Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 475: Chapter 440: A Generation of Emperors, A Generation of Ministers (National Day Special Addition)

It turned out that this middle-aged man hailed from Jizhou, and his purpose at Chongshan Pass was to engage in the glass trade. The merchant he was partnering with was none other than the Luo family.

In order to favor the business of Chongshan Bank, Luo Shang had already instructed that, starting from today, all significant transactions of the Luo family within Chongshan Pass would only accept silver notes from Chongshan Bank, and not even gold or silver, only the silver notes from Chongshan Bank.

If the middle-aged man wanted to purchase glass products from the Luo family, he could only do so with a silver note. If he brought silver, the shopkeeper and assistants at the Luo family’s store would not accept it.

In light of this, the middle-aged man had complained to the shopkeeper of the bank. The shopkeeper, all smiles, pointed to the counter not far away where a long queue was already forming, and said, ”Esteemed guest, look over there. Those are all here to exchange for silver notes, hehe, it’s not just the Luo family, all well-known rich merchants in Chongshan Pass have chosen our silver notes!”

”Especially for the glass business, all transactions need to be settled with silver notes, because the glass trade is fundamentally controlled by the General Mansion!”

The middle-aged man revealed an expression of sudden realization. Yes, since the glass business was under the General Mansion, and they mandated that transactions be settled with Chongshan Bank’s silver notes, then all merchants coming to Chongshan Pass to purchase glass products would certainly use Chongshan Bank’s silver notes.

”I have some silver notes from Datong Bank here, can I exchange them all for your bank’s silver notes?”

Having understood the situation, the middle-aged man directly exchanged all the silver notes he had from Datong Bank for notes from Chongshan Bank.

It wasn’t just him; many merchants who came to do business in Chongshan Pass exchanged for silver notes from Chongshan Bank.

In fact, Datong Bank’s silver notes were also in circulation at Chongshan Pass, but there was no Datong Bank branch within Chongshan Pass. To exchange them for silver coins, one had to go to Jing’an Prefecture or Qinghua Prefecture.

Now that Chongshan Bank and Datong Bank were offsetting and exchanging funds for each other, and the General Mansion stipulated that glass transactions could only be settled with Chongshan Bank’s silver notes, it led to Chongshan Bank being flooded with customers on its opening day.

It wasn’t until evening that the merchants gathered at Chongshan Bank dissipated, and Yang Zhenshan had been waiting at the General Mansion until Li Hai brought the bank’s ledger for the day.

”Marquis, here is today’s ledger for the bank!”

In the study, Li Hai placed a thick ledger in front of Yang Zhenshan.

Yang Zhenshan took the ledger and asked, ”How much silver did we take in today?”

”Today we collected a total of 680,000 taels of silver, of which 600,000 taels were from the exchange of silver notes by the six major agents. They seemed to have collaborated, all exchanging for 100,000 taels of silver notes each,” said Li Hai.

Yang Zhenshan smiled, ”It wasn’t that they conspired, it was my requirement for them.”

Li Hai showed a look of realization, ”So that’s how it is.”

Yang Zhenshan flipped through the ledger carefully.

Aside from the 600,000 taels from the six major agents, Chongshan Bank only collected a little more than 80,000 taels of silver for the day, of which only 30,000 taels were deposits, and the rest was all from the exchange of silver notes.

Apart from the silver, Chongshan Bank also received nearly 160,000 taels’ worth of silver notes from Datong Bank on the same day.

Meaning, Chongshan Bank accounted for a total of 840,000 taels today!

It seemed a lot, but in fact, most of it was due to Yang Zhenshan’s stealthy manipulations.

The bank’s regular operations were actually only around 50,000 taels or so, which included 30,000 taels in deposits and around 20,000 taels in silver note exchanges.

As for the rest, it all came from the glass business.

Going forward, the glass business would continue to be the strongest support for the bank’s silver note operations, but it definitely wouldn’t be as explosive as today.

On the contrary, the bank’s deposit services and minor silver note operations might continue to increase.

Just as Yang Zhenshan had predicted, in the following days, the daily exchange of silver notes at the bank continued to decline, with the second day seeing less than 200,000 taels, which included the exchange of Datong Bank’s silver notes for Chongshan Bank’s.

The third day only had 180,000, the fourth dropped to 150,000, and eventually it stabilized at around 100,000.

While the bank’s deposit business was continuously growing, the second day fell to 20,000 taels, but by the third day it had reached 30,000 taels again, and afterward incrementing nearly 5,000 taels daily, until after ten days, the peak daily deposit reached 80,000 taels.

Then the daily volume of deposits began to fall, finally stabilizing at around 10,000 taels of silver each day after a month.

This change occurred because, in the initial stages, soldiers from the town were depositing money into the bank.

Chongshan Town had a special military economy, where most commercial activities were centered around the military forces, and the bank was no exception.

Simply put, soldiers of the Five Camps were the middle class of Chongshan Pass. Their salaries far exceeded those of ordinary farmers and military households, and likewise, the wealth they possessed was incomparable to that of regular farmers and military households.

Therefore, soldiers from the Five Camps became one of the main customer groups for the bank.

Aside from the soldiers, the bank’s other customers were mainly merchants, whereas ordinary military households and farmers rarely had excess money to deposit in the bank.

In a mere month, Chongshan Bank had attracted more than three million taels of silver deposits. Though Yang Zhenshan could not utilize the entire amount, borrowing half was not a problem.

He had already set regulations for the General Mansion’s use of funds borrowed from Chongshan Bank: first, the amount borrowed cannot exceed sixty percent of the bank’s silver reserves; second, the General Mansion must pay interest when borrowing from the bank, at an annual rate of five percent, two percentage points higher than the bank’s deposit interest rate.