Mythical Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1179: Chapter 1135: The Origin of Credit

Of course, Liu Ba didn’t feel confident before getting involved, but once he did, he realized that his Money Exchange needed to be linked with the Mount Tai Bank. Moreover, the aristocratic family had already agreed to Chen Xi’s request, and seventy percent of the money had been transferred to the Headquarters of Mount Tai by Chen Xi.

If it weren’t for this constraint, Chen Xi wouldn’t dare to open a bank in Cao Cao’s territory, as it involved bearing credit risk. However, after taking seventy percent of the cash, the credit risk was already very minimal.

After all, the time required to travel back and forth between the Yongliang Bank and the Headquarters of Mount Tai was sufficient for Chen Xi to rob Peter to pay Paul. Basically, unless a large-scale run happened, a credit crisis was now impossible.

Moreover, with the copper gradually being transported from Luzon to Donglai, and then transferred to Fenggao, the commercial center of the world set by Chen Xi, and under Wang Xiu’s supervision causing the money to flow into the hands of aristocratic families and the common people, any potential credit issues could be completely erased.

To be honest, if it weren’t for privately engraving the Hou Yin Yi family’s seal, Chen Xi wouldn’t dare to use his own seal as a benchmark for credit currency. Furthermore, Chen Xi made three copies of everything, checking them one by one in front of all those who handled ticket exchanges. This formality was what reassured the aristocratic families the most.

This isn’t something that can be explained quickly with a simple phrase like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Establishing this system involved setting up merchants, managing commerce uniformly, drafting rules, and regulating the commercial system before it gradually became independent.

Precisely because Chen Xi had previously sent people to supervise the transactions between large merchants, ensuring stability within trade associations, and had supervisors act as intermediaries to guarantee deals, this led to countless large-scale transactions a year promoting commercial prosperity while also making big merchants understand the importance of intermediaries for large transactions.

No one wanted to carry tons of copper coins for transactions. Instead, they’d store the money with an intermediary, fetch their goods, and then Chen Xi, as a competent intermediary, would instantly complete the money transfer to the recipient.

After all, even escorting hundreds of millions of money along Liu Bei’s official road could not guarantee absolute safety, let alone in areas like Cao Cao’s. If it got robbed, you’d be crying. But by giving the money to Chen Xi, he’d immediately debit the amount, and the recipient’s prefecture would disburse the money from the government treasury directly.

Of course, this was also because the power structure was just established, and there weren’t any notable factions. This central government collecting money and the prefecture signing off on transactions was accepted. This transaction method was indeed fast and very safe, so all merchants hoped to join this method of trade.

Chen Xi’s original intention was to let aristocratic families and local tyrants savor the benefits and then join this trading method. So after other merchants made the request, Chen Xi collected a hefty membership fee and agreed to their inclusion. Naturally, Chen Xi’s economic intelligence became more complete.

Others couldn’t see the complete commercial intelligence of the world; even the three managers of the trade association couldn’t fully see the information concerning commercial activities affecting the people’s livelihood. But with the entry of large merchants across the world, Chen Xi gained access to commercial intelligence from all over.

Chen Xi was not like those merchants looking for a buyer. Last year Chen Xi was already manipulating everything from behind the scenes, which is why Chen Xi could guarantee he wouldn’t lose money.

When someone wanted something, Chen Xi ordered his people to check and buy it at a low price, then immediately flipped it, gaining money in hand. Even if it’s just a five percent interest, the profits from hundreds of millions amount to several million money.

Incidentally, because of Chen Xi’s actions, Fenggao claimed it could buy anything in the world and also sell what you have fastest. Due to having commercial intelligence on world exchanges, Chen Xi’s side basically needed everything.

Initially, Chen Xi even had over a hundred aliases specifically for acquiring and selling various items. Of course, Fenggao also sold some intelligence officially.

For example, who wants this batch of goods or at what price, or I want something, who has it, the asking price isn’t high, typically ranging from one gold to ten gold.

However, many were fake intelligence hung by Chen Xi’s aliases, but the purchase of intelligence never ceased, with Chen Xi’s aliases constantly buying and selling.

Sadly, the good times ended in the second half of last year as a group of rushed merchants started doing this, and more and more followed suit.

Because of so much official intervention from Fenggao, eventually, merchants at Fenggao got used to the official presence, as the officials could guarantee they wouldn’t be cheated, and Chen Xi despised those who didn’t follow the rules, squashing several violators as an example.

Thus, merchants, along with the aristocratic families behind them, highly regarded the credibility of official decisions. Then one day, Chen Xi suddenly felt running around every day as a middleman was too troublesome and maintaining too many people was burdensome. Let’s change our approach.

This approach was the so-called Money Exchange Voucher, the reason the aristocratic families never doubted it, as they always considered it akin to previous intermediary vouchers. Moreover, this new voucher barely qualified as being witnessed by Chen Xi, as it bore his personally stamped seal, in triplicate.

But unlike intermediaries, this voucher was paper-based and could be carried around anytime. No matter how good your relationship with an intermediary, you couldn’t possibly carry them around with you.

People have a lazy nature, and although it was Chen Xi who indulged this, nobody knew who first initiated using ticket exchange certificates for trade. Afterwards, all aristocratic families and local tyrants followed suit, as it was much more convenient than carrying around lots of money, hence large-amount transactions increased.

When this trading method first emerged, Chen Xi even pretended to warn aristocratic families and large merchants, advising them not to proceed as it would confuse them when the authorities come to pay.

As a result, the eloquent Chen Xi was persuaded by those money-loving folks. Indeed, blocking their money-making path, the combat power they exhibited was astonishingly convincing.

The aristocratic families and large merchants had experienced the convenience of this trading method, and having them revert to the old method of pulling carts with tons of money, taking over a month to reach another state, and risking their lives for the trade—wouldn’t that be crazy?

Thus Chen Xi was convinced by the aristocratic families and large merchants, but he added many restrictions, one being a security deposit, another that large-amount withdrawals must be done personally, essentially preparing for black money.

The Bank of England back then was just as secure; only the individual themselves could withdraw money. If the individual wasn’t present, no matter who you were—a direct lineage, sister, or parents—it was entirely useless. That’s how secure we were.

Of course, Chen Xi wouldn’t lower his standards that much; he still paid some attention to appearances. However, for some whose entire family bid farewell, sorry, this was chaotic times, who knows if you’ll also say goodbye someday.

Thus, if Sun Ce and Cao Cao did eliminate some wealthy merchant who paid the security deposit, Liu Bei’s side could take a share. Hence, when Chen Xi occasionally ran out of money, he’d secretly sell black materials of unscrupulous merchants to Cao Cao. (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit qidian.com to vote for recommendations and monthly votes; your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)