The main reason why the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes were on the street and made people angry was that they could not be exchanged for silver or used to pay taxes. To put it bluntly, even Lao Zhu himself did not believe in this stuff.
If you still want others to believe it, isn’t this just nonsense?
Coupled with the random issuance and lack of restraint, the productivity of the Ming Dynasty simply could not keep up with the number of treasure banknotes issued. It is strange that it ended up being useless paper.
This kind of issuance of banknotes based on national credit was something that only modern societies dared to do in previous generations, but Lao Zhu was more than six hundred years ahead of schedule and directly crossed the gold and silver standard.
Although Zhu Cixi didn't know much about finance in his previous life, he also knew that countries would not abolish the gold standard until the end of World War II, and banknotes would no longer be exchanged for gold. Therefore, for the time being, he only planned to use the silver standard to issue treasure banknotes.
It is currently impossible to estimate the productivity of the Ming Dynasty. We also plan to print treasure banknotes of whatever denomination we have as much silver as we have, and always link the treasure banknotes to silver, so that inflation will not cause the treasure banknotes to depreciate.
When the north regains its vitality and the world is completely peaceful, then it will not be a problem to print three or four taels of treasure banknotes with one tael of silver.
Sure enough, things went as Zhu Cihong expected. The run only lasted for four or five days before some people began to exchange their silver for treasure notes and go to the royal store to buy things.
And those who have not yet had time to exchange their treasure banknotes for gold ingots no longer stay up late at night queuing in front of the bank like they did a few days ago. Obviously everyone understands that the bank will not close, and the emperor also has plenty of money.
When to change, when to change.
In the end, of the more than one million denominations of treasure banknotes distributed this time, the bank only recovered nearly 900,000, and the royal shop recovered about 100,000, leaving at least 50,000 to 60,000 denominations in the hands of officials and common people.
Most of them were less than five taels in denomination, and they didn't want to cooperate with others to exchange money at the bank, so they kept them in their hands for emergencies.
Other shops and merchants in the city also began to accept treasure banknotes, but at first one tael of silver could only be regarded as five coins, and later it gradually increased to eight coins. But everyone was obviously not a fool. After suffering several losses, they
No longer agree.
Instead of losing money and spending it, it is better to go to the royal store to buy some grain and salt, or wait for the next salary payment, collect enough five taels and then exchange it for ingots.
Regarding this situation, Zhu Cixi did not interfere forcefully. He neither ordered merchants in the city to accept treasure banknotes nor ordered them not to deliberately devalue the treasure banknotes.
It is better to let this happen naturally. As the circulation of treasure banknotes increases and banks become stronger, merchants will naturally choose to accept treasure banknotes for the sake of convenience.
Zhu Cixiang also focused his energy on developing industry and training royal children.
This time, he brought a total of 5,000 children between the ages of six and ten to Datong and Shanxi in Xuanfu. He also selected 5,000 children from military households in the Fourth Army's camps, and a full 10,000 children were sent to
The unified education of the Imperial College was established.
He planned to let 10,000 young children learn four years of patriotic education, while they learned to read and write, while exercising their muscles and bones.
Four years later, 5,000 people were divided into martial arts halls, and the other 5,000 were used as royal government officials to study law and so on.
In order to prevent the 10,000 young children from being polluted by traditional literati, the Imperial College not only adopted closed management, but the teachers who taught them how to read and write were also literate palace maids and soldier instructors.
These young children all signed a ten-year contract of sale with the royal family, and their families were compensated with a sum of money.
At this moment, in the Creation Prison, looking at the improved textile machine, Zhu Cixiang could not suppress the excitement in his heart.
He did not expect that in just two or three months, these five hundred women who were craftsmen and weavers would make considerable progress.
It can be seen that as long as you understand the principle of this textile machine, it is not difficult to improve the efficiency. However, no one has studied it before, or someone has figured it out and it has been buried.
The spinning machine is still operated by one person, but it has been increased from one spindle to three. It is just a simple modification of the mechanical structure.
However, without bearings to reduce friction, spinning three spindles is already the limit for one person. If there are more spindles, it will be impossible to step on them, and both hands will be too busy.
The loom has not made much progress. Even though Zhu Cixi has reminded that the key lies in the weaving shuttle, the craftsmen and the maids who are good at weaving still don't know how to improve it.
Obviously, the loom is much more complicated than the spinning machine, and may be the most complex machine in ancient times.
However, Zhu Cixiang didn't care. The loom could be built slowly. The anti-yarn machine had almost doubled its efficiency, and it could compete with Jiangnan cotton.
After all, he specializes in the lowest-end cotton fabrics, and his target audience is ordinary people. It doesn't matter if they are rough. The key is to improve efficiency and keep prices down.
Therefore, the people who transformed the spinning machine were rewarded, and they were ordered to continue the transformation, and they were also pointed out the idea of using a water wheel to drive the spinning machine.
Then he carried the modified spinning machine and a loom to the manufacturing supervisor and ordered them to work hard to build these two machines. They must build 10,000 units of each within a month.
To this end, tens of thousands of carpenters were removed from the Ordnance Superintendent to join. Anyway, the Ordnance Superintendent's carpentry work was almost done, and the main ones were blacksmiths.
He also asked the Purchasing Supervisor to send people to Shandong to buy as much cotton as possible, and then transport it to the capital. It was obvious that Zhu Cihong wanted to do something big.
The construction of the industrial zone in Xicheng is also urgent. More than 400,000 military households have been working for two months, and all the land in the west has been leveled. The moat has not been filled in, and it is planned to keep it.
The area of Xicheng Industrial Zone is very large, with a length of twenty miles from south to north and a width of nearly ten miles from east to west.
Zhu Cixiang planned to divide it into three parts. The northernmost area would be used to build spinning workshops, dyeing workshops, etc., the middle area would be used to produce other things, and the southernmost area would be used as an ordnance supervision and manufacturing base.
At this time, the weather turned cold, and the military households lacked cotton-padded clothes and could only work for one or two hours a day, so they had to hide in shacks to keep warm.
Looking around, there are not only a large number of military shacks outside the west city, but also many neat mud houses with fences to the south, and each mud house has an earth wall outside.
But what is strange is that all the people living inside are ladies and ladies in brocade clothes.
There were tens of thousands of people in this group, all of whom had moved from Datong, Xuanfu, to wait for military attachés.
Zhu Cihong would not arrange a place for them. Although there were extra houses in the inner city, they were not affordable, and even if they could afford them, they would not sell them.
The slightly better houses in the outer city have also been bought by the landlords and gentry who moved from nearby counties.
The buildings in the surrounding areas outside the city had long been demolished by thieves, and private individuals were not allowed to build houses indiscriminately, so Queen Zhou set aside an area for them and asked them to hire military households to temporarily build a habitat.
These military attachés all came with their wealth. Their arrival also greatly stimulated the merchants in the capital. Every day, countless small merchants came here to sell food and food.
In just over a month, a lively market has formed outside.
Although these military attachés all have rich families and it would not be a problem for them to sit idle for decades, but everyone is still worried about their future all day long.
Many people just came here and they were running around to send money and get a job. After all, they all had official positions, but His Majesty had already ordered these people, and no department wanted them at all. Instead, they were deceived a lot.
money.
Among them, he cheated the most with Dingguo Gong. Without the competition from the British Gong, this guy is now the master of the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion.
It's a pity that the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion has long existed in name only, not to mention that even Xuan Mansion Datong is now directly under the control of the inner court.
Except for the five empty yamen and a bunch of scary titles, there is no power or oil at all.
Almost everyone knew that the Commander-in-Chief of the Fifth Army was probably in danger. After understanding this, the military attachés did not do anything in vain.
On this day, thousands of military attachés finally waited for His Majesty's summons. They all quickly put on brand new official uniforms, carried swords in their hands, and excitedly went to the palace to see him.
In the square outside Huangji Hall.
Small stools had long been placed. After the military attachés arrived, they sat on the small stools one after another under the guidance of the eunuch.
"Your Majesty is here!"
"Long live my emperor! Long live!"
Thousands of people stood up and knelt down to worship with great effort.
"Sit down, everyone!"
Zhu Cihong came to the high platform in the middle and sat down, then waved his hand.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Everyone thanked them hurriedly, then got up one after another and carefully sat down on the small stool. They only received half of their buttocks.
"The purpose of calling everyone here today is to arrange the future for everyone. You don't have to think about leading troops. Your officials can no longer be hereditary after their death..."
When everyone heard this, they felt cold in their hearts. They could not lead troops, the land was gone, and the hereditary official positions passed down from their ancestors came to an abrupt end with them. What will they do in the future? Is it possible that they can still do business?
"You must also know that I want to expand the three outer cities in the northeast and west. In order to coordinate the planning, I will set up another construction supervisor in the inner court. I plan to let you become the contractor under the construction supervisor and be responsible for the specific construction matters.
"
Zhu Cixiang didn't hesitate and spoke directly.
"Contractor?"
Everyone was confused for a moment, but they didn't dare to ask questions out loud, so they had to secretly communicate in a low voice below.
"This foreman, as the name suggests, means that I will split up the construction work of the outer city and contract it to you to build. For example, a large workshop. The construction supervision estimate is that the cost is 10,000 taels of silver. Then you can complete the construction according to the requirements.
, and after passing the inspection, we will pay you 10,000 taels of silver. If you only spent 8,000 taels on the actual construction, then you will have earned two thousand."
After Zhu Cixiang finished speaking, the audience exploded with excitement.
Everyone had a look of despair on their faces, and none of them thought this was a good job or a profitable job.
This is definitely a job that deceives people without paying for their lives.
Obviously, no one believed that His Majesty would actually pay them any money at that time. Even if he did, I'm afraid it would only be a fraction at most.
Where is the way out?
It's obvious that they are trying to cheat them out of their money.
"Of course, I know that you will definitely doubt that the construction supervisor will not pay you the money when the time comes. You don't need to worry about this. You can first go to the bank for a loan to build the project. If the construction supervisor does not pay the money then, you can ignore it.
loan.
However, I would like to make two requirements here. First, you are never allowed to cut corners. Once it occurs, you will bear all the expenses required. If the construction period is delayed, you will be fined. In serious cases, you may even be charged and imprisoned.
Second, we must not abuse the young craftsmen recruited from the common people, provide them with food and accommodation according to the standards of the imperial court, and pay them monthly wages. Anyone who violates this will also be fined, and may be dismissed as a contractor."
Zhu Cixiang didn't care what they thought, whether they were willing or not, and told them the specific regulations and rules.
This is not a one-time deal. In the future, many projects in Ming Dynasty will be constructed by these contractors, and a tendering and bidding model will also be adopted.
As for the Ministry of Industry, it is responsible for inspecting the quality of the project.
Immediately, Zhu Cixi ordered people to move out the Xicheng Industrial Zone model produced by the Ministry of Industry and began subcontracting it to them. Each of them only contracted one or two large workshops or one or two other buildings. For the time being, they would only build textile buildings.
Yarn and dyeing cloth, two workshop areas.
The construction prices have been evaluated long ago, and most of them are around one thousand taels. There will definitely not be much profit this time, but if these contractors have built their own brick and tile factories and a team of skilled workers, there will still be profits.