Chapter 1168: Private Forge
Chapter 1168 Private Caster
The imperial court later began to mint gold and silver coins in the circulation market, and made another fortune from gold and silver. This also made it difficult to see the situation of silk as currency since the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
In the past, when the Qin family allowed private minting, they minted coins and made a pot of gold. Later, the imperial court forbade private coining, and Qin Lang changed his business to banks and money houses, and made a lot of money again by issuing bank notes and silver notes.
After all, in theory, although the bank has a consistent amount of money on hand, so it issues a consistent amount of money, but in fact, it often has a consistent amount of money in hand, and it can be seen that the banknotes are double or even triple, because the banker's ticket itself is a kind of bill. , but with the large amount of circulation, it has also become a kind of voucher. Not everyone will only use it for exchange. There are a large number of banknotes that have been circulated and held in the hands of customers, so the bank can exceed the bank. ticket.
The larger the size of the bank, the greater the excess issuance, from one to one to one to two to one to three, and later on, Qin Lang also engaged in deposit absorption and lending, not only using his own funds to do this. Buying and selling, attracting deposits with low interest rates, and lending them out at higher interest rates, turning around and making a fortune for nothing.
It can be said that the bank is an important cash cow for the Qin family's growing wealth, and it earns no less than many other real industries.
The Qin family has been abiding by the law in the Central Plains these years, and has never minted coins. However, Qin Dao is overseas, so Qin Lang resumed his old business and built a coin minting workshop again.
The coins minted are exactly the same as those minted by the imperial court. Not only can they be circulated directly on the island, but they can also be used by ships in the ports of the Central Plains. Tang currency circulation area.
30% of the minting profit, Qin Lang couldn't refuse.
The ship Qin Lang Xinjinshan took stopped in San Francisco. The important purpose was to transport a batch of minted coins back from the mint on the return trip.
Visiting the mint, Qin Lang carefully watched the newly minted boxes of strings of coins, and was very satisfied. The color was very good, and the quality was excellent, even better than the coins minted by some money supervisors in the imperial court.
"We didn't mix any fakes, we cast them completely according to the imperial court's standard color and materials, and our craftsmen are of high level. The carving mothers and casting mothers made by our master craftsmen are quite fine and fine, even better than Qian Jian's. We use the foundry method to cast Ziqian, which not only produces good quality, but also has high efficiency and large output, and saves labor. Kaiyuan Tongbao, which was cast by the Imperial Court Qianjian, costs at least seven hundred and five for a thousand coins. And we can squeeze it down to around six hundred and five."
The owner of the mint, Qin Lu, was the first steward in San Francisco. Now he has become the director of the mint, and he is very dedicated.
"Is there really no difference between our money and the imperial court's money?"
Qin Lu smiled and said, "There is still a little difference. Although the carving mother and casting mother we use are fake court official mothers, our master deliberately left a small difference. Take a closer look at this one from Kaiyuan Tongbao. Start with the horizontal line of Kaizi, and then look at this ten-year mark of Zhenguan cast by the court Qianjian, is it a little different?"
Kaiyuan Tongbao was cast from the first year of Wude to the 16th year of Zhenguan, and there have been several editions before and after. Although the overall differences are subtle, each version of Kaiyuan Tongbao still has some subtle differences. For example, there is a coin on one edition. The crescent moon seal, it is said that Ouyang Xun, a calligrapher, accidentally left a nail mark when he was writing the plate, but the craftsman who made the plate also put this on it, so after all the money in this plate came out, there was a shallow nail mark print.
Other editions are basically slightly different. Generally speaking, as long as it is of the same version, no matter which of the dozens of money supervisors in the imperial court casts money from the furnace, the money is the same, because they all use the same master version.
The San Francisco Mint has the ability to completely imitate imperial money, but in the end, it still leaves a slight difference on purpose, which is almost invisible.
The reason for leaving this difference is that the master master made it intentionally, and it will not affect anything.
"Actually, the quality of our money is better than that of the imperial court. Not to mention other things, our materials are not only absolutely sufficient, but even the final polishing is much better than the official money of the imperial court. Look at this smooth one. It looks like it’s wrapped in pulp, so it doesn’t look like new money.”
In fact, there is a key reason why the imperial court coins are round on the outside and square on the inside. It is for the convenience of grinding and polishing. The last process of the newly minted money is polishing to remove some burrs and other small defects on the coins. The square hole in the middle can be used String a lot of money at a time and fix them together for polishing. If there are round holes or no holes, it will be too labor-intensive to throw them one by one.
"How much is in stock now?"
"There are not many copper coins." Qin Lu said, "What we have discovered on Qindao Island is mainly gold mines, and what we mine are mainly gold mines. We will also mine some silver and copper mines during mining, but the output is too small. So we now The main thing is to mint gold coins, and the profit of minting gold coins is also relatively high.”
It is also minting coins. If you cast 1,000 copper coins, you will get 300 cash, but if you cast 1,000 coins, you will get 50 cash, which can be worth 500 guan. A gold coin is worth 10,000. This is huge profit. If one thousand silver coins are minted, you can earn 80 silver coins, which can be worth 800 guan.
Except for the difference in raw materials, there is not much difference in process, but the difference in profit is huge. Because of this, the imperial court cracked down on privately minted gold and silver coins more severely, and strictly prohibited the circulation and use of privately minted gold and silver coins. However, counterfeit gold and silver coins among the people were still repeatedly banned because the profits were too great.
"I heard that there are many copper and silver mines in the country of Wa. We can ship them to the country of Wa to purchase silver and copper materials, and then mint them into coins."
In the early Tang Dynasty, the gold-silver ratio was one to five, and the silver-to-copper ratio was about one to one. More than ten, or even one to thirteen, fifteen. Therefore, many Hu merchants transported silver from Persia, Rome and other places in the early days, exchanged it for gold from Datang, and then transported it back to exchange for silver, and then transported it over to cash out gold, so as to earn the exchange rate difference.
Later, Datang was not happy, and announced that gold, silver and copper coins were prohibited from leaving the customs. Even if Hu merchants brought silver, they could not exchange it for gold. Even if they planned to use silver to buy silk, porcelain, tea, etc. up.
The imperial court implemented a compulsory settlement of foreign exchange, and the barbarians did not care if they brought goods to the Tang Dynasty, but if they brought gold and silver to the Tang Dynasty, they could only be settled according to the exchange rate set by the Tang Dynasty, and first exchanged into coins of the Tang Dynasty. After entering Hong Kong, it can be sold after paying customs duties, but it must be settled in Datang coins.
If they purchase coins as goods and leave the customs when they leave, they should pay the normal import and export customs duties. And if they want to carry coins away, they are not allowed, they can only be exchanged for goods.
And if those barbarians bring their own currency, such as gold and silver coins, in addition to transporting goods, they must first be converted into Datang according to the exchange rate between Datang and other currencies stipulated by the court when entering the customs. coin.
And this exchange rate basically cut off the arbitrage space that Hu Shang used to trade silver for gold, because Datang also adjusted the exchange rate of gold and silver.
At the same time, the fineness and weight of coins from various countries have been appraised early, and the exchange rates between gold and silver coins and Tang coins in Persia, Rome, Frank and other countries have been stipulated.
This kind of policy not only strengthened Datang's foreign trade surplus, but also prevented Hu merchants from coming to Datang to steal gold.
However, in recent years, Japan has discovered a lot of Dayinshan large copper mines, and their gold-silver ratio is basically the same as that of the previous Tang Dynasty. The gold-silver ratio is basically one to five or six, and no more than eight.
Qin Lu suggested that some goods such as sugar and salt should be transported to Japan to exchange for silver and copper materials, and then be minted into coins and then transported back to the Central Plains for use, and the minted gold coins should be traded with the Hu merchants from the west, and they would be 1:10 One or even one to thirteen ratios, in exchange for their silver, and then use the silver to purchase raw materials from Linyi, Silla and other countries.
More than 10% of the copper coin minting profit, 8% of the silver coin minting profit, 5% of the gold coin minting profit, huge profits.
On the side of Hu people and sea merchants, gold is valuable, and the ratio of gold and silver is more than ten, so you can exchange gold for silver, but in the countries of Haidong, silver is more valuable, and gold and silver are only one to five, so you can use the exchanged silver to go shopping Raw materials, such as buying copper.
"If we have enough raw materials, how much money can we mint in a year?"
"In terms of copper coins, about 10,000 guan can be minted in a month."
A money-making furnace of the Imperial Court Qianjian can mint about 3,000 guan coins a year, which is only 30,000 yuan a year, while the mint of the Qin family can actually mint 10,000 copper coins a month, which is equivalent to forty coins The furnace is up, and the output is really amazing.
120,000 guan a year, 30% profit, that is 36,000 guan.
This should be a very good deal, but Qin Lang just nodded. Considering that Qin Dao can dig out more than 10,000 taels of gold a year, 36,000 taels is not too amazing.
All the gold mined on the island is minted into gold coins, and the minting profit is 5%. If one million taels is 50,000 taels, it is about 500,000 guan.
"Actually, if we use the copper material for casting copper coins to directly make copper wares, we will gain a lot. If you melt ten coins, you will get one or two refined copper, and make utensils, and the profit will be five times!"
Qin Lang smiled, "Selling money to make utensils is a serious crime against the laws of the country."
Qin Lu smiled mischievously, "Coining privately is now a felony."
"But have you ever thought about a problem? Now the Central Plains bronze wares are strictly restricted. Even the production and sales of bronze mirrors are restricted. Even if we make bronze wares, there is no place to sell them."
"Sell to Haidong or Nanyang."
"The market is limited, not as popular as copper coins."
Tang money is very popular in Haidong and South China Sea countries, and its purchasing power in each country even exceeds that in Datang itself. If Qin Lang's bronze wares cannot be sold in the Central Plains, but only sold in overseas countries, if the sales volume cannot reach, then the profit will be limited. But casting copper coins is not as profitable as copper ware, but the problem is that copper coins can not only be transported to the Central Plains for use, but even in Haidong and South China Sea. You don’t have to worry about how much you have, and Luzon itself also needs copper coins , so considering comprehensively, Qin Lang believes that it can be considered to manufacture a small amount of copper wares for export, and more to cast copper coins.
When leaving, Qin Lang loaded a large amount of gold, silver and copper coins privately minted in San Francisco on board, and sailed back to Taiping.
There are also a few boats in the same boat, carrying some returning gold diggers, some are lucky and rich, and now they are going back to enjoy the blessings, and more are attracted by Qindao’s settlement and immigration conditions, and they want to rush back to pick up their families Come here and settle down so that the land can be allocated and granted as soon as possible.
(end of this chapter)