Chapter 648: Seven Zero Six: Money Makes Money, Money Rolls In

Time flies, and soon it is the end of June. The weather is getting hotter and hotter, but Xiangyang City is still crowded with people.

The palace examination was held in Xiangyang on July 5. In addition to those candidates who made the list, candidates who failed in other states also came to Xiangyang, hoping to get a chance to pass the exam next year.

In addition to the candidates who failed, there are also businessmen from Jiangnan, Jiangdong, Yanzhou and other places.

The Fuze Restaurant in the city used to be full of people. Since its opening, it has never been closed for a day, but it is not open to the public today.

Because today, the Fuze Restaurant in Xiangyang City welcomed a group of special guests. They are all businessmen from all over the country. Some time ago, they all received invitations from Chen Mo.

Today, Chen Mo is like the regent of the Song Dynasty. The previous powerful ministers Xu Guozhong and Lu Sheng are not as good as him, so how dare they not come when Chen Mo invites them.

On the first floor of Fuze Restaurant, these merchants sat upright. They looked at their colleagues around them and were a little confused. They were all doing business and had contact with each other. Now that they were all here, it was inevitable that they would think wildly, thinking that the King of Wei would not treat them as fat sheep to be slaughtered.

After all, everyone sitting here was rich, especially when they heard that the court was short of money recently, it was inevitable that they would think wildly.

Because of this, when the servants brought tea, they were also polite and spoke in honorifics.

After a while, footsteps were heard outside the restaurant, and the restaurant owner who was welcoming guests outside shouted: "The Xiao family, Qin family, and Liu family from Jiangnan are here."

Hearing this, all the merchants on the first floor stood up, looked towards the door, and looked at the people coming in with surprise.

"Master Xiao, Master Qin, Master Liu?"

There was an uproar on the first floor. They never expected that not only did the big families in Jiangnan come, but the heads of the families came in person.

Xiao Quan, who has become the successor of the Xiao family, smiled and nodded to the merchants in the hall, and then found a seat with the people around him and sat down.

Xiao Quan and his friends were arrogant and did not chat with everyone, but other merchants did not dare to, and they were not angry at all. They took the initiative to approach Xiao Quan and his friends and wanted to get close to them.

After all, the big families in Jiangnan are not only engaged in business, but also in the transportation of grain in Jiangnan. They have to deal with each other.

The nice words were simply endless.

Someone said to Qin Hao, the head of the Qin family: "Congratulations to your son for passing the imperial examination. This time, he will definitely pass the palace examination. I congratulate the head of the Qin family in advance."

Qin Shi, who ranked 37th in the imperial examination, is Qin Hao's youngest son. Anyone who pays attention to the imperial examination list can find out clearly as long as they ask quietly.

In addition, the Qin family hosted almost everyone in Xiangyang to celebrate Qin Shi's success last time. It can be said that they are rich and powerful.

These days, Qin Hao was most happy about his youngest son's success in the imperial examination. He boasted about it a lot. Even the powerful Xiao family ranked lower than his youngest son in the imperial examination list. This made him feel proud.

You know, the last time Chen Mo went to Jiangnan, he proposed marriage to the Xiao family for Qin Hao, but was rejected by the Xiao family.

After Qin Hao passed the imperial examination this time, he proposed this to the Xiao family again, and the Xiao family actually agreed. As long as Qin Hao could pass the imperial examination this time, the Xiao family would agree to the marriage.

Although Qin Hao also wanted to say that he didn't care, he had no choice. The Xiao family relied on the King of Wei, and the Qin family was not as good as the Xiao family. Even though they were disliked by the Xiao family before, they still had to lick their faces and rely on them.

Therefore, this person flattered Qin Hao so much that he was very happy, but he said, "It's not even a shadow yet."

Just when the person was about to continue to flatter, the shopkeeper outside who was welcoming guests shouted again: "The Yi family and Wang family of Pingting County are here."

After the voice fell, all the merchants who had sat down stood up again, including Xiao Quan and Qin Hao.

The Yi family of Pingting County, you can tell who it is just by thinking about it.

That's the family of the first concubine of King Wei.

Even though the Yi family has moved to Xiangyang, they still call themselves the Yi family of Pingting County to the outside world.

Although the head of the Yi family, Yi Qianchi, is only a small seventh-grade warrior, no one dares to look down on him, after all, he is the father-in-law of King Wei.

The Wang family of Pingting County is not related to Chen Mo by marriage, but it should not be underestimated. They are the first batch of people to bet on King Wei, and their contributions are great.

It is said that King Wei's amazing archery skills originated from the Wang family.

Yi Qianchi, the head of the Yi family, and Wang Xiu, the head of the Wang family, who came into the restaurant, looked at the respect on everyone's faces and smiled more. Especially among these people, some were heads of aristocratic families that they could never hit in their eight lifetimes, and their vanity was greatly satisfied.

It seemed that everything they had paid for was just for today.

After learning from the servants who was the head of the Xiao family, Yi Qianchi and Wang Xiu both bowed to Xiao Quan.

The other party gave them face, so they naturally had to return the favor.

"The King of Wei and the Wu family of Jiangdong are here." At this time, a voice broke the silence, and everyone raised their eyebrows and showed respect.

The King of Wei, as well as thunder and thunder, need not be mentioned much, the Wu family of Jiangdong, that is the maiden family of the King of Wei's wife, is now the head of the seven famous families, and has long surpassed the Xiao family.

Everyone looked towards the door.

After a while, a tall and graceful woman led the way, followed by several armored soldiers, surrounding a young man and an old man.

Everyone who has dealt with this woman knows that she is the steward of Fuze Restaurant, named Qing Wu.

As for the young man, he was clearly the powerful King of Wei.

The old man is an elder sent by the Wu family.

Chen Mo was wearing a python robe. As soon as he came in, everyone looked at him nervously with awe on their faces.

Although their families are wealthy, they have officials as their backers, and they even support warriors, they are incomparable to a prince like Chen Mo who has military power, let alone a third-grade warrior himself.

Chen Mo smiled, pressed his hands, and said, "Everyone, please sit down."

After Chen Mo sat down, these people slowly sat down. This is a restaurant, so there is no shortage of tables and chairs.

"You guys go down first." Chen Mo said to the soldier, and then looked at Qing Wu: "Notify the kitchen that the food can be served."

"promise."

The departure of the soldiers also reduced the pressure on everyone.

Chen Mo didn't speak in a hurry. After all the food and wine were served, he said, "You are invited to come. This is to show my face. Here, I would like to toast you all."

Chen Mo stood up and raised his glass.

Everyone looked panicked. Even though it was Chen Mo who was respecting them, none of them dared to sit down. They stood up one after another and greeted Chen Mo first. At the same time, they had a bad feeling in their hearts.

The so-called showing courtesy for nothing is either cheating or stealing.

King Wei made a toast as soon as he came up. It seemed that what he was going to say next was not a trivial matter.

After toasting, Chen Mo smiled and pressed his hand, motioning for everyone to sit down, and then said with a smile: "I invite you all here today because I have important matters to discuss."

"Sure enough." Everyone was already prepared for heavy bleeding.

"You are all famous merchants in our Song Dynasty, and you know more about business than I do. Since the founding of the previous dynasty, several wealthy merchants in the south of the Yangtze River jointly established a bank and issued a kind of banknotes because the coins were too heavy to carry. Used to replace copper coins and silver coins.

But as you all know, the intervention of the previous dynasties, coupled with the bad times and the embarrassment of national supplies, printed them at will and disrupted normal trade, causing the value of banknotes to shrink and continue to depreciate, gradually becoming a piece of waste paper. "Chen Mo said slowly.

Hearing this, all the merchants were not fools. They understood that King Wei wanted to build a bank and let them invest money.

Fortunately, they were already prepared for heavy bleeding at this moment. They just had to wait for Chen Mo to finish speaking and then express their stance.

After all, in this case, let’s not talk about how embarrassed you are if you don’t pay. The most important thing is whether you dare to offend King Wei.

Chen Mo continued, but looked at Qing Wu: "How many people were invited today?"

"Twenty-seven families, there are quite a few of them." Qing Wu said.

Chen Mo nodded: "Twenty-seven, including me, there are twenty-eight. Our strength is several times higher than the wealthy businessmen in Jiangnan. Therefore, I won't talk nonsense. We can unite in various states and regions." What do you think of building a bank and issuing a kind of banknote, called a bank note, to replace money?

"Sure enough." After hearing what Chen Mo said, everyone secretly thought, but at the same time they were relieved. At least they knew the purpose and it would be easier to deal with it.

Just pay, they don't care whether the bank can succeed in the end, they are already prepared to be cheated by Chen Mo.

Of course, they did not speak first, but looked at the Wu, Xiao, Yi, and Wang families. After all, these four families were closely related to Chen Mo, and they should take the lead.

At the same time, they can also judge how much they should pay based on the money paid by these four companies.

However, it was Li, Xiao and Gan who spoke first.

They are the natal families of Mrs. Hui, Mrs. Xiao and Mrs. Gan respectively.

They all expressed their willingness to invest 200,000 taels in shares.

Everyone was surprised when they heard this. They did not expect that these three families would move faster than the Wu and Xiao families.

At the same time, they also thought of the rumors in the market, and suddenly looked a little strange.

The Wu, Xiao, Yi, and Wang families were also stunned. The Li family was okay, after all, Chu Juan was also famous, but the Xiao and Gan families, who were the outlaws, were so willing to spend money.

After a brief moment of surprise, the elder of the Wu family spoke, but instead of paying, he asked first, saying: "Building a bank and issuing banknotes is convenient and safe, but the biggest problem is that the issuer can print them at will. As long as If the issuer is short of money, he can print it for use. If things go on like this, it will inevitably depreciate. How will the prince change this if he wants to issue banknotes? "

As soon as these words came out, everyone nodded, but soon their expressions changed slightly. That's not right. As the natal family of Princess Wei, shouldn't the Wu family be the loyal lackeys of King Wei? Why are you raising questions now? This is to object. ?

But then they could understand.

Paper money is not something that only existed in the previous dynasty, but existed in the last two dynasties. It has always been a weapon used by the court to deceive businessmen. A single banknote has caused countless wealthy businessmen to lose their money, and how many people have been deceived, and all their money has been trapped by the court. Gone.

Those of them who are not deeply involved with Chen Mo can easily be cheated this time and withdraw midway without using the banknotes from the bank established by Chen Mo. But the Wu family and Chen Mo were deeply involved, and they couldn't withdraw in the middle. The Wu family couldn't withdraw from the bank any day, and it was only a matter of time before the entire family property turned into a bubble.

Brothers are still settling accounts, so this matter must be carefully considered.

At the same time, they also held their breath and lowered their heads, fearing that Chen Mo would be angry.

However, what they didn't know was that Chen Mo and the Wu family were angry and deliberately let the Wu family say this all the time.

Chen Mo really wanted to run a good bank. If he just wanted to borrow money to cheat them, it would be better to rob them openly. It was a one-time deal anyway.

What he wanted was a steady stream of money.

Chen Mo smiled and said, "I don't need to intervene in this matter. You can do it. I will just be the leader."

This was what Ning Wan reminded him of.

At first, Chen Mo wanted to borrow the power of the court and do it alone.

But Ning Wan told him that a bank could not be done by one person. Although he had the background of the court, without the support of wealthy merchants, the bank could not be big and could not attract money.

She told Chen Mo that the court could only be a pool, and the merchants were the water in the pool.

She also told Chen Mo what to do.

Everyone looked puzzled.

Chen Mo smiled and said, "It's very simple. Set up a chamber of commerce. I will pay for it and you will print it. I will give you the right to print and issue it. I will only be responsible for supervision."

As soon as these words came out, everyone's eyes lit up.

You know, the court printed paper money at will before, because it was the people and merchants who were cheated, but the court would not suffer any loss, but took away all the money, and no one could punish the court, so the court could do whatever it wanted.

But if they were given the right to issue and print, they would not dare to print at will, because Chen Mo, who was exercising supervision, could easily punish them.

However, Chen Mo had not finished speaking, and when he finished speaking, everyone was completely excited.

"This king intends to take out 3 million taels and give it to the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce will print 3 million taels of silver notes, and you can exchange them for silver notes from the Chamber of Commerce's bank. In this way, if this king intervenes, it will be his own money that will be lost, and you can get out of it."

The treasury has no money, but Chen Mo's private house has money, and he plans to use the dowry of his wives and concubines.

Chen Mo did this, which was also convenient for checking the accounts. After all, he only paid 3 million taels. If 4 million taels were printed, it must be that someone printed more, so he could trace the other party.

At this moment, everyone was whispering to each other, thinking that this matter had great potential.

"Here, Your Majesty, how is the Chamber of Commerce you mentioned established?" Qin Hao couldn't help asking.

"It is established by you, and you spontaneously elect the leader of the Chamber of Commerce to be responsible for the operation. This king will not interfere. Anyone who joins the Chamber of Commerce can invest in Haimao. The specific shares will be determined by you. All the income from Haimao will be distributed at the end of the year according to the number of shares, and this king will only take 30% of it."

Chen Mo just wanted to use their hands to run the bank and make it bigger.

As for letting them invest in Haimao, it was because the court could not take out the money for going out to sea in the early stage.