In the process of studying the trade of the Mediterranean region in the first century B.C., Wang Qiu noticed an interesting phenomenon: compared with the price of gold and silver in the modern Shijie, the price of gold and silver coins in the ancient Roman Republic was seriously high, with a mere four grams of silver coins having a purchasing power of 200 yuan, and a gold coin of ten grams of gold having a purchasing power of 5,000 yuan.

But on the other hand, because the exchange ratio of silver and copper coins was one to four, a copper coin weighing ten grams had the purchasing power equivalent to fifty yuan at that time. And in the modern market, a kilogram of brass is worth about forty to sixty yuan......

That is, in the currency market of the ancient Roman Republic, as long as one kilogram of brass could be exchanged for a hundred grams of silver, or ten grams of gold!

So, Wang Qiu got a few ancient Roman Sesters copper coins as samples, and went back to find a manufacturer specializing in game coins in modern Shijie, and it didn't take long to mint a million new Sesters copper coins, and the average cost of each Sesters was only eight cents.

In Alexandria, as long as four sesteres can be exchanged for a silver coin with an actual silver content of four grams, and a hundred sesteres can be exchanged for a gold coin with an actual gold content of ten grams...... Due to the exquisite workmanship and fineness of the modern machined "counterfeit coins" (in terms of copper content), the first batch of "fake Sesters copper coins" that Wang Qiu took out to sell were initially sought after by merchants.

――In this era, the Jishu of Westerners minting money was still relatively backward. Or maybe they don't care too much, shoddy coins not only have pitted edges, are very irregular in shape, but even the weight is not very uniform. Compared to modern coins, it looks like plasticine is made haphazardly.

As a result, the official exchange rate of one hundred copper coins to one gold coin was quickly speculated to eighty to one. Wang Qiu smiled happily, and muttered in his heart: "Issuing currency is really a very profitable thing!" ”

But the problem is that just like he fought a biochemical war before to create a super virus, he almost hung himself up; The government has stopped the trafficking of organs. was almost suspended for review, and in the matter of minting copper coins in exchange for gold and silver coins, the profit-hungry classmate Wang Qiu also unfortunately went too far. On several occasions, a full 50 million copper coins of Sesters were put into the Egyptian market...... Zuihou ushered in an inevitable financial catastrophe.

“…… Unfortunately, I seem to have overestimated the speed of money circulation in the ancient West, and the gold and silver coins that circulated in the markets of any given region at that time when transportation conditions were not developed. It is very limited for a certain period of time. Coins from other regions don't flow so easily. Because I put too many copper coins in the same market in a short period of time, and at the same time almost drained all the gold and silver coins in circulation in one go, the result was a severe deflation, or a sharp rise in the price of gold and silver and a subversion of the exchange rate in Alexandria......"

Wang Qiu explained to everyone with a sad face, "...... In Alexandria today, the value of a single Sesterce has fallen to a quarter of its original value, and continues to fall. The price of gold coins is skyrocketing, and it takes 3,000 copper coins to get a gold coin. Due to drastic price fluctuations. As a result, the copper coins in many people's pockets are becoming less and less valuable, and citizens who can't bear it anymore have taken to the streets to protest. Fortunately. Cleopatra's salaries were paid in the form of food, and no matter how disordered the price of money was, they would not have starved to death, otherwise they would have rioted everywhere a long time ago. ”

-- Therefore, in order to calm down the people's grievances and maintain social stability, Queen Cleopatra had no choice but to distribute a large amount of flour, beans and refined salt to the citizens in order to save the hearts of the people, and this considerable amount of material procurement costs could naturally only be borne by Wang Qiu, the initiator.

All in all, after this entry, his coinage Jihua did not make the huge profits he imagined, but only made a small profit.

“…… This is normal, a black-hearted person like you is desperately messing around, something will definitely happen! Professor Yang pouted disapprerovingly, "...... You can't be too eager to do things! Youngster. I'm not in a hurry yet, old man, why are you in such a hurry! ”

“…… Of course, you don't have to worry, because you are not in charge of this team now! There are also regular salary and benefits for drought and flood protection! Wang Qiu rolled his eyes angrily, "...... If you just can't make much money for a while, and the account is still black, then it's really not a big deal. But the problem is that now our income can't rise, but our expenses can't be reduced, and we have another deficit on the books! ”

-- Just when Wang Qiu's various money-making jihua were encountering bottlenecks one after another, all kinds of huge expenses were still coming one after another.

First, the hundreds of thousands of refugees gathered in Alexandria needed food relief every day, although for the Egyptian queen it was a cash-for-work effort to rebuild the capital with cheap labor. But for the time-travelers who are out of pocket, this is a simple expense with no profit.

Secondly, in order to defend against enemies from all sides, the queen of Egypt must assemble a usable army as soon as possible, and for this purpose, the militia must be recruited and trained, so that the cold weapons used in training and battle also need to be provided by Wang Qiu. Although it is just some bargains such as axes and machetes, and there is no requirement to equip them with extravagant police stab-proof suits, it does not cost too much money, but it is still an additional expense that is completely unprofitable.

Zuihou, despite the apprehensive city managers, this time there has been no crazy jihua of dropping bacteriological weapons. However, it seems that due to the influence of the frequent passage of large quantities of goods between the two planes, a menacing and violent plague broke out in the Nile Delta region in the spring of 47 B.C. without warning, once again fulfilling the sad law that "those who travel must have plagues".

- Chills, high fever, diarrhea, gangrene, cough with blood foam, dark spots, swollen face, oozing blood and pus...... Countless symptoms point to bubonic plague, or the Black Death, which is well-known in the West. The terrible disease that once killed 40% of the population of medieval Europe!

In fact, the plague was an extremely common plague in ancient Shijie. Whenever the climate is dry, they go south from the grassland to hunt the rats in the grass valley. It will bring deadly fleas and germs into civilized land. The drought in Egypt and throughout the Mediterranean was a sign of the bubonic plague, which was further triggered by the severe deterioration of the living conditions of many Egyptians due to war and unrest.

Thus, in just a few days, after the first dock worker lay in a dark alley, the scythe of death swept over the heads of the Egyptians. More than a quarter of the Queen's army alone were infected, and countless horrific corpses were carried to the desert every day for burial, plunging the whole of Alexandria and even the whole of Egypt into terror. Doctors in ancient Egypt and Greece were at a loss for what to do. Unable to resist the sudden storm of the Black Death—and fifteen hundred years later, their descendants had not come up with an effective cure for the Black Death—hundreds of dying patients wept bitterly and begged the Queen and the "oracles" for help.

For this reason, Wang Qiu and the others had to be a fortune boy again. A large number of oral penicillins, antipyretics, and anti-inflammatory drugs were acquired from Hyundai Shijie. Used to quell the epidemic. The specific treatment is to treat antipyretics and penicillin as a cure-all, and no matter what patient is sent, a dose of antipyretic medicine is used first, and if they can survive, they are fed with oral penicillin, and at the same time anti-inflammatory ointment is applied to the abscess. As for the ...... that can't survive. It's better to bury it!

I have to admit that modern antibiotics are really an invincible killer for early bacteria that have not yet developed drug resistance, which is a nonsense therapy like Wang Qiu. It was also very effective in containing and extinguishing the plague in the Nile Delta. But the problem is that a considerable part of the abject poor Egyptian civilians and slaves. They can't afford to pay for the consultation, and they still have to eat relief food. And although a few wealthy people donated a little gold and silver, it still did not cover the overall expenses...... As a result, the deficit on the books of the chengguan has once again increased helplessly......

At the same time, the Egyptian government, under the pressure of the queen, adopted traditional quarantine methods to deal with the epidemic, mainly including emphasizing personal hygiene, controlling water safety, and using lime, wormwood and other disinfection or insect repellent methods to reduce transmission routes. In order to let the ancients, who lacked the concept of hygiene, do it to the letter, Wang Qiu and the others also pinched their noses and put on cosplay costumes many times to perform the "oracle from heaven...... But even so, the death toll of the Egyptian queen has exceeded 2,000. And in the interior of Upper Egypt, which is beyond the scope of Wang Qiu's influence, and even in the wider entire Mediterranean region, what kind of tragic scene will there be, and how many people will die because of it, it is completely unimaginable.

-- Although selling medicine during the plague was also a lucrative business, after all, the flow of information was so slow that the advertisements for special medicines in Egypt could not be opened for a while. Moreover, the war around the Mediterranean Sea is blazing in this year, and the sword is more likely to bring death than the disease, and there are not many businessmen who are really capable of purchasing special drugs. What's more, the productive forces of this era are too backward, and the broad masses of people have little money to spare except for food and clothing. Most of the poor can only lie in bed when they are sick, and it is the blessing of the gods to survive it, and it is fate that they cannot survive......

What's worse is that the rumors that Egypt has a special anti-plague medicine have also attracted pirates to peep - although several port defense battles that broke out near Alexandria did not cause much damage, but the replacement and compensation of the soldiers killed in the war cost a lot of money.

“…… Last year, when we were doing business in ancient Mesoamerican space, the Indians couldn't afford to buy our industrial goods with so much gold, silver, and gemstones. But they have an inexhaustible vast forest, which can be used to cut down timber to pay for goods, and raw materials to exchange for industrial goods. In a sense, it's like the 'banana republics' of modern-day Central America or the Gulf oil-exporting countries of the Middle East. ”

In order to discuss the next business strategy, Ma Tong hung a shijie resource map on the wall, took a short stick and pointed at it, "...... In addition to the Nile River, Egypt is a desert, and natural resources are indeed relatively poor. But around Egypt, there are still a lot of good things to produce! Ethiopia, for example, has timber, gold and ivory in the upper reaches of the Nile, alabaster and turquoise in the Sinai Peninsula, and frankincense, oil and gas in the Arabian Peninsula on the other side of the Red Sea. Lebanon is also famous for its cedar and cedar wood......"

“…… You forgot to think about the traffic, Sister Ma Tong. Wang Qiu unceremoniously interrupted her reverie, "...... There are indeed forests in the upper reaches of the Nile. But the Nile is not the Yangtze River, and it can be sold from Sichuan all the way to the south of the Yangtze River - from the southernmost point of Upper Egypt, where the Aswan Dam was built, the Nile is lined with waterfalls, blocking the water route, and it is impossible to put the rafts down the river. And if you transport timber by land, you have to drag the horses along the way. Along the way, there is also a large desert...... The cost is terrible!

In fact, from the time of the pharaohs, the Egyptians imported timber from Lebanon, Greece and Asia Minor for shipbuilding. But I never thought about the tropical forests of the upper Nile, at most I just got some ivory and gold from there......"

“…… In this case, we can also obtain wood in the same way! Vitality Lolita Cai Rong, who was licking a strawberry-flavored lollipop, interjected, "...... The Mediterranean Sea is uncovered. Even if there are pirates. It was also Greek and Roman merchants who took the risk, so what do we have to do with it? ”

“…… Lebanon's cedar and cedar trees have been cut down since the dawn of Middle Eastern civilization, and there are very few leftovers of them in the time of Cleopatra. The forests of Greece and Asia Minor are still lush, but the problem is that, with the shipping capacity of the first century BC, Greek timber was shipped across the Mediterranean to Egypt, and the freight price was sky-high! ”

Wang Qiu shrugged his shoulders, "...... If the Greek merchants replied that they should exchange silk, porcelain or spices for wood. Then we probably still have some money to earn. But it's a pity that while these Greek merchants look at our silk and porcelain. They all liked it too much to take their eyes off, but when it came time to make a real deal, they would only accept gold, silver, wheat, or olive oil, and would not want cotton cloth for them—according to them, Pompey and the Roman republicans had already made a rampant extortion in Greece, which had made the people miserable; Caesar's generals have recently plundered Greece again, coupled with the fierce battles between Caesar and Pompey in Greece, which has seriously affected agricultural production, and now the Greeks can't even fill their stomachs, and many cities have issued decrees prohibiting luxury and pleasure, and they really don't have the heart to buy any luxury. It is said that people have recently starved to death in the city of Athens, and there has been a plague...... So, I'm going to see if I can exchange antibiotics for wood, and if it works, then maybe this business can still be done......"

In the future, there is no hope for the minerals of the Sinai Peninsula, because the extremely weak Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt has lost all of the Sinai Peninsula many years ago - in the early days of Cleopatra's reign, the alabaster and turquoise mines on the Sinai Peninsula have all been abandoned because they are in the main battlefield of the Egyptians against foreign enemies in the East, and it will take a year and a half to recover this lost land, just to restore mine production.

In short, in view of the deplorable transportation conditions in ancient times, the most effective way for modern people to collect resources is to bring wormholes to the origin of various resources and transmit them to modern shijie on the spot. But this means that the source of the wormhole, the queen of Cleopatra Bixia must leave the country alone, leave Egypt and Wang Qiu and go back and forth with Wang Qiu - the wormhole cannot be too far away from the traverser who induces it - in view of the political and military situation around the Mediterranean in 47 BC, a peaceful diplomatic visit is obviously not realistic, and can only be fought by the expeditionary force one by one.

Obviously, Queen Cleopatra's Egyptian army did not have such a strong ability to fight long distances.

- Generally speaking, female rulers are inherently disadvantaged in warfare, and it is very difficult and imaginative to get Cleopatra to play a cameo role as a conqueror like Alexander the Great.

Despite this, after the successive setbacks of organ trafficking, dumping of industrial products, and minting counterfeit money, Wang Qiu came up with a new way to make money

――――――――――――――――――――――――――

“…… Look, this is the Cypriot wine I brought from Ancient Egypt! Absolutely natural and pollution-free! What do you think? It smells good! ”

Wang Qiu took out an antique tin wine jug like a treasure, and then opened the lid of the jug, which was full of red and crystal wine syrup, and slowly diffused a rich and intoxicating aroma, "...... It's not sour at all, it's sweet and delicious, and it should be able to be sold as green organic food! ”

“…… It does smell good. Senior Sister Ma Tong snorted, and was about to pour some wine with a paper cup to taste, but was opened by Professor Yang.

“…… Pure natural and pollution-free? I think it's purely toxic and harmful! He rolled his eyes and scolded Wang Qiu, "...... How can I bring this thing back? ”

“…… This is really pure natural and pollution-free! Wang Qiu blinked innocently and confusedly, "...... Grapes in the first century BC had neither pesticides nor chemical fertilizers, let alone genetically modified organisms, so how could they be poisonous and harmful to absolute green food? ”

“…… Grapes may be fine, but there must be something wrong with wine! Professor Yang sighed, "Anyway, first send the sample to the Food Research Institute of Longkong Mountain University next door, borrow their latest inductor couple and plasma mass spectrometer to measure the concentration of elements in this wine, and everything will be understood." ”

-- Inductive couple and plasma mass spectrometer are commonly used instruments for the detection of trace elements on Shijie, which can identify most of the elements on the periodic table of Deleev, and are often used to determine the trace element content in food, blood and other samples in modern society.

Next, it didn't take long for Wang Qiu and the others to get a jaw-dropping measurement report.

“…… Scamming ...... Lie! How much lead is in wine...... 2500 mg per liter?! How is this possible?!! (To be continued......)