In fact, Chen Ke never thought of monopolizing Dongchuan's copper mines. This was on Dali's territory, between the Duan family and the Gao family. If they were jealous and couldn't take advantage of it, big trouble would definitely happen.
What's more, due to limited mining technology and manpower, within a few hundred years, Dongchuan's copper mines would not be too few, but too many, and could not be mined completely. Wouldn't it be good to let them help dig copper for the Song Dynasty?
And he was not worried that they would threaten the currency security of the Song Dynasty. Because the "Da Song Tong Bao" with various era names in the Song Dynasty was the only currency in circulation in Dali!
This was not imposed on Dali by the Song Dynasty, but was established naturally. As mentioned before, Dali has a very rich product range. Swords, armor, and fine horses are all popular and hot-selling goods, and the internal circulation of goods is also very developed.
Circulation cannot be separated from currency, and Dali has always had copper mines, but they have always been trapped in the dilemma of insufficient currency.
Because Dali is a true feudal society, the lords have absolute power in their own territory. Therefore, in addition to the 'Tongbao' minted by the Duan family, the Gao family and the Yang family also set up coin minting, but the three families did not recognize each other.
The other party's copper coins. Moreover, their technology and copper quality are not up to standard, and the same currency has different values, so the minted copper coins cannot be circulated as currency and can only be priced and used according to the copper weight.
As a result, the only currency recognized by the three companies and able to circulate in Dali was the Song Dynasty Tongbao that flowed into Dali through trade surplus... Dali was not the only one to use Song money as hard currency. Japan, North Korea, Jiaozhi, and Bagan around the Song Dynasty
A series of countries such as Liao and Xixia have such a situation. Even the seemingly powerful Liao and Xixia cannot get rid of the strange phenomenon that their coins are not as strong as Song coins.
Chen Ke can easily understand this situation, because this is the case with the U.S. dollar in later generations. And it was the U.S. dollar before the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Because of the strong economic position of the Song Dynasty, the settlement of trade between countries all used Song money. Of course.
Song Qian does have its own advantages, such as its beautiful shape and difficulty in being copied... Of course, it is also relative that it is not easy to be copied. If the subject of imitation is the country, imitation is inevitable.
But it doesn't matter, because the advantage of precious metal currency is that it is not afraid of counterfeiting. As long as it is of sufficient weight, the people will recognize it. If it is not of enough weight, the people will not recognize it, and it will not damage the reputation of Song Dynasty money - because the reputation of the Song Dynasty is too high, everyone
It is natural to think that Song Qian is the best, and the bad ones are all imitations.
This leads to a strange scene. Although big countries like Liao and Xixia despised the Song Dynasty militarily, they actually minted large quantities of Tongbao from the Song Dynasty when they officially minted coins. As for their own coins, they only minted a small amount to support their appearance.
.And countries like Dali and Japan completely stopped their national currencies and used Song Dynasty money as their national currencies.
In the final analysis, it is because people of this era did not have the awareness of "coin power". Just because Song money was the only currency for international settlement, they gave up the currency power of a country. If the people of the Song Dynasty were smart enough, they could completely control the entire Asian economy.
The great power, through massive coinage, makes the whole of Asia pay for its own inflation...
It is a pity that the Confucian scholars who governed the country in the Song Dynasty did not have this vision and wisdom at all. On the contrary, they only saw the copper coins lost by the Song Dynasty due to trade deficit. It amounted to tens of millions, resulting in a serious money shortage. Therefore, copper coins were explicitly prohibited from leaving the country. For example, "Song Dynasty"
"Xing Tong" clearly stipulates: "Anyone who puts copper coins into the sea ship... will flow two thousand miles for ten times, and those who follow will only be three years!"
Of course, this regulation has long been in vain. But how do you expect their stupid minds to actively use their super minting power to make Asian countries become workers in the Song Dynasty?
Fortunately, now that Chen Ke is here, he will naturally let Song Qian play his due role!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chen Ke had already prepared mining areas for the two families. He divided the east and west mining areas farthest from Dongchuan to the Duan family and the Gao family. The copper reserves in these two mining areas are not low, but transportation is a bit troublesome.
.But this is not a problem that Chen Ke worries about...
For the Duan and Gao families, it was a good result that the mining area they received was close to their own territory, so they had no objections... It was just that when they thought that the land that originally belonged to them had to rely on charity from others, the two families couldn't help but feel a little desolate.
But they had no choice, because the excavated copper had to be transported through the Hongshui River and minted at the Wuzhou Qianjian on Guangnan West Road before it could be turned into Tongbao of the Song Dynasty.
If the copper mine cannot be transported out, it will just be a pile of scrap copper and iron, worthless.
The Hongshui River in Chen Ke's hands strangled their lifeline, forcing them to cooperate obediently with the court.
In the end, the two families entered into a five-year contract with the Hongshuihe Hedao Yamen and the Qianjian of Wuzhou, Guangxi, to transport five million kilograms of copper ingots each year to cast the Song Dynasty Tongbao, half of which belonged to the two families and the other half to the imperial court.
But in actual production, they found that they could not temper the copper ore into qualified copper ingots. They could only roughly select the mined ore and transport it to the copper smelting yard in Dongchuan City, asking the Han people to help smelt copper coins.
But the copper smelting factory is already too busy taking orders from its own company, so how can it have time to serve them?
So the two families had no choice but to increase their money in order to jump in line. As a result, after layer upon layer of exploitation, the two families could only make 20% of the profit, and had to give the majority to the court. It can be considered that they have tasted the benefits of third world countries more than a thousand years in advance.
pain of……
But just like this, the two families were happy with it. After all, the amount was too large, and the benefits were still considerable. The Yang family couldn't sit still anymore. Yang Yizhen went to Dongchuan City in person and begged Chen Ke to give her exploited life.
Opportunity. Mr. Chen, who pursues a 'balanced policy', naturally agreed.
By the fourth year of Jiayou, more than half of the copper ore was provided by three families. The number of miners they recruited at most exceeded 110,000... Of course, the Duan family only had 10,000 people.
The Han people recruited by Chen Ke to Dongchuan were mainly engaged in smelting and transportation. After the one hundred thousand civilians who dug the Hongshui River visited Dongchuan City, which was beginning to take shape, and learned about a series of favorable policies, four
Tens of thousands of people chose to stay or go home before returning.
By the end of the third year of Jiayou, there were 100,000 Han people in Dongchuan City, half of whom were garrison troops and half were craftsmen. Including Baiman and Wuman, the number reached 200,000, making it one of the top five cities in Dali. But the city
The yang is strong and the yin is weak, and the ratio of men to women is very unbalanced. This makes Master Fan who is the city guard very worried.
"Zhong Fang, having a city full of bachelors is not a solution..." Although Fan Zhen is an outsider in military matters, he is a good hand in civil affairs. For more than a year, Chen Ke has mainly focused on mining and smelting copper.
He takes care of all the big and small things in Dongchuan City.
The biggest problem Fan Fuzi encountered was public security. There were more than a dozen fights in the city every day, and there were casualties in every fight. Some people said that you have so many troops, but you can't control some unruly people? What a pity.
, the soldiers themselves were fighting...how do you ask Master Fan to take care of it?
He found Yang Wenguang, hoping that the old general would enforce military discipline, but the people who came out of the old Western Army did not know any military discipline at all when they were not fighting. He said to Fan Zhen nonchalantly: "You guys have a family if you stay in this place.
If you can't go back, you can't do anything, and you won't let them fight, where can you vent your anger?"
Although Fan Zhen was disappointed, he grasped something from Yang Wenguang's words. So he went to Chen Ke and said: "It is too dangerous for a man not to have a family, let alone a hundred thousand bachelors. If this problem is not solved, big trouble will happen."
of."
"Solve it, solve it." Chen Ke said with a smile: "A man in the Song Dynasty cannot marry a wife. If word spreads, people will laugh out loud."
"Then where can we find so many women?"
"Dali is a place where beautiful women are born!" Chen Ke said with a smile: "There are also nearby Jiaozhi and Bagan. Although the men are not very good-looking, the women are very beautiful and can be wives. Living in the land of many fragrances, Han
Why should a son have trouble without a wife?"
"This..." Fan Zhen had long been numb to Chen Ke's wanton behavior, and said with a bitter smile: "You can imagine that marrying these men to Fan wives is going to attract criticism."
"As long as they are of Han descent!" Chen Ke said nonchalantly: "The laws of the Song Dynasty only stipulated that Han family daughters were not allowed to marry outside Tibetan women, but they did not stipulate that Han family men were not allowed to marry Tibetan women." He poured tea for Mrs. Fan and said: "
The father of the Han family and the mother of the Fan family will give birth to Han children. If you really want to marry a Han family daughter-in-law, why don’t you take a concubine first? If you take a Fan family concubine, you won’t wrong them too, right?”
"Taking concubines..." Fan Zhen was a little moved. In fact, a large number of Han people in Dongchuan City have families, but they all stay in their hometown to take care of Gaotang's children, so they are almost not around. If they are encouraged to marry here,
An outdoor room can give you the best of both worlds.
"That's it, encourage them to put down their burdens." Chen Ke said with a smile: "Your Excellency, you might as well let someone from the government take the lead. Within a month, everyone must have a concubine."
"Thank you for being able to figure it out." Fan Zhen said with a smile: "As the signing master, shouldn't you be the one to take the lead?"
"Hey..." Chen Ke smiled dryly and said: "I am a person who talks about feelings. If I don't have feelings, I can't force myself." He said with a smile and said: "Besides, the court has urged me to return to Beijing several times, and I really can't delay it any longer.
Already."
"It's time to go back," Fan Zhen nodded and said with a smile, "otherwise people will say that you want to support your troops and respect yourself."
"Hahaha..." Chen Ke laughed loudly and said, "I am a newbie in the officialdom, so I won't be slapped with such a big label."
"Haha," Fan Zhen said with a smile: "You will be able to afford it in a few years." He said seriously: "When are you planning to leave?"
"As soon as possible, I plan to take the sea route and try to return to Beijing before the year." Chen Ke said: "Anyway, the court asked Brother Zirong to take over my stall, which saves the handover." Zirong is Su Song. With Su Song's rank,
While the signing of the Dongchuan contract seems to be a surrender, the most difficult period in Dongchuan has passed. This year the waterway will be opened, and next year a steady stream of Yunnan copper will be transported to the mainland. He will definitely become a dazzling political star.
