Chapter 5: Silver Dollars for Rates on Xuanzhen North Road
Zhang Cheng took the velvet bag, which was heavy in his hand. He opened it and poured out the silver coins inside. Dozens of white, round objects fell onto the big case, making a soft crunching sound.
I took one and showed it in my hand. On the whole, it was extremely beautifully made. The Beizhaguan pattern on the front was naturally clear and the color was delicate and rich. On the top was "Xuanzhen North Road Salary Silver Dollar" and on the bottom was "
The words "One Liang of Gold and Flowers and Silver" are written in elegant Qian style and the strokes are dignified.
On the back of the silver circle, there is a pattern of military formations standing in array. The military formations on the top are neat and uniform. Although the pattern is small, it is also magnificent. There are three characters "worth one yuan" on the top and "contains seventy-three percent silver" below.
A few small characters are marked, the same strokes are dignified.
Zhang Cheng was playing with the silver round in his hand, stroking it gently with his fingertips, feeling the pattern on it and the subtle tooth lines on the edge. He picked up a silver round of the same size and bumped it lightly against each other.
, making a sonorous and pleasant sound.
This kind of silver round without holes in the middle, which came to the Ming Dynasty early, is of different sizes. Although its shapes are all round and toothed, there are five regulations from large to small, which are one tael of silver (one round), one tael of silver,
Five coins of silver (five jiao), one coin of silver (one dime), fifty cents of silver (five cents), ten cents (one cent) of silver, etc. From large to small, the face value gradually decreases.
Among them, the first three grades are silver rounds, which are divided according to size. The proportion of silver content is 70% to 30%. However, the size is different, and the amount of silver contained is also different. The silver content is marked on the back.
The second-class copper round is made of copper. The copper color is purple-red, and the order is from large to small. The pattern and text are almost the same as the silver round, except that on the bottom of the front, there are "Fifty coins for making money" and "
The big characters "When making ten cents of money" and the words "worth five cents" and "worth one cent" on the back are also beautifully cast and of high quality.
Although, at this time, it is not possible to use machine stamping technology to make silver rounds and copper rounds. There are still some very small differences between some silver rounds and copper rounds, but it is not easy to achieve such exquisiteness and standards.
In order to save some effort in converting silver yuan and copper yuan, Zhang Cheng deliberately changed it to the decimal system instead of the hexadecimal system popular in the Ming Dynasty. According to his meaning, one tael is equal to ten qian, and one qian is equal to ten cents.
Rather than the Ming Dynasty's one tael equaling sixteen coins.
In this conversion, one tael of gold is approximately equal to ten taels of silver, and one tael of silver can be exchanged for two thousand coins. Originally, one tael of silver in the Ming Dynasty could be exchanged for one thousand coins, but by the end of the Ming Dynasty, one tael of silver could be exchanged for one thousand coins.
Exchange one thousand five hundred to two thousand coins.
Anyway, these silver and copper coins have their face value marked on them, and they can be distinguished by size. When people use them, they only need to settle by the marked currency value. If they want to exchange silver coins and make money, they can also go to
Exchange it at the official store of each fort.
Zhang Cheng's idea is still like military coupons, which does not force civilians to use silver coins and copper coins, but still distributes them to the soldiers in his camp and garrison in the form of military pay.
Nowadays, military coupons are widely accepted on Beilu. Its biggest advantage is its stability. At first, soldiers had to go to official stores to exchange them for rice, cloth, and silver before they could use them.
Now all the shops on the North Road have directly collected military coupons and settled in change. Even the nearby forts on the East Road have been affected by the military coupons and have considerable trust in them.
It was with the foundation of military stamps that he dared to think of using silver yuan and copper yuan to replace pay silver. In the future, combined with military stamps, it will gradually become popular on the North Road. By then, its acceptance and popularization among the people will not be a big problem.
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Zhang Cheng grabbed a few silver and copper coins and said to Zhang Chengfang, who was waiting on the side: "Take them to taste with the gentlemen."
Zhang Chengfang stepped forward according to the order, collected the silver coins on the big case, held them in his hands, and sent them to everyone. Everyone got a few coins, held them in their hands, played with them and watched them.
"Deputy Commander, this thing is indeed exquisite, but the military households are used to making money, so I'm afraid they won't recognize it." Gao Jinggong said with a puzzled look on his face.
Zhang Cheng just smiled and said nothing.
Yan Qingrong also smiled and said: "The deputy commander-in-chief, do you want to use this to replace the salary to pay the soldiers?"
Zhang Cheng smiled and said: "Previously, military coupons were issued, but military coupons are divided into three types: grain, cloth, and silver. They are complicated and easy to damage. It does cause a lot of inconvenience. Therefore, I want to use this to replace part of the military coupons."
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In the future, only one type of military stamps will be food stamps, and cloth stamps and silver stamps will no longer be issued to soldiers, but will be replaced by silver and copper coins like this in your hands."
"Wow!"
"Wow..."
Chen Zheng held more than ten silver coins in his hand and slipped them from his left hand. He caught them with his right hand and then dropped them to his left hand. He listened intoxicated to the sweet sound of the silver coins hitting each other.
Zhang Cheng said at this time: "Chen Zheng, although you are based in Chicheng and strictly train the two new troops in the camp, you must pay more attention to the Yunzhou side, especially the two places, the Ticket Office and the Mint."
"Here!" Chen Zheng hurriedly put down the silver yuan in his hand and responded loudly.
Zhang Cheng looked at Shi Tiegen again and said: "According to the preliminary statistics of Lord Jin over at Dushikou, nearly two-thirds of the military tickets issued previously have been recovered by the official stores of each fort, and less than one-third has been returned.
In the hands of the sergeants, there is not much pressure on financial payment.
Not long ago, when I went to Yongning to suppress bandits, and when I was promoted to Deputy Commander-in-Chief, the congratulatory gifts sent by the adults and merchants in the city amounted to nearly ten thousand taels of silver, and the proceeds from the suppression of bandits amounted to more than forty thousand taels.
You can arrange for the Mint to mint one hundred thousand taels of silver and copper coins first. There is no rush for these. There is no need to rush the work. The quality must be guaranteed. Only if it is excellent, it will not be easy for lawless people to imitate it."
"Here!"
"Li Chengmao of the Artillery Bureau, in addition to manufacturing No. 4 and No. 5 cannons, flying cannons, squatting tiger cannons, and mortars, you will also start trial production of No. 3 and No. 2 Folan cannons to ensure their power.
It is important not to explode the chamber, and only after the trial production is successful can it be finalized before mass production.
These artillery pieces weigh hundreds or even thousands of kilograms, and the artillery carts must be designed and manufactured at the same time. This is not only convenient for the army to drag and carry when going into battle, but also saves the pain of digging gun emplacements during war. The artillery carts must be able to adjust the firing range and shelling angle.
You must remember its function."
"Here!" Li Chengmao and Shi Tiegen, the directors of the artillery bureau, responded at the same time.
Afterwards, everyone talked about other military matters. Everyone knew that Zhang Cheng had a tight schedule to return to Chicheng, so they picked some important matters to report, discussed, and after all was agreed upon, they all left.
After everyone retreated, Zhang Cheng felt a little tired. He told Zhang Chengfang, Zhang Jintai and others to rest by themselves, and then, led by several healthy women, he walked slowly to the inner courtyard.
His wife, Ji Xuanzhu, is more than five months pregnant. Although the current battle in Henan does not seem to be very dangerous, after all, the war is fierce and dangerous. Who can guarantee that everything will be safe?
The first important reason why Zhang Cheng hurried back to Chicheng this time was to take a look at Ji Xuanzhu, not only to keep him company, but also to make himself feel at ease, and to say goodbye to the two old ladies.