Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1206 Spoils of War

The loading manifests of the two ships have been translated, according to which, in addition to the royal grant of 23 pesos, there is another 6 pesos of private money on board.However, according to the speculation of the Great Library, silver smuggling was rampant in Galen, Manila at that time, and dignitaries in New Spain exported a large amount of American silver to Manila to buy Chinese goods and ship them back to the Americas for sale.

The results of the inventory proved that their speculation in advance was correct. In addition to the 31 pesos listed on the list, the private funds that were not registered in the name of "grocery" on the cargo list but were opened in silver coins totaled 12.4 pesos in silver.In this way, 41 pesos were harvested in silver coins alone.There are also 311 silver bars, each weighing 1 Spanish Arova.Some were stamped with mines, some were not.

每一西班牙阿罗瓦合11.5公斤，合计3.5吨。不过特意从广州召回来对这批金银进行鉴定的前珠宝公司经理严茂达在看了之后认为这批银条的纯度有很大的差别。最好的大约是85%左右的纯度。戳记上大多来自新西班牙的萨卡特卡斯、瓜纳华托等银矿。而打着波托西等秘鲁银矿的银条纯度普遍不高，在60%～70%之间。

There are also some unstamped silver bars of different colors, some as high as 90%, and some less than 60%.

"Since the purity is insufficient, what are the remaining ingredients?" Sun Xiao asked.

"Probably mainly lead--this thing is very close to silver, and it looks very similar, so it is often used as a filler. Of course, there are also copper and gold, which are associated with silver mines. With these impurities."

"I thought it was pure silver." Sun Xiao was slightly disappointed.

"It can't be pure silver. The best Spanish peso is only 84% pure. Even if we want to mint silver coins, there is no need for the purity to be higher than that of pesos." Yan Maoda said, "In addition, you can see that these silver coins also have differences in fineness." He picked up a silver coin, "This is a peso minted in New Spain, with a fineness of 84%; this one was minted in Peru, with a fineness of at most [-] to [-]%. You can feel the comparison of Peru when you weigh it." light."

"So if you want to use it to mint coins, you have to re-smelt it."

"That's right, the composition of these silver coins and silver bars is very different, and they must be smelted into a unified coin material first." Yan Maoda said, "Let me look at the others."

There is not much gold, but there are many kinds, both Spanish and Portuguese, as well as other European countries.There are more than 3400 gold coins on the two ships, with different colors and weights.Another 35 gold bars were seized, each measuring a quarter of a Spanish Arova.A total of one hundred kilograms.The fineness is about 8%.

Although the fineness is not high, so much gold is not a small gain.If calculated according to the 19th century gold standard in the old time and space, the pound contains 7.9 grams of pure gold per pound, about [-] pounds can be issued as a reserve.

"As for this pile of jewellery, it's hard to estimate the value." Yan Maoda said, "Except for the gold chain, almost all of them are inlaid with precious stones and pearls. I'm afraid it's worth a lot of money if you count the manual cost. It's a pity to melt it back into the furnace, and it's more cost-effective to sell it directly as a handicraft. The difficulty is that no one wants this kind of jewelry in Daming. I think it can be handed over to the Portuguese or the Dutch to try to realize it. .The gold chain can be returned directly to the furnace.”

Among the jewels seized, the largest amount was emerald, worth 80 yuan.Emeralds are the most produced gemstones in Spanish America.Although the cut is rough, Yan Maoda estimates that the value is not low. If it is re-cut according to modern techniques, the value can be further improved.Next came precious stones of all kinds: rubies, garnets, opals, corundum, and diamonds, in small quantities.The other is 1.5 liters of Caribbean pearls of varying sizes.

"These seawater pearls can be sold for a lot of money." Yan Maoda was wearing gloves, and carefully picked up a blue seawater pearl the size of a little finger, "If you sell this thing in Beijing, it can be sold for at least 1000 to [-] taels of silver— ―But it is more difficult to get rid of it, and there are very few people who can buy this kind of thing.”

After registering all the precious metals and jewelry and sorting them into special boxes, Sun Xiao estimated the value of the precious metals and jewelry trophies obtained during the entire hunger operation at 80 pesos.

As for other goods, there are many kinds.Largest bales of cotton and huge rolls of extremely strong thread.Sun Xiao asked the people in the big library to know that this kind of thread is agave thread. The Philippine colonial government imported American cotton to weave canvas, and imported agave thread for caulking—both for shipbuilding and ship repair. of.

The second is a large number of animal skins-mainly cowhide and sheepskin, the number of which is as many as tens of thousands.In addition to hides, the bulk of the cargo was magenta—the secretion of this insect is a fine red dye; hundreds of barrels of tobacco from Cuba.Hundreds of bags of inexplicable potato roots with an extremely awkward Spanish name: Salza Paglia.Listed as "Drugs" in the cargo manifest category.The people in the big library checked the information and found out that this is a special product of America, and it was considered to be a special medicine that could treat many diseases at that time.

As for the splendid costumes of various silks and woolen cloths and sets of silverware packed in large reinforced chests wrapped in animal skins, they were obviously the luggage of the dignitaries on board.If in the end the Senate allowed the captives to be redeemed, the baggage would also be allowed to be redeemed.Therefore, for the time being, only the seals will be re-attached after inventory and registration, and will not be included in the storage list.

However, the goods that surprised Sun Xiao most came from the bottom warehouse-packed in sealed pottery jars: two hundred jars of mercury, each jar has a volume of a quarter of a French, which is 13.75 liters.Stamps on the jars indicated that the mercury came from the Huancavelica mercury mine in Peru.

Mercury is the most useful thing in this time and space to refine silver.What does the Philippines need so much mercury?Do they also want to develop silver mines?
Sun Xiao doesn't know if there are silver mines in the Philippines, but it is obviously very unusual for so much mercury to be shipped on Manila Galen.He immediately reported this information to the Executive Committee.

But this situation alone does not explain anything - because the Philippines has been importing mercury from China.But such a huge amount of input is too abnormal.The Executive Committee therefore referred the matter to the Foreign Intelligence Service and tasked them with investigating it.

After cleaning, the two Spanish galleons were towed to Bopu shipyard for a comprehensive refit.The ship's cannon, remaining masts, sails and rigging have all been dismantled.Modify and use according to the situation.

Naturally, the cannons were dragged directly to the smelter. The 65 bronze cannons dismantled from the two ships made the metallurgical and material departments laugh from ear to ear—we just lack high-quality bronze!

The galleon is a very strong sea vessel, all of which are made of solid oak, the thickest part of the hull can reach 11 inches, and the ribs are thicker and denser than ordinary ships - no wonder the Spaniards used it Come across the sea to transport gold and silver treasures.

Conduct surveys based on inspection of ship registers and on-site surveys.The registered deadweight of the St. Louis is 800 gross tons in metric system, and the displacement is 1450 tons. The San Raimundo is slightly smaller, with a registered deadweight of 650 gross tons and a displacement of about 1200 tons.

After visiting, Wen Desi thought that the two ships could be rebuilt and reused. After all, the deadweight tonnage of these two ships is close to the level of H800.If it is modified with steam power, it is a very useful transport ship.

"In fact, with the size of these two ships, if they are equipped with enough cannons, they can sail sideways in the South China Sea without steam engines," Chen Haiyang said after visiting. "The problem is that we don't have so many sailors to operate them."

"It would be great if we could use the Spanish captives." Qian Shuiting said, shaking his head regretfully. First of all, this was "politically incorrect," and secondly, the reliability of the Spanish captives could not be guaranteed.

"I think it's okay to at least hire Europeans in non-military shipping companies—after all, we lack qualified senior seamen." Chen Haiyang said, "At least they are much better than the local aborigines in terms of navigation—— Being able to cross the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean is enough to instantly kill most of the naturalized captains in our navy and shipping companies."

According to the captain's certificate issued by the navy, the captains of the navy and shipping companies under the Senate have three types of certificates: A, B, and C.Class A: proficient in the use of navigational instruments, able to rely on charts to navigate across the ocean; Class B: able to use navigational instruments, familiar with traditional Chinese ocean routes, and able to sail to Japan, Thailand, Manila and Batavia; Class C, familiar with the coast of China The route can sail from Hainan to Tianjin.

Most of the captains of the Senate who were born pirates and fishermen are the recipients of the second and third class certificates, and only a few steam warship captains have the first class certificates—all of them are cadets of the Fangcao Land Navy without exception. Class origin.

"Reliability, reliability." Qian Shuiting said, "Don't you know that sailors on ocean-going ships these days are scum concentration camps?"

"That's true, but senior seafarers may give it a try—I remember reading books on this before. At that time, these senior seafarers were not paid well, and many of them did not serve their country, as long as they were given money——Italian seafarers did it for them. Serve everyone. By the way, Columbus was Italian."

(End of this chapter)