Although Lu Xiangsheng only had a one-sided relationship with Huanglong, he knew that Huanglong was loyal to the Ming Dynasty. Since he came to Liaodong, he has a deeper understanding of the Far East, and of course he understands Huanglong's hardships at that time.

Huang Long also talked about his experience in the Far East in the past few years, and he was very satisfied with his current life, although he was only a small squadron leader of the patrol team, but he was more comfortable than when he was a general soldier in Daming.

The children of their families and relatives have also found jobs in the Far East, and as long as they are conscientious and willing to work hard here in the Far East, they will be able to get ahead sooner or later. Patrol policemen like them work very the streets every day, and their salaries and benefits are much higher than those of government agencies.

Lu Xiangsheng raised his wine glass and said to Huang Long with a smile: "Since you have come to Liaodong, let's do it well." ”

Huang Long and Lu Xiangsheng touched each other, then nodded and said, "Now that the Ming Dynasty is gloomy, the weather of the New Dynasty in the Far East has appeared, my lord, you should also plan this morning." ”

Lu Xiangsheng shook his head with a wry smile and said, "Today we only talk about the past, not about state affairs. ”

Huang Long just laughed, and stopped persuading. He raised his hand to look at his watch, then turned to push the door and shouted, then pulled a leather wallet out of his pocket.

Lu Xiangsheng saw the pile of banknotes in the bag, frowned and asked, "Lao Huang, is the Far East also using treasure banknotes now?" ”

It is no wonder that he was puzzled, when Zhu Yuanzhang learned from the Yuan Dynasty to implement paper money, that is, "Daming treasure banknotes". The banknotes were originally issued by the Ministry of Books, and later changed to the Ministry of Households. Daming treasure banknotes have always been equivalent to one tael of silver, one thousand copper coins, 0.25 taels of gold, and can also be exchanged for one stone of rice.

Although the issuance of banknotes is a sign of social progress, the issuance of banknotes requires reserves, that is, if you issue consistent banknotes, there must be one or two silver in the treasury, so that the banknotes will not depreciate.

Zhu Yuanzhang's common sense of economics is equal to zero, and when he issued paper money, he did not have the concept of "reserves" in his mind at all. Coupled with the fact that the regime was founded and there were many places to use money, Zhu Yuanzhang was simply addicted to printing money.

In the 24 years of the Hongwu period, an average of 5.15 million ingots were issued every year, and in the 23rd year of Hongwu, the Daming treasure banknotes were issued to 15 million ingots. Because of the excessive and indiscriminate issuance of treasure money, but also made the treasure money depreciate sharply, orthodox nine years (1444), a stone of rice has needed a hundred, since then the Ming treasure banknote exchanged for copper money, has been basically not more than two Wen.

Huang Long saw Lu Xiangsheng's shocked face, so he took out a banknote from his wallet and said with a smile: "This is the Hua Yuan issued by the Far East a few years ago, with eight denominations: one dime, two jiao, five jiao, one yuan, two yuan, five yuan, ten yuan, fifty yuan, and one hundred yuan. It is mainly used to replace the work sub ticket used in the early days. ”

Lu Xiangsheng took the note from Huang Long's hand and looked at it carefully. The face value of this banknote is 100 yuan, the front pattern of the Hukou Waterfall of the Yellow River, the north pattern of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, the material of the banknote is excellent, the painting is exquisite, and the touch is excellent.

This is the first set of Chinese dollars issued by the Central Bank of Far Eastern Corporation, the main material is cotton linter, and the modern process formula is carefully made. The texture is smooth and delicate, tough and fold-resistant, crisp and flat. And the use of fluorescent, watermark and security thread triple anti-counterfeiting, the picture is also extremely exquisite, at least in this era, can not be imitated at all.

Lu Xiangsheng looked at the hundred-yuan banknote repeatedly, and then frowned and said: "The "Money Law" was promulgated in the seventh year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, prohibiting people from trading in gold, silver and physical goods, and anyone who violates it will be punished. After only more than 20 years of issuance, it led to boiling public resentment, and finally accumulated in the market, and the people who passed it did not care. Doesn't the Far East know the lessons of the Ming Dynasty, and now the Far East also prohibits bartering of gold and silver? ”

Huang Long shook his head, he took off a leather pouch from his waist, took out a few coins from it, and placed them in front of Lu Xiangsheng.

"The Far East could not help gold and silver, and along with the banknotes there were coins, one cent, two cents, five cents, one dime, two jiao, five jiao, and one yuan, of which the one-yuan coins were silver, and the rest were made of copper. Gold coins are also issued in the Far East, but they are all commemorative coins, medals, medals and other collectible coins.

Gold in the Far East is more in gold shops in some rings, necklaces and other ornaments, of course, there are also gold bars, gold bricks circulation, but rarely appear in the market, ordinary people will generally collect gold in this way. At the beginning of the issuance of banknotes, the people of the Far East only recognized coins, and every household collected a large number of silver coins.

Later, everyone found that the silver coin was not convenient to carry, and the banknote was issued for several years and did not depreciate, and the paper money can be exchanged for silver coins in the bank at any time, everyone slowly accepted the Far East banknote Huayuan, and now the vast majority of the circulation on the market is paper money, only occasionally carry some copper coins, in case of emergency.

The monthly salary of our patrol officers is also directly paid to the bank, and we can withdraw it at any time with our passbook, so that we do not have to keep a large amount of cash at home. The cash stored in the bank, after a long time, there is interest, although it is not much, but it is better than nothing over time. ”

Lu Xiangsheng played with several coins on the table one by one, these coins are very delicate, the workmanship is also extremely exquisite, the surface is smooth and shiny, and the obverse of each coin is printed with a floral pattern, including orchids, chrysanthemums, peonies, azaleas, daffodils, moon seasons and lotus flowers.

When he picked up the silver coin, he couldn't help but smile bitterly on his face, this kind of silver coin he had also seen in Daming. Because this kind of silver coin is full of fineness, the official silver of the Ming Dynasty cannot be compared with it, and the workmanship is extremely exquisite, which also makes this silver coin very popular in the Ming Dynasty.

Many large families have this kind of silver coins in their deposits, and even Lu Xiangsheng's family has saved a lot of this silver coin. Because the obverse of the silver coin is engraved with a lotus flower, it is customary to call this silver coin "flower silver" in various places. In the past, Lu Xiangsheng thought that this kind of thing came from Xiyi, but until today he didn't know that this kind of "flower silver" actually came from the Far East.

Silver coins issued by the Central Bank of the Far East, 39 mm in diameter, weighing 27 grams, and 90 percent fineness. Using 90% silver and 10% nickel, tin and other metals, synthetic modern alloy technology, with modern stamping and forming process manufacturing.

Although "flower silver" is not in circulation in the controlled areas of the Far East, it enjoys a good reputation in the Ming Dynasty and the West. Every year, the Far Eastern merchant group would bring back a large amount of silver from Daming, and then make it into "flower silver" and then import it into the territory of Daming.

In addition, Luzon Manila and Batavia in the South Seas also receive large quantities of silver ingots and silver dollars from the West every year, which are then made into "flower silver" and imported into the Middle East and Europe through other channels.

The coinage process of this era was mostly casting, beating or sand casting, and compared with the "flower silver" made in the Far East, it was incomparable in terms of quality, craftsmanship, cost and output. Therefore, when exchanging, although the ratio of "flower silver" is very high, it is still in short supply. This alone brings shocking profits to the Far East every year.

At this time, the door of the private room opened, and a waiter from a hotel walked in, and Huang Long was about to pay the bill, but was told that the head of the Far East had already settled the bill.

Zhou Billy also walked into the room, and said to Lu Xiangsheng with a smile: "Lord Lu, we should go......

Lu Xiangsheng nodded, then hugged his fist at Huang Long, and said with a smile: "Lord Huang, Lu will be in the Far East for a few days, and we will meet again before leaving." ”

Huang Long nodded and said, "Okay...... I was in the patrol brigade of the business district, and Huang was waiting for me at any time. ”

The two exchanged a few more pleasantries, and Lu Xiangsheng followed Billy Zhou out of the Black Earth Hotel. He chatted a lot with Huang Long at noon, and he also had a deeper understanding of the Far East, so his mood became more and more heavy.

Lu Xiangsheng took a closer look at the pedestrian street and found that the buyers and sellers who traded here did all use paper money to trade, occasionally using coins to make change, and most of them were copper coins.

The same was the issuance of banknotes, but the Far Eastern Company was able to hold on and do a good job. But why did Da Ming make the people's resentment boiling?

In the afternoon, Zhou Billy led Lu Xiangsheng to the Shenyang Railway Station along the Hunhe River, and in the face of the roaring steel dragons, Lu Xiangsheng was shocked or shocked in his heart.

There is also a wharf along the Hunhe River, where a fleet of intrariver steam deck barges is loaded with various supplies and shuttles back and forth on the surface of the Hunhe River. Even Lu Xiangsheng was made enthusiastic by the busy atmosphere here.

And according to Zhou Billy, the roaring steel dragons will cross the vast outer northeast and sail all the way to the land of Haidong, more than 2,000 miles away. The fleet of barges on the Hunhe River, which is almost covered with the surface of the river, will also transport various materials to Liaodong and other parts of the Outer Northeast along the developed water and land transportation in eastern Liaoning and the outer northeast.

Liaodong is located outside the Guan, because of the cold climate, it has been a sparsely populated wild land since ancient times. But now, the originally remote land of Liaodong has been developed to such a scale by the Far East Company.

After leaving the banks of the Hunhe River, they visited several industrial and mining enterprises, such as cement factories, brick factories, food factories, and machinery factories on the outskirts of Shenyang.

Looking at the towering chimneys, the neat rows of factories, and the violent roar of various machinery and equipment, Lu Xiangsheng was surprised by what he saw and heard.

The Ming Dynasty followed the artisan household system of the Yuan Dynasty, dividing the households into three categories: civil, military, and craftsman. Among them, all the craftsmen are handicraftsmen. In terms of legal status, these craftsmen and military craftsmen who are included in the special household register have a lower status than ordinary households, and they have to be inherited from generation to generation, and they are not allowed to divide their households in order to make up for it.

When the craftsmen were enlisted, they "entered the bureau early every day", worked under the supervision of officials, and "dispersed at dusk", and the work was very hard. Some of the whole families were involved in the game, and most of them were originally captured craftsmen or captives who were forced to become craftsmen, and had no other income except for salt and grain issued by the government and occasional clothing, so their lives were difficult, they were not given food and clothing, and they often had to be condemned to their children.

If you want to get out of the original household registration, it is extremely difficult, and you must be approved by the emperor, and the craftsman registration is not allowed to be tested for the Shiliu. The labor of the artisan households is unpaid, and the craftsmen resist by means of sabotage, concealment, and escape. This also makes the quality of ordnance and other products produced by various manufacturing bureaus in the Ming Dynasty extremely low.

On the other hand, the craftsmen in the major factories in the Far East wear uniform and are busy in their respective jobs in an orderly manner. Everyone is full of energy, and they are very serious when they work, even if they are sweaty, they still work diligently. (To be continued.) )