Chapter 131
The number of coins actually minted in the Ming Dynasty was very small. With Cheng Shijie's in-depth understanding of ancient coins during this period, he realized that no coins were minted during the Hongxi, Zhengtong, Jingtai, Tianshun, Chenghua, and Zhengde years.
Although money was minted during the Yongle and Xuande years, not much was minted. Yongle's money was very small, and Xuande's money was only 100,000 coins in total. There was no money minted at all in the fifty years after Xuande. Hongzhi Tongbao was minted in the 16th year of Hongzhi, but the amount was insufficient; Jiajing money was minted only about 100,000 guan each year. The entire sixteen emperors of the Ming Dynasty lasted for 277 years. Compared with the Tang and Song Dynasties, the amount of money minted was much less, not even one-tenth of that in the Song Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty court seldom minted money for many reasons. First of all, with the arrival of the Silver Age, and after Zhang Juzheng's whipping method, the court's tax revenue mainly relied on silver.
But silver is just a precious metal and is more easily oxidized than gold and copper. The tax money collected by governments in various places can be recast into silver ingots, and fire consumption is also an additional income for officials, which is basically legalized.
Another thing that makes Cheng Shijie feel incredible is that even in the Chongzhen Dynasty, Ming copper coins were circulated in surrounding countries, but because they were afraid of being circulated abroad, they did not mint coins.
This is simply turning a blind eye when there is an opportunity to make money.
In later generations, Dalian had more than 70 iron ore resources, more than 40 copper ore resources, and more than 20 lead and zinc deposits. Due to backward technology and exploration capabilities, Cheng Shijie's people have only found 16 so far. iron mines, fourteen coal mines, and four copper mines.
The preliminary conditions for casting copper coins and silver coins are mature. In addition, Cheng Shijie's warehouse also stores more than 400,000 kilograms of copper ingots. According to the ratio of copper to lead of 73, copper coins can be minted at least more than 60 Xiaoping coins.
Chongzhen Tongbao comes in four sizes: small flat coins, two coins, five coins, and ten coins. The weight ranges from 3.72 grams to 10 grams.
Cheng Shijie thought about it and first mobilized manpower from within to cast Chongzhen Tongbao.
The local talent pool in Liaodong really has all kinds of people, because not all the money cast by the Chongzhen Dynasty was placed in the Ministry of Industry in the capital, but there were also many places. Judging from the Chongzhen Tongbao discovered in later generations, there are Guizhou (Guizhou) ), Chongqing (Chongqing), Jiading (Sichuan), Gong (namely "Gong", Gongcheng, Guangxi, belonged to Pinglefu in the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties), Jiang (Jiangning, Jiangsu), Guang (Guangdong), Ji (namely Jihan) , refers to Shu Han.), Ying (Yingtianfu), Zhong (Zhongzhou, Sichuan), Qingzhong, Qing (Chizhou Prefecture, Nanjing or Qingpu County, Songjiang Prefecture, Qingyang County, Nanzhi), E (Ezhou), Yu (Yulin, Shaanxi), Shanghai (should be Lu, Luzhou, Sichuan), Ning (the abbreviation of Nanjing, Jiangsu, named after the Sui Dynasty since it was the seat of Jiangning County, Jiangning Capital and Jiangning Prefecture.), Taiping (Taiping County, Kuizhou Prefecture, Sichuan).
There are also dozens of production areas such as Gongwu, Jianwu, Huwu, etc. With the severe inflation in the Chongzhen Dynasty, even 30% of the profit from minting money can no longer make up for the losses of inflation. In this case, private individuals are unwilling Do thankless things.
Craftsmen who knew how to cast their crafts also lost their livelihood and became refugees. Just like the money-making master Li Lin, this is an old man in his fifties. In future generations, if he has money, he can barely be considered an uncle. If he has no money, he will be a dead old man.
"Li Lin, a common man, pays homage to Mr. Jinglue!"
"Can you mint money?"
"Grass People's Association!"
Li Lin asked how to mix copper and zinc and how to control the temperature. Because zinc has a low melting point and is easy to volatilize, copper and zinc are the main raw materials for making copper coins. Zinc and iron can also be made into tinplate.
"The heat is very important. Every time the zinc is melted, it will consume 25%!"
Li Lin was very reserved when he first met Cheng Shijie, but as he talked about his major, he became more fluent. While talking and gesticulating, he showed how to make money molds and how to pour copper and zinc liquid into the molds. , how to refine it, wait for the explanation.
Cheng Shijie heard that Li Lin was very professional and said directly: "I want to mint money. It doesn't matter whether it is different from official money. What is important is that you have to mint qualified money. I plan to mint four million Xiaoping coins." If it is two coins, it will be two million coins, if it is five coins, it will be one million coins, and if it is ten coins, it will be one million coins."
One million pieces sounds like a lot, but in fact, even if one thousand penny is exchanged for one tael of silver, the total of eight million pieces of money in these four specifications is only equivalent to 23,000 taels of silver.
However, this requires hundreds of thousands of kilograms of copper and tens of thousands of kilograms of zinc.
Will Cheng Shijie be taken advantage of and do something thankless?
Definitely not. Once anything changes quantitatively, it will change qualitatively.
There was indeed inflation in the Ming Dynasty, but the problem was that Liaonan had more supplies and less money, and prices were lower than elsewhere. Let’s talk about the problem of outflow of copper coins. Once the amount of new money reaches a certain scale, the problem of outflow of coins will not be big.
"List them one by one as to how many workers and supplies you need in the early stage!"
"It's the common people who can save it!"
"As for your remuneration, you serve as the director of this mint, and it is temporarily set at the hundred-level level. You will have an annual salary of 36 shi of grain and 60 taels of silver. If you do well, I will give you a heavy reward!"
"Thank you, Commander!"
Li Lin burst into tears immediately. He was originally a mint craftsman recruited by Sun Yuanhua, but Sun Yuanhua found out that he would lose money by minting coins, so he closed the factory.
Hearing Li Lin's explanation, Cheng Shijie's eyes lit up: "So, Mr. Futai prepared tools and equipment for you before?"
"Ready, we've made more than 150 sets using mother money alone!"
Cheng Shijie said: "These equipments are now in my hands. You come with me and we will look for them. If there are ready-made equipments, this mint can be put into operation immediately!"
Li Lin timidly said: "I beg the commander-in-chief to forgive me for my son-in-law!"
Li Lin had no son, but he gave birth to three daughters. With no one to support him in old age, he took the younger daughter's husband as a daughter-in-law and passed his skills to his son-in-law Huang Sizheng.
Huang Sizheng was an honest man who couldn't beat him with three sticks, and he lived with him all the time. Later, Kong Youde rebelled, and Li Lin's son-in-law Huang Sizheng was kidnapped and entered.
It is difficult for a person to learn well, and it is too easy to change. Huang Sizheng was originally an excellent template maker who was also good at making silver and gold jewelry. He went on a long journey to make jewelry for his daughter who was about to get married at a landlord's house in Taolin Town.
The work went very smoothly at first, but the problem was that there was a naughty young man in the landlord's family. Seeing that Huang Sizheng didn't talk much, he started to play tricks on him. He used the dog basin at home as a soup basin for Huang Sizheng and let him drink noodles.
The noodles were poured into the dog's food bowl, and the dog thought it was its food. Seeing Huang Sizheng eating, it naturally came over to grab the food. The dog was very fierce and bit Huang Sizheng's right hand. As a craftsman, Huang Sizheng's right hand was disabled. , which is equivalent to losing your job.
Later, the rebels from Kong Youde's tribe broke into the landlord's compound. The angry Huang Sizheng took a dung fork and stabbed the young master of the landlord's family to death.
No matter what the reason was, Huang Sizheng killed a nine-year-old child and was a heinous murderer. In this way, he was sent to the coal mine for rehabilitation.
A month ago, Li Lin went to see Huang Sizheng and found that Huang Sizheng had lost his shape. His small body might not last long.
After hearing Li Lin's cry, Cheng Shijie realized that he had been a little abrupt when dealing with Kong Youde's rebel soldiers. However, Cheng Shijie did not use his identity to pardon Huang Sizheng. Instead, he asked Zhang Ruyi, the president of the court, to re-examine the old cases that had been hurriedly decided.
Although Cheng Shijie now controls the life and death of four to five million people, the life and death of these people are all determined by his thoughts. Although the power is great, just as Sun Yuanhua said at the beginning, he cannot exercise power or do whatever he wants.
There are problems with the system and it can be changed. However, some things need to be implemented instead of Cheng Shijie, the manager, taking the lead in destroying them.
When managing a small company, you can rely on human nature or your own preferences. However, now, Liaonan has surpassed the later Hansteel Group in size, at least in terms of number of people. But the problem is, this A kind of large-scale enterprise management requires a system.
Rather than making a decision when your head is hot, patting your head to make a decision, and then leaving directly after patting your butt, wouldn't that make you a cadre with three pats?
Cheng Shijie took Li Lin to the storage place where the materials moved from Dengzhou were stored. Cheng Shijie had given an order not to let go of even a nail.
At present, most of these equipment have been transported to various factories to play new roles, and there are not many things left. These crucibles for casting copper coins have been taken away and used in other factories. Fortunately, any equipment and facilities can be picked up. Records are easy to find.
However, these crucibles were made by mixing the finest mud powder and charcoal powder, and were of very high quality. The molds and mother coins of the copper coins remained intact.
Li Lin also found the money-making craftsmen who were also recruited by Sun Yuanhua. Many of them were doing well in the new work unit and they were not willing to get into this troubled water again.
Despite this, Ning Haijun's mint also set up shop, and the remaining six crucibles began to melt the prepared copper materials, zinc, and molds for more than 150 copper coins that were originally made.
Two days later, the first batch of copper coins produced, in four specifications, or four denominations, totaling more than 1,500 coins each, were placed in front of Cheng Shijie.
Cheng Shijie took the new money and weighed it on a small electronic scale. The weight of the small flat money was 3.72 grams, which was almost the same weight. This made Cheng Shijie feel incredible.
The maximum weight of this sensitive electronic scale is only ten kilograms. The sensitivity is very high. Even if one hundred items are weighed together, or one thousand five hundred items, the maximum error between each hundred items is one gram, and the minimum error is 0.14. gram. On average, the single error is almost negligible.
How did these craftsmen do it without precise electronic scales in the late Ming Dynasty?
Although there were small and precise crane scales in the Ming Dynasty, although the crane scales were accurate, the problem was that if the scale was slightly higher or lower, there would be errors.
"Commander, Yang Yunniang wants to see you!"
"Let her in!"
At this time, Yang Yuniang was dressed in men's clothing, wearing a Xiaoyao scarf, a blue Confucian shirt, a sash, and boots. This was also the standard dress for scholars in the Ming Dynasty.
Although Yang Yuniang did not apply makeup, it could still be seen that she was a woman. Of course, this is related to the customs of the Ming Dynasty. Generally speaking, when women go out to work, they rarely dress in fancy clothes, which is not very convenient.
"I pay my respects to the commander-in-chief!"
Yang Yuniang's eyes fell directly on the new money.
"sit down!"
Yang Yunniang still got straight to the point and got straight to the point: "Commander, I have a question for you!"
"What's the problem? You can tell me!"
"This is how our bank solves the problem of deposits and withdrawals in different places!"
Yang Yunniang smiled bitterly and said: "Now we need to establish six branches, from the southernmost Lushun branch to the northernmost Haizhou branch. The distance is more than 700 miles. Even if we use the fastest horse to transmit account information, it will still take three God’s time!”
"how to solve this problem?"
Cheng Shijie suddenly thought about the ancient times when Internet literature was developed. At that time, there were things he liked to read on Tiesue.com, but the problem was that there was no online payment in that era. How to solve the problem of charging virtual currency into the account?
Cheng Shijie was very impressed. The post office wire transfer was used at that time. When did the other party receive the money and when did he start adding virtual currency to his account.
In fact, what makes Qidian stand out from countless online sites is Shanda's game point cards. Shanda Point Cards are sold in Internet cafes and can be recharged at any time, so Qidian has this inherent advantage.
Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "We set a cycle limit. For example, if a gold account deposits 100,000 taels of silver from Lushun Branch, and he needs to withdraw it in Haizhou, we must want Haizhou Branch to receive the new account information. You can only withdraw money when you update the account information! At the same time, we will charge a certain handling fee when depositing and withdrawing from other places. The establishment of this handling fee requires professional internal evaluation by your bank."
Yang Yunniang nodded and asked: "But, a new problem has come again. How can our branches ensure that customers can deposit and withdraw money in different places? If we just transmit information, a quick horse can reach north and south, but what about money? ?For example, the bank in Lushun receives more deposits, while Haizhou receives less deposits. How can we ensure that..."
"Our bank has just been established. You can ask Zheng Jian. He is an old banker. Bankers will also face such problems..."
Cheng Shijie is not omnipotent and cannot solve all problems.
In fact, Cheng Shijie knows the answer to this question, but the problem is that he can't become Baidu. If he can't decide everything, he can ask the commander-in-chief. Then he is like Zhuge Liang.
“How many loans have banks given out now?”
Whether a bank can make a profit or not, the most critical question is how many deposits and loans it can receive. If all the money is in the bank, the role of the bank will be very limited.
"The prospects are very good. I can't tell you the detailed figures, but you should be able to make money!"
"So good!"
Cheng Shijie pointed to the copper coins in front of him and said: "This is the money produced by our own mint. For now, we can produce small flat coins, two coins, five coins, and ten coins every day. There are four specifications, two thousand each. More than 500 coins, totaling more than 10,000 coins!"
"This is too little!"
"Less is temporary!"
Cheng Shijie smiled lightly: "The crucibles, money molds and mother coins currently used by the mint were all prepared by Mr. Sun when he was in Dengzhou. We will make our own mother coins and molds in the future to expand the production scale!"
Although coining money is a handicraft, as these craftsmen become more and more skilled, production efficiency can definitely be improved. With more equipment and workers, production capacity will also increase exponentially.
As Ning Haijun's Thunder Gun was changed to a self-fire firing method by Su Huaicai, the problem was that due to material limitations, the misfire rate was too high, and only 70% of the guns could be fired successfully. Despite this, Cheng Shijie was already very satisfied.
It would be even better if there was a breakthrough in the research on gunpowder and mercury fulminate...
In fact, Ning Haijun's artillery bureau has been continuously making breakthroughs. Just like the stimulation of the heavy reward in the Su Huaicai incident, the artillery is also researching in this direction, but there has been no breakthrough progress for the time being.
Su Huaicai was leading the craftsmen to take back more than 4,000 matchlock guns equipped by Zuo Dusi of the Ning Navy and transform them into automatic fire, that is, flintlock guns.
However, the weight of the modified flintlock gun has increased, with a caliber of 19.8 mm, a gun length of 1560 mm, a gun weight of 6.69 kg, and a projectile weighing 32 grams.
At the same time, the Thunder Guns assigned to each fire support post were also taken back from the musket factory and renovated. They were all transformed into self-fire style. There is no longer a need for match ropes to fire, and there is no need for every Thunder Gun operator. They must be equipped with a holding gun. Torch soldiers are responsible for lighting fires.
It would be okay if it was during the day, but fighting at night, holding a torch, is simply telling the opponent that I am here to ambush you.
This is also a technical limitation. Creating and transforming while producing is a characteristic of southern Liaoning.
…
Wang Jun is from Dengzhou. He was originally the proprietor of Wangji Grain Shop in Dengzhou City, and he was also a wealthy businessman with a reputation as a villain in Dengzhou. Originally, Wang Jun was very happy. His family was well off. As the price of grain in Dengzhou has been rising steadily in recent years, , he took advantage of the situation and made a lot of money. The son is filial, the daughter is well-behaved, and the wife is virtuous.
But what he didn't expect was that the summer before last, he recruited a clerk named Wang Shun. This clerk was diligent, eloquent, and handsome, and was very popular with Wang Jun.
Unexpectedly, he led the wolf into the house. He took Wang Shun back from time to time and got to know his wife, daughter, and son. At first, he didn't think so much. Wang Shun was fifteen years old, what bad thoughts could he have?
Unexpectedly, Wang Shun made his wife, Wang Tianshi, very happy. He often told his wife what he saw and heard in the store and made her happy.
It wasn't until November last year when Wang Jun returned home from a long trip that he discovered that his wife was more than three months pregnant.
He has been out for more than five months, and his wife is pregnant. Even a fool knows what is going on.
He was so angry that he fainted. His wife, Wang Tianshi, thought that Wang Jun was mad to death, so she was so frightened that she and Wang Shun packed up their gold and silver and ran away overnight.
Wang Junlin was tricked by his wife of more than 20 years, and soon the matter spread throughout Dengzhou City. He, Wang Jun, was also a shameless person, but now he has become the laughing stock of Dengzhou City.
In a rage, he passed the family property to his son, left a dowry to his daughter, and then jumped into the sea and committed suicide.
Unexpectedly, he did not die. At that time, the Ning Navy was migrating to southern Liaoning on a large scale. The sailors at sea thought that Wang Jun had accidentally fallen into the water and rescued him.
This is how people seek death once. As long as they can't die, if they walk around the gate of hell, the thoughts of seeking death will fade away. In this way, Wang Jun came to Liaonan from Dengzhou in a daze.
Because southern Liaoning is dominated by people from Liaodong, Wang Jun, who has a Dengzhou accent, was squeezed out and assigned to work in a dirty and smelly fur factory. His immediate boss targeted him everywhere, so Wang Jun ran away in anger. When I arrived in Jinzhou City, I was ready to find a job.
When he couldn't find a job, Wang Jun relied on his sharp words and empty tricks to fool a group of refugees who had just arrived in southern Liaoning and had no job arrangements. After asking, he found out that these people actually knew how to burn kilns.
Wang Junyi thought about taking advantage of the chaos in the management of Ning Haijun in Liaonan, cheating on tools and tricking refugees into working, and successfully opened a kiln. When the first furnace of bricks was fired, the bricks were still hot and bought by Ning Haijun. .
After completing the initial accumulation of the first pot of gold, Wang Jun became one of the first private kiln factory owners in southern Liaoning. He was shrewd and eloquent. After making money, the kiln factory expanded and produced at the same time, starting from the only one. Starting from one brick kiln, in just over half a year, he already owned seventeen kilns, producing bricks and tiles, with hundreds of workers, which could earn him dozens or hundreds of taels of silver, which was more than what his original grain shop had. And make money.
Wang Jun is very satisfied with his new life. Almost no one in Liaonan knows him, because there are almost no people in Dengzhou who are willing to come to Liaonan. Many family members of Denglai New Army and now Ning Navy officers are unwilling to come to this poor place in southern Liaoning. No one in Golden State knows him now, and no one is talking behind his back about being cuckolded.
Later he met a widow with two daughters and a son, and started a new family.
Now Wang Jun has his own house. Although his three children are not his biological children, they call him daddy and are very well-behaved and sensible.
Whenever Wang Jun comes home, his step-wife Qiao has already put the prepared meals on the table, and Daya brings the boiled wine and serves it to Wang Jun.
Wang Jun has made money, so of course he will not be stingy with himself. His food quality is still good, with fish and meat. Now the supply of fish, shrimp and meat in Liaonan has been normalized. As long as you have money, you can eat it. For meat, even in the factory, you can get some oil and water every now and then to satisfy your cravings.
"Daddy!"
Da Ya leads Er Ya and the six-year-old Qiao Yuyu. Qiao Yuyu actually has an older brother named Nian Nian. The two brothers’ names combined mean Nian Nian Youyu. But when they were fleeing, Nian Nian had a fish. The year is lost.
Wang Jun watched Yuyu stare at the plate of stewed mutton in front of him and waved to Yuyu. Yuyu sat on Wang Jun's lap, and the two men began to eat and drink.
Of course, Yuyu drank broth, while Wang Jun drank wine.
Mrs. Qiao is a virtuous woman who keeps her home clean and spotless. Wang Jun works in a kiln factory and is covered in dust every day, but Qiao still allows Wang Jun to come in and out with dignity.
Ms. Qiao was not very old, not yet in her early thirties. In later generations, she could even call herself a little fairy. At this time, she was actually the mother of four children.
The eldest girl is ten years old, and the second girl is seven years old. Because Wang Jun is rich, the eldest girl and the second girl do not need to help at home. They are studying at Jinzhou Girls' School, and Yuyu is studying at Jinzhou Academy.
As for Qiao’s original husband, Qiao could no longer remember his appearance. In memory, his figure has become blurry.
When Wang Jun saw Mrs. Qiao busy, he invited Mrs. Qiao to come over and have dinner together. Da Ya and Er Ya sat at the table to eat together. This was a situation that was almost impossible to see outside Liaonan.
After three rounds of drinking, the topic inevitably shifted to the small loans that the management committee had just announced to promote business development.
Wang Jundao: "There are seventeen kilns in the kiln factory. Each kiln can burn more than 300,000 bricks. The orders in the kiln factory have been scheduled until the end of the year. If there were not too few kilns and too few workers, it would be impossible to make money." , I feel uncomfortable."
"Dad, what are your plans!"
Wang Jun pointed to his home and said: "I have already thought about it. I will sign up tomorrow. Using our house and seventeen kilns as collateral, we can get a loan of at least 800 taels of silver. With these 800 taels of silver, I can buy the three hundred acres of land around the kiln and build a dozen more kilns!"
Mrs. Qiao already knew business, and she was not Wang Jun's first wife. She ate with Wang Jun. It was Wang Jun who adopted the four of them, so naturally she would not raise objections.
Whether you make money or lose money, she supports it.
At night, Mrs. Qiao was very enthusiastic. No matter what, it was Mrs. Qiao's simplest idea to give Wang Jun a son and a half.
…
Dongfang Trading Company, Zhang Chen is now a well-known wealthy woman in Jinzhou. Not to mention how many matchmakers came to persuade Zhang Chen to remarry.
Zhang Chen was very knowledgeable about this, and those people, including a scholar, were all here for her money.
Because Zhang Dongfang was killed in battle, three acres of homestead and one hundred acres of land were saved for her. Zhang Chen hired people to plant all the one hundred acres of land. Because she was a martyr, the land was allotted for easy irrigation. of fertile farmland. She grows less grain and more vegetables. The grain is only less than 30 acres, and more than 70 acres are planted with various vegetables.
The business of the restaurant under Zhang Chen's name is getting better and better, and the demand for vegetables and meat is also increasing. She is thinking about learning from Cheng Shijie and opening a breeding farm to raise hundreds of sheep, thousands of chickens and ducks, whatever. Raise some more fish and shrimp.
The regulations of the Management Committee are that Ning Haijun's military and martyrs' families can borrow money from Liaodong Bank with a guarantee. The annual interest for these commercial loans is only 20%. If you borrow 100 taels of silver, you will have to pay back 100 taels of silver after one year. Twenty taels of silver.
With one hundred taels of silver, Zhang Chen has absolute confidence to earn two hundred taels within a year. This is the business environment in southern Liaoning. Although Zhang Chen is a woman, she is not a cautious character, otherwise she would not dare to Use all your worth to do business.
Zhang Chen walked into Liaodong Bank with the deed of her house, the deed of her shop, and the deed of one hundred acres of land.
Now Liaodong has entered an era of crazy expansion.
(End of chapter)
