Speaking of the East African and Abyssinian trade financial bonds, this is a special bond issued by the Hesingen Bank under the supervision of the East African government, which is dedicated to the monetary function of the East African region.

The East African government is currently considering issuing its own currency, and Ernst is busy with it.

March 14, 1871.

With the approval of the Swedish royal family, the delegation of the Kingdom of East Africa, headed by Ernst, was mainly composed of employees of the Heshingen Bank.

Wedish Bank President Waynes was in charge of the reception: "The first banknotes in Europe were issued by our bank in 1661, which ushered in the era of paper money in Europe. At that time, however, paper money was issued only as a supplement to the insufficient amount of metallic money, and not as real money. Our mint has a long history and experience, and has always been at the forefront of Europe in the application of new technologies. ”

In 17th-century Sweden, where currency transactions relied mainly on coins, in 1661, King Carl XI Gustav of Sweden decided to introduce paper money as a legal form of money. These banknotes are issued by the government and are backed by gold, ensuring their value and credibility. Swedish banknotes became the first officially issued banknotes in European history, and they were then called "official bank notes", similar to the current East African financial notes, but East Africa itself did not produce metallic money.

Waynes: "The Swedish krona in front of us is made mainly of cotton fibre with a small amount of hemp fibre and a lot of wooden paddles. ”

The krona is derived from the Latin word meaning "crown",

Ernst: "We in East Africa generally have cotton, good sisal and a small amount of wooden paddles in terms of paper money. ”

Waynes: "Oh! Really? I don't know much about sisal, Sweden itself is the last thing we need to import, even cotton. ”

Ernst took the opportunity to promote a wave of sisal produced in East Africa: "Sisal is a long fiber, with high strength, wear resistance, corrosion resistance, high temperature resistance and fast moisture absorption and moisture release, etc., the advantages of the paper produced are obvious, not only strong, but also easy to preserve and bend, and the comfort is also strong, which is one of the main raw materials for the production of financial bills by our Hexingen Bank." ”

Waynes: "And what about its price and production?" ”

Ernst: "Sisal is characterized by high yield, generally about three tons per mu per year, but it is only suitable for growing in tropical and subtropical regions, and our whole territory of East Africa is in the tropics, which has surpassed Mexico, the origin of sisal, and is currently the world's largest sisal producer. ”

Waynes: "Oh! However, we can use wooden paddles, and if the price is cheap, we can purchase some to increase the quality of the banknotes. ”

Ernst immediately said: "There is no problem in this regard, we have a sisal processing factory in Hamburg, which is used to produce raw materials for ship cables, if you need to go directly to Hamburg to buy, we can give you a discount of 9.5 percent." ”

It's not that Ernst is stingy, but East African sisal is really in demand, but if there are more buyers, East Africa will not refuse, and can the planting area continue to be expanded according to market demand?

Waynes: "Hahaha, if that's the case, we'll send technicians and purchasers to investigate." ”

Next, Waynes and his entourage continued to observe the machinery and equipment in the Swedish Mint.

Waynes: "This printing machinery and equipment is specially ordered from the United Kingdom, of course, because of the level of manufacturing is that we Sweden is still a little deficient in this regard, but the design is completely completed by us, so it is also our own brand, such precision like France, Prussia can also be processed, but the British quoted the lowest, so we used the design drawings to complete the manufacture of this printing equipment in London, and then shipped back to Sweden for commissioning. ”

Ernst: "And what is it equivalent to?" ”

Waynes: "There's nothing more advanced than it, but if you want a set, you definitely have to modify some of the internal structures, such as molds, and you have to redesign, after all, every set of banknotes is different, and there is anti-counterfeiting technology, and the needs of each customer are different, of course, there are very few such customers now, and many countries are still making and using coins." ”

Waynes's last sentence was to the point, and that's why Ernst traveled thousands of miles across the sea to Sweden.

If Austria-Hungary had mature technology, Ernst would definitely give priority to cooperation with Austria-Hungary, but Austria-Hungary was still using coins as currency, and there was no experience in this area, and the good relationship between the Hashingen royal family and the Swedish royal family chose Sweden.

As for why not choose Germany, it is because Germany's banknote technology is almost the same as that of the Hexingen Bank, the financial bills issued by the Heixingen Bank are fully utilized with German technology and talents, and Germany's monetary system is now very complex, there is no unified currency, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, metal coins are popular, although many states have paper money, but the entire empire is still circulating metal currency, this time the Heixingen Bank is mainly to learn Sweden's banknote anti-counterfeiting technology, after all, Swedish banknotes have been used for a long time, with sufficient experience in this area.

The so-called road is one foot high, the magic is one foot high, anti-counterfeiting technology is rolled out, Sweden has been rolled for hundreds of years, and some of the problems encountered are not encountered by other countries.

In terms of anti-counterfeiting technology in East Africa, in fact, there is no need to worry too much, there is no such capable person in East Africa, after all, most people can't even count five, let alone the difficult work of counterfeiting currency.

But then, East Africa's own currency is different from the financial bills that only existed in East Africa before, and it is to enter the circulation of the international community, mainly Germany and Austria-Hungary, so the anti-counterfeiting technology cannot be sloppy.

Hexingen Bank has also accumulated experience in making banknotes through the issuance of financial bills, and has its own unique skills, but it has only been two or three years, and it must not be compared with Sweden, a country that has developed paper money technology for two or three hundred years, so this visit to Sweden to learn from experience is to make up for the last shortcoming-experience.

Most of the members of the delegation are technicians from Heshingen Bank, and this time they came to introduce Sweden's advanced technology and experience, and then combine it with their own banknote technology to launch the East African Kingdom's own currency.

The East African currency has been established under the name "Rhine Shield", but it is very different from the current Rhine Guilder in Germany.

First of all, the East African "Rhine shield" is a paper money, while the European Rhine shield is a gold and silver coin.

This is followed by the face value of the East African "Rhine Shield", which is one, five, ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred, and five hundred (guilders).

The guilder is the same unit as the krona, but the guilder means "gold coin" and the rhine is the name of the currency.

Finally, the East African "Rhine Shield" will use Konstantin's "beauty portrait" as the front character pattern, because Konstantin's real hairstyle is a bit difficult to describe, so Ernst personally decided to use the bust of Konstantin as a template, so that he can wear a unique pointed hat of the German army to cover his hair.

At the same time, the back of the currency is unified with Hohenzollernburg as a pattern, in addition to the national emblem and other signs with the color of the Hohenzollern family, the anchor is gold, 1 pound is equivalent to 30 East African "Rhine shield", an East African "Rhine shield" is equal to 0.22 grams of gold, gold reserves do not have to worry, East Africa has gold mines in the Great Lakes region, and in the hinterland, the development is very safe, and at the same time, the Hexingen Bank has also built a lot of vaults in Europe.

The currency of East Africa is called the "Rhine Shield", there is no other name, but in order to distinguish it from the Rhine shield circulating in Austria-Hungary and other regions in the world, merchants and financial institutions will add the word East Africa as a qualifier in front of it, and this situation continued until the end of the 19th century, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire stopped producing the Rhine shield, and the Rhine shield became the unique currency name of the East African Kingdom.

(End of chapter)