1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 46 The Mint

"Dr. Robinson is such a kind and wonderful man."

After sending Robinson away, Strauss, who followed Liang Yao, looked at Robinson's tall and tall back and said with emotion.

He couldn't help expressing the confusion in his heart.

"Dr. Robinson doesn't accept gold, and works hard for those who have nothing to do with him. What is it for?"

"Everyone's pursuit is different. You and I pursue profit. Dr. Robinson has his own pursuit in life."

Liang Yao recalled the situation when Robinson tried his best to treat Deng Wenyao regardless of Captain Weber's objection.

Because of gold, it is not uncommon for California brothers to turn against each other and friends to turn against each other.And Robinson is still the same Robinson, never changed.

Just as Liang Yao was about to turn around and go back to the house, Jones trotted all the way to see Liang Yao.

"Boss, this is a sample coin minted by the Mint, I wonder if you are satisfied?"

Jones carefully presented a small pine box to Liang Yao holding both hands.

松木盒子内整齐地排放着一列精致的大额铸币，其面值和现阶段通行的金币美元面值保持一致，分别是20美元、10美元、5美元、3美元以及1美元。

Of course, Liang Yao also had his own thoughts. In addition to the necessary minting year and the words "United States of America" ​​on the coin, there is a line of Chinese and English bilingual Bank of China at the bottom of the back of the coin.

He's paving the way for his bank, and for California's economy.

Before the independence of the United States, the British colonial authorities banned the minting of coins in the North American colonies, which led to the lack of coinage in North America and has been left to this day.

At the beginning of independence, the metal currency with the largest number of circulation in the American market was not even the dollar, but the Spanish silver dollar.Even in 1850, there were still quite a few Spanish silver dollars circulating in the American market.

How lacking was early American coinage?

Until the time of President Jackson (1829~1837), the United States had to print precious metals into currency before starting trade with the Qing Dynasty.

However, these metal currencies for foreign trade are the best in quality among all metal currencies in the United States.

California was rich in precious metals, but few people would consider minting gold into currency, more directly using gold for transactions, the value of which was agreed between the two parties through the gold's fineness and weight.

This made Liang Yao feel like he was dreaming back to the Qing Dynasty.

Such a transaction method is inconvenient and inefficient, and it is undoubtedly an obstacle to the development of California.

When Liang Yao came to the mint, the United States Mint (United States Mint) on the gate came into view. Because it had been abandoned for too long, the surrounding bushes and weeds had grown to the height of Liang Yao's waist.

In order to ensure the safety of the mint, Liang Yao specially assigned three teams (30 people) from his army to take turns guarding around this small workshop.

The U.S. Mint does not belong to the U.S. federal government, but two or three years ago, when the United States and Mexico were still at war, Colonel Mason, the commander of California at the time, and some early American immigrants in the area built it, and Sutter also participated. in.

It was only later that the mint went through several rounds and came into the hands of Brannan. Brannan also minted some gold coins at the mint, but these gold coins did not flow into the market.

Liang Yao found some scattered gold coins in Tingtao Garden. The quality was very new and almost never used. It must have been minted here.

The mint was very simple, with only a few old stamping machines and rolling machines. The original mint workers had long since run away, and he had re-recruited more than a dozen workers in the factory with gold.

Jones called the director of the mint, his face could not conceal the joy and excitement.

He knew very well what it meant for a bank to be able to mint money.

He admired the young boss more and more.

Don't look at this mint's shabby status and not many workers, with the huge gold production in California and the high purity of gold.

The metal coins produced by this mint will become popular in the United States within three to five years and become the most valuable coins in the United States and even in the world.

At that time, the name of the Bank of China printed on the back of the gold coin will also be passed on by word of mouth among the American population.

This is their best advertisement for China Bank, the advertisement that all Americans cannot escape.

It was the first time for Wrigley, the director of the mint, to meet Liang Yao. Wrigley seemed a little nervous when he first saw the rumored new king of California.

"Rigley, how many gold coins can we mint every day?" Liang Yao asked.

"Only five or six hundred coins can be minted, and many machines have been damaged, and we don't have a steam engine, so the efficiency of manual coin minting is very low." Wrigley told Liang Yao the truth.

Minting five or six hundred coins every day cannot meet Liang Yao's needs at all.

Even if all of them were minted in $20 face value gold coins, the value of gold coins minted every day would be only $12000.

Seeing Wrigley's embarrassed expression, Liang Yao knew that he still had other difficulties to talk about.

"If you have any difficulties, you can tell me directly."

"In addition to these, we also need copper, tin and iron. The raw materials in stock are only enough for us to use for another week. If you want to mint cents, we also need silver, a lot of silver."

Liang Yao nodded. Rui Geli's request was reasonable. A smart woman can't cook without rice. If he didn't give him the raw materials, he couldn't mint coins for Liang Yao.

A small amount of copper, iron and tin is not difficult to obtain, but silver is not.

Right now, the supply of goods produced by his small factories is tight locally, not to mention trade with Mexico in exchange for Mexican silver through trade.

Of course, he could also choose a simpler and cruder method, which is to directly exchange gold and Mexico for silver of equal value.

"I will find a way to solve these problems. You just concentrate on minting coins. If there is a steam engine, how much can the efficiency of coin minting be improved?" Liang Yao asked Rui Geli.

"At least five times more, if you can add more machines and manpower, it is not difficult to mint thousands of coins every day." Wrigley said, "Other mints are waiting for gold to start, only the California mint needs gold And lined up outside the mint to be minted into coins."

After inspecting the mint, Liang Yao returned to his residence, and saw Cai Mingsheng pulling a cart of rice to Tingtao Garden.

With the encouragement of Liang Yao, many Chinese have already reclaimed farmland and planted rice near San Francisco and Sacramento, but the rice seedlings planted this year have not yet reached the ripe harvest time.

Only the early Chinese immigrants like Cai Mingsheng had a few acres of rice fields in their hands. If they wanted to change their tastes, they could only buy fresh rice from them.

The death of Cai Laixi hit Cai Mingsheng very hard, and Cai Mingsheng's temperament changed drastically.

Cai Mingsheng has now resigned from Liang Yao's job in the guest house and became the deputy sheriff of San Francisco.

In the western United States, the appointment and dismissal of deputy sheriffs is very arbitrary. It only needs the sheriff's nod, and at most one more procedure for the sheriff.

As for Fleige and Griffin, it is not difficult to get through their joints, it is nothing more than sending more gold.

The relationship between the sheriff and the deputy sheriff is not essentially different from the relationship between the colonel and those lieutenant colonels and majors. In the final analysis, they are the assistants of the sheriff.

Not to mention now, even at the end of the 19th century, the appointment and removal of deputy sheriffs in the western United States was quite arbitrary.

It also happens that a wanted gangster travels from wanted state to state and becomes a deputy sheriff in the local town.

　Thanks to Duan Mulin, Book Friends 20220409030206589, Brother Bing 1009, Luxury Gentleman for their support!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)