Shanxi merchants usually refer to Shanxi merchants in the 500th year of the Ming and Qing dynasties. By the Qing dynasty, the top 16 large conglomerates in the country were all in Shanxi. According to historical records, the amount of wealthy merchants in a few counties in Shanxi was more than 100 million taels of silver. Therefore, a popular saying in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties was that Shanxi merchants were rich enough to compete with their country!

The rise of Shanxi merchants was mainly due to the "Kaizhong system" in the Ming Dynasty. The so-called "Kaizhong system" was the Ming Dynasty government used the monopoly rights of salt in its hands to regularly or irregularly recruit merchants, using the professional license of salt sales to "salt" for merchants to transport various military supplies to local border defense centers, thereby saving transportation costs.

Shanxi has abundant mineral resources, and its handicrafts and processing and manufacturing industries are also relatively developed. In addition, it is located in the center of the nine borders of the Ming Dynasty, so Shanxi merchants benefited the most from the "Opening the Central System" and gradually developed into the largest business gang in the country.

The nature of merchants is to pursue profits, and the Shanxi merchants were no exception. They performed particularly well in the late Ming Dynasty. It can even be said that the Shanxi merchants in the late Ming Dynasty's pursuit of interests had exceeded the bottom line of morality. Driven by interests, they actually traded with the Later Jin, continuously transported the resources of strategic materials such as grain and iron ore to Liaodong, and also sold the information of the Ming Dynasty's border army, which led to the Later Jin gradually growing and growing, and finally replaced the Ming Dynasty and captured the world.

Therefore, in the early Qing Dynasty, Emperor Shunzhi personally summoned them in order to reward the eight major Shanxi merchants, and gave them court robberies, and organized them into the ranks of "Imperial Imperial Merchants". This shows that their great contribution to the Qing Dynasty also shows how thorough they sold the country during the Ming Dynasty!

As a modern man who traveled through time, Zhu Cijing naturally heard about the history of Shanxi merchants' success. Such a huge business group naturally could not be used by the enemy country. Therefore, the first thing Zhu Cijing thought of when encountering a financial crisis was Shanxi merchants. Of course, he did not want to copy the Shanxi merchants' homes, but he was fishing for exhaustion. Short-term interests could not save the storm of the Ming Dynasty. Only by using their continuous creation of wealth can the Ming Dynasty be reborn.

How to make money from the state machine? In the Ming Dynasty, no one could answer this question correctly, but modern people are different. Almost no one could answer it correctly. It’s simple. Just print money. Everyone on earth knows this! According to historical records, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the silver circulated nationwide was no less than one billion taels, but our little emperor Zhu Cijing only had a pitiful 20 million taels in the treasury.

If silver notes can be printed, then as much wealth as you print, you can increase as much. This increase does not mean that the overall wealth of the country has increased, but that the proportion of wealth occupied by the royal family has increased. In fact, the overall wealth has not increased, but that there is an additional circulating currency in the market.

The overall wealth has not increased, but there is an extra currency in circulation. What will happen? The answer is inflation and prices will rise. If the total wealth of the Ming Dynasty is one billion taels of silver, then the price of printing 10 million taels of silver bills will rise by one percent, the price of printing 100 million taels of silver bills will rise by ten percent, and the price of printing 100 million taels of silver bills will double.

Of course, all this has a prerequisite, that is, others must recognize the silver notes you print, and use them as money. If others do not recognize them, but use them as toilet paper, then, I'm sorry, you print them in a blank print, and you won't get any penny's benefits.

Therefore, Zhu Cijing first thought of Shanxi merchants, because Shanxi merchants were the originator of silver bills. In the late Ming Dynasty, many merchants began to print silver bills, but they could only exchange money in the capital and near Shanxi. In the Qing Dynasty, Shanxi merchants established many famous bill numbers, and the silver bills they printed could be stored and exchanged all over the country, which was a bill recognized by everyone in the country!

The bill number is actually the prototype of the bank. In ancient times, the extremely large amount of silver was very troublesome to transport. Tens of thousands of taels of silver was equivalent to one ton today. A person would definitely not be able to carry it. It would not be possible to hire a few small cars to pull it. He would definitely be robbed. He had to hire a professional escort agency, and it would not be guaranteed to be absolutely safe. Especially in the war-torn era in the late Ming Dynasty, if you don’t organize thousands of people to escort them with armed forces, then wait for robbery!

Silver notes were born in this context. Many Shanxi merchants made money in Shandong, Hebei and other places. They could not transport a lot of money back to Shanxi. What should we do? At this time, some big merchants saw business opportunities and opened withdrawals from other places. In other words, the money you earned in Shandong, Hebei was deposited into our Beijing business. We issued a note, and you just need to take the note to Shanxi to get the money. This note is the most primitive silver notes. With the wealth of Shanxi merchants, they could only exchange money between the capital and Shanxi at the beginning. They could not do anything even if they were far away. If they were escorted with hundreds of millions of taels of silver, they would definitely be robbed if they couldn't get to the ground. The cost of hiring people was much higher than the handling fee. Who would do such a thankless thing?

In the war years, the Shanxi merchants could not guarantee the whole country's deposit and exchange. Zhu Cijiu could guarantee it. Therefore, it is better for the bank to handle it. I won't talk about the high handling fees earned in the middle. In the eyes of ordinary merchants, the money-making projects with high profits are simply worthless in his eyes. What is the point of earning that little handling fee? What he wants is to print silver notes, and nothing is higher than printing money! Of course, he will not be crazy about printing dozens or even tens of billions of taels of silver notes at a time, causing prices to soar and people are living in poverty. Doing so will definitely accelerate the demise of the Ming Dynasty. Billions of billions and tens of billions of billions of dollars are not realistic. He set a small goal for himself, and first print 100 million taels of silver notes!

How to achieve this small goal?

First of all, of course, I brought the Shanxi merchants who were ripped in and out to threaten them. When they became honest, they would discuss the ticket number with them.

No one is more suitable for this job as a pick-up person than Luo Yangxing, so Zhu Cijing summoned him to the palace and explained it to him, and the guy ran to "invited" people.

............

Chang Wei is the contemporary head of the Chang family in Yuci. When he was young, he entered Zhangjiakou alone and created a huge family business, turning the Chang family from a scholarly family to a famous wealthy businessman in Jinzhong. The industries were spread throughout Zhangjiakou, Xinghua, Datong and Mongolian grasslands. It was a prosperous time and was proud of its spring breeze.

However, he was no longer proud of this day. The cavalry of the Jinyiwei broke into his general account in Zhangjiakou and took him away without saying a word. Although there were no big ties, no one knew the reputation of the Jinyiwei. Not to mention a commoner like him, even if the princes and nobles were caught by them, they would have to lose their skin even if they didn't die.

For a moment, he felt that his thoughts were gone. All wealth, family business, fine wine, and beautiful women had become past mists. He knew what he had done himself. He knew in his heart that doing business with the Later Jin Dynasty would be an enemy, and it was possible to confiscate the family and destroy the clan!

However, the attitude of the Jinyiwei made him very strange. He did not have the great punishment he had imagined, nor did he drag him out to chop him out, nor did he even have the legendary ferocious evil spirit. He just escorted him into the carriage and rushed all the way. After getting off the carriage, he realized that he had been taken to the capital!

The Jinyiwei's behavior when he arrived in the capital was even more strange. Not only did he not put him in a cell, he also opened a good guest room for him, which was delicious and delicious. Even the Jinyiwei commander Luo Yangxing came to visit him in person, looking at him with a friendly and friendly look.

Chang Wei understood a little. The only thing he could think of is that money. You said that the Jinyiwei wanted money and said it, who dared not give it? The Chang family still took out hundreds of thousands of taels. Just one sentence, if you make such a big battle, you won’t be afraid of scaring people to death!

But he guessed wrong again. The next morning, the Jinyiwei actually led him into the palace directly. When he saw the arrival of the Shanxi merchants in a side hall, his heart sank to the bottom of the valley. Fan Yongdou, Wang Dengku, Qi Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Jiabin, Tian Shenglan, Cui Tang, and Huang Yunfa! These people can be said to be his colleagues, but they are very different from him. He is just doing business with the Later Jin. These people not only do business with the Later Jin but also betray the information of the Ming Dynasty!
Chapter completed!