Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 699 Manipulating the Silver Price
Looking at Zheng Sen, Li Jing smiled and said: "You have been promoted yourself, don't forget the brothers below, and report the names of the soldiers who have done meritorious service later, and the court that deserves the reward will definitely reward you. In addition, this operation lasted two days. In [-], the soldiers have worked hard, you tell the people below, I will give them double the military salary in the past two years, and the soldiers who died in battle will also be doubled."

Zheng Sen hurriedly said, "Thank you, Marshal."

Li Jing smiled: "This time you get back 40 gold coins, and the money for military pay and pensions will come from here."

Zheng Sen hurriedly said: "The humble official has sent these gold coins to the household department, so I dare not make any claims on how to reward the humble official."

Li Jing turned his head to Gao Qi and said with a smile: "Brother Gao, this young man is very sensible, and he is a man of talent."

Gao Qi nodded again and again: "Better than his father."

Li Jing laughed, and patted Zheng Sen's shoulder heavily: "Work hard! I like you!"

"Thank you, Marshal, for your appreciation!" Zheng Sen said happily.

Li Jing smiled and waved his hand.

Zheng Sen continued: "Marshal, I bought something in Rome this time, take a look."

As he spoke, he took out a scroll from his sleeve and offered it to Li Jing with both hands.

Li Jing took it and opened it, just glanced at it, and couldn't help but exclaimed: "This is Italy, uh, a map of the Ottoman Empire? Where did you find it?"

Zheng Sen hurriedly said: "The commander is wise! It is the Ottoman map, which was bought in Rome by the humble staff."

Li Jing turned to Su Heng and said, "Hurry up and get the map that the Western missionaries gave me in my cabinet."

Hearing this, Su Heng hurriedly took out a map from the cabinet, Li Jing took it and unfolded it on the desk, and then compared it with the map sent by Zheng Sen.

After a long time, Li Jing praised: "This map is obviously more detailed and accurate! Good! This map is a good buy!"

Zheng Sen stepped forward, pointed to a location on the map and said: "Marshal, there is a bay here, this location happens to go deep into the bay, and it is precisely because of this that the humble officer occupied this place that he was able to block the enemy fleet. The strategic significance is great, and the humble position was not ordered by the commander-in-chief, and hundreds of brothers were left here without authorization, and they were stationed here in the name of trade."

"Huh? Send someone to guard here?" Li Jing couldn't help being startled when he heard this.

After a while, Li Jing shook his head lightly and said with a smile: "It's a good idea for you to station a small force here for future military considerations, but it's useless to just occupy here. Because our fleet If you want to enter here, you have to go through two straits, the first is the Managa Strait, which is now in our hands, and the second is here."

Speaking of which, Li Jing clicked on a location on the map: "This strait should be called the Strait of Gibraltar. If we cannot control this strait, then our navy will not be able to reach this sea area. Westerners call this sea area the Mediterranean Sea."

Zheng Sen nodded repeatedly when he heard the words: "What the commander said is true."

Sighing lightly, Li Jing continued: "With our Ming's naval strength, we can't control the Strait of Gibraltar for the time being. After all, it's too far away from Daming. If we can't control this strait, then the use of our troops is not very useful. "

(Note: At that time, the Suez Canal in Egypt had not yet opened, and Western countries had to go around Africa to come to Daming, so the voyage time was very long.)
Looking at the map, Li Jing pondered for a long time, and then clicked on the location of Egypt where Europe and Asia meet: "If we occupy this place, see, we can dig a canal here, and then we can greatly shorten the distance."

As he spoke, Li Jing drew a line on the map with his hand. This line is the route from the Suez Canal to the Strait of Malacca in later generations.

Seeing this, Gao Qi couldn't help but smiled bitterly and said: "Commander, we don't have the ability to send troops to expedition here now, and what's the use of occupying it? Just to get closer to Europe... Europa?"

Li Jingwen said with a smile and shook his head: "If we can occupy this place and dig a canal out, I can tell you that this canal will bring endless wealth to Ming. Let's put it this way, the income from trade alone can at least More than twice as high as it is now."

"It's more than twice as high? Doesn't that mean you can earn at least 500 million taels of silver every year?" Gao Qi exclaimed.

Li Jing smiled and said: "The five million taels of silver are just our trade with the Netherlands. If we can start trade with the entire Western countries, the income will be more than ten times higher."

"Ten times higher? Isn't that 5000 million taels of silver?" Everyone exclaimed at the same time.

Li Jing nodded with a smile.

Gao Qi continued: "Marshal, don't say 5000 million taels of silver, even if it is only [-]%, it is already worth the Ming Dynasty sending troops to capture this place."

"Yes, yes." Shen Zheng and others echoed in unison.

Li Jing said with a smile: "Brother Gao just said it right. We are not yet capable of occupying this place. Our energy must now be focused on China, Southeast Asia, and Southwest China. Our generation is unable to achieve this goal. We must It may depend on their generation to realize this goal."

After finishing speaking, Li Jing took a deep look at Zheng Sen, and said seriously: "This goal should be regarded as the strategic goal I set for you in advance, I hope you can keep it in mind."

"Yes! I will remember what the commander said." Zheng Sen hurriedly said.

Li Jing nodded with a smile: "Okay, you've had a hard trip, go back and rest."

"Yes! I will resign from my humble position!" Zheng Sen saluted.

Li Jing waved his hand lightly.

When Zheng Sen went out, Li Jing smiled and shook his head: "Young man, you are still too impulsive to do things."

"Then you praised him just now?" Gao Qi laughed.

Li Jing smiled: "The reward should still be rewarded. Although Zheng Sen acted a little impulsively, he is young after all. We should be considerate of some things. Aren't we the same as him back then? And he He still won the battle, without compromising Daming's military prestige. If we criticize him, he will inevitably be timid in doing things in the future, and he will not be a great weapon."

Gao Qi smiled and said, "The commander-in-chief said so."

Li Jing waved his hands and said with a smile: "Okay, you can do what I just told you right away. Well... father-in-law and brother Bo Ying stay here for a while."

Gao Qi and others retired after hearing the words and saluting.

After everyone retreated, Li Jing poured a cup of tea for Shen Zheng and Yuan Shu respectively, and said, "Father-in-law, Zheng Sen sent back 40 gold coins this time, and these gold coins will be melted and cast into gold ingots by the bank for storage."

"Yes!" Shen Zheng hurriedly said.

Li Jing smiled: "Father-in-law, there are no outsiders here, so don't be so polite to me."

Shen Zheng smiled and nodded.

Li Jing continued: "Father-in-law, Gu Bingyou sent me a letter a while ago, reminding me of one thing. I think there is a lot of room for operation here. Please help me to calculate it and see if it can be done."

"What's the matter?" Shen Zheng asked.

Li Jing said: "That's right. Gu Bingyou discovered that the Dutch businessman exchanged silver for gold in the bank we opened. Later, he secretly inquired and found out that in Ming Dynasty, one tael of gold was exchanged for ten taels of silver, but in the West it was exchanged for one tael of gold." 12 taels of silver is even higher. In other words, in Ming Dynasty, silver is more expensive than gold, while in the West, gold is more expensive and silver is cheaper. Western businessmen come to Daming to exchange silver for gold, and when they return home, they can make a net profit of two taels of silver for every tael of gold. above."

"Ah! There is such a high price difference? Then we should ship the gold to the west and exchange it for silver to be more cost-effective." Shen Zheng said hastily.

Li Jing smiled and said: "I thought so too at first, but after thinking about it for a while, I realized that things might not be so simple. Father-in-law, why is silver cheap and gold expensive in the West, but our Ming Dynasty is silver expensive and gold cheap?"

"This..." Shen Zheng was startled when he heard the words, and couldn't help but ponder.

Seeing that Shen Zheng was silent for a while, Li Jing continued: "This is because the currency of our Ming Dynasty is silver, and gold cannot be used to buy goods, and Daming lacks silver, so silver is expensive and gold is cheap. But the currency of Western countries is gold. There are two kinds of silver. In addition, I heard that Western countries have discovered several silver mines in the Americas, and a large amount of silver has flowed into the market, causing the price of silver to drop. In the past, the exchange rate of gold and silver in Western countries was [-]:[-], and gradually increased to [-]:[-] Two, it can reach about one to fifteen at the highest."

Shen Zheng was shocked when he heard the words: "If this is the case, a large amount of silver from Western countries will flow into Daming. At that time, there will be more and more silver in Daming, and the price will inevitably decrease."

Li Jingting nodded and said: "Yes, that's what it means. Therefore, we must control the amount of silver flowing into Daming. But judging from the current situation, we have more and more trade with Western countries, and the flow of silver into Daming cannot be controlled at all." , what should I do?"

"As long as the silver is sufficient, I think the silver should be spent on Western countries. Otherwise, our Ming's silver will become less and less valuable." Shen Zheng pondered for a while.

Li Jingting nodded and said: "That's right, but I don't think it's enough to just use silver to buy supplies from Western countries. I think silver should be exchanged for gold."

"In this case, we will be at a big loss!" Shen Zheng said hastily.

Li Jing smiled: "But it must be a big loss in terms of exchange, but sometimes it can't be calculated like this. Father-in-law, think about it, the western countries already have a lot of silver, and if we exchange the silver with them for gold, their silver will be reduced." There will be more and more, and the silver will become less and less valuable.

At that time, they would try their best to do business with us and go to Daming to buy more supplies.As long as we raise the price of the goods, we will make money in the end.

When we reserve a certain amount of gold, we will have the ability to control the price of gold and silver.At that time, all countries will have to follow Da Ming's wink and act. "

Shen Zheng suddenly realized when he heard the words: "I understand, although we have lost money in terms of exchange, but the money we lost can be earned back through trade, so our gold is worthless.

Jimin, our Daming Bank currently has 3000 million taels of silver, and I estimate that Jingji Bank has at least 4000 million taels. We will ship these silvers to Western countries and exchange them for gold to further suppress the price of silver. The country must come to Daming with a lot of money to buy supplies. "

Li Jing smiled: "Don't exchange so much at once, if you exchange so much at once, those western countries will raise the price of gold."

Shen Zheng smiled and said, "I still understand this truth."Well, we can't do this thing, we have to do it by someone else, I think I can turn to De Bauer for this matter.We can give him the benefits, and he will definitely work for us in the future. "

Li Jing smiled and said, "Let Gu Bingyou come forward and talk to him."

"Okay! I'll write to Gu Bingyou right away and ask him to contact De Bauer." Shen Zheng said with a smile.

(End of this chapter)