I was the Founding Father of the United States

Chapter 165 Chen's Supply and Marketing Cooperative and Grain Coupons

Chapter 165 Chen's Supply and Marketing Cooperative and Grain Coupons

Hearing his boss sigh about spending money too quickly, John Smith, who was wearing a wig to cover his bald head, twitched at the corner of his mouth and thought to himself, "I wish I could have this problem with Almighty God too!"

However, he still smiled and reminded him: "—Your Excellency, the immigration and construction in Fort George are for the service of the Southern Development Company. The construction costs of those three clipper ships can be charged to the Southern Development Company's accounts."

This can all be considered a personal loan you made to the Southern Development Company. Once the company's cotton plantation becomes profitable, you can get back the principal and interest.

Upon hearing this, Chen Wenbin waved his hand and said, "Those three clipper ships are for transporting immigrants to Asia, so they can only be registered under Robin Company's name. The money that needs to be spent has to be spent. I was just complaining."

As he spoke, he bent down and took out a draft from his desk drawer, handing it over and saying, "—John, I called you here today not only to hear the February financial report, but also to discuss with you how to recover the money paid to the employees."

You should be aware that the company's personnel costs are getting higher and higher, and I can't lower the salary level. This is the foundation of the company's cohesion. But putting gold and silver coins in the hands of employees will only cause them to languish under beds and stimulate some local consumption. They won't create any more value.

Since paper money is not allowed to circulate in North America now, I want to issue a kind of token that can be circulated, or you could call it a voucher, a commodity voucher, or a food stamp.

All employees can apply for and redeem a certain amount of material vouchers each month according to their different job levels. These vouchers will be distributed directly on payday, and then a chain store supplying daily consumer goods will be established.

This chain store only accepts the company's market vouchers, thereby reducing the outflow of gold and silver from the market and even providing a certain amount of circulating currency to the external market.

Is this token—a paper currency with a physical capital status?

John Smith was taken aback by his boss's idea, then lowered his head, frowned, and carefully examined the draft, pondering the feasibility of the plan.

Chen Wenbin didn't urge him, and picked up his water glass to drink hot water.

This supply and marketing cooperative and grain coupon scheme was his way of dealing with the outflow of gold and silver coins and the deflation in North America, and it was also a vision for building his own monetary system.

In any case, after he arrived in the west, what his subordinates needed most were real food and various tools and supplies. It would be better to establish a supply and marketing cooperative material voucher system in advance that could recover wages, so as to keep the employees more closely under his control.

If his supply and marketing cooperative stores could be opened in all the towns and cities in the west, then the commodity coupons he issued would become real circulating paper money even without gold and silver as collateral.

Once it's done, the benefits will be numerous!

In wartime, it can efficiently mobilize resources and personnel; in peacetime, it can intervene in the economy to stabilize the market; and it can also maximize the use of financial leverage to accelerate the development of the west and enhance its own strength.

About ten minutes later, John Smith put down his draft, looked up, and asked seriously, "—Sir, are you planning to use these resource vouchers to forcibly replace gold and silver coins when distributing them to company employees?"

Chen Wenbin shook his head and said, "Of course it's not mandatory, it's just that the prices at the supply and marketing cooperative are a little lower than the market prices, which will definitely attract people to use it."

John Smith sighed, "Then I'm afraid this Robin's shop will continue to operate at a loss!"

Chen Wenbin said, "How could that be? After Robin's Store arrives in the West, it can centrally purchase the grain grown by the immigrants."

"Is the procurement also mandatory? Are those immigrants forced to sell us food at low prices?" John Smith pressed.

"——".

'

Chen Wenbin was about to nod when he felt something was amiss. If the immigrants were forced to sell him grain at low prices, they would inevitably become dissatisfied over time, and his position as the local tyrant of the west would become unstable.

Seeing his reaction, John Smith calmly said, "—Sir, those immigrants who are willing to follow you to the West have signed contracts, but they are not your serfs!"

They have the right to dispose of their own property. Your idea is good, but it can only be implemented if your store monopolizes commerce and trade in the West, and the commodity vouchers must be mandatory for people to use; otherwise, the store will continue to lose money.

Because our employees are not stupid, they will find arbitrage opportunities. If we limit the amount of supplies that each person can exchange in the short term, then the supply vouchers will hardly become a currency for people to store value.

This is actually the market mechanism of the "invisible hand" you mentioned, where everyone in the market will make the choice that is most beneficial to themselves.

I think this pattern will hold true even in the West.

Chen Wenbin frowned and reviewed the logic, realizing that he had indeed fallen into a preconceived notion, focusing only on his successful experiences while ignoring the differences in the environment.

These past few days he's been listening to reports from various company leaders and feels that the money is being spent too quickly, which is painful. So he subconsciously thought that he could use the supply and marketing cooperatives and the grain coupon system in tandem to perfectly recover the currency, but he forgot that in a free market environment, this system is simply no match for the market.

"—You're right, John."

Chen Wenbin nodded slowly. He wasn't the type to stubbornly refuse to admit his mistakes, so he simply asked, "John, what do you think we should do? I need your experience."

He knew about John Smith's situation during the interview. He came from a family of merchants who had fallen on hard times. In his early years, he tried to revive the family business by doing business several times and even went to Amsterdam to participate in financial speculation. However, he either lost money in business or failed in speculation and was in debt. After the age of thirty-two, he honestly became an accountant and a business manager. It can be said that he has a lot of experience in losing money.

Chen Wenbin valued his past experiences of being taken advantage of and beaten, which made him very cautious in his dealings. That's why he appointed him as the bank president and his own financial officer.

John Smith shrugged, looking helpless, and said, "My lord, you are a businessman a hundred times more successful than me!"

Are you sure you want me to help you figure something out?

Chen Wenbin laughed heartily, waved his hand dismissively, and said frankly, "My success is entirely due to new technologies and new models, as well as the help of people like you—just tell me your thoughts!"

John Smith nodded slightly. That's the good thing about big bosses—they listen to advice, are generous, and respect people. So after thinking for a moment, he said, "I think both supply coupons and chain stores are great ideas, but we absolutely cannot force them together."

Chain stores do not need to sell goods at low prices to maintain the credit of the vouchers. They can set up a department store trading company to transport goods from the east to the west, establish stores in various towns in the west, and also take on mail and remittance services to make profits.

As for the supply vouchers—well, let's use wheat with standard humidity as the anchor!

All that is needed is to establish another grain merchant to purchase grain at market prices and accept material coupons for grain purchases. The department store can act as an agent for the grain merchant to collect material coupons, thus indirectly accepting material coupons for goods purchases.

Bank of America could also offer a voucher redemption service—however, I think the operating costs of these vouchers are too high, and it would be better to have Bank of America issue banknotes anchored to gold and silver coins.

The North American Paper Money Act only prohibited colonial governments from issuing legal tender to prevent British merchants from losing their interests, rather than prohibiting banks from issuing their own banknotes.

As long as the market accepts it and we control the reserves well, we can absolutely issue our own Bank of America banknotes!

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