His massacre also brought disaster to Houjin, and in those two years, the price of Houjin rice was appallingly high - eighty taels of silver to buy one stone of grain -

At this time, Yuan Chonghuan and Yuan Dadu sold grain to Houjin at a low price - of course, he was not stupid, in order not to be caught by the imperial history of the court, he sold it to the Mongols, under the pretext of winning over the Mongols. In fact, the Mongols had long since surrendered to the Later Jin, and followed the Later Jin to fight the Ming Dynasty more than once. At that time, everyone in the entire Liao town knew that after the Mongols bought grain, they immediately transported it to Houjin to stabilize the price of grain.

Only Grand Inspector Yuan didn't seem to know.

The second is the Eight Great Imperial Merchants, who once sold a large number of grain, cloth, ironware and other materials that were most needed by Houjin through Chahar and transported them to Liaodong. They provided food to the Manchus during the most difficult time for the Later Jin Dynasty and helped the Later Jin tide over the difficulties. Of course, in the process, these ancestors also made a lot of money, Liaodong is a small place, the material output is very small, many things are actually not self-sufficient at all, and the nobles of the Eight Banners, Jiannu snatched a large number of precious metals such as gold, silver, jewelry and other precious metals from the Guannei, so the prices in Liaodong are much higher than those in the Guannei.

Dong Ce fell into contemplation here, and the shopkeeper over there said to Shi Jin with a smile: "Old customer, the rules of our store, please settle the silver first." ”

"You."

Shi Jin took out a small piece of broken silver and handed it to the shopkeeper.

Dong Ce can also be regarded as having seen how the Ming Dynasty used silver money to hand over a novel Yi, he had never seen it before, the protagonists in those god-like film and television dramas that he had seen in later generations were all big ingots of silver or even tens of thousands of taels of silver tickets were smashed out, and an aunt's wife lost tens of millions of taels of silver equivalent to the total tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty in ten years in one night, where can they be expected to shoot this kind of detail?

The shopkeeper first took the silver to the light and looked at it carefully, thinking that it was to check the color and authenticity, and after making sure that there was no problem, he took out a small scale, weighed it, and said: "Old customer, look, this piece of broken silver weighs five dollars and eight cents and six cents." ”

As he spoke, he asked Shi Jin to take a look.

After Shi Jin nodded and looked at it, the shopkeeper took out a small pair of scissors, clicked and cut off a piece, put the rest on the scale and weighed it again, showed it to Shi Jin, and said, "Look, I will charge you three cents and three cents, and find you two dollars and five cents." ”

Shi Jin nodded and took the silver back.

The shopkeeper showed a lewd smile on his face, glanced at Dong Ce and a few people, and said, "How many old customers came out by themselves?" The night is long and lonely, why not have a fun? If you don't like the little old man and get bored, just listen to two sentences? ”

Shi Jin glanced at Dong Ce, Dong Ce nodded slightly, Shi Jin smiled: "Bring the wine and food first, let's eat it." ”

Shaoqing brought up the wine and food, and the little two wiped the chair and said with a smile: "A few old guests sit." ”

The dishes are not expensive, but they are just home-cooked, but they are full of portions and very affordable. And the taste is also very good, several people are also hungry, and the food is hearty,

The shopkeeper glanced at the armor bag that Dong Ce and the three of them put in his hand, and said with a smile: "Outside the south gate of this Yanghe City, there are seven or eight prostitutes. ”

Dong Ce smiled: "Then shopkeeper, do you recommend one?" ”

The shopkeeper smiled: "Go out and walk fifteen steps to the east, there is a place called 'Qingju Building', the price is authentic, and there are some sisters who come and go from the south to the north." Xiao Lao'er reminded a few old guests, the sister inside can be brought out, directly bring our inn become, although it costs some money, but you don't have to eat his family's wine and dishes, you can save a lot. ”

Dong Ce laughed: "The shopkeeper is a wonderful person." ”

He knew that the shopkeeper must have a cut in between, but he didn't break it, but said, "Add another middle room." ”

The shopkeeper hurriedly responded, Shi Jin took out another handful of copper coins and gave it to him, and said with a smile: "Prepare some hot water for us, and send it to the room later." ”

When the shopkeeper saw the silver that could go into his pocket, he hurriedly smiled and said, "It must be prepared for the old customers." ”

He touched the copper coins, and said with a smile in his pocket: "Yo, but it's a penny and a three-cent Chongzhen horse running money, and the five or six you give can be used as a penny of silver." ”

Dong Cehu's heart moved, a thought turned from his mind, and asked: "Shopkeeper, ask you to inquire, how is this copper coin equivalent to silver taels?" ”

"Then that's not for sure."

The shopkeeper thought for a while and said, "If it is Chongzhen's horse money, one tael of silver should be five hundred and fifty wen." If it is Apocalypse money, Wanli money, Hongwu money, and Yongle money, one or two pieces of silver should be more than 600 yuan. If it is the apocalypse of eleven taels, then the money is heavy and large and well-cast, and if it is the one that is always circulating in the hands of men, then the back is worn apart, and it is as yellow as gold, and one tael of silver can be used as thirty. This is officially cast, if it is privately minted bad money made in Nanjing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places, it has to be seen as good. According to the quality of the condition, it ranges from one thousand to seven or eight thousand. If it's too bad, don't do it! ”

He sneered: "The money over there is too bad, but there are some privately minted money in our Shanxi, and the weight is sufficient, but the casting is not fine enough, and some of them don't even have words, only one perforation, and two words are written on it, and one or two silver can be exchanged for more than two thousand Wen." ”

"Oh?" Dong Ce was taken aback and asked, "Is private casting so rampant now?" ”

This is not a sensitive topic, the shopkeeper secretly said in his heart, this official son who is afraid that he will come out for the first time, but he doesn't know anything.

"This thing is very common, it is everywhere, why not only in Shanxi? The official money minted by the imperial court every year is so little, where is it enough for the people? Those poor families use silver if they don't succeed? Childe, you have also seen that it is very inconvenient to use silver just now. He took out a piece of money from his sleeve pocket and put it on the table, and said with a smile: "Childe, please see." ”

Dong Ce took the copper coin over and looked at it carefully.

The coin is about 2.5 centimeters in diameter, weighs between four and five grams, has smooth edges, and is quite thick to the touch. The surface has been sleek, apparently in circulation for quite some time. In terms of weight, this coin is no different from the ordinary Chongzhen horse money. And if you look at this color, probably when casting, copper can also account for 60% of the proportion, which is not very low. But the difference is that it is also a round square hole, and the front of this money only has a 'one' character written above the perforation, and a 'Wen' character written on the bottom, representing a penny. And the back is smooth and nothing.

There is no difference between its weight and fineness, and the Chongzhen horse money is 550 as one tael of silver, and this kind of money is 1,500 as one tael of silver, which is probably the added value generated by the difference in the casting process.

Dong Ce rubbed the copper coin and said with a smile: "The shopkeeper is greedy for your little money, how can it?" ”

The shopkeeper was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly smiled: "The son is serious, how can he be 'greedy', this money is two or three to deserve a Chongzhen horse money, and it is naturally given to the son." ”

He took out two more: "There are a few more here, so I gave them to the son." ”

Dong Ce smiled and thanked him.

He spread the three coins evenly in the palm of his hand, the weight of the three coins is about the same, but the words and even the handwriting of the people on them are different, there are more and less, there are italics and official scripts, obviously not cast in one place. But without exception, they are all privately minted money.

It can also be seen from this that the private coinage of the Ming Dynasty is rampant now.

In the Song Dynasty, copper coins were the main currency in circulation, and the amount of minting was also very large, the largest year, just that year minted five million copper coins, that is, five billion.

However, in the Song Dynasty, minting money was not about making money and buying and selling, on the contrary, it was a very money-losing errand.

There was a very strange phenomenon in the Song Dynasty - copper was expensive and money was cheap. The government buys copper from the private sector, melts it, and mints copper coins. For example, if you spend seven catties of copper, you can mint a consistent copper coin, and this consistent copper coin can't buy seven catties of copper at all, which is about what it looks like you can buy about five catties.

The most hateful thing is that many people melt copper coins and then cast them into bronze utensils, etc., and when the government comes to buy them, they sell them to the government at a high price to make a profit.

However, during the Song Dynasty, there were very few precious metals such as gold and silver, and copper coins were the main and only bulk circulating currency, and the Song Dynasty government was also very responsible. In fact, although Cai Jing was scolded for being a traitor, his financial management skills are first-class.

But the Ming Dynasty was not, the amount of copper coins minted in the Ming Dynasty was very small, I am afraid that the total number of copper coins over the years was less than five million.

In the early stage, paper money such as banknotes were issued for circulation, and in the later period, silver poured in and became the main currency in circulation.

But I have to say that for the people, it is far more convenient to use copper money than silver, but there is very little money. In this case, it is natural that a large number of private coins are popular and accepted.

Dong Ce broke the copper coin in his hand hard, but before he could break it, he added more strength, and with a crisp click, it was broken in half.

"Privately minted money, hey, it's pretty strong."

Dong Ce's eyes flashed. The following does not count as money. (PS: On the issue of the exchange of silver and copper coins in the Ming Dynasty.)

During the Yongle period, it was clearly stipulated in the "Continuation of the Four Libraries Quanshu" that "each banknote has always been converted into copper coins of one thousand and one tael of silver".

In the Chenghua years, the history contains: "Seventeen years of Chenghua...... Each penny is worth eight cents of silver, and eighty cents of silver." That is, one tael of silver is equivalent to seven hundred pennies.

The "History of the Ming Dynasty" later recorded that "in the first year of Hongzhi, every seven hundred should be one tael of silver", and "every seven wen was converted into one cent of silver".

In the Zhengde period, "every 700 wen is worth one cent of silver", but this figure is too exaggerated, and there should be an error.

During the Jiajing period, it was recorded that "Jiajing was three years...... Good money is seventy wen per silver penny. One hundred and forty wen for every penny of low money." In the fourth year of Jiajing, "the Xuanjiao Division has always been converted into three cents of silver per banknote, and one cent of silver per penny is seven cents." In the sixth year of Jiajing, "one tael of silver for 700 yuan per dollar". However, the seemingly stable comparison of silver and copper coins was in fact only an official regulation, and it was often unmanageable, and the comparison between silver and coinage in civil society at this time fluctuated frequently. According to the history, "the rate of indiscriminate and evil money among the people is 30 or 40 cents as one cent of silver, and the inferior intangible system of 60 or 70 cents of silver is used for the inferior intangible system of later benefits." Some officials also asked for "allowing the use of small money for the use of 60 cents as one cent of silver."

That is to say, bad money costs three or four thousand or even six or seven thousand to be used as one tael of silver.

Later, the imperial court stipulated, "and set Jiajing money seven wen, Hongwu Zhuqian ten wen, the former generation of money, thirty wen, as one cent of silver." Since then, during the Jiajing period, the tax revenue was less than three taels of money, and the people were allowed to use money below one penny of silver.

In the sixth year of Longqing, "the brigadier general Jiajing Longqing Wanli made money in accordance with the previous Feng, Qinyi each gold back eight Wen quasi-silver one cent, fire paint Rongbian each ten wen quasi-silver one cent, Hongwu and other items and the previous generation of old money each twelve cents quasi-silver one cent."

To the fourth year of Wanli, "the weight of the household money is not often, the light is collected, the heavy is scattered, the gold back ten straight silver one point, now Wanli gold back five Wen Jiajing gold back four Wen each straight silver one point." And in the forty-sixth year of Wanli, "Nanjing silver is a penny and ten wen". In the Chongzhen period, "the first year of Chongzhen was 55 Wen as a penny". In the later period of Chongzhen, "Chongzhen Tongbao, the people will never exercise".

At that time, the currency minted by the government was too inferior and was completely unacceptable to the people, after all, the people were not stupid.

Copper coins as government coinage, its own value, but this value and gold and silver this hard currency is different, copper money as insufficient currency, generally lower than the value of the government, the government issued coinage, can get money interest, but for the sake of minting interest and indiscriminate minting of inferior copper money is also easy to hinder the normal operation of the social economy. The monetary policy of the Ming Dynasty was more complicated, especially the minting and issuance policy of copper coins was very chaotic and incoherent.

In the early Ming Dynasty, due to the strong national strength and the fact that silver did not become the main currency in circulation, it did not have a great impact on the price comparison between silver and copper coins. However, in the Jiajing year, the imperial court not only increased the coinage, but also issued new and old copper coins in the treasury as food, which greatly increased the supply of money in circulation. At the same time, the state, in order to make money, began to mint coins in large quantities. Yin Zhengmao said in the matter that the copper price in the two capitals is very high, and the money will not be repaid. It is advisable to mine Yunnan copper and transport it to Yuezhou drum casting, which costs 390,000 yuan of silver, can get 650,000 wen of money, and more than 930,000 taels of straight silver, which is enough to reduce the urgency of the country. It can be seen that in the Ming Dynasty, coinage was to make money, but the means of making money was to reduce the weight of copper coins and make good coins bad. At the beginning, Qian Qianwen weighed eight catties and eight taels, that is, a copper coin weighed about five grams. In the second year of the Apocalypse, it became four catties and eight taels, that is, the weight of a penny was about 2.7 grams. ）

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