The banking department of Bianshui South Bank is divided into two parts, one is the yamen of the banking department, and the other is the banknote making workshop, that is, the banknote printing factory.

The yamen of the banking department is divided into two parts, one is the real yamen, where official business and disputes are handled, and the other is the huge business hall, behind which is a larger warehouse.

Behind the yamen is the money-printing workshop, which is heavily guarded, and even the workers and weaver girls who come to work are on duty every day, and they must send special male and female officials to search their bodies before they can be released.

Wang Qi walked in with Wang Ju, Zhang Qi, Cai Qu, Zhang Dan, Pu Zongmeng and Fan Chunren.

Zhang Shangying immediately greeted him and said, "See Wang Gong, Taibao, Zhang Gong, Cai Gong, Zhang Gong, Dan Gong, Fan Gong." ”

"Tianjue, there is no need to be polite, how many silk have been printed now?" Lao Wang asked.

"The first to come is Shuo silk and rubber wire, followed by Zhejiang silk, so the silk of 100 and 80 wen each printed nearly 4 million guan, the silk of 20 wen printed nearly 700,000 guan, as for the silk of 50 and 10 wen, it has just been printed."

"At the beginning, the craftsmen and weavers were a little unfamiliar, and the silk material has been insufficient, which is a bit slow, but now the craftsmen and weavers are beginning to be familiar, and the silk material is gradually sufficient, and the task of the imperial court can be completed by the end of the year."

What is the task of the imperial court, that is, 50 million guanjiaozi must be issued this year.

Five kinds of jiaozi, each with 10 million guan.

If it weren't for the lack of gold and silver, more than 2 million taels of gold and 1,300 taels of silver had been prepared before, and this amount alone was equivalent to 64 million taels, and the imperial court would be able to gather some gold and silver later, and in addition, it might get a lot of gold and silver from private hands this year.

The key reason is that when Wang Ju arrived in the capital, it was almost June.

For silk, it's getting late.

And let the businessmen go down to collect silk materials, which has brought about changes in silk prices.

Don't underestimate its impact. Because of the limitations of printing and dyeing technology, this kind of silk is thick and dense, the density is almost equivalent to nearly three times that of the dollar in later generations, and the area is larger, the quality of a ten-cent silk is almost more than three points, as for the hundred-cent silk because of gold and silver wire. Almost 6.5 grams.

Of course, this is also Wang Ju's intention.

The higher the cost, the thicker and denser it is, so that it is not easy for some unscrupulous businessmen to forge it, and it will be recognized by the people.

Although it is heavier, how about it compared to copper coins?

First of all, let's talk about the role of copper in the Song Dynasty, we all know that there are copper Buddha statues and copper mirrors, but in fact, copper was used a lot in the Song Dynasty. For example, all kinds of large utensils, the most common is pots.

In this era, there are certainly no plastic basins, and there are no aluminum products, and as for firing large ceramic pieces, it is still very difficult, or some people say that I used porcelain basins when I was a child, is that ceramic, no. It's enamel, where is there enamel now. Even the enamel technology has not yet been perfected. However, the tin is soft, the lead is brittle, the iron is easy to rust, and the wood is too clumsy, so all kinds of copper basins occupy nearly half of the market. In addition, there are various pendants and other utensils, and the second is gilding. Rich people will be plated with real gold dust, and those who don't have money will use copper plating instead of gold plating.

However, compared with the ancient times, the Song Dynasty did not have as much application of copper, such as various large-scale bronzes in ancient times. and weapons. These are now replaced by iron.

However, why is copper ten times more expensive than iron?

Without him, copper is mostly used to mint coins, and it is rare and expensive, so it is more than ten times the price of iron.

Speaking of the composition of copper coins, the actual copper coins are not entirely minted in copper, so you don't even have to wear pants. At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, it was a little better, there could be more than two grams of copper in a copper coin, but later as the price of copper rose, there was less and less copper, only more than one gram, and the rest was lead and tin.

Therefore, the quality of the copper coins of the Song Dynasty will be worse the later they go, but a copper coin must be more than one gram, just like Xining ingots, which are normally more than four grams.

Now it will be unified, consistent money is the real 1,000 yuan, consistent money quality will reach four kilograms, eight pounds of weight!

When you think about having a meal in Fan Lou, the starting price will be hundreds of yuan, and you have to use several cars to load money to have a meal.

Of course, no one will really do that, and those who go to Fanlou to eat mostly use quasi-currencies such as gold and silver, old salt, banknotes, and tea, rather than copper coins, but in this way, it must still be very troublesome.

Now because of the emergence of silk delivery, these problems will all be solved, if you use ten yuan of silk payment, the quality of money is only 300 grams, with one hundred yuan of silk payment, only 65 grams.

As for large-scale transactions, such as transactions of more than 50,000 yuan, hundreds of thousands of millions of silk transactions, large volume, heavy weight, or not easy to carry, it is also easy, through the banking departments of the administrative transfer of foreign exchange, the handling fee is only 1.5 percent.

In this way, the banking department earns a small fee, of course, it is not small, it is very small for individuals, but for the banking department, it is a gathering of sand into a tower. But it is also convenient for individuals, a batch of commercial goods from Hangzhou is transported, sold for 100,000 yuan, and then a bill of exchange is carried and returned to Hangzhou on horseback, and the money can be withdrawn. And the bill of exchange can only be collected by the person or his family, if you abandon the loss can be reported in Hangzhou, with the loss of the certificate, you can also go to the capital with the stub of the bank to re-issue the bill, then the security has also been absolutely guaranteed.

But there are two sides to everything.

Although this will increase the acceptance of the people, the amount of silk required is also intimidating.

Just like the 50 million silk materials issued this year, because the best season for purchasing silk materials was missed, many people turned silk materials into cloth, so at least the remaining one-third of the silk materials in the hands of the people were purchased to meet the demand of 50 million silk exchanges.

Especially like Zhejiang silk and wide silk, because they are aimed at the silk of ten and twenty yuan, the demand for silk is even greater, and maybe in the end even the silk material for printing 10 million silk is insufficient.

Such a huge purchase of silk materials immediately caused fluctuations in the price of silk.

Since last year, some cotton workshops have appeared in the Song Dynasty one after another, and the most influential ones are kudzu and hemp, which have dropped by almost 20 to 50 wen per horse, and all kinds of silk cloth have also dropped by 50 to 100 wen.

However, as the merchants went down to buy silk in a frenzy, the price of silk cloth immediately rose. By next year, the imperial court plans to issue another 100 million pieces of silk, and the price will rise further.

Silk silk was now the largest currency of the Song Dynasty, and this rose. It had an impact on the prices of Western Xia and Liao.

But it doesn't matter, only next year, there may be another 100 million silk deliveries, but it depends on the situation to determine the final number of issuance, and it will be divided into three to four years.

And from a long-term perspective, if the other side brings that kind of fine staple cotton to the Central Plains. It will be suitable for planting in the north soon, and the yield is better, and the quality of cotton fiber is far better than that of coarse wool, so the price of hemp and kudzu will be more impacted, not that they will disappear in history, kudzu also has the role of kudzu, such as kudzu paper, some utensils, hemp is also made of hemp rope. It is also possible to make hemp paper. However, Gebu and Sabubu may disappear into the long river of history.

As for the sericulture industry, it will also be impacted, but as a high-end fabric, there will still be, but it will not be as popular as it is now, and most of it will become what it was in the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Therefore, the imperial court did not need to interfere with the change of silk price.

In short, if there is no Wang Ju at the helm, even if the silk is issued. It may be that because of the changes it brings, the imperial court will feel panicked.

These Wang Ju also explained in detail. They didn't ask any more questions.

The group came to the workshop in the back.

Hundreds of workers and weaver girls are printing silk in various workshops.

Therefore, it is divided into several workshops, one is assembly line production, which saves costs, and the other is conducive to the confidentiality of technology.

Lao Wang picked up a silk and looked at it.

Vermilion is the main color, but it's not exactly vermilion, and there are some other colors. This is also for anti-counterfeiting.

If it is not without the new machinery, the Song Dynasty can not be color printing, in fact, in the Tang Dynasty there was color printing technology, to the Song Dynasty color printing technology is more developed, sometimes color printing scrolls. It can be almost exactly like the original painting.

But the cost is extremely high.

Its pattern is not as fine as the later renminbi, such as the Kaifeng Iron Tower, which uses lines to construct a freehand Italian tower and a few trees, and then uses the lines to construct two mountains in the distance, and the painting of the Kaifeng Iron Tower comes out.

It can only be like this, no matter how fine it is, the technology can't keep up, and the cost can't keep up.

But that's it, if there is no new machinery, as well as the production of workshop assembly lines, and large-scale printing diluted the cost, with private people wanting to forge, the cost of color printing is likely to exceed the value of silk.

Don't forge a big cross, the more big the cross, the more complex the pattern paint. In addition, the pigments are not so simple, some pigments come from overseas, and special pigments and processes are used to prevent decolorization.

Although you can't wash it directly in water, at least get some rain and it won't change color.

It is this technology that will stump many unscrupulous businessmen.

Zhang Dian said: "With the value of this silk handover itself, it is not only the value of the silk handover. ”

But it's not what he says, Wang Ju said: "Tianjue, let's open tomorrow." ”

"Okay." Zhang Shangying said.

However, it opened at this time, and everyone understands that it was just the opportunity to take advantage of the influence of the Daqing Palace's debate last time and the opportunity for the opposition to weaken, so it was opened immediately.

This opening doesn't mean that it will be distributed nationwide, it's still early.

The first two steps, the first step will be silk delivery to the country's various businesses, according to the distribution of various situations, the number of cities in the northwest and north will be a little less, the southeast will be a little more, especially Jiangning, Suzhou, Yangzhou and Hangzhou these four cities.

The second step is to immediately go out of the East Water Gate, and let the merchants bring all kinds of cloth and silk, including cotton cloth, copper coins, gold and silver, or salt banknotes and tea quotations, to the bank to exchange silk.

If this step can be recognized by these merchants, then you can enter the next step, and the imperial court will use silk to purchase the commercial goods needed by the imperial court and pay for the silk materials transported by the merchants. Then silk sex gradually spread throughout the country.

If this step continues to go well, then the next step will be to pay the salaries of the issuing officers and soldiers, and by next year, the loan service can be launched.

Why it will be next year, the reason is simple, the number of silk deliveries this year is still insufficient. And when the second batch of silk delivery is launched next year, it is just in time for the people to be in a state of flux.

Every step is important, but the key is the first step, the approval of the people.

The first step in the recognition of the people is the approval of the merchants.

Now that Bianshui is so developed, it is difficult for future generations to imagine that only last year, Jiang Zhiqi transferred nearly 9 million stone grain from the 12th Route Shipping Division in the south. This is only official food, as well as grain from private businessmen. As well as various commercial goods, such as coal, with the promotion of coal, the capital has to consume more than one million stone coal in a winter.

Just the Bianshui transportation in the capital, the number of various commercial goods coming and going from the south to the north in a year may be close to 20 million stones, and the number of large and small ships is almost 100,000 times. Now is the busiest time for freight transport, and the number of ships berthed at the various wharves outside the East Water Gate can reach several thousand.

Therefore, there is a lack of sufficient currency, and trade is extremely inconvenient, but everyone has come over for so many years, so it is still unknown whether it is recognized or not.

In the evening of the next day, Zhang Shangying rode to Zhongshu, and then said, "Princess. Today, more than 500,000 silk payments were exchanged, and three merchants directly exchanged bills of exchange. ”

This is the first day, and the numbers are still relatively optimistic.

And this exchange itself can be profitable, slightly higher than the market price, but it is not too high, otherwise it will affect the price of silk, but although it is not high, more than 400,000 silk payments will be cashed. At least it can bring a gross profit of 5,000 guan to the imperial court.

Maybe no one else paid much attention to it, but this step is really important.

However, it also has a great relationship with Wang Ju's arrangement. If it weren't for the use of An Tao to be Zheng Xia, and then demoted An Tao to overseas Li City, Fu Bi and others returned to Luoyang in disgrace, and issued an edict to dismantle the members of the Senior Citizens' Association, and at the same time, various merchants were still imprisoned in the Kaifeng Mansion Prison, so that everyone could see the determination of the imperial court. Then there won't be so many exchanges.

Lao Wang and several other important ministers of the Chinese book looked calm, but Wang Ju's tense face became soothed.

Zhang Shangying said: "But there are two things that make me a little worried, the first is that many businessmen use old friends to hedge. ”

"It doesn't matter, if the merchant uses the old hand over to Jiaozipu to cash in, won't the court redeem it? The emergence of new crossings. Old transactions will inevitably go into history, and even large transactions will be replaced by bills of exchange in the future. ”

"There is another thing, the merchants mostly use cloth, salt banknotes and tea, or cash in old transactions, but few use copper coins and gold and silver to exchange."

"Don't worry about copper coins, even if all 50 million new coins are printed, the currency is still insufficient, and if the currency is insufficient, the copper coins will continue to be tight. Moreover, there is change, even if the new exchange is popular, it is still inseparable from copper coins. ”

What Wang Ju said was that the text was the unit, and it was impossible for the silk hand to be reduced to five or one text, so it was really not enough to even have the cost.

However, many small commercial goods are still the price of one penny and two pennies, so the old trade fair is gradually disappearing, but the copper coin will not disappear.

Wang Ju's voice changed and said: "But the fluctuation of gold and silver prices must be paid attention to. ”

"Oh, Taibao, when will the specific edict of Qi Shang Tax be issued?" Zhang Shangying asked again.

The edict of Qi Shangshui was issued in the spring of the previous year, which was the vague edict proposed by Wang Ju, but although this edict was issued, no one had ever seriously implemented it.

If you want to implement it, you must also introduce a specific reward and punishment system before it can be implemented gradually.

However, after Wang Ju returned to the capital, he was busy with the banking department and the various arrangements of the new machinery company, and he never mentioned the Qi business tax again.

Wang Ju replied: "Don't worry, I'm waiting, waiting for something to come out, then is the time to launch the real Qi business tax!" ”

Zhang Shangying knew what the timing was when he was talking about, so he didn't say anything more.

The following days can be said to be a smooth transition, with the daily exchange volume between 500,000 and 700,000 yuan, which lasted until ten days later, when this number gradually declined, so that the workshop behind the banking department had to work overtime to print silk delivery.

Such a huge amount of silk was cashed out, and it also began to circulate in the fang market in the capital.

The price of Taizu Jiao (100 Wen) and Taizong Jiao (80 Wen) is about the same, but the exchange price of the following three Jiaozi in the Fang market has increased, Zhenzong Jiao (50 Wen) is equivalent to 55 Wen, especially Renzong Jiao (20 Wen) and Yingzong Jiao (10 Wen) Because the people feel very affordable, a Renzong Jiao has reached 25 Wen, and a Yingzong Jiao has reached 145 Wen, which has risen by half.

As a result, these three kinds of Jiaozi of the banking department were printed in the front and exchanged by the merchants later.

Wang Ju did not interfere, he was not afraid of rising, he was afraid of falling.

And in the future, the two kinds of big exchanges may not be unpopular, especially when used for trade, this kind of big trade is more convenient to carry, so objectively speaking, if the silk trade is really recognized by all the people, maybe the big trade will be more popular than the small trade in the future.

Overall, the situation is good.

But at this moment, Fu Bi died! (To be continued.) )