"We used to be afraid of losing face. Since the ministry has brought up our embarrassing matters, we are not afraid to talk about it anymore.
After Wang Mingshan finished his criticism, Lin Haiyang, the Secretary of the Fujian Provincial Party Committee, immediately stood up. It could be seen that the secretary of the provincial party committee was emotional. Although his voice was trembling because of the shame, he still maintained a minimum level of calmness.
"Our province has a silver mine. After the founding of the People's Republic, the ministry established a state-owned mining enterprise. Later, our province brought the silver mine to the province. At first, we were happy. Silver, shining white silver, this was a valuable thing. In the four years after we obtained the silver mine, the amount of silver we imported from other countries more than doubled, increasing by more than ten times. Not only had the number of imports increased, but the price of imported silver had also fallen by more than half. According to the tax standards set by the ministry and the province at that time, we actually lost money sitting on the silver mountain! " Lin Haiyang's voice was loud and clear. His Hokkien Mandarin was not easy to distinguish. Although everyone could not hear him clearly, the key words and his excited tone were very impactful.
"Later, we asked around and found out how wicked the ministry was. In recent years, silver mining in South America and North America had increased greatly, and there had been breakthroughs in mining and smelting technology. In addition, Europe and the United States had adopted the gold standard. Silver could not be used as the main currency in Europe and the United States, and its price had plummeted. In fact, the ministry knew that China had a large export surplus, so it could buy silver at will. Domestic silver was no longer as valuable as it was in the early years when it needed a large amount of silver to mint coins. It is indeed our fault that the Provincial Government is not doing well. But the biggest problem is that the Ministry of Education is digging a hole for us! We are greedy for small advantages, this is our fault. But if the ministry had explained the situation to us earlier, even if we were stupid, we would have used our brains to think about it. "
It was indeed rare for a silver mine to make a loss. Lin Haiyang casually glanced at the committee members and understood everyone's doubts. He temporarily put aside his attack on the ministry and asked the committee members a question. "How long has it been since anyone used silver dollars? Do any of you still use money pouches? "
The so-called money pouch was actually a money bag. This was something that was created in response to the characteristics of the metal coinage era.
? Not only is China using it, but other countries are also using it. This was a good question. Many of the committee members couldn't help but touch their pockets. Their pockets were filled with cowhide wallets. Many of them were the so-called "top layer of cowhide" wallets. With thousands of years of coinage history, the people of China accepted paper money very quickly. According to the law of "bad money drives out good money", among the currencies of the same circulation unit, the ones with high value would be saved by the people, while the ones with low value would become the main currency in the market. Silver coins were more valuable than paper money, so people were more and more inclined to use paper money.
Wang Mingshan saw that all the committee members were looking at him, so Wang Mingshan stood up again and said, "The central bank has decided to gradually withdraw precious metals from the currency field. We didn't expect the effect to be so good. Since the year before last, the central bank has been using paper money. Although silver coins have not been abolished in name, they have been abolished in reality. "
"What does this have to do with the silver mine's losses?" a committee member asked.
Wang Mingshan had to tell the truth. "Silver has a lot of industrial uses, but it hasn't exceeded the demand for coins. After silver has been withdrawn from the currency field, the demand has greatly decreased. And after the increase in imports, silver is now in surplus. "
Currency was a very profound subject, and Vézé was a firm supporter of paper money. Coupled with the stability of the domestic economy, the development was rapid. The full popularization of paper money and banks had an impact on precious metals that was far beyond the central bank's expectation. The process of paper money completely replacing precious metals in the country was quietly completed. Many of the problems that the central bank had predicted didn't happen. This was originally a great economic victory, but after being tossed around by the committee, it seemed like the central bank had done something immoral. On the Internet
Wang Mingshan's heart was depressed, but he couldn't find the right words to say.
Seeing the success of Fujian's counterattack, Liu Bufan also joined the counterattack. "Our Hunan is indeed robbing Peter to pay Paul. I won't hide this from everyone. Hunan's heavy industry is not developed, but what Hunan needs the most is ships. Our province has built a few new shipyards. Not long after they were built, the Shanghai, Nanjing, and Wuhu shipyards sold ships to Hunan at a much lower price than our shipyards. Our shipyards invested tens of millions, but before we could make any money, we started to lose money every day. If we let the shipyards close now, the tens of millions of investment will be wasted. This is Hunan's hard-earned money. Even if the ministry wants to make money, they can't be so black-hearted! Also, the ministry's shipyards are cheap. That's because the country had invested hundreds of millions. Also, we also checked. The shipyards that sold ships to Hunan were not those few big shipyards, but the small factories under the big factories in Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Anhui. With a state-owned factory, the ministry will treat those who have a good relationship with the ministry as their own son. Those who don't have a good relationship with the ministry, can do whatever they want. Our Hunan can't take this lying down. We want to maintain the factories and fight with the ministry. We do our best to maintain these enterprises. What's wrong with that? "
If it was Vézé, he wouldn't agree with this point of view. The economy needs competition, and there will be winners and losers in competition. If they only care about winning or losing and not the matter itself, it will be too inefficient. But Vézé didn't say anything, and the committee members were more impressed with Hunan's backbone. They can't blame the committee members. They were all from the agricultural era, and it's not a sin to have egalitarianism.
"If that's the case, then since the year before last, Hunan has stopped buying ships from other provinces. In the past two years, Hunan has also been bullied by the factories under the ministry?" The ministry will not admit to this, and they immediately pointed out what Hunan didn't say. The moment this was said, the wind direction changed. Hunan wasn't just suffering a loss. They also had countermeasures. The sympathy of some of the committee members immediately changed as more information came in.
The offensive and defensive battles continued for another two days. This time, both sides had victories. The ministry's advantage was their control of the overall situation. Foreign trade was growing fast, and the land seized from the war was producing large amounts of goods. From the ministry's point of view, this was a great achievement. The province's advantage was that they got the sympathy of the committee members. With the strong pressure from the ministry, the province's days were not easy. During the economic conference, the province also encountered many problems. This couldn't be explained by saying that the province was incapable.
In the end, the demands of both sides were clear. The ministry's demand was to settle the dispute. They didn't want to get rid of the rebellious provincial representatives. They only wanted the committee to recognize the ministry's right and insist on the current operating system. The request from the provincial government was no longer as simple as asking Levis to step down. Instead, they wanted the arrogant behemoth of the ministry to kneel down to the provincial government. The province asked for more personnel and financial power, and to split up some of the ministries.
Vézé didn't say anything until the final vote. He let the ministry and local governments attack and defend each other. This kind of silence was rare. Most of the time, Vézé was the one who made the final decision in the face of disputes. Now that he was silent, no one could figure out what the governor was thinking.
However, the day of the vote was tomorrow. If the governor remained silent until the end, everyone would have to vote according to their plans. Soon, a rumor appeared that the governor was waiting to see everyone's performance. If the final result was not what the governor wanted, the governor would come out and overturn the voting results.
This statement was indeed believed by most people. With Vézé's status and influence, it was not a big deal for him to overturn the decisions of a few committees. Not to mention this kind of dispute, where both sides had their reasons. In fact, most of the neutral ministries were not sure which side they should support. Both sides seemed to have a big problem, but both sides had their own choices. However, both sides had no intention of compromising. The resolutions they came up with were intended to give the other side a fatal blow.
This group of people didn't dare to ask the Military Governor Vaize. Those who everyone thought could represent the governor became the people they asked. Even when they were pressed, Wei Changrong, Lin Asheng, Shen Xin, and the others kept their mouths shut. They only said, "Let's vote according to our choices."
The day of the vote that would decide this battle finally arrived. The Military Governor Vaize still didn't say anything. The central committee members made their choices with uneasiness, confusion, anger, and determination. There were only about 300 votes, and the counting was done very quickly. As the announcer announced the votes one by one, less than two-thirds of the votes were counted, the province's vote to overturn the ministry system had a result. More than half of the committee members did not agree with the province's view. According to the voting pattern, this was a simple majority vote. Half of the committee members did not agree, so the province's resolution failed.
The ministry's vote was a little late, and the votes were very close. The result was only announced when close to 90% of the votes were counted. The ministry's vote finally exceeded 50%. In the end, the ministry passed the resolution by 55% to 45%, which was not a big margin.
These two results meant that the government, represented by the ministry, had gained an overall advantage. The provincial representatives looked gloomy, while the ministry representatives were smiling.
At this moment, Vézé picked up the microphone and signaled that he wanted to say a few words. The entire hall quieted down, and everyone waited for Vézé to speak. Those who believed that Vézé would disagree with the voting list held their breath. The provincial representatives were even more anxious. They were looking forward to the Military Governor Vaize coming forward to overturn these "unreasonable" resolutions.
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