1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 965 The Gold Digger

June 1680, 6, Linzi Prefecture, Jindu County (now Bathurst, Australia).

On the banks of the Goldwater River (now the Macquarie River flowing through Bathurst, Australia), seven stocky men wielding pickaxes and hoes struggled to plan the gravel-covered ground. After digging for a while, they would It will stop, squat on the ground, hold the dug out stone in its hands, brush off the dirt on it, and observe carefully.

"Damn, we've been digging for five or six days, and we haven't found a single piece of gold, but we're tired like dogs. Open your head, should we change places?" Lu Zhiyuan threw the pickaxe and sat down on his buttocks. On the ground, panting heavily, Dou Da's sweat kept dripping down.

"I can't bear it after only five or six days? If you want to make a fortune, you have to hold your breath." Zhang Ensheng stopped what he was doing, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and looked up at the hillside where they were. The core circle of the gold mine designated by the government is very close. If you try harder, you may dig out a large pile of gold. By then, we brothers will be out! With tens of thousands of dollars in our pockets, Go to Linzi to buy a big house, buy silk and satin for each of the wives and children, and live the luxurious life of those big businessmen, that's called enjoying life!"

"Changtou, with tens of dollars in your pocket, it's already very heavy. If you want to carry tens of thousands of dollars in your pocket, don't you want to burst your purse!" Hong Weiping said with a smile.

"You are so fucking stupid!" Zhang Ensheng sneered and said, "Silver dollars are too heavy, and you don't know how to exchange them into gold coupons? Isn't that thing just like silver dollars, which can be exchanged for full amount of gold in any bank?" silver."

"To be honest, I still like those heavy silver dollars. I put them in my pocket, and I feel very at ease!"

"Country bun! If you go to a big restaurant and carry a bag of silver dollars, don't you want to make people laugh?" Zhang Ensheng said contemptuously: "Think about it, if you sit in a resplendent and magnificent restaurant and eat a lot of delicacies from mountains and seas, then He took out a 100 yuan gold coupon from his pocket lightly, and told the waiter that there is no need to look for the rest, and the Lord rewards you! How face-saving it is!"

"Haha..." The people next to me burst into laughter immediately after hearing this, "If you want to talk about atmosphere, you have to look at your head. Otherwise, you can be a squad leader in less than three years in the army!"

"Hoo ho ho..."

Everyone was talking and laughing, when suddenly there was a sound of horseshoes from the upper reaches of the Jinshui River, causing everyone to immediately suppress their smiles, pick up the tools on the ground, and hold them tightly in their hands.In this gold mining area, fighting broke out from time to time in order to compete for territory.What's more, in order to snatch the gold dug up by others, some desperadoes would not hesitate to use their hands secretly to put people to death.

"Gendarmerie patrol!" More than a dozen gendarmes came slowly along the river bank with muskets on their backs and sabers in their arms.Seeing six or seven people gathered on the hillside, he immediately stopped and raised the musket on his back.

A gendarme came out more and more, riding a horse, and slowly approaching the hillside.

"What are you doing?" The military policeman held a flintlock pistol in his right hand and looked at everyone sharply.

"Digging wild vegetables." Zhang Ensheng said nonchalantly.

"Digging wild vegetables?" The gendarme looked at the potholes dug everywhere and was amused, "You are digging wild vegetables here? What's the matter, the life of the family can't go on, I need you old men to run away Come to dig wild vegetables on the mountain for a living?"

"Why, the government has an express prohibition for the common people to dig wild vegetables?" Zhang Ensheng asked back.

"..." Looking at the stubborn man in front of him, the military policeman was a little irritated.

Damn it, you can even come up with an excuse for digging wild vegetables. This is really an insult to the IQ of the men!

"I suspect that you are fugitives who have fled here!" The military policeman switched the pistol to his left hand, then drew out his saber with his right hand, and pointed at them, "Everyone is lying on the ground, if you dare to do anything wrong, I will kill you!" Your heads!"

"Sir, attacking the people of Daqi for no reason and accusing them of being robbers will be dealt with by military law." Zhang Ensheng was not frightened at all, instead he took a step forward and faced the military police's sword.

"Yo ho..." The military policeman was taken aback by the words, "You fucking know military law?... Served as a soldier?"

"Zhang Tou used to be a cavalry squad leader in the Army." Hong Weiping yelled loudly from behind: "I also served in the army, the [-]th Battalion of the [-]th Regiment of the Army."

"Oh, it turned out to be the former military robe." The gendarme's expression softened a little, he took back his saber and inserted it into the scabbard, "Why, after being discharged from the military, it is not easy to live in the local area, and he also ran to this place Digging for gold?"

"This brother, in our country of Qi, who doesn't want to live a better life." Zhang Ensheng said with a smile: "The salary earned in the army in the past few years is only enough for the family's wife and children to live a small life without lack of food and clothing. But Think about it, when your son or daughter grows up, you must not prepare more dowry and dowry for them? When the elder is old, you must not give him better food, clothing, housing and transportation, and more money for soup and medicine. The adobe house at home must not be replaced by seven Eight big tile-roofed houses, and then live in peace and beauty, right?"

"This area is not very safe!" said the gendarme: "In less than ten days, we discovered and stopped five or six armed fights, killed three and injured more than a dozen. We also arrested more than two dozen , damn it is the master who wants money but not life!"

"We save it." Zhang Ensheng nodded and said: "We don't cause trouble here, but we are not afraid of trouble. As long as we find a few pieces of gold, worth 5000 yuan, we will immediately stop and go home."

"That's not necessarily the case." At this time, a military policeman accompanying the military captain (second lieutenant) led by the river came slowly to the crowd on horseback, with a contemptuous look on his lips, "Those who died hard When the gold diggers first came, they also thought the same as you! I would like to advise you, go home early and live in peace, and don’t test the greed of yourself and others here. As the saying goes, if you get rich without getting rich, you will end up with the poor. Sick horses, one by one, don't dream of the dream of a windfall, and be careful to lose your life!"

"Sir, thank you for reminding me. Life and death depend on fate and wealth. We just want to fight for it." Zhang Ensheng took a deep breath and replied in a deep voice when he heard the harsh and slightly warning words of the accompanying captain.

"Hmph, since you guys don't listen to persuasion, let's do it for ourselves." The accompanying captain turned his horse's head and prepared to lead the team away, "I hope that when we see you again, each of you can stand and talk !"

"Zhangtou, can we really dig out gold?" Hong Weiping asked cautiously as he watched the gendarmerie patrol team galloping towards the lower reaches of the river.

"I can do it!" Zhang Ensheng said firmly: "In the past two years, so many people have returned to Linzi City with gold in their hands, and then became rich overnight....We can definitely do it too!"
-
On July 7, Linzi.

After more than 30 years of development, Linzi has become the fourth "big" city in Hanzhou with a population exceeding 10.As of the end of last year, statistics showed that the city had more than [-] permanent residents, second only to Jianye, Weihai and Daxing in terms of population size.

Andris Noppert is a Dutchman living in Linzi, who is employed by Qiguo Southeast Securities Trading Center to provide necessary guidance and assistance for the construction and development of Qiguo's financial market.

As the most developed commercial country in this period, the Netherlands has repeatedly innovated in business and financial models and established the most advanced and complete financial tools in the world.In order to make money, capitalists and big businessmen can be said to be racking their brains for ideas.

In order to share trade risks, the Netherlands created a joint-stock company system. The first joint-stock company in the world was the Dutch East India Company.In order to encourage all people to participate in shares and share business risks and benefits, the Netherlands established the world's first stock exchange in Amsterdam.In order to raise funds for the dam repair, the Netherlands issued the world's first perpetual bond, which is still paying interest today.In order to promote the development of the commercial economy and accelerate currency circulation, the Netherlands also created the world's earliest banking system. The world's first city bank was born in Amsterdam in 1609.

With the rapid development of Qi's economy, corresponding financial instruments and financial markets were also born.In order to better regulate and manage the domestic financial market and make it develop in an orderly and healthy manner, the State of Qi hired many financial "experts" from the Netherlands, and combined with the actual situation of the State of Qi, began to gradually establish a local financial market.

While serving for the Southeastern Stock Exchange, Andris Norpert was also engaged in the "gold panning" business.He will buy some exquisite goods and exotic pearls in Hanzhou, and partner with others to do some precious metal arbitrage business.

Sometimes, he had to marvel at the fact that the Hanzhou Continent occupied by the Qi State is simply a treasure land, with countless coals, high-grade iron ore, endless bauxite, and massive amounts of gold and silver buried underground.It is said that in order to ensure unnecessary price inflation in the country, the people of Qi deliberately sealed up many gold mines and prohibited anyone from digging them.However, the output of the few gold mines that are currently in operation is also amazing, even comparable to several gold (silver) mines in the Spanish Americas, which is enviable.

Because of the impact of the commercial revolution and the crazy import of gold and silver by the Spaniards, the price revolution in the entire European continent lasted for nearly a hundred years. The currency continued to depreciate and prices continued to rise, which further led to a shortage of precious metals.From 1500 to 1650, the silver components of the currencies of the Netherlands, France, Shenluo, and Germany were all reduced by 50%, while the United Kingdom devalued it by one-third.

Corresponding to this is the firmness of the price of gold, which has attracted countless people to chase it crazily.As early as several decades ago, the Dutch East India Company had used the price difference of precious metals in Ming Dynasty to ship silver from Japan to Ming Dynasty, obtained a large amount of gold, and then shipped it back to Europe to make super high profits.

Although Qi's currency is transitioning to the gold standard, it plans to issue banknotes-gold round coupons based on a large amount of gold reserves.However, at present, in Hanzhou, including the surrounding East Indies, Qin, North Korea, and even Japan, silver tael (yuan) is still used as the base currency. Compared with the European continent, there is still a huge "arbitrage" space for the price comparison between gold and silver. .

At this time, in a Dutch business house, Andris Noppert was carefully observing the gold nuggets on the table with a magnifying glass, and at the same time, secretly estimating its gold content in his heart.

"Perfect dog head gold!" The Qi people on the opposite side may have waited too long, and their faces showed a bit of impatience, "If it weren't for the high purchase price here, who would be willing to sell it to you foreigners? "

"Oh, sir, don't be impatient." Andris Nopert spoke fluent Chinese and said with a smile: "This piece of gold weighs so much, can't you allow me to observe and study it for a while? Confirmed, then I will pay a large sum of money!"

Naturally produced dog head gold has a shiny golden yellow appearance and is highly recognizable, but its texture is not pure, which is quite different from pure gold.The output of dog head gold is extremely rare in the world, and it is very rare, but several larger gold mines in Hanzhou are rich in dog head gold.Over the past few decades, more than 10 pieces of dog head gold larger than 3000 kilograms have been discovered. Although there are few folks who pick them up, once they are discovered, they often cause a huge sensation.

Dog head gold contains more stones and impurities, and it is full of potholes, because the environment where it is produced is mostly in sand grains rich in groundwater, so it is rich in sand grains.If calculated according to the fineness of gold, its purity is usually 83% to 92%, while the individual dog head gold found in Hanzhou mainland can be as high as 96%.

The dog's head gold held by Andris Norpert weighs 12 kilograms, and its color tends to be dark yellow. Based on years of experience, he judges with certainty that the fineness of this piece of gold is over 90%, and its value is extremely high.

However, in order to suppress the purchase price, he naturally couldn't show any expression of satisfaction. Instead, he told the Qi people with great regret that the fineness of this piece of gold was only about 80%, and it was the most common piece of dog's head gold.

However, the people of Qi who dared to sell gold to foreigners were obviously not easy to fool.The two sides continued to negotiate for most of the day on the fineness of the gold nugget, the purchase price per gram, and the payment method.Finally, when night fell, an intentional price was reached.

Andris Norpert and several companions finally bought this piece of dog head gold weighing 12 kilograms at a price of [-] Hanzhou silver dollars.If you bring it back to Europe and refine it, you can earn at least three hundred Hanzhou silver dollars, um, equivalent to Dutch guilders, that's a gross profit of [-] guilders.

What a perfect business!

"Gentlemen, let's go out to celebrate tonight." Andris Norpert said to several partners with a smile: "To our another successful gold rush, go and drink!"

"Hanzhou is really a treasure land full of gold." Steven Boguis, a senior manager of the Dutch East India Company in Linzi, stood up from the soft chair after hearing this, "There are opportunities to make a fortune everywhere here, such as From the chaotic Europe, Qi is simply a country favored by God."

"Yes, Qi State is still a country that is developing at a high speed. It produces more and more types of industrial products, and the quantity scale is also increasing. Perhaps within a few decades, our entire Europe will become Their main consumer market sends a steady stream of gold and silver to the territory of Qi."

"Yes, the vigorous vitality shown by the Qi State is indeed amazing. Even if there is not so much gold and silver buried underground in this country, they will definitely be able to become a rich and powerful country with their huge industrial productivity. As For investors, Qi State is the most valuable target.”

"Of course!" Steven Boguis thought deeply, "Our East India Company has invested 20 million dong in the mainland of Qi for more than 500 years. Although the income obtained is not very high, it is absolutely very safe. And stability. Recently, in order to provide emergency loans of millions of Hanzhou silver dollars to the Qin State, three banks in their country specially borrowed 300 million dong from our East India Company, and the interest rate they offered was 1.5 points higher than the market rate. , more attractive than all types of bonds in the Amsterdam market.”

"I think that our federal republic should transfer part of the funds invested in England, France, Sweden, and the German states to Qi to spread the necessary financial risks. Although there is no large-scale war in Europe now, But with the greedy nature of King Louis XIV of France and the treacherous situation in Northern Europe, I think a new war will not be far away."

"Shifting investment direction? I don't think it's that easy. The path of capital dependence, the inertia of business thinking, the high returns in the European market, and the distance from the Hanzhou mainland, domestic capital will definitely not easily turn to Qi. "

"So, will our United Provinces be involved in a new war in the future?"

"Oh, this question, only God knows. But at present, in Qi, which is full of opportunities, we should put all our energy on gold mining."

(End of this chapter)