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Text Chapter 433: Casting Silver Coins

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    Although the fleet led by Jiang Lu failed to complete the feat of circling the big island, it brought a gift to other members of the fleet, which was a dozen large lobsters weighing hundreds of kilograms.  Originally, they caught a lot of these giant lobsters, but unfortunately, in just a few days, most of them died. In the end, only a dozen or so survived. Lu Wan also knew that these things could not be kept alive, so he finally decided to kill them.  It was all carried to the galley and extra meals were given to all the crew.

    Although the lobster was eaten, Lu Wan kept the dragon shell and had it cleaned and spliced ??together according to its original appearance. In addition, he also had some strange animals captured on the big island, such as the kind called  On the big island of gray cranes, there is also a huge animal that looks like a mouse and has a strange bag on its belly. We try to bring as many of each animal as possible. These are going to be sent to Taiwan. I heard that Qi  His Royal Highness wants to set up a zoo and exhibition hall, and is currently ordering people to collect animals and animals from all over the place. I believe that what they bring will be very popular.

    In addition, Lu Wan also discovered an interesting phenomenon, that is, among the animals on the big island, many animals have bags on their bellies, such as the mouse-like animal they captured, and another one that lives in the trees.  Bears also have bags, and even wolves that hunt everywhere have bags. These strange animals were an eye-opener for them, so they sent people to capture some and brought them on the boat, as well as some plant seeds.  Collect some if possible.

    After several days of preparation, Lu Wan and his fleet were finally able to set sail. However, they had already built a simple dock on Sunset Island and asked Moli to help take care of it.  for this matter.  The leader, Rumodoro, naturally agreed wholeheartedly. After all, he expected these wealthy outsiders to come to their island again to trade with them.

    When Lu Wan and the others left.  All the members of the Moli Ministry came to the port to see him off, including Rumodo, who was wrapped in half a piece of silk.  He kept waving goodbye to the fleet, and the glass bracelet on his hand sparkled with his movements.  However, among the crowd, the saddest one was Doya. She went to the big island with Lu Wan and the others to look for gold, and formed a strong friendship with everyone. Lu Wan and the others also liked Doya very much, and after leaving  During the trip, many crew members gave Doya some small things, although they didn't think they were very valuable.  But for Doya, it is an extremely precious gift.

    In fact, it was not only Doya who received gifts from the crew, but almost the entire Moli Department accepted the benefits of the fleet. Lu Wan even made an exception and gave the Moli Department some bows and arrows and taught them how to use them.  This move greatly increased Moli's hunting ability and allowed him to catch more prey than before, which reduced the possibility of starvation for Moli's people.

    It was precisely the above actions that led to the entire Moli Ministry coming to see Lu Wan and the others off when they left.  After all, in their view, these outsiders who came on the big ship were a group of kind people, and they were very generous. They were like messengers sent by the gods.

    But the reason why Lu Wan and the others win over Mo Li's department is so great.  But they didn't have any good intentions. Everything still stemmed from the gold mine they discovered on the big island.  Although they only stayed there for a few days, the crew had already found a lot of gold nuggets and sand.  Therefore, Lu Wan and Feng Shijie have reason to believe that there should be a gold mine with considerable reserves.  It is definitely worth mining.

    A valuable gold mine, the slave-catching association behind Lu Wan will definitely not let it go.  After all, the association is not just a business of catching and selling slaves, but also has many other related industries. As for gold mining, a business that is almost equivalent to robbing money, naturally it will not be spared.

    However, if you want to mine gold on the big island, you must send some people to stay permanently, and this requires the help of the Moli Department. After all, they are the indigenous people here, and no one is more familiar with the situation on the island than them.  With their help, I believe those who come will be able to establish a foothold on the big island quickly.

    Compared with the way they came, Lu Wan and the others did not look relaxed when they returned. After all, the situation on the sea is changing, and no one knows what they will encounter at the next moment.  Therefore, Lu Wan's return voyage was also full of dangers. In addition, they had to overcome difficulties in food, drinking water, fear, etc., and braved wind and waves all the way to the place where they set sail.

    Just when Lu Wan and his fleet were returning with their great discovery, Li Min in Dengzhou City also received news from Yan Bei. Originally, the exploration fleet was just setting out to find a new source of slaves. In Yan Bei's view, this  , it was not a big deal, so I did not report it to Li Min. I just mentioned it casually when the two of them exchanged letters later. The result surprised Li Min, and he regretted not being able to set off in the fleet.  He wanted to explain to the other party beforehand that although he could not guarantee that the other party would be able to reach Australia, judging from the sailing direction Yan Bei mentioned, it was indeed very possible to reach Australia.

    However, although Li Min is concerned about the exploration fleet, he is now entangled in another matter and does not have much energy to pay special attention to it for the time being.?, so I had to tell Yan Bei that if someone from the fleet came back, he must tell him in advance, and he must personally greet them and ask them some questions.

    "Yifan, there should be no problem with your machine here. Although 200,000 silver coins have been produced now, in a month, I will see another 200,000 coins, and this is only the first issue of silver coins.  More silver coins will definitely be issued in the future, so the machines here have to continue working for a long time and cannot be stopped. If something goes wrong, it will be a big trouble!" Li Min said loudly to Yifan next to him.

    They are now in a noisy factory, surrounded by the roar of steam engines. Driven by the steam engines, each machine is working rapidly and making a very regular "bang" sound.  In this environment, if people don't speak loudly, they won't be able to hear what the other person is saying at all.

    "Your Highness, don't worry, as long as you can provide enough silver and copper materials, there will be no problem in producing two hundred thousand silver coins a month!" Yifan, who was wearing a blue gown and dressed as a man, said with a smile.

    Hearing Yifan's words, Li Min nodded with confidence. Yifan was the person he trusted the most, and as long as the other party promised, he would definitely be able to do it, so there was no need to doubt it.

    Li Min and the others were at the newly established mint. This mint was not located on the island of Taiwan by Li Min, but was still built in Dengzhou.  Although Li Min has been transferring some industries in Dengzhou to Taiwan Island, the currency reform is mainly in Datang, so it is better to locate it in Datang, at least the transportation cost is much lower.

    When he was attacking Japan, Li Min told Cheng Huailiang and others that he would add a higher value coin to the copper coins of the Tang Dynasty, and this coin was silver coins.  Although Li Min also wanted to get it right in one step and replace the current metal currency with the paper money of later generations, reality told him that this could not be achieved in a short time. At least for most people, they were not yet able to fully accept paper money.

    Although Li Min's banks have been opened in all major cities in the Tang Dynasty, many people like to deposit money in banks, and there are also passbooks issued by banks under the cabinet at home, but passbooks are still only regarded as a kind of  The vouchers for depositing money cannot be circulated at all. Although some smart businessmen have opened some anonymous passbooks for use in some commercial transactions. Anyone holding such passbooks can withdraw money.  But after all, they are a minority, and they are only used for commercial circulation. Very few people use them among the people, so they are not considered banknotes at all.

    The feedback from the bank made Li Min understand that in a short period of time, metal currency will still be the protagonist in the market. Even if he forcibly introduces paper currency, I am afraid it will not be recognized by the people and become waste paper. The best result  It only puts paper money in a subordinate position and cannot exist independently of metal currency.

    It was precisely after knowing the above that Li Min decided to proceed step by step, first issuing silver coins with relatively large face values. After all, with the development of business, the amount of commercial transactions is getting larger and larger, and an ordinary business will also use several coins.  Ten or hundreds of coins would be too troublesome to settle with copper coins, so the issuance of large denomination silver coins is imperative.

    However, it is a pity that the Tang Dynasty court did not realize this. The old household management system has increasingly failed to keep up with the development speed of business. Coin is one of the most prominent problems, and Li Min is  After knowing this problem, he decided not to trouble Li Shimin anymore, because he already had the ability to solve this problem.

    In order to find the silver needed to issue silver coins, Li Min turned his attention to the Japanese country and mobilized the new rich in Chang'an to jointly mine the Iwami silver mine in the Japanese country, and then organized the Japanese people to mine on the spot. After nearly half a year of development, now  The Iwami Silver Mine has grown to a certain scale and can produce an astonishing amount of silver every month. Together with the silver reserves collected by Li Min in the past, it is enough for him to issue silver coins.

    As for Yifan, Li Min also gave instructions in advance, asking her to help design a stamping machine driven by a steam engine. The structure of this machine is relatively simple. The previous steam engine manufacturing factory also had similar machines. Now it only needs to be modified.  It can be used, and there are also the styles of silver coins. Li Min decided to use the traditional round square hole. Even the characters on it have not changed. They are still the four characters "Kaiyuan Tongbao", which was also the main currency during the reign of the Tang Dynasty.  .

    The reason why the circular square hole is used is that threads can be threaded in the middle, making it easier to carry. Secondly, this pattern also represents a cultural tradition, so there is no need to turn it into the perfect circle that it became later.  There is another very important reason, that is, if you use the style of Kaiyuan Tongbao, the molds for minting coins are all ready-made. There are many craftsmen who can make such molds, and they can be used after modification.

    "But Li Min is not a living Lei Feng. The reason why he implemented it himself isTang Dynasty's currency reform was also based on his own selfishness, but his selfishness was deeply hidden. Apart from himself, probably no one else knew about it.
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