Chapter 96 Currency (2)
For local workers who already have nothing, any gift from the Travelers is an additional gain, and there will be no psychological resistance at all. First, internally implement a financial settlement system based on banknotes. Schneider believes that this is the first step on the right path. As for trade with the outside world, Chuanchuan Group can boldly use precious metals for settlement without worrying about the excessive amount of money affecting the total currency circulation in Victory Port.
Schneider even has further ideas for foreign trade. He hopes to implement the mandatory use of local currencies in trade. That is, when outside merchants come to Port of Victory to trade, they must first exchange the precious metal currencies they hold for cross-border currency. Only banknotes issued by the group can be traded. After the transaction is completed, merchants can also exchange the banknotes they hold into precious metal currencies and take them away. Such a seemingly redundant process has important special significance in finance. One is to increase the local holdings of precious metals. After all, for the convenience of frequent merchants, they will not exchange all the banknotes into gold and silver and take them away. The other is to promote the financial system of the cross-group to the outside world and gradually form The market credit of its own currency, thirdly, can firmly control the pricing power of goods in its own hands and avoid being adversely affected by changes in its own precious metal currency holdings.
Schneider has not made a final decision on when and how far this kind of banknotes will be implemented. Although from a long-term perspective, the issuance of banknotes is definitely in line with the historical development trend, but based on the historical conditions at that time, banknotes can at most flow in the internal settlement system, but cannot be exported as a popular currency - even if it is imported from outside The merchants recognized the credibility of Chuan Chuan Group's banknotes, and they could only have actual purchasing power on the territory controlled by Chuan Chuan Group. In the financial system designed by Schneider, this voucher-like banknote is only a tool for the Preparatory Committee to control and regulate finance within its jurisdiction at a macro level, rather than a pure currency in circulation. When the power of the Time Travel Group develops to a certain scale, the banking institution, as the general manager of the economy, will definitely have to introduce a more complete currency system to replace the relatively primitive banknotes used in the early days of Time Travel.
After getting the approval of the Preparatory Committee, Schneider, who was appointed as the financial director, proposed to make a batch of vouchers in advance, because for practical purposes, it was impossible to bring a complete set of modern printing equipment across. Even if he could bring it, The subsequent supply of specialized paper and ink is also a problem. Anyway, the Preparatory Committee has designed several banknote samples before, and it is not particularly troublesome to pick one of them and make it into a real thing. Of course, it is impossible for paper, ink and printing technology to be of a grade specifically designed for banknotes, and the Preparatory Committee has no intention of printing something so fine.
Finally, the organizing committee contacted a small printing house and printed a large number of circulating coupons in nine denominations, including yuan, jiao and cents, in the name of tabletop game props. The designed currency value of this kind of circulation note is that one yuan is equivalent to one silver tael, and the currency value of jiao and cents is clearly equivalent to one hundred copper coins and ten copper coins. The three denominations of the yuan are one yuan, five yuan and ten yuan, while jiao and cents adopt the denominations of one, two and five. As for the exact number of currency denominations printed, only a few members of the executive committee know. However, according to personnel from the financial department, after repeated calculations of the economic level during the Ming Dynasty, this batch of printed circulation notes was enough to maintain a hundred thousand There is a human-scale money market demand, and this amount is completely sufficient in the early stages of the journey. Of course, these circulation coupons will not be put into the market all at once. The specific amount and batch will need to be adjusted by relevant departments based on the actual situation after crossing.
Regarding the entire set of financial system design plans, the Executive Committee has basically reached a conclusion before the crossing. The discussion after the crossing mainly focuses on the timing of implementation. As head of the financial department, Schneider plays the role of decision-maker. When the number of workers under his rule exceeded a thousand, and foreign trade had begun smoothly, Schneider believed that the time had come to launch a primary financial system. The first users would be the labor members of Chuanzhong and the two communes.
It is relatively easy to set salary levels for workers because these workers currently do not receive any monetary compensation, and there will be no dissatisfaction even if a very low standard is set. Of course, the specific salary will still be combined with the current labor hierarchy, and different salary standards will be formulated according to different labor grades and jobs. The focus is to highlight the differences in treatment brought by labor grades to stimulate people's enthusiasm for work.
The real problem lies in grading the salary of the public. This is undoubtedly a huge test for those who set the standards. If you are not careful, you may be sprayed with all kinds of dissatisfied voices. From the very beginning, the Time Travel Group has been promoting the banner of "There is no distinction between high and low among people in Time Travel, only the division of vocational labor." However, any adult with a normal mind will understand that this is just the executive committee expressing its basic attitude. In fact, It is simply impossible to achieve equal pay for equal work, let alone complete equality. No matter how beautiful the words are, there are still differences between leaders and led within the group. There are also differences in the level of hard work and technical content of the positions. If everyone's salary is set at the same level, That is the greatest injustice.
Finally, under the guidance of Tao Donglai, the Ministry of Finance led by Schneider divided the salary of Chuangzhong into two parts, one is the basic salary, and the other is the position allowance. The basic salary part adopts the same standard for all employees. As long as they participate in the work, they will have the same amount of guaranteed income every month. Job allowances are additional income designed for different positions, such as military and police soldiers on duty at the Yulinjiao outpost, technicians working in harsh environments in metallurgical workshops, and geological survey personnel who go deep into inland mountainous areas to explore mineral deposits. Positions with certain risks like this can enjoy job allowances. In addition, some positions with strong technical skills or heavy responsibilities will also receive job subsidies jointly issued by the Executive Committee and the Ministry of Finance.
In view that the various industries of the Cross Group are still being gradually rolled out, the positions receiving subsidies will be reviewed every other month so that those newly emerging positions can be added to the salary system in a timely manner.
At Tao Donglai's initiative, all members of the executive committee gave up their right to receive post allowances to show the selflessness of those in power. After this measure was introduced, it received a lot of praise at the forum, which increased the reputation index of the Executive Committee a lot. Of course, there are also a very few discordant voices, which are nothing more than accusing the executive committee of performing a move. After all, everyone knows that the salary that time travellers can get is actually irrelevant. Everyone received 10,000 original shares before time travel. It is the real source of income. The dividends that can be received every year in the future are many times the salary. Of course, there is no need to care about the limited job allowance. For this kind of dissatisfied guy who can only utter a few words on the forum and affect internal unity, Menghe mercilessly deletes the post, fully demonstrating what it means "you have the freedom to express your opinion, but I have the right to deal with you" freedom".
As one of the first batch of foreign businessmen to come to Victory Port to trade with Chuan Chuan Group, and at the same time as a partner who has always maintained a good relationship with Chuan Chuan Group, Luo Shengdong was honored to be the trial subject of the freshly released circulation coupons. However, even though Luo Shengdong was astute, after listening to Schneider's fascinating explanation, he still didn't understand why the Travelers came up with such a troublesome thing: "Mr. Shi, wouldn't it be more convenient for me to trade with you directly with silver? Why do you need to use this thing to pour a hand?"
Schneider nodded and said: "Our transaction volume is small now, only about a hundred or ten taels, so it would be more convenient to give cash directly. But what if the business grows in the future? You plan to transport thousands every time you purchase goods. Do you want to come here with ten thousand taels of silver? This circulation voucher can solve the problem. You only need to exchange the silver taels into circulation vouchers. The unused silver is equivalent to being deposited with us. You can withdraw the silver at any time with the circulation vouchers. You can use it to pay for goods. Isn’t that more convenient than transporting money around?”
Luo Shengdong frowned and said: "It sounds reasonable, but I always feel that something is wrong..."
"That's because you don't feel safe leaving your money with us." Schneider pointed out Luo Shengdong's thoughts directly: "You don't have much money now, just put it at home. When you have more money in the future, you can just put it all at home." Can you feel relieved? Even if you dig a big hole under the bed and bury all the money in the soil, I think you will still be thinking about the money at home when you go out. It would be different if you put it here. Think, who in the entire South China Sea can steal something from us?”
Luo Shengdong responded hesitantly: "Then... let's change it to something first?"
"You don't have to hesitate. If you don't use the circulation coupons we issued in the future, you won't be able to buy anything in Victory Port." Schneider took out a stack of circulation coupons from his pocket, ordered ten ten-yuan ones and handed them to Luo Shengdong: " Take it, give me one hundred taels of silver later, and then go to the warehouse at the entrance of the base and use this circulation coupon to buy salt, the same two thousand jins as last time, the goods have been prepared for you."
When Luo Shengdong heard about the salt, he put aside his concerns about the circulation coupons: "Mr. Shi, can you sell more salt? I would like to exchange my silver for fifty taels of circulation coupons."
Seeing that his hard-to-get trick worked, Schneider happily took out the circulation coupons again: "That's right, you see how convenient this is, otherwise you would have to stupidly carry more than ten kilograms of silver to the warehouse to pick up the goods... …”
(End of chapter)