On the other hand, Li Songchen also came to the Executive Yuan early in the morning to report that Premier Wang Yunpeng met him in his office. After all, Shanghai is not an ordinary city, and Li Songchen is also a young official focused on training by the Executive Yuan, so he is also highly valued by the Executive Yuan.

After the two met, they sat down on the sofa. Wang Yunpeng said, "Comrade Li Songchen, when did you arrive in Qingdao?"

Li Songchen said: "I arrived yesterday."

Wang Yunpeng nodded and said, "The meeting will be held only the day after tomorrow. Have a good rest in the past two days. I have already called the information room to prepare the information room and I will send it here later. You can take a good look. When the meeting is held, you are ready."

Li Songchen said: "Okay, I will definitely take a serious look after I go back."

Wang Yunpeng said again: "You have probably heard of it in Shanghai. It won't take long to get transferred from Shanghai. This meeting is indeed your new position."

Li Songchen nodded and said, "I have heard of it."

Wang Yunpeng said: "But now there is a special situation. You still need to stay in Shanghai for a while. The transfer can only be slowed down. I hope you can understand."

Li Songchen said: "It doesn't matter. As long as it is a work requirement, I will obey the arrangements of the Executive Yuan."

Wang Yunpeng smiled and said, "Okay, I know you won't disappoint the Executive Yuan, but don't worry, we will remember your contribution to the East China Government, and your efforts will not be in vain."

Li Songchen said: "It's nothing, but Dean Wang, can I know why I will continue to stay in Shanghai?"

Wang Yunpeng said: "Of course, when you were in Shanghai, did you hear about the 'Saustenance Order'!"

Li Songchen said: "I heard that I will continue to stay in Shanghai because of the 'Scrap Silver Order'!"

Wang Yunpeng nodded and said, "Yes, but the 'Scrap Silver Order' is just a synonym, and there is no realization of the formal name and the measures of the whole body. But simply put it, it is to replace silver coins with paper money. This principle is confirmed, but Shanghai will be used as a pilot."

It turned out that after the establishment of the East China Government, it made every effort to develop industry and commerce, and initially established a number of national industries, which also led to the rapid economic development. After the Far East War, the East China Government obtained huge war dividends from it and further expanded its investment in industrial investment. The government's fiscal revenue exceeded 20% for two consecutive years after the Far East War. In 1908, the GDP increased by 25.3%, reaching 1.373 billion silver dollars, which was converted to 143 million British pounds, and the government's fiscal revenue increased by 23.5%, totaling 354 million silver dollars, which was converted to 39 million British pounds. Although this figure is nothing internationally, the UK's GDP in 1908 was 2.011 billion British pounds, while the United States' GDP was as high as an astonishing 6.3 billion British pounds.

However, compared with the first time when the East China Government was established, the GDP increased by about 15 times, and the government's fiscal revenue increased by about 11 times, which can be said to be a huge progress. Before the East China Government, the Qing court had never done a statistics on GDP. However, in the old time and space, the highest fiscal revenue of the Qing court was in 1910, which was 280 million taels of silver, which was converted into 47 million British pounds. However, this was based on the Qing government's basic control of the national territory and population. The territory of the East China Government is less than 1/3 of the Qing government's national population, and the population is less than 1/4. Since it is the Yangtze River Basin, the most populous and economically developed in the Qing government, only a small part is in the hands of the East China Government, so it is quite rare to achieve such achievements.

The rapid economic development and the significant increase in commercial activities have brought a serious problem to the East China Government, which is the insufficient amount of money. Compared with the first time and the East China Government, the issuance of currency has increased by more than 5 times, but it is still not enough. If it were in the old time and space, this is certainly not a big problem. Just continue to print money. As long as the amount of money issuance issuance issuance and the increase in social wealth will not happen. But in this era, the East China Government still implemented the silver standard, because it mainly uses currency or silver coins, so increasing the issuance of currency requires a large amount of silver.

Whether in the old time and space or in this era, the monetary system of the Qing court was extremely chaotic. Although silver is the main currency in society, its value is calculated based on its own weight rather than the face value of the currency. Although this approach has the advantage of being genuine, it has more disadvantages. On the one hand, the currency system is too rigid and cannot avoid the occurrence of economic crises by adjusting the actual value of the currency, i.e., appreciation or depreciation according to economic fluctuations; on the other hand, the quality of silver is also diverse, which makes it difficult to avoid the occurrence of economic crises. The land has its own minted silver currencies. Beijing has Songhua silver, Tianjin has Huabao silver and Baibao silver, Shanghai has Erqibao silver, Suyuan ingots in Suzhou, Yangcaoping silver in Yangzhou, Gongyouzu silver in Zhenjiang, etc. Some casters deliberately incorporate ordinary metals such as tin and lead to inferior products. Therefore, many silver ingots with different colors and different values ​​in the market will cause considerable difficulties in commercial transactions. It is a professional job to identify the authenticity and quality of silver ingots, and traders will spend an additional cost of appraisal.

In addition, although another circulating currency in ancient China, copper coins, was not priced by weight, but also had the problems of many colors and varying values. Moreover, there was no clear exchange rate between copper coins and silver. In theory, 1,000-civilian copper coins are worth 12 silver, but in actual use, the exchange rate between copper coins and silver has always fluctuated between 600-1500:1.

Of course, this is not a unique problem of the Qing court. In ancient China, the situation was basically the same. It was just before the Ming and Qing dynasties, China's commodity economy was not developed, and the economy was basically circulating internally, so the currency problem was not serious. However, after the Ming Dynasty, China's commodity economy developed rapidly, Spanish and Portuguese merchants poured in, and the proportion of foreign economy was also expanding. The currency problem began to affect China's economy. The main reason for the economic crisis that occurred in the late Ming Dynasty was the political system problem of the Ming Dynasty, but monetary factors were also one of the important reasons.

After the establishment of the Qing court, it was closed and the internal economic circulation model was restored. Therefore, the currency problem disappeared once again. However, after the Opium War, the Qing court's national gate was opened again and was forced to be involved in international competition. Therefore, the currency problem became serious again, and the Qing court suffered a lot of secret losses. For example, after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Qing court had to compensate Japan for 231.5 million taels of silver, but Japan demanded that the Kuping Silver be sufficient on the grounds that the Qing court's Kuping Silver was not good enough and unilaterally stipulated that the Kuping Silver be sufficient. The color of the color was 988.89 (that is, 1,000 taels of Kuping silver contains 988.89 taels of pure silver). The Qing court paid 13.25 million taels more for this item alone; at that time, the gold price rose and the silver price fell, and Japan asked the Qing court to convert the silver into silver to pay compensation. In this way, the Qing court used Kuping silver to exchange for pounds to form a "pool loss", and Japan easily obtained about 15 million taels from China. As a result, the actual compensation of the Qing court was about 259.7 million taels of silver, with an overspending of 12.2%.

When the East China Government was first established, it also planned to issue paper money to replace silver. However, due to the times, silver as the main currency was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Therefore, the East China Government finally gave up the strategy of replacing silver as the main currency and issuing silver coins as the main currency, and issued small-degree paper money as the supplement. It also stipulated the face value of silver coins and paper money, and at the same time completely abolished copper coins.

With the credit support of the East China Government, and the economy of the East China Government has been developing, and it has been vigorously promoted by administrative means and severely cracked down on private coins, the currency reform was quite successful. Now, in the ruling areas of the East China Government, whether it is silver coins or paper money, it has been recognized by the society, and silver and copper coins have been completely eliminated. Therefore, the rapid economic development of the East China Government and the perfect monetary system are also indispensable.

But now, the disadvantages of this monetary system have gradually become apparent. First, it is inconvenient to use. Although the weight of silver coins has been greatly reduced compared to silver, the weight of silver coins is still not light when trading large amounts, and whether it is carried, it is very troublesome to count the points. Secondly, the cost of silver coins is too high. In order to increase the difficulty of private coins, the silver coins of the East China Government are very fine and beautiful, but this further increases the cost of coins. Although compared with the total revenue of the government, the cost is not too much, but it is not a small amount.

The most important point is that the silver reserves of the East China government are limited. There are no large silver mines in the ruling areas of the Washington Government. Although the Washington Government received huge compensation after the Far East War, the Washington Government did not receive much silver. Therefore, the silver reserves of the Washington Government are basically earned from areas ruled by the Qing court through commercial activities.

However, China itself has relatively few silver mines. The silver used now is basically earned by foreign trade before the Opium War. However, after more than 60 years of open and secret robbery by the great powers, China's silver has been lost in large quantities. Moreover, after the East China government standardized the monetary system, the economy developed rapidly. Therefore, the value of the currency issued by the East China government is very stable, and it is easy to carry and calculate compared to silver. As a result, a radiative effect was formed. Many areas ruled by the Qing court, because it was in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, private merchants also like to use the currency issued by the East China government. In addition, Chinese people have the habit of saving money. The silver coins issued by the East China government are of good quality and exquisite production, so they have become the first choice for many people to store. As a result, a lot of silver coins issued by the East China government have been lost, and this loss is still expanding.
Chapter completed!