Chapter 591: The Constitution Is Made by People

Chapter 584 The Constitution is Made by People

"As long as the issuance of paper money is controlled and there is enough gold and silver as reserves, I think this move is feasible." Pan Zhengwei asked tentatively, "I just don't know how these paper money are going to be issued, which banks will issue them, and how much the first batch of issuance will be."

How much money will be issued in the first batch, and whether Tongfu Bank can participate in the issuance of these red paper money, this is the issue that Pan Zhengwei is most concerned about now.

"Before you all came, I have discussed with Governor Fremont and Governor Strauss. We decided to set up a Western Reserve Committee to absorb state banks in various states and qualified and financially strong private banks to become members of the committee to jointly issue the first set of official paper currency in the West." Liang Yao said slowly.

"Members of the Western Reserve Committee will obtain the power to issue official currency, and must also be supervised by the committee members."

"Supervision?" Hearing this word, Wu Yuanhua couldn't help but frowned.

"Yes, supervision. If we don't supervise, what if the banks below issue banknotes without authorization and without sufficient gold and silver reserves? Wouldn't that damage the rights and interests of all the member banks of the Western Reserve Committee?" Liang Yao said in a cold voice.

"The Western Reserve Committee adopts the principle of voluntary participation. If you don't want to accept the supervision of the committee, you can choose not to join. We won't force you."

"How can there be a way to enjoy rights without fulfilling obligations? It is reasonable for the Western Reserve Committee to supervise member banks. Otherwise, everyone will issue their own banknotes, wouldn't it be a mess?" Pan Zhengwei saw it more clearly. He said, "We Tongfu Bank are willing to join the Western Reserve Committee and accept the supervision of the Western Committee. It's just that the quota for issuing banknotes, how to allocate it? How much banknotes do you plan to issue in the first batch?"

"Half of the banknote issuance quota belongs to the state banks in California, Oregon, and Liangzhou. The remaining half of the banknote issuance quota is allocated according to the strength of the member banks and gold reserves. The total amount of banknotes issued in the first batch is 30 million US dollars." Liang Yao looked around at the Western bank tycoons present.

30 million US dollars? !

Upon hearing this amount, everyone present nodded in agreement. This amount is large enough. Even if the state banks of Canada, Russia, and Liang took half of the quota, these private banks can still share the remaining 15 million US dollars of currency issuance quota.

"It's just that these words on the currency may violate the spirit of the Constitution." Robinson pointed to the words "Legal currency, one person forgery, the whole family will be shot" on the red banknote and said, "I suggest deleting these words on the officially issued currency. If these words are retained on the officially issued currency, I'm afraid the Easterners will use this as an article to accuse us."

"The Constitution is made by people." Liang Yao said disdainfully, "Those Easterners should abide by the Constitution first before accusing us. How we print these sample notes is how we print the officially issued paper currency. I have said my words. If you want to join the Western Reserve Committee, stay. If you don't want to join, you can leave now."

The elites in the East, especially the elites in the north of the East, just talk about the sacred Constitution and hope that people will abide by it.

If the Yankees in the north really abided by the Constitution, Lincoln would not have come to power, and the Civil War would not have broken out. The North and the South should have parted ways in peace, rather than going to war.

The Western elites present were all smart people. They all knew that if they did not join the Western Reserve Committee and become the first group of people to formulate the rules of the currency game, they would sooner or later be squeezed out of the core circle of the Western consortium.

Therefore, even though joining the Western Reserve Committee would cost them the price of accepting the supervision of the Western Reserve Committee, after weighing the pros and cons, these Western elites still chose to join the Western Reserve Committee.

This Sunday was a day that attracted the attention of the people in the West.

On this day, a total of 687 death row prisoners who minted private coins, led by Huang Kangrui, were specially escorted to the Citizen Square in Jinshan City for execution.

This was the first time that so many people had been executed since California was founded in 1850, and it was also the first time that the core members of a large consortium had been executed. This caused a great sensation in the entire Western region.

On the day before the execution, many western citizens who were watching the excitement had already arrived at the Civic Square early to take up a good position so that they could enjoy the largest execution scene in California's history from a better position the next day.

Therefore, on Saturday, the Civic Square in Jinshan City, that is, San Francisco, was already overcrowded, and it was difficult to find a place to stay.

On Sunday morning, 687 economic prisoners wearing black and white striped prison uniforms, shackled, and pierced by the scapula were driven off the train by a battalion of fully armed Sacramento militia soldiers and escorted all the way to the Civic Square in Jinshan City.

The Civic Square in Jinshan City is already the largest city square in the entire western region, but even so, the entire square was already crowded.

The soldiers of the Sacramento militia had to clear a path to the execution ground before they could escort the 687 economic prisoners who were strung together into the execution ground.

At noon, the shooting of these economic prisoners officially began.

Soldiers from the Sacramento Militia shot these economic criminals in batches and executed them.

The executed economic criminals were dragged directly to the fire that had been prepared in the square, poured with kerosene and cremated on the spot.

The few economic criminals who were not completely dead in the execution struggled painfully in the fire after their bodies were set on fire.

The air was filled with a strong smell of blood and the scorched smell of cooked meat, which was the smell of death.

This scene frightened the economic criminals who had not been executed yet and made them incontinent. Even the few soldiers of the Sacramento Militia who were carrying out the execution could not help but vomit.

The gunshots and cheers of the onlookers in Jinshan Civic Square continued for a long time. All 687 death row prisoners were not executed until 5 pm.

The bloodstains on Jinshan Civic Square had not been washed away yet. The next day, the Western Reserve Committee was officially established.

On the third day, the state banks in California, Oregon, and Liangzhou issued a very exquisite red banknote.

At the same time, the governors and treasurers of the three states also issued announcements to the outside world, declaring that the red banknote US dollar was the legal currency recognized by California, Oregon, and Liangzhou.

Anyone can take these red notes to the state banks in California, Oregon, and Liangzhou, as well as the member banks of the Western Reserve Committee: Bank of America, Bank of Georgia, Tongfu Bank, Jardine Matheson Bank, and Boston Bank, without any personal identification, and exchange them for the same amount of US dollar coins and gold and silver. If the bank refuses to pay, it will receive ten times the amount of the refusal to pay.