While waiting for the Don River and the Volga River Basin news, Gao Gang convened a meeting with representatives of local commercial stations, county governments and state-owned banks to discuss matters about the Ottoman currency reform.

Monetary reform is actually not an unfamiliar word in later generations. Many countries have experienced it. As far as Britain abandoned the gold standard in the half of the 19th century, and as recent as Zimbabwean currency reform, which reduced the currency by ten zeros, are all major events in national economic life and will not be implemented unless it is absolutely necessary.

The Ottoman Empire wanted to reform the currency system this time, and it was a helpless statement and had to change it! Any merchant who had traded in major cities of the Ottoman Empire would have a personal experience. It was a currency issue that was really a scam! To put it in a matter of course, you transported a ship of iron products from England to the port of Smyrna of the Ottoman Empire. After selling it, you got a large amount of currency. It is likely that it was the Venetian-style Ducat minted by the Ottoman Empire, commonly known as "Golden Geng". Here we do not discuss the quality of the currency, the troubles caused by the authenticity of the currency, but only talk about the currency itself. Assuming that you received sufficient amounts of silver coins, you went to the famous port of Greece Thessalonika to trade.

Sorry! When you arrive in Thessalonika, this currency may not be used anymore, because the Italian city-state (mainly Venice and Pornia) are currency minted by genuine people! At this time, you must find a reputable currency exchanger, and then exchange the currency at hand for several major Italian-style currencies that are publicly available locally before you can trade.

This is still in Thessalonika. In fact, when you go to other cities of the Ottoman Empire, you will find that there are other various currencies in the local area, which are all troubled and bring great inconvenience to commercial trade. In other words, this chaotic monetary system is actually anti-free trade and has always been criticized by merchants from all over the country and various places, but it has never been solved because the benefits involved are too great.

Now let’s talk about the problems caused by the quality of currency. In fact, throughout the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire’s finances were not so abundant, which was related to their huge expenses (including war expenses), and also to their poor tax efficiency. However, regardless of the reasons, the direct result was that the Ottoman Empire’s financial constraints were often short of money in the treasury, so that the government continued to mint inferior currency and plundered private wealth.

This was particularly evident during several wars. The silver and copper coins minted by the Ottoman government had reached a point of being so inferior that the merchants of the country were disgusted with it and began to spontaneously use foreign currencies to trade, which further exacerbated the chaos in the country's currency system and put the country's economy into a deeper crisis.

The East Coast people traded in the Ottoman Empire for many years. Due to the large trade surplus, they once accumulated a large amount of currencies from various countries. Even though they had countless sampling and testing results, they still suffered a considerable loss. Later, they simply melted the bad currencies themselves and turned them into silver bricks to bring them back to China.

In contrast to these bad currencies, the various east-shore gold and silver coins that flowed into the Ottoman Empire through the East-shore merchants and civilians were very popular among all classes. Because of their exquisite production, full of quality and stable modeling, they were widely collected by the Ottoman merchants and civilians, and then circulated in some areas on a small scale (large-scale circulation is impossible because bad money drives out good coins), which also made the East-shore government a small fortune of seigniorage.

It is precisely because of the popularity of East Coast currency in some towns around the Black Sea that Gao, the East Coast plenipotentiary envoy to Europe, just found a way to convince the senior officials of the Ottoman Empire to accept the monetary reforms helped by the East Coast people. The East Coast will help them mint brand new currencies or simply use East Coast currency directly. The East Coast government guarantees that it will not have credit problems.

After hesitating for a long time, the senior leaders of the Ottoman Empire finally chose the former and asked the East Coast people to help them design a new set of silver coins, Turkish dinars, and exchange them one by one with the East Coast dollar. The prerequisite is that the East Coast Republic of China loaned 5 million yuan from the Ottoman Empire government. The delivery method is that the East Coast government directly transported the minted 5 million dinars to Istanbul, so that they could pay the salary of imperial officials who had been owed for a long time and the salary of the army. Of course, they still owe merchants from various countries a large sum of goods, but this is not a priority project that needs to be paid before it can even be repaid if necessary. At least part of it can be relocated. If the salary of civil servants and the salary of the army are not paid, there will be a big problem!

This was the result obtained after a full year of negotiations with the Ottomans. If it were in the past, this result might not be easy to obtain. However, under the pressure of many years of war, the Ottoman Empire, which was on the verge of collapse in finance, finally had to agree to the request of the East Coast people and obtain loans provided by the East Coast people by transferring the right to mint coins, with an annual interest rate of 5%.

However, the Ottomans also put forward conditions. The Mint, which was responsible for minting currency for it, must be under the supervision of the Ottoman Empire, and it is best to be in the territory of the Ottoman Empire. Gao Gang did not agree with this condition at the beginning, but the Ottomans were firm. After the two sides went back and forth many times, they finally decided to set up the Mint in Haji Port, a leased land of the east coast very close to the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire could send personnel to supervise and inquire about accounts and transactions. Of course, these foreign officials were also responsible for purchasing dinar silver coins from this Mint and transporting them back to Istanbul, and purchasing one dinar at a price of 30 grams of silver.

This condition is the most acceptable for both sides. The Ottoman Empire received much-needed funds to help the emergency, and at the same time, a brand new and well-developed currency could restore its already collapsed credit and quickly restore the already extremely declining industry and commerce in the country, so that the government could collect enough taxes.

There is no need to doubt that the unified domestic currency and market will have a huge role in promoting the economy! In this era, countries that took the lead in doing this, such as United Provinces, England's industry and commerce are the most developed in the continental region. A unified currency and a unified market can greatly stimulate the potential of the economy, allow money to flow quickly, thereby increasing government tax revenue and achieving a virtuous cycle.

To be honest, the Ottomans did not understand these truths, or the people in Taiwan did not understand, and they could not understand that people could not do Taiwan. In short, under the persuasion of the East Coast people, they passively accepted the reform proposal, intending to sweep the national market with a brand new currency, dinar, expel the Italian merchants and Dutch who were consuming seigniorage and were ready to prepare for the final establishment of a unified national market. Although the right to mint in this process may be lost, there are many countries without coin rights in this era. The Ottoman market is full of currencies of various countries. On the contrary, Ducat, minted by their own governments (actually imitating Venetian currency) is not very popular with people because of its poor quality, so it is all drizzle without coin rights. It is a small meaning.

What's more, who stipulated that every dinar in the Ottoman Empire would have to buy from the Haji Mint? Haha, you are too naive! When this gust of storm passed, they could secretly cast a small part of the dinars for themselves and put them in the market for circulation. Of course, they would control the quantity and quality (the silver content only needs to be lowered by the East Coast people), so as not to be exposed to the market soon. In short, there are still many ways. Moreover, when the economic situation really improves, they can also get the right to mint again through negotiations with the East Coast people. I believe that the East Coast people had already made a lot of money at that time, so they shouldn't mind too much, right?

From here, we can see that the Ottomans' small abacus was very good. Now they urgently need the dinars minted by the East Coast people to save their lives. After changing them in the future, let's take a look! Of course, the East Coast people are not fools, otherwise the two previous envoys, including Gao Gang, would not have thought about gaining the power of the Ottoman Empire's monetary reform. In fact, the Ottoman Empire was so large that the size of more than 30 million people had a huge demand for money, especially after expelling various foreign gold and silver coins and unifying the national commercial market, the demand for this currency was very amazing in the first few years. The East Coast people only needed to do a little trick on the silver content of the Dinar, and the profits were rolling in and could not be stopped.

Basically, everyone is now in a state of mutual use, which can be said to be a win-win situation. This even includes the loan promised by the East Coast people: most of the loans of 5 million dinars are guaranteed by the East Coast government. Borrowing from Italian bankers can be controlled at about 3%-4%, and then lending them to the Ottomans at a rate of 5%, which can make a small profit. What a good business!

This time, Gao Gang convened a meeting of state-owned banks, commercial stations and other relevant personnel in Haji County, and this was actually the matter. The Haji County government was very excited that their county would mint dinar silver coins for the Ottoman Empire because it meant a huge tax. The bank staff were also in a good mood because they had another loan business, and the amount was huge. They had reason to be proud because the Italians held a lot of money but did not dare to lend it to the Ottoman government. As a result, the East Coast people who had turned their hands cheaply, although they must also give these Italian bankers some benefits to compensate them in other places.

After the meeting with these people, Gao Gang, who was refreshed, returned to the office and wrote a report to the local government. The content of the report was mainly the latest results of negotiations on the currency reform of the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, he applied to purchase a complete set of coin minting equipment from the local government, including test, smelting equipment and steam stamping equipment. These are all controlled export commodities and cannot be obtained without a certificate.

Time passed quickly. On September 30, a return-to-air Ottoman galley sailboat docked at Kafa Port. The two cavalry officers on the east coast went straight to Haji Port, bringing the latest news about the Don River Basin to Gao: At the beginning of this month (September), the eight hundred elite cavalry led by Mao Junxiao occupied a small town abandoned by Russian defeated soldiers almost without fighting. Then they met the Erat Mongolian herders outside the town who came here to see (kill) and see (robbery). After the translator asked, they were the Mongols of the Dulbert tribe who were nomadic on the right bank of the Volga River. They were one of the Mongolian tribes that moved west with the Turgut tribe. At present, there were about 10,000 tents. Ayu of the Turgut tribe was regarded as the Khan.

Mao Jun asked the herdsman to take them to the location of Ayukhan's golden tent. These herdsmen firmly refused at the beginning because they saw that Mao Jun's 800 fully armed cavalrymen did not look like good people. Everyone's backpacks were bulging, and obviously they had plundered many Russian villages and towns along the way, so they were very suspicious.

Seeing this, Mao Jun immediately ordered his subordinates to remove all their belongings, bribe the herdsmen of Dulbert, and asked them to recommend them. The herdsmen were a little moved when they saw the gold in front of them, and finally agreed to take them to the nomadic land of their tribe. As for whether their nobles would allow them to go to Ayukhan's gold tent, that was not something they could do.

The message from the messenger was conveyed here, because they did not go to Dulbert's army, but returned to deliver the message, which made Gao Gang a little regretful, as if a book he was chasing came to an abrupt end here, and it was as disappointing as there was no ending.
Chapter completed!