Fu Shanhe

Chapter 439 Opening Up New Ideas
"My lord, while you were away these past few days, the Duke of Qian's mansion sent us 200,000 catties of copper ingots."

I've had my servants put the things away for now. You can decide what to do with them.

Jing Yaqing said calmly.

Copper played an important role in feudal dynasties.

It can not only be used to mint various daily necessities, but also has monetary attributes.

According to official standards, one jin (approximately 500 grams) of copper can be used to cast 160 copper coins.

Two hundred thousand catties of copper ingots, if cast into currency, would amount to thirty-two million copper coins.

If converted to silver, it would be worth tens of thousands of taels.

What would be a huge sum of money for others is, for the Marquis of Hanshui, the profit from just one voyage of his fleet.

However, judging value cannot be based solely on how much money it is worth.

Since the Annam region stabilized, prices have returned to normal levels.

Gold and silver are both precious metals with very strong purchasing power.

For ordinary people, buying daily necessities and making transactions with gold and silver was very inconvenient, as it involved receiving change.

In this context, a smaller unit of currency—the copper coin—was needed.

Annam has copper mines, but the output is very low, and priority must be given to meeting the needs of cannon casting.

The amount of copper available for minting coins was extremely limited and far from meeting the demand.

In this respect, Da Yu cannot be relied upon either.

Although China's domestic copper production is much higher than that of Annam, its domestic demand is also large.

The official mines of the Dayu Dynasty only produced 300,000 catties of copper annually.

When Li Mu first saw this data, he even wondered if his subordinates had made a mistake with the units, writing "jin" instead of "ton".

This tiny amount of production capacity is not even a fraction of that of the Song Dynasty.

In terms of smelting technology, Dayu's technology is clearly more mature.

Even if domestic copper reserves are low, they can't be this low.

Li Mu quickly found the reason: the low production capacity was limited to official mines, while the copper production in private mines was by no means low.

The country's mineral resources were divided up by the powerful and wealthy, and the revenue from minting coins, which originally belonged to the imperial court, ended up in the hands of the people.

Of course, this cannot be blamed on the founding emperor.

In the early years of the founding of the dynasty, Dayu had a cheaper currency called Baochao.

In the early stages, the imperial court limited the issuance of paper money, and its value remained stable, showing a strong tendency to replace metal currency.

The enormous profits earned from printing paper money far exceeded those from mining and minting copper coins.

Subsequently, with the government's excessive issuance of currency, the value of paper money quickly collapsed, and copper coins reappeared in the hands of the people, becoming the main currency for transactions.

During this process, the right to mint coins in Dayu gradually shifted from the imperial court to the hands of local gentry.

As a result, the value of privately held copper coins became unclear.

Five or six hundred high-quality copper coins could be exchanged for one tael of silver.

It takes three to five thousand inferior copper coins to exchange for one tael of silver.

The bizarre currency difference has severely hampered the development of private commerce.

After moving into the Protectorate General's residence, Li Mu has been working hard to stabilize the currency value.

If it weren't for concerns about the court's feelings, he would have wanted to print banknotes in the name of the Protectorate General.

The Duke of Qian's mansion sent a batch of copper ingots at this time, both as a token of gratitude for what had happened before and as a hint that the Duke of Qian's mansion possessed something he wanted.

If the interests can be agreed upon, the two parties can proceed with the transaction.

"These are what we deserve, so we'll just accept them."

I'll have the mint take these copper ingots away later.

Li Mu said with a smile.

Two dogs fight, play off.

Aside from offering moral encouragement, he remained a spectator throughout the power struggle between the Duke of Qian's mansion and the imperial court.

Through coercion and bribery, and by bribing the imperial envoy, the Duke of Qian's mansion temporarily escaped disaster.

In order to share the political pressure, they have to spend a lot of money to win over allies.

The powerful and influential Marquis of Hanshui's mansion is undoubtedly the ally that the Duke of Qian's mansion most needs to win over.

"Husband, are you preparing to form an alliance with the Duke of Qian's mansion?"

Jing Yaqing asked with concern.

Political alliances are related to the rise and fall of two families, and must be approached with utmost care.

"It hasn't come to that point yet."

From the moment my uncle rejected the marriage proposal from the Duke of Qian's family, our relationship with the Duke of Qian's family was destined never to become a close alliance.

The current friendships are nothing more than mutual benefit.

They need to leverage the power of the Marquis's mansion to deter the wolves and tigers in the court.

My husband happens to need mineral resources from Yunnan, which makes this deal perfect.

Li Mu said with a smile.

The Duke of Qian's power grab appeared to be successful, but in reality, it was a huge loss.

If they had been patient for a while longer and waited until the marriage alliance with the Marquis of Zhenyuan was finalized, the difficulty of the operation would have been reduced significantly.

To assassinate the governor directly was far too crude a method.

If he had been in charge, when the Yunnan governor suffered his first major defeat, he would have directly impeached him to the imperial court.

There is a responsibility to take when you suffer a defeat.

With the nobility gaining control, they could easily pursue Governor Liu's responsibility through court proceedings.

Exaggerate the situation at the front lines, making the civil officials think it's a mess, and Yunnan's military and political power will automatically return to their hands.

What could have been handled legally was turned into a political assassination by them.

Once this bad precedent is set, the Marquis of Zhenyuan, who cherishes his reputation, will naturally never again form a marriage alliance with them.

Having missed this marriage opportunity, the Duke of Qian's mansion lost direct contact with the powerful noble faction.

Past relationships may work once or twice, but that doesn't mean they'll be effective every time. If the Meng and Li families were to form a marriage alliance, Li Mu would be forced to send troops to destroy the Burmese Kingdom for political reasons.

This current relationship conveniently saves on military spending.

Although the Kingdom of Myanmar is the country with the richest mineral resources in the Indochina Peninsula, most of these mines are located deep in the mountains and forests.

Developing it is no easy task.

In contrast, Laos, which is also rich in resources, is not only easier to attack, but also has a legitimate reason to do so.

After being driven out of Annam, the King of Annam led his remaining forces in a fierce battle with the chieftains of Laos.

After these years of ups and downs, they have actually built up a solid foundation.

They're all outsiders; none of them have as deep a foundation as the others.

The Annam Protectorate had no trouble dealing with the remnants of the defeated army.

By advancing along the Mekong River basin, this region can be brought under control.

Li Mu didn't touch the easy persimmons placed beside him, mainly because he had eaten too much earlier and needed time to digest the spoils of his victory.

Over the next three to five years, the main objectives of the Annam Protectorate are: immigration, land reclamation, and development of the local economy.

A vast territory does not equate to a powerful nation.

Only developed territories can be transformed into real power.

“My lord, actually, we won’t lose out by strengthening our ties with the Duke of Qian’s mansion.”

Besides mineral resource trading, the Yunnan-Guizhou region is also overcrowded.

The White Lotus Rebellion caused relatively little damage to the two provinces, as the people had a large surplus of labor.

Since we can attract immigrants from the north, we can naturally attract immigrants from the southwest as well.

Because of their closer geographical proximity, the mountain people of the southwest should be better able to adapt to the climate of the Protectorate.

Jing Yaqing spoke up to remind her.

As the wife of a marquis, she was not idle either.

The Duke of Qian was their closest distant relative, and they had frequent contact within the inner quarters.

The messengers who went back and forth were not only delivering messages, but also gathering intelligence.

"My wife is right; I was blind."

They focused on the northern lands and neglected the southwest region.

If an additional immigration route is added, the population growth rate of the Protectorate will increase significantly.

Li Mu thought for a moment and then said.

He didn't think of immigrating from the southwest region because he subconsciously believed that the southwest region was sparsely populated.

This idea was instilled in my mind while I was serving in the capital.

It's all the fault of the official data.

According to the population registers of the imperial court, the combined population of the three southwestern provinces was less than that of Jiangxi province alone.

It's not that the data is inaccurate, but rather that the data is too outdated.

The population structure may have been like this in the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, but it has changed drastically since then.

When the Duke of Qian's government was developing Yunnan, it brought in immigrants from various places.

The imperial court established garrisons in the prefectures and also brought in hundreds of thousands of immigrants.

These demographic variables were not reflected in the imperial court's population statistics at all.

After two or three hundred years of development, the local population has probably increased more than fivefold.

If we continue to view problems with old ideas, we will be seriously out of touch with reality.

"Then my husband must be prepared."

If all you ask for is immigration, the Duke of Qian's government will definitely grant it.

However, from their perspective, they would definitely take the opportunity to eliminate dissidents.

Those unruly local tribes, they can be packed up and given to you.

Jing Yaqing said with a smile.

Yunnan has a complex ethnic composition, and while the local population has increased, all ethnic groups have also seen growth.

In order to consolidate their own power, it is only natural to sell off disobedient underlings.

"Ha ha……"

"As long as they dare to send it, I dare to accept it."

No matter where they came from, once they reached the territory of the Protectorate, they had to be dispersed and resettled.

How many people are in a village? After the village is split up, there might not even be one household in a town.

"If they can still cause trouble with such a high density of cases, then all the officials of the Protectorate should be beheaded!"

Li Mu laughed and then said.

The law that people are less valuable away from their hometown applies to any region.

When entering an unfamiliar environment, the first thing that is awakened is a sense of crisis.

Most people will act cautiously at this time.

If the resettlement is carried out in accordance with the policies of the Protectorate, at most the village chiefs and headsmen will be dissatisfied, but the ordinary people below will become policy supporters.

Under the strict travel permit system, ordinary people need a travel permit to leave their village, making it impossible for them to coordinate with others.

Once they have harvested one or two seasons of food and enjoyed the benefits of being free from exploitation, these people will naturally sever ties with their original way of life.

With his mind opened, Li Mu's inspiration surged forth in an instant.

If the local people are difficult to govern, then let them move to another place.

They're playing a game of replacing one bird with another, turning everyone into outsiders.

Using land redistribution as a pretext to reshuffle the population in different regions was undoubtedly the fastest way to break up local power structures.

After the split, everyone went their separate ways and developed independently, reducing their dependence on the clan.

In just a few years, the clan's ability to control its members will be completely exhausted.

The same approach is also very helpful in cracking down on religious forces.

(End of this chapter)