Putting aside the trivial matters of the women in the family for the time being, when the carriage walked along the mud and gravel road, the bumps of the carriage made the carriage suspended by leaf springs rise and fall from time to time, and Zhu Mingzhong, who was sitting in the carriage, looked out of the car window, at this time the millet on both sides of the road had grown, and it would mature in two months. At that time, these newly harvested millet will be the most important rations for the people in the north.

Different from later generations, wheat was not commonly planted in the north in ancient times, after all, compared with sorghum and millet, wheat needed more water during growth, and in most areas of the ancient north, grain crops often relied more on rainwater, rather than irrigation, only a small amount of water in the ancient north irrigated the land, and most of the people relied on the sky to eat, and because of this, water conservancy projects in some areas can benefit the local people for thousands of years, but limited by the terrain, rivers and yields, etc., in the north, Today's main crops are sorghum and millet, which are more productive and more drought-tolerant, rather than wheat, as later generations imagined.

"In the future, we will still build a canal!"

Looking at the crops in the field, Zhu Mingzhong said to himself, compared with the annual harvest of sorghum and millet, if winter wheat is planted, in the Guannei area south of Shanhaiguan, at least two seasons of grain can be harvested a year, and even one season of potatoes can be harvested in some places, but the premise is that a large number of irrigation facilities such as canals need to be built, and of course, there is a way to solve the problem of land fertility.

"The canal has to be solved, and the fertilizer must be solved, otherwise, two seasons a year is simply unrealistic, and now after the people have harvested the land, planting a season of beans is not just to raise the land......

Although I don't know much about farming, I always know some of the farming rules of this era by asking Zhu Mingzhong how much I know, after harvesting sorghum, the people in the north will plant soybeans in the field for the previous season, and use the nitrogen fixation in their roots to increase fertility by planting soybeans, so that they can grow staple grains in the next year.

Although people in this era did not know the scientific truth, thousands of years of exploration made the ancient Chinese have long accumulated a set of effective farming techniques.

"There are also farming techniques, and maybe we can set up a research institute to specialize in farming techniques."

Thinking of the backwardness of the spread of technology in ancient China, especially many people did not know how to farm at all, let alone how to plant in order to increase yields, they just farmed according to the habits of thousands of years, using backward tools and backward farming methods.

"And then we can spread these farming techniques, well, by sending technicians......"

In the decades after the founding of the People's Republic of China, tens of millions of technicians took root in the rural areas to popularize farming technology to peasants, making great contributions to grain production in New China.

Prior to this, the vast majority of the Chinese people were engaged in agricultural production in extremely backward or even primitive ways. Farming is a technical job, but not everyone understands it, and those who understand it are not necessarily willing to teach others, and for the vast majority of people, they often only rely on the sky for food.

"It seems that this year is not bad."

Indeed, although there is a shortage of troops now, the year is good, and basically the wind and rain are smooth, unlike more than ten years ago, when the whole north was tormented by floods, droughts, locust plagues, and plagues. Perhaps, it is precisely because of this that the people in the north are willing to believe in the so-called Five Elements Theory, the so-called Manchu Qingshui Virtue to replace the fire virtue of the Ming Dynasty, believe in the will of heaven in the underworld, and believe that the Mandate of Heaven is in the Qing Dynasty.

"Hmph, but how long can you believe it?"

As the carriage drove into a heavily guarded courtyard surrounded by a moat and city walls, Zhu Mingzhong secretly laughed to himself, mocking those obedient people who believed in the change of dynasty.

The courtyard that the carriage drove into was not only the mint in Jiangbei, but also the mint of the Junzheng Division. The former is to mint silver dollars and copper coins, while the latter also mints copper coins, but what is minted is not Yongli Tongbao, but Shunzhi Tongbao.

As soon as I entered the coinage, I felt the scorching heat wave at the furnace, no wonder the walls of the coinage were wide open, with the heat emitted by the furnace, even if it was a cold winter, it would not make people feel the slightest cold, you can see that the craftsmen are casting coins there, pouring copper liquid into the money, but there are these coins of the copper liquid color is completely different from the Manchu Qing Dynasty customization, has already been from the red copper seventy, white copper three into the lead five copper five matching, not only that, but also in the casting will steal the amount of copper, the weight will be reduced, And what is minted in this way is naturally inferior money, but this kind of inferior money can still be accepted for the market with insufficient money, but this acceptance is limited.

Just like now, the market is reacting to Shunzhi Tongbao step by step to become inferior money, and the most direct response is that Shunzhi Tongbao has depreciated.

"I heard that Shunzhi Tongbao is now in the market for one or two per thousand Wen?"

Looking at the basket of new money minted, Zhu Mingzhong asked Zheng Juming next to him with a smile, he was originally an official of the Ministry of Industry in Nanjing, presiding over the Nanjing Mint Bureau, and after entering the Qing Dynasty, he also presided over the Jiangning Bureau minting coins, and now he is presiding over the mint in Jiangbei.

"Divided into places, in Qinghe it is a thousand Wen to one tael, in the North Zhili is 900 Wen, in the South Zhili is 950 Wen, if it is in Huguang, it is 800 to 900 Wen ......"

Although he is the general manager of the mint, he is also responsible for minting counterfeit money, which will be circulated through various channels, and the most common channel is to ship it out through the channel of selling Huai salt, but Zheng Juming does not know about this, for him, his duty is to mint money and mint as many copper coins as possible. After all, minting money is less than 0.5 yuan, which means that the profit will more than double.

In addition to the rich money that can be obtained by minting money, the more important thing is that a large number of inferior Shunzhi money circulates in the market, which can make its credit continue to decline, and finally rejected by the people, and of course, the people are more willing to use Yongli money with very high quality.

"The reason for such a contrast, in the final analysis, is that Jiangbei and Nanzhili have cast a large number of Yongli coins of our dynasty, even if Nanjing is cast is also sixty percent copper and four percent lead money, and they are all one money and four points full of remake money, but we are now casting Shunzhi money, not only the weight of copper coins per text is changed from one money and four points to one coin, and copper seven lead three is copper five lead five with casting. The significant reduction of the weight of the money and the proportion of copper used in the coinage greatly reduced the cost of the coinage. In this way, the folk are naturally willing to use the Yongli money, not the Shunzhi money, with the folk Yongli money day by day, in the end, the Shunzhi money was naturally squeezed out of Jiang Zhili, and with a large number of Yongli money constantly being brought to various places by traders, the Shunzhi money in various places is getting higher and higher, and the people are naturally not willing to use ......"

Bad money drives out good money, but good money can also drive out bad money. As long as there is a sufficient supply of good money, of course, this kind of good money may be destroyed by the people, and it may be destroyed by the people and reminted into bad money.

Grab a handful of copper coins, look at these inadequate Shunzhi Tongbao, and then they will continue to reduce the fineness, and their copper content will eventually be less than fifty percent, when the time comes, these Shunzhi coins will soon change from expensive to cheap in the field of commodity currency circulation under the effect of the law of value.

Thinking of this, Zhu Mingzhong asked.

"Jiang Bai, what is the cost of our minting money now? I mean, I'm going to pay for it. ”

"Back to the scriptures, now the coinage workshop uses copper to cost two taels of silver per 100 catties, lead per 100 catties of silver four taels, casting money thousands of Wen including the cost of silver in about 0.65 money, but now because of the adjustment to six copper and four lead, so the cost will decrease, but ordinary people, can not recognize the decline in fineness."

Reducing the fineness of copper coins is the easiest and most effective way to reduce costs and obtain more money. Although the purpose of coinage is to solve the world's supply, on the other hand, it is also to obtain money.

"Our current copper coin is six copper and four lead casting, Shunzhi money is copper five lead five casting, Yongli money is heavy, Shunzhi money is light, if the people destroy the Yongli money, what should we do?"

Dropping the copper coin in his hand, Zhu Mingzhong, who knew that this was a currency war, directly said what he was worried about, generally speaking, the higher the copper content in the copper coin, the higher the cost, the lower the copper content, the lower the cost, the greater the weight, the higher the cost, and the lighter the weight, the lower the cost.

"Yongli money is one money four, and Shunzhi money is one money two, one money one, until one money, if it is ruined Yongli money cast Shunzhi money, it is naturally beneficial to me, the more Shunzhi small money, the cheaper its value, and finally we can also issue a decree to prohibit the circulation of clear money, but if someone destroys Yongli money, recast poor color Yongli money, what should I do?"

Now that Jiangbei has launched this currency war, whether it is the people's pursuit of profit or the counterattack of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it may lead to the destruction of money and recasting, which is even unavoidable, after all, there have been private coining in all dynasties.

The reason why this incident was mentioned was because Zhu Mingzhong was worried that such a ruin would lead to the defeat of the currency war.

"If by then, Yongli small money floods the market, then won't we lose our original intention of casting Shunzhi small money?"

Looking at the boxes of copper coins waiting to be shipped out of the minting bureau, these inadequate Shunzhi coins will disrupt the Manchu market to the greatest extent, constantly impacting the currency credit of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and plunging its currency market into chaos, but on the other hand, Zhu Mingzhong has to worry that after the destruction of the minting, the same chaos will occur in Jiangbei, after all, bad money drives out good money in line with the rules of economic operation.

"Omitted, this ......"

Zheng Juming pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said,

"I'm afraid there is really no way to do this, after all, for thousands of years, private casting has always been unavoidable, since the Yongli money is in high condition, this ruined money is naturally inevitable."

The so-called "ruining money and recasting" is actually private coinage, that is, coins minted by the people themselves, pretending to be official currency, so that they can be circulated and used for profiteering. From the copper quality to the text, it is obviously inferior to the money produced by the official furnace at the same time. And Jiangbei Shunzhi money is privately cast. Since Jiangbei can privately mint money, the Manchu Qing can mint Yongli money, the Manchu Qing can, and the common people can also do it.

Throughout the ages, private casting has been repeatedly banned because of huge profits, Zheng Juming has no way to do this, and the methods that can be mentioned are nothing more than some traditional methods that are strictly forbidden by ordinary laws.

Zheng Juming's answer made Zhu Mingzhong's brows frown slightly, and he walked towards another minting workshop while thinking, thinking about the ancient method of prohibiting private minting. In ancient times, the method of prohibiting private casting was very simple, and in order to prohibit private casting, the Manchu Qing Dynasty would strictly control the money law, so that there were very few private casts, and all those who privately minted were punished with death. Not only those who mint coins at the head were to be killed, but also the craftsmen, transporters, traders, and users of the minting were to be killed, and even local officials were to be convicted of robbing their homes and beheadings. Such a strict law still can not completely ban the phenomenon of private casting, after Qianlong, Jiaqing, the trend of private casting became more and more intense, until the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, the private coinage and the later copper yuan, has never stopped because of the deterrence of the law.

Copper Dollar!

Suddenly, Zhu Mingzhong's eyes lit up, and he immediately thought of the copper yuan circulating in the late Qing Dynasty. Because the mechanism copper dollar has the characteristics of uniform specifications, moderate size, meticulous patterns, clear words and excellent casting, it is very different from the money made by turning sand and hand-casting. The Qing government believed that it was not easy to imitate, and from then on "put an end to the disadvantages of private casting and private sales", so "the governors along the rivers and coastal areas raised funds to imitate it".

Copper Dollar!

What if you recast copper dollars?

Thinking of the silver dollars of different denominations made in Jiangbei now, Zhu Mingzhong's eyes suddenly lit up, Jiangbei's one tael, five coins, two coins and one silver dollar, from the first time it was issued, it was respected by the market because of its fixed fineness and weight standards, so that there were also private money banks in order to obtain money and profits, and privately minted.

It's just that by virtue of the difference in technology, the official minting silver dollar of the Jiangbei Minting Bureau is a mechanism, so it has the characteristics of clear outline, clear text, meticulous pattern and smooth ground sheet. The private silver dollar is made by hand-turning, even if the genuine official silver dollar impression is used, it can only resemble and can not be like, its text is not clear, the pattern is blurred, especially the ground is rough, and the sand hole is all over, so that the people can easily distinguish the private silver dollar, so as to refuse to accept it.

What if you made copper dollars the same way you made silver dollars?

Those beautifully made copper dollars themselves naturally have the characteristics of anti-counterfeiting, just like in order to prevent the manufacture of counterfeit coins in later generations, isn't it precisely by increasing the difficulty of making coins to stop counterfeit coins?

Compared with copper coins, beautifully made copper dollars are naturally more difficult to manufacture, and even if they are privately minted, they cannot be minted with exquisite copper dollars.

After this thought in his heart surfaced, he could no longer control it, so Zhu Mingzhong asked directly.

"Jiang Bai, where is the factory where the silver coins are made?"