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Chapter 470: Chapter 384: Myanmar Bank Group (Please subscribe!)_2
As expected, hearing ’Myanmar Bank’, the people below were deeply shocked. Myanmar Bank was naturally one of the possibilities they had discussed earlier, but they still didn’t know the positioning of Myanmar Bank.
Despite their surprise, no one spoke up.
Leader Ling continued as the crowd’s expressions eased, "Let me introduce, Myanmar Bank is a bank we established ourselves. It mainly provides services like deposits, withdrawals, loans, and transfers for our own people, and it also undertakes the task of currency issuance."
Having heard this, many people couldn’t stay seated.
Currency issuance?
They didn’t mishear, did they?
There was a hum of conversation in the crowd, which Ling didn’t stop.
An elderly man sitting in the front row stood up, asking emotionally, "Leader Ling, are you saying you want to issue your own currency?"
"Yes." Ling nodded in acknowledgment.
"Why?"
This man was Zhu Wen, a respected local Chinese businessman. He had previously been dealing in the medicinal herbs business under the Wei Jun family. After Naidan arrived, he followed Wei Jun and his family to Myanmar. Knowing that the situation here was stable, he came back to continue his business.
The changes here surprised him as if he had gone to the wrong place. However, he knew he couldn’t be wrong and could only sigh that they had found a good leader, and the local people were fortunate. After returning here, he resumed his medicinal herbs business. After the company law was enacted, he was the first person to establish a company. Given his large business, he had the opportunity to sit in the first row.
He had wide influence locally due to running his business around, meaning many people knew him. However, this didn’t imply that people would necessarily listen to him. In this region, power was respected. Unquestionably, the soldiers were the power.
He did not directly oppose Ling’s statements.
Because in his view, such behavior was undoubtedly unfair to the people. If you issue a currency, it’s akin to printing money to consume and pillage their wealth. But to be honest, he didn’t think Ling cared about the money they had. He didn’t believe the combined net worth of everyone in the territory was greater than the assets controlled by Ling, so he asked why.
His question echoed the thoughts of everyone present.
"Mr. Zhu, please calm down, sit down," Ling said with a faint smile.
He was waiting for those words.
Zhu Wen listened and slowly sat back down, along with the other village heads. They stared at Leader Ling on the stage, hoping for an explanation.
"First of all, thank you for your trust and for not immediately opposing my proposal. Now, allow me to explain why.
Firstly, the currency form within our territory is too chaotic. We have U.S. dollars, RMB, Thai Baht, Vietnamese Dong, Myanmar Kyat, and even the Yen in circulation. This is not conducive to our economic development and daily life.
Secondly, considering our future economic scale, we will vigorously develop tourism, jewelry, food, and other industries as we promised in our first meeting. Now, I can tell you that we will also engage in high-tech product production and further enhance our infrastructure construction. Without a unified currency, settlements would be quite complicated," Ling said.
The people present kept nodding. Ling was correct. The currency within the territory was indeed too chaotic. The exchange ratio of various currencies had even deviated from the international exchange rate, forming a regional exchange rate mode. It was quite remarkable, especially for merchants. A unified currency would definitely be beneficial.
However, this was not enough to convince them.
All eyes were on Ling.
Ling paused for a moment to let them digest this information. "I know you are questioning the value of the currency we are going to issue. Rest assured, these currencies will be exchanged at a one-to-one rate with the RMB. Because large denomination notes are bothersome to the eyes, we will ensure the value of this money. At any time, it will have the purchasing power we promise." He avoided promising too much, to avoid possible issues in the future.
"Have a look first, this is the currency we’ve made. Everyone gets a set." As he spoke, the soldiers handed out thick, beautifully-crafted boxes to the village heads and merchants in the crowd. These boxes were used for jewelry and produced within the territory, mainly supplied to Tang Kai’s Jewelry Company. It was a ’Create Exchange’ project.
Everyone received the boxes.
Upon opening them,
they found several banknotes and coins. The craftsmanship was exquisite, not something that could be replicated with a printer.
"Ladies and gentlemen, have a look. These are the currencies we are about to launch—Asia Dollars. Technically, we are no worse than any other world-renowned currency, and the same goes for anti-counterfeiting. There are eighteen anti-counterfeiting identification areas on the Asia Dollar. Please look at a line of Myanmar text, the seventh character, when you hold it up to the light, you will see ..." Leader Ling introduced all eighteen anti-counterfeiting representations.
Everyone was shocked.
This minting technology. 𝚗ov𝚙𝚞𝚋.c𝚘m
The people present were not fools. They had at least seen a bit of the world. In terms of technology, counterfeiting such a quality currency would be too difficult. To them, it was undoubtedly ’black tech’, and the technology was even better than that of the Myanmar Kyat.
Although it didn’t have a high denomination, what did that matter? In their eyes, the larger the denomination of the currency, the less valuable it was. All the valuable currencies had small denominations. For instance, they held the US dollar, RMB, and Euro in their hands. They didn’t care much for the Yen, let alone the Kyat. Damn it, what’s the use of so many zeros in your balance when you still have to carry stacks of bills when you go out?
Next, Ling explained the cases of other banknotes and coins.
Finally, he said: "You guys can take these back and have a look. I’m giving these to you. I’ll also give you a suggestion—these are the first batch of Asia Dollars, and their serial numbers are all within a thousand. Maybe in a short while, every set will be worth a lot of money." Tang Qing hadn’t even brought out the ones with serial numbers below five hundred. There were still many other people who needed to be given some.
Upon hearing this,
Many people expressed disdain.
But more people were beginning to waver. Looking at the money in their hands, they probably couldn’t imagine that a decade from now, every set of Asia Dollars could exchange for a set of houses over a hundred square feet within the first ring road in Beijing, becoming real luxury goods.
During the silence of the crowd,
Then, Ling threw another bombshell.
"I declare, effective immediately:
First, the wages of all soldiers, civil servants, and construction workers in all territories will be issued entirely in Asia Dollars. We will handle their salary cards at the Myanmar Bank for each of them, and this, of course, includes all of you village heads here today.
Second, all of our ’official’ materials procurement will be entirely in Asia Dollars.
Third, all taxes within the territory will be collected in Asia Dollars. If you don’t have any, please go to the Myanmar Bank to exchange for some.
Fourth, no merchants must refuse or indirectly refuse to accept Asia Dollars. Violators will lose their merchant qualification.
Fifth, all other currencies will be exchanged for Asia Dollars with an international exchange rate premium of ten percent within one week, and the normal exchange rate will resume after one week.
Sixth, only Asia Dollars will be accepted for all public goods one week from now.
"
After finishing,
Leader Ling looked at the somewhat panicked crowd below and said: "Rest assured, we do not force you to exchange your money for Asia Dollars. However, this is the trend. I hope you will handle your villagers well. I don’t demand that you all exchange, but please do not cause me trouble. Otherwise, I will have to replace the village head or replace your trade qualifications."
The crowd sighed bitterly in their hearts.
If this isn’t coercion, then what is? Restrictions are being imposed in all areas of life and commodity circulation—we need to eat, we need to buy things, we have to use your Asia Dollars.
"Alright, now announce the next order. Since the Company Law has been enacted, effective immediately, the full name of the Myanmar Bank will be ’Myanmar Bank Group’. All our existing fixed assets will be transferred to the twenty-seven companies that we absolutely control. And these companies will all be incorporated into the Myanmar Bank Group, which will serve as a guarantee for the issuance of Asia Dollars." Ling continued.
Hearing this tonic, those present basically stopped complaining. All assets within the territory are included in this bank, which is basically equivalent to using all assets within the territory as collateral for issuing Asia Dollars. This is not unacceptable when you think about it.
This was better than the previous assumption that it was purely credit-based. They thought Ling was just printing money anyway. Now it seems that he was well-prepared.
What can they do?
They can’t resist, they can only comply.
PS: Chapter one.
