Chapter 261: Work Points Notes and Monetary Policy

After adding a "Daylight Horror" episode, the migrants of Chengwei Village once again began the search and inspection procedure. And Comrade Yu Chengde, after the Clerk weighed that gold in front of him, received a "passbook."

The Immigration Bureau had actually seen far too many people like Yu Chengde. Nowadays, more and more migrants were coming of their own accord from across the sea; although the vast majority of these people were paupers who even needed the Transmigration Nation to advance their ship fare, there were also those who carried huge sums of money, only their numbers were very few.

Of course, the so-called "migrants" here referred to people who had obtained identity cards in the Transmigration Nation, changed their nationality, shaved their heads, and were completely controlled by the Transmigrators.

As for those Shopkeepers who came to Chikan with large amounts of silver to do business, these people could now only get a Temporary Residence Permit and a Business License — they did not count as subjects of the Transmigration Nation, merely hired helpers sent by the wealthy merchants and Gentry of the mainland.

After pressing his handprint and fingerprints onto several forms, Yu Chengde received a hard-paper passbook. At the same time, he was informed that the passbook was for his exclusive personal use, and that before any large withdrawal, he had to fill out an application form and state the reason clearly.

Yu Chengde understood none of these things the Clerk said. In his view, the so-called passbook was nothing more than Treasure Notes printed by the local government, a trick to swindle the poor.

Fortunately, his mood was still quite good. Despite all the twists and turns, he had ultimately brought everyone onto a path of survival, and that was what mattered most. As for those Treasure Notes or whatever, in Yu Chengde's simple mindset, having seized government property and then walked right into the trap himself, not being thrown into prison was already a tremendous stroke of luck; he must not cause any more trouble.

Besides the passbook, Yu Chengde also received a stack of "currency."

The currency circulating here nowadays had evolved from the early Work Points notes.

In the earliest days when they first came to Dayuan to build their enterprise, what the Transmigrators issued to their subordinates was plain paper. Conditions were harsh at the time; the Work Points notes were made by cutting white paper bought in Hangzhou into strips, stamped on top with the seals of Wang Liguo and the Finance Department.

Later, after the Kiln District Base opened, they had sulfuric acid and wood tar, and simple hard paper and ink were produced. From then until now, Work Points notes, much like the grain ration coupons of later generations, assumed the role of the Transmigration Nation's first set of legal tender.

This set of currency was extremely crude — the notes had neither an issuing authority nor any anti-counterfeiting marks, only the denomination numerals in Arabic numerals on one side and in uppercase Chinese characters on the other.

Of course, the very typeface printed in ink was the greatest anti-counterfeiting mark. Though the pattern was as crudely made as the Hell Money of later generations, in the 17th century, this technique was cutting-edge technology that no one could replicate.

Moreover, the paper quality of the Work Points notes had been constantly improving. From the early homemade paper to the ordinary paper of the middle period, to the present currency-specialty paper, as the Kiln District Base grew stronger day by day, the current Work Points notes, aside from the printed patterns remaining crude, were in terms of paper quality alone already no different from the formal grain ration coupons of later generations.

The Work Points notes, which bore the function of circulating currency, came in a set of nine notes per series, with three denominations — yuan, jiao, fen — each having 1, 2, and 5, the largest denomination being 5 yuan.

The "yuan, jiao, fen" here corresponded to the Great Ming's "tael, mace, candareen."

According to the design plan, one yuan of Work Points notes could be exchanged for 0.72 taels of Kuping silver, a silver ingot of 89% fineness — this exchange ratio was the familiar standard silver content ratio of the Silver Dollar in later generations.

And the main reason the Transmigration Nation was still using silver ingots now was that the designs for the Silver Dollar and such had not yet been finalized. However, this problem would be resolved soon — at the latest by November 11th, the day of the new emperor's enthronement, issuing new currency and abolishing the tael in favor of the yuan were all part of the intended agenda.

The Work Points notes were anchored to the precious metals stored by the Ministry of Finance in the Imperial City's Basement. These precious metals included the 925 silver that Cao Chuan brought from later generations from time to time, the gold and silver the Transmigrators traded from merchants everywhere, especially the Japanese, and also the gold and silver forcibly exchanged from the hands of Dayuan migrants.

Because the Ring existed, the Crossing Faction theoretically could not go bankrupt. But 925 silver, after all, could not be eaten as food; a faction's development and strength in politics, technology, economy, and military affairs were the most fundamental things.

Have you not seen the quantitative easing of America in later generations? When torrents of paper currency were printed, the whole world had to hold its nose and take the bag for the Yankees, and the issuer's sole collateral was merely "government" credit.

The path the Transmigrators were now walking was naturally this one — regardless of the consequences, first use industrial goods to raise the total amount of social wealth. As for precious metals, certain people knew the locations of gold and silver mines all over the globe; there was no rush for that.

As the Transmigration Nation's wealth grew, the current Work Points notes had already become quite robust. One must know that when the early migrants received this paper, the only thing they could consume was food — all kinds of extra seafood, while rice was rationed.

But now it was different. The lowest-paid Apprentice had a monthly wage of one tael of silver, while ordinary skilled workers earned from two to three taels a month. Workers holding equivalent Work Points notes could now go to the Community Shop and buy a dazzling array of industrial goods.

Furthermore, these people also needed to save Work Points notes to buy houses and marry wives — they couldn't live in the Collective Dormitory their whole lives, could they?

In short, having passed through the initial difficult stage, now at least within Dayuan society, the credit of this paper currency issued by the Transmigration Nation was as robust as silver taels.

What Yu Chengde received from the Clerk today was precisely such a stack of Work Points notes. These fancy papers were exchanged for the broken silver he carried; from now on, unless Yu Chengde had to travel to the Great Ming on business, he would likely never see broken silver again in his lifetime.

After all the silver had been exchanged, the tattered bundles the fishermen had brought were also finished being searched and inspected.

In fact, aside from a few odds and ends, all the ragged clothes, wooden bowls, and such inside the bundles were confiscated — these things would be taken away to fuel fires or make paper; every possible route for fleas to enter the Community would be blocked.

After this came the bathing segment.

After the fishermen entered the Bathhouse, under the direction of guards holding short clubs, they fiercely scrubbed themselves clean under the novel showers.

After washing, everyone received two sets of new clothes: white hemp T-shirts, cropped pants, large underpants, and canvas shoes; the women additionally received one set of cotton cloth underwear.

The entire process was designed. When the dazed Newcomers emerged from the Bathhouse, the doctors conducting physical examinations were already waiting there.

Most people at this stage would be made to swallow some deworming medicine — intestinal parasites were a very common poor man's disease in the 17th century.

After being "treated" by the Kun People doctors, the villagers who regrouped outside the medical area finally met the final boss — the Street Office Director who had come to receive them.