The Shaofu household official began to complain.
"The clans in the south are very powerful, and the progress of the Shaofu Bank in the south has not been smooth."
Upon hearing this, Emperor Wende said bluntly, "We still have the Jinwu Guard. I don't believe those local tyrants dare to oppose the Jinwu Guard. One day, I will order the Jinwu Guard to the south and kill everyone who opposes them. If they kill all the opponents, how can the Shaofu Bank be run in the south?"
The Shaofu Household Manager subconsciously shuddered when he saw Emperor Wende's gaze.
Did he see a strong murderous intent in Emperor Wende's eyes?
Obviously, Emperor Wende's decision to start a massacre in the south was not a sudden impulse, but rather a long-held idea. He was just waiting for an opportunity.
The Shaofu Money House's poor progress in the south gave Emperor Wende a reason to start a massacre.
Two years after Emperor Wende ascended the throne, in the 38th year of Kaiyao, the Cai family massacre occurred, killing a thousand people in one go.
After that, for more than a year, Emperor Wende rarely killed people.
The court officials all said that Emperor Wende was more benevolent than the previous emperor and was a benevolent monarch.
Now it seems that he is no longer a benevolent ruler. Emperor Wende is preparing a big move.
If you don't kill, it's fine. But once you start killing, heads will roll and thousands of people will be implicated.
Emperor Wende and the previous emperor are indeed father and son. They are both equally bloodthirsty, but their methods are different.
The Shaofu family official's throat rolled, he took a deep breath, and finally found his voice, "Yes, it can be done."
Emperor Wende laughed heartily. "It's good that it can be done! I have high hopes for the Shaofu Bank. Whether my people can live a good life, your Shaofu Bank bears a great responsibility.
The imperial court was not strong enough to take care of many things. But the Shaofu Bank was different. Wherever money was needed, there should be someone from the Shaofu Bank.
What is the current situation in the Great Zhou Dynasty? In addition to the reports from local officials, money houses also have to bear the burden of collecting information.
I don't want the Shaofu Bank to deceive its superiors and hide the truth from its subordinates. Uncle, do you understand what I mean?"
"I don't deserve it! I understand! I will definitely complete the task assigned by Your Majesty."
Emperor Wende nodded with satisfaction. "I know your loyalty. Over the years, the Ministry of the Imperial Household has improved tremendously under your leadership. Not only has it been able to support so many people, but it has also managed to generate such a large surplus each year. This is truly remarkable. However, I know the Ministry of the Imperial Household can do even better and earn even more money. The Ministry of the Imperial Household must take the initiative to shoulder responsibilities where the Ministry of Revenue cannot."
"Your humble servant obeys your order!"
The Shaofu household steward is under tremendous pressure.
He has tried his best to achieve the current results of Shaofu, and has almost squeezed out the potential of Shaofu.
We must continue to work hard and earn more money.
For a time, the Shaofu household steward was very worried.
Money is not so easy to make. Where will the new profit points come from?
For now, it seems that we still have to rely on Shaofu Money House.
Emperor Wende sat at his desk, flipping through the account books.
He asked curiously, "I have to pay interest on my deposit? What's going on?"
Nowadays, when people deposit money in a money shop, not only do they not get any interest, but they also have to pay the money shop a storage fee.
The Shaofu Bank did the same thing before.
However, as the business volume increased, the speed at which Shaofu absorbed savings was far behind the speed at which it made loans.
The amount of funds of the Shaofu itself is not unlimited. A money house cannot grow big relying solely on the financial support of the Shaofu.
This is why, these days, even the largest private banks cannot expand everywhere and can only open branches in a limited number of prosperous cities.
In remote areas, people can only watch as the local tyrants monopolize the market.
The Shaofu Household Manager occasionally mentioned this matter in front of Gu Jiu, lamenting the heavy financial pressure.
Gu Jiu scoffed at him at the time, "You, the Shaofu Bank, have a mountain of gold in your hands, but you don't know how money makes money. It's really annoying. If I were to run this bank business, I guarantee that all private banks and the Shaofu Bank would be wiped out. No one can compete with me."
What a big tone.
When the Shaofu household official heard this, he immediately became excited.
He immediately asked, "Besides lending, how else does this bank make money?"
Then he asked curiously, "Why don't you do money business?"
Gu Jiu sighed, feeling aggrieved. "If I get involved in the money house business, it won't take more than a few years for me to become the largest money house in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and I'll have most of the silver and money in the world in my hands. Dealing in real estate is already eye-catching enough, and if I also have a money house that lays golden eggs in my hands, I'm afraid my head will be chopped off."
When the Shaofu household official heard this, he thought Gu Jiu was exaggerating and worrying about nothing.
Holding most of the world's money in your hands is not a joke.
But later Gu Jiu gave him an idea, which had just begun to be tried out. The Shaofu Housekeeper was keenly aware that if Gu Jiu was really asked to open a money shop, there would be no Shaofu Money Shop.
It is really possible that she could take away all the money in the world.
No wonder she refused to do money lending business.
Life is more important than money.
When her wealth became so great that it attracted the attention of the world, even her status as the prince's wife could not protect her.
Therefore, Gu Jiu would rather do some projects that make money slowly than get involved in the money-lending business, at least he would not be so hated.
Upon hearing Emperor Wende's question, the Minister of the Imperial Household considered his words carefully before replying, "The Imperial Household Bank is under great financial pressure, and few people are willing to deposit money. This old minister is very worried. If the funds are cut off, how can we open the Imperial House Bank throughout the country? Wouldn't that be a disappointment to Your Majesty?"
Later, Madam Zhao gave me an idea. She said that we should give some interest to those who deposit money and spread the word so that the landlords would deposit all the gold, silver and copper coins buried in their cellars in the bank in exchange for interest. In this way, the bank would have capital.
It could also replace the Ministry of Revenue and collect gold, silver, and copper coins from across the land. For years, the imperial court had been struggling with a shortage of copper coins. If they could truly collect the copper coins stored in the cellars of wealthy landlords, even paying a little interest to the depositors would be worthwhile.
Therefore, I, the old minister, have listened to Madam Zhao's advice and will temporarily try out a system of earning interest on deposits in the capital area."
"oh!"
Emperor Wende carefully considered the pros and cons involved and asked, "Can paying interest on deposits really attract gold, silver, and copper coins? I see in the account book that it's been a trial for a month. How effective is it?"
"Your Majesty, due to the lack of widespread publicity, the effect is not obvious. I originally planned to fully implement this system after the spring. I hope Your Majesty will approve it."
The Shaofu household official bowed and pleaded.
Emperor Wende hummed, "If we can really get the landlord to move the gold, silver, and copper coins stored in the cellar and deposit them in a bank, it wouldn't be a problem to pay some interest."
The copper mines, gold and silver mines of the Great Zhou were not rich.
In addition, people have the habit of storing money in cellars and not spending it for generations, so the amount of gold, silver and copper circulating in the market naturally becomes less and less.
The imperial court wanted to mint coins, but did not have enough copper.
As a result, the quality of copper coins declined and counterfeiting occurred. Privately minted coins were rampant, further affecting the tax revenue of the imperial court.
Especially in the south, the private minting of coins has become blatant.
Even the salaries paid by local governments to yamen runners were paid in privately minted copper coins.
Don't underestimate a small copper coin.
The Ministry of Revenue would earn a portion of the revenue every time it issued a copper coin.
The fewer copper coins the Ministry of Revenue issued, the less revenue it would naturally earn.
In the early years, probably a few decades ago, the Ministry of Revenue earned over a million taels of silver a year just by issuing copper coins.
Today, this income has dropped to 100,000 taels. The gap of more than ten times is heartbreaking.
The Ministry of Revenue can’t do anything about it.
Copper mines are limited and there is very little brass circulating on the market.
Together with the imperial palace and wealthy families, a large amount of brass was consumed every year.
There was very little brass left for the Ministry of Revenue.
The number of copper coins issued by the imperial court naturally became less and less.
It’s a vicious cycle with no solution.
Until today, Emperor Wende seems to have found a solution to this problem.
Emperor Wende emphasized again, "As long as we can collect the copper coins stored by the common people, even if I give them a little more interest, it's fine. I can even issue an order for local officials to help promote the money houses. In the future, the tax silver collected by the government can even be settled through the money houses' accounts after being collected in the capital."
The Minister of the Imperial Household was pleasantly surprised. "Your Majesty really wants the tax money to be deposited into the bank's account?"
This is a huge income.
Even if it is only deposited for a short period of one or two months, it can solve the major problem of insufficient capital in the bank.
Emperor Wende said, "The prerequisite is that the Shaofu Bank can really collect the gold, silver, and copper buried in the cellars of the landlords. If it can't do that, I have no reason to let the government deposit the tax silver with the bank and then settle it in the capital."
The Shaofu Household Secretary looked very motivated. "Your Majesty, rest assured. I will never let you down. I will do everything in my power to retrieve all the gold, silver, and copper buried in the cellar by the landlord."
"That's great. Wait, the bank is also planning to issue small-denomination silver notes?"
The Shaofu Housekeeper hurriedly said, "Madam Zhao suggested that since we want to collect copper coins from the people, we must have something to replace them.
In the past, the smallest denomination of silver note was one tael. However, most people did not use silver in their daily lives, only copper coins.
In order to collect copper coins from the people, small-denomination silver notes had to be issued.
After a long discussion with the officials of the Ministry of Finance, the old minister decided to first issue four small-denomination silver notes: 50 wen, 100 wen, 200 wen, and 500 wen.
Emperor Wende asked curiously, "Why are you only printing notes with a face value of fifty wen? Ten wen, one wen? Isn't that possible?"
"Ordinary people are not used to using silver notes, and they are easy to lose in their pockets. For general transactions, it is better to use copper coins first. Once people are accustomed to using silver notes, it will not be too late to print smaller denominations."
Emperor Wende immediately understood and nodded repeatedly. "You have been very thoughtful. The people are accustomed to using copper coins. If we rashly replace them with silver notes, we are afraid of provoking a popular uprising. Very good, very good. This is indeed a cautious approach. Let's proceed slowly according to the plan. I believe that you, the Minister of the Household, can handle this matter well."
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