In fact, the money shortage in Europe is no longer a matter of a day or two. Since the beginning of large-scale trade in Europe and the Middle East, European coins have been flowing out.

For example, Europe buys large quantities of pepper and other spices from India. But they did not have enough attractive goods to exchange with the Arab merchants, so the Venetian merchants had to give the Arab merchants millions of gold and silver every year in exchange for expensive spices and other goods.

The Venetian merchants have been involved in trade with Asia since 687 A.D., and have been engaged in it for eight or nine hundred years. This, coupled with the involvement of commercial republics such as Genoa, has led to an ongoing outflow of gold and silver from Europe.

The main flow of gold in Europe is probably India. That's why there is so much gold in the Indian Asan. Indian women who are slightly richer will wear gold jewelry. Even, there is a gold ring on the nose. Many Hindu temples are filled with gold. For example, the Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala, India, which was built in the 16th century, has hidden a lot of gold over the centuries. When it was later discovered, it contained $11.2 billion worth of gold jewelry hidden in the secret room. The gold ornament alone weighed a ton, and a baby elephant was made out of gold......

And most of this gold is bought by Indians selling pepper......

By the way, in Kerala, where the temple is located, there is a port city called Calicut and a port city called Cochin......

So, the Europeans are very hard. It was easy to dig up some gold and silver from his own mine, and as a result, he took it all to exchange for spices and other goods. Then, the enemy wanted to use the money, but the gold and silver were not enough......

To tell the truth, the reason why the local silver coins in Europe are minted so poorly is that in addition to the monarchs' desire to earn seigniorage, there is also a serious shortage of gold and silver!

Even, the great voyage of the Europeans was forced out by a shortage of money. If you don't have money, the Indians won't give you spices. So, I'm going to have to find gold and silver. Among them, India's Ah San likes gold the most. So, the Venetians minted the ducat, and the Florentines minted the florin. Moreover, do not dare to adulterate. Because, the spice trade can be used. If you dare to adulterate, India Ah San will refuse to accept it. Ah San refused, and there was no spice......

The current situation is that the European economy is developing, but there is a shortage of coins and cannot keep up with the economic development......

Although it is true that by reducing the silver content of the currency, it is possible to mint a lot more currency. However, the common people are not stupid. Do you lower the silver content? Yes, we also give less goods. In short, bad money will not be treated as good money.

Therefore, if you want to really promote the development of Europe, you still need to have enough gold and silver. After all, gold and silver are naturally money.

……

Therefore, after Marin's deception, Spain and Portugal would jump into the trap desperately, trying their best to go to Timbuktu and Zimbabwe in inland Africa to grab gold. To this day, the two countries are still moving around the coast of Africa. It can't be helped, the rainforest climate in the interior of Africa is too harsh. Trying to carve out a path through the rainforest is not an ordinary difficulty.

Right now, according to intelligence, both Spain and Portugal are building castles and strongholds off the coast of West Africa and Mozambique. And then there's the fact that we're cutting down trees and building roads with all our might. When the road is repaired, it is time for the two countries to attack the two great kingdoms.

……

However, Marin also saw danger in it - the danger of gold depreciation......

He had read West African history and knew about the Golden Sultan Mansa of the Mali Empire. Musa made a pilgrimage to Mecca with more than 33,000 pounds of gold. As a result, the price of gold in Cairo fell by one-fifths of a fifth, and it took 12 years to recover, because of the purchase spree in Cairo, Egypt, halfway through......

So, Marin realized that if Spain and Portugal did start getting a lot of gold from West Africa and Zimbabwe, the price of gold in Europe would definitely fall. Then the whole financial system will be shuffled and thrown into chaos. After all, the fluctuation of currency value will definitely cause economic chaos.

And the best way to solve this problem is to come up with the same amount of silver of equal value. In this way, the price of gold and silver will not fluctuate randomly. And with enough money, the circulation of European goods will also be accelerated.

……

Of course, the development of the European economy Marin actually did not care much. He only cared about the North Sea countries, including England, which was to succeed in the future.

But there is a problem - every year Europeans spend a lot of gold and silver to buy all kinds of high-priced goods in India and the Middle East, and a lot of gold and silver are lost. In this way, if Marin wants to exchange some silver bars to trade with Daming in the future, it will be difficult.

For a moment, Ma Lin wanted to learn from the Song Dynasty and minted iron coins on a large scale......

The Great Song Dynasty is a strange one in history, this dynasty is a small dynasty, with a small territory and lack of resources. If you want to mint money, you don't have enough copper. Because, southern Yunnan, which is rich in copper, is not from the Song Dynasty, but a country called Dali.

On the contrary, the economy of the Song Dynasty was very developed, and all kinds of materials were extremely abundant. If there is not enough money, there may be a very serious deflation in the economy of the Great Song Dynasty. Then, the gods of the Song Dynasty thought of various ways - first to make paper money "Jiaozi". As a result, because of the indiscriminate printing, Jiaozi depreciated sharply and was not recognized. Then, the people of the Song Dynasty put their hearts on the side - they don't want paper money, right? Well, Lao Tzu minted money with iron!

Then, the Song Dynasty began the history of swaggering iron coins. It is said that seven or eight million catties of iron are used to cast iron coins every year.

Therefore, the consistency of the Song Dynasty is different from the consistency of the Ming Dynasty. The consistent money of the Ming Dynasty was copper money, while the consistent money of the Song Dynasty was iron money......

……

However, Ma Lin certainly could not learn from the Song Dynasty cast iron money. The reason is that the Song Dynasty was a centralized empire, and the imperial court wanted to use iron money, and the common people could only accept it.

Marin, on the other hand, was only one of the many German princes. Want to promote Iron Money? Maybe it's okay in Beihai, but out of Beihai, iron money is garbage...... Not to mention iron coins, just like Kohler reported before, no one recognizes copper coins, only silver coins......

……

Therefore, in other words, Marin still has to find silver......

Then Marin thought of the silver mines of Rammelsberg near Goslar in the Duchy of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, which had just been captured......

"Expand the production scale of the Rammelsberg silver mine, install multiple blast furnaces, promote the 'ash blowing method', and be sure to expand the silver production of the silver mine!" Marin commanded.

However, the Rammelsberg mine is also a silver mine that has been mined for hundreds of years. At this time, the easily minable part of the surface has long been mined. Now, if you want to mine, you have to go down deep wells.

However, deep well mining is not only dangerous, but also inefficient. In addition, a lot of drainage is required, which is very wrong.

So, after thinking about it, Marin made a decision -

"It's time to take Mexico! Then, mine the massive amount of silver out there! ”