At 10 o'clock in the evening, the lights-out signal was blown outside on time, and soon the sound of snoring could be heard in the dormitory of 40 people. After all, it is quite hard to arrange a full day. But Li Ziyu couldn't sleep. He always slept alone. How could he have any experience of sharing a room with so many people? Snoring, teeth grinding and the smell of people kept him awake.
He recalled today's class and thought that today he took the initiative to raise his hand and indeed caught Ma Kun's attention. When Chief Pan said that he could "raise your hands and ask questions" during class, he was thinking about whether to do a "dare to be the first in the world", but he didn't expect that he would bet on the right thing! From the looks of it, Chief Pan already remembered him.
As long as Chief Zhenkun can remember him, there will be some benefits in the future.
Someone on the bed next to me was whispering in barely audible whispers. Li Ziyu listened carefully and found out that they were talking about wages. This time it was said that they would be given eight buckets of rice per month as working food, but they did not say how much they would pay.
Guangzhou is a big city and a provincial capital. It has always been a difficult place to live in. Although the price of one stone of rice fluctuates, it is never less than one tael of silver. If the people in the city did not have eleven or twenty taels of silver a year, it would be difficult for them to support their families.
The monthly income of eight buckets of rice is less than one tael of silver. Although it is not low, it is not high either. Because it only said that this was "work food" and did not say how much the salary would be. So everyone still has some expectations.
Li Ziyu secretly laughed at the two classmates for being "ignorant". The fast-shift yamen servant in the yamen, the "serious" one, only had three buckets of rice for work and food a month, and the white one didn't even have a penny. Could it be that they couldn't support their families? Speaking of which, the whole family is very popular. Since ancient times, there are few people who have official meals and live on the small amount of food and salary! Besides, the Australians "have the most generous subordinates". Even the military pay for the big-headed soldiers is much higher than that of the Ming Dynasty, let alone they, the future minions of the Senate, will not be treated badly.
"Come on, come on, try this, I made it myself, sweet and sour pork ribs!"
Six people were sitting in the seniors-only restaurant on the top floor of Guangzhou World. The person speaking was the new mayor of Guangzhou, Liu Xiang, and the person he was greeting was the director of the Policy Planning Department of the Central Reserve Bank. The two sat across the table and divided each other's honor and guest. On Liu Xiang’s left hand is Zheng Shangjie, director of the Guangzhou Bureau of Commerce and Trade; next to Zheng Shangjie is Meng Xian. The other two are Zhang Yikun, the general manager of Guangzhou World.
When it comes to pork, Lingao has not been able to eat it freely until now - although the scale of breeding has expanded, the population has also exploded, and the protein supply is still mainly fish, chicken, duck, and eggs. Large animal meats such as pork and beef are rare. Although there is no ticket supply system, the number of slaughtered animals per day is limited. Even if you are a veteran, if you want to buy good-quality small ribs and pork belly, you have to say hello in advance, otherwise it may not be available when you need it urgently. But when you arrive in Guangfu, there is no such restriction. Live pigs are slaughtered right now. As long as they pass the quarantine and there are no pork tapeworms or anything like that, you can eat them as you like. Meng Xian and Zheng Shangjie have been in Guangzhou for a long time, so it's not unusual for the other three to be able to eat the best sweet and sour pork ribs made with only crispy ribs. I heard that Liu Xiang cooks it himself, so this honor should be given to , so each of them took a piece and ate it.
Liu Xiang never adds too many ingredients when making this dish, but only follows the proportion of one, two, three, and four. One spoonful of sugar, two spoons of cooking wine, three spoons of vinegar, four spoons of water, bring to a boil over high heat and low heat to collect the juice. If the meat is still too tough, put it in a steamer and steam it again - in the original time and space, it should be pressed in a pressure cooker until it becomes tender. Yes, now Lingao has launched a cast iron kitchen pressure cooker. Lingao is also very popular on the market, but Liu Xiang is not sure about the quality. I don’t have this in my home either. Besides, Lingaoyi's cast iron pressure cooker is too heavy. It weighs more than 20 kilograms, and it is very laborious to use.
Everyone tasted it. They all complimented it and said it was delicious. The others each took a piece and started eating. Only Du Mo stretched his chopsticks towards the other dishes. Upon closer inspection, they were all salty and spicy dishes. It seemed that this person didn’t like them. Eat something sweet. Liu Xiang didn't take it seriously and pulled some other wild cotton. The atmosphere is becoming more and more lively.
The banquet was coming to an end. The six people at the table were all leaning on the backs of their chairs with their stomachs full. They were all drinking the drinks they had invited. Some were drinking wine and some were drinking tea. Chen Ce asked first. I went to the kitchen and ordered a drink that the officials and nobles of the Ming Dynasty drank after meals to warm their stomach and relieve greasiness. Talking about things at the wine table has been a common practice for thousands of years, but as a big foodie and a carnivore, Liu Xiang hates talking about business while eating. If he has to talk about things at the table, it's fine. He can finish eating first, like now.
The life secretaries cleared away the remaining dishes, cups and plates on the table, re-covered the tablecloth, and served them the drinks they ordered.
"Has the plan for the issuance of new coins been finalized? I'm waiting for its execution." Liu Xiang knew Chen Ce's purpose of coming to Guangzhou, and now it was finally time to get down to business.
Chen Ce waved, called the accompanying guard over, and opened a small exquisite box.
"This is a sample of the new currency!"
The box was opened, revealing rows of coins.
Directly above is a silver bar that is rectangular in plan view, with a trapezoidal cross-section. Except for the top surface, the other surfaces are polished as bright as a mirror. I don't know what kind of technical method was used to process the top surface, but there were several rows of large golden characters printed on it. The top row is "The Central Reserve Bank of the Senate", the middle row is "Silver ingots in stock weigh one kilogram", and the bottom is a series of numbers, 875-020-8888-0001. On the two short sides are two identical words "No circulation" written vertically.
This number must mean something. Liu Xiang thought like this, but what is the use of this silver inventory that cannot be circulated? But he didn't ask in detail but looked at the coins below.
Below the silver ingot are three horizontal rows of six round pancakes of different sizes, which are embedded in soft-lined slots like the silver ingots. Each piece is padded with a small piece of silk handkerchief. This silk handkerchief is also exquisite, using bright yellow silk thread. The edges were locked, and some auspicious and freehand patterns were embroidered, pointing radially towards the center of the veil. The silver coins pressed in the center actually gave it a "gold plate and jade cup" feeling. Twisting the corner of the handkerchief and gently lifting it, a silver coin came out of the slot and was poured into his hand to play with.
This silver coin has a bright luster and a diameter of 35 mm. It feels heavy in the hand. When the thumb flies to guess the coin, the silver coin buzzes and trembles in the air.
On the front is the Song font of "一元", surrounded by a pattern of wheat ears. Below is the small font of "Central Reserve Bank" and the year of issuance in Arabic numerals. The reverse shows the Arabic numeral "1" and the earth illuminated by the morning star. The earth is surrounded by streamers with four Latin words: spm
The convex edge of the extruded silver dollar is rolled with hobbing-presumably this is to prevent "scraping".
"Tsk, it's not Ma Datou or Wen Datou!" Liu Xiang was filled with the frustration of having no material to complain about.
The lower row is a significantly smaller silver coin with a smaller diameter. The face value on the front is "half a dollar", the back is "50", and the pattern on the back is "Holy Ship".
"Don't you dare to be more lazy! Isn't the image of the holy ship already used on cigarettes! If you change the angle, you will die!" Liu Xiang frowned and suppressed his complaints in his heart.
Next is the 20-cent face value coin. The pattern is more simplified and the coin's quality is worse than the first two coins.
Chen Ce paid attention to Liu Xiang's actions of "appreciating" various coins, and when he saw the change in his expression, he immediately explained with a smile: "Actually, in addition to the different sizes and weights, these three types of silver coins also have different silver contents. The lower the currency value, the lower the silver content.”
"Where is the highest fineness of one dollar?"
"The silver content is 875%," Chen Ce said, "the lowest 20 points is 60% silver."
In terms of silver content alone, it is considered a "good coin" in the market, and there is no problem with its acceptance.
Then there are the banknotes embedded in wooden frames with glass panels. There are seven types of banknotes. In addition to the three types of banknotes of equal amounts, there are also 10 cents, 5 cents, 1 cent and half cents. The face of the note is printed with "Silver Dollar Reserve Notes of the Central Reserve Bank of the Ministry of Finance", and the words "Qualified silver dollar one dollar, half dollar, twenty cents..." are printed according to the value. The printing of the base plate and pattern of the banknote is extremely exquisite, even more exquisite than the newly printed grain circulation coupons in recent years. Especially the texture of the paper is very close to the feel of banknote paper from the old days. The patterns on the base plate of copper plate engraving are so delicate and complicated that it would be impossible to find a similar engraver in this time and space. However, there was no copper plate production and printing technology in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which can be said to be the strongest anti-counterfeiting method.
"This issuance of new currency is being carried out simultaneously in various places to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the different exchange rates between the two places." Chen Ce said, "The food circulation coupons in Hainan, Jeju Island and Taiwan will also begin to gradually be recycled and replaced with new currency. However, We will focus on promoting banknotes in these three places. Silver coins will only be put into circulation in the Guangfu areas on the mainland. So Mayor Liu, you don’t have to worry about the reserve of silver coins."
Liu Xiang played with the coins in his hand for a long time before putting them down and said, "This money is so beautiful. I'm afraid I won't be able to get it back after I take it out."
Chen Ce smiled slightly: "I completely understand your concerns, but Governor Meng must have told you that our policy is to vigorously promote banknotes. Silver coins are a guarantee for banknotes. Especially when new currency is issued In the early days of the war, the role of silver coins was to calm people's hearts. But this alone is not enough."
For banknotes to circulate, on the one hand, they must have the support of the state machinery, and on the other hand, there must be enough circulating commodities to protect the value of the currency. Although the new currency is "silver-based", sufficient commodities are still needed to back it. To put it simply, the Senate's silver dollar reserve certificates must be spent to buy things. This thing cannot be an Australian mirror or a South Sea spice, but something that everyone really needs. (To be continued.)
