At the same time, Ma Qianzhu looked at the newly received telegram in his hand. He just read the first line and took a breath. The word "Great Leap Forward" jumped into his mind. Deposit, are they going to make a deposit? Opening a bank in Guangzhou? The affairs in Leizhou have not been settled yet, and there will be another financial crisis in Guangzhou?
If you look closely, you will see that it has nothing to do with banks, not even money banks. This idea was not thought up by the people at Guangzhou Station, but by Shen Fan, the big shopkeeper of Zizhenzhai. The reason why he proposed this The suggestion was not because he had any advanced financial awareness, but because it was a traditional form of business financing at the time.
Deposit your spare money into a well-run store, and then withdraw interest annually. The store obtains working capital, and the depositor earns a certain amount of income from the spare money. This form even appears in banks and even banks. After that, it still existed in China for a long time. Until the complete bankruptcy of fiat currency credit in the 20th century, not only large commercial banks and stores accepted deposits, but even small cloth stores and oil and salt stores of varying sizes also accepted deposits from nearby residents. Some with a long history , a store with a good reputation can even absorb deposits that are several times or dozens of times its own capital. For example, the Shanxi Dagan Fruit Shop in Beijing even had deposits of hundreds of thousands of taels before the Gengzi Rebellion.
As a wealthy industry with a large demand for capital, jewelry stores have long been involved in collecting deposits from customers. Seeing that the owner's trade name is doing well and thriving, the popularity among peers and customers has increased. When credit got better, Shen Fan came up with this method.
The interest rate for absorbing this kind of deposit is much lower than borrowing money. The monthly interest rate is only one and a half cents, and the annual interest rate is 18%. According to modern standards, this interest rate is not too high. Guo Yi still remembers the one-year bank deposits when he was a child. The interest rate has reached 12%. For stores with large turnover and frequent borrowing needs, it is no more than an interest-free loan.
"Who is willing to make deposits?" I own a jewelry store. Although Zichengji is considered a comprehensive commercial bank, it does not engage in financial services. If it is said to take deposits for no reason, who will be a customer?
"This is the advantage of our business of making jewelry and toys." Shen Fan said, "If we can get in touch with the family members of the inner house, it will be easier to absorb their savings. Wives, young ladies, aunts from wealthy families, and even those who are slightly favored The girl in charge of the house has some private money in her hands, and she wants to use it to earn interest, ranging from forty or fifty taels to thousands or tens of thousands." He smiled and said, "Those who are brave and have influence in the family can do it. Money lending; but money lending needs to be handled by extremely reliable people, and it is inevitable to be exploited by middlemen, and things are easy to leak, so most of them like to keep them on the cabinets of various large brands."
After listening to Shen Fan's suggestion, Guo Yi was a little undecided - having more money on hand is naturally a good thing, but Guangzhou Station's money is not tight. Now that he has taken in deposits for no reason, he will have to pay an extra amount of interest. expenditure.
"Proprietor, the benefit of attracting deposits is not for our own use." Shen Fan continued, "The money in the Guangzhou market is sometimes tight and sometimes loose. When it is tight, if you lend it out for a short period of time, you will get several times the interest if you flip it! "
"This kind of lending, for merchants like us who have no foundation, I'm afraid it's easy to lend but hard to get back." Guo Yi has been in Guangzhou for a few months, and he knows something about this.
"There is a second advantage here. It attracts the family members of those wealthy officials and gentry families," Shen Fan reminded. "The private money of women may be limited," Shen Fan said, "but once word spreads, others will I have a new look at Zizhenzhai’s skills and power."
At this point, Guo Yi has already understood that absorbing these deposits will not only benefit his turnover, but also improve Zichengji's status in Guangzhou! Even if he does not use these deposits to turn around and lend money, he can still provide himself with a protective umbrella. From this point of view, the interest rate of 1.8 cents per year is really not expensive.
Shen Fan took out a handful of small folders from his side and handed them to Guo Yi. Guo Yi took them and looked at them. On the folders, only some household names were written in regular regular script with ink pen: "Su Ji", "Jin Yan Zhai" and "Run Ji" "Wait a minute, there are almost more than twenty.
"These are the discounts that young people and outsiders have recently received from family members who plan to open accounts and make deposits in Zizhenzhai," Shen Fan said. "Because I didn't get your permission from the proprietor, I haven't accepted it yet, but The account discount has been opened."
"Who are they?" Guo Yi looked for a long time but couldn't find any names.
Shen Fan took out another small book, which contained many symbols that only he knew. Guo Yi knew that this was a kind of business code, similar to Suzhou codes. The records were all things that could not be "sunshine". I then opened the accounts, the names of the people I interacted with, and the birthdays of the high-ranking officials and their old wives, concubines, concubines, young masters, and young ladies. I then opened them and looked at them. He said: "Most of them are from the official and gentry families." The treasured family members will copy out a list in a while, but this list must be kept secret-"
"I know this." Guo Yi thought that since it was private money, privacy was very important. Unexpectedly, our country had anonymous deposits in the Ming Dynasty. It was really at the forefront of the world.
"With these twenty-odd discounts, you can probably receive ten thousand taels of silver." Shen Fan said, "This is a very good deal. If there are no major changes, it is usually just a collection of interest that does not cover the principal."
But after all, this matter was too big, and it also involved financial business. The three people at the Guangzhou station thought about it for a long time, and decided that it would be better to explain the plan in person and get approval when submitting reports to Lingao every quarter. But it was delivered to your door. Since he refused to accept the money, he seemed unable to continue his argument, and he was also suspected of offending his customers, so he agreed to Shen Fan to absorb all the deposits first, saying that the annual interest rate would be one cent and eight cents, and the interest would be collected monthly without leaving the principal.
The matter was originally put on hold. Until the recent squeeze on Leizhou Sugar Industry made the originally loose money tight. This project that was originally just the icing on the cake suddenly became a timely help. Guo Yi felt that it should not be delayed. It was immediately mentioned on the executive committee meeting table.
Wu De finally felt relieved after reading the entire report. He originally thought that Guangzhou Station was preparing to engage in some kind of financial industry - Wu De had a natural fear of such things - but now it seems that it is just a preparation for Guangzhou Station. Regarding "illegal fund-raising", the interest rate seems to be higher, but it is a good way to alleviate the tight money and poor liquidity of the foreign trade department when doing business. Although he inevitably thought of the "run on banks" often seen in business war novels "The risk. After careful consideration, he decided to support the Guangzhou station's approach on this issue.
After boarding Yingzhou to send a telegram to express his position, there was no conversation all the way. The ship finally arrived at Hai'an Port smoothly on the morning of the fifth day after departure. As soon as the ship entered the port, Wu De sent someone to go to the South China Sugar Factory to have a look.
What is the situation? There is no immediate communication between them. If everything is destroyed here, then spending a lot of money to transport money there will be a sheep entering the tiger's mouth.
The people sent out turned around after a while and said that the gate of Huanan was still crowded with people, but it seemed that the sugar sales were still going on, and nothing unusual was seen. Wu De felt relieved knowing that Huanan's capital chain had not yet been broken.
, while instructing the people on the ship to loosen up outside and tighten up inside to prevent anyone from making trouble or sabotage, he changed his clothes and prepared to go to South China in person to discuss the matter of picking up the money.
Wu De's estimate was good. The funds of the South China Sugar Factory have not been exhausted, but they are not far away. The night before Deng Yingzhou arrived, the amount of silver deposits had been reduced to less than one thousand taels. According to this number,
Whether we can survive the two days is a question. Everyone in South China has become an ant on the hot pot. Several people discussed it over and over again, but still couldn't come up with a charter.
Wen Tong desperately hoped that Chang Shide, who went to Zhancheng to sell rice, would come back quickly. If he brought back a boatload of rice, he could get tens of thousands of silver to save the emergency. However, the whale was like a kite that had lost its string.
After waiting for several days, the Executive Committee sent someone, but they did not bring the much-needed money, but only a radio station. This made Wen Tong despair. What use could the radio station be? Fortunately,
Not long after, news came: a ship had been sent to Guangzhou Station to pick up the silver.
Fifty thousand taels is still far from a safe level, but for Wen Tong and the others, they are struggling day by day. If they can transfer 50,000 taels, it will at least give them a buffer of more than ten days.
However, it was unknown when the money would arrive. Seeing that their deposits were decreasing day by day, they also thought of various ways to be on the safe side: Liao Dahua and Liao Daxing both tried to go out to the market to adjust some positions.
However, money is always very tight during the crushing season in Leizhou. No shop can transfer large sums of money. The only one with large sums of cash is the sugar store under Haiyitang. In order to purchase sugar goods,
I have saved hundreds of thousands of money early on. Asking them to borrow money is like seeking the skin of a tiger.
But the fact that they went out to adjust their positions could not be hidden from anyone. For a while, there were rumors everywhere that the newly opened South China Bank's money was tight, and they were afraid that it would go bankrupt soon. This news spread from ten to ten, and then to hundreds of people.
The sugarcane farmers who had settled down for a while began to become commotion again. Even in the middle of the night, there were people rushing to sell sugar. The loss of money was even faster.
Wen Tong felt extremely regretful. If he had known this, he would not have let the Liao brothers go out to adjust their positions. He didn't get the meat, but he got into a lot of trouble for nothing. This time he showed all his trump cards. If he had decided to go to Yingying
Before we reach mainland China, the situation in South China may not be easy to deal with!
As for Xiao Gui, Mei Lin and other foreign business travelers, they are even more helpless. Seeing that the situation is about to deteriorate, Chen Tianxiong said: "Today's things cannot be broken or established. I am afraid that without some extraordinary measures, we will be squeezed out from here."