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The exhibition of any civilization is inseparable from the three themes of politics, economy and military. Historians' studies of modern human civilization have also carried out detailed analyses around these three basic themes.

It has to be said that economic issues have always been the core research object of historians' exhibition of civilization, because the progress of productive forces is the core element of civilization progress. The related social and economic activities reflect a number of iconic characteristics of the times.

Since the beginning of the second millennium, whether it is in the dark Europe of religious fanaticism, or in the East with high social prosperity, commercial exhibitions have given birth to "commercial credit", and after hundreds of years, they have become the most powerful weapon to end the barbaric economic ecology and guide the progress of modern civilization.

The new productive forces have evolved into the modern financial system with the help of the modern financial system, breaking through the control and monopoly of the feudal political system over the old productive forces of society from the bottom up, opening up a new battlefield that the latter is completely unable to parry, and finally replacing it.

At the end of the 16th century, a Dutch captain named Barents, with a cargo of goods, embarked on a journey of no return from the north of Europe in search of an Asian route.

Barron found Spitzbergen, and he happily continued his course within the Arctic Circle, despite the dangers of the bitter cold, and was trapped by the frozen seas without any suspense. Barents and 17 Dutch sailors survived eight months of bitter winter, dismantling the planks to fuel their boats and hunting.

In the terrible danger, many people died one after another. But Barents and his crew did something unimaginable: they did not touch the goods entrusted to them, which included clothing and medicine that could save their lives.

Barents finally died in this harsh disaster, and the surviving crew brought the cargo back to the Netherlands almost intact and handed it back to the client.

Perhaps Barents was just one of the many Dutch merchants who were unknown at the time. His tragic act brought the Barents Sea to appear on the world's charts, which was probably not his original intention. From earlier times, generations of Dutch merchants paid with their lives to watch over their business beliefs, creating the law of commercial credit that will be passed down to future generations. A variety of financial instruments that have been handed down to the present day are exhibited.

This consistent approach has had the obvious benefit of the Netherlands as a whole, namely that commercial credit has taken root and has allowed the Netherlands to win the world market for seaborne trade.

At the end of the 16th century, the Netherlands, which had just declared independence, even legislated that its bankers should be strictly protected when providing financial services to hostile countries in order to ensure the commercial credibility of their country. In the 17th century, the Netherlands established an unassailable economic supremacy for other countries. Amsterdam's bank notes could make any European feudal monarch bow his head and gnash his teeth helplessly.

End of the 17th century. England ushered in the Glorious Revolution, a turning point in history, and the new bourgeois aristocracy chose William III, Prince of Orange, the supreme consul of the Netherlands, as their new king. In addition to tens of thousands of Dutch soldiers, William III was accompanied by a large number of financiers, who brought the advanced Dutch financial system to England, which had been hungry for a long time. Because from the beginning of the 17th century, the Netherlands was the object of great envy of England. He is also a teacher who is extremely learning to emulate.

The result is a classic episode of the modern rise of England's constitutional system, industrial capital, and the commercial capital of the Dutch Golden Age. The Bank of England was born, and the Dutch law of commercial credit was extended, using financial means such as "cheap money" to make the country's industry and commerce stronger.

When William III came to power, there was a strategic shift in the center of the European economy, and the Netherlands, which had been corrupted by huge wealth, lost their historical advantage and England took their place.

……

January 3o, 1641. Monday.

In the middle of one of the largest business districts in the western part of Long Island, next to the Manchester Cathedral and the headquarters of the state-owned import and export group, the square in front of a palatial Oriental-style building is bustling with people.

Now that the sky is bright, it seems a little strange that there are brightly dressed or unpretentious people intertwined early in the morning. The people in the square excitedly and nervously exchanged their heads, or pinched the paper in their hands and frowned in thought, while a few looked calmly at the gate of the building that had not yet opened.

The Manchester City Stock Exchange, which was expanded and renovated only last year, has been the centerpiece of the Chinese Economic Exhibition since 1632. The sprawling Oriental Palace-style building is divided into several functional areas, where a series of financial activities such as stock trading, securities trading, and upcoming futures trading are concentrated.

"Today's newspaper is out!"

A horse-drawn carriage came galloping from a distant street corner. Before they could get steady, a few young men grabbed a stack of newspapers and ran towards the crowd.

The crowd seemed to have received some instructions, and they all brushed out of the way, allowing the young men to run all the way to the steps of the stock exchange building.

"Marshal Tolstensen of Sweden has won another victory in Bohemia and is advancing on Vienna!" The young man wiped the sweat from his forehead. He excitedly raised the newspaper in his hand, his face filled with irrepressible excitement.

The news that the brave Swedish artillery chief, who had fought his way back into the heart of the Holy Roman Empire as commander-in-chief of the Swedish army, had finally returned to the heart of the Holy Roman Empire as commander-in-chief of the Swedish army, to the delight of most of the people of Manchester, who had bought Swedish bonds underwritten by the state-owned Banco Nacional Ultramarino. Swedish government bonds, with quarterly interest rates of up to 1o%, are enough to provide profit margins for the transfer of copying by Chinese and American people.

"Damn, why are the generals of the Holy Roman Empire so idiotic?!"

There were also a number of citizens who had purchased the treasury bonds of Spain or the Holy Roman Empire, and after hearing the news, they angrily and frustrated and tore up the vouchers for the transfer of the treasury bonds that had been filled out long ago, and the snow-white shredded paper fluttered in the wind, causing the strong dissatisfaction of the cleaners who were cleaning the square.

"There is also news that the Spanish army has routed the French army north of Milan, and the situation in Italy is once again tilted in favor of Spain!" Another youth also waved his arms. Cheer up some of the depressed citizens.

"Haha, well done! I knew they were going to do a good job! ”

A wave of citizens in the corner, who had gloomy faces, jumped up in an instant and applauded in celebration. Because they all buy shares in the Atlantic Fund, which is the main investor in companies that trade with the Kingdom of Spain. Every move of the Kingdom of Spain will directly affect the rise and fall of the share price of the Atlantic Fund.

Today's securities trading has not yet opened. The crowd in the square is experiencing all kinds of joys and sorrows, and the securities brokers who aim to collect trading commissions are hyping up the stocks they represent, and every detail of the war in Europe affects the feelings of the people here.

……

Affected by the overall world environment, Huamei had to adopt the gold and silver standard after the founding of the country. However, compared with the parallel standard system that is common in European countries, which is more likely to lead to chaos due to the unstable price comparison of gold and silver, Huamei's monetary policy has chosen a dual standard. That is, Huamei stipulated a legal ratio of 1:15 for gold and silver, and allowed normal circulation.

For this purpose, the Central Bank of China has also minted a small number of gold coins denominated in the denomination of 1O US dollars for bulk settlements, but in the vast majority of cases, the US dollar and the silver cent are still the most important currencies in the United States.

With the advent of Huamei, much more silver than at the same time in history left Europe and entered Huamei and the Far East along the Atlantic trade. Plus the impetus of Dutch businessmen. The silver shortage in Europe was more than a decade ahead of its original history, and the European currency crisis was beginning to emerge. So when the gold-silver ratio between Amsterdam and London became 1:13.5 in 1636, millions of gorgeous silver dollars began to pour out from all sources. The absurdity of England's vast overseas profits at the end of the 17th century while silver became scarce at home began to be replicated in China.

A large amount of arbitrage gold poured in, and the outflow of US dollar silver coins, which are the main circulating standard currency, accelerated, and the phenomenon of insufficient supply of silver coins began to appear in China. In addition, the practice of private storage of currency by the Chinese nationals, who account for the majority of their own nationals, has not been fundamentally eliminated, and the domestic silver shortage is quietly spreading. Some of the less-than-value European silver coins are in a strange and unobtrusive state.

In the long run, the implementation of the gold-silver ratio policy is a necessary means for Huamei to stabilize the domestic economy and establish the country's currency and credit, even if it has to endure the impact of the external environment, whether it is at the legal level or the practical level, it must be gritted and persisted.

In China, the use of cheap bookkeeping currencies such as bank bills to replace complicated and high-cost physical gold and silver currency settlements and increase the currency circulation rate has actually been implemented early and accepted by various enterprises. However, in overseas trade settlements, currency losses due to exchange rate fluctuations cannot be prevented. It has not been effectively resolved.

In order to keep the currency disaster out of the country, Huamei initially established an operational bill discounting and foreign exchange settlement system in the Almei Concession in 1636, and began to prevent arbitrage of gold imports and silver outflows. However, large quantities of silver were still siphoned off in gold by domestic or foreign merchants through international trade settlements, and in 164o the Central Bank Mint of the United States and the United States had an average mint of only 3o% of the silver coins of the previous year for six consecutive months.

The major trading enterprises in China and the United States are also gradually dissatisfied with the state's policy of reaching out to strictly control the settlement of Yar trade currency. In particular, the liberal attacks were staged every year in Parliament from 1638 onwards, and even some of the private banks or trading enterprises controlled by some of the emerging progressives were criticized.

For no other reason, in order to target the arbitrage of gold imports and exports, which are mainly liberal private banks and trading groups, the trade settlements related to European imports and exports have been forcibly allocated to the state-owned Banco Nacional Ultramarino. Any bill discounting settlement related to import and export trade must be carried out at the state-owned Banco Nacional Ultramarino, and outbound transactions of more than $10,000 in a single transaction of silver coins are prohibited.

In the eyes of mobs who have gradually equated their money from their murderous parents, the death policy led by the Senate, which is dominated by conservatives, is undoubtedly a stumbling block to "hindering economic freedom." Even if many people understand the Senate's good intentions, there are still people who feel uncomfortable.

The implementation of the de facto gold standard of the lame standard, which changed silver from a standard currency to a secondary currency, thus avoiding the loss of silver price changes, seemed to be the next solution that Huamei had to accept. But with a beautiful body and bones, it will take a long time and material preparation.

……

Beginning in 1638, there were several rounds of intermittent negotiations between China and the Netherlands on the establishment of an international settlement center for Atlantic trade.

Huamei had another purpose of trying to alleviate the dilemma of the continuous outflow of the country's silver dollars due to the exchange rate difference by borrowing the cheap currency means of the Dutch commercial credit in Europe and the international bill settlement business, and through the strict international credit currency settlement system. It also foreshadowed the establishment of a gold standard that was conducive to the stability of its own monetary economy, and prepared in advance for the large-scale economic chaos caused by the currency crisis after the end of the Thirty Years' War in Europe.

The Netherlands, on the other hand, has long been ambitious in its interest in the booming Atlantic trade, and Dutch financial capital is also wary of the United States' attempt to unilaterally implement another set of ticket settlement models in Europe.

Negotiations continued until the autumn of 1641, when the Dutch wanted the "International Settlement Center for Atlantic Trade" to be located in Amsterdam at all, on the grounds that the Dutch money supply was stable and that the Bank of Amsterdam could provide the best guarantee and acceptance services.

In Huamei's view, although the Bank of Amsterdam had more capital, the "battlefield initiative" could not be handed over to the Netherlands. A number of private banks in China also do not want the huge interest profits of bill discounting to be unilaterally earned by the Dutch, and strongly demand that the settlement center be set up in Qingcheng City, Haizhou, and that a number of banks designated by the two countries jointly undertake the international bill discounting and settlement business of Atlantic trade.

Eventually, on November 1, 1641, a new round of negotiations was held, and a compromise was reached between Huamei and the Netherlands. In the coming year, Yar Santa will be home to the new Atlantic Trade International Ticket Settlement Center. Huamei is led by the state-owned Banco Nacional Ultramarino, plus several large private banks in China, jointly established the "Atlantis Bank", which takes over the international ticket settlement business of transatlantic import and export trade controlled by the state, and sets up branches in Manchester City, Qingcheng, Bermuda Overseas Consulate and the Caribbean overseas state of Butterfly Island Twin Ports.

Correspondingly, the Dutch Bank of Amsterdam became the second and only European bank in the new international bill settlement center, and also carried out the bill discounting settlement business for European trade with China and the United States in Amsterdam and Yales.

Tickets issued by the Bank of Ramé Atlantis can be settled at the Bank of Amsterdam and vice versa. Both parties share in the profits of this bank bill discounting business, and all trade settlements are done in strictly full value currencies, and the specific business details are defined in more detail to prevent possible conflicts of interest.

Although neither Huamei nor the Netherlands have achieved the goal of hegemony, and even Huamei has given up a larger share of interests, for Huamei, it has at least taken a milestone step towards establishing its own financial hegemony in the future, and it is also the only way to solve the unstoppable historical trouble.

It will take another year for the opening of the Atlantic Trade International Ticket Settlement Center, but China and the United States cannot wait to carry out another round of reform and adjustment of the financial system.

On Monday, November 4, 1641, major national newspapers such as the Manchester City Weekly, the North American Times and the Manchester City Financial Newspaper published the amendments to the National Banking Act. The annual interest rate of domestic bank loans is sub-legally limited to a maximum of 8%, while the interest rate on domestic bank loans in China, which was generally higher than 12%, will be officially abolished on January 1, 1642.

The reduction in bank lending rates and the wider use of domestic bank credit notes and other bookkeeping currencies have made it cheaper to facilitate the circulation of money and to allow more money to be spent on industrial and commercial exhibitions.

This is the wisest decision made by the Bank of England decades later, and it is the result of the fact that the economic development of China and the United States can be directly applied to the present. For ordinary citizens, the subsequent reduction of bank deposit interest rates can also curb savings behavior in disguise and promote the circulation of money in the hands of the people.