Starting in Saarhu, it is a bit difficult to make a comeback.

Chapter 241 The magical Chinese silver dollar (seeking monthly tickets)

It would take at least nearly half a year to return to Beijing, the capital of China, by land from Bago in Myanmar.

However, it only takes a month and a half to travel from sea to sea on the latest and fastest sailing battleship.

Before the Yunnan-Myanmar Highway is completely completed, it will be difficult for China to further expand into India.

After defeating the Netherlands and Britain, the East Ryukyu Company's caravans not only opened up trade routes to Southeast Asia, but could also further develop trade routes to the Persian Gulf and Europe.

According to the latest treaty, Britain and the Netherlands must open ports along Africa to China. China's caravans will have supply ports and reaching Europe will not be a problem at all.

Of course, at present, we mainly rely on merchants from the Netherlands and other countries to digest China's goods.

After the Battle of Malacca, Li Xianzhong ordered that the prices of China's domestically exported goods generally increased by 3%. These Europeans wanted to take them or not, but they couldn't find any substitute products anyway.

China now has direct import channels, and the selling prices of spices from India and Southeast Asia in China have fallen further.

In the second year of Qianxi's reign, the income of the Chinese imperial court reached 5200 million taels, mainly from the customs tax of the Municipal Shipping Department, and the commercial tax increased significantly.

China is transforming from an inward-oriented agricultural country to an outward-oriented commercial colonial empire.

However, China's industrial base is still very weak, and it mainly consists of military products.

A commercial empire like the Netherlands seemed very powerful, but in fact it did not have a sufficient industrial base. It would weaken very quickly if it relied on commerce and colonial plunder.

Therefore, Li Xianzhong vigorously promoted primary schools and the research and development of steam engines.

Although China's expansion requires a large amount of funds, expenditures on education and scientific research cannot be spared.

Of course, promoting compulsory primary education across the country requires massive funds and a team of teachers.

At present, China's national power is difficult to achieve.

Therefore, primary schools in China still need to pay a certain amount of tuition. After all, there are insufficient resources, so families who are willing to invest in education can only benefit first.

Of course, the tuition fee is very low, only 2 taels of silver per year, and most families can afford it.

Moreover, regional development is very uneven. In places such as Liaodong and Zhejiang, which have a relatively good economic foundation, the promotion of primary schools has been quite smooth.

There are even many local businessmen and gentry who have made financial donations.

Even in provinces such as Jiangxi and Shandong, which are not particularly wealthy, the promotion of primary schools has been rapid due to the emphasis on education.

However, promotion in economically underdeveloped areas has been slow.

Therefore, at this stage, there is still a long way to go to replace the imperial examination with systems such as primary schools, middle schools, and universities.

The imperial examination has not been canceled for the time being, but of course certain reforms have been made to the content of the examination.

The original Four Books and Five Classics were also tested, but they fell into the category of Chinese studies.

The content of the imperial examination became four major categories: Chinese studies, arithmetic, geography, and current affairs.

The imperial court also made major reforms in appointing officials, mainly distinguishing between officials and officials.

Officials still needed to take the imperial examination, but the recruitment of officials was changed to the civil service examination.

For example, government officials and tax collectors go directly to the targeted recruitment examination.

Although this position is not an official, the salary is not bad and is favored by many people.

In addition, previous child examinations, rural examinations, etc. have also implemented integration measures.

Graduating from a national elementary school is equivalent to obtaining the qualification of "tongsheng", and graduating from a national high school is equivalent to being a "juren".

China no longer specializes in township examinations and county examinations.

Although there will still be some older candidates at the primary school examination site, the road to the imperial examination for these people has actually come to an end.

Many people choose to train to become teachers.

In addition, the two earliest universities in Chinese history appeared in Jingshi and Liaodong, Jingshi University and Liaodong University.

Cultivate various high-level talents for China.

Liaodong was chosen because Liaodong now has the most complete industrial chain in China.

These college students can go to factories to do experiments, which is not available in Beijing.

Capital University focuses on liberal arts, while Liaodong University focuses on science.

In addition, China’s first professional military academy, the Huaxia Military Academy, was also born.

The Chinese Emperor Li Xianzhong served as the honorary principal, and Mao Yuanyi presided over the daily work of the military academy.

In fact, a similar training institution for officers has existed in Liaodong for a long time, and now it has been officially turned into a military academy.

Although Li Xianzhong was not in the capital for a long time, he was only a nominal principal.

But according to the experience of later generations, he must personally serve as the principal.

After all, a certain bald man in later generations became a national leader by virtue of his identity as the principal of Whampoa Military Academy.

This is the same as the emperor's disciples, and they must not be faked by others.

In addition, Manila's gold mines also provided the court with 48 taels of gold last year.

However, according to the imperial court's policy, Hua Xia Bank converted a large amount of silver into gold as reserves, so this gold did not circulate to the market.

In the second year of Qianxi's reign, China's fiscal deficit was still as high as 2000 million taels of silver.

This led to a further reduction in the silver deposits in the treasury.

On the one hand, there is the rapid expansion of the Chinese Empire, and on the other hand, there is a huge fiscal deficit.

Fan Wencheng, the Minister of Household Affairs, has been very depressed in the past two years, and even his white hair has grown a lot.

What Li Xianzhong snatched back from Manila was a large amount of gold. Even so, the court was still short of money.

Although the imperial court can raise funds through private capital and bank loans, the current circulation of silver is very inconvenient.

Because even the silver ingots cast by the government are often short of gold.

Private cash transactions still need to be weighed.

For large commercial transactions, merchants have long been accustomed to using Liaodong Bank's banknotes instead of cash.

But for private transactions, broken silver is still very troublesome.

Moreover, officials at all levels often levy fire and money.

Because there will be a certain loss in recasting the collected silver scraps into silver ingots.

Therefore, while the government levied regular taxes, it also levied fire-consuming silver.

Since there is no quota for this fire-consumption silver, it often becomes a tool for officials to make money.

In some places, the cost of fire money far exceeds the regular tax.

Although the Chinese imperial court stipulated that local fire consumption silver collection should not exceed 3%.

However, repeated firing of silver ingots is still a waste of resources.

Even if the silver ingots are minted by the government, profiteers and common people will still scrape off some of the silver ingots, making them unable to be used directly in actual transactions.

Li Xianzhong finally thought of a good way.

Li Xianzhong ordered the Ministry of Household Affairs to cast a batch of Chinese silver coins.

This batch of silver coins adopts the ratio of "Yuan Datou" of later generations, which is 88% silver, 11% copper, and 1% tin.

This batch of silver coins has Li Xianzhong's portrait on the front and a dragon totem on the back.

There are regular scratches on the edge of the coin, like saw teeth, which prevent scratches.

In this way, if you want to scrape the silver off the silver dollar, it will inevitably leave traces, eliminating artificial scratches.

This batch of silver coins was welcomed as soon as it was put into the market.

Because silver coins are much more convenient than silver, people no longer need to weigh them cumbersomely, and they don't have to worry about the fineness of the silver. They can use it directly according to the face value.

The government also canceled the collection of fire consumption silver.

One tael in the Ming Dynasty was 37.3 grams.

One silver coin is worth one tael of silver and its actual weight is 33.6 grams.

It is equivalent to using the weight of 9 yuan to produce the value of 1 tael.

In addition, the actual silver content is only 88%. In this way, you only need to spend less than 8 yuan of silver to create a value of 1 tael.

Excluding some minting costs, each silver coin can earn 18% profit.

This is equivalent to the imperial court increasing its wealth by 18%.

Li Xianzhong ordered that from now on, only silver coins would be recognized in the Chinese market and the circulation of silver would be stopped.

If you want to use silver, you must first go to Liaodong Bank to exchange it for corresponding silver dollars.

In this way, one tael of silver can be used as 1.2 yuan of silver dollars. As long as silver is continuously minted into silver coins, the court can continue to increase its income.

Today, there are at least 5 million taels of silver circulating in the Chinese market.

By converting them all into silver dollars, the court could make a profit of 1 million silver dollars.

In this way, the financial deficit of the Chinese court was eliminated at once.

Moreover, those Westerners who liked to use silver to purchase in China had to first exchange their silver for silver dollars and be slaughtered by the Chinese court.

Businessmen are not fools and know that there is something fishy about the weight of silver dollars.

However, this silver dollar uses the latest hydraulic machine tool pressing and high-definition mold casting technology.

This discourages domestic counterfeiters.

The silver coins they produced had a vague appearance and could be seen as counterfeit at a glance.

In the end, they had to accept this reality.

Because Li Xianzhong has canceled the currency attribute of silver, ordinary silver can no longer be used as currency.

Silver ingots can only become a commodity like copper ingots.

The Dutch were even more furious and cursed the Chinese for not practicing martial ethics and plundering their wealth in disguise.

However, the Dutch quickly saw the huge benefits.

Soon the Dutch government followed suit and began to introduce similar silver guilder coins.

Originally, the Netherlands had begun to prepare to implement banknotes, but Li Xianzhong's wave of tricks caused European countries to imitate.

As a result, metal currencies, which had gradually faded out, regained their youth again.

But soon they discovered that this trick was of no use to the Chinese.

Quite simply, because the Chinese completely dominate trade.

Whether it is silk, porcelain, tea, or glass perfume, Chinese products are hard currency in Europe.

It is easy to exchange for local European currency or gold and silver.

Therefore, Chinese merchants did not need to be slaughtered by the Dutch or other Europeans for exchanging currency.

But the Europeans are different. Now China has almost no need for their goods, and they cannot adopt the barter model to avoid the plunder of exchange.

So this method of plunder becomes one-way.

The Dutch claim to be a country of commerce, but they can only be dominated by the Chinese when it comes to silver coins.

But they were not willing to just admit defeat.

Since formal channels were blocked, they began to imitate Chinese silver coins.

Although there is no template for minting coins, Europeans can also achieve the Chinese casting technology.

After several months of hard work, the Dutch finally imitated a batch of Chinese silver coins.

Although it is impossible to be 100% the same, it is difficult to find the difference without careful screening.

If these imitation silver coins are mixed with silver coins and used together, I believe it will be difficult for the Chinese people to discover them.

So a full 500 million Chinese silver coins were minted for the Dutch merchants headed by William.

Of course, out of caution, William decided to use a small amount first.

They first used a small amount of counterfeit currency in China's shipping department.

The reason why Li Xianzhong adopted the casting technology of later generations of "Yuan Datou" was because "Yuan Datou" also had a very simple method for identifying fakes.

Just blow on the silver dollar and put it to your ear and it will make a sound.

This is why he likes this craft.

The cunning William did not use all the counterfeit coins, but mixed about 30% of the counterfeit coins with the genuine coins.

But even so, China's Shibo Company discovered something fishy immediately.

This had long been expected by Li Xianzhong.

Therefore, the Shipping Department did not alert the snake on the spot.

William, who succeeded, thought he had taken advantage of it, so he began to use these fake silver coins in large quantities.

Seeing that these Dutch people finally took the bait, China's shipping department began to take action.

They soon arrested William and others for using counterfeit money.

The reason is simple. William and others have no record of exchanging silver dollars at Hua Xia Bank. Where did they get the large amount of silver dollars?

William and others were naturally unconvinced, so they argued: "These silver coins were accumulated by them through trade overseas. These are China's silver coins."

The official of the Shipping Department smiled and said: "The counterfeit coins you used are all stored separately in the Shipping Department. Do you still want to deny them?"

William said: "The Shipping Department handles so many silver coins every day, even if there are counterfeit coins, why do we say these are ours?"

In order to be close to the color of Chinese silver coins, the counterfeit coins used by William also contained about 8% silver.

It’s not too different from China’s 88%.

It's just that they didn't use tin, but cast it from a copper-silver alloy.

Although it is not exactly the same, it is almost fake.

But William and others did not know that China's silver coins could be blown.

When the officials of the Shipping Department threw a real Chinese silver dollar into a pile of fake Dutch silver coins and quickly found it, William and others were almost in tears!

It turns out that the Chinese still have this skill.

In the end, they had no choice but to plead guilty and admit that they had forged the Chinese silver coins.

After signing the "Confession", China confiscated their counterfeit coins and released them.

If you don't sign, you will be beheaded directly and all your assets will be confiscated.

William and others could only break their teeth and swallow them.

It was obvious that their speculation had gone to their grandma's house.

After China obtained the counterfeit currency, it melted it again and minted 400 million silver dollars.

It is true that this is a huge amount of money, but given the current size of China's economy, this money is only one year's loan interest.

Because the imperial court controlled the prices of bulk materials such as grain, salt, and tea, although the income of Chinese people increased, prices did not rise significantly.

Although Li Xianzhong used the silver dollar to inflate the currency by 18%, there was no corresponding inflation.

Moreover, he took advantage of China's advantage in trade exports and forced Western countries to accept the Chinese silver dollar.

Although the court benefited from it, it did not harm the interests of the people too much.

But the biggest problem right now is silver.

China is not rich in silver. Now that it has acquired Manila and Yunnan, its gold and copper mineral resources have been greatly supplemented.

But silver can still only be earned through foreign trade.

In particular, the casting of silver into silver coins itself can bring 18% profit to the Chinese court.

So large amounts of silver became their target.

The cost of going to Central and North America to seize the Spanish silver mines was really high, so the Japanese silver mountains became Li Xianzhong's target.

Like the "Emerald Fever", Li Xianzhong also built momentum first.

The Chinese people have actually known for a long time that Japan is rich in silver.

But no one knows exactly how many.

Nowadays, it is widely spread in China that the Japanese country has countless mountains of silver, which are inexhaustible.

The whole of China, both the court and the people, had a huge interest in the gold and silver of Japan.

Many businessmen have already smelled it.

After Manila's gold and Burma's jade, Japan's silver mountain is likely to be the court's next target.

On the eighth day of March in the third year of Qianxi, Emperor Li Xianzhong of the Chinese Empire officially sent an order to the Governor of North Korea, Kong Youde, to build a large number of transport ships in Busan, North Korea.

On March 20, Li Xianzhong summoned the leaders of the three Jurchen guards and the three Horqin tribes in Kaiyuan, Liaodong, which confirmed everyone's guesses.

At the same time, soldiers and horses from various towns in Liaodong, Shandong, and directly under the capital, and in Shanxi, received orders to assemble.

Although the imperial court did not issue an official edict, a "battle to conquer Japan" has already begun!

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(End of this chapter)