The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 359

Upon hearing this, the other people echoed his sentiments and all looked at the money shop manager.

The shopkeeper's expression turned serious.

“Our Royal Bank is run by the imperial court. There is an inflow and an outflow. As the saying goes, there can be no order without rules. If you have an appointment, you can skip the queue for large sums of money. But this person did not have an appointment and tried to cut in line, which is obviously against the rules.”

"Bring out all the silver melons from our bank so that you may have a look."

The shopkeeper shouted loudly behind him.

The money shop's servants, and even the Imperial Guards on duty at the money shop, all began to get busy, heading to the money shop's treasury to carry out silver melons one by one.

The silver gourds cast at the Tianjin Silver Refinery were all the same size, and each weighed two thousand taels.

The shopkeeper had two hundred silver winter melons brought out, which alone were worth as much as 400,000 taels of silver.

Then the shopkeeper had people bring out boxes of silver ingots. These ingots were large, each weighing fifty taels. Each box contained one hundred such ingots, weighing a total of five thousand taels and five hundred catties of silver. It took nearly ten people carrying the boxes on their shoulders with sticks to lift them over.

One or two hundred such silver chests were carried out of the treasury and neatly arranged in the lobby of the money exchange. The dazzling silver dazzled the eyes of the people who came to deposit their money, but no one dared to have any other thoughts.

The entire royal bank was guarded by the Imperial Guards, both inside and out.

"This place can only hold this much, but the silver in our treasury is far more than this. What you said about allowing in but not out is nonsense. If you want to exchange it, you have to queue up. No matter how much silver you have, it can all be cashed out within three days."

The shopkeeper looked at Zhang Wensan and sneered.

In fact, before the business opened, his superiors had warned him that someone might come to make large-scale money transfers, and that he should prepare in advance.

The silver vault of this money shop in Tongzhou did not hold 20 million taels of silver, but only about 8 million taels. After all, there were many prefectures in the entire Ming Dynasty, and 8 million taels was the current limit for the silver vaults of each prefecture.

The reason why those Shanxi merchants only allowed Zhang Wensan and his group to exchange 20 million taels instead of 100 million taels was because although 20 million taels was a lot, it sounded reasonable, and it would be unreasonable if they couldn't exchange it.

But if someone insists on exchanging 100 million taels, anyone can tell that they are deliberately trying to cause trouble.

In reality, 20 million taels was already the limit. These people weren't fools; they all saw the problem. However, they also wanted to see if the Royal Bank would keep its word, since they were going to deposit their money there. If the Royal Bank really only allowed deposits but not withdrawals, they would suffer heavy losses.

Building trust is difficult, but breaking it often only takes one thing.

While the shopkeeper had Zhang Wensan queue up, he also sent the Jinyiwei centurion on duty to the nearby prefecture to retrieve silver.

The territory of a state is not particularly large; a round trip by fast horse can be completed in a day. Even if the silver transport carts are a bit slower, the silver can be transported over within three days.

Meanwhile, not only in Tongzhou, but also in four or five royal banks in the Ming Dynasty, the same thing was happening. However, the bank managers were prepared and did not panic. They went to the neighboring prefectures to retrieve silver.

Zhang Wensan queued for most of the day. The people who had deposited their money did not rush to leave. They wanted to see if Zhang Wensan could actually cash out the 20 million taels of silver.

If twenty million taels of silver could be exchanged freely, they would naturally feel perfectly at ease leaving their meager savings in the royal bank.

If Zhang Wensan cannot exchange the money, they will have to consider whether to deposit it in the Royal Bank.

Many people are shrewd; to prevent their money from being stolen, they even proactively asked Zhang Wensan to move to the front of the line.

In this way, Zhang Wensan didn't have to queue up one by one, and soon reappeared in front of the shopkeeper.

"Shopkeeper, now you have nothing to say, right? Hurry up and make the payment."

Zhang Wensan said smugly.

"Since you have silver notes, they are naturally open to exchange. Please wait a moment, sir, and I will have someone bring you silver."

The shopkeeper laughed.