Rome must fall.

Chapter 358 Papermaking and Printing

Pigris thought about it carefully and asked humbly: "Chief, if we really want to issue this kind of paper currency, how can we ensure that it is worth the money when we buy things with paper currency?"

Maximus pondered and said, "To make the banknotes valuable, the number of banknotes issued by the tribe cannot be arbitrary... We must first know how much grain the entire tribe harvested and how much goods it produced in a year, and how much it would cost to sell these grains and goods in the market...

Well, I think this data should be relatively easy to count. For grain, the Ministry of Finance has records of it when it collects land taxes from the tribesmen every year. For goods, the Ministry of Commerce manages various markets and can make statistics at the same time. The sum of these two parts is the total wealth created by our Nix tribe through hard work in a year—"

Pigris suddenly realized and interrupted: "Then when we issue banknotes, we will make the total value of these banknotes equal to the total wealth created by our tribe. This way, the banknotes will be valuable, right, Chief?!"

"You are partly right, but not completely." Maximus continued to explain: "We also need to look at the number of times the banknotes are circulated in commerce. How do we say this? ... Suppose you have a lot of chickens at home, and they lay a lot of eggs. You go to the market to sell the eggs, earn some money, and then use the money to buy wheat to raise chickens at home. In other words, you use one money to participate in two transactions. If the tribesmen in the market participate in two transactions, what does this mean?"

"This means that we only need to issue banknotes equivalent to half of the total wealth created by the tribe in a year to meet the commercial activities of the entire tribe, because you just said, Chief, that currency is only a medium of exchange for commercial activities." Pigris blurted out.

"That's right!" Maximus nodded approvingly: "As expected of a businessman, you are quick in this regard."

"But, Chief...it's hard to calculate the circulation frequency of this currency..." Pigris complained.

Maximus smiled slightly. "It's not that difficult. There is a relatively simple calculation method. The total amount of money sold in the market each year is divided by the amount of currency in circulation each year. This is roughly the number of times the currency circulates—"

"Chief, please wait a moment!" Pigris quickly stood up, ran to the secretary next to Maximus, borrowed paper and pen, returned to his seat, and asked: "Chief, can you say it again?"

Maximus described it in detail again, and when he saw that Pigris had written it down, he reminded him, “This is just a rough method. If you want to get more accurate data, you have to discuss it carefully with the Ministry of Commerce, and figure out a better way to record it through continuous practice and recording.

However, for now, our tribe's trade has just begun. Most of the shops in the market sell goods made in the tribe's workshops. The tribesmen buy them home for their own use, and rarely make a second transaction. Therefore, the total amount of banknotes we want to issue for the first time can be equal to the total wealth created by the tribe in a year.

In fact, even if we do this, the total amount of money in the banknotes is still too much, because the fans use most of the food they harvest for themselves, except for paying taxes, and will not sell it in the market. Of course, we will not send out all the banknotes at once, so the value of the banknotes should not be affected too much-"

Maximus swallowed his saliva to moisten his dry throat, and continued: "With the total value of banknotes to be issued in a year, we must carefully consider the face value of each banknote. If, as Pigris just said, a banknote is written with a thousand gold coins, it will definitely not work. This is not only inconvenient for buying and selling, but also easily leads to the banknote becoming worthless.

In this regard, we can learn from gold and silver coins. We can have different banknotes with a face value of one dupont, one sez, one dinar, one oris, etc. The total number of them is equivalent to the total wealth created by the tribe in a year. In this way, it will be very convenient for the tribe members to go to the market to buy and sell things with banknotes of different denominations. "

"Chief, using paper money to replace gold and silver coins is a very wonderful suggestion. Once implemented, it will definitely greatly promote the prosperity of the tribe's trade!" Quintus praised sincerely, and then changed the subject: "But... I still have a few questions."

"What questions?"

Quintus said cautiously, "The paper we use now is easy to damage. If we use it to make banknotes, the people may not be able to use it after a few uses... And this paper is not like gold, silver or copper. Every piece of paper is exactly the same. Even if we write different denominations on it, it is easy to get confused and make mistakes when buying and selling things, especially when buying large quantities of goods..."

"This is indeed a flaw in paper money, but it is easy to fix."

Maximus knew the most about paper money. He calmly replied: "The paper used to make paper money must be very different from the paper we usually use. It must be thick and tough, with a smooth surface and much better quality than ordinary paper. This requires the craftsmen in the papermaking workshop to select better papermaking materials and go through repeated exploration before it is possible to make it...

Capito, you need to talk to the craftsmen in the papermaking workshop and ask them to set up a team to make paper money by the end of the year. If they succeed, the tribe will reward them. " "Chief, I will go to the papermaking workshop to talk to Tolmius about this matter after the meeting." Capito responded with a little excitement.

Maximus nodded and continued, "As for the worry about the banknotes being easily confused, this problem is easier to solve. We can make a banknote with a face value of about one Dupont this big-"

Maximus kept writing with his hand: "A note with a face value of about one seis is made this big... a note with a face value of about one dinar... The size of the note is used to show the difference in face value. The larger the face value, the larger the paper.

In addition, we not only need to mark the denomination of the banknotes, but also draw different exquisite patterns on banknotes of different denominations. This will not only make it easier for the people who use the banknotes to distinguish, but also make them cherish the banknotes and prevent them from being damaged. "

"Captain, after hearing what you said, I can't help but want to get this kind of paper money immediately to buy things." Cornelius flattered loudly.

Quintus still frowned and asked, "Chief, what you said is indeed a good idea. But we need to make small-denomination banknotes equivalent to gold and silver coins, and the total value must be equivalent to the total wealth created by the tribe in a year. There must be a large amount of banknotes. You have to mark the value on each piece of paper and draw exquisite patterns. How many people will it take and how much time will it take!"

"This problem is also easy to solve." Maximus sighed, looked at everyone, and said loudly: "We need to apply a new technology, that is printing!

The school textbooks that Kefisofon wrote just now require more than ten or twenty people to copy non-stop, and it takes a while to distribute the textbooks to each teacher for teaching students... Every time our political affairs hall issues a decree, the secretariat staff also needs to copy dozens or hundreds of copies, and then distribute them to various towns and villages...

But with the invention of printing, we no longer need to waste too much manpower and time. We only need to carve the template, prepare paper and ink, and we can copy hundreds or thousands of copies of textbooks and government decrees in a very short time. Moreover, the content and handwriting of each copy are exactly the same because they use the same template.

The same is true for paper money. With the application of printing technology, we can obtain hundreds of thousands or millions of pieces of paper marked with numbers and patterns without much effort.

Of course, in order to successfully use printing, the craftsmen of the Ministry of Works need to spend time and energy to carefully study the technology and process of printing, just like the type workshop has to make paper suitable for banknotes. I believe that it will be successful in the end, and then I will personally draw the pattern and value for the banknotes! "

"Chief, if it is true as you said, printing technology can easily reproduce thousands of books with the same content, that would be great!"

As a scholar, Kephisofon realized how important the application of this technology would be for the dissemination of knowledge. He was very excited and couldn't help asking curiously: "Chief, where did you learn this printing technique? I have never heard of it before!"

"Whether it's printing, papermaking, or the use of paper money to promote tribal trade that we just talked about, these are all..." Maximus looked around at everyone and said with a very solemn expression: "The revelation that the goddess Danu gave me in my dream!"

Not only Kephisophon, but everyone present was stunned.

"Maximus is the offspring of the goddess Danu" has become a consensus among the people of the Nyx, but most department heads are skeptical about this. After all, they are either Romans, Latins, or Greeks, influenced by high civilization and have their own beliefs. However, the beliefs they hold on to have become fragile in the face of Maximus's repeated displays of wisdom and knowledge that far exceeds that of ordinary people and even the entire Mediterranean world.

"Thank you for the protection of the goddess Danu!" As Carina sang devoutly, everyone else raised their hands involuntarily, palms facing the sky, bowed respectfully to Maximus, and said the same words at the same time: "Thank you for the protection of the goddess Danu!"

"The goddess Danu will always guide the tribe, but of course we have to work together to solve the problems!" Maximus' voice was clear and powerful, echoing in everyone's ears.

(End of this chapter)