The literary giants of the late Ming Dynasty began by copying books

A coin-making machine as big as a textile machine is placed in the center of the temple's main hall, and there are several scholars from the Physics Club nearby directing the workers' busy renovations.

The original coin making machine had a transparent shell, but in order to facilitate repairs, Wang Wenlong's machine did not have a shell at all. Anyway, the power of the machine in this era could only be livestock, and it would not run very fast, and it would be far more dangerous. Far from being as strong as the real mechanical age.

Matteo Ricci walked forward curiously and looked at this machine, which seemed to him to be very complicated. After obtaining Wang Wenlong's consent, he moved the control handle of the coin machine with his hand.

When Matteo Ricci turned it, he felt that the handle was very heavy, but after turning it, he could see that the machine was driving a series of gears and levers. The parts in the machine were well lubricated and did not make any harsh clicks. Voice.

"This machine is really exquisite." Matteo Ricci couldn't help but admired it and said, "I guess the efficiency is pretty good."

Wang Wenlong nodded and said: "The current coin-making efficiency can produce ten silver coins in one minute. However, we need to do the trimming of the silver embryos in advance, and we also need to get an edge-trimming machine to cooperate."

"It's so fast?" Matteo Ricci was quite surprised when he heard this.

Although Matteo Ricci has never worked in a mint, before coming to China, the Jesuits already knew that missionaries in the East needed to use a lot of science and technology to attract the first believers, so Matteo Ricci and his group worked in God. The college specializes in astronomy, industry and other knowledge.

Matteo Ricci knew that the most advanced mint in Europe is the Vienna Mint in Austria. The Vienna pfennig produced by this factory is spread throughout the European continent. However, the most advanced machine in the Vienna Mint cannot reach the level of 10 mints per minute. The efficiency of a silver coin.

This is natural. European coin production had to go through the era of roller press, rocker press, and screw press before the toggle press appeared.

The current Vienna Mint has just begun to develop roller presses, and has invested a lot of money but has not yet succeeded. Vienna's roller press arm machine is an epoch-making product in the history of minting, but because the rollers need to bite each other and the mint machine There was no practical silver blank yet, and for more than a hundred years, the silver coins produced by European coin-making machines could not form a perfect round shape, and they were quickly replaced after the emergence of new technologies.

Wang Wenlong's elbow-operated coin making machine is already an eighteenth-century design. If it could be equipped with a steam engine, this machine would be as good as a factory in the eighteenth century. At this time, Europe was still in its pioneering period of coin making. The tool naturally has a crushing effect.

Europeans in this era still have great respect for China. At least they admit that China is ahead of Europe in many technologies. They have no doubts about the machine that appears in front of them, but rather have a novel vision.

Wang Wenlong was not afraid of his fumbling. There were dozens of pages of blueprints for this thing. It took a year to make it with the ready-made blueprints. It was not something you could learn by just looking at it.

Matteo Ricci said enthusiastically: "I know that many preparation workers in Vienna were hired at high prices to go to Segovia to help the Spanish mint silver coins. There is definitely a market for this kind of machine in Europe, and the Spanish will like it very much."

The Spanish's silver mine production in South America was gradually increasing, and the demand for turning silver into silver coins was very high, but exporting machinery was not realistic in this era.

The standardization of mechanical equipment in this era was too poor. It would take several years for a machine to be dismantled in the country and shipped to a foreign country for debugging until it could be run. Therefore, technology dissemination at this time relied on employers poaching foreign countries. Made possible by craftsmen making machines locally.

Wang Wenlong thought that when the Physics Society develops in the future, he can go to Southeast Asia to open a mint to specifically mint silver coins and transport them back to the Ming Dynasty for use. However, the first batch of workers who are good at using coin-making machines have not yet been trained, so this plan is still too far away.

At this time, Matteo Ricci asked: "Can silver coins be minted privately in the Ming Dynasty?"

Wang Wenlong smiled and replied: "Private minting is sometimes loose and tight. If you want to mint large-scale coins without local connections, it will be very difficult. I have contacted Li Daofu, the governor of water transportation. If he is satisfied with the machine by then, he can probably help establish a mint." "The official currency of the Ming Dynasty was the Ming Dynasty banknotes before Wanli. However, the issuance of too many Ming banknotes caused inflation. After the middle period of the Ming Dynasty, the banknote method was corrupted. It is an exaggeration to say that it is not as good as waste paper, but it is actually worse than waste paper. Paper is just better.

Decades after the banknote law was corrupted, the people have irrevocably used gold, silver, and copper currencies as actual transaction currencies. The amount of coins minted by the imperial court was too small. In the past, the legal tender of the Ming Dynasty was paper banknotes. The coins were only auxiliary coins, and the number of coins minted was also limited. At this time, private coins were rare, and a large amount of "old money" from previous dynasties was even needed. Use it as daily currency.

Of course, it caused a lot of problems, and there is also a clause in the "Da Ming Law" that "anyone who mints copper coins privately will be hanged." This clause is just like the corrupted Huang Jia Law. In fact, at this time, the house with a little ability is at home. It's impossible to control it by opening a furnace to make money.

In this era, the main private coins managed by the government were copper coins. After the Longqing Switch, a large amount of Spanish silver poured into the Ming Dynasty. The price of silver fell, and the corresponding value of copper coins increased. A large number of merchants melted the coins made by the court and mixed them with base metals to cast them. Private money.

Although the casting of silver coins is also profitable, the government does not pay much attention to it. Secondly, silver itself is enough to be used as currency. The profit of casting silver coins is relatively low. There are really not many people doing it. The "Da Ming Law" only stipulates that it cannot be cast. It’s hard to say whether making copper coins or silver coins is illegal. The government doesn’t care much about it, and the market prospects and space are huge.

Wang Wenlong's desire to cooperate with Li Sancai was not random. Li Sancai was a famous Donglin boss, a corrupt official, and he also did a lot of business, and he was quite business-savvy.

Li initially relied on Zhang Juzheng for promotion. The reason why he was appreciated by Zhang Juzheng was because he put forward many practical suggestions on water transportation when he was an official in Shandong.

Li Sancai was responsible for the entire reform of the water taxation system in the Wanli Dynasty. This reform involved the water transportation and health office, taxation, shipbuilding, and warehousing. Without extraordinary business vision, it would be impossible to complete the top-level design. In this process, Li Sancai also managed a lucrative business for his family. It can be said that Li Sancai's ability to greedy so much money was also the result of using the reputation and connections he had accumulated during the water transport reform over the years.

In addition to being a corrupt official, this man is also really good at business.

Now Wang Wenlong's machine has been manufactured, but there are still a lot of joints that need to be opened if he wants to open his own coin mint.

So Jiangnan Physics Society acted together, and Shen Taihong went to the governor of Suzhou to clear the relationship. Suzhou's official mint institutions: Baoquan Bureau of the Ministry of Household Affairs and Baoyuan Bureau of the Ministry of Industry were controlled by others. Without the approval of the Suzhou governor, the mint would definitely not be able to operate. .

Wang Wenlong took Xu Xueju and went straight to Changzhou to find Li Sancai.

Li Sancai was recently troubled by the disputes over the demon book case. After Wang Wenlong and others arrived, Li Sancai did not see him immediately.

Wang Wenlong was not in a hurry. He submitted a greeting post and directly included the drawing of the elbow-operated coin making machine and the coins produced in the post.

The silver coins produced by the coin-making machine for the first time have clear water lines and exquisite die-casting. You can tell at a glance that they are of the best quality.

Sure enough, Wang Wenlong only waited for half a day after posting the post, and Li Sancai asked them to meet at the Yamen.

(End of this chapter)