After the Law Enforcement Hall was established and the laws were drafted, everyone dispersed, but Jiang Xuan still sat in his original position, seemingly thinking about something.
Chi Shao was about to leave, but after seeing Jiang Xuan's expression, he stopped.
"Xuan, what are you thinking about?"
Jiang Xuan raised his head: "Corruption and bribery will definitely happen again in the future, and there will be a lot of them. People are naturally greedy. As long as there is a chance to take it, not many people can bear it."
"So, I'm thinking about how I can avoid this happening as much as possible."
Chi Shao said doubtfully: "Didn't we just set up the Law Enforcement Hall? And we severely punished Di Gu, which should be able to scare many people, right?"
Jiang Xuan shook his head: "As long as the benefits are big enough, many people can gamble their lives. Therefore, just relying on shock is useless. We must take other means to prevent this kind of thing from happening."
"Then what methods should we use?"
Jiang Xuan was silent for a moment, then his eyes flashed and he said: "Make coins!"
"What is a coin?" Chi Shao had never heard of this word.
Jiang Xuan tried his best to explain in words that Chi Shao could understand: "Coins are a kind of goods that everyone in a certain area needs and is willing to trade."
The essence of currency is a commodity that can be used for transactions.
As long as people in this area are willing to trade with it, it can be anything, such as turtle shells, shells, even cloth, and stone tools.
Jiang Xuan continued to explain: "For example, high-quality stone is a kind of goods that every tribe needs, and it can be used as currency."
"Xuan, do you mean that we can use high-quality stones to trade with other tribes in the future?"
Chi Shao frowned slightly because she still couldn't quite understand the problem.
Although high-quality stone is good, its value is also quite high. Poorer tribes have problems with food and clothing. How can they trade high-quality stone?
Jiang Xuan smiled and said: "High-quality stone can of course be included as part of our Vine Tribe's coin system, but it cannot be used as the main coin."
"Our main currency is bronze coins!"
"Bronze coins?"
"That's right, we can use bronze to cast coins and then promote their use in the trading area. All goods will be clearly marked with prices, and you will get as many coins as you sell."
"In this way, even if someone wants to embezzle, we only need to count the goods in the shop and find out the number of a pair of coins."
Chi Shao thought for a while and asked again: "The goods sold can be like this, but what about the goods returned from the trade? Many goods come back from the trade in a big pile. It is hard to find someone who takes a little, right?"
"I have thought about this problem a long time ago, so in addition to making coins, the second thing we have to do is to unify weights and measures."
"What are weights and measures?"
Chi Shao felt a little dizzy. How much did Jiang Xuan learn from that mysterious old man? Why was it that she had never heard of it?
Jiang Xuandao: "Degree means length. How tall a tree is? We can use a fixed unit of length to measure it. For example, if we use 'meter' as the unit, then we can fix how long one meter is and measure it."
A tree, you can say how many meters high that tree is."
"Quantity is a tool for calculating the quantity of items. For example, we have a water tank, so how do we know how much water is in the water tank?"
"At this time, we need to use a tool, which is a water ladle. We use the ladle to scoop out the water in the water tank one by one, and then we will know how many ladles of water there are in total."
"If the size of the water ladle is fixed, then in the future we can not only calculate the amount of water, but also the amount of relatively small grains such as bamboo and wheat. For example, we can clearly know how many ladles of grain we produce in one area.
Figure it out.”
"Weight means weight. For example, last year we harvested a big stone egg, so how much does it really weigh?"
"We can use the unit of 'jin' to measure it, fix the weight of one kilogram, and then create a tool that can weigh the weight, and then we will know how much the stone egg actually weighs."
"Explanation like this, sister, do you understand?"
Jiang Xuan's mouth was dry as he spoke, so he picked up the ceramic cup and drank a large glass of water.
Chi Shao said honestly: "I probably understand, but you talked too much and I can't remember it."
"It doesn't matter. We will make these things in the future and you will remember them the more you use them."
Unifying currency and weights and measures is a very important thing, because doing so can greatly promote fair transactions and promote the healthy development of trading areas.
If it were all based on eyesight, tribes like the Black Teeth Tribe who often made trades would have taken advantage. Other tribes would often suffer big losses in front of them, so naturally they would not be so enthusiastic about trading, and would even be wary and disgusted.
Only by unifying currency and unifying weights and measures can the healthy development of transactions be promoted. Even if someone is cheated, it will only be in terms of price.
In terms of quantity, even if someone could manipulate the weighing tools, it would not be too obvious or too ridiculous.
Chi Shao thought for a while and asked another key question: "But these things were made by our Teng tribe ourselves. What if other tribes don't recognize them?"
Jiang Xuan smiled confidently: "As long as our Vine tribe becomes stronger and stronger and has more and more goods, the nearby tribes will have no better trading partners except us, and they will have to admit it even if they don't admit it."
Jiang Xuan's words were very domineering. After hearing this, Chi Shao was stunned for a moment. When she came back to her senses, she felt very proud because Jiang Xuan was her brother!
"Then do it, sister supports you!"
"Okay, I'll go to the smelting workshop now and make the ruler first!"
The ruler is one of the most important tools. With a ruler with a fixed scale, the things made by the vine tribe can be of the same size and be produced in batches.
Jiang Xuan went to the smelting workshop, and Chi Shao also returned to his yard. The first batch of witch medicine apprentices had been selected. There were ten people in total, both male and female. They were all interested in herbal medicine and witch medicine.
Chi Shao needs to patiently teach and train these ten apprentices into witch doctors to treat more people.
East bank, smelting workshop.
Jiang Xuan first used softened insect wax to make a model of a ruler.
After the model was completely solidified, Jiang Xuan used a small wooden stick to fold it section by section, and then carved scales to ensure that the length of each scale was consistent.
When he finished, a ruler model with graduations appeared.
There are three units on the ruler: meters, decimeters, and centimeters.
One meter is equal to ten meters, and one decimeter is equal to ten centimeters, which is very clear.
Of course, Jiang Xuan's length of one meter was only similar to his previous life, not the same, because he did not have an accurate ruler in his hand.
But it doesn't matter. As long as the Vine Tribe is strong enough in the future, the ruler in Jiang Xuan's hand will be the most accurate ruler in the entire primitive continent!
If other tribes want to measure anything, they must use the length of the Vine Tribe's ruler, otherwise it will be difficult to trade with the Vine Tribe.
Jiang Xuan modified the ruler made of insect wax and carved the totem pattern of the rattan tribe in the blank space.
Later, he wrapped the ruler made of insect wax with pottery clay and used the lost wax method to make the first ruler's pottery blank.
Finally, Jiang Xuan poured the bronze liquid into the pottery base, waited for the bronze liquid to solidify, and after cooling, Jiang Xuan smashed the pottery base, and the first bronze ruler of the Teng tribe appeared!
Jiang Xuan held the one-meter-long bronze ruler in both hands and said excitedly: "This is the first bronze ruler of the Teng tribe, and it is also the master of all future rulers!"
The soldiers in the smelting workshop didn't quite understand the meaning of the first ruler, but when they saw Jiang Xuan happy, they themselves were happy too.
After getting excited, Jiang Xuan made dozens of bronze rulers based on the appearance and scale of the first bronze ruler.
One of them was given to the smelting workshop for their future use in measuring length.
The use of the ruler is not difficult to understand. In addition, the Vine tribe has long begun to popularize numbers, and the numbers marked on the bronze ruler can be understood by the soldiers in the smelting workshop.
After Jiang Xuan taught them a few times, they understood how to use the bronze ruler.
"From now on, except for those tailor-made weapons and implements, everything else must be uniform in size and length so that they can be easily traded with other tribes."
The soldiers in the smelting workshop nodded one after another and took Jiang Xuan's words to heart.
After finishing the bronze ruler, Jiang Xuan began to make other things related to weights and measures.
First, there are two square bronze basins, one large and one small. The small bronze basin is filled to one liter, and the large bronze basin is filled to one bucket.
Ten liters is one bucket, and ten buckets is one stone. The conversion method is quite simple and practical.
Jiang Xuan fired a batch of bucket basins of the same size for measuring liquids or small grains of food in the Goto tribe.
After casting the bucket basin, Jiang Xuan cast another square bronze block with a large number of rattan tribal totem patterns carved on it.
Jiang Xuan set the weight of this piece of bronze at one kilogram, which means that all weight units in the future will be based on this one kilogram piece of bronze.
After deciding on the weight unit, Jiang Xuan started making the steelyard again.
The steelyard is a very important, very practical, and one of the simpler weighing tools.
Jiang Xuan planed a scale beam out of a straight purple blood tree, and then cast the scale weight, scale pan, weighing hook, handle, etc. out of bronze.
The purple blood tree is very tough, solid and durable, and not easily deformed.
To be continued...