The largest denominations of these "treasure notes" were twenty silver dollars, as well as ten silver dollars, five silver dollars, and one silver dollar. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info In fact, the twenty silver dollars are already much larger than the 100 yuan bills of later generations, and the purchasing power of one or two silver in that year is equivalent to about 1,000 yuan in later generations, or even higher, although because of the trade of the Nanyang Company, a large amount of silver flowed, and the economic war against the north, as well as the transformation of the landlords in the south into industry and commerce, etc., so that the imperial court silver increased, but one or two silver is at least equivalent to more than 500 yuan in later generations, so the paper money of 20 silver dollars is definitely a big banknote.

The so-called "treasure banknote" printed on the pattern, and the pattern on the coin is the same, are a sun and moon symbol, the banknote also has the image of the Forbidden City and a variety of different character portraits, the portrait on the twenty silver dollars is Ming Taizu, the portrait on the ten yuan is Ming Chengzu, the portrait on the five yuan is Ming Wuzong, and the portrait on the one yuan is Mingshenzong.

In terms of anti-counterfeiting, the copper gravure printing technology is adopted when printing, the banknote has a solid texture, fine prints, clear layers, and the printing plate is resistant to printing, and the printed product lines are clear and the ink layer is thick, which has a particularly unique effect on the expressiveness of human heads and landscape paintings. And it is not easy to imitate, and has good anti-counterfeiting function. There is also pattern docking, banknotes with adjacent numbers, and the pattern and pattern can be connected together, because it is originally cut out of a piece of paper. In addition, the Nanyang Bank seal is also printed on the banknote, which is also one of the anti-counterfeiting measures.

Of course, there was no high-end anti-counterfeiting technology such as watermarks, metal anti-counterfeiting threads, and fluorescent inks, and some "folk masters" could not avoid counterfeiting banknotes, but the imperial court took extremely severe measures to crack down on counterfeiting banknotes. Those who counterfeit a large number of banknotes can be punished with summary execution.

Although the banknotes are very beautifully made and the anti-counterfeiting measures are also in place, at this time, ordinary merchants are still reluctant to accept banknotes. After all, the reputation of the previous Daming treasure banknotes was too stinky, and it didn't take long for the Daming treasure banknotes to be discovered, and they all turned into waste paper.

In this regard, Nanyang Company adopted the method of temporarily treating paper money as silver notes to solve people's distrust of paper money, that is, anyone with paper money in their hands can go to Nanyang Bank at any time to exchange gold coins, silver dollars and copper coins on the denomination of paper money.

A considerable part of the military salary provided by Wang Xinyu to Wu Sangui was also delivered in paper money, and Wu Sangui's people could take paper money to Nanyang banks in various places to exchange real money.

Today's Ming finance is completely dependent on the support of the Nanyang Company and the Qiongzhou Army, Huguang has been in war not long ago, and Sichuan has not had much population because of years of war, and the annual tax revenue of these two places does not exceed two million taels of silver; The tax revenue in other parts of the Yangtze River is not high, 3 million taels a year, but in Shanghai alone, the tax revenue is as high as 5 million taels a year. Guangdong, Fujian, Guangxi and other places have an annual income of 8 million taels. In this way, the total annual tax revenue of the Ming army on the mainland was about 18 million taels, but the expenditure was even higher, spending 23 million taels of silver a year and losing 5 million taels.

To be able to make up for the shortfall, it is completely dependent on Nanyang. The Nanyang Company's trade in various parts of the Nanyang Company earns more than 10 million taels of silver every year; With the smuggling of the north, more than 6 million taels of silver flow into the country every year. The trade with Japan, as well as the gold and silver shipped back from the Americas from Zheng Jing, had an income of more than fifteen million taels of silver, and thus solved the problem of military salaries.

If it weren't for the profits brought by business, I'm afraid Wang Xinyu would have been unable to support it.

However, it is not a solution in the long run, and if you continue to settle with precious metals such as gold and silver, there will eventually be a shortage of gold and silver, so the development of the financial industry and the issuance of paper money are the ultimate solution.

……

Thousands of miles away in the capital, Sukh Saha was defeated, and the news of the loss of Xiangyang had reached the capital.

Regarding the defeat and death of Sukh Saha, Bumu Butai and Kangxi did not have much regret. After Aobai's death, Sukh Saha had no one to contain him, Tuhai's official position and prestige were not as good as Sukh Saha, and Bumu Butai and Kangxi both regarded Sukh Saha as a potential threat, so they asked him to send troops to defend Xiangyang.

Now that Sukh Saha is dead, Bumu Butai and Kangxi feel that they will have one less confidant from now on, which is simply a good thing worth applauding.

For the Qing court, the biggest headache at present is the lack of silver.

"Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager, training the new army, the cost is huge. The money obtained by several great profiteers and corrupt officials is almost used up! Nalan Mingzhu, a 33-year-old minister, reported to Kangxi and Bu Mu Bu Taiyu.

Kangxi turned his head to look at Tu Hai and asked, "Tu Aiqing, how much silver income do you have when you run North Korea?" ”

Tu Hai replied: "Back to the emperor, back to Lafayette, the servants obtained a total of 26 million taels of silver, 3.2 million taels of gold, and other jewels in Korea, worth 7 million taels of silver, a total of more than 60 million taels of silver. If this money is only used to train the new army and pay the military salary, it can be supported for a long time. However, there is a shortage of food in the north, and if this silver is used to buy food, I am afraid that it will not last long. Knowing that we were short of grain, they set up checkpoints by the river, and the grain transported to the north was taxed extremely highly! ”

Jin Fu also reported: "Your Majesty, Lafayette, sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes are grown in the north, and the harvest is far inferior to that in the south. ”

Sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn, which were high-yielding crops from the American continent that year, could have been harvested in the south without variety improvement, but the harvest was not very good in the north. Because of this, the Qing court in the north had to use precious gold and silver to buy grain from the south.

At this moment, suddenly the waiter of the Ministry of Rites said: "Your Majesty, Lafayette, in fact, not only we lack silver, but also the southern traitors!" The pseudo-Ming traitor loves firearms, and the firearms consume a lot of silver, and now the southern finances must be unable to make ends meet! Listen to the explanation, the reverse has begun to issue treasure money! ”

"Fake Ming issuance treasure banknotes?" Bumu Butai was stunned for a moment.

Leer Jin said: "The Empress Dowager! The servants have investigated in the south, and the iron ore and coal needed to be transported from Annam because the puppet thieves cast a large number of cannons and made gunpowder in large quantities; Sulfur saltpeter also has to be transported from Japan and other places, so it costs a lot of silver! Now the pseudo-Ming finance must be unable to make ends meet, and only then did he discover the treasure money. ”

"Treasure money, isn't that waste paper in the end?" Bumu Butai sneered.

Tu Hai proposed: "Lafayette, the slave thinks that we can also issue treasure money in the Qing Dynasty!" ”