Chapter 1357: Huaxia Finance

Being able to start construction on two New Cities simultaneously is thanks to the establishment of the Gold Bank; otherwise, given Huaxia's current finances, it would only be possible to sustain the construction of one New City.

Right now, Huaxia City has far too many areas requiring expenditure: wages for workers in various factories need to be paid, various subsidies are required, and some towns also need subsidy support; money is being spent everywhere.

War also requires sending out a great deal of grain each year, and some reserve grain must be set aside to face sudden emergencies, so the grain in the National Treasury must be used very carefully.

The Establishment System policy that Baifeng suddenly formulated last year, along with the liberalized employment system, was actually also to alleviate financial pressure; the wages for many factories were paid by the National Treasury, yet many industrial products were almost given away for free to everyone.

Now, by removing many workers and letting them seek their own livelihoods, a great deal of financial expenditure can be reduced, and those workers can truly sustain their own lives because everyone has enough grain; it is just that workers are in short supply.

Then Baifeng began to expand the State-run Stores; not only in Huaxia City, but in every town, State-run Stores began to be rolled out, much like supply and marketing cooperatives.

Some produced industrial goods began to be sold in the stores, with prices basically being the cost plus an extremely low profit; the cost included materials and labor, and as for the profit, it naturally had to enter the National Treasury.

In this way, the prices of all industrial goods are actually not high, everyone can afford them, and it can alleviate the pressure on Huaxia's finances, while also allowing grain, which serves as a general equivalent, to begin circulating in Huaxia; later, everyone will find that using grain as a means to purchase items is not as convenient as using Grain Coupons directly.

Once everyone gradually accepts Grain Coupon transactions, currency can be promoted, and using currency to replace all paper notes will be something everyone can accept by then.

Among the industrial goods, there are not only light industrial textiles and woven goods, or the various Porcelain and tools that were sold before, but now the things everyone needs most have also been added: Cement, Brick, and Tile.

Previously, the construction industry was monopolized by the Ministry of Works, so these building materials naturally would not reach private hands and were all allocated uniformly; now it is better, as there are a large number of private Engineering Teams, and since construction is needed, these things can be released.

Cement is now available for sale, and Brick and Tile are also available for sale; the prices are not high, but after building their own courtyards, the materials, along with the labor, can basically drain their excess stored grain.

Those who cannot get an Engineering Team are also rushing to buy Cement, Brick, and Tile first, waiting until they can hire an Engineering Team to build later.

A simple policy, a chain reaction; the massive revenue has made Huaxia's finances completely relaxed. Among the collected grain, a large amount of old grain also proves that everyone's stored grain is truly too much; if one did not think of a way to get it out like this, it would really all be wasted. Grain is not like Iron; even if it rusts, it has a certain value, but if grain spoils, it can only be used as fertilizer.

The Gold Bank also has great merit; now that the warehouse is only half built, it is already completely filled with grain, to the point that the Gold Bank has had to suspend grain storage operations, waiting to continue expanding the warehouse; only after the warehouse is built and dried can it continue to collect grain.

And a portion of the grain that entered the Gold Bank has already been borrowed by the Ministry of Revenue, pulled out from the Gold Bank, and then sent to construction sites, as well as used to pay people's wages.

Workers building Weicheng must not only be provided with food and housing but also paid wages; once the wages are paid out, they deposit them back into the Gold Bank, so they do not know that the wages they received this month are actually the grain they deposited last month.

To avoid the loss of transport and unnecessary waste of manpower, when paying wages, they are first asked whether they want grain or Grain Coupons. In the past, they would definitely have wanted grain, but now more people are using Grain Coupons, and Grain Coupons have basically been accepted.

But this has created a difficult problem for the Ministry of Revenue and the Gold Bank: the quantity of issued Grain Coupons and the grain do not quite match up. They have a lot of grain in their hands, but no Grain Coupons; should they print more Grain Coupons now?

Yulong and Changle, the two brothers, were so worried their hair was falling out. In the end, they felt they should print a little more. After reaching this conclusion and going through some calculations to avoid risks, they reported it to Baifeng, hoping to obtain Baifeng's permission.

Baifeng believed the two brothers already had the basic awareness and knew it was time to print more, so he agreed to their request; thus, brand-new Grain Coupons were printed and distributed to everyone as wages.

During this period, another problem arose: some staff members of the Ministry of Revenue and the Gold Bank discovered this issue and felt that Grain Coupons were unreliable because the quantity of Grain Coupons and the quantity of grain began to mismatch, and it would definitely cause trouble in the future.

Consequently, they demanded that their wages be paid in grain and exchanged all the Grain Coupons in their hands for grain; they also withdrew all the grain stored in the Gold Bank. Such abnormal behavior would naturally be monitored.

Later, it was discovered that they were not only worried themselves and acting this way, but also attempting to spread their erroneous thoughts. Thus, before such errors could brew, seven people from the Ministry of Revenue and the Gold Bank were swiftly punished, transferred from their original posts, and given disciplinary action, sent to the grassroots level.

Using the post-incident summary given to their respective employees by Yulong and Changle, it was that as people in their department, they should be the most sensitive and the ones who best understand the operating principles; they should maintain order themselves, rather than discovering a problem, failing to handle it, and being the first to flee.

Furthermore, this is currently a normal operating mechanism, and no problems have occurred. Printing more is normal, and discrepancies are also normal. Being sensitive to these data is a good thing, but their brains were still not good enough, so such people are not suitable to remain in their posts.

As for spreading unfavorable remarks externally, they were not sentenced, only given disciplinary action, demoted, and transferred, which is already a very good result. Now, this also tells everyone that as long as they are within the Huaxia Establishment System, they must strictly pay attention to their own words and deeds, because due to their status and position, a single casual remark could potentially cause serious impact on Huaxia.

Enjoying the good treatment and good policies provided by Huaxia, one must naturally be subject to more constraints; it is not that free. Fortunately, this time it did not cause any impact, otherwise, it would really have to be dealt with severely.