Chapter 450: Labor Makes One Free

Wang Chonggu was not a god, and he could not create something out of nothing. When the wool official factory was first built, he fully referred to the military colony guard system formulated by Liu Bowen at the beginning, and also referred to the resident craftsman system formulated by Emperor Chengzu Wen. The wool official factory gradually became the current Ying Guanren Factory Group Manufacturing Law.

And Lin Fucheng appeared as an opposition, providing Zhu Yijun with a new perspective to observe the achievements of the Great Ming's new policy.

The freedom theory of the Songjiang School is logically self-consistent. Ying Guanren factory group manufacturing is bound to fail because the return on assets is bound to decrease. This is an inevitable market law, and the Great Ming imperial court's excessive intervention will inevitably trigger an inevitable problem.

That is the Great Ming imperial court's debt. National debt, shipping tickets, and the two new tickets for Suiyuan Imperial Road and Suiyuan Mining, like paper money, are fundamentally debts. The Great Ming imperial court borrows from the people. With the decrease in the return on assets, the imperial court's debt will eventually become "stepping on the right foot with the left foot," spiraling into the sky.

In Lin Fucheng's view, official factory group manufacturing has its limitations. The original intention of the Ying Guanren Factory Group Manufacturing Law was to settle hooligans, which is a typical example of "work-for-relief," not oriented towards profit. But the Great Ming private workshops are entirely profit-oriented. Therefore, under the premise that the Great Ming's overall debt will inevitably increase, the return on assets, this realistic problem, is more appropriate to be realized by private workshops.

To achieve it is very, very simple. Just set up a trading house in Songjiang Prefecture. The Yanxing Building Trading House is in the capital and is entirely controlled by the imperial court. The imperial court manages too widely, and private workshops cannot sit at the table to eat. Even the imperial court and the Ministry of Revenue have great resistance. After nine years of tossing, there are only three kinds of tickets.

Establishing a trading house in Songjiang Prefecture to allow private workshops to sit at the table and eat will guarantee the overall return on assets.

Is Lin Fucheng's idea good? Good. But it cannot be done at present, because once it is set up in Songjiang Prefecture, the speculative nature of the trading house will be infinitely magnified, the purpose of the trading house to promote industrial and commercial development will completely become a big gambling house, the trading house will completely lose rationality, and it will become a paradise for gamblers and a sharp blade for bookmakers to harvest the poor and the poor.

Zhu Yijun leaned on the back of the chair. The Great Ming Emperor, who was busy with the expansion of the Yanxing Building Trading House, finished his dinner. When he was reviewing the remaining memorials, he picked up a miscellaneous newspaper. This miscellaneous newspaper was the "Civil Newspaper" that Zhu Yijun liked very much.

The content of the *People's News* includes a lot of entertainment and lively things to watch. It uses vernacular language and punctuation, so anyone who is literate can understand it.

"This *People's News* run by Geng Dingxiang has become the best-selling miscellaneous newspaper in the capital, and it is also the only miscellaneous newspaper in the capital published daily." Feng Bao delivered today's *People's News* to His Majesty.

The *People's News* is quite popular. It is not that Zhu Yijun is buying it; what the superior loves, the inferior will surely love even more, leading to every Great Ming official having a copy, which allows the *People's News* to maintain its livelihood. Only a few eunuchs like Feng Bao and Zhang Hong know that Zhu Yijun loves reading the *People's News*, and there are people specially responsible for purchasing it.

The Emperor's preferences are also a Great Ming state secret.

The content of the *People's News* is closely related to the common people, which is the reason why it is so popular.

While other miscellaneous newspapers were still published monthly or even semi-monthly, the *People's News* had already achieved daily publication, and its content was detailed and widely liked by everyone.

"Is this an advertisement? Chen's Bath Beans?" Zhu Yijun opened it and was immediately attracted by the advertisement in the corner of the *People's News* at first glance. It was a very crude drawing of a flower with simple lines, with only a short advertisement for bath beans above it: Bath Beans, Chen's are still the best.

Apparently, the *People's News* had found a way to generate revenue other than selling newspapers.

Zhang Hong smiled and said, "The Chen family's bath beans are indeed good. We are planning to include them for sale in the Imperial Estates."

Wang's scissors, Chen's bath beans, Liu's fish oil, and Wang's furs—these were the advertisements in this miscellaneous newspaper, distributed in the four corners. Apparently, Geng Dingxiang's pace was not large; there were only four small boxes. This was a commercial trial.

Jiao Hong, the top scholar of the fifth year of Wanli, is a Doctor of Investigation at the Great Ming Imperial Academy of Investigation. Jiao Hong's teacher is Geng Dingxiang. In the early years of Wanli, Geng Dingxiang served as the Education Commissioner of Nanjing. Later, after returning to the capital, he served as the Director of the Imperial Academy in the capital, a position he held for four years. In recent years, Geng Dingxiang has had little interest in official promotion, but has been quite attentive to the *People's News*.

The content of the *People's News* rarely involves politics; most of it discusses people's livelihoods.

And today's content also made Zhu Yijun's eyes light up.

The front-page content was a piece published by Wang Qian under the pseudonym "Master Xuhuai," and the content was quite sharp: "Where the Heart is at Peace is Nan Wuxiang," with the subtitle: "On Concubines."

Wang Qian is also a Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, a fourth-rank official, helping Hence Hai Rui fight corruption. Wang Qian is responsible for finding the leads, and Hence Hai Rui is responsible for cutting through the Gordian knot. Wang Qian is in the shadows, and Hence Hai Rui is in the light. Wang Qian's method of helping to find leads is to make an issue out of concubines.

And this time, Wang Qian used the pseudonym "Master Xuhuai" to publish his research findings in the miscellaneous newspaper.

Wang Qian possesses a large number of samples.

Zhu Yijun is very clear about Wang Qian's alias; he has used this alias to write articles more than once.

Su Shi was demoted to Lingnan because of the Wutai Poetry Case. Su Shi had a good friend named Wang Gong, who was demoted to Lingnan together with him. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Lingnan was still a wilderness and quite dangerous. Wang Gong had a songstress named Yun Niang who did not abandon him and followed Wang Gong to Lingnan.

Many years later, Su Shi and Wang Gong met again. Wang Gong asked Yun Niang to pour wine for Su Shi. Su Shi asked Yun Niang if Lingnan was very bitter?

Yun Niang replied: "Where the heart is at peace is my hometown."

After finishing the allusion, Wang Qian changed the subject and talked about the current living situation of concubines in the Great Ming.

Concubines are more stable than the top courtesans in brothels. Everyone is out there selling themselves, but concubines live much more stable lives than the top courtesans in brothels because their customers are fixed. Serving one person and serving countless people are completely different in difficulty. Moreover, most of those who can afford to keep concubines are high-ranking officials—quality customers.

So, is the life of a concubine very good?

Wang Qian answered this question with a ledger, and the answer was negative; concubines usually do not live affluent lives.

In Wang Qian's big data, eighty percent of concubines live in rented houses, ten percent can move into the main family home because the legal wife has no sons, and the remaining ten percent are even more miserable, living in brothels.

Those high-ranking officials always say they will buy a house for their concubines to make them feel at ease, but it is almost never fulfilled because anyone who keeps a concubine does so in the city, and houses in the city are extremely expensive.

Why don't high-ranking officials buy houses when they keep concubines? If you don't have silver, why keep a concubine?! Because high-ranking officials usually have more than one concubine, and many times, high-ranking officials will frequently give their concubines to each other as gifts. Even if they move into the main family home and offend the legal wife, the legal wife will give away these "concubines" who make the household restless.

If even concubines who have been married into the family can be given away, let alone these concubines kept outside.

In the eyes of high-ranking officials, a concubine is just an object, and even a concubine is just a familiar object. This status determines that high-ranking officials will not invest too much, so buying a house almost never happens; most are rented, or they are simply kept in brothels.

Concubines generally receive a monthly allowance of two to three taels of silver. Aside from housing, all other expenses for food, clothing, housing, and transportation come out of these two taels of silver. Rouge and powder cost money, food and clothing cost money, and music, chess, calligraphy, and painting cost money. Just these three things alone cost as much as two taels of silver a month.

Without rouge and powder, the high-ranking official won't like them, won't look at them, will come less often, and will give even fewer rewards.

Without music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, they cannot keep the high-ranking official. To please people with beauty, one cannot just have beauty; one must also have some talent.

If they become pregnant, and the high-ranking official is kind-hearted, it's fine if he gives a little more. If the high-ranking official is heartless and only gives a small reward, they have to hire a midwife themselves, hire a woman to take care of them during their confinement themselves, and spend their own money to raise the child. A child is a bottomless pit, especially the child of a high-ranking official.

Spending so much and still having to give birth is indeed looking for trouble for oneself, but the greatest wish of a concubine is to move into the high-ranking official's main family home. At that time, they will no longer be drifting from place to place.

Giving birth is undoubtedly the best and fastest way. Some concubines die in childbirth due to dystocia, about ten percent. A portion of concubines give birth, the child is taken away, and they themselves are abandoned because they are old and yellow from childbirth, which accounts for the majority. Among concubines who give birth, less than twenty percent can move into the main family home.

Moving into the main family home means facing the harassment of the legal wife. They are not even concubines, so one can imagine how difficult life is, perhaps even worse than living outside.

There are also concubines who do not have children, but they cannot save any money either.

How many taels of silver can a concubine save in a year? Wang Qian's answer is: debt.

It is already very difficult for a concubine to maintain her own life, but there is usually a maid in the room. The expenses for this maid are all paid by the concubine. Relying only on that monthly allowance of two or three taels of silver, it is truly impossible to maintain.

There are specialized banks that lend money to these concubines. Those gossiping women who walk the streets sell this news everywhere and take a commission as middlemen.

If the high-ranking official is kind-hearted, when the bank comes to collect the money, the high-ranking official will pay off the debt. But most high-ranking officials are not that kind-hearted; most of them directly drive away those from the bank who come to collect money.

Those concubines who cannot repay the debt return to the brothels. By this time, they have passed their prime, business is bleak, and if they cannot repay the debt, they have to find ways and means, and they have to receive guests they wouldn't have received in the past.

There are also some concubines who do not have children who are most afraid of being taken out by the high-ranking official to attend poetry gatherings or similar gatherings to show off their elegance, because this means they are very likely to be traded away. This means the high-ranking official is already tired of them. After being traded away, they might even have to pay for the rented house themselves.

Concubines rarely go to the high-ranking official's mansion to make trouble because, if nothing else, the high-ranking official's mansion has a few gatekeepers and servants. If a concubine goes to make a scene, the outcome might be a mass grave.

In contrast, the weavers in the woolen official factory can save two or three taels of silver at the end of the year, and can even find a good match, so life has something to look forward to.

"Where the heart is at peace is my hometown." Most concubines never have a moment of peace in their lives, let alone a beginning of peace, and they cannot even save much money. A life of drifting from place to place is a true portrayal of them.

If this is the case for concubines, it is even more so for most of the girls in brothels.

Wang Qian's article is not too loose; its main content is only two points. The first is that relying on a "high-ranking official" to survive like a slave is a relationship of strong personal attachment, and it is impossible to live a stable life; joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness are all determined by others.

The second is that labor makes people free. The experience and labor ability of a weaver are the weaver's fixed assets. Only through continuous labor can one obtain freedom.

Even if a large amount of silver flows into the Great Ming, under the influence of material desires, the best choice for most poor people and laborers is not to be beasts of burden for others, establishing strong personal attachment production relations like tenant farmers, retainers, and concubines, but to rely on their own hands to earn money—hired production relations.

"This article by Wang Qian is very good; select it for the *Court Gazette*." Zhu Yijun's evaluation of this article was very high because it was substantive, had detailed data, and gave a definite point of view: labor makes people free.

Zhu Yijun finally finished reading the miscellaneous newspaper and looked at the categorized memorials. The Emperor also has to look at memorials of inquiry; no one will stop memorials from reaching His Majesty. The happy days were quite short. It wasn't until the moon rose above the willow branches that Zhu Yijun finally finished reviewing the memorials for the day and stretched.

Today's memorials mainly revolved around the Suiyuan Imperial Road and Suiyuan Mining. Land will attract the Qin Army, fertile land will attract the Han Army, and horses will attract the Tang Army. So now, mineral veins will attract the Ming Army.

Qi Jiguang's small, quick steps and steady progress have drawn criticism from the Great Ming's academic and censor officials. This group of traditional conservatives now thinks that General Qi is too conservative.

A Grand General who is currently fighting abroad, leading the Capital Battalion to restore the Beiping Regional Military Commission and the rule of Hetao, a Grand General who must engage in close combat with short blades on the open plains, so that the Tatars are unable to support and then submit in fear—to be criticized as conservative is also a manifestation of the current predicament of the Great Ming.

The Great Ming lacks gold, silver, copper, iron, and coal. Now, the development of Suiyuan has made the Great Ming's conservatives even more radical than the radicals.

Long ago, when Zhang Juzheng was discussing silver, he mentioned the dangers of relying entirely on other countries for silver. Once overseas silver stops flowing in, it will trigger a large number of problems. And now, on land, in places within the Great Ming's reach, Womagang has appeared in everyone's field of vision. Compared with overseas inflow, land-based silver mining seems more reassuring.

The conservatives believe that the imperial court should immediately formulate a plan to attack Mobei.

"Walk the road step by step, eat the rice mouthful by mouthful; let them choke to death." Zhu Yijun rubbed his eyebrows with a look of helplessness. These Confucian scholars are always jumping back and forth between two extremes. Building roads, prospecting for mines, and opening mines all require time. Qi Jiguang's conservatism is just for stability. Blindly seeking speed will instead make the foundation weak, just like practicing martial arts without standing in a stance—you can't even stand steady, let alone fight.

Zhu Yijun admits that he is indeed not as patient as Zhang Juzheng. Zhang Juzheng was always tirelessly explaining why he wanted to do things that way—explaining to the Emperor, explaining to the court officials, explaining to the local officials—intending to convince everyone, even if the results were not satisfactory.

Zhu Yijun does not have Zhang Juzheng's patience.

One autumn rain brings one chill. When he got up in the morning, the sky was gray. An autumn rain arrived unexpectedly, wetting the streets. After the baptism of the autumn rain, the capital became a bit clearer. The coal smoke that permeated the air all day was finally washed away by the autumn rain, becoming a bit more transparent. The carriage of the Great Ming officials stopped at the Left Shun Gate. One by one, the Great Ming officials walked into the side hall of the Zhao Wenhua Hall, waiting for the court discussion.

Wang Daokun's face was heavy. Seeing that Wang Guoguang and Zhang Xueyan looked unkind, he flicked his sleeves forcefully and said, "The Minister of Revenue and the Vice Minister of Revenue are truly calculating well. Taking advantage of the opportunity to report on the profit tax, they are clamoring for the banknote method again. They actually persuaded His Majesty."

"Overseas! Overseas!" Zhang Xueyan took a step forward and argued loudly.

Wang Daokun looked at Zhang Xueyan and said with extreme anger, "Vice Minister! Overseas? That sounds nice. Speculators can speculate on anything. Do you guess that after they get the Wanli precious banknotes, they will send them overseas, or go to the countryside? The little prestige the imperial court has just established will immediately be swept away!"

The dispute between the banknote method and the coin method is the contradiction between the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue. Now this contradiction is even more obvious.

In Wang Daokun's view, the actions of Wang Guoguang and Zhang Xueyan are violating the rules set at the beginning. It was agreed that major events must go through court discussion, but the Ministry of Revenue's departmental discussion bypassed the Cabinet and went directly to the Emperor.

Zhang Juzheng and Wang Chonggu were both silent. Apparently, they strongly disapproved of the banknote method.

Wan Shihe frowned and said, "It would be better for the Great Ming hinterland not to have these precious banknotes."

Except for the Ministry of Revenue, which has been busy with this matter, people inside and outside the Great Ming are not very approving of the banknote method. This will evoke their painful memories of the past.

Before the third year of Wanli, the salaries of Great Ming officials were all discounted by seventy percent in banknotes, meaning they only received thirty percent in actual payment. This salary discounting began during the Yongle period. Emperor Chengzu Wen, Zhu Di, once used pepper as salary.

Starting from the sixth year of Yongle, official ships and official trade began, and spices began to pour into the Great Ming. At the beginning, the price of pepper was still expensive, but after many official ship and official trade missions, the price of pepper plummeted. However, Emperor Chengzu Wen still calculated it at the original discounted price. This was completely forced buying and selling.

After the third year of Wanli, the Great Ming finally began actual salary payments, and actual salary payments were also the beginning of anti-corruption. The imperial court conducted a salary assessment every three years, and what was issued were silver coins pressed by the Bureau of Military Weapons. After Hence Hai Rui began to fight corruption, saying that one had to be corrupt and that officials couldn't make a living was completely groundless.

"Officials can't make a living" was nonsense to begin with. In the 170 years of Great Ming salary discounting, only a few officials were able to maintain their integrity, while most officials didn't starve themselves with both upper and lower mouths.

"Gentlemen, do you really think that the silver brought by the great sailing ships, the Japanese silver, and the newly discovered Woma silver can satisfy the Great Ming's demand for silver?" Wang Guoguang looked at everyone and said, "The Great Ming is too big. No matter how much silver and red copper flow in, it cannot satisfy the Great Ming's needs. In nine years of opening the seas, the total silver that has flowed into the Great Ming is only 54 million taels."

"It sounds like a lot, but how much does the Great Ming need? Ten times 54 million taels is not enough."

Only the Minister of Revenue knows how big the Great Ming's appetite is. It can't be fed; it simply can't be fed.

"Is it not enough?" Zhang Juzheng asked with some doubt.

Wang Guoguang said, "Grand Secretary, most of the 54 million taels of silver are still dammed up in the great metropolises, but the price of grain in the capital in the first year of Wanli was five mace of silver per shi, and now it is still five mace of silver per shi, motionless."

Zeng Shengwu was stunned and asked suspiciously, "Isn't this a good thing?"

"The price of grain being motionless is indeed bad news." Zhang Juzheng's face was heavy. He was very clear about the price of grain in the capital, but he had not linked the price of grain to the damming of silver inflow. Wang Guoguang mentioned this, and Zhang Juzheng realized the seriousness of the problem.

Zhang Juzheng had been mentioning the Single Whip Law since the first year of Wanli, and his new policies would end with the Single Whip Law. But now it seems that the amount of silver is simply not enough to support the Single Whip Law.

The three sounds of the clean whip rang out. The court officials walked into the main hall of the Zhao Wenhua Hall. The group of officials paid their respects, and the Emperor waved his hand to signal them to take their seats.

"Why is everyone's face so serious?" Zhu Yijun asked with some strangeness. "The news of the profit tax has just spread, and it hasn't been written into the chapters of the various Maritime Trade Commissions yet. Is the voice of opposition making the officials so troubled?"

Zhang Juzheng bowed and said, "Your Majesty, it is not about the profit tax. The profit tax only prohibits silver and red copper from flowing out of the Great Ming. Yesterday, I went to the Academy of Investigation to ask Xu Jiugao and others. The red-haired barbarians and golden-haired barbarians of the West are also like this. According to the laws set by Philip II, colonies are not allowed to establish mints belonging to the Viceroy's Office, and precious metal coinage is also prohibited from flowing into the colonies."

Zhang Juzheng also specially learned about the practices of other countries, especially the West, which had been colonizing the seas for nearly a hundred years. All countries in the West prohibit the outflow of their own coinage and precious metals overseas. The great sailing ship trade is essentially the official ship and official trade of Philip II, and only with special permission will they carry silver for trade.

Exclusive operating rights are the best way for Western royal families to seek benefits.

Prohibiting the outflow of gold, silver, and copper will not affect the enthusiasm for opening the seas because goods can also serve as currency.

Zhang Juzheng had already written a memorial, discussing in detail the types and development of currency, expounding on the rationality of the profit tax, and told His Majesty about the dispute in the side hall just now.

"Is the Great Ming so short of money?" Zhu Yijun had been listening to the liquidity of silver for the past few days until he was tired of it. It turned out not to be a simple liquidity problem, but a shortage of quantity.

Wang Guoguang immediately took out three volumes of books and said loudly, "The 54 million taels of silver that flowed in did not cause too much fluctuation in the prices of the capital and the Southern Yamen. I have three volumes of the *Wanli Accounting Records* to present."

It is mainly a comparison of three types of prices: grain, firewood, and oil.

Firewood mainly refers to coal. The coal from the Xishan Coal Bureau is partly transported south along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Zhang Xueyan calls this "Northern Coal Transported South," and calls the silver flowing north along the canal "Southern Bai Yin Transported North." Southern silver and northern coal are forming a new convection. Coal-silver convection is replacing salt-certificate silver convection as the most important economic cycle of the Great Ming.

These three types of prices, which are closely related to the common people, remained stable from the first year of Wanli to the ninth year of Wanli. Although there were some short-term changes due to weather and other reasons, they were extremely stable in the long term and in terms of averages and medians.

"The price of grain in the capital has even dropped." Zhu Yijun flipped through it. The population of the capital had already exceeded 2 million, but prices had not soared with the gathering of the population; instead, they showed a downward trend. Zhu Yijun didn't think this was a good thing. Expensive silver and cheap rice meant that the silver inflow since the opening of the seas was equivalent to no inflow.

Wang Guoguang said helplessly, "Your Majesty, when necessary, we must also consider the Great Ming using the banknote method instead of the coin method. If there were a way, I wouldn't want to implement the banknote method in the hinterland either."

Implementing the banknote method in the Great Ming hinterland made Wang Guoguang afraid that his ancestral graves would be dug up, but looking at it, there really was no better way.

Actually, there is another way, which is to thoroughly take down the super-large silver mines in Japan and Peru held by Spain, plus the Womagang silver mine. Three-pronged approach might resolve part of the money shortage.

What Wang Guoguang actually wanted to say was: a financial institution—a bank—that issues redeemable paper currency.

In fact, the current private letter bureaus organized by the Ningbo gang and the accepted bills of exchange of the Great Ming's Nine Dragon Post Stations already have a certain paper currency function.

"The banknote method is not feasible." Wang Daokun immediately opposed loudly, "Your Majesty, if we really want to implement the banknote method, we must wait until the Great Ming has more silver."

The silver stored in the official treasury must correspond to the issued precious banknotes in a certain proportion, otherwise it will be another credibility crisis.

In politics, sometimes doing nothing is also a kind of wisdom, because in many situations, things go around in circles and return to the starting point. Throughout history and across the world, there are countless people who have been hit by their own boomerangs.

"It's difficult, it's all difficult. Everyone, please make do." Zhu Yijun closed the three volumes of accounting records and could only learn from Wan Shihe to smooth things over. The banknote method is not mature, so he can only continue to stumble forward on the coin method.

"Ministry of Revenue, show everyone the newly printed precious banknotes." Zhu Yijun chose to shelve the dispute and try it out in the overseas colonies first, summarize the experience, and after accumulating enough experience in the banknote method after stumbling enough, then explore the Great Ming's path of precious banknotes.

Wang Guoguang took out two small boxes, which contained the precious banknotes the Ministry of Revenue had come up with. One box was sent to the Imperial presence, and one box was placed on the long table.

"There are a total of four denominations of precious banknotes: one hundred wen, fifty wen, ten wen, and five wen." Wang Guoguang opened the box, and a smell of ink rushed towards him. The Wanli precious banknote is eight cun and one fen (27cm) long and two cun and seven fen (9cm) wide. It is a horizontal banknote. The precious banknote is decorated with dragon patterns around it. At the top of the banknote is written "Great Ming Circulating Precious Banknote," in the middle left is written the denomination in both large and small characters, on the right is a landscape painting, and on the back are seals and serial numbers.

Wang Guoguang said, "Anti-counterfeiting has been done in five aspects: paper, graphics, seals, ink, and serial numbers. The paper for the precious banknote is cotton paper, and the ink is pine-bean oil ink. The graphics are even more complex, mainly the serial numbers, each of which is different."

From the beginning of the Great Ming, anti-counterfeiting of precious banknotes has been in these five aspects. The precious banknotes used in the early years were mulberry bark paper, which was already very expensive, and cotton paper is even more expensive. If only five wen were printed, the Great Ming Precious Banknote Bureau would even lose money. The horizontal banknote is to facilitate oil ink pressing and also to save costs.

The new precious banknotes are extremely exquisite. In order to compete for the right to issue currency, the Ministry of Revenue has tried its best.

The precious banknote has never been a problem of anti-counterfeiting, but a problem of private printing. In order to reduce private printing, the Ministry of Revenue even lowered the denomination of the precious banknote to one hundred wen, instead of the one guan that was used before.

With low profit, no one would have the courage to print them privately.

"These precious banknotes are excellent." Zhu Yijun affirmed the efforts of the Ministry of Revenue. The remaining thing is how to make the overseas colonies accept the precious banknotes.

The best testing ground for this thing is the Nagasaki Viceroy's Office.

(End of chapter)