Owari Yumeki Golden Day.

Thinking about it carefully, I really can't stay at home.

Fortunately, Shichibei had two sons who could hire many servants and maids to look after so many children. In an ordinary family, it's no wonder that there are videos online in later generations showing many parents, and even grandparents, looking like they have nervous breakdowns.

However, with so many people at home comforting the children, it was easy to find a moment of peace. Ai, the younger sister who lived with Shichibei, asked about Midori's situation and, noticing that Shichibei was listening to the children cry, remarked that it would be better if the children were a little older.

Young children can't express themselves, so they can only cry. When they get a little older and can talk, they won't cry so frequently.

That's true. Kids who can ask for this and that usually won't waste their energy crying unless they can't get what they want. They're too busy exploring new worlds to cry from morning till night.

Sit down. Shichibei now has ten "adopted daughters." Each one comes from an extraordinary background: Saito Tatsuoki has one, Kitabatake Tomokyo has six, and the Hirate brothers have three. They're all from a very young age, and have been in kindergarten for quite some time.

"Master." Shichibei was watching a group of children playing in the sun in the yard when Inase Yoshinari knelt down next to him.

"No accounting today, let's take a day off." In the past, Shichibei would always take a look at the accounts when he returned from his trips.

"No, no, no, the master craftsman Tsuda from Sakaimachi sent a letter asking if we need to recast silver." Inase Yoshinari pulled out a letter, which was clearly not an encrypted letter, but a normal business letter delivered by the Flying Kick Gang.

Previously, Shichibei had attended Takeda Nobufusa's adoption ceremony in Kai, so to avoid affecting his business, Inase Yoshinari opened and read the letter. Finding it wasn't urgent, he waited for Shichibei to return before discussing it further.

Tsuda Muneyuki was a top-tier businessman in Sakai, a key partner of Shichibei in Sakai, and practically an agent. However, the news that Masuno Silver Mine had resumed production and was seeing large-scale silver transactions couldn't be kept from him.

According to the agreement between Shichibei and Tsuchiya Nagayasu, Tsuchiya Nagayasu would only hand over a fixed amount of silver to Shichibei, and would take a percentage of the rest. Of course, he was also in charge of the operation of the mine, with Nobunaga providing military guarantees and Kawamura-ya providing commercial credit.

If something goes wrong, they just run away with their men. They're not afraid of the mine being vandalized; no matter how much they vandalize it, the silver mine will be destroyed.

What was delivered to Shichibei and Nobunaga were silver coins, each weighing one hundred yokan. These were actually recast products; the real silver produced in the mines were individual silver beads formed through a process called ash blowing. Or, to be more precise, they were silver chess pieces of varying sizes.

Only after melting them all down and recasting them could they be transformed into uniformly sized silver coins of one hundred yi (approximately 500 grams). However, recasting them into a standardized size was actually for the convenience of reconciling accounts with Shichibei; in actual use, the silver was always weighed.

In normal transactions, it is almost impossible to find goods that require a hundred silver coins to pay for, and even goods worth ten silver coins are rare.

Ten taels of silver were roughly equivalent to one tael of silver from the neighboring Ming dynasty. What does one tael mean? During the Wanli era, two shi of rice cost about one tael. This amount was still too large, and ordinary people rarely used it in their daily lives.

So why did the big boss Tsuda from Sakaimachi come to ask if he wanted to recast silver coins? To put it simply, the same silver coin, once stamped with the mark from Tennojiya, no longer needed to have its silver content retested in Sakaimachi or even the entire Kinai region. Everyone would just see the mark and weigh it to calculate the price.

If you stamp someone else's stamp, people in Sakaimachi or Kyoto won't believe it. You'll have to take it to a shop like Tsuchikura that handles the exchange to weigh and compare it before you can exchange or use it.

In fact, Kawamuraya gained more and more influence thanks to Oda Nobunaga, and it was quite famous in the Kinai region. However, most people mainly regarded Kawamuraya as a horse groom, horse merchant, and rice merchant that Shichibei had been doing for the past few years.

When it comes to buying and selling rice, or trading rice futures, everyone is willing to trust Shichibei. He's built a reputation and has established a strong brand.

However, people might not be so credible about silver coins bearing the Kawamura-ya stamp. If you wanted your silver coins to circulate freely within the Kinai region, it was best to have them recast by Ginza craftsmen recommended by Tsuda Muneyuki and have them stamped with their mark; only then could they circulate without hindrance.

Ask them to buy services, and they will charge a certain amount for the service.

This was the only business he did in Sakaimachi. During the Edo period, Ōkoku Tsuneyuki, a former official in charge of silver re-entry and silver blowing, was doing this job. Of course, he wasn't called Ōkoku Tsuneyuki then; he was called Yuasa Sakubei. Ōkoku was a bestowed surname, and Tsuneyuki was a inherited name. His family could be called Ōkoku Tsuneyuki for generations to come.

The Ginza district in Edo was established by his family. It is said that he presented Tokugawa Ieyasu with a Daikoku Kiku-in silver coin bearing the character "寳" (treasure). Ieyasu considered it superior to the previous Kikuichimonji Chō-gold coins and thus made the Daikoku family's "寳" (treasure) seal on silver coins a standard mark for all silver goods.

Later, silver coins were also stamped with the characters "大黑" (Da Hei) or "常是" (Chang Shi), serving as both a mark and an anti-counterfeiting measure. It is said that for a period of time, the character "定" (Ding) was also used, all of which were stamps for circulating precious goods.

By the way, the second generation of Daikoku Tsuneo's wife is Imai Munekaru's daughter, and Imai Munekaru's father is Imai Munehisa.

Their family's status in Sakai Town needs no further explanation, which is why Tsuda Muneki has come specifically to ask Shichibei if they need their recasting services.

Don't rush to reply. Wait until later to write to Tsuchiya Nagayoshi, who has already returned to Tajima Ikuno Ginzan, and ask for Nagayoshi's opinion before making a decision.

Even Shichibei isn't an expert in everything. If there's something he doesn't know, he asks an expert. If you don't understand something, just ask. You can only learn by asking. It would be foolish to just sit there and keep it to yourself.

"Should we reply to Master Tsuda first?" Inase Yoshinari then put the letter away.

"Just tell them you need to consult with the lord first before making a decision." The actual owner of the silver mine is Oda Nobunaga, so of course you have to report to him.

At this very moment, a place called Nose Copper Mining Site, nestled in the mountains of Kawasaki Province in Settsu Riverside District, Kinai, officially declared bankruptcy and dissolution (historically recorded as around the fourth or fifth year of Tensho).

In later generations, it was known by another name: Tada Gin-don-zan (Tada Silver Copper Mine). Now, because the site where it was discovered is located in Nose, it is called the Nose Copper Mine Site (1037, the first year of the Chōryaku era of the Mibu family). Around this Nose Copper Mine Site, Tada-in and Tada-sō were built nearby, and later, due to misinterpretation, it was renamed Tada Gin-don-zan (Tada Silver Copper Mine).

The entire mine is 20 kilometers wide from north to south and 13 kilometers wide from east to west. In 1279, it was managed by the Otsuki clan (Mibu clan). During the turmoil of the Nanboku-chō period, the Nose and Shiokawa clans, who were servants of the Tada-in, repeatedly fought over and destroyed the Nose Nose copper mine.

Coupled with the decline in exports to Ming China and the weakening of the temple's power, the Nengshi Copper Mining Bureau inevitably faced complete destruction.

It wasn't until 1660, the third year of the Manji era in history, that a new vein was discovered about four kilometers away from the present-day copper mine, allowing it to be revived. By 1665, the fourth year of the Kanbun era, it had developed into a large mine with an annual output of 3 kan of silver and 4 catties of copper, and became the directly controlled Ginzan Town of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

In this world, Settsu Province, which was originally barely considered to be under the anti-Oda banner, was prematurely supported by Nobunaga to establish Takayama Shigetomo. He also managed to bring Nakagawa Kiyohide from the anti-Oda side to the Oda camp earlier than anyone else.

Thus, the two sides engaged in repeated battles around the outskirts of Ikeda Castle. Takayama Shigetomo was filled with gratitude towards Nobunaga and relentlessly worked to conquer Settsu Province for him. Nobunaga's daughter's marriage was truly worthwhile; she gained such a dedicated son-in-law.

A chaotic battle broke out between the two sides in the central and northern areas, which then affected the Nengshi Copper Mine. Nearby miners were either arrested indiscriminately or forced to retreat into the mountains to cultivate the land. The entire copper mine disappeared without a trace.

"What a pity, we have mountains of silver but no mountains of copper." Shichibei sighed as he watched Inase Yoshinari write his reply.

"What do you want?" Inase Yoshinari didn't look up; they were all family.

"If we had a large copper mine, we could mint Yongle Tongbao coins ourselves," Shichibei remarked with a touch of wistfulness.

What a bunch of damned Japanese daimyo! The daimyo who control the copper mines are all "ruthless and vicious" people. They don't mint normal small coins at all, but instead mint a lot of bad coins. Often, a bad coin contains only one-eighth of the copper content of a good small coin.

Then they would put four or five bad coins into the local market, and they could use them as a single good coin. On the one hand, the price of copper in Japan was already low, so they had already made a profit by casting the bad coins into coins. On the other hand, they made a second profit by using the bad coins to consume or exchange for good coins.

Thus, bad money drives out good, and eventually they plundered all the valuable currency within their territories, to the point that even the high-level system couldn't be maintained. Because there was no more valuable currency circulating within their territories, the daimyo had used it to buy firearms, saltpeter, and armor in Sakai, and to purchase Kyoto and Tang Dynasty goods in Kyoto.

Don't be fooled by the fact that Kinai and Noo seem to be free of financial problems right now. Many other regions in Japan with underdeveloped handicrafts and commerce are already experiencing a "money shortage," or rather, a "depletion of valuable money." The money within their domains is all worthless money that even the lords and daimyo themselves don't want, because it can't be used to buy arquebuses in Sakaimachi, so what's the point?

So calling them "vicious and ruthless" is absolutely true.

They only care about making as much money as possible in the short term, but the more they make, the poorer they become, and the poorer they become, the more they make. In the end, they're just a lump of dirt, a real lump of dirt.

Minting fine coins in Japan and minting small coins in the Ming Dynasty were completely different things. The price of copper in Japan was far lower than that in the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, the purchasing power of fine coins was higher than that in the Ming Dynasty, so the private sale of Yongle Tongbao small coins from the Ming Dynasty to Japan was a very profitable business.

Was Japan lacking in coin-minting craftsmen? Was its coin-minting skill too low? Neither. It was simply that the feudal lords with copper mines resorted to every means to amass wealth, lacking any long-term vision. They had no intention of establishing any credibility for their currency or promoting circulation and commerce. They were focused on accumulating as much as possible; if they could amass an extra 500 kan this year, they could support fifty more foot soldiers, perhaps enough for one more battle.

Once you've secured the territory, you can start making money immediately; the results are quick.

Ah, if only Shichibei had a copper mine. He could directly mint Yongle Tongbao coins, control a large source of copper and silver, and perhaps then have the ability to establish a currency system.

Moreover, controlling the minting and use of copper coins was inherently profitable. If Nobunaga gave him a copper mountain and calculated the profits based on Japan's low copper prices, Shichibei could expand his business all the way to the Ryotsuya (a type of copper shop). Each extension of the downstream channel would bring in a profit, and with one shop after another, the money earned was incalculable at that time.

"We don't even have mountains, let alone copper mountains, haha." Inase Yoshinari finished writing his reply and handed it to Shichibei for a look.

Shichibei would sign his name and seal the document, then hand it to the Hikatsu-kun (a group of martial arts practitioners) to be delivered back to Tsuda Munekichi. If speed was required, it could even reach Sakaicho within two or three days. Normally, it would take five days to arrive in Sakaicho, though at a slower pace.

This is the advantage of having ample post stations and stables. Of course, courier services generally relied entirely on human labor to deliver messages. Those who could borrow horses and rush to change horses to deliver messages were mostly dealing with urgent military intelligence.

"Mino doesn't have it either..." Shichibei thought to himself, "You always have to give something up when it comes to this."

The Nobi Plain is a rare agricultural area in Japan, with thriving timber and ceramics industries, making it a very prosperous place to start a business. To require mineral resources on top of that is truly setting the bar too high.

and many more!

Upon hearing this, Shichibei suddenly remembered that in the Hida region north of Mino, there was an epic zinc-silver associated mine—the Kamioka Mine.

Historically, it was developed by the Mitsui zaibatsu for about a hundred years, with a total output of 7500 million tons of zinc and silver. However, after 1971, local residents suffered from heavy metal pollution in the water, leading to large-scale protests and lawsuits, which caused a significant decline in production.

In fact, the highest-producing year saw an annual output of nearly two million tons. Of course, that was in 1955. It's certainly not reaching that level in today's era.

Speaking of zinc, it's one of the important materials for minting coins. With a ratio of 6:4 for copper and 4:1 for zinc, you can mint some really nice copper coins.

In the neighboring Daiqing, after the large-scale mining of lead, that is, zinc, the copper coins were basically in a 6:4 ratio of copper to zinc, with occasional fluctuations, as metals such as lead and tin were also added.

Hida is a place that Kanamori Nagachika could easily pacify with just two or three thousand men. It's a pity that Shichibei doesn't have a copper mine. If he had another copper mine and cooperated well, then Yongle Tongbao coins would pour in.

Chapter 290 Pleading with the Lord to intervene

Shichibei bent over and asked Nobunaga about the situation in Hida. Nobunaga was preparing for the end-of-life care of Asakura Yoshikage at the time, and thought that Shichibei wanted to pass through Hida to get to Echizen.

They exclaimed that there was no need for that and suggested just following the old path of Kanesaki.

No, no, no, Shichibei realized that Nobunaga had misunderstood him and asked why they didn't take this opportunity to bring Hida under their command. Nobunaga then turned his head and said no.

Anekokōji Yoritsuna was Nobunaga's brother-in-law, and he even sent someone to accompany Nobunaga when he marched on Kyoto. Furthermore, he had genuinely transitioned from the Miki clan to the Anekokōji clan, a prominent family with the approval and endorsement of the Imperial Court, and was a descendant of the Fujiwara no Hokuke (Northern Family). Importantly, his father was a third-ranking councilor (Sanshi) and Chunagon (Junior Councilor), and he himself was the governor of Hida Province.

Why would you want to mess with a brother-in-law who is friendly to you, who will eventually rise slowly to the third rank of immortals according to custom, and whose territory is so poor that he is crying?

hiss……

You can't exactly say you want to take over his land and seize his property. Although this kind of thing was all too common in Japan's Sengoku period, it's still not a very respectable thing to do.

The key issue is that Nobunaga is still under siege, and morale is low. Even killing Kitabatake Tomonori requires secretly recruiting bandits; if he were to kill even allies like Anagoji Yoritsuna, no one would want to follow Nobunaga.

By the way, Yoritsuna, the elder sister, also had a good relationship with Konoe Sakihisa. The fact that their family was able to be fully adopted into the Yoritsuna clan and receive the approval and endorsement of the imperial court was due to the efforts of the Konoe family.

"My lord, there is news from Long Island."

"kindness."

As the two were chatting, Mori Nagayoshi, who was guarding the gate, handed in a letter. There were also two people sitting at the door who looked somewhat familiar; they were probably one of Kuki Yoshitaka's subordinates.

Nobunaga didn't ask Shichibei to stay away either. What could possibly happen on Nagashima? There was no need to hide anything from Shichibei; it was just those bald thieves from the Jodo Shinshu sect.

It's really nothing serious. Takigawa Kazumasu returned to Kita-Ise, and after tidying up Kita-Ise over the past two months, he has finally reorganized the forces. He has restored the army to a strength of about four or five thousand men, and replenished them in all aspects.

In addition, with Kuki Yoshitaka and his son Saji's siege of Nagashima intensifying, and having already recruited several warrior monk leaders within Nagashima, he came to ask Nobunaga for advice.

Should he just destroy Nagashima and let Nobunaga have some fun?

Actually, it's not quite appropriate yet, because although the siege of Changdao started last year, Changdao still had a rice harvest last autumn. At this time, ordinary believers can only catch seaweed and small fish to eat, but the senior monks and monk soldiers in Changdao City should still be eating white rice.

In other words, these monk soldiers were still capable of fighting. Takikawa Kazumasu had 5,000 men, and even with two naval forces, the total wouldn't exceed 10,000. Attacking independently would be extremely difficult.

Starve them for another six months, until the monks and high priests in Long Island City are drooling with envy, then attack them, and victory will be assured.

The Nagashima Ikko-ikki's fighting strength was actually quite good, mainly because it had incorporated a large number of Japanese samurai from northern Ise, and was also brainwashed by the Jodo Shinshu sect, so it put up quite a fight against Nobunaga.

Sitting to the side, Shichibei nodded silently to himself, "That's good, let's not fight now."

Why? Because if they fight now, Nobunaga will slaughter another 20,000 to 30,000 people, physically destroying these believers. But if they wait another six months to fight, the believers will starve to death on their own, and it will all be their own fault. If they dare not surrender, then the blame will be turned over.

Look at Hideyoshi. In castles like Miki and Tottori, tens of thousands of people starved and died of thirst. But it wasn't Hideyoshi who did it. So it didn't affect his reputation as a capable general who conquered castles. Instead, it became a children's song that was sung everywhere.

Miki Castle had 8,000 soldiers, and several thousand families remained within the castle walls. When the castle was finally opened to the public, only a few hundred survived. The castle was a living hell. While both involved killing enemy soldiers, the impact of a siege was clearly far less significant than that of a massacre.

The impact on people's senses is also completely different.

The two samurai, Takikawa and Kuki, who were kneeling outside the threshold, simply bowed and indicated their understanding after hearing Nobunaga's order to continue the siege. They then left the residence, led by Mori Nagayoshi.

"Why are you bringing up Feishu for no reason?" Nobunaga had a thick stack of documents in front of him.

Ashikaga Yoshiaki was exiled, wasn't he? Nobunaga confiscated all the estates and lands near Yamashiro. Now, we need to reward Hanawa Naomasa's men with new territories so that we can reclaim their old territories in Mino and Owari.

Judging by this, it would take at least forty or fifty official documents to be signed. After he signs them all, Sakuma Nobumori, as the Musha magistrate and chief retainer, must also sign them before they are fully effective and protected by the current order.

"Aww..." Shichibei was provoked by Tsuda Muneki's letter.

"What good businesses are there to do in Feizhou?" Nobunaga's signature was quite fluent, flowing smoothly and elegantly.

"Does my lord know that there is a silver mountain in Kamioka?" Shichibei thought to himself that it was better not to hide it and to tell him the truth.

"I know, it's very poor and weak, far inferior to the Ikuno Ginzan." When Nobunaga heard about this, he immediately told Shichibei to stop thinking about it and focus on making the Tajima Ikuno Ginzan bigger.