manynovel Chapter 1979 Where has the wealth of the world gone?
Chapter 1979 Where has the wealth of the world gone?
After Li Shen arranged everything, he left through the back door with his men. The Chamber of Commerce's affairs had just made him very annoyed and upset, so he went directly to the money house.
Li Shen came with a huge guard, more than a hundred people surrounded Li Shen, and the people at the door of the money house all hid aside.
Li Shen did not ask the guards to clear the area, he just came to take a look.
"See His Highness Prince Ji."
As soon as he walked into the hall, he saw everyone inside standing in two rows on the left and right to salute him.
"Haha, no need to be so polite, I am just here to take a look today."
Li Shen laughed out loud, showing his signature smile.
Looking around, there are quite a lot of people doing business here, at least a hundred or so.
"I am here to see Your Majesty." The bank manager also brought all the staff out to greet Li Shen.
When the shopkeeper learned that Prince Ji was coming, he became extremely nervous.
Others may not know, but as the head of the money shop, he naturally knows that something happened in the First Chamber of Commerce next door. From what Wang Hongfu said, it might be a big deal.
Prince Ji's mansion began to check the property accounts, and his money house was the first target.
Because the bank's turnover is so huge, the amount of money involved is extraordinary.
As the head shopkeeper, he works diligently and fearfully every day, fearing that something might go wrong that he could not even afford to lose his life.
"No need to be so polite. There are quite a lot of people here." Li Shen waved his hand.
"Your Highness, there are about the same number of people every day. Sometimes there are more than this, especially during the peak season for some goods."
The shopkeeper replied quickly.
"Well, that's right. A large number of people shows that our Tang Dynasty has a prosperous business. Okay, let them do their jobs. I'm here just to take a look today."
Li Shen nodded with satisfaction.
"Then please go upstairs and have a rest, Your Majesty." The shopkeeper made a gesture of invitation.
Li Shen nodded in agreement and followed the shopkeeper up to the second floor. He also knew that being here would delay other people's work.
There were only dozens of his guards standing here, each of them carrying a knife, and those who were doing business were all scared.
Li Shen asked the other guards to go outside and only took ten people to the second floor. He sat near the corridor and watched the crowd below.
"Your Highness, please have some tea." The shopkeeper personally brought the tea and placed it in front of Li Shen.
"No need, I brought it myself." Li Shen shook his head. The shopkeeper didn't understand these rules, so Li Shen didn't blame him.
Just let the stones arrange themselves.
"What's your name?" Li Shen retracted his gaze and looked at the shopkeeper.
These people were arranged by Wang Hongfu. Li Shen was sure that Wang Fu had reported to him at the beginning, including their abilities and resumes.
However, Li Shen's memory was not very good and they did not meet often, so he had forgotten it long ago.
"Your Highness, my surname is Qi and my given name is Leshan." The shopkeeper quickly gave his name.
"Leshan, Qi Leshan, a good name. A wise man loves water, and a benevolent man loves mountains.
This king hopes that you can be as kind and virtuous as your name. " Li Shen praised. No matter how uneducated he was, Li Shen had studied in the Imperial Academy.
The Analects of Confucius in the Imperial College is the most basic, the words of sages that one must learn after enlightenment, and it has nothing to do with his memories of his previous life.
"Your Majesty is indeed a man of outstanding literary talent, I admire you.
I will definitely follow King Ji's teachings and become a benevolent person." Qi Leshan praised hurriedly.
However, Li Shen glanced at him sideways and thought, damn, I am so outstanding, are you praising me or belittling me? The Analects of Confucius, something that children under ten years old can recite, is this considered outstanding literary talent?
It's like a person in his thirties saying that one plus one equals two, and then being praised for being smart even though he knows that one plus one equals two.
It seems that this person is similar to Wang Xuance, also a rigid person who doesn't know Wang Hongfu's tricks.
But Li Shen thought it was good. If you were not rigid when working in a bank, you would make mistakes. Such people could protect the purse of Prince Ji's Mansion.
Li Shen did not think much about it but asked:
"How is the savings situation at the bank?"
This is what he cares about. The purpose of opening a bank is to gather money. Li Shen does not understand finance or investment, but the bank has a lot of business.
Flying money is one of them. There are also deposit custody fees and loan interest, which are all means of profit.
"Your Majesty, the total amount of money deposited in the bank is over 8 million strings of cash."
"Only more than eight million strings of cash?"
Li Shen asked in surprise as soon as Qi Leshan finished speaking.
This number may seem like a lot to ordinary people, but Li Shen knew that it was less than 10% of all the currency in the Tang Dynasty.
According to his understanding, the imperial court has produced coins many times in recent years to cope with the shortage of coins in the market.
The reason for this was Li Shen himself.
Li Shen's industrial products are expensive and the workshop wages have increased. Although Li Shen is trying to control it, there is still some inflation.
It’s just that because Liaodong Road and the northern tribes have also started using copper coins and shared the demand, the expansion is not much.
But all the wealth in the world comes from Chang'an. Chang'an City has the most merchants and the largest circulation of currency. Li Shen estimated that the savings must be more than 10 million strings of cash.
"Your Highness, I have investigated this as well. The main reason is that the merchants are afraid. First, they are afraid of losing their money, and second, they are afraid that their wealth will be known."
Seeing Li Shen frowning, Qi Leshan hurriedly explained.
"What about the court's shops? Are they still open?" Li Shen asked with a frown.
"Your Highness, the shop is still open, and many people have stored their belongings in it."
"The shop is still open? I guess the shop has taken away our business." Li Shen immediately said with certainty.
Qi Leshan was stunned. The shop has existed for so many years. If anyone is trying to steal their business, it should be us, right?
But he didn't dare to say it clearly, so he bowed and explained:
"Your Majesty, according to my observation, there is not much money saved in the shop."
"Oh? The shop doesn't have much deposit? We don't have it either, so where did all the money in the world go?" Li Shen was a little puzzled after hearing Qi Leshan's words.
With so much wealth in this world, is it possible that it is all in the hands of one person?
"Your Majesty, most of the wealth in this world is in the hands of aristocratic families, princes, nobles, and officials.
Only part of it is in the hands of the people of the world.
What our bank is fighting for is the money of the people of the world." Qi Leshan explained.
"Why is this?" Li Shen also knew that there was a 80/20 rule in this world.
Aristocratic families, royal relatives, princes and nobles collected half of the world's wealth, not counting the national treasury and the emperor.
There are still tens of millions of strings of gold lying in his father's treasury. The thought of this makes Li Shen drool unconsciously.
There is no need to deposit the money in the national treasury. The national treasury has its own large vault which is heavily guarded and is safer than anywhere else.
(I wrote these three pictures specifically after reading the previous comments, trying to fill in the gaps.)