Chapter 1                                                              

Spring is gone and autumn comes. Before we know it, Zhou Mengchen suddenly had a few strands of white hair on his head.

Zhou Mengchen is only thirty-nine years old this year, and there are still a few months left before he is forty. That's it.

This is also helpless.

Zhou Mengchen came up from below and thought he had a complete solution to the current situation of the Ming Dynasty. However, in the cabinet, the focus of things is no longer on doing things. It is more about dealing with relationships between people.

Or the cabinet chief can no longer limit himself to doing something.

As a result, Zhou Mengchen was still a little uncomfortable when he first started.

Fortunately, Zhou Mengchen's adaptability was very strong and he quickly adapted to this method.

But these few strands of white hair are the traces left by adapting to this change.

However, Zhou Mengchen's efforts were not in vain.

He finally got something done, that is, he revised the "Ming Dynasty Law-Money Law".

And all the money methods have been implemented.

And today, the division has come to an end for several consecutive months.

Zhang Juzheng sorted out everything and handed the account book to Zhou Mengchen.

Zhou Mengchen looked carefully and saw that the total margin was 10 million taels above. The name of the bank also became more than 30 banks. Almost every province has one bank, and there are seven or eight banks with cross-provincial capabilities. Their margin ranges from hundreds of thousands to million taels. The total is about 10 million taels.

This ten million taels are placed in the treasury. Although it cannot be used easily, the Ming Dynasty finance has a ballast. Zhou Mengchen can also let go of other things.

Then there is the stamp duty. The total is more than 6 million taels.

The most commonly used stamp duty is large-scale exchange bills. Of course, in the words of the ancients, it was silver bills.

In the TV series, the kind of silver bills of 100 or 500 taels were definitely not allowed in the Ming Dynasty. Now all the so-called silver bills of the banks in the Ming Dynasty are almost all certificates of deposit, or bills of exchange.

Every such bill must be stamped in the yamen.

Otherwise, if something happens, the court will not intervene. Because there is no way to distinguish the authenticity of these bills of exchange.

Stamp duty is also different due to the amount of deposit and withdrawal. Stamp duty of less than 1,000 taels is calculated as one thousandth. When it comes to one million taels, it is calculated as one thousandth. Among them is the tax rate of the ladder.

Having these six million taels is enough to deal with the golden flowers and silver of Jiajing.

It also made Zhou Mengchen breathe a sigh of relief.

As for other scattered taxes, Zhou Mengchen didn't think much about it. Now he is concerned about the taxes of tens of thousands of taels and thousands of taels, which he has all been divided into other places.

For example, the newly-established Yunnan Qianjian specially sent a head of the Ministry of Revenue to do this thing in Yunnan.

China lacks copper, even in later generations. In the territory of the Ming Dynasty, there is copper mine in Yunnan. When Zhou Mengchen re-introduced copper coins into official casting and cracked down on private casting, there would be a shortage of copper coins in the Ming Dynasty.

As mentioned in the previous article, the ratio between copper coins and silver is not a fixed value. It seems to be the same as the exchange rate. It changes due to different eras and regions. In the Ming Dynasty, one tael of silver was generally less than one thousand ci. In the Qing Dynasty, especially in the late Qing Dynasty, a large amount of silver flowed out, so that one thousand eight or nine hundred ci could be exchanged for one tael of silver.

In order to adjust the ratio between copper coins and silver dollars, Zhou Mengchen hopes to maintain it at Qianwen and become a fixed value. This also facilitates settlement between the court and the people. In this way, the court needs to place a large amount of copper coins into the market.

Therefore, the profit of Yunnan Coin Supervision in a year is only tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands. But it is also something that has to be done. Zhou Mengchen is also planning to build a Nanyang copper prison near Shanghai and use Nanyang copper materials to cast copper coins.

Zhou Mengchen vaguely remembered that there were several large copper mines in Nanyang, but he couldn't remember the specific location. However, the Ming Dynasty imported copper materials from Nanyang, which had a long history. The Ming Dynasty's grand Xuande Furnace is evidence.

The Xuande Furnace was the one that Emperor Xuande received a batch of good copper tribute from the South China Sea, so he wanted to cast this batch of copper into an incense burner.

Therefore, Zhou Mengchen hoped to use copper overseas to mint copper coins, which was not whimsical. It was just that before the large copper mine was discovered in Nanyang, Shanghai's money surveillance could only use more Japanese silver and Japanese copper to make coins.

In addition, the Baoyuan Bureau originally existed in the capital.

Although this is very important and has a considerable investment, there are many things that don’t make much money. They are considered as a supporting project for the entire money method.

After all, Zhou Mengchen was the chief minister of the Ming Dynasty, not the shopkeeper of the Ming Dynasty business. Many things cannot be just about money.

Of course there is a lot of money.

The money seized from the entire crackdown on usury.

The money law is mainly responsible for Zhang Juzheng. This matter is mainly responsible for Gao Gong. Gao Gong has been ruthless in this matter. His methods are very strict, and he has cracked down on the local gentry and cried and called his parents.

But overall, no matter how much happened.

First, the recovery of the Ming Dynasty's military power increased greatly. Although Zhou Mengchen felt that there were still many problems in the reform of the military system, the military power in the hands of local governments had actually increased. Instead of the previous military forces, which were worse than the people.

Secondly, this is also a faction that will fight against the other. I won’t talk about the Jianglong behind the banking industry. A considerable number of scholars and officials did not participate in it, such as some Qingliu, who naturally supported the actions of the court.

In addition, many people who feel that the news is wrong have changed their course at the last moment. Otherwise, why did the number of banks in the Ming Dynasty increase so much at once? There is no need to say much about the reason.

But no matter what, the fine this time was only around 8 million taels, which is also an astronomical figure.

Of course, such a high fine was also the result of Gao Gong giving up the punishment of these scholars and officials. After all, there is a rule of redemption in the Ming Dynasty. The so-called redemption is actually to spend money to exempt the crime.

That is, pay a fine and exempt from the remaining penalties.

In fact, this rule has always been in Chinese laws. It only has restrictions. Now that gold and silver shops place usury, this matter is big or small. Overall, it is not a serious crime, so it can be fined.

However, there were only strange cases of the Qing Dynasty.

"Yes, in this way, I can also pay my respects to Your Majesty." Zhou Mengchen said: "It's all my uncle's credit."

Zhang Juzheng said: "Brother Zhou has been awarded too much, but it is actually Shushan's credit. I am just urging you to settle Yang Bo. Otherwise, this matter will be difficult to continue."

Zhou Mengchen sighed and said, "Yang Bo----" and then shook his head.

Zhou Mengchen knew that in politics, today is the enemy and tomorrow is the friend's affairs, which often happen. Many allies are temporary, but when it is about to break up, Zhou Mengchen also feels a little sad in his heart.

However, this matter is no wonder Yang Bo.

With the support of Zhou Mengchen, the Shanxi merchants vigorously developed. The strength of the Shanxi merchants was originally in the north, and they could not get involved in many things south of the Yangtze River. After all, the south was rich and had their own business gangs. It was with the help of Zhou Mengchen that the Shanxi merchants intervened in the south, and even in the South Ocean, there were Shanxi merchants.

Just like this, the problem arises.

For Zhou Mengchen, he needed Shanxi merchants to serve him. It was not the other way around. But for Shanxi merchants, it was not the case. Why did he delay making money for Zhou Mengchen's affairs?

When he was in Jiangnan, Shanxi merchants were determined to use Zhou Mengchen's power to cross the river and make a move in the richest south. However, Zhou Mengchen finally chose to establish Jiangnan Bank based on Jiangnan merchants. Jiangnan Bank became a rival to the Yellow River Bank.

This made Shanxi merchants very dissatisfied.

But Zhou Mengchen could not have offended all the merchants in Jiangnan because of the interests of the Shanxi merchants. He was exterminated by the gentry in Jiangnan. What should he do at that time?

When Yang Bo entered the cabinet, Shanxi merchants had Yang Bo as their backer. Naturally, they were even more reluctant to sacrifice their own interests for Zhou Mengchen, and Zhou Mengchen levyed taxes on the bank and paid a deposit. Each of them was drawn from the bank.

And Shanxi merchants were very, very dissatisfied with it.

This dissatisfaction naturally formed a distance between Zhou Mengchen and Yang Bo.
Chapter completed!