"Yuanzhou, there is one copper pit and one iron pit."
"Fuzhou, there is one golden pit and one silver pit."
"Jiangzhou, there are two copper pits and one silver pit."
"In Raozhou, there are three copper pits, one gold pit, one silver pit, and one iron pit."
"Xinzhou, there are two copper pits, one gold pit, two silver pits, one iron pit, and three lead pits."
"Qianzhou..."
Shao Shude flipped through the account books brought by the Copper Envoy page by page.
He didn't pay too much attention to output and pitfalls, as these were too complicated and too detailed. He mainly looked at the distribution of minerals.
Generally speaking, the mineral resources in the states of Jiangxi Province are very rich. Since the great development of Jiangxi in the Tang Dynasty, mineral resources have quickly come into the court's sight, and the mining industry has developed vigorously, with a very large scale.
In addition, Jiangxi itself has a relatively large grain output and convenient water transportation, so it can support a large number of groups that are divorced from agricultural production, such as handicraftsmen, farmers, gardeners, and merchants.
The Xia Dynasty's mining industry in Jiangxi basically followed that of the Tang Dynasty.
During the Jianji period, after Wang Shi regained the entire territory of Jiangxi, Xianghu Town, Yudu County, Qianzhou, established a "Ruijin Supervisor" in Xianghu Town, Yudu County, Qianzhou because "gold is obtained by digging the ground, and gold is auspicious". While responsible for gold mining,
Also responsible for managing the production of local silver pits, lead pits, tin pits, iron pits, and copper pits.
In the eight prefectures of old Jiangxi Town, except for Jizhou, the other seven prefectures have a total of nine mining supervisors, seven of which are mainly responsible for the mining and smelting of copper mines.
The prosperity of copper production in Jiangxi Province is evident.
"Where can copper be traded?" Shao Shude asked after reading it.
"Your Majesty, most of the copper is traded in Pengze County, Jiangzhou." The bronze envoy replied.
"Is it all copper from Jiangxi?"
"Not only. There are also those north of the river."
"for example?"
"For example, there are copper pits in Shuzhou, Huainan, and all the copper produced is transported to Pengze."
Shao Shude nodded. The location of Pengze County is very good. It is close to the river and water transportation is convenient. No matter where it is shipped, the cost is very low.
In addition, metals produced in other states can be transported to the Yangtze River through waterways very conveniently via Pengli Lake - also called Gongting Lake, today's Poyang Lake.
Like Jiangnan, Jiangxi's water transportation conditions are so good that it makes people jealous.
Shao Shude stretched out his hand, and a map was sent to him. His eyes wandered around the mountains, rivers, swamps, cities and towns above, but he could never match the Jiangxi of later generations.
There are too many swamps, lakes, and rivers, too many forests, and too few towns.
It suddenly occurred to him that the three-city pontoon bridge in Heyang was built in the early Tang Dynasty. It was built in Hongzhou, Jiangxi (now Nanchang). Because there are large areas of virgin forest near Nanchang, there are many towering giant trees, and the quality is also high.
But now, Hongzhou is well-known as a land of fish and rice. The seven counties under its jurisdiction had a population of 300,000 to 400,000 people during the Tianbao period of the former Tang Dynasty. The food produced strongly supported the Tang Dynasty's three hundred years of expansion in Jiangxi and neighboring Hunan and other places.
development.
Hongzhou can no longer provide the high-quality wood needed for the floating bridges in the three cities of Heyang.
In the past few years, the pontoons were replaced by ships, which were cut down and built in Qianzhou. But now Qianzhou is also undergoing large-scale development, the mining industry is very prosperous, and the consumption of wood is large. Coupled with the increase in the number of immigrants, many forests have been cut down and turned into
Fertile farmland, if this continues, Qianzhou will be in trouble.
The so-called development means that people ask for land from nature. To put it bluntly, that's what it is.
"How does Pengze Copper Market compare to Fuliang Tea Market?" Shao Shude asked.
"It's not as good as that." Que Tongshi replied honestly.
“Where is copper mainly used?”
"More than half of them are used to make bronze wares. They range from large Buddha statues to small bronze mirrors, everything."
After saying this, some palace officials presented several pieces of bronze.
Shao Shude picked up one and looked at it.
This is an auspicious beast grape mirror. It has a grape pattern on the top, and eight high-relief auspicious beasts fight in pairs, with different expressions and lifelike looks. The mirror surface itself is very smooth, and the figures reflected are very clear.
There are several mirrors next to them, with different styles, such as one with a Buddhist treasure flower theme and one with a crane theme.
"Are they all produced by the mine supervision department?"
"Exactly." Quetongshi replied cautiously.
Like gold and silver, copper is both a raw material for currency and a commodity. The imperial court did not force all copper to be minted, and there was no such rule in all dynasties. In fact, until the 18th century, Britain was once short of currency, but still had nearly 30% of its currency.
It was even less possible in ancient times for precious metals to be used for other purposes.
Take the Great Xia Dynasty as an example. Even if they collected 25% of the tax (which was offset by copper blocks), it was impossible to use all of it to make coins. Because making copper coins did not necessarily make money, sometimes they would lose money.
To be honest, collecting seigniorage is a bit difficult, unless you mint the kind of bad money that breaks on the ground and breaks in half.
But the remaining 75% may not all be made of bronze.
The imperial court would sometimes use part of the grain and cloth to purchase copper mines, and then mint money on the spot to transport it away. This situation usually occurred where the copper pits were located, and it was also a way to consume in-kind taxes that were inconvenient for long-distance transportation.
In short, the actual situation is more complicated. Instead of casting copper coins, it is better to make copper utensils and sell them because the profit is higher.
Mine supervisors have a strong urge to cast copper coins and sell them. But as a government, you cannot ignore the plight of money shortage in society. Sometimes you have to pinch your nose and cast copper coins and put them on the market to alleviate the money shortage.
"Jiangxi No. 9 Mine Supervisor, how much copper is produced in a year?"
"Your Majesty, in the seven years of Tongguang, the total amount of copper is more than 800,000 jins."
"Too little." Shao Shude calculated silently and then said.
Coining money is very expensive.
At the time of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, a maximum of 70,000 pieces of Kaiyuan Tongbao were cast in a year, which cost more than two million jins of copper. Counting other consumption, there was still a production of several million jins of copper a year at that time.
But is it enough? Still not enough.
Compared with the prosperous Tang Dynasty, the output of gold, silver and even various consumer goods such as tea in the late Tang Dynasty increased greatly, exceeding the level of Tianbao's prosperous age, but the same was not true for copper.
During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the mine supervisor who was still operating could only count the output of 660,000 kilograms of copper.
There was a slight decrease in the fifth generation.
After the unification of the Northern Song Dynasty, copper output immediately increased explosively. By the second year of Yuanfeng of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty (1079), it had reached 14.61 million kilograms, exceeding that of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty.
The Daxia Dynasty only produced three million kilograms of copper last year, which was not as good as that of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. The main reason is that the copper mines in the north were mined in the Tang Dynasty, and most of them faced serious problems such as depletion of reserves and decline in output - this is still newly added
The output of Yunnan and Liaodong copper would otherwise be even lower.
Now, we must find a way to strengthen exploration and mining in the vast south.
The Northern Song Dynasty should have vigorously exploited the copper mines in the south, otherwise the output would never have doubled compared to the Tang Dynasty.
Thinking of this, Shao Shude said: "You are the copper envoy, and all the copper supervisors are under your charge. Some things cannot be careless. The old mines must find ways to increase production, no matter what method you use. In addition, send more manpower to find new ones."
Mine. There are definitely more copper mines in Jiangxi, you need to use more mines."
"I obey the decree."
"Is there any strategy to increase production in old mines?"
"I think there are only two ways. One is to recruit more people and defraud people, the other is to use slave labor."
Shao Shude was silent.
"Pit households" are contractors. Recruiting more pit households means contracting out more mines. The mine supervisor negotiates with the pit households on a share ratio, and then sends people to supervise the mines, and no longer directly participates in the mining.
Judging from historical experience, contracting is a way to achieve higher returns than going directly to the business yourself - of course, taxes still cannot be reduced.
Using slave labor is another way to increase profits. In fact, a large number of slaves are used in northern coal mines. Persian slave workers are all over the northern part of the pass and all the roads in the pass. They dig coal in the pits, bake bricks in the kilns, and dig mud in the rivers. There is simply nothing to do.
cannot.
They also eat less and work more, which is much easier than the local people temporarily recruited by the mine supervisors.
"Let's look for mines first." Shao Shude said: "Jiangxi and Yunnan Province should not only produce such a small amount of copper. If you do it well, if you make great contributions, the court will naturally reward you."
"I obey the decree."
After waving the messenger to leave, Shao Shude continued to drink tea, and then selected a few Raozhou officials and gentry to come over and ask questions.
After the tea was finished, the questioning ended.
He got up and walked around the tea market carefully.
It is roughly divided into several areas, each area is controlled by a guild and sells tea produced locally.
Guilds have been deeply rooted since the Tang Dynasty.
There is a colorful silk shop, a silk shop shop, a grain shop, a rice and flour shop, a fruit shop (fruits), a rapeseed shop (seeds), a pot shop (hardware), a utensil shop (containers), etc., all of which are available.
Of course there are banks, but they only deal with silverware.
The guild system has advantages and disadvantages.
The good side is that the production organization, transportation and circulation, and brand building of goods have been strengthened. Members of a guild can help each other, unite to fight against the extortion of the government, and have greater bargaining power in front of the court. If any member is short of money, he can still
Funds can be borrowed to help it tide over difficulties or expand production.
The bad side is that it is easy to form a monopoly, force buying and selling, falsely high prices, speculation, hoarding, etc.
Generally speaking, the advantages currently outweigh the disadvantages. Without guilds, the current scale of the commodity economy would not be possible. An accident may directly bring various industries to zero.
Guilds have the ability to hire warriors, which has been common since the Tang Dynasty. Even in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, there were a large number of merchants carrying swords and guns to protect them across the state and county, and the court did not care about these so-called "sources of unrest."
Maybe it's self-confidence, maybe it's some other reason, but it's just too lazy to care.
Shao Shude didn't bother to care.
Forty years ago, he went with the army to Hedong to quell the rebellion of Li Guochang and his son. The defeated remnants of the Zhaoyi Army looted Jinyang. It went smoothly at first, but when they finally captured the head of Fangshi, they were defeated by the "fang citizens".
group.
There is no need to make everything strict, just strengthen supervision. The feudal towns have been divided for 150 years, and they have never heard of a merchant successfully rebelling, and they have no such intention.
On the first day of June, Shao Shude left Fuliang Tea Market and went to Lisuo Poyang County, Raozhou.
Along the way, the countryside is full of golden wheat fields, which are very pleasing to the eye. Among the wheat fields, there are also some paddy fields planted with japonica rice. The rice is growing well and can be harvested in July.
They were lucky, and it was another great age. The south was increasingly becoming a "refuge" during the Little Ice Age. Or perhaps the lowering of temperatures was actually not a bad thing for them.
On the tenth day of the sixth lunar month, the Holy Spirit arrived in Poyang County. Shao Shude went boating on the lake to enjoy the magnificent scenery of vast expanse of blue waves.
