Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 655 Filling the sea with the looted resources
Making currency is only the most basic of copper's many properties, and until Zhu Youjian's later generations, copper is still a strategic resource with a wide range of applications, in electronics, communications, machinery manufacturing, aerospace, construction, automobiles, etc. It plays an irreplaceable and important role in the industry.

Take Luzon under the current conditions, and use the more advanced mining technology in Ming Dynasty to conduct large-scale mining of copper mines in Luzon. After transporting back to Daming, some of them will be smelted into copper ingots, and then the remaining Most of the ore was filled into the coastal waters of Tianjin and stored for the continued use of Chinese people in later generations. This is Zhu Youjian's strategic plan.

The Luzon copper mine is just one of them. After the rapid advancement of navigation technology, Ming Dynasty will send a large number of fleets to South America to continuously purchase copper ore from Chile and Peru and transport them back to China for reclamation.

The reserve of strategic resources must be carried out before the whole world is aware of it. This is to accumulate enough strength for the continuation of Chinese civilization, and to break the situation in which certain resources are controlled by others in later generations of China and have to be imported at sky-high prices.

In addition to copper mines, iron ore and coal mines should also adopt the same method.

We should try our best to avoid over-exploitation of various domestic mineral resources.

We can't pollute and destroy the picturesque mountains and rivers left by our ancestors. As for other people's places, pollution can drive local economic development, and it can be polluted first and then treated.

This line of thinking is not original to Zhu Youjian.

Isn't that what developed countries such as Britain, France, the United States and Japan do?
Now I am just doing it in advance.

It is better to act first, and it will be more expensive to act later.

In Zhu Youjian's plan, copper coins can only be used as auxiliary currency.

Judging from the current situation, even within 200 years, metal currency will still occupy a dominant position for a long time, and during this period, a currency with higher value is needed to occupy the main link of commodity transactions.

The value of copper coins is too small. If it is a commodity transaction, the value of copper coins is obviously far from enough. A box of copper coins is actually worth 100 taels of silver, which is too inconvenient to carry.

Minting silver coins has become imperative.

Since Long Wan opened the sea, a large amount of silver has flowed into Daming, causing the personal wealth of many rich locals in Ming to skyrocket. However, it is embarrassing that, apart from Daming, other countries and regions did not use pieces of silver ingots as the main currency in circulation. , most of these silver bullion can only be circulated in the place where Daming belongs.

That's not to say that foreigners don't appreciate the value of silver, it's the precious metal that has no currency shape.

For example, if you want to hold a silver coin or other metal currency made in France with beautiful patterns on both sides, then your counterparty will be happy to sell the goods to you, but if you hold a silver bullion of the same value, then you transaction cannot be completed.

It's very simple, people don't believe in the value of this silver bullion at all.

Based on this common phenomenon in foreign trade, it has become a very urgent issue to produce the exclusive silver coins of Ming Dynasty as soon as possible.

However, the current industrial level of Ming Dynasty, especially in terms of machinery manufacturing, is still lagging behind several important European countries, and it is still unable to manufacture coin minting machines relying on its own strength.

According to the world historical data that Zhu Youjian saw in high school, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom all had large-scale minting machines in this period, and the experience in producing precious metal coins was quite mature. Therefore, the introduction of this current manufacturing technology is very necessary.

During this period, the French screw embossing machine was the best target, and it should not be difficult to obtain it. As long as the price is right, there is no reason why the profit-seeking Frenchman should not sell it to Daming.

Now let's mint copper coins first, and wait until the visiting missions return to the country and bring back the minting machine to talk about silver coins.

After the silver coins are minted, they will be promoted in the market in the Ming Dynasty first, becoming the third currency after silver and copper coins, and then gradually find ways to take back the silver coins circulating in the market, turn them into silver coins, and then release them to the world Circulate online, strive to eliminate silver bullion within three to five years, and establish the dominant position of silver coins.

This needs to be done slowly, and the circulation of silver ingots cannot be banned at the same time as the release of silver coins. This will cause a bad situation of currency shortage and lead to an imbalance in the entire commodity market.

The release of silver coins should start with senior officials above the fourth rank in Beijing.

Of course, Zhu Youjian should take the lead in setting an example, and first exchange the silver in the internal funds into silver coins of the same value. Under this demonstration effect, there will be no great resistance among senior officials.

On the issue of the circulation of the new currency, the importance of the Four Seas Commercial Bank is highlighted.

Given the important position of the Four Seas Commercial Bank in the commercial circulation of the Ming Dynasty today, as long as it can take the lead in using this silver coin, many industries related to it will follow suit. After a period of use, those wait-and-see businessmen will Start tentative acceptance, and after confirming that its value will not depreciate, the entire market will gradually recognize its attributes.

Now it is just a conception and conception, and after the implementation, the existing problems will be solved one by one, and finally it will be completely perfected.

As for the fact that some people want to take advantage of the unweighted silver coins and take advantage of the opportunity to profit from it, it is difficult to prevent this phenomenon, but the occurrence of this phenomenon should be extremely rare, and it will be enough to increase the crackdown at that time.

The new silver coins are cast with patterns and characters around them. Once they are damaged, they will be regarded as waste coins. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to profit from them.

As long as this kind of silver coin is widely used in Daming, the surrounding countries will quickly accept and recognize it. In that case, in the near future, Daming's silver and copper coins will become hard currency.

The next thing Daming has to do is to exchange various commodities for a large amount of silver from South America and Japan, then process it into currency, and then obtain a large amount of strategic materials from other countries.

During this process, Daming was the biggest winner.

Take white sugar as an example. White sugar is nothing more than processing the sugar cane that grows in the soil, and selling it to Japan will turn it into silver. After processing it into currency, it will purchase more materials from overseas. In fact, Ming Dynasty did not pay much for this process. , but turned the worthless sugarcane into dozens of times the profit and returned to Daming.

The process of making silver coins is also a process of generating profits.

Because it cannot be pure silver, as long as it can reach the level of the Mexican eagle dollar which is widely circulated in later generations, it is enough.

[-]% silver, [-]% lead.

Lead is worthless at all, and nearly [-]% of the profit has been generated invisibly.

As for gold coins, Zhu Youjian did not plan to mint them.

The practice of later generations has proved that silver is not valuable, but gold has always maintained or exceeded its value. It is too bad to mint gold coins. In the future, we must find a way to get as much gold as possible from all over the world to Daming.

Thinking of the minting machine, Zhu Youjian thought of the mission of Yuanhang, and at this time, he suddenly realized a very important problem.

(End of this chapter)