Li Jing bowed his head, took a sip of wine, motioned for everyone to eat, and said, "I don't know where the coins are doing business, you can tell me in detail." Signaling Bai Yu to record, Lao Wu continued.

"Our Ming currency is divided into these types, the first is gold, which is used between dignitaries and nobles, and there are few large transactions among the people. But if there is a large business, the value of gold is high and it is easy to carry. The ratio of gold and silver is one to six. Of course, it also depends on the fineness, which refers to the proportion of official ingots. Generally, when you exchange it in the money shop, you will be charged three to five cents of handling fees and fire consumption, after all, the fineness is inconsistent, and there is a loss in re-smelting. ”

"The second is silver, which is divided into many kinds, the first is the official ingot, which is enough to be exchanged everywhere, and are willing to accept it, and the other is the private ingot cast by merchants in provincial capitals, prefectures and counties, and the color is uneven, depending on the situation. The third is the scattered silver in the hands of the people, which is in the worst condition. The fourth is the silver dollar transported by the red-haired man of the Franco-Rang machine with a galleon, there are many kinds of this, and I will tell the young master in detail when I meet it later, a silver dollar of the red-haired man is slightly lighter than a tael of silver. But the color is excellent. Moreover, the color and weight are uniform, and it is very convenient to use. ”

"The third is copper coins, which are also the most versatile and convenient, and the small people of Shengdou are all traded with copper coins. There are also as many copper coins as there are in the family to show wealth. Silver was generally used by the squires. The copper coins of our Ming Dynasty are divided into Beijing coins and leather coins according to the differences minted by the Beijing division and the local government. Beijing money is the household casting, each dynasty to cast the year money, in order to avoid the Taizu Yuanzhang's secret, commonly known as Tongbao can not Cheng Yuanbao. ”

"What is the difference between this money and leather money? Could it be that the quality of Beijing money is better than that of leather money"

"The young master is high, the Beijing money has a high copper content, and the weight is also heavy, looking at the golden one, the year name money should show the new dynasty weather and naturally be beautiful. The leather money is minted by the provincial treasury, and it is generally light in weight, contains less copper, and looks dark and black. Generally, 600 yuan of Beijing money is exchanged for one or two pieces of silver, and Beijing money is always 600 yuan. A thousand dollars for one or two pieces of silver, that is, a thousand Wen"

"Which one do we usually use Beijing money or leather money," Li Jing said and took out a few Wanli Tongbao.

"What is in the hands of the son is the leather money, and generally we rarely meet the capital money"

"The fourth is the treasure banknote, the Ming treasure banknote is the only official banknote, which has been in the dynasty for more than 200 years. Taizu Hongwu was built in the eighth year. Due to the lack of copper at that time, so Hongwu promulgated the "banknote law" in seven years, set up the treasure banknote lifting division, and then set up papermaking, banknote printing two bureaus and treasure banknotes, and two libraries. It was issued the following year under the name of Nanjing, Zhongshu Province. The frame of the Daming treasure banknote is about one foot high and six and a half inches wide. Daming treasure banknotes are one or two gold in four runs, which is an authentic "big money".

As he spoke, Lao Wu took out a large piece of paper from his arms, which looked very old and had ground edges. Li Jing took it and took a look, only to see that the layout design was well-proportioned, the text was concise, and the carving was delicate. The banknote body is a vertical rectangle, and the flower bar is a dragon, a tangled branch caricature, a cloud pattern, etc. The upper end of the inner column is written with the amount of banknotes, and the two sides of the money map are "Daming treasure banknotes" and "pass the world" nine stacks of seal text 8 characters.

"This Ming Dynasty banknote basically follows the Yuan Dynasty banknote system, but because of the poor paper in the Hongwu Dynasty at that time, the Ming Dynasty banknote is difficult to last, and the banknote is only issued and not received, neither demarcation, nor recycling the old banknotes, and the number of issuances is not limited, resulting in more and more banknotes circulating in the market, flooding, inflation in the year of issuance, depreciation is very fast, the people have abandoned it, less than 20 years, it tends to decline. Now I am talking to the young master about cutting off my head, this banknote is angry when I hold it, and the paper for wiping my butt is too fine, no one wants to ask for it, and I have to ask for punishment if I throw it away from the government. ”

"The fifth is the silver ticket. This depends on the credit of each money bank's ticket number, generally Jiangbei to Jin merchant ticket number credit is the best, Jiangnan to Hui merchant ticket number credit is the best. The thirteen provinces can basically deposit and exchange. It is also easy to carry. ”

Li Jing couldn't help frowning, he knew that this silver ticket was actually a universal banknote, and the right to print money was not trivial, and the seigniorage could be as rich as the country. In later generations, it was generally pledged with gold, or the government issued it on credit. I couldn't help asking: "Why can these two merchant gangs monopolize the ticket number business of the money bank, and how can they win the trust of others." ”

"The young master doesn't know, not to mention that these two gangs of merchants are huge, with a complete range of business types, and large quantities of goods, the most important thing is that the salt industry in the Ming Dynasty is mainly concentrated in Yangzhou City, and it is specifically monopolized in the hands of these two gangs of merchants. The backstage of the center is even harder than the other. The young master knows that this salt industry is profitable in a year. ”

"Profit Geometry"

"No less than 30 million taels of silver a year"

Li Jing gasped, "The annual financial income of the Ming Dynasty is only four million taels of silver, and the net profit of these two major merchant gangs in a year is actually seven and a half times the financial income. Not counting other income, just this salt industry is a guarantee, and the silver bills they issue are not more credit than the household department. ”

"Yes, the annual profits of these two major merchant gangs are conservatively estimated to be more than 50 million taels, which are the two most powerful groups in our dynasty."

Li Jing was silent for a long time, and said slowly: "It seems that the strength of these two major merchant gangs is not much smaller than that of the Jiangnan Gentry Group. I'm going to pay more attention to it in the future."

"The young master is smart, and he can understand it at a glance, and whenever the business becomes big, it is inevitable to deal with these big forces. The old slave then went back to business and talked about the cost of this oil extraction. The price of rapeseed drying on the shore is about 20 pigeons, or two cents of silver. 100 catties can produce about 20 catties of oil at most, and the minimum is 15 catties if the poor quality process is not good. The process depends on the craftsmanship of the master, and the quality depends on the year, variety, as well as cultivation, fertilization, field management, harvesting, drying, etc. ”

Li Jing secretly thought that the oil yield of rapeseed in later generations can reach forty percent, and the worst one is three into two or three, it seems that the problem lies in the process, after all, the later generation is a chemical leaching method, and the current technology is purely by human extrusion, and the estimated pressure has not reached the limit, and there is still great potential to be tapped.

"From the point of view of manpower, a pound of oil costs four or five cents of silver, and if it is transported to urban and rural counties, the profit is one or two cents of silver, and if it is transported to Chaozhou Prefecture, there will be a profit of four or five cents of silver. When it is shipped to Nanjing, there will be a profit of a penny of silver. Our second master manages the shipping fleet in Chaozhou, there are five thousand lucky ships, and there are also shops in Nanjing, and there is no problem with shipping to Nanjing, but the headwind is not good in winter, and it is generally a good time to transport north in spring and summer. But at that time, there were many competitors and the profits were thinner, and it was estimated that it was only seven cents of silver.

"Lao Wu, I understand this oil extraction, the commercial tax is 1.5 percent, I know better, our family is an official eunuch can be exempted from tax. It seems that if you want to make a lot of money from this oil extraction, you have to sell it far away, and there are three main points, one is the oil yield, the second is the labor cost, and the third is the seasonality. If I increase the oil yield to more than 30% and reduce the labor cost to one cent of silver, I can ship it to my own oil shop in Nanjing at this time to sell it at a good price, wouldn't it be double the profit. ”

Lao Wu was dumbfounded, and exclaimed: "Who can defy the sky, it is the north wind now, and besides, there is less money to hire people there."

Li Jing said mysteriously: "The oil extraction process is mainly pressure, yes and no, as long as the pressure is tens of thousands of catties of pressure, why worry about not producing oil." ”

"How can human beings have such divine power, isn't this a praise for Pangu?"

"Young Master Ben has his own clever plan, you can watch it."