Looking at the voices of support from the businessmen below, Chongzhen looked up at Wang Benren who made these remarks in some surprise.

If he remembered correctly, this Wang Benren was a Huizhou merchant who provided timber for the three major halls. In his memory, this Huizhou wood merchant was a rather stingy figure, and he had been entangled with the representatives sent by the palace for a long time in order to prevent the 380,000 taels of silver owed to him by the palace from becoming shares of the Four Seas Commercial Bank.

Zhu Youzhen held his chin and said: "I remember that when you were preparing to set up the Four Seas Commercial Bank, you once said that you were in debt and asked the palace to pay one-third of your debts. Why, now there is money to contribute again? ”

More than forty years old, obese Wang Benren was not afraid of the emperor's ridicule, he cheekily lay on the ground and said: "In order not to let Your Majesty's property be damaged, Xiao... Even if the minister mortgaged all the family property, he was willing. ”

Zhu Youzhen also had nothing to do with this slick profiteer, and the shareholders of these Four Seas Commercial Firms, because they were the first businessmen to support him, received additional preferential treatment.

The shareholders were still trembling at their first meeting with the Emperor, but after a few encounters with Chongzhen, they were no longer so afraid of meeting with the Emperor. Of course, it was not unrelated to the fact that these shareholders were awarded medals by the emperor, promising them the same political status as the gentry.

Zhu Youzhen looked at Wang Benren and couldn't help but ask curiously: "I heard that Huizhou merchants have always been united with each other, and you yourself are from Huizhou, why are you so resistant to your fellow villagers joining this plan to establish a central bank?" ”

Wang Benren's face remained unchanged, and he said to Chongzhen as loyal: "Although the minister is from Huizhou, he has been awarded a medal by His Majesty, how can he be the same as an ordinary Huizhou businessman.

Although the merchants of Huizhou are the countrymen of the ministers, the business of currency exchange is closely related to every merchant, no, it should be said that it is related to any business.

In the opinion of the minister, whoever controls the bank mentioned by His Majesty will also control the lifeblood of the future Ming business. How can such an important thing be handed over to a group of outsiders to manage? ”

Chongzhen roughly understood Wang Benren's psychology, and after the award, he was able to meet with the emperor regularly, and he already thought that he had broken away from the ordinary merchant class and became a member of the gentry.

For this reason, they try to avoid associating themselves with their former peers, lest they fall back into their old class.

At the same time, the huge benefits of the currency exchange business also make these merchants reluctant to share with more people.

After touching his chin, Zhu Youzhen said gently: "What you said is actually right, the central bank will become the most important pillar in the economic lifeline of the Ming Dynasty in the future, such a pillar will not be in the hands of any businessman, it can only be in the hands of me."

So you don't have to think about monopolizing the shares of the central bank anymore, the cake is too big for you to eat. Although the central bank will be handed over to Huizhou businessmen, it does not mean that Sihai Commercial Bank does not hold shares in the central bank.

If we can establish a central bank throughout the Ming Dynasty one day earlier, then we can enjoy the financing function of the central bank after its establishment one day earlier. The scale of Sihai Commercial Bank is only in the capital, and the monthly turnover has reached more than 500,000 taels.

I heard that the population of Nanjing and Suzhou is larger than that of Beijing, do you just want to stay in Beijing and be rich? Think about it, if you can open the Four Seas Commercial Bank in various places, how much will it be profitable? ”

Although the future depicted by the emperor was beautiful, these merchant representatives still seemed unwilling to let go of the golden goose in their hands.

Zhu Youzhen had to come up with a more tangible temptation, "... I plan to include Hedong Yanchi in the second half of the year or early next year under the name of Sihai Commercial Bank.

However, everyone should know that although the annual output of Hedong Salt Pond is 1.3-1.4 billion catties of official salt, it was flooded last year, and the salt pond has been discontinued.

At the beginning of the year, Huang Xianqing allowed businessmen to develop three small ponds in the north and south of Jinjing. For every ten carts of salt produced in Jinjing, 5 carts were left as the work capital, and the other 5 carts were handed over to the government and merchants for sale. The two pools of Yongxiao and Jawa were three cars as the work capital, and seven cars were handed over to the officials and merchants for sale.

Isn't this official businessman, official businessman, still talking about Jin business? Hedong salt has the lowest cost, only 1 wen per catty, but the salt farm is sold to merchants for 10 wen and is taxed at 7 wen. However, in places close to the salt pond, it costs 5 or 60 wen per catty of salt; Far away from the salt-producing areas, it is 8 or 90 wen per catty of salt; And in some inland areas, it is even heard that there are as high as 03 silver per catty of salt. ”

Zhu Youzhen suddenly stopped when he said this, and he realized that the salt tax paid by Hedong Yanchi alone in a year should exceed 1 million taels. In the best year, the salt tax of the entire Ming Dynasty was only a little more than 2.5 million taels of silver.

When Chongzhen was thinking about the salt tax collected by the Ming Dynasty every year, the merchants below were already thinking about how much they could gain if Hedong Yanchi was included in the Four Seas Commercial Bank.

After the Changlu Salt Farm was purchased by the Four Seas Commercial Bank, under the strong auspices of Chongzhen, it was changed from frying salt to drying salt. After the investigation of salt workers and merchants, from Huanghua in the south to the beach in the south of Shanhaiguan in the north, it can be opened up as a drying ground.

The Changlu Salt Farm has been declining since the Jiajing Dynasty, and the salt has also been reduced to more than 18,000 people now. After the purchase of the salt farm, the Sihai Commercial Bank transformed the Changlu Salt Farm into the Changlu Salt Company, and all the salt butchers were relieved of their status as stove households.

After a series of restructurings, Yanding, who originally had no personal freedom, became a salt worker who sold his labor.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, a plate of iron was used to fry salt, and a plate of salt could be obtained 600 catties a day. However, the pan iron weighs 3,000 catties, and the value is expensive, so it can only be used in turn according to the gang.

In the later period, it was changed to a small pot to fry salt, a small pot is 140 catties, and a pot can get 60 catties of salt a day, and the important thing is that one person can move.

However, with the differentiation between the rich and the poor among the stove households, the rich stove households have 3 to 5 small pots and can hire hired workers to fry salt, while the poor households cannot even afford to buy such 116 taels of salt frying utensils.

Eventually, salt merchants became directly involved in the production of the salt works, lending money to the poor stove households to buy production tools, and the poor stove households paid back in pounds of salt. However, the illiterate stove farmers were obviously no match for these usurious salt merchants, and eventually became the debt slaves of these salt merchants.

The shareholders of Sihai Commercial Bank originally wanted to use this method to squeeze high profits out of the hands of the stove households. However, Chongzhen is obviously unwilling to use this method to destroy his reputation.

At the emperor's insistence, the debts owed by the stove households to the salt merchants were transferred to the salt company. After the adoption of these reforms, the enthusiasm of the stove households to produce was greatly increased, and many poor people were also called into the salt company.

The number of salt cholers in the Changlu Salt Farm, which has been declining, has risen to 20,000 for the first time. The daily output of salt exceeded 250,000 catties, and the cost was reduced to 3 wen per catty.

The retail price per catty of salt in Sihai Commercial Bank is 30 Wen, deducting costs and taxes, the gross profit is 20 Wen, and after deducting the wages of salt workers and the operating expenses of Sihai Commercial Bank, there is also a net profit of 15 Wen.

It is only a slight resumption of the production of Changlu Salt Farm, and there is a net profit of more than 600 taels per day. The price of salt production in Hedong Salt Pond is lower than that of Changlu Salt Farm, about 1-2 Wen.

As long as the salt output of Hedong Salt Pond returns to the amount of salt produced in ordinary years, 100 million catties per year, even if it is sold at the lowest price of 30 wen per catty, it is a profit of more than 1.5 million taels a year.

This is obviously a good business, and the shareholders of the Four Seas Commercial Bank have finally bowed their heads in the face of huge interests. Zhu Youzhen also came back to his senses in a timely manner and continued to persuade these shareholders.

"This Hedong Yanchi has always been controlled by Jin merchants, even if I can't talk about an edict in the vernacular, I will hand it over to the Four Seas Commercial Bank to operate. Otherwise, those civil officials will definitely say that I am competing with the people for profit. ”

One of the shareholders suddenly said, "But we are also the people, Your Majesty." ”

Zhu Youzhen smiled and said, "I'm afraid that when the time comes, these officials will not recognize you and the people."

If we have the support of the Hui merchants, then at least the voice of the DPRK and China will not be heard. The plan of Sihai Commercial Bank to acquire Hedong Yanchi will be less hindered. ”

Chongzhen finally persuaded the shareholders of the Four Seas Firm to agree to separate the currency exchange business from the Four Seas Firm, allowing the Hui Merchants to dominate the future central bank.

But even so, Wang Benren did not give up completely. He volunteered to ask the emperor to discuss the shares of the central bank with the Hui merchants as a representative of the Four Seas Commercial Bank. Zhu Youzhen only thought for a moment before agreeing to this request.

In the edict prison of Jinyiwei, Zhang Daojun, who had not washed for several days, was sitting cross-legged in the prison in a daze.

He really didn't understand why the emperor recalled him to the capital and threw him into prison without even telling him a crime.

He was closing his eyes and thinking when he heard footsteps in the distance. Zhang Daojun opened his eyes, and through the sunlight of the Ming tile on the aisle, he recognized that the person who followed the Jinyi captain who was in charge of the edict was Xu Yingyuan, the great eunuch in the palace.

He hurriedly got up and knelt down to Xu Yingyuan, who walked to the door of the prison house, and said, "The criminal officer Zhang Daojun has seen Xu Gonggong, is the father-in-law here to interrogate the criminal officer?" ”

A Jinyi lieutenant put a chair in front of the imperial house, Xu Yingyuan sat down and waved his hand to let the two Jinyi guards retreat, then looked at Zhang Daojun and asked: "Zhang Yishi knows that he is guilty, so let's tell me where his crime is?" ”

Zhang Daojun was speechless for a moment, he just wanted to confess his guilt and have a better attitude, maybe he could win some sympathy. But he really didn't understand what his sin was.

"The criminal officer is stupid, and I ask my father-in-law to make it clear." Zhang Daojun held back for a long time, so he had to reply hard.

Xu Yingyuan held Erlang's legs, looking at this unlucky brocade guard with a smile, if he didn't have to go to Sichuan with this person, he wouldn't mind teasing Zhang Daojun more.