Xuegong Academy, and Zhen Academy.

In the craftsman's room outside the college, more than fifty three-year-olds were listening to several old craftsmen with gray hair teaching skills in the craftsman's room.

This is a unique way of teaching.

Because for thousands of years in China, in addition to the craftsmanship, the teaching of craftsmanship has always been a model for masters to lead apprentices.

This has been the case for thousands of years. For example, the apprentice first works as a laborer for the master for three years, serves tea, water, washing, cooking, etc., and also needs to be beaten or scolded, which is called "training and testing the mind".

Only after the third year can the master teach his apprentice some basic skills.

Of course, the level of teaching depends on whether the master is willing and whether the apprentice understands it. There is a well-known saying that teaches the apprentice and starves the master to death. Therefore, the master must keep his hands on teaching the apprentice, and even deliberately take you to take some detours so that you don’t learn the skills so quickly.

In addition to serving the master at the beginning, the apprentice also had to support the master in the end, so that he could not survive until he became a master.

Of course, this teaching method has its own reasons for passing on, and it is not good to blame easily.

But it is different in Youzhen College. The dean of the college Zhao Shizhen invited senior craftsmen from all over the country and gave generous treatment equal to the juren of Jingyi College.

Then these extraordinary old craftsmen teach students the craftsmanship step by step. Among the professors, the head and vice president of the college, and the students are scored. Those who are capable will keep them, and those who are unable will be treated with generous treatment so that there will be no hidden personal gain.

Of course, generous treatment is only one aspect, but also respect and status on the other hand.

Lin Yanchao formulated this set of rules for a long time when he was appointed by the mountain. In short, it is necessary to form a spirit of respecting teachers, whether it is a teacher, a scholar who teaches classics or a craftsman.

Most of the descendants of the craftsmen in the Ming Dynasty were unwilling to inherit their father's business. Why?

Because of its low status and heavy labor, the craftsmen's escape was even more serious than that of military households.

Take the Japanese craftsman culture that has been boasting about today, it is also because a craftsman can be respected and admired by people no matter what his profession is.

Because of this, they will also love their profession more.

At first, these students were not willing to give the rituals of apprenticeship to the craftsmen, but under the rules of the academy, the students still made works.

Now that Lin Yanchao has entered the cabinet, he said that scholars, farmers, industry and commerce are equal in the Xinmin Daily. Only the students of the college know about Lin Yanchao's intention.

Now the three-year-olds are gathering together to watch several senior craftsmen teach how to create money.

One of the several craftsmen is an old craftsman from Baoyuan Bureau, and was personally hired by Dean Zhao Shizhen.

Baoyuan Bureau is under the Ministry of Works and is responsible for the minting of coins in the court.

Later generations mistakenly believed that there was no method to make silver coins in the Ming Dynasty, but this was not the case.

For example, after the emperor ascended the throne, new coins were cast, which imitated the name Wanli Tongbao, which was cast by Jiajing Tongbao.

Wanli Tongbao is mostly copper coins, and there is a word written in the copper coins, which is worth one cent of silver.

In addition to copper coins, there are also a small amount of silver coins, which can be divided into two, four, five, eight, and nine.

Since the emperor used this trick of the mine supervisor, he sent the mine supervisor to Yunnan to urge the silver mine to mine, and the silver paid was also used to mint coins. These silver coins were made very exquisitely, so they were rarely used for circulation, and were only used to reward trusted ministers.

Of course, this is also the market elimination of good coins.

Everyone uses good coins to collect them, and they want to take action immediately, so the circulating bad coins are all bad coins.

The students were impressed by the newly created silver coins by the craftsman.

Zhao Shizhen and Xu Guangqi picked up the cross silver coins given to them by Lin Yanchao, and compared with the Ming Dynasty's craftsmanship was not inferior to them.

"Director Xu, look at our silver coins on all sides, without any concave and unevenness."

Xu Guangqi nodded and said, "That's true, the coin surface is complete, so that the evil of trashing away the hiding of secrets can be avoided."

Zhao Shizhen said: "There are various means to hide evil in silver coins. In addition to carefully weighing them, you also need to carefully look at the color of the silver coins to prevent others from mixing lead and copper, which is therefore very complicated. However, from the fact that such silver coins are of good quality, others will know at a glance if there is a slight defect."

Xu Guangqi said: "Director Zhao is right. I remember that this brass silver has seven black, eight gray, nine turns green, and nine turns green, and nine turns green at 95% of the time. Red copper silver also has seven black, eight red, nine white, and nine white at 95% of the time. The gold and silver that come into the inner treasury every year from Jiangnan tribute is brass silver with four color, and the rest are not as good as the color of the silver like the silver."

"I wonder how good it is to cast silver coins from the old man?"

Zhao Shizhen smiled and shook his head and said, "How can it be like gold, flowers and silver, but it should not be too bad. The Ge Lao meant to use copper with good brass, and silver with eight copper and two like this."

Xu Guangqi said suspiciously: "What is the official price?"

Zhao Shizhen said: "What the Ge Lao means is that the silver coins of eight coins and two coins of silver are worth one tael of silver."

Xu Guangqi couldn't help but sigh: "The Master's move is both caring for the country and sympathizing with the people!"

Zhao Shizhen nodded as such when he heard this.

Why did Xu Guangqi sigh?

In fact, making silver and copper coins are the same.

To be precise, silver was used to weigh the currency, while copper coins were used to use the copper standard.

You should know that after every emperor of the Ming Dynasty ascended the throne, the first thing he was to mint money.

There were two dynasties in the Ming Dynasty that had excellent copper coins, one was Yongle Tongbao and the other was Jiajing Tongbao.

These were the times when the Ming Dynasty was extremely powerful.

Jiajing Tongbao has some good money, using Yunnan copper, and the copper content is 90%.

Needless to say, Yongle Tongbao, the Japanese liked it very much, otherwise Oda Nobunaga would not have embroidered the pattern of Yongle Tongbao on the army's flag.

Jiajing money is better. In private transactions, Jiajing Tongbao can even be exchanged for 400 ounces of silver for one tael.

The rest cost 600 to 700 100 liang of the dynasty, and some dynasties even cost only 800 to 900 liang of the dynasty.

Why is the difference between good and bad so big lies in the copper content and workmanship of the minting coins.

For example, the prices of copper coins with 50% copper and 60% copper are different in private transactions, but the official price is 800 yuan and 1 tael of silver.

Who has the final say?

What is Dharma Compensation?

Therefore, after some emperors ascended the throne, if the treasury is not rich, they will cast the coins slightly worse and have a lower copper content to cut the wool.

Not only that in the Ming Dynasty, but in the Han Dynasty, pod money was used to replace half a liang of the Qin Dynasty. There was a kind of five cents that were only one-fifth of the weight of half a liang cent, but it was also called half a liang cent.

Not only is the national condition, but the minimum amount of ancient Roman silver coins is as high as 4%.

Lin Yanchao decided that the standard of 80% silver and 20% copper was called "being cared for the country and sympathizing with the people" and this was also due to this.

Seventy percent of the silver is a bit cut, while 80 percent of the silver is just right, which is also convenient for the people because for them, the cost of fire consumption is reduced.

How much is the fire consumption in prefectures and counties?

For local officials with conscience, one tael of silver will charge two to three cents, while for local officials with no conscience, one tael of silver will charge four to five cents.

Once the silver coins were released, it was equivalent to the Ming Dynasty's central government receiving the right to mint coins.

In fact, the reform of silver and money is imminent. When the commodity economy was underdeveloped, such as during the Qin and Han dynasties, copper coins could be used as the main circulating currency.

By the Song and Ming dynasties, there was not enough copper coins.

There was once a poem that said, "Where you have a crane and ride a crane to Yangzhou." If a person really has a crane to fly, not to mention riding a crane to Yangzhou, you must ride an excavator to Yangzhou.

During the Ming Dynasty, especially during the Wanli period, the commodity economy was already very developed, and trading was as much as possible. It was very inconvenient to buy things with large bundles of copper coins. Therefore, large-value silver became the main circulating currency.

When the Western commodity economy has reached a point where gold coins are used for higher value, they are circulating currency.

Let’s take the Ming Dynasty and Japan.

The Ming Dynasty lacked silver, not only because of the small amount of silver produced, but mainly because of the developed commodity economy, it was very common for private silver to be priced. However, Japan was not as good as it was. They were not rich, and private transactions mainly used copper coins with small denominations, while gold and silver were relatively small.

More importantly, the Ming Dynasty implemented the one-whip law, and all people paid taxes with silver.

At that time, local officials in the Ming Dynasty were reluctant to even collect copper coins for political achievements, which made it extremely expensive for the people to exchange silver.

This was not until the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty that regulations were issued that the people paid more than one tael of silver, and the people were allowed to pay less than one tael of silver.

When Zhao Shizhen thought of this, he couldn't help but sigh: "The master's far-sightedness is far beyond our ability. The silver in Japan is cheap and copper is expensive, while the copper in this dynasty is cheap and silver is expensive. Two hundred Wen Yongle Tongbao can exchange one tael of silver in Japan. The imperial court can come by the opportunity to deal with Japan."

"Then the cabinet master then cast silver into silver coins, just like state-owned fire consumption, which is actually a killing of two birds with one stone."

Xu Guangqi nodded and said, "It's true."

In the Forbidden City.

The emperor read Zhang Wei's memorial and smiled.

"Abolish the vassal kings in the world, the power to mint coins in the prefectures, save the expenses of fire and waste! Unify them to the court! What a glorious view! What a great position!"

The emperor smiled.

Zhang Cheng smiled and said, "Now Yang Haoma Gui won a small victory in Ulsan, and the Japanese people were timid and seek peace. It seems that the pacification of the Eastern Affairs is already in the hands of the rebellion. This is not only the life of the soldiers in front of them, but also the secondary supporter's plan! Soon the Japanese silver can be continuously imported into me to court."

"At this point, the silver in Japan is cheap and copper is expensive, but this dynasty is cheap and copper is cheap. Why didn't Linhuai tell me about this at the beginning?" the emperor asked frowned.

Zhang Cheng and others didn't know how to answer.

Li Yangong, the Marquis of Linhuai, was a hero of the Ming Dynasty, and was governor of the Jingying together with the Minister of War Song Yingchang. As his son, Li Zongcheng was recommended by Shi Xing as the envoy of the Korean Japanese Condolences, responsible for the previous affairs of the Ming Dynasty, North Korea, and Japan.

As a result, Li Zongcheng made several complaints, saying that Japan was disrespectful and North Korea was not in line with each other, and that they and North Korea were repeatedly compensated.

But when the emperor saw that the Japanese country had a low silver and copper, while the Ming Dynasty had a low silver and copper. It was just that even a pig could make money. However, Li Zongcheng reported that he lost money. Is this a person worse than a pig?

Zhang Cheng and others knew that the sea trade incident was not defeated by Linhuai Hou, but it was better not to offend Xunqin. Moreover, they have taken a lot of benefits to them in the past two years. Based on the principle of doing things, they excused them kindly.

The emperor was unwilling to study these royal family members too carefully and said: "Zhang Wei also said that the money law of this dynasty was one jin of money, one jin of silver, and one jin of silver; four jin of gold, that is, one jin of silver, one jin of silver, and one jin of silver, and then changed to five jin of silver, and one jin of gold, but in the foreign countries, it was ten jin of silver, one jin of gold, and even more cheap."
To be continued...