Chapter 258 – 256【Coin Minting Project】
Chapter 258 256 [Coin Minting Plan]
The salary of the village head is set at two buckets of rice per month, which is more than 30 catties, enough to feed a strong rural laborer.
I can only feed myself and cannot support my family.
Because the village chief spends most of his time farming by himself.
Persuading people to collect food and organizing road construction, these activities are all in the slack season, so there is nothing to do.
As for mediating disputes, I went to dinner time with a bowl in my hand, and I could settle disputes while cooking rice. If you are big-hearted, you can let the villagers do it first, and then talk about it after you finish the meal.
This level of salary is equivalent to raising one more teacher per village.
By the way, the salaries of rural teachers are now provided by the villagers of each village, mainly to relieve financial pressure. You may question that this is not compulsory education, but this is how New China came about. Farmers are willing to support teachers in their own villages, and they respect teachers very much.
Even so, the financial expenditure is still too high, because this year we have to provide relief to the disaster-stricken people in Huguang and Guangdong, and we have to immigrate a large number of people to areas severely affected by the war.
“Baoquan Bureau has been built, and several kinds of money molds have been made, and money can be minted this month.”
Fei Chun and Song Yingxing came to find Zhao Han to discuss matters, and also pulled Li Banghua and Huang Shunfu.
Fei Chun said: “The Department of Finance and the Department of Government Affairs have disputes over which kind of money should be minted more. To be honest, there is no way to discuss this issue. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.”
“You can’t make too many ten coins, otherwise the people will suffer.” Huang Shunfu, who is in charge of the Department of Government Affairs, said.
Fei Chun argued: “Even if you don’t mint ten coins, you should mint five more. Otherwise, if you mint flat coins or two coins, we will lose as much as you cast!”
Li Banghua suggested: “It is too much to exploit the common people by discounting ten coins, and it is bound to lose money if it is equalized or two. In my opinion, all castings will be discounted by five coins, and it will be announced that grain stores will not accept ten discounts.”
“If the grain bank announces that they won’t accept 10% off, who will use it? The 10% off in the hands of ordinary people will be thrown into their hands?” Huang Shunfu is concerned about people’s livelihood.
Fei Chun said angrily: “If we accept it, Chongzhen will keep casting it. Why should we be used to Chongzhen?”
The two chief officials of finance and civil affairs quarreled in front of Zhao Han, and each had their own reasons.
The root cause was the financial distress of the Ming court, so the printing of money became more and more outrageous, and it was divided into flat money, two-fold, five-fold, and fourteen-fold. Not only are the denominations of copper coins getting bigger and bigger, but the quality is getting worse and worse, which leads to a crazy decline in the purchasing power of copper coins.
Combined with the deflation of silver, the current copper-silver exchange ratio is very outrageous in some places, and one tael of silver can even be exchanged for four thousand copper coins!
Zhao Han’s Baoquan Mint, if they dared to mint a large number of flat coins and double coins, they would definitely lose as much as they minted. The better the quality and the smaller the currency value, the more merchants like it. They must sweep up the goods in the market, store all the good money, and then let Chongzhen’s bad money circulate in the market.
This is a typical example of bad money driving out good money!
And there is no solution, because the circulation of Chongzhen’s bad money is too large. First, Zhao Han’s coinage is too small to hold Chongzhen Tongbao; second, the circulation of Chongzhen Tongbao cannot be directly banned, otherwise Zhao Han’s territory will fall into economic chaos.
After all these people had finished arguing, Zhao Han made a final decision: “Baoquan Bureau casts coins, and I have three requirements. First, a large amount of castings will be discounted at five coins, and a small amount of castings will be discounted at two coins. The quality of coins is comparable to that of Nanjing in the fourth year of Chongzhen; Second, use the current money models first, and immediately start making new models. It is still called Chongzhen Tongbao, but the word “Datong in the World” must be added; “
Nanjing copper coins of the fourth year of Chongzhen, the quality is worse than the Beijing coins of the same period, but much better than the later ones, it can be regarded as a medium-valued copper coin.
As for still casting Chongzhen Tongbao, it is mainly to facilitate circulation in other provinces.
Adding the words “Datong under heaven” does not hinder the use of copper coins.
At the end of the Chongzhen period, there was also a kind of copper coin, which was of very poor quality and was cast with a galloping horse pattern, commonly known as “Racing Horse Chongzhen”. This is a kind of private money. Some people think that it was minted by Li Zicheng. It is normal for Chuang Wang to ride a horse. When a horse enters the gate, it is a breakthrough. When a horse breaks into the Forbidden City, Li Zicheng will destroy the world.
Huang Shunfu reminded: “General Town, if the grain store refuses to accept the discount, I am afraid that Jiangxi folks will need 6,000 to 8,000 cash to exchange for one tael of silver.”
“Even so, I still have to reject it,” Fei Chun immediately snapped back, “Long-term pain is worse than short-term pain. We can’t keep letting Chongzhen mint money to **** our blood. This is also sucking the blood of the people of Jiangxi. If we let it circulate again, Chongzhen is afraid that he will be able to make a lot of money worth hundreds of words!”
Zhao Han stopped and said: “Okay, don’t say any more, it’s settled like this. As for the people who have a ten-dollar discount in their hands, they can only consider themselves unlucky, and there is nothing we can do to help.”
There is really no way, it is impossible for Zhao Han to take it back.
Once Zhao Han recycles it, the merchants will make a profit. They will deliberately go to Nanjing to buy it at a discount of 10 yuan, and then ship the whole ship to find a grain store for exchange.
Since Zhao Han made a decision, everyone had no objection, and immediately went to work on their own.
Song Yingxing was left behind by Zhao Han.
Zhao Han asked, “How about Fei Ruyi?”
“Quite talented, but the reputation is not good.” Song Yingxing replied.
Fei Ruyi was already studying “Mengxi Bi Tan” when he was in Hanzhu Academy, and went to Suzhou to learn strange skills from craftsmen.
However, this guy’s route has gone astray. His main direction of attack is cloth dyeing, and he studies how to dye brightly colored cloth at low cost. At the same time, he likes to design his own clothes, jewelry and hats, which fits perfectly with his title of “clothes demon”.
At the end of last year, Fei Ruyi came to find Zhao Han. After learning about the recent situation, Zhao Han threw him to Song Yingxing as an assistant.
Zhao Han said: “The affairs of the Public Works Department have always been handled by Tian Younian, and I decided to promote him to be the head of the department.”
“The chief executive doesn’t need to ask me, I don’t mind.” Song Yingxing said with a smile. He is living a fulfilling life now, leading craftsmen to do research and development all day long, and even handing over the daily affairs of the weapons store to his confidants.
Song Yingxing didn’t care about it, but Zhao Han had to appease him: “You are still in charge, but the affairs in charge are different. This is a special case and will not happen again in the future.”
Song Yingxing clasped his hands and said, “Thank you, Chief Town, for your concern.”
“Look at this.” Zhao Han threw a silver dollar over.
This is a Spanish eight-real silver coin with “8” on one side and “P” on the other side, which together make up “8 pesos”.
This kind of silver coin exists in large quantities in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong. Merchants especially like to use it, because there is a fixed denomination, and there is no need to weigh the silver when trading.
Why didn’t the Ming Dynasty mint silver coins?
Because of Zhu Yuanzhang’s regulations, gold and silver should not be used to make money!
Silver bullion is not money, at least not legally.
After Zhang Juzheng’s reform, Daming levied taxes and only collected silver coins, not copper coins.
Song Yingxing asked: “The chief town wants to mint silver coins?”
“I have this plan.” Zhao Han nodded.
Song Yingxing played with the Spanish silver coins and commented: “The quality of this coin is poor. If we mint silver coins, we should make them more exquisite.”
Spanish silver dollars are really inferior in appearance, so don’t substitute them for those in the late Qing Dynasty.
The Spanish silver dollar at this time has a very high silver content and very little impurity filling. This is for the convenience of casting. The purer the silver, the softer it is, and it can be suppressed by very **** machines.
But the pressed silver coins cannot be guaranteed to be perfectly round, and there are even various gaps and cracks that have not been flattened.
After a long period of use, the soft silver coins will be even more disfigured by the collision.
The silver coin in Song Yingxing’s hand has become an irregular oval.
Zhao Han said to Song Yingxing: “This kind of silver coin is not minted, but pressed by machinery. I hope to make a machine that can hammer out harder silver coins.”
Song Yingxing said: “If you want silver to harden, you have to add a lot of impurities. Will the common people recognize it?”
“I will recognize it,” Zhao Han said. “Adding impurities to silver coins has three advantages. First, it makes the silver coins more delicate and not easy to deform after a long time of use; The most important thing is the difference in the price of impurities; the third is to prevent the people from scraping off the silver edge, the silver coin in your hand, and the outer ring is scraped off.”
Never underestimate the people’s love for money, not to mention scraping the edges of silver dollars, they will scrape copper coins.
Jiajing Tongbao has several high-quality coins that are often scraped off the edges of copper coins. It was mainly scraped by illegal merchants. After scraping off, the copper was melted and used for other things.
Adding more impurities to silver coins can effectively prevent silver coins from being scratched: First, the texture becomes hard and difficult to scratch. The second is that there are too many impurities, and it has to be re-smelted after being scraped off. Significantly reduce illegal profits.
Song Yingxing nodded and said: “When I get back, I will organize people to develop the coin press machine.”
Zhao Han said: “Jiangxi’s water network is criss-crossed. It is best to make a hydraulic coin press. In the future, I will not only suppress silver coins, but also copper coins. Daming copper coins are too chaotic. At least half of the country will be occupied before we can start reforming the currency value. The coin press is very useful. I will gradually replace copper coins with copper coins!”
Song Yingxing felt that the significance was significant, and immediately stood up and cupped his hands: “I must do my best.”
Zhao Han sighed, looking forward to taking Guangdong as soon as possible.
The significance brought by Guangdong can not only intervene in maritime trade, but also alleviate the silver shortage.
Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, a large amount of silver has flowed into China.
It is hard to say whether there is inflation or not, because the economy of Ming Dynasty was also developing at a high speed at that time, and the rise of prices is certain. Especially in the Jiangnan prefectures, the social economy is constantly increasing, and if prices do not rise, there will be problems.
A lot of this silver flowed into the cellars of rich merchants, which also promoted the industrial and commercial upgrading of the Jiangnan provinces.
After Zhang Juzheng’s reform, not only did silver not have inflation, but there was a gap in all parts of the country, because the government only collected silver for taxation.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Spanish Empire declined, and the inflow of silver decreased. Now there is a general silver shortage.
On the one hand, silver is scarce, and on the other hand, copper coins are being made indiscriminately, which leads to an increasingly outrageous exchange ratio between silver and copper coins.
According to the statistics of later generations, the silver imported from the Philippines to Macau in only four years of Chongzhen was as high as 14 million taels. Regardless of whether the data is true or not, one thing is certain, Macau is the main silver importer of Ming Dynasty.
As long as Guangzhou is occupied, the silver shortage under Zhao Han’s rule can be alleviated, and the impact of Chongzhen’s excessive copper coins can also be slightly offset.
(end of this chapter)