Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 345 Prelude to the Industrial Revolution
"Boom--"

At the beginning of September, when the Japanese warm current collided with the thousand island cold current, there was a roar in the deep mountains of the Shimane region of Japan.

In the nearby Shimane Prefecture, some low-rise Japanese people coming and going were unmoved, as if they had already gotten used to the sound.

Under the roar, a satisfactory document was placed in front of Lu Jianxing in a newly built Ming-style courtyard next to the Shimane County Tenshou.

Different from the low Tianshou and most Japanese buildings, the Ming-style courtyard is tall and majestic, and Lu Jianxing sitting in the study is even more like a giant to the Japanese.

"Thanks for your hard work……"

Lu Jianxing spoke to the Jin Yiwei who had just sat down, then picked up the document and slowly flipped through it.

As he flipped through the pages, the smile on his face became even more permeable.

[Gold seven thousand 230 two two four cents, silver 270 seventy-six thousand seventy-four thousand two two three cents, copper 740 seven catties six two four cents, iron...]

The amount of gold, silver, copper and iron mined recorded in the small document let Lu Jianxing know that His Royal Highness King Qi will be very happy when he reads this document.

Therefore, he closed the file, and then said:

"All the gold was sent to Tianjin Port, 270 million taels of silver, 72 jin of copper, and the iron was kept."

As he spoke, he leaned back on the chair, changed to a more comfortable position, and continued:
"The more than 6000 catties of copper and other collected copper coins were cast into Wanli Tongbao. As for the more than 6000 taels of silver, I took out a fraction of more than 700 taels and distributed one tael to each of the brothers. The rest will be arranged by His Highness."

"Thank you, fellow acquaintance!" The seven Jinyi guards immediately bowed to thank them, while Lu Jianxing said:
"Don't thank me, but thank Your Highness."

"Once the gold, silver and copper ingots worth more than 300 million taels are sent to Tianjin Port, His Highness will be happy. It is estimated that we can share a share of the 6000 taels of silver with the brothers in the Gongwei camp."

He said so, and the following Jin Yiwei also reported:
"Tongzhi, even though I said so, we have used up only 12 catties of gunpowder, and I'm afraid we need some saltpeter from the Imperial Store."

"This matter is not difficult. I will ask His Highness to dispatch 30 catties of saltpeter." Lu Jianxing responded disapprovingly.

As a country rich in sulfur resources and forest resources, Japan naturally does not need to worry about the sulfur and charcoal used in black powder raw materials, but it is a country poor in saltpeter.

Due to the lack of saltpeter, Japan did not use artillery on a large scale. After all, their saltpeter can only rely on imports.

As for the place of import, there are only two places, Daming and Siam.

After all, saltpeter is a necessary raw material for making gunpowder. As an imported product, saltpeter is an extremely important resource in both diplomatic exchanges and military conflicts.

The reason why Oda Nobunaga was able to use firearms on a large scale is also because he obtained a large amount of saltpeter from an international trading port such as Sakai Port.

Therefore, in Japan, as long as Sakai Port is controlled, it has an extra advantage in the application of firearms.

It's just that with the "tomorrow" war, under Zhu Youjian's decree, Daming almost cut off all sea saltpeter trade with Japan.

It is precisely because of this that Tokugawa Iemitsu and others in the north can only defend at this moment, with no room for counterattack.

Right now they can only rely on the local methods in the central and northern regions of the island to collect saltpeter, but even so, the amount of saltpeter is still scarce.

The scarcity of saltpeter led to a serious shortage of gunpowder.

If the Ming army was not busy eating the southern part of Honshu Island, Kyushu Island, and Shikoku Island, Edo Castle would have been breached.

Now that Lu Jianxing said to solve the saltpeter problem, he was actually helping Yan Siqi and others solve the gunpowder problem.

50 catties of saltpeter can produce at least 300 million catties of gunpowder.

These gunpowder were almost produced by the Bingzhan Bureau in the Wanli period for three years.

However, after Zhu Youjian's restructuring, the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty and the Dudufu of the Five Armies each had an ordnance sub-bureau and a gunpowder sub-bureau.

五军都督府的火药产量是规定在30万斤到50万斤之间，而北京两大火药局则是产量固定在500万到1000万斤之间，南京的火药局则是限定在700万斤以内。

This is not to say that Daming's gunpowder production can only reach this level, but because there is not that much demand.

Even for the three major gunpowder bureaus in the two capitals, the reason why they can have such a large gunpowder limit is because they are responsible for the supply of firecrackers for the imperial store.

The demand for gunpowder among the people of the Ming Dynasty has not been low, and more than 200 million catties were sold last year.

We must know that the five armies' military governor's office spent 400 million catties of gunpowder in the battle against Annan last year and the consumption of defending the frontier.

If you have to compare, the gunpowder spent by the people of Ming Dynasty on the night of Zhengdan Festival every year is enough for Ming Dynasty to fight Annan several times.

However, the Huangdian sells fireworks and firecrackers, and can make a profit of several 10 taels a year.

Daming's wealth and wealth in gunpowder is unimaginable for all countries.

Lu Jianxing also heard that after Xiaoxiyang inspectors identified saltpeter as a salable commodity, millions of catties of saltpeter were snapped up by European merchants in less than a month.

"I just don't know how much I can earn..."

Lu Jianxing was a little itchy. He was not greedy for money, but wanted to make some achievements so that His Royal Highness King Qi would always have himself under his nose.

"By the way, my friend, there have been a lot of casualties among the miners recently, should we..."

"Don't worry about it, if you don't have it, you can get it from among the prisoners."

A Jin Yiwei just wanted to report the death and injury of the miners, but Lu Jianxing impatiently waved his hand to signal him not to speak.

"Currently, more than 60 rebels are still being held in prisons in various counties. Where there are insufficient miners in the mining area, they can be transferred."

"Yes..." Jin Yiwei sat down upon hearing the sound, but Lu Jianxing didn't take it seriously.

The reason why they were able to mine minerals higher than those in the shogunate period was that gunpowder was only one aspect, and the second was because of the scale.

At present, there are nearly 50 miners working in various mines. They are all people related to the Tokugawa shogunate and daimyo from various places, or they are civilians who transport supplies for the shogunate army.

Japan has a population of more than 700 million, about [-] million of which are currently in the hands of Daming.

The consumption of the war reduced the 700 million population in Daming's hands to about 600 million, and nearly one-sixth of the prisoners accounted for it, which also made local governance somewhat difficult.

Lu Jianxing is also going to report to Zhu Youjian, asking to relocate hundreds of thousands of disaster victims to Japan.

Otherwise, when the time comes for the "Northern Expedition", if the army wants to use local Japanese as civilian husbands, who knows if these guys will rebel in battle...

Thinking of this, he was not interested in listening to other things, but let everyone go, and then he wrote a memorial, and sent it to the capital together with the immigration, saltpeter transportation, and gold and silver transportation.

There are more than [-] Daming cargo ships going together with the memorial.

After a month's long journey, the cargo ship finally arrived at Tianjin Port, and the gold, silver and copper mines were also taken over by the Dagu Camp in Tianjin Port and escorted to the gold, silver and copper warehouse of Yumajian.

When Zhu Youjian got Lu Jianxing's memorial, the precious metals just happened to be closed, and Zhu Youjian couldn't stop the smile on his face as he looked at the memorial in his hand.

"Sure enough, it's better to be comfortable if you suffer from a foreign barbarian..."

In the Taihang Mountains in the west of Baoding County, Zhu Youjian in military uniform rode on horseback, laughing non-stop while holding memorials.

"The little Japanese pirate actually has so much gold and silver. Just this amount of gold and silver is enough for your highness to issue tens of millions of coins."

Lu Wenzhao followed Zhu Youjian on horseback and agreed with a smile.

Behind him, Cao Bianjiao, Cao Dingjiao, Wang Chengen, Li Zhongzi and others followed, and more than a hundred Xiao cavalry guards followed closely behind.

Zhu Youjian closed the memorial, then handed the memorial to Lu Wenzhao, and took a box the size of a fist from Lu Wenzhao.

He opened the box, and there were four coins in the box.

On the front of the four coins, there are four characters "Tianqi Tongbao" written in "Clerical Script".

Each coin is shaped to be the same size due to the hydraulic pressure of the steel formwork.

Among the four coins, there are two silver coins and two copper coins.

The four coins are divided into two large and two small, and are divided into Daping coins and Xiaoping coins. The silver coins of Daping coins weigh one or two, about 37 grams, and are made of nine cents of silver and one cent of copper.

The shape is still in the shape of a round sky, and the front is marked with the words Tianqi Tongbao, and the back is marked with one or two, and there is a print under the one or two fonts, and the workmanship is very exquisite.

This kind of big money is mainly used for trade, and the scale of casting will not be very large. Zhu Youjian plans to cast about 1000 million pieces, with a cost of 1 million taels of silver and a value of 1000 million taels.

As for the second type of silver coin Xiaoping, it is made of nine centimeters of silver and nine cents of copper, with a weight of one tael, a denomination of one hundred coins, and a cost of 99 coins.

The third type is copper coins Daping coins, nine cents of copper, one cent of tin, one tael in weight, ten cents in denomination, and nine cents and five cents in cost.

The fourth item is copper coins, Xiaoping coins, nine cents of copper, one penny of tin, one penny in weight, one penny in face value, and a cost of nine cents and five cents.

The Daping coins of the silver coins are translucent, the Xiaoping coins are cloudy, and the copper coins are different in size.

The four characters "Tianqi Tongbao" written on Qianmian are written in regular script and read directly from top to bottom, right and left, with delicate strokes.In terms of production, the casting is exquisite, uniform, and Qian Wenxiuyi is a very exquisite currency.

With these 72 catties of copper for coinage, it is completely possible to cast nearly 300 million pieces of Shiwen Daping coins, or 3000 million pieces of one penny Xiaoping coins.

The style of the new money is actually not much different from the old money before, the only difference is that the coin has sixty more fine teeth on the side and more stamps on the inside.

Just these two simple anti-counterfeiting methods can avoid the production of most fake money workshops in the market.

"What is the current output of gold, silver and copper in the imperial court?"

Zhu Youjian turned to ask Wang Chengen, and when Wang Chengen heard the words, he subconsciously took out a booklet from his body.

Zhu Youjian has been busy making money recently, and Wang Chengen has been carrying related documents with him.

"The new mine in the old port plus the Xiaoxiyang inspectorate, the new mine in Japan and other places..."

Wang Chengen paused, apparently still looking for it, and Zhu Youjian was not in a hurry, he waited for Wang Chengen for a while before saying:

"This year, the imperial court receives more than 47 catties of gold, 260 catties of silver, 79 million catties of copper, more than [-] catties of iron, and [-] catties of coal..."

Speaking of this, Wang Chengen said again: "The Armament Academy has developed a detonator. After the power is increased, the mining speed of various mines should be greatly improved."

"Gold, silver, copper and iron are stocked according to what I said before." Zhu Youjian nodded slightly after hearing this, and reminded Wang Chengen.

According to Daming's current mining speed and the previously established rules, in about ten years, more than 300 million taels of gold, more than 3000 million taels of silver, nearly 20 million jin of copper and [-] billion jin of iron can be accumulated.

But there is no need for Zhu Youjian to wait that long, especially for the currency reform.

He only needs to announce that this year's land tax and business tax will be collected using copper coins, and then he can get more than 200 billion copper coins in a short period of time.

But if he does, it's bound to disrupt the market.

Currency innovation must be completed without disturbing the market, so the amount of investment cannot be too much at once.

With the current gold, silver and copper stocks of Ming Dynasty, it is possible to manufacture more than 600 million silver coins, or more than 6000 silver coins, as well as 8000 million copper coins and [-] million small coins at one time.

This amount is insignificant at all compared to the silver and copper coin market in Ming Dynasty.

After conversion, their value is 600 million taels of silver, and copper coins worth 100 million taels of silver, the total value is only 700 million taels of silver.

For Daming, a conservative market that circulated gold, silver and copper, it may have billions of dynasties, which is nothing at all.

If you simply wait for the mines to be extracted to mint coins, then at most 8000 million silver coins and [-] million copper coins will be minted every year.

The collection of gold, silver and copper mines is just the starting point of Zhu Youjian's plan to protect his own currency. The bulk of the real silver and copper collection still depends on taxation.

Daming's taxation collected more than 2000 million taels of silver and 5000 million shimimai a year.

As long as it is changed to grain, it can be collected with copper coins. Even if only one-fifth of the openings are opened, more than 30 billion copper coins can be collected.

The reason why no one did this was because fake money was rampant in Daming, and collecting copper coins was bound to be a loss-making business.

However, Zhu Youjian didn't care. The temporary loss was exchanged for a new round of economic reforms in Ming Dynasty.

Even if hundreds of millions of fake money is collected every time, the loss is only 10,000+ taels of silver.

What's more, there is also a small amount of copper in the fake money. For the court, this loss is nothing.

However, what Zhu Youjian needs to care about is the need to ensure grain reserves under the severe drought. Therefore, it is destined that the Ming Dynasty will not be able to convert grain into copper coins for collection during the 17-year drought.

However, Zhu Youjian has already thought about this point. The way he wants to collect copper coins is not through taxation, but through the imperial store...

"What is the current annual copper coin turnover of the Huangdian?"

Zhu Youjian asked on horseback, but Wang Chengen heard the words and said without hesitation: "About 300 billion Wen."

With a turnover of 300 billion Wen, it is destined that Huangdian will be a natural currency exchange institution, and it does not charge any fees.

He is like a supermarket. Customers spend a tael of silver to buy oil and salt for 980 Wen, and the Huangdian needs to make up [-] Wen copper coins.

Such characteristics make the Huangdian actually a natural currency reservoir.

It can be used to issue copper coins in the Ming Dynasty, it can also be used to collect private currency, and it can also be used to earn trade. It can be said that it is like a panacea.

But Zhu Youjian will not force the Huangdian to use new money to find supplies for the common people, because this is tarnishing the reputation of the Huangdian.

Huangdian is like a supply and marketing cooperative to Daming, but he is not as powerful as a supply and marketing cooperative.

The supply and marketing cooperative is an exclusive franchise, but Huangdian does not have this advantage. It needs to compete with other local stores.

So I went back to that sentence, the ones who can really take the lead in digesting Tianqi Tongbao are actually the army, officials, and helpers of government-run institutions...

What is the number of people in this group?
Zhu Youjian's simple calculation can make people gasp.

There are 77 troops in the army, 97 people who receive salaries from officials, and government-run institutions include nearly 100 miners in Huangdian, Huangzhuang, official farms, shipyards, and government-run mines in Daming. million people.

Not only that, besides them, there is also a huge group, that is, the disaster-affected group.

Daming's work-for-work relief has now covered more than 200 million victims on both sides of the Yellow River and other places.

The above-mentioned people add up to more than 400 million people, and the expenditure of these 400 million people is converted into silver, and the annual expenditure is close to 5000 million taels.

Once such a scale is used to release the new currency, the new currency will become the biggest player in the market within a few years.

Of course, the issuance of new coins will also affect the trust of this group of people in the court, because merchants may not dare to accept new coins.

But don't forget, the role of the imperial store is for trade.

Other merchants don't need to accept it, but Huangdian will definitely accept it.

Not only that, the scale of more than 400 million people will also put a new organization of Daming on the right track.

bank……

The imperial court and government-run organizations issued salary slips, salaries and wages to banks, and these more than 400 million people used passbooks to deposit and withdraw money.

In this way, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of most of the empty pay, and it will be easier to investigate some financial cases in the investigations of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Jinyiwei, and Dali Temple in the future.

So in general, a perfect closed loop will be formed in the end.

Imperial court—bank—officials, army, civilians—imperial store—imperial court...

When this closed loop is formed, there will be no such thing as issuing new coins that will affect the credibility of the imperial court.

"We must settle the matter of banks and local banks quickly, and then start minting coins, waiting for the release of new coins."

Zhu Youjian had a lot of thoughts in his mind. After thinking about everything, he began to say to Lu Wenzhao:
"The matter of the bank should be investigated carefully. After the Yanshan students graduate next year, the bank's affairs must be on the right track."

"After the Great Court Meeting, I will ask the Ministry of Industry to prepare to build banks in the prefectures and counties of the Ming Dynasty. You tell Bi Ziyan that the court's mint can be stopped."

"By the way, tell the Armament Academy to prepare enough minting machines to reach a daily minting scale of 1000 million coins."

"It will be enough to keep only one mint in the capital in the future." After Zhu Youjian finished speaking, Lu Wenzhao also bowed to express his understanding.

After he bowed, Zhu Youjian took out his bow and arrow again, ready to continue hunting wild animals in the mountains.

However, they had just walked a hundred steps, and when they hadn't found any prey worth hunting, the sound of horseshoes came from the road behind them.

Everyone reined in their horses and stopped in the dry forest in winter. After a while, several Jin Yiwei came on horseback and delivered a military report.

"Your Highness! The Armament Academy has an urgent military report!"

The leading Jinyiwei Baihu got off his horse and trotted over, holding a military newspaper in his hand.

Seeing this, the surrounding guards received the military report and rode their horses to Zhu Youjian's side.

Zhu Youjian took over the military newspaper, and immediately opened the military newspaper of the Armament Academy, and the moment the military newspaper was opened, Zhu Youjian also laughed happily:
"Good! Good! Finally developed it!"

"Your Highness? Is there any latest progress in the Armament Academy?" Lu Wenzhao asked in confusion, while Zhu Youjian was shaking the military report in his hand:

"The third version of the steam engine is out! It seems to be related to that Wang Zheng!"

Zhu Youjian smiled, holding the military newspaper tightly in his hand, even though he didn't know that this third version of the steam engine was different from the Watt steam engine invented by Watt in history.

However, according to the military newspaper, the power of this steam engine has reached nine to twelve levels. As long as there is no major problem with this steam engine, then Daming’s railways, steam locomotives, and steam engines can be used. On track.

Not only that, the first industrial revolution will also be led by Daming!

But there is a problem with this, that is the problem of the market...

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian looked at Lu Wenzhao: "Have the troops of the Southern Army Commander's Mansion and the Navy's Commander's Mansion all assembled?"

"Return to Your Highness..." Lu Wenzhao saluted and said, "Some of them have already embarked on the road to the old port, and some of them have not yet assembled."

"According to your Highness's orders, Qi Yuanfu's general soldiers have been transferred to the [-]th Gongwei Battalion first to the Old Port, and then to the Xiaoxiyang Supervisory Commissioner."

When he said this, Zhu Youjian nodded very satisfied, and continued:

"Qin Bangping, Qin Gongming, and Qin Yiming were temporarily transferred from the Governor's Mansion of the Western Army to command the Twenty Gongwei Battalion, which is still in Annan, to Xiaoxiyang to monitor the envoy."

"By the way, tell the feudal vassals that they can pay the second tranche of the vassal money. Next year, after all the soldiers and horses gather in the Xiaoxiyang Supervisory Commissioner, they will immediately start recovering the vassal land."

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao bowed in response, wondering why the third version of the steam engine could make His Royal Highness so happy.

Of course he didn't know, but Zhu Youjian knew it very well.

Although the steam engine can improve the production efficiency of all walks of life, it is also destined to eliminate a group of people.

If you want not to eliminate them, you need to expand the market.

The market of Ming Dynasty is actually saturated. Although Zhu Youjian's methods have created tax revenue for the imperial court, except for the recovery of overseas territories and mining of minerals, most of the other methods are to seize and squeeze the domestic market.

Now the third version of the steam engine has appeared, and its efficiency can also allow Daming to industrialize.

In this case, in terms of the market size of Daming, the entry of steam engines into the textile industry and other industries means crowding out the market and taking away a lot of labor.

If a large number of urban people are not to be unemployed, then the market must be expanded, otherwise steam engines can only be used in steam locomotives, steam ships and military industries, and will not benefit the private economy except for smooth traffic.

If you want to expand the market, it is still a market that can carry many commodities after the industrialization of the Ming Dynasty.

Among the places close to Ming Dynasty, there are only the Mughals and the hundreds of millions of people in South Asia.

Based on them, supplemented by Europe and Central Asia, once Ming's products seized many markets, whether Europe will continue to industrialize is a question worth pondering.

But why should Zhu Youjian care about other people's lives?
If you want to seize the South Asian market, and make sure that the local market will not suffer any threats after it is established, then the vassal state established by the kings and queens is the best place to dump goods.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian showed a heavy expression on his face, and said "sadly":

"The people of Tianzhu have suffered from being captives in the north for a long time. Now that my army is coming, I will liberate them, let them accept the king's transformation, live and work in peace and contentment, and everyone has a job."

"Your Highness benevolent..." Lu Wenzhao pretended to bow heavily, and Wang Chengen and others followed suit.

But after imitating this, gradually some people couldn't help laughing...

　Update Chapter 2 at [-]pm
　　
　
(End of this chapter)