The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 638 The Currency of the Ming Dynasty Circulates Throughout the World
Qi Jiguang and Deng Zilong accepted the order and left.

Wanli, however, was still staring blankly at the map on the table.

After holding back for a while, Song Yingxing cautiously said, "Your Majesty, how about I go and research the train first?"

Emperor Wanli slowly shook his head and said, "Don't rush this. I suddenly remembered something very important. Please wait a moment."

After saying that, he called out loudly towards the door, "Send the Imperial Father-in-Law."

Very important thing?

Young Zhu Changxun asked curiously, "Father, what is it?"

I should have thought of this long ago.

Instead of answering, Wanli asked, "Do you know what the consequences will be for the hundreds of millions of taels of gold and silver we mine and smelt every year?"

as a result of?

What could be the consequences of this?
Xiao Zhu Changxun thought about it carefully, then cautiously asked, "We've become rich! We'll never lack money again! Father, are these consequences?"

Can this be called a consequence?

Wanli shook his head slightly, then patiently explained, "Xun'er, whether you consider wealth depends on what you value."

If you consider gold and silver as wealth, then we have indeed become very rich.

However, it's a bit premature to say that we'll never lack money again.

Because in other people's eyes, gold and silver are not necessarily wealth.

Moreover, we are still earning gold and silver by selling goods, so the amount of gold and silver we have will only increase.

This will lead to a major problem: gold and silver will become increasingly worthless.

what?
Gold and silver will become increasingly worthless!

Little Zhu Changxun asked with a puzzled look, "Father, why is gold and silver becoming less and less valuable?"

You don't understand why currency depreciates.

Emperor Wanli patiently explained, "Think about it, how many goods can we produce in a year?"

The total value of all the goods produced by Wanshengtang's various businesses is at most a little over 100 million taels of silver. Adding the goods produced by private workshops, the total value is at most a little over 200 million taels of silver.

Moreover, these goods are all purchased by people.

In other words, these goods were originally intended to be purchased by people who would pay two or three hundred million taels of gold, silver, or copper coins.

In this situation, can the hundreds of millions of taels of gold and silver that we mine and smelt from the Americas every year really be worth hundreds of millions of taels?
We have several times more gold and silver than our existing goods, but we don't have any more goods.

Uh, this is complicated.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun thought about it carefully and still asked with some confusion, "Father, do you mean that mining and smelting so much gold and silver is completely useless?"

You're thinking too far.

Emperor Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "These gold and silver are still useful, but their value may not be several hundred million taels."

Your father will give you a specific example and you'll understand.

For example, all the goods produced by the Ming Dynasty are now worth 300 million taels, while we mine and smelt 600 million taels of gold and silver from the Americas every year.

If we distribute all 600 million taels, then adding the original 300 million taels will make a total of 900 million taels.

However, the total amount of goods will not increase as we distribute more gold and silver; nine hundred million taels can only buy the original three hundred million taels of goods.

In other words, goods that originally cost three taels will become priced at nine taels because of the abundance of gold and silver.

This is only one year; if it were ten or a hundred years, the price of goods that originally sold for three taels would probably rise to thirty taels or even three hundred taels.

what?
Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun thought about it carefully, and then asked in surprise, "Father, do you mean we can't mine and smelt so much gold and silver?"

Emperor Wanli slowly shook his head, then patiently instructed, "It is still very useful for us to mine and smelt so much gold and silver."

The key is how we use it.

The Ming Dynasty can only produce this many goods each year, or it only has this many laborers to produce this many goods.

However, there is more than one Ming Dynasty in the world. The Spanish, Portuguese, and even the Dutch and British can buy our goods with real gold and silver, so why can't we buy their goods with real gold and silver?

"If we can get everything in the world to be traded using the currency of the Ming Dynasty, then we can mine and smelt as much gold and silver as possible."

Weren't we talking about gold and silver? Why is there this "currency" thing now?

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun couldn't help but ask, "Father, what is the meaning of currency?"

This is self-explanatory.

Emperor Wanli patiently explained: "Goods are commodities, and currency is money. Currency means money for buying things."

My father's idea is that as long as everyone in the world uses the money made by the Ming Dynasty to buy things, then we will mine and smelt more and more gold and silver.

Because these gold and silver coins, once used as currency, could be used to buy goods or labor all over the world.

This is really complicated.

Xiao Zhu Changxun listened for a long time but still couldn't understand.

At this moment, Yongnian Earl Wang Wei arrived.

After the emperor and his ministers exchanged greetings, Wanli asked, "Father-in-law, you know about copper coins, right?"

That's a really strange question. Who doesn't know about copper coins?
Upon hearing this, Earl Wang Wei of Yongnian paused for a moment, then took out a copper coin from his pocket and asked cautiously, "Your Majesty, is this what you mean?"

When Wanli took the copper coin, he saw that it was a Jiajing Tongbao.

During the Jiajing reign, there was still surplus copper to mint coins, but in recent years he has used all the copper to make steam engines and turbines, leaving no surplus copper at all.

Now it's different. As long as the copper mines in the Americas are mined and smelted at a frenzied pace, they will not lack copper.

He weighed the copper coin in his hand, examined its thickness, and then asked, "This is a one-qian coin, which is one wen coin. I seem to remember there were also two-qian and five-qian coins, right?"

Yes.

Yongnian Earl Wang Wei simply pulled out a handful of copper coins from his pocket.

Wanli then picked up a two-qian and a five-qian coin, weighed them in his hand, and nodded slightly, saying, "Hmm, not bad. We should also mint some copper coins, silver coins, and gold coins."

what?
They also minted silver and gold coins!

Upon hearing this, Earl Wang Wei of Yongnian cautiously said, "Your Majesty, copper coins are already being counterfeited. If we also mint silver and gold coins, I estimate that even more people will counterfeit them."

The copper coin is one thing; even if I received a counterfeit five-wen coin, I wouldn't lose much. But silver and gold coins are different; each one is probably worth tens or even hundreds ofwen.

Yes, the issue of counterfeiting is indeed something we should seriously consider.

Wanli looked at the crudely written copper coin in his hand and decisively said, "We won't mint it, we'll stamp it directly. We can even stamp armor plates now, so stamping gold, silver and copper coins shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Father-in-law, look, when they were minted, only a few characters could be cast on the copper coins, and the work was very rough.

If we use stamping, we can easily stamp exquisite patterns onto gold, silver, and copper coins, making them impossible for others to counterfeit.

Oh, it's made by stamping.

This is something that can't be imitated without a punch press; you can tell the difference between stamped and cast parts at a glance.

Upon hearing this, Earl Wang Wei of Yongnian nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise; the stamping is indeed something that others cannot imitate."

That's not necessarily true; punch presses aren't that complicated.

Emperor Wanli nodded slightly and said, "We still need to work on the design to ensure that no one can imitate it."

We won't make this hole in the middle; we can just use a bag to pack them later. We'll stamp all the gold, silver, and copper coins into one piece, which will make it easier to carve patterns and designs.

For example, we add a flower to both the obverse and reverse sides of copper coins of one, two, and five coins.

For example, we would add a phoenix design to both the obverse and reverse sides of silver coins of ten, twenty, and fifty cash.

For example, we can add a dragon design to both the obverse and reverse sides of gold coins of 100, 200, and 500 coins.

Furthermore, the front center is marked with the amount of money in large characters, surrounded by smaller characters: "Supervised by the Ministry of Revenue of the Ming Dynasty, circulated throughout the world."

On the back, we have densely engraved various languages, which also indicate the value of the goods in coins, and that they were manufactured under the supervision of the Ministry of Revenue of the Ming Dynasty and are intended for circulation throughout the world.

This makes it even harder for others to imitate. Even with a simple punch press, they certainly couldn't stamp out intricate patterns or characters the size of mosquitoes.

Uh, why make it so complicated?
Upon hearing this, Earl Wang Wei of Yongnian cautiously said, "Your Majesty, this will make it very time-consuming to carve the stamping mold."

What is this.

Without hesitation, Wanli said, "Just recruit more craftsmen to carve them. Have each craftsman carve only one side of each type of gold, silver, or copper coin. This will make them even harder to counterfeit."

These nine types of gold, silver, and copper coins have eighteen sides. Who has the ability to engrave them all the same as others?
Upon hearing this, Earl Wang Wei of Yongnian nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise."

Wanli nodded slightly, then said to Song Yingxing, "Chang Geng, have you seen the machine for pressing wood panels?"

You should replace the steam engine with a machine to press gold, silver, and copper plates, and make them of various thicknesses.

Furthermore, after the gold, silver, and copper sheets are pressed out, they need to be punched into small round pieces the size of gold, silver, and copper coins. This makes the molds for punching the patterns more durable.

This kind of machine is not difficult to manufacture, because gold, silver, and copper are all very soft, and teeth can even leave marks on them. There is no need to heat them at all; you just need to roughly forge them into a plate shape on a forging press and insert them.

Upon hearing this, Song Yingxing nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty, I understand."

Emperor Wanli nodded slightly and then instructed, "Father-in-law, copper mines in the Americas are not yet being mined and smelted on a large scale, so we don't have much copper yet."

"First, arrange for people to mint gold and silver coins. Once they're minted, have Wansheng Hall distribute them throughout the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty. There are already copper coins in circulation; we can easily replace them later."

Uh, you have to give me a number.

Upon hearing this, Earl Wang Wei of Yongnian cautiously asked, "Your Majesty, if I may be so bold, how many sets of molds do we need to make, and how many gold and silver coins do we need to stamp per day?"

We need to calculate that. Ten silver coins weigh only one qian (a unit of weight), so ten of them weigh one liang (another unit of weight). Twenty silver coins weigh five liang, and fifty silver coins weigh two liang. Gold coins are roughly the same.

The gold and silver they can mine and smelt each year, including the gold and silver they earn, are worth at least 600 million taels. If gold and silver are split equally, that's 300 million taels each. Divided over 300 days a year, that's about 900,000 taels a day.

Wanli silently made some calculations, and then decisively said: "We need to produce at least one million silver coins worth ten cash a day, at least five hundred thousand worth twenty cash a day, and at least two hundred thousand worth fifty cash a day."

"For gold coins worth 100 coins, you need to top up at least 1 million per day; for those worth 200 coins, at least 500,000 per day; and for those worth 500 coins, at least 200,000 per day."

what?
How many molds would that require?!
Yongnian Earl Wang Wei was taken aback for a moment before cautiously saying, "Your Majesty, this requires too many molds. I'm afraid we can't carve so many molds in a short time."

That's all right.

Wanli pondered, "Just let the craftsmen keep carving. If they can't raise enough this year, they can raise enough next year, and if they can't raise enough next year, they can raise enough the year after. In short, keep carving the molds and don't stop."

Oh, there's no rush.

Upon hearing this, Yongnian Earl Wang Wei nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

(End of this chapter)