Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 209 Silver Empire
Fang Ke leaned his crutch on the ground with a bang, and his beard trembled in anger.

Standing in the living room of the Fang family mansion, he asked his nephew angrily, "Are you crazy? Fifty thousand taels of grain and 10 taels of silver, do you know how much the price of grain has risen due to the severe drought this year? Now at least three taels of silver and one stone of rice, And it will still go up, until next year when it is not available, it may go up to four or five taels of one stone."

Calculated on the basis of three taels of silver and one stone of rice, the more than 5 stones cost 20 taels of silver.

But Fang Fengnian calmly helped his uncle to sit down, "Uncle, I know that the price of food has risen due to the severe drought this year, and I originally raised the food and silver in comparison with the figure of 30 taels. I just want to contribute 30 taels to Jian Guo Two contributions, how much? Actually not much.”

"Why not much? Although our Fang family has improved since you passed the exam, how long has it been? 30 taels of silver!"

"Uncle, money and wealth are things outside the body. At critical times, what is the root? It is people, and the survival of the family. If the family cannot survive, no matter how much money and food are saved, it will be someone else's. Can't uncle see clearly the current situation? The captives have invaded the south, and the situation in the south of the Yangtze River is in dire straits, but in the interior, Lu Jianguo continues to establish the national unity, and now there are internal and external troubles, worrying about food and wages, and it is necessary to establish the authority of the supervisory country, how did Fang Guoan die?"

"Does Uncle want our Fang family to become the second Fang Guoan?"

Fang Fengnian bluntly reminded his uncle that Fang Guoan not only recognized him as a adoptive father, Fang Guoan had looted and blackmailed everywhere in Yanzhou in the past few months, but he did not rob the Fang family, and even the Fang family was tortured by Fang. National security has many benefits.For example, Fang Guoan snatched many land title deeds from the big family, and many of them were half sold and half given to the Fang family and his relatives and friends.

Fang Kezhi is just Fang Fengnian's uncle, just a juren. There are more than 1 mu of land around Yanzhou Fucheng, and there are many fields in his hometown Suian, and even a lot of new land in Fuyang and other places in Hangzhou. here?Didn't he get it through Fang Guoan?
And these acquired lands not only belonged to rich landlords who were extorted and robbed by Fang Guoan, but also lands that were originally stationed by the army of the guards and official villages of the imperial court, all of which were problematic.

If Jian Guo really wanted to investigate carefully, he would be able to find a dozen major crimes at random, convict the whole family of Fang's family and confiscate their property. What Fang Guoan said to Jian Guo is indeed true, the country is ruined and the family is in trouble.

But the Fang family itself has serious problems, and they themselves can't stand up. At this time, Fang Fengnian certainly knows that if he takes the initiative to make up the payment or even donate a batch, there are only advantages and no disadvantages.

If he behaves well, then he is a positive example. He is the first to respond to Jian Guo, and Jian Guo will definitely be rewarded when the time comes.

If there is resistance, it will be a bad example. When the time comes to set a good example and focus on the attack, the Fang family will not be able to escape Fang Guoan's second place.

Fang Fengnian was also a chief assistant at any rate, so he didn't understand such a simple truth?

30 taels of silver is indeed a lot, but Fang Fengnian has been the chief assistant, and the amount of money he has collected in the past few years is more than that.

As long as this test is passed, the fields obtained by the Fang family's black, white, and gray channels can be regarded as whitewashed, and the position will be stable in the future, wouldn't it be good?

"Can this 30 taels of silver be exchanged for the position of a bachelor?" Fang Ke asked directly.

Fang Fengnian shook his head, "His Royal Highness left me to walk in front of the imperial court, and sit and talk."

Fang Ke straightly understood that at least for the time being, Fang Fengnian would not be allowed to enter the cabinet again, but if he could stay in front of the imperial court, he would still have influence. This was the key to the survival and even growth of the Fang family.

"Okay, I'll pay the money and food." Fang Ke, who was almost 80 years old, was trembling with pain. The small 30 taels of money and food was more than half of his property.

"Uncle, money is something other than personal possessions. As long as uncle pays all the money and food this time, the supervisor will definitely pay back. At that time, my nephews will all get an official job."

"This is what Jian Guo promised to me personally."

Fang Ke sighed, "Hey."

······
The soldiers and horses of the imperial battalion in several towns received the task and took turns to help clean up and rectify Yanzhou. When they were on duty, they were dispatched to assist in collecting grain and clearing the fields. When they were not on duty, they practiced in the school grounds.

Fang Fengnian did what he said, and sure enough, a large amount of grain and money were shipped in very quickly. Yanzhou had a chief assistant. The Fang family has developed rapidly over the years, with 10 shi and more grain and [-] taels of silver. For them, it is really not a problem .

If it weren't for the time-consuming transportation of grain, it would be faster to pay 30 taels of silver directly.

When Zhu Yihai saw Fang Fengnian again, he was also surprised to see that he said that he had mobilized money and food to bring in, so he went to watch and receive it.

Inside the city, the several granaries of the Fang family were all opened, and the grain from one granary was handed over directly. In addition, grain boats arrived along the river from the pier outside the city, blocking the pier completely.

Rice, paddy, wheat, barley, buckwheat, beans, millet, sorghum, all kinds of grains are available, and the imperial grain platform responsible for receiving them also has experience in converting various grains into rice according to market prices.

Zhu Yihai looked at the money sent.

Boxes of silver piled up all over the floor.

These silvers are of different colors and even shapes. There are horseshoe silver ingots, pig waist silver collars, silver nuggets, and even foreign silver from Fanren.

This is not difficult for the officials of the Liangtai. According to the usual practice, they first have to appraise the quality of all silver, and finally calculate it according to the conversion of grain and silver.

"All kinds of taels of silver are calculated as full grain silver."

Yu Dafu explained to Zhu Yihai, "It's just said to be full of grain silver, but in fact the fineness of grain silver is not the highest."

The fineness of patterned silver is generally more than [-]%. Even if it is usually said to be full of patterned silver, it is usually only said to be of high fineness.Wenyin can even be regarded as a common unit of silver. When all kinds of silver are collected, Wenyin is used as the standard.

For example, Jinhuayin, the imperial court changed part of the land tax to Jinhuayin in many places.Gold flower silver originally refers to the fineness of silver with gold flowers on it. Its fineness is about [-]%, while the fineness of Ersibao silver is about [-]%.

It is called Er Si Bao Yin, because this kind of ingot-shaped silver ingot needs to be exchanged with grain silver.

Another example is Jinhuayin, which requires more water.

And some silver with lower fineness needs precipitation, and can only be exchanged for less grain silver, but in many cases, grain silver is actually just a counting unit, and the real circulation is ingot silver, golden flower silver, etc.

Just like the 10 taels of silver handed over by the Fang family now are silver coins of various shapes, weights, and finenesses. Here at Liangtai, the silver has to be divided according to different finenesses, and then exchanged for silver figures, rising water or falling water.

After the silver is collected, it usually needs to be re-melted. For example, the gold flower silver from various fields is exclusively for the emperor's internal treasury. It is about 100 million taels, so it is cast into gold flower silver with high quality.

Generally, the silver in the national treasury of the household department is mainly ingot silver, also known as treasure silver, which is slightly lower in color and higher than standard pattern silver.

Although silver is used as a unit of water conversion, there will still be loss when it is finally melted and cast, so as usual, additional fire consumption is required.

Although Zhu Yihai heard it clearly, he also felt that it was very inconvenient to use it in this way. The silver taels directly weighed had problems with their fineness. Since the middle period of the Ming Dynasty, the silver standard had been formed, and silver was used in large quantities. Smaller units, so it can only be used for shredding and weighing.

To tell you the truth, Zhu Yihai felt very inconvenient seeing those officials of the grain platform who were piercing holes, burning them, cutting and weighing them, and calculating them with an abacus on the boxes of silver.

In fact, with the inflow of a large amount of foreign silver in maritime trade, the silver silver of the Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese is actually more advanced. These are made according to the value of the currency. scraping.

However, when these silver coins entered Daming, they still could not escape the fate of being treated as ordinary silver and weighed according to their fineness, and in the end they all had to be recast into silver ingots.

One ingot of 50 taels of Jinhua silver is recorded as 53 taels of silver, and one ingot of 50 taels of treasure silver is recorded as 52 taels of silver.

All kinds of foreign silver produced by Fanren are also directly folded into grain silver according to the weight of fineness, and the fineness is generally slightly lower.

As for the copper coins, because the Fang family paid a lot of silver this time, they didn't use the silver coins at all. After further questioning, they realized that the copper coins are very worthless today.

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, one thousand coins were exchanged for one tael of silver. In the Chenghua Dynasty, eight hundred Wen coins were exchanged for one tael of silver, and in the Hongzhi Dynasty, seven hundred coins were exchanged for one tael of silver. Thousands of four hundred coins were converted into one tael of silver, and after Wanli, copper coins became less and less valuable. At the beginning of Chongzhen, one tael of silver was exchanged for two to three thousand coins. One or two.

Common people and merchants are unwilling to accept Chongzhen money, only willing to accept Jiajing gold-backed copper coins, and even fake Jiajing coins privately minted by the people are far more popular than Chongzhen money. Twelve thousand coins can be worth five taels of silver, one tael of silver A discount of [-] yuan.

Even the government has basically given up copper coins, and the grain tax is only allowed to be converted into silver.

Although in the early years of Chongzhen, there was an edict that 55 Wen should be used as a coin for silver, but this edict, which violated the real situation of the market, was the same as the precious banknotes issued by the Ming Dynasty in the past, and no one accepted it at all.

The exaggerated ratio of silver to money at this time is also related to the sharp drop in silver imports. The Ming Dynasty has already become a silver empire. As a result, the price of silver rose sharply, and copper coins were even less valuable.

Copper coins, as coins issued by the imperial court, are also precious metals and have real value. Therefore, the fluctuation of its currency value is normal, but if the fluctuation is too large, it means that the imperial court has lost control of the money.

In addition to the convenience of circulation, the imperial court wants to collect interest on the money itself, so the value of the currency is generally higher than the actual metal value, but if it is too high, then the private casting will be very profitable, and many people will take the risk of private casting money.

When private money is listed, the bad money will drive out the good and the bad, and the people will save the good money and sell the bad money, resulting in less and less good money in the market.

(End of this chapter)