Chapter 169 Stone Seal
No commission for silver bills!
Exchange as you like, and you can redeem it with the ticket.
All of this is undoubtedly new to the people in the seventh year of Wanli. The guest officer dressed in a rich man was naturally received by Qian Lei.
However, for Zhu Yijun, when he watched the man exchanged fifty taels of silver bills, he seemed particularly happy, as if he had done the business by himself.
"Zhiyuan, don't say it, this silver note is quite convenient to use."
Zhu Yijun said to Shi Yiwen with a smile on his face.
"If it weren't for the shop not recognizing this, I wouldn't have been willing to exchange it all day long, so I'm not going to do it."
Listening to the emperor's words, Shi Yiwen smiled.
"It's good to get used to it. When you go back, you will definitely get used to using silver notes."
Because it was getting late, Zhu Yijun, who had been out for more than two hours, had not stayed away from the bank. He took a special look at the carriage, looked at the bank again, and then said to Shi Yiwen.
"This carriage is quite fast. Zhiyuan looks back. You can keep one here for a while, so it will be easier for me to come out to play."
Of course, Shi Yiwen did not refuse this. Instead, Qian Lei asked casually when he saw the boy leaving.
"Young Master, who is that? The score is quite big."
He asked on purpose, looking at the man who was young, his temperament was different from that of ordinary people.
"When you look back, the car will be placed here. When he comes, just ask the coachman to send him."
Shi Yiwen did not answer his doubts, and then asked again.
“How is the bank’s business going on recently?”
"The bank's business is still done. Now the bank's money has exceeded 100,000. I estimate that by the end of this year, our deposits can reach about one million taels, so we don't have to worry about lending them. I have negotiated several companies this time, with an interest of 16%..."
Listening to Qian Lei’s report, Shi Yiwen just nodded slightly and then asked again.
"On the way here, I saw a new bank opened in the south city?"
Qian Lei answered truthfully.
"Yes, young master, didn't I report to you last time, how many branches are to be opened? Now, the biggest input of our bank is to accept copper coins from the carriage store. Every day, hundreds of thousands of dollars are missing and millions of dollars are added. If you want to exchange all of this money, you have to open a new bank. I was thinking about opening 16 branches in the north and south cities, including outside the city. Oh, I'm still planning to open one in Zhangjiawan."
"Zhangjiawan?"
Shi Yiwen looked at Qian Lei in confusion.
"Young Master, that day, the young master told me that the bank wanted to "communicate the world". It would be impossible for this bank to only spend money on the capital. But everything has to be done step by step. So I thought about it and first opened a branch in Zhangjiawan. Don't look at Zhangjiawan and Beijing only a few dozen miles away. But there are merchants there, and merchants bringing money at least thousands or tens of thousands, including cash and tickets. Because of this, bandits often appear on the official roads from Zhangjiawan to Beijing. I thought, if we open a branch there and exchange banknotes, we will definitely make a profit from it..."
Listening to Qian Lei’s explanation, Shi Yiwen nodded slightly and said.
"Making profit is second, and the most important thing is habit! As long as they are used to using silver notes, the profit will be more profitable than you and I can imagine."
Just look at the words "habits" I said to the emperor before. Shi Yiwen thought about it for a while and then said.
"In this way, I don't consider other places this year. First, I will open branches in Linqing, Yangzhou and Nanjing. I will try to turn our banknotes into tickets and circulate between these cities. These places are the largest commercial ports along the canal. Let them get used to the convenience of carrying banknotes remotely, and slowly develop the habit of using banknotes to settle. However, you must pay attention to the exchange of silver coins. The key to banknotes is credit."
For silver notes, the most important thing is credit. Without credit, the so-called silver notes are just a piece of butch paper. The people of the Ming Dynasty are not unfamiliar with this. Baochao is the lesson of the past.
Then he discussed with Qian Lei about opening a branch. On the way home, he thought that the bank wanted to open a branch and promote bank notes. The problem of bank notes naturally came to Shi Yiwen.
"It seems that it's time to get the lithograph machine back up, and you can't rely on the few printers in the space alone."
The bank notes in the bank are now printed by printers. Although they are exquisitely made, A4 paper is not durable and there are also quantity problems. After all, the paper in the space is limited, and those printers and papers can come in more use in the future.
After thinking about it, there was only one way, which was the lithograph machine that was made in Nanjing. The lithograph machine brought from Nanjing was actually a wooden frame printer. It was originally intended to open a bookstore in Nanjing to print books and newspapers, and even its relationship with the emperor started with copying books. The purpose of copying books was to print books, but until now, the bookstore has not been started, and the simple lithograph has been kept at home and fallen into dust.
"Let's start the bookstore first!"
Thinking that thousands of books have been sent to the palace these days, if I just collect them, it would probably be a bit too wasteful. It is time to engrave the books, and of course the newspapers will be done together.
After deciding on this idea, Shi Yiwen immediately started to set up a bookstore. Although the publishing industry in the capital is far from comparable to that in Nanjing and other places, and there are also official bookstores in the Silijian, which makes it impossible for the bookstore and private book engravers to compete with it, there are still unsized bookstores in the Baizhifang area.
Because of this, Shi Yiwen chose to build the bookstore in a white paper workshop. However, while the factory was manufacturing the hand-crank lithograph machine for printing books according to the drawings, there were still many problems that needed to be explained, including hiring workers and hiring people. Of course, there were still some technical problems that needed to be solved.
"My printing workshop is different from other printing workshops. It does not require carved plates, but makes plates through reprinting..."
Facing Sun Fengshan, the newly hired shopkeeper of the bookstore, Shi Yiwen took out a piece of paper and explained to him.
"The so-called translator is to write characters or drawings on the translator paper and then transfer them to the stone plate. If you are not satisfied with writing on the translator paper, you can start over again without any concerns about destroying the plate. The translator technique makes the painting positive and does not have to be flipped. However, because the translator process needs to be imprinted, the images on the translator paper cannot be accurately transferred to the plate, which is not as clear as the straight drawing method, but it is worse than the quick..."
Looking at the paper on the table and working in the bookstore for half a lifetime, Sun Fengshan, who was proficient in printing books, was surprised.
"Our, use this piece of paper to make a plate? What's the difference between this piece of paper?"
"Since it's transcribed paper, there are naturally differences between it..."
Shi Yiwen said proudly.
Chapter completed!