Chapter 43 Economics (Part 1)

The copper coins are too heavy, and it will definitely not feel good to buy goods by pushing a cart of copper coins. With the development of the original hydropower industry, the Huaiyang economy will definitely become more and more active. Therefore, it is imperative to issue a type of money with a large face value and convenient for carrying currency. The credit of paper money has been completely stinked by the Mongolian Yuan monarchs and ministers, so the choice left for Huaiyang is only one precious metal currency.

This idea is easily accepted by everyone, because the merchants who come and go often bring some gold and silver currency into the country. The silver dollars and gold dollars they carry, because of their exquisite casting and uniform weight, can often be exchanged for goods with higher value than the metals they contain, and are widely sought after by wealthy people.

"Wei Chen dared to make gold and gold coins above the silver dollar to keep the treasury." Zhang Song's greatest ability was to learn from it and then put forward his own suggestions. "In the past, the maritime merchants who came to Yangzhou often carried large sums of silver, which led to the very unstable silver price. Wei Chen remembered that one year the silver price plummeted, and one or two silver prices were exchanged for less than one thousand coins. After a few months, it rose to more than two thousand."

"I remember that it should have happened ten years ago. There was a large cannibal fleet that brought the whole ship of silver from Japan." Mr. Su's memories were immediately hooked up and he added with gritted teeth. "That year, many small households in Xuzhou City were tossing hard. However, those big households usually had golden beans at home, and they were basically not affected."

"You said they were great cannibals. They were trafficking silver from Japan to China. Why did they stop transporting it later?" Zhu Chongjiu's brow jumped and quickly found the problem.

If Zhang Song and Mr. Su didn't mention it, it might be difficult for him to remember that in another time and space, a large amount of silver would flow in from the middle and late Ming dynasties, resulting in violent fluctuations in the Ming Dynasty, which directly posed a threat to the country's finances. The main source of these silver was Japan. The smuggling merchants in the Ming Dynasty only needed to pull the whole ship of copper coins and return the silver to make a fortune. (Note 1)

It is obvious that the first person to discover this big business was not the local vendors of the Ming Dynasty, but the most active and open Arab merchants in the world at that time. However, it is unknown why Arab merchants later gave up the two-way smuggling transactions of silver and copper coins and then withdrew from the waters around China.

"The storm is said to have committed too many evils, which made the Dragon Prince angry. Most of the ship full of silver was swept away. The rest were scared and they would never dare to make trouble again." Mr. Su's voice came from his ears, with a hint of pleasure of revenge.

"Those big cannibals are very brave and probably lost all their capital to stop doing silver business. Otherwise, they would not be afraid of the Dragon Prince." Zhang Song's words came to the nail on the head, explaining the real reason that led the big cannibals to give up the silver and copper coins trade route.

"It should be the reason. Big cannibals are all people who forget their righteousness when they see profit. They will never stop without losing all their capital." Lu Lu once hated Big cannibals more than Zhang Song, and knocked on the ground with a crutch and added with a sneer.

"Since that's the case, Master Zhang's words just now are not an unfair concern. We must cast some gold coins in case of emergencies." Zhu Chongjiu took over Lu Luzeng's words and summarized with a smile.

Regardless of the specific reason for the withdrawal of the Great Cannibal, it is obvious that Japan's silver mines have been gradually discovered, mined, and gradually began to export large amounts to China. In this way, if the Huai'an army uses silver as the main currency, it will face great financial fluctuations risks. Therefore, taking the lead and using gold to stabilize the entire monetary system is a trick to prepare for the future. At least it will make the credit of the new coins more guaranteed, and will not be like a certain emperor of the ages, where the money is smaller and smaller, but the quality is worse and worse, (Note 2)

Everyone has no objection to this conclusion. After all, even the wealthy families know how to hide some gold for emergencies. What's more, Huaiyang has such a big foundation, and judging from the current development momentum, everyone is full of confidence in the future of competing for success. If you make preparations earlier, you will have more confidence when sending troops to fight for hegemony in the future.

"Then let it be decided, Zhang Song, the head of the Interior Department, will be responsible for it, Huang Zheng, the head of the Industrial Bureau, and Jiao Yu, the head of the Dajiangyuan, will help. From now on, we will start to supervise the production of four coins of gold, silver, copper and steel." Seeing that everyone's opinions have basically reached a unified state, Zhu Chongjiu took a little consideration and began to implement the task to the people. "The gold and silver dollars can be a little later. The copper coins and steel coins must be taken out within half a month."

"Yes, I will definitely live up to my lord's entrustion." Zhang Song, the head of the Interior Department, was so excited that his bones were lighter. He bowed down and agreed loudly.

"Be sure to prepare a few more copies. At that time, everyone will screen together in the meeting hall." Looking at Lu Luzeng, who was still a little unhappy, Zhu Chongjiu added with a smile, "During this period, no matter which one Director Zhang finds, everyone must do their best to support it."

"I'm following the order." Lu Lu had no choice but to take the lead in agreeing.

Many people present were like him and looked down on Zhang Song's character very much, so they were a little dissatisfied with Zhu Chongjiu's decision. However, the entire Huaiyang faction was in a period of rapid rise, and everyone was too busy to touch the ground, so everyone had no time to drag Zhang Song back. When the latter came to the door, they frowned and helped. If they really couldn't help, they would try their best to show the latter a clear way to avoid delaying their lord's affairs.

So, the construction of copper and steel money samples was carried out very quickly. In just five days, Zhang Song, Huang Laowai and Jiao Yu came up with three plans. Zhu Chongjiu took all three kinds of money samples to the conference hall according to his previous promise and showed them in public. Then everyone expressed their opinions. In just half an hour, he decided the final design plan and handed it over to the Baigongfang for trial production.

"Wei, Wei, Wei, I have a ruthless request." Although he was one of the first group members of Xuzhou, when Huang Laowai was formally discussing the matter, he still felt his scalp tight. He held the last mother money he selected in his hands and stuttered to salute Zhu Chongjiu.

"Master Huang has something to say." Zhu Chongjiu knew his foundation, raised his hand, and encouraged him with a kind heart. "Just like we are both in the Hundred Workshop, you can say whatever you want, it doesn't matter if you are wrong or right."

"Then, then the empress will dare to ask the chief executive to move to Qianfang, and personally, to forge the forging bed, and then to consecrate it. No, turn on it, turn on the machine." The sweat beads on Huang Laowai's forehead became denser and denser, and his mouth became increasingly unclear.

"Haha" came a low laughter. All the civil and military officials tried to tighten their mouths and lower their heads to prevent their eyes from contacting Zhu Chongjiu. The latter hated others to treat him as a Buddhist son. He has publicly emphasized countless times that he was not a reincarnation of Maitreya, and had nothing to do with this sect and that sect. However, many people, especially the craftsmen of Baigongfang and Dajiangyuan, still stubbornly believed that their chief manager wanted to cover up the truth, and still stubbornly believed that as long as Ju Fuzi was present, everyone would go as far as they could, including the yield rate of boring and making gun barrels, would suddenly increase a lot.

"You want me to cast this first copper coin, right?" With a low laugh, the muscles on Zhu Chongjiu's face twitched repeatedly. In the end, he resisted the desire to kick Huang Laowai, the mud that could not be supported on the wall, and responded more peacefully: "Okay, it just happened that the manager of the company didn't have much to do today, so I'd just go with you."

He quickly turned his head and glanced at everyone's faces, "You guys, as well as Lu Changshi, Su Changshi, and the chiefs and deputy directors of various bureaus, today I will go to Qianfang in Jiangwan with me to see how our Huaiyang money-making is made, so as not to have no impression in my heart when I talk about it in the future."

"Yes, I'll follow the order." Everyone who was clicked secretly gave Huang Laowai a few glances, and then agreed helplessly.

Xu Hongsan went out to prepare a four-wheeled carriage. Everyone galloped south along the official road paved with primitive cement. After a while, they drove into the heavily guarded Jiangwan New City, and then passed through four or five open hills and secretly sentries. Finally, the carriage stopped at a secret place in the south of the city.

"From east to west, there are artillery workshops, gun manufacturing workshops and mirror manufacturing workshops. Qianfang is located in the big house near the water. Currently, there is only one forging machine. If the trial production is qualified, the Dajiangyuan will send new forging machines to come one after another." As soon as he entered his familiar territory, Huang Laowai's feeling of shrinking completely disappeared. He pointed to the tall brick houses in the fully enclosed yard and introduced them to his colleagues with a proud face.

The core figures of the Huaiyang Group all know that this secret is hidden deep in Jiangwan New City, but those who often have the opportunity to come and open their horizons are limited to Lu Luzeng, Mr. Su, Chen Ji, Robben and a few dozen people in the Industrial Bureau. The others have either only been here once when the artillery shop has just been moved in, or have only seen it a few times from a distance. They can only have a rough impression in their hearts. Today, they can get close and immediately be stunned by the huge water trucks that penetrated into the depths of the river.

Note 1: Zhu Chongjiu's memory is obviously wrong here. In fact, the large inflow of silver did not cause a fatal blow to the Ming Dynasty economy. However, the inflow of silver was cut off due to the massacre of the Chinese people in Manila and the European war, which gave the Ming Dynasty a fatal blow. See "Hongye,, History of the Founding of the Qing Dynasty"

Note 2: In ancient China, during the prosperity period, most dynasties had excellent coins, with copper content accounting for 60% or more, and the national treasury would also have sufficient gold and silver reserves. Anyone who casts inferior copper coins would be regarded as an open plunder of the people's property. The emperor in power also paid attention to his face and tried not to cast "evil coins" and "white coins" to prevent his bad reputation for being in danger for thousands of years. Only the so-called Emperor Yongzheng issued an order to cast inferior coins of four copper and six leads, which was also called "in order to prevent people from committing fraud.
Chapter completed!