In fact, the North Sea Kingdom minted counterfeit French silver coins of nickel white copper at the same time as it also issued brass coins domestically. Beginning in 1508, the North Sea Mint began to mint zinc brass coins of the same weight (1.5 grams) as the silver finneys, and stipulated that one Imperial finney, with 50% silver, be exchanged for eight brass coins with the nine crosses of the Bullock family engraved on them.

This copper coin, also known as the "Nine Golden Eagles" by the people, is the smallest denomination coin in the Beihai Kingdom. Beginning in 1508, about 20 million Marin had been issued and put on the market.

After four years of circulation, the people of the Beihai Kingdom have basically accepted this smaller, but much more gold-like denomination.

Brass is very much like gold, so this small copper coin looks a lot like a gold coin. If Marin hadn't deliberately made the brass coin the size of a small silver finney, it might have been mistaken for gold. Because, it is as golden as a gold coin.

Therefore, this kind of small copper coin, which resembles the appearance of gold coins, is very popular in the market. After taking the brass coin, many poor people often brag to their friends in a pretended way - look, Lao Tzu has gold coins......

Moreover, the emergence of this kind of small denomination copper coins has indeed facilitated the trading and circulation of small commodities. Unlike before, a silver finney coin, which is equivalent to 50 yuan in later generations, can't give change when you take it out.

In the past, when people went to beer halls to drink beer, they often had to keep accounts because they couldn't make change. And now, the appearance of small brass coins, which are equivalent to one-eighth of the face value of silver finneys, has made it easier for drunkards to consume. At the same time, it is also convenient for the purchase of small goods.

At the same time as the small denomination brass coins were issued, the small copper coins were named "cent", which is the word for cents in later generations. At the same time, it also means change.

Moreover, Marin also imposed a rule that both German and English should call this brass coin "cent" and pronounce it the same. The reason for this rule is to facilitate the integration of English and German as much as possible in the future unification of the United Kingdom, so that the English and Germans can communicate more closely and avoid excessive ethnic differences that lead to mutual antagonism.

In order to promote the use of penny copper coins, Marin also took the initiative to reduce the city tax from 1 penny to 1 penny copper coin. Moreover, the soldiers guarding the city gate were deliberately not allowed to give change.

In this way, in order to be cost-effective, people will definitely take the initiative to exchange a penny of copper coins to pay the city tax. Otherwise, it will be too much of a loss. You know, if you pay a pfennig entry tax, it is equivalent to 8 times more expensive than paying copper coins.

Therefore, when Marin returned to China, many people in Beihai had already strongly demanded the issuance of an additional penny of copper coins. In particular, the vendors who frequented the city, as shrewd as they were, would not have been willing to pay the city tax with a silver finney.

However, ministers do not have the right to issue currency. So, we have to wait for Marin to come back to decide. Because the right to mint money can only be ordered by princes, and the regent has no right to order the mint of the North Sea State.

When shipping counterfeit French silver coins, Kohler brought up the matter. Marin thought about it again and again, and finally decided to issue an additional 500 million 1 cent copper coins to promote domestic commercial circulation.

It's just that, on the other hand, he still has to make 500 million nickel white copper fake French silver coins, which seems to be insufficient manpower, and there are not enough spiral coin presses. As a result, Marin ordered the size of the Beihai Mint to be expanded, recruiting more manpower, and adding more machinery.

However, it would take hundreds of tons of copper to mint 500 million copper coins, which would be quite expensive. Fortunately, Sweden's Faylon copper mine now has half of Marin's earnings. The copper obtained was used to mint coins.

……

But what Marin didn't expect was that he was thinking about using the copper coins from Sweden, and there were moths on the Swedish side......

It turned out that after hearing the news that Marin might have been shipwrecked, the Swedish side was also a little nervous, and actually planned to rely on the shares of Marin's Fayilun Copper Mine.

It's just that there is a lot of noise in Sweden right now. Because, some timid Swedish nobles were afraid of the retaliation of the army of the North Sea State. After all, the Swedes are few and poor, and the number of troops is limited, and at most more than 10,000 troops can be raised. But now the Beihai Kingdom has an army of thirty or forty thousand on its own territory alone, and its combat effectiveness is very strong, which really makes them afraid.

So, the Swedish Noble Council finally decided, wait and see, at least until the North Sea army was disbanded, that it would not publicly sell Marin's shares.

And their decision ultimately saved Sweden's life. Because, before they finally made up their minds to sell Marin's copper shares, Marin showed up......

……

Of course, Marin didn't know about this episode, otherwise, it would definitely be nice to look in Sweden. Moreover, Marin doesn't have the heart to care about anything else now, and he is very happy in his heart. Because the first saltpeter from Chile has arrived......

On his way to Daming, Marin passed through Panama and sent an expedition team with a group of slaves and camels purchased from Egypt, as well as a few hundred solar stoves, to land in the future port of Iquique in northern Chile and explore saltpeter mines deep into the desert.

The leader who landed in Iquique with hundreds of Egyptian slaves, dozens of camels, and hundreds of solar stoves was called Kusca, who was originally just a criminal in East Friesland. Of course, he had only sinned against a son of a side branch of the Sekeslina family, who had ruled East Friesland. Then, the whole family was thrown into prison, and the parents died of illness in prison. Only Kuska survived because he was young and strong.

After Marin seized the East Friesian Lamber, he released all the prisoners who had been persecuted by the Syxner family, except for those who really harmed society.

So, Kuska came to the door and recognized Marin as a benefactor and was willing to die for Marin. Because the Kuska family were originally fishermen, Marin sent him to study at the nautical school to make him a captain.

But the problem is, this Kusca doesn't seem to be very smart. Like him, the fisherman Aben who entered the captain's school had already passed the examination to become a captain, while Kusca had to study for a few more years before he barely qualified. Therefore, Kuska is not very talented and capable.

However, one thing is clear to Marin - this man is loyal and reliable. Outside, whoever dares to say a bad word about Marin, this guy will be angry and want to duel with someone......

It just so happens that the development of Chilean saltpeter is highly classified and requires reliable people. So, Marin chose Kusca, who was not very capable but very loyal, as the governor of Iquique.

And Kuska did not live up to Marin's trust, and after the landing of Iquique, he did not risk immediately sending people to find saltpeter, but first busily built the base of Iquique, especially the installation of the solar stove for desalination......

It took several months for Kusca to build a habitable seaside stronghold in Iquique that produced large quantities of fresh water every day.

He then sent troops to supervise the Egyptian slaves, including slave craftsmen who knew saltpeter, and rode camels deep into the desert in search of saltpeter.

When Marin returned from Daming, the men sent out by Kusca found a saltpeter mine deep in the desert dozens of kilometers away from Iquique. Then he began to send slaves to mine saltpeter and transport it by camel to the port of Iquique. It was then sealed and packed in oil-paper bags that Marin had obtained from the Cape Breton Island paper mill and shipped on a ship to Panama and from there to the mainland......

The first batch of Chilean saltpeter was produced in small quantities, just over 50 tons, and it had not yet been purified. Even, its main ingredient is albite saltpeter, not military potassium saltpeter. Because, albite saltpeter is very susceptible to deliquescent deterioration. For long-term preservation, sodium saltpeter needs to be converted into potassium saltpeter.

The specific conversion method is also very simple, that is, sodium saltpeter and plant ash (containing K2CO3) are mixed and dissolved for ion exchange. Then, according to the principle that potassium nitrate has different solubility at different temperatures, the temperature change of the saturated solution is controlled, so as to precipitate potassium nitrate as military saltpeter......