In fact, in addition to the main accident of playing the French silver coin, Marin has already set his eye on the Italian currency. This time, however, instead of minting a fake Italian silver coin, he intended to copy an Italian copper coin.

Yes, copper coins were already in circulation in Italy in this era. In the Middle Ages, European countries seem to have abolished the copper coins that had been in circulation since Roman times, and instead used only gold and silver coins, and then minted them smaller and smaller. At the same time, copper content has been rising and silver content has been decreasing.

But in any case, silver coins are silver coins. Although the silver coins of many Italian states now contain less than 25% silver, they are still silver coins. Even if the price of copper is so expensive, the ratio of silver to copper is still 1 to 15. Therefore, no matter how small the silver coin is, the denomination is still too large.

In addition, the Italian aristocracy, who is very business-minded, is also very undisciplined. Previously, it was said that the Italian Denier small silver coin had a silver content of less than 25% was to exalt them. In some Italian states, the silver content of the Denire coin is even less than 5%, and the lowest can be as low as about 2%, and it is almost impossible to tell that it is a silver coin. After all, copper accounts for 98% of the total, and it looks like a copper coin, a little white at best.

So, the Venetians thought - anyway, the silver coins are almost the same as the copper coins, so let's just mint the copper coins?

They did not mint copper coins out of thin air, but imitated ancient Rome and Byzantium, and minted copper coins. The first copper coins to be minted were called bagattini (the plural of bagattino), which was minted around 1472 and weighed about 1.5 grams, similar to the standard silver denier coins (which later increased to about 1.74 grams due to the fall in the price of copper). Later, more than 6 grams of copper Sudi coins (soldi, the plural form of soldo) were introduced, which weighed about the same as the one-dollar coins of later generations. The Sudi copper coin then became the Venetian standard small base currency as a measure of prices. And Bagatini, in fact, is regarded as 1/4 Sudi.

According to the laws of the Republic of Venice, 1 lira = 20 sudi, and 1 ducate = 6 lira 4 sudi, that is, 1 ducat = 124 sudi. And 1 ducatt = 60 standard pinnes, that is, 1 standard pinnish = 2 multi-point Sudi copper coins.

At the same time, the Spanish Malawi copper coin, the Spanish official rule is 1 ducat = 375 Malawi. That is, 1 Sudi = 3 Malawi. Sudi's coin weighs about 6 grams, which is similar to a 1 yuan coin, while Malawi's coin weighs about 2 grams.

However, although Venice was the first to mint copper Bagatini coins, it later preferred to mint copper Sudi coins. Why? The difficulty of minting coins is different!

Copper, unlike gold and silver, is stronger and more stable at room temperature. As a result, it is more difficult to craft words into coins. In the case of copper coins, the smaller they are, the harder they are to craft. The Sudi Copper Coins, on the other hand, are 4 times larger, so they are easier to craft.

In other words, although the Bagatini copper coin is smaller and has a lower value, it is more difficult to forge and more expensive to manufacture. So, the Venetians preferred to mint larger copper Sudi coins. At the same time, the Sudi copper coin is also used as the most basic unit of monetary measurement. The smaller Bagatini copper coin, however, was only used as an adjunct to the Sudi copper coin. Or, simply call a quarter Sudi.

And currently in Venice, an apprentice in a shipyard, the daily wage is 6 copper coins. Skilled veteran craftsmen earn 24 copper coins per day. The copper coins here all refer to Sudi copper coins. And 2 Sudi = 1 Fennig. So, the daily wage of an apprentice in the Venetian shipyard is 3 pfennigs. The old shipbuilders, on the other hand, earn as much as 12 pfennigs per day, which is 1 shilling.

Of course, this is Venice, the richest state in all of Europe. Shipbuilding is the core industry of the Republic of Venice, and the wages of craftsmen are indeed high. In other European countries, it is generally not so high. For example, in England, the daily wage is 1 shilling, which is definitely a very high salary. Even nearly 300 years later, during the North American Revolutionary War, there was already a "price revolution", and the British hired Hessian mercenaries to suppress the North American militia, and the bid was only 1 shilling per day. Therefore, Marin was able to use the high salary of 1 shilling per day to poach Old John from England and help him cast the Hongyi cannon.

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In fact, the Republic of Venice minted copper coins was very chicken thieves. In fact, more than 6 grams of Sudi copper coins do not bring much convenience to people's transactions. After all, a Sudi copper coin, worth half a pfennig, is of limited help in the convenience of trading. However, it was difficult to create the Bagatini copper coin, which greatly facilitated people's transactions. After all, 1 Bagatini copper coin is only equivalent to 1/8th of a Fennig, which is very suitable for receiving money, and is about the same value as a Beihai Bronze coin.

However, the Venetian Sudi and Bagatini coins were minted in red copper, while the Beihai copper coins were made of brass.

Red copper is a very pure copper, and the Venetians minted copper coins with little to no minting profit. But why are they keen to make copper coins? That's why it was said above that the Venetian chicken thief......

It turned out that the Venetians had a lot of trade with Asia, and they were able to connect with India through middlemen. Like Marin, the Venetians were able to source very cheap Indian copper. The Indian silver-copper ratio is currently around 1:80, while the European silver-copper ratio is 1:15, a difference of 6 times. Even if the Venetians imported Indian copper did not exceed half of the price of European copper because they could not sail directly and had to be made by Arab merchants in the middle, the price of Indian copper imported by the Venetians did not exceed half of the price of European copper.

Therefore, with cheap copper coins imported from Asia, even if you do not make a profit on coinage, you can make at least double the profit on the materials alone. This is the secret of Venice's copper coins, after all, the Venetians trade heavily with Asia and know the huge difference in copper prices between Asia and Europe.

And this time, Marin also intends to apply the "money ability" to the Italian side......

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Venice, as the richest state in Italy, was clearly imitated by other states. The Kingdom of Naples, for example, began minting copper coins early, almost simultaneously with Venice. Powerful states such as the Duchy of Milan also began to mint copper coins to facilitate small trade.

In addition, in addition to Italy, only two countries in the Iberian Peninsula, Spain and Portugal, also use copper coins. The Spaniards, on the other hand, followed Marin's lead, used cheap Indian copper to mint Malawi copper coins, making a lot of minting profits, much more profitable than Venice copper coins. After all, Spain could source cheap copper directly from India, without going through Arab middlemen, and the cost was much lower than that of the Venetians.

Therefore, this time, Marin plans to use the "money capacity" to let the Beihai Mint add a group of workers and spiral coin presses to start producing Italian copper coins, intending to make a fortune.

In this way, the cost of his trip to Italy to hire migrant laborers could be recovered by striking Italian copper coins from cheap copper.

You know, Marin is not the only channel in India where copper can be bought. At the moment, Marin can still buy cheaper red copper from Daming. On the side of Daming, a pound of red cooked copper is worth only 0.1 taels of silver. 1 catty is equal to 16 taels, that is to say, 1 tael of silver can buy 160 taels of red copper, and the price comparison is 1 to 160! This price is almost half of the price of copper in India!

Marin minted Italian copper coins with red copper imported from the Ming Dynasty, which is simply a huge profit!

Moreover, it should be pointed out that Italy itself has a lot of "black money" minted by the private sector. The so-called "black money" mainly refers to the private coinage of private money. Generally speaking, most of the privately minted coins are short of catties and taels, which belong to "fake money", such as the French Deniere "silver coin" minted by Marin, which is an out-and-out "fake money". However, "counterfeit money must be privately minted, and private coinage is not all counterfeit money".

What Marin wants to do this time is to mint high-quality red copper coins, and while going to Italy to collect money, it will not hinder the circulation of these "private coins" in Italy.

After all, Marin didn't plan to run short of catties or two this time, but planned to use enough red copper. Moreover, Marin has a spiral coin press in his hand, which is very convenient for minting copper coins.

Copper is characterized by its softness at high temperatures, and the words and patterns on copper coins can only be beaten when the copper plate is burned red. Of course, this refers to the current minting process in other countries of Europe, excluding the North Sea Mint in Marin.

Generally speaking, when copper coins are hammered by hand, the copper is often cooled and hardened, and the mint often hammers out only part of the text and patterns. Therefore, at this time, it is necessary for the coin smith to hold the half-beaten copper plate with an iron clamp and throw it into a small tempering furnace to reheat it until it is red and soft. Then, clip it out and continue beating while it's hot.

Therefore, it takes a long time to hammer copper coins by hand normally, and it is also necessary to prepare multiple tempering and heating, which is very expensive and low in output.

But with the spiral coin press, it is different, as long as the red-hot copper plate is prepared first, thrown into the machine, and then the shaft rod is turned, the text and patterns can be quickly embossed out before the copper plate cools and hardens, and the quality is very high. A craftsman hammers out a copper coin, and the spiral coin press has already pressed out a dozen or twenty copper coins of better quality.

This is a bigger gap than minting gold and silver coins, because gold and silver are softer and do not need to be tempered multiple times. Copper coins, on the other hand, are troublesome to mint because they need to be tempered many times. As a result, current European countries are generally reluctant to mint copper coins. Mainly, it is too difficult to cast.

Only the Italian states, Spain and Portugal, who had the means to obtain very cheap copper and ensure that the minting profit was very high, were keen to mint copper coins.

What Marin had to do was to mint a batch of low-cost Italian copper coins to "privately mint money". Use good quality to open the Italian market. At the same time, it also earns huge profits from Italy.

Italy itself is very serious about "private coinage", so Marin is not worried about being noticed. Of course, the "private coinage" of the Italian copper coins he minted would not be directly issued to the Italian migrant workers who came to Beihai to work, which would be tantamount to not recruiting themselves. He intends to use the intelligence and commercial network of the North Sea State in Italy to ship in batches in a low-key manner. Then, the gold and silver coins exchanged for Tao were used to pay the wages of Italian migrant workers.

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This can be regarded as another display of Marin's "money ability", and this time, Marin is not worried about being found out about the authenticity of the coin. Because, he doesn't do anything with the materials, and the copper coins he makes are definitely "conscience money", and he is not afraid of being checked.

The only concern is that I am afraid that someone will find out the counterfeit French silver coins. Therefore, he decided to use his "money power" in a low-key manner to collect money in Italy in order to recover the cost of employing a large number of migrant workers in Italy......