Chapter 431: Green Bronze Flower, the embarrassment of bartering
Cao Shuang looked at the memorial written by the courtiers today and spoke again: "It is a pity that we have not yet found a copper mine in our country that is comparable to the green copper mountains of Wu State, Nanzhong of Shu, and Hanzhong.
If some copper mines or some gold and silver mines can be found in this prospecting, it will surely resolve the embarrassing situation in the past when the Wei Dynasty was short of money and was constrained by Wu and Shu in the matter of copper coins and had to barter.
"
Huan Fan said with a smile: "The Prime Minister is very far-sighted. I think that if we, the Wei Dynasty, continue to barter for a long time,
It is not a good thing for us in the Wei Dynasty and the people of the Wei Dynasty. The harm outweighs the advantages. If we can find the mine, it will be a great thing for the country and the people! I will find some people to take care of this matter."
Cao Shuang nodded and said: "Please go and make arrangements now. They must find a few mines near Luoyang."
Huan Fan clasped his fists and said, "I will make people do their best to find these kinds of mines for the Prime Minister."
Cao Shuang suddenly thought of something and continued: "I have also heard of a way to find copper mines. That is to find a large area of copper grass flowers growing there. There must be copper mines underground."
In the continuous exploration of the ancients, people summed up their experience and finally discovered that the place where copper mines appeared and the terrain had little to do with the distribution of mountains and rivers.
There is no need to focus on observing these, but start with the plants growing on the ground or use the experience summarized in "Guan Zi Di Shu Pian".
People discovered a plant called coppergrass, which often grows in large areas around copper mines. People only need to find this coppergrass flower with blue or purple petals to find copper mines.
However, it should be noted that under the guidance of experience, ancient people often exaggerated the role of coppergrass flowers, believing that only where there are flowers there will be copper mines, and where there are no coppergrass flowers, there will be no copper mines.
However, this understanding caused people to miss many copper mines, but at least this method alone had brought great convenience to the mining work at that time.
After finding the approximate location of the copper mine, people will also use some methods to determine the specific location of the copper mine.
Now there is no mechanical assistance like in later generations, only manual mining. Therefore, in order to improve the mining efficiency, the miners are first divided into several groups.
Start digging a well around the area where the coppergrass flowers grow. If no copper is found, continue digging at another location.
Once the location of the copper mine is determined through this method, everyone is gathered together, staring at a mine hole, starting to expand the mine hole, and digging together.
From ancient times to the present, social and economic development has not only changed people's quality of life and lifestyle, but more importantly, represents a country's comprehensive national strength.
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to constant natural disasters and wars, society was severely damaged, the population dropped sharply, the economy was in recession, and a large amount of farmland was abandoned and abandoned.
Therefore, during the Three Kingdoms period, Wei, Shu, and Wu all attached great importance to economic development and were committed to rectifying officialdom, restoring social order, and accelerating economic development. Coupled with the demands brought by the war, they promoted economic growth and various production technologies.
Made great progress.
Overall, among the three kingdoms, Cao Wei had the strongest strength and the best economic situation. This was mainly because Cao Wei had the largest population and the largest land reclamation area at that time. It attached great importance to agriculture, handicrafts, shipbuilding, ceramics, silk weaving, and manufacturing.
The salt industry and other aspects have developed, and urban commerce has also become relatively developed.
Cao Wei implemented the farming system and organized refugees to cultivate official land to ensure agricultural production.
This played a positive role in restoring social order and enhancing Cao Wei's strength.
Another proof that Cao Wei attached great importance to agriculture, he continued to develop water conservancy projects. In terms of project scale and number of projects, he was the best among the three countries.
In the first year of Qinglong, Cao Wei built channels and reservoirs in the Guanzhong area, transforming more than 3,000 hectares of saline-alkali land. This greatly increased Cao Wei's treasury income.
In particular, Cao Wei's water conservancy project construction in Henan received the most obvious rewards, and its results doubled grain output.
While vigorously developing agricultural production, Cao Wei also attached great importance to the development of handicraft industry. He built a large number of large government-run handicraft workshops in various places and focused on the development of handicraft production.
Trading cities such as Ye and Luoyang have developed commercial economies and have trade relations with overseas countries. In addition, they are also very developed in shipbuilding, ceramics, silk weaving, salt making and other industries.
However, it is worth noting that Cao Wei has been unable to get rid of the economic model of physical transactions. Several attempts at currency reform ended in failure. This may be related to the lack of large-scale copper mines in the country as a basis. In contrast, Wu and Shu
country,
They all have large-scale copper mines as support for the issuance of new national currencies.
The Shu Han had fertile land and abundant products. Due to its geographical location, the wars suffered in the late Eastern Han Dynasty were much lighter than those in the Central Plains.
Zhuge Liang, the prime minister of Shu, strictly adopted the rule of law, which gradually restored and developed Shu's agriculture and handicrafts, and enhanced its national strength.
In particular, Zhuge Liang appeased the southwestern barbarians, which enabled the development of minority areas and strengthened national unity and economic development.
Zhuge Liang also sent people to repair and maintain Dujiangyan to ensure agricultural irrigation.
The handicraft industries of the Shu Han Dynasty are the most developed, such as salt, iron and brocade. Zuo Si mentioned in "Ode to the Capital of Shu" that "a house of skill, a hundred rooms separated from each other, and machines and branches are in harmony", so Shu brocade can be exported to Wu and Wei. Zhuge Liang also
Shu brocade is considered an important material to support the country.
The tributes of gold, silver, pills, lacquer, farm cattle, war horses and other supplies from the south helped the Shu Han's military expenses to be supplied and the country became rich. Even though the Northern Expedition in the past few years cost a lot, it has already recovered after so many years of rest and recuperation.
As for the State of Wu, after Sun Quan moved the capital to Jianye in the 16th year of Jian'an, the southeastern region was rapidly developed, with a total of 43 counties and 313 counties, which was much stronger than that of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The south of the Yangtze River where Sun Wu was located had a relatively late start in social economy and was still sparsely populated during the Three Kingdoms period. However, because there were less wars here, a large number of people from the north moved here, bringing advanced production technology and labor force, which provided Wu with
land development, agricultural production,
Later, agricultural officials were set up and the farming system was implemented following the example of Cao Wei. The agricultural production and social economy in the Jiangnan region developed rapidly.
The textile industry and the smelting and casting industry are developed. In terms of textile industry, the south of the Yangtze River is famous for its linen production. The chicken crow cloth in Yuzhang County (now Nanchang, Jiangxi Province) is famous for thousands of miles and is well-known to every household. Although it is not as good as the Shu brocade woven in Jinguancheng, Shu State,
But it’s still better than Wei’s textile industry.
Sanwu produces "eight silkworms of cotton", and the quality of the silk produced in Zhuji and Yong'an is very high. The smelting and casting industry is the most developed in Wuchang (now Ezhou, Hubei), where Sun Quan once mined copper ores and made weapons.
Because it is located in the south of the Yangtze River and the seaside, Wu State is quite developed in shipbuilding and salt industry.
Officials were assigned to Haiyan (now Haiyan, Jiaxing, Zhejiang) and Shazhong (now Changshu, Suzhou, Jiangsu) to manage the salt production in these two places.
Sun Wu also set up a naval officer in Jian'an County (today's Fuzhou, Fujian Province), and the ships reached the South China Sea in the south and Liaodong in the north.
Maritime trade also emerged. Jianye (now Nanjing, Jiangsu), Wujun (now Suzhou, Jiangsu), and Panyu (near today's Guangzhou, Guangdong) were the important commercial cities of Sun Wu. Among them, Panyu mainly developed foreign trade.