nucmednet Chapter 1337
Chapter 1337
When Cao Cao said that the money exchange system was destroyed, he was not exaggerating; the situation was indeed that serious.
Although the Ming Dynasty is not short of silver, it is impossible to keep too much cash in a single money shop.
Firstly, it's unsafe; secondly, storing too much silver might tempt insiders to become greedy.
Therefore, each money exchange would go through a trial operation period to get a general idea of the daily inflow and outflow.
Then, in order to ensure that the money shop can operate normally in the event of an emergency, the amount of silver deposited will be kept at three times the turnover.
This is already a very generous plan, but even so, a large number of payments have been made, which is very problematic.
If it were an isolated case, it would be fine, but now it's happening all over the country at the same time, which proves that there may be manipulation involved.
Once the money shop's cash reserves are insufficient to cover redemptions, malicious individuals will spread rumors that the money shop has run out of silver.
Merchants who were worried about not getting their money back would immediately take all their banknotes to the money exchange to exchange for cash.
The problem is that money shops that have already redeemed a large amount of cash are unlikely to be able to come up with so much cash to redeem for them all at once.
That would confirm the rumors, and once trust collapses, the money exchange system that the imperial court had worked so hard to create would be rendered useless.
Just as Wei Wu was pondering why this had happened, something suddenly appeared before him.
When Wei Wu came to his senses, he saw that Zhu Yuanzhang had handed him another memorial and had also said something even worse.
"Take another look at this memorial. It was submitted by Zeng Tai and is the result after the Ministry of Revenue has compiled and calculated it."
Wei Wu looked at Zhu Yuanzhang with some doubt, but his hands did not slow down as he took the memorial directly.
However, after he finished reading what was written in the memorial, his pupils involuntarily contracted sharply!
It's not surprising that Wei Wu reacted so strongly; the main reason was that the contents of the memorial were so unsettling that he couldn't remain calm.
In this memorial, Zeng Tai stated that the number of silver notes circulating in the market today may have exceeded the number printed by the imperial court.
This is no longer a question of whether or not there will be a bank run; it has now involved the possibility that someone is printing banknotes privately.
In other words, the printing process for the silver notes produced by the imperial court has been leaked, and that person also has color-changing ink!
So after a brief moment of shock upon reading the memorial, Wei Wu immediately looked up at Zhu Yuanzhang and asked him a question.
"Uncle Zhu, when was this discovered, and how long has it been going on?"
“We asked Zeng Tai, and he noticed something was wrong seven days ago, mainly because the money shops below him reported an unusual situation.”
Upon hearing Wei Wu's question, Zhu Yuanzhang responded in a deep voice, and then continued:
"The money exchange said that recently, many people have been exchanging cash at the money exchange, and each time it's a thousand taels of silver."
“At first, Zeng Tai didn’t pay much attention and just thought it was a special case, but then the Ministry of Revenue received several more similar reports.”
"That's when Zeng Tai realized something was wrong. After he gathered people to investigate thoroughly, he deduced this possibility."
"He noticed it seven days ago, but based on the results he found, this situation has likely been going on for half a month!"
Zhu Yuanzhang paused for a moment before turning to Wei Wu and asking:
"Xiao Wu, let me confirm with you, is it really true that no one can replicate your color-changing ink?"
Zhu Yuanzhang's question was not out of doubt for Wei Wu; on this matter, he could be said to have absolute faith in Wei Wu.
The reason for asking the question was simply to rule out the possibility of error, a fact that Wei Wu was well aware of.
Therefore, he had no negative thoughts when Zhu Yuanzhang asked him; on the contrary, he responded with a solemn tone.