At 10 a.m., the secretary sent the data charts of banks, markets, prices and public opinion to Li Songchen's office yesterday and last week. This is also the work that Li Songchen specifically requested after the East China government announced the implementation of seigniorage tax, so that he could understand the dynamics on the Shanghai market in a timely manner.

At this time, two weeks have passed since the collection of seigniorage, and less than one week has passed since March 1, when the official seigniorage is levied. During these two weeks, various data from Shanghai showed that although there have been fluctuations, the amount of silver coins exchanged by banks has increased by nearly 20%. After the New Year, prices did not show a decline period as in previous years, basically maintaining the price during the New Year, and the transaction volume of commodity retail is also the level of Veteran during the New Year, which shows that the collection of seigniorage has indeed had a certain impact on Shanghai's economy.

In fact, although the amount of paper money used in Shanghai exceeds silver coins, Shanghai citizens actually have a much higher trust in silver coins than paper money, just like other Chinese people in this era. However, because Shanghai's economic development is much higher than that in other places, the use of paper money is much higher than that of silver coins. In addition, the East China government has a high credibility, most people are accustomed to using paper money, but they also spend paper money as much as possible without leaving it in their hands. Under the circumstances, Shanghai citizens will also store a certain amount of silver coins for use from time to time. Once there is a turmoil in the current situation, the first reaction of ordinary citizens is to quickly exchange the paper money in their hands for silver coins, and the second is to buy daily necessities.

However, these impacts were expected before the seigniorage tax was imposed. After all, such a major decision could not have an impact on society. But so far, the impact has been within the controllable range of the Shanghai Municipal Government. On this side, Shanghai has sufficient materials, and Qingdao has provided 3 million silver dollars to support Shanghai. In addition, Shanghai's own silver dollar reserves, the available silver dollars currently exceeds 7 million, which can be fully dealt with normal or even a certain range of exchanges. Various daily necessities, such as grain, oil, drugs, cloth, etc., are also well prepared. Therefore, although the exchange volume of silver coins and the transaction volume of commodity retail have increased to a certain extent compared with previous years, it has not caused market chaos. The market is not chaotic, and naturally it has played a certain role in calming people's hearts.

On the other hand, the East China Government is always paying attention to the trend of public opinion. After the East China Government announced the collection of seigniorage, some rumors have indeed spread, which has also increased the public's panic about seigniorage. However, since the announcement of seigniorage, various propaganda machines in Shanghai have been working hard to popularize the seigniorage to the citizens, explaining the reasons and significance of seigniorage, and citing classics, showing that paper money replaces metal currency is a major trend in historical development. The East China Government has always had credit, so there is no need to worry, and there is no need to exchange paper money for silver dollars, because after March 1, if you use silver dollars, you will be levied. Therefore, using silver dollars will add an additional fee. At the same time, many celebrities have also been invited to post articles on the news media, supporting seigniorage and calling on the public not to panic.

The East China government has occupied Shanghai for nearly three years, and the Shanghai New District has been established for 6 years. It has always had a good reputation in Shanghai because the government has strong credibility and the formal news media have a variety of publicity methods, which are much more credible than the folk rumors, so it has no big impact on public opinion.

So two weeks after the announcement of the seigniorage tax, many officials of the Shanghai Municipal Government also developed an optimistic attitude, believing that the excessive seigniorage tax would not have much impact and could have a smooth and smooth transition. Although Li Songchen also reminded everyone that although the situation is good, they should not be too optimistic and should be alert, but in fact, he has relaxed a lot.

After reading the charts sent by the secretary, the trends of various content indicators have basically not changed, which also shows that so far, everything is still within a controllable range. In less than a week, the seigniorage will be officially levied. Perhaps this time, it will be possible to make a smooth transition.

Li Songchen had just breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his secretary Zheng Yi hurried into the office and said, "Mayor, Jing'an Branch has a telegram."

Bank of China has a head office and three branches in Shanghai. The head office is located in Huangpu District, and the three branches are located in Xuhui District, Jing'an District, and Yangpu District. After the East China Government announced the collection of seigniorage tax, Li Songchen ordered the four banks in Shanghai to tell them as soon as possible if there is a significant fluctuation in exchange for silver dollars, and set up telegram lines for the four banks and their own offices.

Since the announcement of the seigniorage tax, Li Songchen has not received a telegram from the bank, but now the telegram has come, indicating that something has come. However, Li Songchen is not nervous because the preparations have been done, and the soldiers come to block the water and soil are covered.

But after receiving the telegram from Zheng Yi, Li Songchen was also surprised. It turned out that two British businesses made an appointment with Jing'an Branch and asked to exchange silver dollars. The two businesses had to exchange a total of 170,000 silver dollars.

Due to the technical conditions of this era, large amounts of silver dollars must be exchanged in advance to give the bank a preparation time, and the bank will reply within 3 days to determine the exchange time. Of course, it is normal for the merchant bank to exchange silver dollars, and the two merchants have to exchange a total of 170,000 silver dollars. This amount is not surprising, but in this sensitive period, it is inevitable that people will have abnormal suspicion. Therefore, Jing'an Branch also reported this situation directly to Li Songchen through the dedicated line for the first time and asked how to reply to the other party.

After reading the telegram, Li Songchen also fell into deep thought. Is this an ordinary normal exchange event or intentional one? And at this moment, Zheng Yi sent another telegram. It turned out that this was a telegram sent by Huangpu Headquarters. A French company made an appointment and asked to redeem 120,000 silver dollars.

The two banks received an appointment to exchange silver dollars at almost the same time, and they were both foreign companies. Li Songchen obviously could not calm down anymore. Of course, he could not confirm the nature of the two appointments to exchange silver dollars, and further confirmation was needed. So Li Songchen immediately instructed Zheng Yi to immediately generate electricity from Xuhui and Yangpu Branches to ask if he had received an appointment to exchange large amounts of silver dollars.

About 30 minutes later, Zheng Yilai reported to Li Songchen that the Xuhui branch had not received an appointment for large silver dollars to exchange, but the Yangpu branch had received an appointment from a Dutch company, requiring the exchange of 100,000 silver dollars.

At this point, Li Songchen was basically sure that this was by no means an accident. At this sensitive moment, all three banks received large silver dollars exchange appointments from foreign companies. This obviously cannot be explained by accidental events. It was obviously a collective premeditated incident. It seems that two weeks after the announcement of the seigniorage tax, due to no big ups and no big waves, foreign hostile forces finally couldn't hold back and so they used a big move. To be honest, Li Songchen has been preventing the situation of bank dollars runs among the people, but he did not expect that foreign companies would participate.

However, even though the other party started to cause trouble, it was also a good thing in a sense, because both parties could pull up the rack and dismantle the tricks and fight for a big battle. After all, the East China Government has made sufficient preparations for this, and is not afraid that someone will cause trouble, and there is no need to be guarded at all times. So Li Songchen immediately ordered Zheng Yi to notify other major members of the Shanghai Municipal Government to hold a meeting to discuss the exchange appointments for these foreign companies. After all, banks are still waiting for the action instructions of the municipal government!

Just as the meeting was preparing, Li Songchen received two more telegrams, and the Xuhui branch finally received an appointment for exchange of large silver dollars. This is a French company with a redemption amount of 150,000 yuan, and the Yangpu branch received another Belgian company, asking for an appointment for exchange of 80,000 silver dollars. So far, all four banks in Shanghai received appointments for exchange of large silver dollars, with a total of 6 foreign companies, and the total amount of silver dollars redemption made was 620,000 silver dollars.

It turned out that the proposal of the British Consul in Nanjing, Powell, eventually received support from various countries, and believed that it could use this opportunity of currency reform from the East China Government to cause some trouble for the East China Government, which might play a role, and designated Powell to be fully responsible. So Powell immediately began to formulate a plan while being happy.

Originally, Powell did not want to let the commercial banks and companies of various countries go into battle at the beginning, but first incite the commercial banks and companies of various countries go into battle, creating panic, and then let the commercial banks and companies of various countries go into battle. In the first place, the commercial banks and companies of various countries go into battle can relieve the worries of the commercial banks and companies of various countries. Because the commercial banks and companies of various countries have a very complicated mood about Powell's plan, they are of course willing to support this plan. After all, if it is successful, then the commercial banks and companies of various countries will have a great advantage in the future. However, they are worried that the plan will not be successful, so they will completely offend the East China government and will no longer have to do business in China in the future. Therefore, the public will first form a craze of the commercial banks and companies of various countries, so that the commercial banks and companies of various countries will take the initiative to go into battle and do not have to incite themselves.
Chapter completed!