During the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, there were many shops in the wealthy Jiangnan area, and commodity trading was frequent in Suzhou Prefecture at that time. Wanfuji's shortbread cakes were famous snacks. There were endless customers queuing at the door every day, and the store was still in short supply. Not only that, there were often governments and large households who transferred to work and placed large orders. It was enough for Wanfuji to be busy for a few days, so the store business naturally could not be taken care of. Of course, the rich and powerful bosses could not afford to offend, but individual customers could not be neglected at will. In order not to let individual customers go for another trip, the shopkeeper Chen Hongchang was in a hurry and put a blank note after collecting the deposit, promising to deliver the goods on the designated day.

Originally, this was just a stopgap solution to individual customers. Although Wanfuji did not have this production capacity, Chen Hongchang had to bite the bullet for the store's signature and reputation. After a month of fear, Chen Hongchang was surprised to find that the situation was not as bad as he imagined. There were only a few individual customers who brought white strips to carry pastry cakes every day, and the pastry sold at the store was no longer much more than before, but the copper coins collected every day were much more.

After careful Chen Hongchang inquired from many sources, he found that a considerable number of customers bought pastry cakes, not for themselves to eat, but for gifts to relatives and friends. The recipients may not necessarily eat them by themselves. They often find an opportunity to transfer them after a while. But the problem is that pastry cakes will become moldy and deteriorate after being stored for a long time, and they cannot give them to others. Furthermore, carrying a huge cake box to someone else's house is both inconvenient and eye-catching. Many people bought these white strips and put them at home. When they want to eat them, they will go to Wanfuji to exchange them for ready-made ones. If they want to give them to others, they can continue to keep them.

Chen Hongchang thought secretly that it took time to make a box of pancakes, manpower and capital, and only 20 cents were received when selling them. This kind of white stick can be paid out of thin air, and you don’t have to worry about cashing them immediately. Wouldn’t it be profitable? Soon, Wanfuji began to print cake coupons with Chen Hongchang’s private seal and sell them on the storefront. The benefits of selling cake coupons are really attractive. Before the pancakes are released, they can be collected in advance. Chen Hongchang no longer has to worry about asking for credit as before. The copper coins for selling cake coupons can be used for other sales, and there is no need to pay profits. The cake coupons in the hands of customers will always be partially lost or damaged, and these unchanged pancakes will be made in vain. The cloth shops, butchers and rice shops in Suzhou City were all jealous and followed them to imitate and sold cloth coupons, meat coupons, and rice coupons...

The face value is not indicated on the cake coupons. When purchasing, they pay at the price at that time. There is no need to refund the difference when picking up the goods. The pastry is made of grain, and the price changes with the price of grain. The price fluctuates greatly in the bumper years and the deserted years. A box of pastry cakes sold for 20 cents in normal years, but can only be sold for 15 cents in the bumper years, but can be sold for 50 cents in the bad years. Some smart people save the pastry coupons at home and wait for the price of pastry cakes to be sold to others. People who are impatient are disdainful of this kind of waiting. Rabbit’s approach: they started buying and selling short by betting on the harvest of the coming year. If the next year is a good year, the current cake coupons will fall; if the next year is a bad year, the current cake coupons will rise. Not only are they cake coupons, but other coupons on the market are also speculatively traded. When pawnshops and ticket accounts see profitability, they not only rely on their strong capital to get a share of the pie and easily manipulate the price, but also accept the mortgage of various coupons of the people and make profits.

If it continues to develop, it may be a certain scale of securities market and futures market. However, history does not allow assumption that the Jiajing period was also an era when Japanese pirates were very harmful to Jiangsu and Zhejiang. In the 33rd and 34th years of Jiajing, Japanese pirates attacked Suzhou Prefecture three times in succession. For a time, prices in Suzhou City soared and people were in panic. Merchants took the opportunity to hoard goods, and the coupons on the market were rushing to buy them by the people. Before the Japanese pirates attacked the city, they became in chaos. The governor of Suzhou Ren Huan made up his mind to govern the market with an iron fist, forcing the price of goods to be stabilized and opened warehouses to release grain. The market supply gradually stabilized, and the price of coupons fell sharply. The coupons were worthless. If the debtors returned the profit money, it would be very unfair to redeem the coupons, and they all took the accounts. The coupons held in pawnshops and ticket numbers were losing money every day, and the guys were anxiously on the ground.

The door was urging for profit money. But the debtor said that profit money was used to rush to buy things, but now the prices are cheap, but we have no money on hand, so we would leave those coupons for you. The pawnshop and ticket account dare not keep this hot potato anymore, so he quickly found the store that issued the coupons and asked them to redeem it at the original price. Of course, the shopkeepers did not agree. The pawnshop and ticket account were cruel and sold to the people at a low price. The people were afraid that the prices would rise again, so they rushed into the store to ask for exchange. How could there be so many goods in the shops? The shopkeepers who were heavily in debt quickly closed the door and thanked the customers, and the angry people smashed the shops, and five or six out of ten shops that had closed down in Suzhou City. Ren Huan had never seen such a scene before, so he could only use tough measures: order each shop to recycle the coupons within a time limit, take down the shops back to the government, and kill several mobs who took the lead in causing trouble...
Chapter completed!