Lin'an currently has three major cabinet shops, Baoji Cabinet Shop, Wanbao Cabinet Shop and Jiangnan Cabinet Shop. They each have their own backgrounds. Baoji Cabinet Shop is composed of five powerful families headed by Shi Guangping. They support the Lin'an court, including Fengle Tower.
their assets.
Wanbao Cabinet Shop and Jiangnan Cabinet Shop are both newly established cabinet shops. Wanbao Cabinet Shop was founded by Zheng Tongquan and thirteen meritorious families, of which Zheng Tongquan accounted for 50%. Wanbao Cabinet Shop’s head office is in Jingzhao, Jiangnan.
Their main store is in Pingjiang Prefecture. They originally wanted to open it in Lin'an, but the court did not allow it, so they opened a branch in Lin'an.
Jiangnan Cabinet is jointly funded by eight big families in the Jiangnan area. Zheng Tongquan also invested 200,000 yuan and accounted for 10% of the share. Jiangnan Cabinet's main store is also in Lin'an, and the northern branch is in Bianliang. Of course, there is also one in Jingzhao.
There is one branch, but the Jingzhao branch is much larger than the Bianliang branch.
This is the cleverness of the Jiangnan Family. Rather than irritating the imperial court, they put the nominal northern head office in Bianliang, while Jingzhao only had the name of a branch, but it performed the functions of the head office.
The first thing Wan Qixi visited was Baoji Cabinet Shop, where he met the owner Shi Guangping. Shi Guangping looked extremely tired. Baoji Cabinet Shop was in a huge crisis at this time.
The cabinet stores store wealth for big customers. They have large warehouses, which are divided into small warehouses. Each warehouse stores the wealth of a customer. They cannot touch this wealth and must keep it intact in the warehouse.
However, there are only a few customers who can enjoy a separate warehouse. Most customers' money is stored in the public warehouse of the counter, and they can be withdrawn with counter tickets, seals and tokens.
The money in these public treasury can be misappropriated by the bank and used for lending to earn interest. This is an ancient business, and it is not just the current banks that lend money.
Unfortunately, the money in these public treasuries is mainly from small and medium-sized businessmen, and the customers who lend money to the cabinet shops are also small and medium-sized businessmen. This year, Lin'an merchants fled in large numbers. Everyone came to the cabinet shop to withdraw their own money, and the warehouse inventory was almost exhausted.
After all the money was withdrawn, Baoji Shop had to transfer money from its branches in Pingjiang Prefecture and Yuezhou to provide support.
At the same time, they tried every means to recover the loaned money, but many of the businessmen who borrowed the money also ran away, leaving behind shops and houses. These were the collateral for the loan. If the money was not repaid, the houses and shops were left behind.
Cabinet shop.
The crisis of Baoji Cabinet Shop lies here. If it were a peaceful and prosperous time, it would be okay to sell the mortgaged house and shop and get back the money lent, but now.
Some of the mortgaged houses and shops were directly confiscated by the government, while the other part of the houses and shops that were not taken away by the government suddenly became worthless. Real estate and land prices plummeted, and no one took over. In just a few days, Baoji Cabinet Shop lost a hundred dollars.
More than half a million dollars.
No one could afford to pay for such a huge loss, and only a few big proprietors had to bear the losses separately. The Shi family accounted for 60% of the cabinet shop, which meant that the Shi family had to pay more than 900,000 yuan, which made Shi Guangping want to cry without tears.
The big steward whispered: "Proprietor, the only plan now is to sell the two big restaurants in Jingzhao, and then sell the shops in Chengdu, Xiangyang, Bianliang, Jiangdu, and Suzhou, and then rent them back and run them. Is it possible to recover the money?"
some money."
Shi Guangping sighed, "In other words, the restaurant in Jingzhao is worth a little more, and other places can't sell it at the same price. The current plan can only sell the members of Fengle Building. Hasn't Uncle Wei Guo always wanted it?"
"Uncle Wei Guo is a wolf that eats people without spitting out their bones. Selling to him is very risky."
"It's okay, I'll go talk to him!"
At this time, a steward reported at the door, "Proprietor, Prime Minister Wanqi is here and said he has important matters to discuss!"
At the mention of Wan Qixi, Shi Guangping was immediately furious. This bastard arrived just in time. He was just about to kill him, but he actually caused Lin'an's real estate to collapse.
"Invite him in!"
Not long after, Wan Qixi walked quickly into the inner hall, clasped his fists and said with a smile: "It turns out that Duke Wei is here too. It seems that I came just in time!"
Official Shi Guangping was appointed as the Chancellor of the School's Etiquette Department. This was a fictitious and honorary position, but his title of Duke was real. His title was higher than that of Wan Qixi's County Duke. Moreover, his family background was profound, and in the
The Song Dynasty was a powerful person, so even Wan Qixi, the prime minister, had to be more polite to him.
Shi Guangping snorted and said: "Wanqi Xiangguo is really good at it. He defeated Lin'an Real Estate with just a few swings. With this ability, I should really recommend you to be the head coach to fight against the Western Army."
Wan Qixi was startled and quickly explained: "This is not my responsibility. I am just an executor. Mr. Qin is the real decision-maker. I am just executing his orders."
"Really? But everyone thinks it's your responsibility."
Wan Qixi suddenly became anxious. The people Shi Guangping mentioned were not ordinary people, but the dignitaries hiding behind the court, former powerful ministers, relatives, descendants of the founding heroes, etc. They controlled a large amount of wealth and were the key to the Song Dynasty.
If you are targeted by them, your life will not be easy.
He hurriedly said: "Everything I said is true. How can it be my turn to make the decision on such a major matter?"
Shi Guangping looked at him for a long time, waved his hand and said: "Please sit down!"
Shi Guangping didn't want to pursue any responsibilities with him. He wanted to get back part of the real estate and shops in Wan Qixi's hands. Those were used by merchants as mortgages. No matter how low the price was, they were still valuable things.
Wan Qixi sat down, and before he could speak, Shi Guangping handed him a list, "Wan Qixi, please take a look at it!"
Wan Qixi took the list and saw that it was densely packed with real estate shops. There were hundreds of them. He asked in confusion: "What does Mr. Wei Guo mean?"
"These are properties and shops that merchants borrowed money to mortgage to Aifang. The land deeds are all here in Aifang, but they were all affixed with government seals and confiscated by the government. I hope Prime Minister Wanqi will return them all to me.
"
Wan Qixi looked at the list, and it was true that he randomly picked a dozen properties and they were all on his list.
The other party's list accounts for about 30% of his property.
"This is a very important matter and it is not mine to decide. As I said just now, I am just an errand boy. The decision-maker is Qin Xianggong. Duke Wei went to Qin Xianggong to ask for it."
"Forget it, I'll go back to Qin Xianggong and ask Wanqi Xiangguo to tell me why I'm here!"
Wan Qixi handed his list to Shi Guangping and said: "I am here to borrow money from Baoji Cabinetry on the order of the officials. The houses and shops on the list can be used as mortgages."
Shi Guangping frowned. He was very worried now. The treasure chests were all empty. How could he still have money to lend to the court? But since it was an official asking to borrow money, he couldn't refuse it outright.
"I wonder how much money the government wants to borrow?" Shi Guangping asked tentatively.
"Borrow one million dollars first!"
"How much?" Shi Guangping's eyes widened suddenly.
"One million coins should be nothing to Baoji Cabinet Shop!"
Shi Guangping stood up, took out a thick stack of house deeds from the cabinet next to him, and threw it heavily in front of Wan Qixi, "These are businessmen who have borrowed more than ten thousand yuan. There are fifty-six house deeds in total. No one can find them. I am left with one
There were hundreds of properties piled up, and there were hundreds of loans for thousands of dollars, all of which were mortgaged with stores. I couldn’t find the borrower. I originally thought that I could still protect my capital by selling the property, but the property price plummeted, and Baoji Cabinet Shop all of a sudden
I lost 1.5 million yuan and lost all my capital. How can I still have money to lend to the court?"