prosperous age

Chapter 958 1047 The Troubles of Gold and Silver

Just when a few people were digesting Wei Guangde's suggestion and the feasibility of purchasing Japanese copper materials, Wei Guangde actually knew that it was profitable.

In fact, as early as the Tang Dynasty, Chinese copper coins had already flowed to the Japanese country and were very popular, called "Du Lai Qian".

Japan's early monetary history has been deeply influenced by ancient China. Japan's earliest metal coins were cast in imitation of the "Kaiyuan Tongbao" copper coins of the Tang Dynasty in China, and the "Twelve Coins of the Imperial Dynasty" were also cast based on Tang coins.

After the "Dynasty Twelve Coins" ceased to be minted, ancient Chinese copper coins (mainly coins from the Northern Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty) were imported into Japan in large quantities, monopolizing its currency circulation and creating Japan's "Transfer Money Period."

After China entered the Ming Dynasty, silver was widely used as currency among the people, and the monetization of silver became an irreversible trend. Silver's status in currency circulation continued to rise.

By the 16th century, silver gradually became the mainstream currency, surpassing copper coins, and was gradually officially recognized as legal tender by the Ming court. In addition, European merchants frequently visited East Asia. These also profoundly affected the changes in Japanese currency circulation. Japan gradually It has also entered the "era of gold, silver and copper".

In the early Ming Dynasty, due to the problem of Japanese pirates, Ming Taizu severed ties with Japan and banned trade with Japan.

Until 1403, the Muromachi shogunate regime of Japan paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty, formally establishing a "kanhe trade" relationship with China, that is, official tribute trade, and private trade was still prohibited.

Since then, the Muromachi shogunate of Japan frequently sent envoys to China to pay tribute to the Ming emperor and obtain a large number of rewards from the Ming emperor.

Among the rewards, a large number of Chinese copper coins were included. After arriving in Japan, these copper coins became "ferry money" and were commonly used in Japanese currency circulation.

Under the Kanhe trade model, the items that the Japanese envoys paid tribute to the Ming emperor mainly included copper ore, sulfur, gold, swords, fans, lacquerware, etc. The Ming emperor's rewards to the Japanese envoys mainly included raw silk, silk fabrics, cotton yarn, sugar, and ceramics. utensils, copper coins, etc.

Among them, Daming's raw silk and silk fabrics are very popular in Japan, and the prices are very high, with profits reaching 4 to 20 times.

Every time they paid tribute, the Japanese envoys received a large amount of rewards from the Ming emperor, which far exceeded the value of the items they paid tribute, thus making a huge net profit.

After the "Onin Rebellion" in 1467, the Muromachi shogunate lost real power and lost control of the Kankai trade.

At that time, some local feudal lords in Japan formed an alliance with Japanese private merchants, and under the banner of "shogunate", they controlled the Kanhe trade and conducted trade with the Ming Dynasty.

Due to the political division in Japan, the official joint smuggling trade between Japan and Ming Dynasty has ceased to exist in name only, and the joint smuggling trade between Japan and Ming Dynasty has been unable to meet Japan's demand for Chinese goods. As a result, the private smuggling trade between Japan and Ming Dynasty has arisen.

During the development of private smuggling trade, some shrewd businessmen realized that China was in great need of silver at that time, and the price of silver in China was higher than elsewhere.

Therefore, as long as silver from other places is shipped to China, you can make a lot of profits, and you can also use the silver to directly purchase Chinese goods and then ship them back to your home country.

As a result, some merchants began to engage in silver trade between Japan and Ming. Japan's silver flowed to China, and Chinese goods flowed to Japan.

In fact, after discovering the value of silver in the Ming Dynasty, merchants turned their speculation to silver and gave up trading in copper materials. They usually brought back a small amount of copper materials by the way.

During this period, Japan's mineral mining, refining, and casting technology were relatively backward.

After merchants stopped or reduced smuggling copper materials to the Ming Dynasty, the price of copper in Japan plummeted.

Before 1533, Japan's silver mining and refining technology was very backward and its silver production was very small, so only a small amount of Japanese silver was shipped to China.

However, after 1533, a Japanese businessman Kamiya Tousuke introduced an advanced silver refining technology "ash blowing method" into Japan and used it to develop Iwami Ginzan, and it quickly became popular.

This prompted many silver mines in Japan to be developed on a large scale, and Japanese silver began to flow into China continuously.

At this time, Japan was experiencing a period of fierce fighting between feudal lords in various places in Japan.

Due to the huge military expenditures caused by the war, mining gold and silver mines is undoubtedly the best way to make money.

As various feudal lords scrambled to develop silver mines, the development of gold mines also set off a climax. At that time, gold mining technology also progressed, from directly collecting placer gold to refining gold from gold ores.

The competitive development of gold and silver mines brought rich wealth and military funds to various feudal lords.

Moreover, various feudal lords also went to war with each other to compete for gold and silver mine resources, which continued to stimulate the development of gold and silver mines.

Japan's gold and silver mining has ushered in a century-long historical peak, which was also the so-called "Warring States" period in Japan.

Among the Japanese people, a large amount of gold and silver were mined at this time, but the Japanese country lacked advanced casting technology, so the local currency in circulation was long bars or cakes made of gold, silver, and copper as raw materials, and the value was calculated by weight in the Ming Dynasty method.

As far as Wei Guangde knows, well-made Chinese coins are very popular in the Japanese country, and there is no need to worry about losing their recognition because of their fineness or weight.

Although the Ministry of Industry will not specifically let the Ministry of Industry mint coins for the Japanese country, Wei Guangde does intend to use the most economical way to mint coins and make as much money as possible for the court in the minting process.

And it relies on Ming's sophisticated casting technology.

Yes, no matter whether it is Zhang Juzheng or himself who is in power, sooner or later he will face the difficulty of Ming Dynasty's financial shortage. If we can find a stable way to make money for the court, for example, it will make Ming Dynasty's rule more stable.

In fact, the downfall of the Ming Dynasty was not due to corruption, but to the system. The court had no money and no place to collect money.

Every year, merchants pocket huge profits but pay almost no taxes to the court. This is completely unimaginable in the West.

Wei Guangde, who came from a later generation, still believes that paying taxes is a citizen's obligation, and businessmen should pay taxes if they have money.

Collecting business taxes is undoubtedly the easiest way to solve the Ming Dynasty's financial dilemma.

It's a pity that he didn't dare to propose collecting business taxes at this time. The impact would be too great and would arouse collective opposition from the entire gentry class.

Because in terms of business, it was actually still controlled by the gentry class.

Wei Guangde wanted to make money and was willing to pay taxes, but it was a pity that no one would accept them.

In fact, in later generations, Chinese people do not object to paying taxes. Everyone agrees that they should pay taxes. They just want to pay less, so they evade taxes.

But if you really ask him whether he should pay tax, in fact everyone will nod and agree to pay tax, but they think the tax rate is too heavy.

Of course, this view did not exist before the 1990s. Before that, because the main body was in public ownership, there was basically no tax to pay.

After the reform and opening up in the 1980s, the individual and private economy emerged, and tax collection gradually resumed.

Most people's views cannot be changed at once, so tax resistance was very common in the 1980s, and no one had the awareness to pay taxes.

Commercial taxes were not paid for a while, so Wei Guangde could only rely on the power of the Ming Dynasty to enrich the treasury by casting money, which could be regarded as collecting taxes in disguise. This is also the reason why he chose to hand over the minting profits to the Ministry of Accounts, instead of leaving them in the Ministry of Works as usual.

After Wang Guoguang and Zhu Heng left, Wei Guangde was stopped by Zhang Juzheng and asked him about how to obtain copper materials from Japan.

Now, if the imperial court openly imports copper materials from the Japanese country and trades with them, it is afraid that it will arouse the opposition of the ministers of the Manchu Dynasty.

Although Zhang Juzheng guessed that Wei Guangde wanted to use entrepot trade, someone in the middle would benefit. If this matter spread, it would have an impact on their prestige.

"This is a problem, but it's actually easy to solve."

Wei Guangde was not surprised to be retained by Zhang Juzheng. He also thought that he would definitely ask about the details.

Wei Guangde doesn't intend to earn this money. If he earns it and exposes it, it will only leave a stain on him.

So, when Zhang Juzheng asked, he chuckled and said: "Refer to the model of the private chamber of commerce, the imperial court holds 50% of the shares, the inner court holds 20%, the remaining 30% is sold to the outside world, the nobles take 10%, and the remaining 20% ​​is sold. To merchants, it is also a source of funds for trade.

The Chamber of Commerce hired some Koreans as sailors, saying that they were buying copper materials from North Korea, but in fact they were taking that route to purchase Japanese copper materials.

On the surface, just find a North Korean businessman to be the representative. For the court, the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Industry will come forward. The Metropolitan Procuratorate will send special personnel to supervise and replace them regularly.

In fact, these are just for the outside world to see, and we should try our best to prevent the news from spreading in private. "

"But you can't hide this from anyone."

Zhang Juzheng hesitated.

"It's just a superficial thing to hide it from anyone. If we really conceal it completely, I'm afraid the impeachment memorial will not fly into the palace like snowflakes.

The Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Industry purchase copper materials from the Korean Chamber of Commerce. What do they have to say? "

Wei Guangde said nonchalantly, "Even if someone notices it, just a little investigation will tell that they can't continue. Why did Xungui buy a stake? Isn't it just to let them come out to deal with them openly?"

Regardless of the fact that the civil servants hold great power, Xungui seems to have lost the power of the past, but in fact, whether in the capital or local areas, Xungui's influence is still huge.

It's just that this influence is more reflected at the grassroots level rather than at the court.

Because the officials who can stand in the court are all through the imperial examination.

But how can such a big country be managed by just such a small number of Jinshi?

Civil servants only gained the right to speak in the court and local areas, but in terms of governance, they were also constrained by the strength of local gentry families and nobles, so they must also receive their support.

Civil officials, especially imperial censors, can be distinguished while in office, but what about later?

So what if you become a civil servant after becoming an official? Honors are hereditary. Even in a family like Wei Guangde, the family will always have the status of a Ming official, which can be passed down from generation to generation.

How many military households passed the Jinshi examination, and how many of them gave up their status as military households because of this?

In fact, they are very rare, because they, Jinshi, have hereditary military positions in their families. They can lie on the Ming court and suck blood until they die, and they are also vested interests.

Civil servants can take away their rights, but they cannot shake their hereditary titles and military positions.

If you dare to touch this, you will truly fight to the death.

Wei Guangde and Zhang Juzheng actually had a clear understanding of this. They had similar backgrounds, and even the hereditary military position of commander in Zhang Juzheng's family was hereditary.

The benefits gained from it are just a lot more.

Wei Guangde used nobles as a threat to make those civil servants turn against him. Zhang Juzheng naturally understood what he meant.

After thinking about it, I nodded in acquiescence.

"Actually, there is no rush now. The matter has not been settled yet. Only when new coins are minted on a large scale will the Ming Dynasty's own copper materials be unable to provide relief. At that time, Japanese copper materials will be needed.

After this matter was over, I talked to Liu Shouyou. His spies could follow the North Korean merchant ship to the Japanese country. I think they have good connections, which is exactly what we need. "

Wei Guangde whispered again: "Let's stop talking about this matter for now. When the court really needs it, it won't be too late for us to take action." '

The copper materials of the Ming Dynasty were definitely not enough, but Zhang Juzheng saw that Wei Guangde had already made up his mind, so he no longer considered the matter.

In fact, if that day comes, no one in the Ministry of Revenue may think of this method. After all, they paid tribute to the Japanese country earlier, and the Japanese country also sent copper materials at the beginning.

After leaving Zhang Juzheng's check-in room, Wei Guangde returned to his own check-in room and immediately recorded some of the opinions mentioned by Wang Guoguang and Zhu Heng previously.

These were also his valuable suggestions for improving the New Money Law Memorial. Anyway, Zhang Juzhi left this matter in his hands and asked him to be responsible for drafting this article.

Sitting in his seat, Wei Guangde was still wondering, thinking repeatedly about how future generations would leap from the silver standard to the gold standard.

In the past two days, he dug out the letters he had received earlier from merchants in Yuegang and other places. Wei Guangde also discovered that it seemed that in Europe, people used copper plates and silver coins on a daily basis, and gold coins were only used to store wealth. It has not entered the circulation field.

After thinking for a long time, Wei Guangde couldn't figure it out, so he had to shake his head and stop thinking about it.

With his thinking from later generations, he believed that he had adopted the best strategy. There was really no better way that could not only make money for the court but also promote economic circulation.

Yes, Wei Guangde puts making money first.

Little did he know that three hundred years later, all countries in the world were actually on the silver standard system, and tens of thousands of tons of silver were dug out from Peru and Mexico, temporarily satisfying the world economy's demand for silver at that time.

However, all this changed due to the influence of "maverick" Britain.

Spain, which had seized a bunch of silver mines, became the richest man in Europe at that time. At that time, Milan was weaving cotton for Spain, the Netherlands was producing striped cloth for Spain, Florence was producing clothes for Spain, and the West Indies were producing beaver skins for Spain. .

But at this time, the United Kingdom stood up and said, "Although silver is good, I refuse." The United Kingdom began to go against the trend. In the 1816th century, it began to link its currency "pound" to gold, and in the In , the gold standard was officially adopted and the "Gold Standard System Act" was launched, hoping to make gold the mainstream of the world.

It's just that the ratio of silver to gold in the UK was not adjusted properly, resulting in a large amount of British silver flowing abroad. Newton, who was the consultant, even expressed his guilt and took the blame.

But it was precisely because of this mistake by Britain that the golden age began inadvertently.

(End of this chapter)