, in their opinion, the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce was not a real hometown guild, but only similar to the nature of the merchant guild.

Because the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce does not distinguish its members by region or place of origin, as long as any businessman who has applied for a business license in the government and established a company can join the association.

After joining the association, the merchants do not have fair discussions, but are divided into grades according to the business items and the amount of principal of each registered company. And elected 12 chamber of commerce directors to be responsible for the weekday management of the chamber of commerce, elected every 3 years.

It seems that the organizational form of the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce is similar to that of the fellow townsmen, but the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce: no hometown, no friendship, and no obligation to help peers. It's just a place to exchange business information and recruit investment.

Although the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce's style of measuring everything with money has made some old-fashioned businessmen who do not speak for profit deeply disdainful, the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce, which has the support of the Inner Government and the Ming Central Bank, does not care about these comments from the outside world.

The Four Seas Chamber of Commerce directly obtained a prince's mansion from the palace as a place for office and daily communication. The businessmen who participated in the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce were able to obtain benefits such as various new products developed by the Inner Government or orders for various raw materials announced by the Inner Government.

So while many merchants despise it, many more are tempting to join it. The Four Seas Chamber of Commerce, which was established less than a year ago, soon became the most powerful merchant organization in the capital, but the internal relationship of this organization was relatively loose.

Today is not a day of auspicious day, but the Jinji Hall is crowded with people, and it looks very lively. From before dawn, the hall became bustling with people.

The Jinji Hall is doing this because of a grand event. Datong Xue family, Lingshi Wang family, Puzhou Zhang family, Wang family, Fan family, Quwo Li family, Jiexiu Hou family, Qixian Jia family and other famous families among the Jin merchants all sent representatives to the capital, and Jiangzhou wealthy businessman Zhang Guoji and several others rushed to the capital in person.

The emergence of these families and wealthy businessmen can basically influence the opinions of the entire Shanxi gentry and merchants. The merchants in Beijing and Jin who presided over the Jinji Guild Hall were nothing more than butlers in front of them.

Not long after the Jinji Hall was built, it ushered in the occupancy of these Shanxi wealthy families, which was naturally a grand ceremony to enhance its status and prestige for the hall.

Under the respectful leadership of several deacons, a large group of Jin merchants first worshiped Emperor Guan, and then offered incense to Mei and Ge Xianweng, and then returned to the main hall to sit down and prepare for the meeting.

When several Jin merchants in Beijing still wanted to stay in the palace and make friends with the children of these giant families, they had been persuaded to leave without being soft or hard. Soon there were only representatives of the wealthy merchants who came from all over the hall in this hall.

When only the representatives of these wealthy families were left in the hall, everyone thought that a person who would preside over the meeting should be elected first.

However, all of you are wealthy and wealthy people from all over Shanxi, although Shanxi people are still very united in front of outsiders. But when the door is closed, these wealthy giants are also not monolithic.

Although the big clans of Jiexiu and Qi County are rich, they have little power in the official face. And several wealthy families in Puzhou not only control the salt industry, but also because of the relationship between Wang Chonggu and Zhang Siwei, they can be said to have strong power in the DPRK and Jinnan.

But it is precisely because these wealthy families are rich and powerful, and they are related by marriage, so others are especially wary of them. lest these few come out and monopolize all the benefits.

Therefore, after everyone discussed for a long time, they finally elected a representative of the Taiyuan royal family, who was not very powerful but not famous.

After the Taiyuan Wang family claimed to be the Langya Wang family, the family history can be traced back to the two Jin Dynasty, but there have been no outstanding people in recent generations. Therefore, although he is very famous, he is just a hollow boss in the eyes of everyone in the hall.

And Wang Anhou, who was sent by the Wang family, is a good man with a gentle personality, although he is quite safe in doing things, but he is a little powerless to preside over such a meeting.

Sure enough, after just selecting the candidate to preside over the meeting, Zhang Xueren of the Zhang family in Puzhou couldn't wait to say: "What am I waiting for this time to go to Beijing for, I think everyone already understands it."

I heard that the imperial court intended to reform the money law, to fix the ratio of gold to silver at 1:15, and strictly prohibit the use of gold in the market. In addition, the gold bill will be promulgated to strictly prohibit the private flow of gold out of the Ming Dynasty.

Once this policy is announced, the gold on the market will inevitably be robbed, and only the three major banks will be able to exchange and trade gold in the future.

Although the Chang Dongjia of Sandetang is the largest shareholder of Shanxi Bank, he did not dare to take the idea for us without authorization, so he wanted to invite all shareholders to Taiyuan to discuss this matter.

However, then the Ministry of Household Affairs issued a formal proclamation, asking the Shanxi Bank to send representatives to Beijing to discuss how to implement this policy of reforming the money law.

On behalf of the Zhangjia, Wang, and Fan families in Puzhou, I would like to state in advance that one of the three bank representatives must be selected from among the three of us. ”

Before this Zhang Xueren sat down, Xue Zhengmin, the representative of the Xue family in Datong, stood up unhurriedly and said: "Our Xue family in Datong has contributed all the surplus grain in the Datong family for this year's war with the Mongolians outside the Guanwai.

Your Majesty personally issued an edict to praise my family for its righteousness and filial piety, and if there is no part of my family among these three representatives, I will go to the household department to reason..."

This Zhang and Xue talked to themselves and insisted on a representative seat, which naturally aroused everyone's dissatisfaction, so soon the hall became a mess.

Wang Anhou, who was sitting at the top, looked at the noisy scene in front of him, and suddenly felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, and sweat was pouring on his forehead, looking helpless.

Zhang Guoji, who was sitting on the outermost side, seemed to be tired of the quarrel of this group of people, and seemed to want to relieve Wang Anhou, he suddenly picked up the tea cup on the coffee table next to him, and then moved to the empty place and fell down a little harder.

The crisp sound of shattering suddenly made the arguing Jin merchants pause, and they couldn't help but look at the place where the sound came from.

Zhang Guoji, who was under the gaze of everyone, did not change his face, and still said to everyone with a smile: "I'm sorry, Yu Yi's hand slipped and broke a tea cup, but it disturbed everyone, it's really a sin, a sin."

But you have not quarreled enough from Taiyuan to the capital? Yu thought that the most important thing today was not to elect the representatives to participate in the household meeting. After all, this means that the person who represents the bank, not the name of the company.

Could it be that the delegates who participated in the household ministry meeting were able to bypass the Shanxi Bank, in which everyone has shares, and let their own families eat alone? I'm afraid that even if we are willing to do it, the court will not do it.

This time, the Ministry of Accounts has made it very clear that this is a policy jointly implemented by the three major banks, and if anyone wants to make personal profits from it, do you think that the other two banks will leave it alone?

Without the concerted efforts of our Jin people, do you really think that you can fight alone, the other two behemoths? ”

Zhang Guoji is a wealthy businessman in Jiangzhou, mainly operating in Yangzhou's salt, silk, bamboo and wood industries. However, although his family is wealthy, his foundation is quite shallow. The famous families of Shanxi who are also present here are completely incomparable.

The main reason why he was able to participate in the Shanxi Bank and sit down with these Shanxi wang people was that he had a very close relationship with the Donglin Party.

When Wei Zhongxian sent people to Suzhou to arrest Zhou Shunchang and other Donglin Party members, he tried to organize Suzhou merchants to pay bribes to Jinyiwei in order to rescue these Donglin Party members.

These famous families in Shanxi adopted a bystander strategy for the party struggle between the DPRK and China. But that doesn't mean they don't have any contact with either side. And Zhang Guoji is a channel for them to communicate with the Donglin Party.

However, even so, no one here took Zhang Guoji seriously. Being able to let him participate in this meeting can already be regarded as their promotion of Zhang Guoji. If it were a different time, these Jin merchant families would not even have the interest to meet him.

But when everyone was arguing, Zhang Guoji seized an opportunity to speak out, at least Wang Anhou, who presided over the meeting, thanked Zhang Guoji very much, and he did not hesitate to support: "This brother Tai said well, why don't you talk about it, is your proposition good?" ”