Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 472 Economic Work ([-])

Qiang Quansheng was wearing a short black trench coat, listening to his subordinates' reports with a smile on his face.

"After our many batches of tests, the latest silver content of the Spanish cross silver coin with a denomination of 8 riyals (commonly known as the peso) has dropped to less than 22 grams, and the silver content of other denominations of silver coins has also declined to varying degrees; and during the civil war The fineness of British coins has also declined sharply. The silver content per shilling has dropped to 4 grams, that is, the silver content per pound is only 80 grams; , in order to raise huge war funds, France minted a large number of coins of poor quality. The silver content of coins of different denominations is also different, the difference is so great that we can not make a valid judgment on their currency value; For the ducat and dukat (guilders) minted in the Netherlands, the precious content of gold and silver in the coins has declined slowly, and the value of the coins has remained relatively stable.” said Hai Dafu, a young researcher at the State Administration of Precious Metals.

Hai Dafu, formerly known as Haman, is a Germanized Livonian. He was educated when he was young. However, the continuous wars in the Livonian region made him completely desperate for his hometown, so he came to the New World to try his luck.After working hard at the Northwest Reclamation Bank on the east coast for many years, he has now been transferred to the newly established Precious Metals Administration as a researcher at the official level. He is considered a proud upstart.

The General Administration of Precious Metals is an agency directly under the Executive Committee. Under its jurisdiction are the Dayuhe Mint and the National Treasury. They are responsible for minting coins, adjusting exchange rates, formulating financial measures, and supervising the two banks on weekdays. They have a lot of power .Qiang Quansheng was the first director of the Precious Metals Administration. At the same time, he was also a member of the Economic Countermeasures Committee of the Government Affairs Council and the senior think tank and main assistant of Nie Xiaoqian, the Finance Committee member.This man, who was just a small accountant before the time travel, finally got the opportunity to make a fortune after he was almost [-] years old, and became the leader of the special real power department of the State Administration of Precious Metals.

"So, the exchange rate needs to be adjusted again? It was just adjusted half a year ago. These European guys are getting more and more shameless. They are so dishonest in casting silver coins. How poor are they? Well, this We have nothing to do with helping others to ruin our reputation, but the value of our main currency, the 'Yuan', must remain stable, with a fineness of 27 grams of silver + 3 grams of copper, and there must be no shortage. This guy is not a vegetarian, do you understand?" After listening to the report, Qiang Quansheng casually instructed Hai Dafu.In fact, the Mint is not owned by Hai Dafu, he only cares about adjusting the exchange rate, but he still nodded respectfully after hearing Qiang Quansheng's words.

"The major currency exchange rate adjustment plans have come out." Hai Dafu licked his lips, and then continued to report: "After complicated calculations and discussions among colleagues in the Bureau, it was decided to convert the yuan to the Spanish peso (8 li). Yar denomination) exchange rate from 1:1.2 to 1:1.4; exchange rate between Yuan and Ducats from 1:0.5 to 1:0.55; exchange rate between Yuan and Dutch Guilders from 1:3 to 1:3.2; Adjust the exchange rate between the yuan and the British pound from 1:0.28 to 1:0.35. These are several major currencies. As for some other partial currencies with a small settlement amount, we are still evaluating and will report to the director in a few days You report. Also, there is a consensus among colleagues at the Bureau that any coin from France should be rejected, as the quality is deteriorating so rapidly and the content of the same lot varies so much that it is impossible to come up with a comparison for its real value. Reliable conclusion. Livre, or franc, no longer has any credibility, and we can't test every coin from France separately, right?"

"This is indeed a problem. France has danced very happily in this war that has lasted for more than 20 years. At the beginning, together with the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, they spent a lot of military expenditures to subsidize other countries every year. Later, they even went into battle naked. The territory and population have been expanded a lot. Hey, let’s write it down, let’s drag down our own finances! Now we rely on the minting of bad coins to plunder the people. Fortunately, the franc is not an international currency. , otherwise they can collect seigniorage from the whole world.” Qiang Quansheng said gloatingly, “With the behavior of the French government, the franc will not become an international currency for 100 years. By the way, have you advanced the new exchange rate adjustment plan? Let the wind go? Can the merchants in the market accept it?"

Qiang Quansheng is worried about whether the merchants can accept the new price adjusted by the people on the east coast, because it will inevitably touch the interests of many people.For example, if you brought a bunch of shillings with you and ran over to trade excitedly, but suddenly found that the money you used to buy 7500 bolts of cotton cloth can suddenly only buy [-] bolts, which has shrunk by a quarter. won't be happy.

However, it is really impossible not to adjust the exchange rate. Now the European countries that have reached the end of the 30-year war are basically exhausted, both psychologically and financially.As a result, a large number of low-quality coins that were shoddy and plundered people's wealth began to be minted in large quantities to supplement the nearly depleted finances of countries.According to the law proposed by Gresham in 1558, that is, 'bad money, if its quantity is not limited, will drive out good money', so most of the money on the market is not very good, and these currencies are of course Part of it will be circulated to the New World for trading.

The holders of these coins certainly know that the quality of the currency on hand is problematic, but they all have a fluke mentality. What if the inferior coins on hand are accepted by the East Coast people at the previous relatively high exchange rate? Didn't you earn it?If I exchange these low-quality coins that I got at a relatively low price with high-quality printed cotton cloth or high-quality dyed leather goods from the East Coast, then I have made money twice this trip.

But things are often not as good as people expected.In fact, people on the East Coast have adjusted the exchange ratio between the East Coast Dollar and major European currencies many times in the past few years. The general trend is that European currencies are depreciating relatively, while East Coast currencies are relatively appreciating.The old continental currency they have in hand will inevitably have to be discounted when trading, otherwise the people on the east coast will refuse to trade, and the owners of these inferior currencies will often end up compromising.One is because the exchange price given by the people on the east coast is indeed fair, and the other is that if you don’t buy it here, where can you buy these high-quality products?

Therefore, unless it is the first time for merchants to come to the East Coast to trade, they will store a large amount of East Coast coins in the cabin.The Dongan yuan is exquisitely made and of good quality. Over the years, the value of the currency has been very strong, and it has been largely reserved by these merchants.Take other people's coins of poor quality through a reasonable, even slightly profitable discount, and then smelt them into new East Coast coins, and then exchange them at a price slightly higher than the actual value (calculated by silver content) Being taken away by others, the people on the east bank have been collecting seigniorage tax from others in a disguised form, and the annual revenue generated for the finance is still considerable.

"It has been implemented several times before. Our latest foreign exchange prices are published on the big blackboard of the Luocha Bulk Trade Center every day. Those old mainland businessmen naturally complained, but they all expressed their understanding and acceptance. After all, they also know that they Many of the coins on hand are of poor quality, and they are also happy to stock coins of various denominations issued by our bureau. At present, in certain provinces and regions in the south of France, such as Gascogne, Provence, Languedoc, etc. ; Siena, Livorno, and Parma in Italy; Riga, Königsberg in Livonia; and Smyrna, Suez, and Burgas in the Ottoman Empire. It has been circulated to varying degrees in the market. And considering the law that bad money drives out good money, judging from the circulation of these currencies in the market, there must be a considerable amount of money that is stored at home by local people. Therefore, the currency of our country It is still very popular in foreign countries." Hai Dafu was very proud when he said this, the coins minted by himself are stored in large quantities by foreign businessmen, which is always a very encouraging thing.

"The Dayuhe Mint operates 24 hours a day and night, continuously producing coins of various denominations. The total production over the years may have reached 800 million yuan, but the domestic currency stock is very small. This shows how many 'Yuan' are scattered in foreign countries. But this is a good thing, who doesn't like seigniorage collected all over the world? The total amount of mintage is 800 million yuan, and the seigniorage collected is close to one million Even if it is evenly distributed, it will earn an income of about 10 yuan per year. Haha, good, very good, you can earn 10 yuan a year while sitting at home, which is a good money." Hearing this, Qiang Quansheng was also a little overjoyed, and he continued to say: "This is the result of our insistence on casting high-quality currency for more than ten years. Of course, it is also greatly related to our superior trade products. It is the result of the joint efforts of the financial and industrial sectors. It must be maintained in the future. Look at those European countries, because of short-sighted fiscal policies, they have ruined the credibility of their own national currencies. In the long run, the losses will be huge. Not worth it."

"Yes, Director, you are right." Hai Dafu patted his ass, and then said: "Recently, the Mint has applied to update equipment and use new coinage techniques to make it more difficult for others to imitate our currency. Now the 'Yuan' is so If they are popular, there will be many unscrupulous people secretly minting some counterfeit coins with insufficient quality. These people are often abroad, and it is difficult for us to effectively crack down on them. Therefore, the Mint decided to innovate the process to increase the difficulty and cost of these fake coins. "

"This is a good thing." Qiang Quansheng nodded immediately, and said, "You ask them to submit a detailed plan, and if I think it is feasible, I will approve it immediately."

"Okay, I'll let them hand it over as soon as possible." Hai Dafu immediately agreed.

(End of this chapter)