Monument Yangmen

Chapter 611
"what?"

When Chen Yao placed the black lacquer box on the table in front of him under Yang Qi's gaze, Yang Qi asked suspiciously.

Chen Yao played a riddle, and said with a smile: "You will know after just a look."

Yang Qi lifted a corner of the black lacquered box suspiciously, and after opening the box, he saw three round lumps lying quietly in the middle of the box.

Round, translucent and shiny.

Dark yellow, silver, golden.

"Cast out?"

Yang Qi casually picked up the golden coin, played with it, and asked in surprise.

Chen Yao nodded and said with a smile: "This morning, the steward of Nanguo Money Bank's Fengcheng branch sent someone to deliver it to Xiaguan. After Xiaguan got it, he immediately sent it to you."

Yang Qi carefully observed the three coins.

One each of gold, silver and copper.

There are obvious differences between copper coins, gold coins and silver coins.

The copper coin is in the shape of a square hole and the size of a lens.

The four big characters of "Nanguo Tongbao" are engraved squarely on the front, while the back is bare and has no characters.

Some people may wonder why Yang Qi cast this copper coin into a square hole shape, why not cast it into a round shape like gold and silver coins?
This is precisely the embodiment of the wisdom of our ancestors.

It seems that the round copper coins minted in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China period are obviously a bit of a waste of money.

Of course, that is a product of the times.

People at that time thought that the moon in foreign countries was relatively round.

However, the full moon may not be a good thing.

Although from the appearance point of view, copper coins with square holes are not as good-looking as round copper coins.

But in terms of practicality, copper coins with square holes are far more than round copper coins by a hundred times.

Round copper coins are not easy to carry.

There are often missing things that happen.

It is also inconvenient to use, counting one by one, if there are too many, it is easy to lose everything.

Square-hole-shaped copper coins are different. When carrying them, even if you don’t have a purse, you can string them up with a straw rope, and you can easily take them away without losing them.

When trading, although it is counted one by one, it will not be lost.

As long as it is strung with a rope, no matter how much you lose, you will not lose it.

As for why silver coins and gold coins are not cast into square holes, that is also said.

Silver coins and gold coins represent a larger face value.

It's like the face value of 50 yuan and 100 yuan in later generations.

Their own value determines that they will be well kept.

The number and frequency of its transactions will be much less than that of copper coins.

The number of minted releases will also be relatively small.

Therefore, for their casting, it is natural to be more exquisite and beautiful.

The most important thing is that Yang Qi's doing so is tantamount to directly equating gold and silver with currency.

Doing so will greatly reduce the consumption of copper coins.

That is to say, when gold and silver coins came out, those rich locals who like to hoard money will no longer hoard copper coins in large quantities.

They will choose gold and silver coins with higher denominations, fewer quantities, and more exquisite hoards.

In later generations, in many historical books, Yang Qi often saw that there was a shortage of copper in the past dynasties.

This has also wrongly led many historians to clamor that China is short of copper.

But is China really lacking?
From the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the Qin Dynasty, it has been thousands of years.People have always used bronze as the main ware, from weapons, cooking utensils, musical instruments to the smallest metal products, most of them are copper.

In subsequent dynasties, copper also occupied a unique position.

The currencies of all dynasties were mainly copper coins.

With such a large scale and wide application, it still lasted for thousands of years.

Is China really short of copper?

In fact, China does not lack.

The reason for the shortage is not a problem of copper production.

There are two reasons.

One, martyrdom.

Sacrifice is a Chinese tradition.

can be traced back thousands of years.

And the copper buried in the sacrificial burial is innumerable.

Often, a mine is buried in a grave.

This is not an exaggeration, but a fact.

For example, during the Xia, Shang, Zhou and Qin dynasties, ninety percent of the tombs used for burial were bronze ware.

What's more, even the inner and outer coffins are made of copper.

Although the subsequent dynasties were not as exaggerated as the Xia, Shang, Zhou and Qin dynasties, bronze wares also accounted for a huge proportion.

Second, hide wealth.

Copper coins were the mainstream currency in ancient times, running through the entire feudal dynasty.

Chinese people like to hide wealth in their bones, and they are particular about not revealing it.

This led to many local tyrants in ancient times who liked to bury their money in the soil.

And it's not just a family, rich people, if there is a family, basically have this quirk.

What makes people feel dumbfounded is that there is a lot of wealth, after it is buried underground, it will never be seen again.

Or it was too late for the father to tell his son when he died; or there was a disaster and war, which caused the local tyrants to bury their money and flee with their families and never came back.

and many more.

All in all, wealth just gets buried and forgotten.

Some people may question that these examples are too one-sided, too individual, and far from representing the majority of people.

Yes, this is indeed a unique case.

However, it is not an exception to add thousands of years to each of them.

but a lot.

Therefore, China is not short of copper.

Just because of its special significance, it is hidden on a large scale.

Yang Qi's issuance of gold and silver coins is to avoid the continuation of this disadvantage.

There are obviously many types of currency, so why bother with copper.

How good it is to keep making guns...

cough cough.

Closer to home.

The gold and silver coins minted by the Nanguo Money Bank are almost identical except for their colors.

"Nanguo Tongbao" is engraved on the front, but the back is not bare, but a mountain.

Only those who are familiar with it know that this mountain is the Zhongyi Mountain named by Yang Qi.

In the initial stage of designing coins, Yang Qi had many ideas.

I thought about applying the patterns of coins from later generations, thinking about dragon heads, thinking about the Great Wall, etc.

Even Yang Qi thought about using his own profile picture.

However, in the end, he rejected them all.

Yang Qi discovered that if there is a place in this world that he will never forget, then this place must be Zhongyi Mountain.

Today's Zhongyi Mountain has been filled with graves.

10,000+ people were buried in Zhongyi Mountain.

In the eyes of outsiders, their death is for the country and the family.

Only Yang Qi knew in his heart that these people died because of him.

For his one thought, for his own selfish desire.

Yang Qi hopes that the world can remember them.

Twirling the silver coin casually, Yang Qi blew lightly and placed it by his ear.

Yang Qi was disappointed that he didn't hear the familiar soft moaning sound.

"How much was the first batch cast?"

Yang Qi put down the silver coin and raised his head to ask Chen Yao.

Chen Yao said excitedly: "The first batch consists of 50 gold coins, 1000 silver coins, and [-] million copper coins. They can be distributed to the common people after you give an order."

"Too little..."

Yang Qi sighed, and said: "Let the craftsmen continue to cast, quickly cast, and make as many as they can."

Chen Yao said in astonishment: "I'm afraid the deposit in Fengcheng Branch of Nanguo Money Bank is not enough..."

Yang Qi smiled and said: "You don't have to worry about this, I will let Nanguo Qianhang cooperate with you, you just need to cast it."

Chen Yao nodded and asked, "When will it be distributed to the common people?"

Yang Qi laughed, "Should we still choose an auspicious day?"

Chen Yao said in embarrassment: "The main reason is...the officials don't know how to let the common people use the money..."

The issuance of currency is indeed a problem.

The Song Dynasty, and the courts of the past dynasties issued coins, and they would let the coins slowly flow into the market.

The most direct way is to spend it directly from the court.

For example, the salaries of courtiers, military salaries of soldiers, wages of official craftsmen everywhere, etc.

This means of distribution is too slow.

If you meet an emperor who likes to change the year name, it is very likely that some people have not seen the money of this year name, and another year name has already been born.

For example, Zhao Guangyi's grandson, Emperor Renzong Zhao Zhen.

He is an emperor who likes to change his year name.

The emperor always felt that changing the year name was their authority.

In fact, this is not conducive to the rule of a dynasty.

It is not conducive to the cohesion of a national culture.

Obviously, Yang Qi didn't need to use these methods.

With Nanguo money in hand, Yang Qi can easily distribute the currency.

Yang Qi instructed Chen Yao: "You first send someone to divide the money into three parts, and send one part to each of the Datong Mansion Branch and the Fuxing Mansion Branch. During this period, you can let people go out and spread the word, sharing the benefits of the new money and Tell everyone about the exquisiteness of the new money. Arouse everyone's curiosity.

After that, I will ask Kou Zhun to cooperate with you and use the new money when officials at all levels distribute salaries this month.

Once new money appears, people can go to money shops to exchange old money for new money.

In this way, the new money was exchanged and began to circulate.We still get quite a bit of old money, re-minted. "

"Gudu~"

Chen Yao swallowed a mouthful of saliva, excitedly said: "Then we can take this opportunity to make a lot of money?"

The big profit that Chen Yao said refers to fire loss.

People all over the world know one thing, and that is that new money is worth more than old money.

And when the old money is converted into new ones, it is necessary to calculate the fire consumption.

In addition to this, there is also the net content.

The copper content of Yang Qi's new copper coins is only [-]%, and the remaining [-]% is iron and lead.

This is not done to cheat people, but for the consideration of hardness and wear.

Of course, the darkest should be gold coins.

The gold content is only [-]%.

Gold itself is relatively soft, so to make it hard enough, more iron and lead must be added.

This is why the gold coins minted by Yang Qi are hard and beautiful.

Looking at Chen Yao's greedy face, Yang Qi glared at him, "Don't make money from ordinary people, be more honest. Merchants...you can make some money."

Chen Yao was still excited.

One gold is worth ten thousand coppers.

Although there are few gold coins, in terms of value, they are far more valuable than copper coins.

"clear."

Chen Yao immediately went down excitedly to make arrangements.

Although he himself didn't get any benefits from this matter, he just felt very happy and happy.

I don't know why.

After Chen Yao left, Yang Qi fumbled for the three coins in the box again.

This belongs to him, Yang Qi, symbolizing his first batch of money.

Yang Qi should take good care of it.

Not because of their value, but because of their symbolic significance.

……

From the second day after Chen Yao left the Yang Mansion, a rumor spread in Datong Mansion.

Rumor has it that Nanguo Money Bank's Nanqian will be circulated in Datong Mansion.

Nanqian not only has copper coins, but also silver coins and money, which are particularly exquisitely cast.

Moreover, one silver coin can be regarded as one hundred copper coins; one money can be regarded as one hundred silver coins.

In an instant, the entire Datong Mansion went crazy.

Many people looked at the strings of copper coins in their hands and began to feel disgusted.

If this string of copper coins is turned into a silver coin, wouldn't it be convenient and fast to hold?

There is a pot of copper coins buried in the water urn at home. If it is replaced by two coins, wouldn't the target be smaller and easier to hide?
Most importantly, everyone wants to see it.

Everyone wants to see how exquisite the new money is.

For a while, the threshold of Nanguo Money Bank was almost broken.

The Nanguo money bank can no longer do business.

The guys had already settled their accounts, and lined up one by one to explain to others the fact that Nanqian hadn't been issued yet.

The common people came one by one in good spirits and returned in disappointment.

There are also some diehards who just rely on the Nanguo money bank and refuse to leave.

No matter what you say, you have to get new money before you leave.

They seriously suspect that Nanguo Qianhang is deceiving them.

Since Nanguo Money was issued by Nanguo Money Bank, how could Nanguo Money Bank not own it?

There is still no shortage of such people, even after a thousand years.

In fact, they have no bad intentions.

I just want to get ahead of others, get good things, show off in front of others first, and gain some vanity.

Businessmen are always the group of people with the keenest sense of smell.

They will stare at everything that is beneficial to their business.

The emergence of gold and silver coins is simply tailor-made for them.

They have long since had enough of carrying heavy purses, or pulling wagonloads of copper coins to trade.

Although the emergence of Nanguo Money Bank greatly facilitated their business.

They even played Nanpiao in private.

It is to use the bills deposited in Nanguo Money Bank as money for direct transactions.

However, not everyone approves of Nanpiao.

The Nanguo money bank did not spread to every corner of the Song Dynasty, Nanguo, Liaoguo, and Northwest.

So there are still many people who do not recognize Nanpiao.

For example, those rigid party members.

They prefer real money transactions.

The emergence of gold and silver coins helped them solve this problem.

They are eager to get gold and silver coins as soon as possible.

Moreover, they are not worried at all that the southern money will not be used if it leaves the northwest.

There are Nanguo money banks in Song Dynasty, Liao Dynasty and Nanguo.

Where is the reputation of Nanguo Money Bank?

And as a leader among merchants, the largest merchant in Northwest China.

Cao Lin has already started to get the moon first if she is close to the water.

When Cao Lin walked in front of Yang Qi for the eighth time wearing an eye-catching red shirt.

Yang Qi threw down the "Dongsheng Mansion Household Register" in his hand, rolled his eyes, and asked Cao Lin, "Are you trying to make trouble like that?"

As soon as Yang Qi opened his mouth, Cao Lin jumped in front of Yang Qi like a butterfly, and asked straight to the point: "Mr. Lang, are you going to issue Nanqian?"

(End of this chapter)