PS: There is something to do today, the big chapter is one top two, and tomorrow there are two more

Zhao Wuxian stroked the Qi knife coin in his hand, it is a currency modeled after copper, the handle is slightly curved, and the front of the knife has three small characters of "Qi Fahua", weighing about half a tael.

"How many sword coins are circulating in Xilu, can anyone know?"

Ji Qiao was speechless: "It's really impossible to measure, Lu has no unified coinage, generally uses shellfish, or copper shellfish, bulk trade with gold, the rest of the time with grain, salt, recently Qi country has repeatedly minted money, so it has flowed into a lot." ”

Zhao Wuxian nodded, but his face became a little solemn.

At best, these knife coins are only the lubricant of transactions, and most of the time, physical exchange is still the mainstream.

But one must not ignore the spread in which currencies earn in cross-border transactions!

Money is a non-violent instrument of exploitation and oppression of one class by another! Money is a non-offensive means for one country to control and dismantle another.

The current situation of the Lu State is very dangerous, because the Qi knife has to be used in the transaction, so that the silk silk, lacquered wood and other products of the Lu State must be exchanged for the poor Baba knife coin, which is the first exploitation. And then use Qi Dao coins to buy expensive salt, this is the second exploitation!

Before this war of goods and colonization, the territory under the command of Zhao Wuxian also had to carry out such an exchange, currency can be described as a great weapon of invisible plunder, this is the case in the Spring and Autumn Period, and the same is true of the national trade more than 2,000 years later!

But isn't this an opportunity? Instead of letting the Qi State use sword coins to exploit the Lu people, it is better for Zhao Wuxian to go into battle and exploit them himself.

"I'm going to mint coins." So Zhao Wuxian spoke bluntly and expressed his heart to Ji Qiao.

……

"Wu Guo brought more than 2,000 catties of bronze. plus the two thousand catties in the previous treasury, a total of five thousand catties. Zihua said that I would be asked to cast my own Wuding, but I refused. There's no urgency. Since the reserves are sufficient, I have a plan, that is, to mint the currency that belongs to Lu State, and it is also the only currency circulating in the territory! ”

"The subordinate seconded."

Ji Qiao was not surprised by this, the Jin State had been circulating currency for many years, but after coming to the Lu State, he had to face those rough shells, which made him feel very uncomfortable. Every time he counts the shells within his means, it is like a child's family play, even if Zhao Wuxian doesn't mention it. When the time is ripe, Ji Qiao will also make this suggestion.

He was proficient in the method of calculating the weight and weight, and remembered that Guan Zi once said that the upper, middle and lower currencies of pearl, gold, and knife coins, could not be used to keep warm or eat to satisfy hunger, but they played an extremely important role, which was used to control property and control civilian use. And then rule the world!

"Five grains and rice, the people's orders, gold knife coins, and the people's general charity. Therefore, the good one insists on giving it to his life. Therefore, the force can be obtained and exhausted". Guan Zi regarded food as the master of people's lives, currency as the means of people's transactions, and the monarch who was good at governing the country should master the means of circulation to control the grain that dominated their lives. In that way, the use of people's power can be maximized.

Therefore, Guan Yiwu set up the "Light and Heavy Nine Mansions" in the Qi State to mint Qi Dao coins, and at the same time strengthened the management of financial coins. As a result, the state of Qi became an economic power and dominated the princes. Rich and known all over the world.

Therefore, it is indeed imperative to mint money, and he has thought about it, so he asked methodically: "It is needless to say that gold is the upper coin, but I don't know what kind of copper coin Si Kou wants to mint." ”

"Is it Cheng Zhou's Daizumi cloth coin? Or is it the pointed foot cloth coin of the Jin Kingdom? ”

Wuxian smiled: "Neither." ”

Ji Qiao was stunned: "Do you want to use the ant nose money of Chu State?" ”

Wuxian continued to shake his head: "It's not either. ”

Zhao Wuxian was like a coin collector, he was playing with the sword coins of the Qi Kingdom in his hand, and there were coins from various countries collected on the desk in front of him.

If the Confucian scholars were involved, I wonder if they would be excited to "follow the rites of Zhou" and use the flat-shouldered cloth coin (shovel coin) called "Daquan" minted by King Jing of Zhou more than 20 years ago as a benchmark.

If it were up to Ji Qiao to decide, he would probably use the Jin State's pointed cloth coin (another shovel coin).

But if Zhao Wuxian came, he would definitely take a shortcut to history.

"The currency I want is not a clumsy imitation of copper chips, shovels, and shells, but a good coin that can be minted according to the rules of heaven and earth and can be passed down through the ages!"

These words were so lofty that Ji Qiao couldn't help but swallow his saliva, and he didn't know what new attention Zhao Xiaosikou had not.

Zhao Wuxian drew a model on the paper with a pen: "The outer circle is the inner square, this is the way of the mean, and it is also what a coin should look like!" ”

……

In order to facilitate the transportation of copper and tin, the copper casting workshop was also moved from Liqiu to Yuncheng, and the six gold-attacking workers who were brought by Zhao Wuxian from Lucheng when Yanghu fell naturally also moved. Half of them were moved to Taoqiu to study the technology tree of iron smelting and wrought iron, and the rest were to do some tinkering work, after all, there wasn't much copper to cast, who made Zhao Wuxian a doctor who didn't pay attention to casting large copper ritual vessels such as Ding Gui?

Therefore, the Zhu clan and the Duan clan, who were in charge of casting ritual weapons, were worried, and watched the Ye clan and the Tao clan, who were busy making killing arrows and swords and spears, repairing weapons and making small daily bronze tools such as copper cutting, and the Liang clan, who was authorized by Zhao Wuxian to cast buckets, kettles and other standard measuring instruments, were also not idle.

Only the two families of the Yan family and the Duan family are not idle, and they are very incompatible with Xilu's busyness in all walks of life after the beginning of Xia.

They are also worried, after all, they are subordinate workers who eat in the government, and if they can't give full play to their strengths for a long time, they don't know if they will be reduced in their treatment and do work at a lower price. But they saw with their own eyes that after paper gradually became popular in Xilu and replaced the position of bamboo slips, the craftsmen who made bamboo slips were all unemployed and had to switch to the work of cutting wood and bamboo.

Finally, towards the end of April, the Yan clan and the Duan clan were finally assigned the long-lost task, and it was Xiao Si Kou who drove it himself, which made them flattered and uneasy at the same time, and Zhao Wuxian's request made them stunned.

"Minting?"

"Qufu sometimes casts some copper shells, and I think you should be able to wait for you."

Yes! Absolutely! It's so easy to have a task, how can the two generations of craftsmen of the Yan clan and the Duan clan not seize this opportunity. They did, but very rarely. Nor are they proud. It is the method of coinage, which is not much different from the casting of bells and casters. It's even simpler, it's still a pottery fan or a stone fan, and you can make the shape of the utensils on the fan, and then cast it?

However, some questions had to be asked clearly in advance, so Duan asked sneeringly: "I don't know what the coins are minted, how much is the Qi of copper and tin?" ”

The so-called "Qi", that is, the proportion of copper and tin in bronze alloys, the proportion of utensils for different purposes is different: for example, Zhong Dingzhiqi contains 5/6 copper and 1/6 tin; The axe catty contains copper 4/5. Tin 1/5......

But the coin is also different, it does not need to consider the toughness when used to dig the soil stone, and does not need to consider the hardness of the flesh of the pierced armor, so it can be mixed with something inexpensive to reduce the cost of minting.

"In the coinage there must be not only copper and tin, but also some lead."

Three alloys are more difficult to formulate than two alloys, and what is the best ratio of these? Zhao Wuxian didn't understand very much, and looked at Ji Qiao, who accompanied him. This is a calculant who has counted money for most of his life, and he also knows a little about the proportion of coins minted in Zhou, Jin, Qi and other countries.

Ji Qiao coughed lightly and pulled out a booklet that had been prepared for a long time, which was after Zhao Wuxian had it bound up. Give it to him for note-taking.

"The alloy of Zhou and Zhengkong's first cloth is: 6 into copper, 3 into lead, and 1 into ...... tin"

Zhao Wuxian bowed slightly. This should be a more scientific alloy composition of bronze coins, although the Zhou Chamber cast "Daquan Dangqian" to collect money. Although Zheng Guo is notorious for the twilight of the dynasty, he still has a conscience in the proportion of currency.

Ji Qiao continued: "The alloy of the Jin Kingdom's pointed foot cloth is: 4 and a half percent of copper. 5 percent lead, half percent ...... tin"

At the end of the words, Zhao Wuxian was taken aback: "Copper is actually less than lead, so isn't the pointed foot cloth of the Jin Kingdom very light and brittle?" ”

Ji Qiao couldn't help but smile bitterly, he knew the reason best, in fact, the Jin Kingdom originally imitated the Zhou Dynasty to make empty first cloth, and cloth coins replaced shells. The success of its issuance made the Jin kingdom more commercially developed, and the greater the demand for currency with the development of commerce, so it soon became the main currency in the Jin market, but soon its shortcomings were exposed.

Due to the large size and high purchasing power, small payments could not be applied, and at that time, when production increased and prices fell, the poor people felt the weight of money, so soon small "pointed foot cloth", or a kind of "light money", was produced. Its weight is only one-third of that of the empty head cloth, and the feet are dovetail-shaped, because they are called pointed feet.

But precisely because it is lighter, this gives great convenience to the carrier, so everyone is happy to use it. At this time, the places where the "pointed foot cloth" was minted were Handan, Jinyang, Chaoge, Anyi, Pingyang and other places, and the coin shapes and systems minted privately by the doctors of each secretary had slight differences.

However, as a result, the empty first cloth issued by the office has been greatly squeezed out, and the minting has become less and less, and the circulation has become more and more difficult. The Jin office did not pay attention to the right to mint money, and did not pay attention to it after losing it, and as a result, the finances were attributed to the six secretaries.

This is similar to the situation of Lu State, Lu Hou and Sanhuan did not understand the economy, so they stupidly used their brains to increase the tax rate, but they never thought of issuing currency, so they were infiltrated by Qi State knife coins, which also gave Zhao Wuxian a good opportunity to obtain the right to mint money in Lu State.

If you want to steal its country, you must first steal its wealth, and then steal its government!

Back to the coins of the Jin Kingdom, because they were minted by the Qing family, each family made efforts to save costs in order to make their own money crowd out the money of others, so the proportion of copper with high prices is getting lower and lower, and the proportion of cheap lead is getting higher and higher, which has become this wonderful proportion today.

As far as Ji Qiao himself is concerned, he is extremely dissatisfied with the current Jin coins: the copper used in the pointed foot cloth contains too much lead, lacks elasticity, has poor stress capacity, and the coin is light and thin, so in the international trade, foreign merchants prefer to use Qi knives with sufficient weights.

The overthrow of the car in front and the lesson of the car in the back, Zhao Wuxian Ji got the Warring States Period, and the currency of the Three Jin Dynasty was also a mess, among which Zhao seemed to be modeled after the Qi State with a knife coin?

"What is the ratio of Qi Dao?"

Speaking of the best among the currencies of the world, Ji Qiao's eyebrows danced: "Qi Dao is very special, it has remained basically unchanged from beginning to end in terms of text, shape and size, and style since the era of the tube, and the alloy is 5 percent copper, 4 and a half percent lead, and half a part tin." ”

Compared with the Jin State's Jianshou Bu, it has a little more conscience, but its stability and the strong economic ability of the Qi State have caused the sword coin to become the main currency in the north.

It is centered on Linzi, the capital of Qi State. Knife coins radiate in all directions. Now it is popular in Qi, Yan, Ju, Lu, Cao, Xianyu, and east of Taihang in Jin, and this vast area can be called "knife currency area".

What Zhao Wuxian wants to do. It is to let Xilu first, and then Cao and Lu withdraw from the knife coin area.

So he consulted the craftsmen. The final ratio was finalized: "Our competitors are mainly Qi people, 5 percent copper, 4 percent lead, and half percent tin." ”

Xilu also lacks copper and can't afford to squander, anyway, Zhao Wuxian feels that the competitiveness of the coins he issues is still based on the shape, size, and denomination.

At the end, Zhao Wuxian asked again: "By the way, what about the ant nose money of Chu State?" ”

"Copper 7, lead 2, tin 1 ......"

Zhao Wuxian was choked. Although the state of Chu was hit hard by the state of Wu, the national strength is still prosperous, and the territory is rich in copper and tin, so the coinage is not only of high quality, good fineness, but also the caster is exquisite.

He muttered in his heart: "A big country with resources is confident enough and arrogant enough, and a small family like ours with less than 200,000 people can't compare." ”

However, Wuxian's heart is also itching, and the Black Iron Age still has a long way to go. When will I be able to own a big copper mountain!

……

The problem of proportions was solved, and the Ji Shi took the list given to him by Ji Qiao, and ran to the treasury in a hurry to get the copper, tin, and lead that had been smelted into ingots, and to configure the gold liquid. And the Duan clan continued to surround Zhao Wuxian. Report on how you plan to cast.

The shape of the money is different in different countries, and its coinage process is also different, but it is probably not separated from the pottery casting method. and stone fan casting method.

"The villain can do both, of course. It was learned when making ritual utensils before, but it never deviates from its purpose. Don't know how much a coin needs to weigh? ”

Zhao Wuxian thought for a while, and remembered the half tael of the Qin State, but then remembered the tragic tragedy of the Jin State's big cloth being eliminated by the light cloth, so he decided to do it in one step.

"I'm going to mint two kinds, one tael for the big money and five baht for the small one."

The so-called one tael is actually twenty-four baht, and one baht is one-twenty-fourth of a week, which is 0.65 grams in later generations. Therefore, one tael is about 16 grams in later generations, which is only a little heavier than the Jin Kingdom's pointed foot cloth, and can barely compete with the Qi knife weighing two taels, and the five baht is about 4, which is used as a small denomination of currency circulation......

I can't tell which one is more suitable now, so I'll make it out and put it on the market to try it!

Of course, he wanted to be like the coinage of later generations, directly indicating the value, what 1 cent, 5 cents, 1 jiao, 1 yuan and the like, the government set how much it was, minting a currency worth a thousand catties, in fact, only a few baht of currency in exchange for a piece of gold, how cool it should be!

However, this is a fool's dream, he has not even grasped the power of Lu State, not to mention that there are dozens of states in the world, businessmen and doctors are all clever ghosts, who is more stupid than whom? Will you also exchange a large amount of goods for your small and large denomination copper coins? Back then, Zhou Jingwang's large-denomination "Daquan Dangqian" currency issuance failed before the overthrow of the car is still in front of him, what even the Son of Heaven can't do, how can Zhao Wuxian easily do it?

Before the reputation of coinage starts, before it can control the economic lifeline of the whole world, don't think about this kind of profitable thing, or honestly take the shortcut of history.

After that, Duan skillfully followed the shape of the coin on the paper displayed by Zhao Wuxian, lightly scratched the hard clay a few times, and then copied it exactly as it was.

"At this size and thickness, the coins that come out are one or two."

Then he found another clay fan, and carved a five-baht money fan, and asked Zhao Wuxian to look at it.

At this glance, it can be seen that something is wrong.

"There is only one coin for a fan?"

Duan was stunned: "In the past, it was the same for casting copper shells, and it is said that the same is true for the casting of pointed foot cloth in the Jin Kingdom. ”

Wuxian felt that it was inappropriate: "Your efficiency is too low, this kind of round and square inside does not need to be as big as a knife coin and Daquan cloth, it is completely feasible to cast ten pieces of a pottery fan, and it can be used continuously." ”

Duan Shi tried it and said that he was too stupid, and from the perspective of efficiency, it was really the easiest to mint yuanyuan, which is also one of the advantages of yuanqian.

……

The proportion of the liquid gold had been decided, and Tao Fan had also made it one after another, and in the evening of the same day, in the steaming foundry, Zhao Wuxian saw the freshly baked new coinage.

The color is bright gold, because it contains lead, slightly gray, the shape is round, the middle is a square hole, the coin also has a raised outer Guo, and the obverse text "Zhao's one tael" or "Zhao's five baht" four words.

Ji Qiao frowned and looked at it for a while, but he had to admit that this kind of coin shape that he had never seen before was indeed more and more pleasing to the eye.

And Zhao Wuxian smiled and greeted this rudimentary form of currency that could bring him a sense of intimacy:

"It's been a long time, Brother Kong Fang!" (To be continued.) )

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