Cai Jiuzhou was stunned when he heard this. He really couldn't think of any more terrifying enemy of the Ming Dynasty than the rogue bandits and Jinlu.
Ding Yunyi said slowly: "Actually, this enemy started to break into the house at the hands of my predecessors, and then started to cause trouble. This enemy is called Baiyin."
Cai Jiuzhou was confused after hearing this. Silver is something that everyone likes. How many people are willing to die for it? When did they become bad enemies?
However, Baiyin was really an enemy of the Ming Dynasty!
Silver was the currency used by the imperial court in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. Silver became the currency of the Ming Dynasty, which was not only related to China but also to the world.
The Ming Dynasty initially used paper money, called Ming Bao Chao. Bao Chao is a piece of paper, and the paper indicates how many copper coins it is equivalent to, ranging from one hundred to one hundred. Bao Chao has been used as a currency since the founding of the People's Republic of China by Zhu Yuanzhang. More than two hundred
Year. During this period, the government repeatedly ordered people not to use silver as currency. Once found, they would be severely punished and not allowed to lend money.
Why? Because China lacks precious metals, the amount of silver it can produce every year is very small, and there is no way to meet the needs of circulation. The issuance of treasure banknotes relies on national credit, and there are no reserves of precious metals or valuable items. The manufacturing cost of banknotes is low, and the number of issuances is basically
The imperial court has the final say. The previous Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty also did this.
However, the treasure banknotes cannot be used. The biggest problem is that they often depreciate due to excessive issuance. For example, in the second year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty, it only cost ten guan to buy one stone of rice, but in the second year of Hongzhi, it actually cost 100 guan. During the Chenghua period
Bao banknotes once lost one fifth of their value.
The Wanli period was even more horrifying, with the depreciation of treasure banknotes reaching one ten thousandth.
Therefore, despite the strict laws and regulations, the people have long stopped buying treasure banknotes. At that time, officials also received treasure banknotes for their salaries, but they immediately sold them after receiving them and exchanged them for physical objects or silver and copper coins. Therefore, there was a special appearance in Beijing.
They have set up "chao accounts" to specialize in this business. When officials do this, the people will of course suffer even more, and their dissatisfaction and anger will increase day by day.
Under this situation, if the imperial court continues to stubbornly use treasure banknotes, it is very likely to repeat the mistakes of the Yuan Dynasty, where the currency will be corrupted, the economy will collapse, and then...
But there was a turning point. The imperial court discovered that in the southeastern region where industry and commerce was developed, merchants used a large amount of silver as currency in private transactions, which led to more and more silver circulating among the people. From there it spread to the whole country, which even surprised the imperial court.
What's amazing is that it's like a silver mountain has descended from the sky. The white silver is inexhaustible.
Silver mountains did not fall from the sky, but were discovered by the Spanish. In 1545, two large silver mines were discovered in Potosi, Peru. In 1548, two large silver mines were discovered in Zacatecas, Mexico. From then on, American silver began to flow to Europe, and then passed through
Spanish, Portuguese, Mediterranean, and Arab merchants brought it to the world.
People all over the country were using money, and there was plenty of it, forcing the court to change its ways. In 1567, the first year after Emperor Longqing of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Zaihe came to the throne, he announced the opening of the sea ban and the "concurrent use of money and money" law: private people going overseas to do business and everyone
It is not illegal to use silver as currency.
However, the person who truly established the silver-standard currency system in China was Zhang Juzheng. In 1581, the reformer Zhang Juzheng ordered the implementation of the "One Whip Law" nationwide. The core of this reform was to simplify the past land tax, corvee and various miscellaneous tax collection methods.
, these were converted into silver taels and collected. From then on, silver truly became the protagonist of Chinese currency.
If it weren't for Zhang Juzheng's efforts to turn the tide, the crumbling Ming Dynasty would have been close to death as early as the Wanli period. Zhang Juzheng's reforms were like taking a strong medicine to the Ming Dynasty's chaotic national finances, bringing the dying empire back to life. Among them, the largest
His first move was to establish the monetary standard. But he did not know that precisely because silver played the leading role in China, the world economy had undergone tremendous changes. The rise of many Western empires actually originated from this.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, the most economically powerful and wealthy empire in the world was, of course, China. Businessmen from all countries wanted to do business most with China. But what to exchange with China?
This caused headaches for businessmen from all over the world. China was rich in products and had advanced craftsmanship, and had everything they wanted, but they did not have the goods that Chinese people needed and liked. Until China established the silver standard, this problem was solved.
This is a two-way integration and mutually reinforcing process. Because foreign merchants continue to import silver in exchange for Chinese silk, tea and porcelain, the domestic supply of silver is abundant. In turn, because there is more and more silver, Zhang Juzheng's whipping method has the basis for implementation.
and possible.
The Silver Age began around the world. Because China needed silver, silver mines in the Americas began to be mined day and night, and were continuously transported to Europe through the Atlantic Ocean, and then to Central Asia and South Asia via the Mediterranean Sea, passing through Malacca.
Strait. Or directly sail a large sailing ship from Mexico across the Pacific and transport it to Manila in the Philippines. Through international trade in Southeast Asia, the silver was brought back to Zhejiang and Fujian by Chinese private traders who gathered there.
There is another country that has also caught up on the silver express, and that is Japan. In the past, Japan also lacked goods for trade with China under the tribute system. What they sold most were exquisite samurai swords. But after silver became China’s main currency,
Japan, which is rich in silver mines, also began to export large quantities of silver to China. Most of the people doing business between China and Japan were Portuguese businessmen.
How much silver has flowed into China?
Since 1550, China has obtained approximately 60,000 tons of silver from various sources, accounting for approximately half of the world's recorded silver production.
From the first year of Longqing to the twelfth year of Chongzhen, more than 350 million Spanish silver dollars flowed into China. Of course, most of these silver dollars were turned into silver ingots and broken silver, which were circulated and stored in China.
American silver can still feel its flow when it reaches Europe and the Ottoman Empire, but as soon as it reaches China, it never returns. At that time, China was like a huge "black hole", swallowing up the amount of silver originating in the Americas and Japan.
The size is staggering.
Ding Yunyi knew very well that there was an important section in the Ming Dynasty chapter in his textbook from another era, which was dedicated to "the vigorous development of industry and commerce in the Ming Dynasty". The teacher would emphasize that this was "the early sprout of Chinese capitalism."
The question is: Why did this sprout appear in the middle and late Ming Dynasty if it sprouted earlier than later?
Because of silver. The world's silver flows into China because we export silk, porcelain, tea and other commodities. In turn, the more silver comes in, the greater the stimulus for the production of such commodities. But in China, silver has not become the main currency.
In the past, this type of production was restricted and development faced obstacles. Because people had to pay land taxes in kind, they had to work on crops. Urban craftsmen and merchants had to perform corvee labor and could not go all out to engage in trade and production. Labor force
Without guarantees of labor time and labor time, it will be difficult to scale up commodity production.
Zhang Juzheng's "One Whip Method" solved this problem. Because all taxes can be paid in silver. You don't have to grow food and just pay the silver. You don't have to do hard labor and just pay the silver. Where will the silver come from?
You can earn more money by doing handicrafts and trading.
In China's southeastern coastal areas, the economic and social structure has undergone tremendous changes. According to records from European missionaries at that time, there were 200,000 weavers and 600,000 spinners in Songjiang alone. In the Nanjing area, many ceramic workers
The factory produces one million pieces of fine porcelain every year. In the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, it can produce 600 million pieces of cotton cloth every year.
Overseas trade is even more vast. Overseas traders, mainly from Fujian and Guangdong, shuttle across Southeast Asia and trade with merchants from all over the world. One thousand and eighty-six ships sailed out of the Yue Port in Quanzhou, Fujian alone.
Arrived in Manila, Luzon. What was dragged away was raw silk and silk fabrics, and what was brought back was Mexican silver dollars. Manila and Batavia were called "Chinatowns" because a large number of Chinese merchants, craftsmen and handicraftsmen settled here.
Among them, the "Thirty-Six Surnames of the Fujianese" are the elite among those called "Nanyang Chinese".
With silver as a universally recognized and abundant medium of exchange and value benchmark, not only overseas trade was in full swing, but domestic long-distance commodity trade was also activated.
People in Jiangnan began to plant mulberry and raise silkworms in large quantities to produce silk and cotton cloth. People in Fujian began to plant tea in large quantities, while people in Guangdong were keen on growing sugar cane. People in Jiangxi not only made porcelain, but also produced indigo and other dyes to supply Suzhou and Hangzhou, and Hubei in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
Sichuan produces grain to supply the southeast. The Grand Canal has been dredged and dug again, connecting China's two major water systems. Businessmen from all over the country have been traveling around in the dense river network. In the past, salt merchants had to transport grain to military garrison areas in order to obtain government subsidies.
Now you only need to pay money for a salt selling license. In the past, farmers who struggled to make a living in remote and remote areas, as well as rural surplus labor in other areas, now have a new profession, that is, being craftsmen, merchants, and buddies. The famous Shanxi merchants in China,
Hui merchants, as well as the coastal Fujian and Zhejiang merchant gangs, Ningbo merchant gangs, and Chaoshan merchant gangs came into being and began to show their prominence.
Business was so prosperous that wealth far exceeded the agricultural output of the past. More than five million taels of silver were transported from the south to the north every year. Officials at the time said that the south had become another "inner palace" of the emperor. Piao Tian Literary Registered Member Recommendation