Su He received a report from Su Wuniu, the Minister of Industry, that the mint had produced a batch of sample coins.
He took Wang Zhongce, the Minister of Personnel, and Li Zhisheng, the Minister of Household Affairs, to the mint to check out the new coins.
The mint is located close to the steel plant, and it is also in the industrial area beside the Han River.
A battalion of soldiers was stationed around the mint.
They carried flintlock guns on their backs and watched their surroundings vigilantly.
A large amount of money is stored in the mint to prevent desperadoes from taking risks.
Su He walked into the mint's production workshop, where the sound of "dong-dong" kept ringing.
The sound sounded rhythmically and was very loud.
When you speak in the production workshop, others cannot hear you at all.
Su He walked to the coin production line, which was the copper coin casting workshop.
Copper plates of different thicknesses are cast in the smelter and placed in the casting steel mold.
The mold was placed by workers with iron clamps under a large reciprocating hammer.
The power of the waterwheel raises the big hammer in the belt.
The chain on the big hammer suddenly loosened, and the big hammer was affected by gravity.
The big hammer dropped from a height of three meters and hit the mold.
Along with a huge roar, the mold suffered a huge impact.
This force is so strong that it can directly cast copper plates into copper coins.
The worker takes away the mold and opens it with tools.
The pressed copper coins are poured out, and the copper plates with holes are sent back to the steel factory to be re-cast into copper plates.
Su Wuniu has been staying at the mint, waiting for the first batch of coins to be minted and shipped out of the factory.
He pushed the first batch of successfully minted coins and prepared to walk out of the production workshop.
Su Wuniu saw that Su He and the others had arrived at the mint.
Su Wuniu motioned for them to go out and talk.
A group of them walked out of the production workshop.
Li Zhisheng rubbed his ears and said, "The sound in the production workshop is too loud. My ears are buzzing now."
Su Wuniu took off the cotton plugs from his ears.
"You are too anxious. The craftsmen in the production workshop are all wearing cotton earplugs.
Otherwise, the sound inside will be too loud and it will not work properly at all."
Su He urged: "Uncle Wuniu, we are so anxious because we want to see what the new coins look like.
Now that it’s done, let’s take a look.”
The styles of gold coins, silver coins, and copper coins have all been reviewed by Su He.
But he hasn't seen what the coins really look like yet.
After all, there may be a big difference between the drawing and the appearance of the coin.
Su Wuniu knew that they were anxious and asked the craftsman to take out the coins that had been minted.
Su He picked up the gold coins first.
One side of the gold coin has the Yellow Emperor's head printed on it, and the other side has the words "One Liang" written on it.
This is a gold coin with a face value of one tael, and its weight is exactly the same, just one tael.
The emperor's portrait is so lifelike that even his hair can be seen clearly.
The craftsman who makes the template must be an eighth- or ninth-level craftsman, otherwise he will not be able to achieve this level of craftsmanship.
This gold coin, just looking at the Yellow Emperor's head, is a work of art.
The two characters "gold coin [one tael]" are slightly protruding and have a strong concave-convex feeling to the touch.
There is a circle of sawtooth-like patterns on the periphery of the gold coin.
The gold coin is ten centimeters in diameter and feels very thick.
Su He looked at the silver coin again. Its manufacturing process was basically the same as that of gold coins.
Silver coins are now the mainstream currency, and there are many types of them, unlike gold coins, which only have one or two.
There are three types of silver coins. Their styles are similar to gold coins, but their sizes and thicknesses are different.
Silver coins are divided into one liang, half liang and 100 coins.
The face value is marked on one side of the silver coin, and the pattern on the other side is different.
One or two silver coins, with Su He's portrait on it.
Half a tael of silver coins, with an old farmer driving his cattle to cultivate the fields.
One hundred silver coins, with a musketeer standing behind a cannon.
Su He held gold coins and silver coins. There is no fixed conversion ratio between gold coins and silver coins.
For example, how many silver coins can be exchanged for one gold coin?
The exchange ratio of gold coins and silver coins follows the price of gold and silver.
Su He knows that the world's gold reserves are scarce, the mining volume is very stable, and its value is relatively fixed.
The reserves of silver are huge, and the mining volume will increase sharply with the development of industry.
causing its price to plummet.
Nowadays, the mainstream currency is silver. Suhe makes gold coins mainly to stabilize the currency value.
When silver collapses, there will still be gold coins to support it.
Silver coins and copper coins are the main currencies in circulation among the people.
The exchange ratio between silver coins and copper coins is fixed, one silver coin is equal to one thousand copper coins.
The smallest face value of a silver coin is marked as one hundred cents.
Su He looked at the exquisite silver coins, he knew this kind of exquisitely made currency.
After being traded, it will definitely be collected by the people.
This is bad money driving out good money, which is a market law.
The only way is to increase the supply of currency, while recycling private silver and bad coins to mint them into new silver coins.
At the same time, we strictly control coinage and severely crack down on private coinage.
Only then can the coins be officially circulated.
Copper coins are the most widely used and have the largest casting scale.
Its style is very simple, with the face value of the copper coin marked on both sides and no pattern on it.
There are only two types of copper coins, one and ten coins.
In order to distinguish it from the copper coins of the Ming Dynasty, the copper coins did not take the form of a circle on the outside and a square on the inside.
It still uses the style of gold and silver coins.
Suhe did not abolish the liang and change it to the yuan, but people are now accustomed to the currency unit of "liang".
There is no need to abolish the two currencies and change the Yuan to adapt to the trade systems of other countries.
Su He looked at the coins. He was very satisfied and asked Su Wuniu:
"How is the production of silver and copper coins?"
Su Wuniu replied with a smile: "Don't worry, Commander Su, we have not minted coins in large quantities before, just to accumulate molds and explore the experience of minting coins.
The molds are cast in steel and grinding them is very difficult.
But now I have mastered the mold manufacturing technology.
The hardness of steel is much greater than copper and silver, and the mold is not easy to wear.
As much silver and copper as there is, we can produce as many silver coins and copper coins.
Now that the flow of the Han River is very large and the craftsmen have reached a large scale, it is very easy for the mint to expand its scale."
When Su He heard Su Wuniu say this, he was completely relieved.
Su He looked at Wang Zhongce, the official minister, and asked:
"Wang Zhongce, I mentioned to you before that we would set up a bank to be responsible for the exchange and manufacturing of coins.
Mint all our gold, silver and copper into new coins.
Is the candidate really determined?”
Li Zhisheng, the Minister of Household Affairs, was listening. He had already prepared.
Su He mentioned to him that currency production will not be managed by the Household Department in the future.
From now on, the Ministry of Household Affairs will mainly manage civil affairs and only spend money, not save money.
There is also an organization called the Taxation Bureau, which will also divest the Ministry of Household's tax collection rights.
Wang Zhongce put down the gold coins in his hand and replied: "We have found a good candidate. He is a businessman whose family was ruined by officials of the Ming Dynasty."
According to the Suhe plan, in the future, tax collection and the procurement of materials by the commanding government will need to be paid in new currencies.
Banks set up silver and copper coin exchange offices in cities.
According to the quality of the currency in the hands of the people, it will be exchanged for new currency according to a certain loss."
Li Zhisheng looked carefully and felt something was wrong with the silver coin in his hand.
He asked: "I feel something is wrong with the silver coin in my hand. It must not be pure silver!"
Before Su Wuniu could explain, Su He explained: "Yes, these new coins are not pure, they are mixed with some other metals.
For example, for one tael of silver coins, silver accounts for 90% and copper accounts for 10%.
But we can use it as one tael of silver, which is seigniorage.
Since ancient times, the profits from minting have been astonishing.
Coinage can only be in our own hands.
I ordered new coins to be minted to prevent the Ming Dynasty from charging us seigniorage."
Li Zhisheng was very surprised when he heard what Su He said.
In the past, in the yamen, I only knew that there was a fire cost when collecting taxes.
He really doesn't know that minting coins can also collect seigniorage.
"If we mint one million taels, we can get a seigniorage of 100,000 taels. This profit is really amazing."
Li Zhisheng fiddled with the silver coins in his hand and exclaimed.
Wang Zhongce also stopped playing with the gold coins in his hand, and then said:
"The profit from minting is extremely high, and we use 90% silver to mint coins.
Due to corruption and other reasons, 90% of the silver minted in the Ming Dynasty was not available.
Especially the copper coins minted in the Ming Dynasty. Because eunuch officials were corrupt, some coins did not even contain half the copper content.
This kind of low-quality coins is a embarrassment to the people.
The most valuable copper coins now are those minted by Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di when they were emperors.
We mint silver and copper coins with very high quality and very stable value.
When farmers use this method to pay taxes, they can also completely avoid assessments that harm the people, such as fire damage."
