Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 637 Copper Coin ([-])

Wei Boqiu took a steam engine sailboat and slowly docked at the mouth of the estuary known as the Kushiro River in later generations.This is the estuary of the Kushiro River. The endless river originates from the mountains in the north, flows for hundreds of kilometers, nourishes countless lands on both sides of the river, and then flows into the North Pacific Ocean.

There is a simple wooden pier at the mouth of the river, and there are still people on the pier. Those people are carrying spears, wearing khaki military uniforms, black-brimmed big caps, and suede shoes.

"Deputy Commander Wei (Deputy Commander of the Gendarmerie), Imamura has arrived. He brought dozens of people with him, and just got angry at us. But I didn't show weakness and pushed them all back." Wei Boqiu stood up as soon as he got ashore. Zhou Zuoding, the deputy captain of the third brigade, leaned over and reported to him in a low voice.

Zhou Zuoding was the former magistrate of Tai'an County in Dashun. After the Qing army occupied the entire Jinan Prefecture, this person resolutely refused to surrender, and even raised his troops to "stubbornly resist".Wang Aoyong, the emissary ambassador of Shandong and Henan appointed by the Qing government, tried to appease them again and again.Later, the Qing army mobilized a large army to besiege after sweeping other places. Zhou Zuoding saw that things could not be done, so he took a group of old brothers and fled to Yantai.Marshal Mo in Yantai was a Dashun general who controlled Denglai Qingsanfu, and later he was named a Shandong Jiedu ambassador. No matter what happened behind the scenes, at least Marshal Mo was a real Dashun official on the surface, so Shandong Many "remnants of rebellion" went to Yantai to work in Yantai one after another. It was against such a background that Zhou Zuoding came to Yantai.

It's a pity that Yantai was later surrounded by a wall built by the Qing army, which cut off the way for many people to defect.But it doesn't matter, everyone has a lot of ways, surrounded by land, I can get a small fishing boat to go there, in short, Yantai is now like a lighthouse on the ground in Shandong and North Zhili, attracting countless "remnants of the army" to come forward Come and go.

"Oh, why is he losing his temper?" Wei Boqiu asked casually as he stomped his feet hard on the solid ground to keep warm in the cold weather.

"He blamed us for occupying this port without authorization and asked us to retreat immediately." Zhou Zuoding replied immediately, "But I pushed back. I said that there are only a few seasonal Japanese fishermen living here for a short time, and it is a land without owner. We just went ashore to dry some goods, and this Ezo land is not owned by his Matsumae family, so of course we can occupy it."

Hearing what Zhou Zuoding said, Wei Boqiu smiled, noncommittal, and then stepped forward to a place where some wooden houses were built, and shouted from afar: "But Yoshinosuke Imamura of the Matsumae Domain, here is Wei Boqiu. It's the first time we meet, please help me Please take care of me." Xu Xiaojiro, the inspector of the State Intelligence Bureau who served as the interpreter, stood aside and faithfully translated the conversation between the two parties.

"Wei Jun, why did you occupy my Kushiro River without authorization? You set the place of this trade here, do you want to humiliate our Matsumae family?" Seeing a talker coming from the east bank, Yoshinosuke Imamura Then they started to get into trouble.

Looking at Yoshinosuke Imamura who was pretending to be angry, Wei Boqiu sneered in his heart.He didn't believe that these Japanese just found out that people from the east coast had occupied the mouth of the Kushiro River. The liaison officer of the Matsumae Domain in Dabo had been notified of the place of the transaction half a year ago, and the people from the east coast had occupied this port—it was still a wasteland at the time. ——It has been several months, and it is impossible for the Japanese not to send someone to the Kushiro River to take a look during this period of time.Moreover, in July, some Japanese fishermen who came to fish in the nearby waters wanted to go to the Kushiro River to rest on the shore, but were expelled by soldiers on the east bank. It was impossible for these people to return to Fukuyama Castle without reporting to the feudal lord.

In other words, these Japanese actually knew two or three months ago that a group of people from the east coast had occupied the Kushiro River estuary, which was empty at that time.They didn't respond during this time, so it wouldn't be a big deal.Seeing that this Imamura Yoshinosuke had only brought dozens of people over and made a fuss, and seeing that he didn't seem too annoyed, Wei Boqiu immediately felt more at ease.

It's normal for everyone to save face!The Matsumae clan was determined to develop the entire Ezo land, and even coveted the Dabo area of ​​Sakhalin Island. They were so greedy that they couldn't be more greedy. Now they suddenly discovered that a certain place in Ezo land that they regarded as a meal and prepared to enjoy it slowly had been taken by him for many years. His trading partners - who are also a group of powerful bandits - are under control. How can I describe the sourness in my heart with words.Therefore, if they don't show any strong protest attitude at this time, there is no guarantee that this group of robbers will not covet Nemuro, Hakodate and other places that Matsumae Fan has sent people to set up in the future.

However, they can only talk about it, otherwise, wouldn't they want to shoot us with iron guns?What a joke!How many people are there in Matsumae?Even though in the past few years, we have played side-by-side trade with people from the East Coast, secretly smuggled a lot of goods from Dabo to nearby Mutsu and other places for sale, and the economic strength has increased, the population is still only over 1.How many troops can more than 1 people living in a bitter cold place produce?Can these troops fight against the army on the east coast?Don't be ridiculous, I don't dare to borrow the courage of Matsumae Fan!

However, as a business partner for many years, the necessary decency must be given.Therefore, Wei Boqiu first talked with Yoshinosuke Imamura for a while, saying that the people on the east coast just go ashore to dry their goods, and at the same time come here to spend the winter in winter (Kushiro Port is an ice-free port), and sometimes they will come here to rest when they pass by here for fishing. Resting his feet, he had absolutely no ambitions for the territory of the Matsumae Domain, which gave Imamura Yoshinosuke a step to ease his expression.

Seeing that the group of Japanese in the Matsumae Domain were not as aggressive as they were at the beginning, Wei Boqiu started to strike while the iron was hot again, and said, "Mr. Imamura, this time I brought the batch of things according to your lord's wishes. Please check carefully." After speaking, he waved his hand, and Huang Yi, who was still standing on the deck of the ship, immediately directed the sailors to hoist a large number of heavy wooden boxes to the pier bridge through the pulley boom.

Zhou Zuoding, who had been standing aside, pulled out a 41-year steel bayonet from his waist under Wei Boqiu's signal, and then stepped forward to forcefully pry open a box.As the cover of the box was lifted, the yellow "goods" inside immediately attracted everyone's attention.The group of Japanese in Matsumae was even more unbearable. I saw them looking at these things with greedy eyes, and their lips were slightly quivering because of excitement.

"Kan Yong's 13-year-old copper coins, this box is fifty kanwen ①, we shipped a total of [-] boxes, a total of [-] kanwen. Of course, this is only the first batch, let you take it back and try to use it Yes, if you can digest it, please let us know as soon as possible. We can organize the manpower to start working immediately, and strive to produce hundreds of thousands of Guanwen in winter." Wei Boqiu grabbed a handful of copper coins from the box and said leisurely.

In Japan in this era, there was actually a great shortage of copper coins.Especially at the end of the Warring States Period and the rapid economic development of the Shogunate period, the prosperity of private trade led to a sharp increase in the demand for currency year after year.For unknown reasons, the undead shogunate ordered in 1636 to prohibit the circulation of foreign copper coins (mainly Ming copper coins, but also a small amount of Korean copper coins) in Japan, thus creating a huge amount of scrap coins.These scrap coins were later shipped to Vietnam by the Dutch—another place short of copper, so profitable that copper coins and Japanese copper trade became the most profitable item of the Dutch East India Company in the Far East. trading.

Since the shogunate banned the circulation of copper coins from the Ming Dynasty in Japan, it is natural to prepare to use them by casting copper coins.Reluctantly, its money-making technology is really bad, and it is not even as good as those merchants who made private money in Fujian in the Ming Dynasty. The reputation of Kanyong Tongbao is declining, and the number is still very small. This has artificially caused a large-scale money shortage in Japan. .

After Matsumae came into contact with the silver coins stamped and forged by the Dabo Mint on the East Bank in his daily trade, it didn't take long for him to think of the idea of ​​asking people from the East Bank to cast "fake money" for profit.After Wei Boqiu heard about the Japanese request, he agreed without saying a word.A fool would not agree, the astonishing profits here are beyond the imagination of outsiders.

For example, the 500 guanwen Kuanyong Tongbao in front of us only consumes about [-] tons of copper. If you include the cost of purchasing materials (mainly copper, mixed with a small amount of lead and tin), the cost of mold opening and stamping, and the cost of steam engines And all costs such as equipment depreciation, coal consumption, personnel salaries, etc., the total cost is only [-] taels of silver.And in order to get the [-] kanwen copper coins, how much would the Japanese have to pay?

First of all, let's look at the exchange rate set by the Edo shogunate, that is, one tael of gold = fifty silver coins = four copper coins. The ratio of gold to silver is 1:5, and the ratio of silver to copper is 1:80.Let’s not talk about the price ratio of gold and silver, just talk about the price ratio of silver and copper. At this time, the price ratio of silver and copper in Japan’s domestic private and foreign trade has actually reached more than 1:100. The silver-copper ratio in the transaction reached 1623:1 (of course, the texture of these copper blocks is not pure, and there are many impurities mixed in, but it is also an indisputable fact that copper has depreciated a lot in Japan at this time), that is to say, at this time The official exchange rate set by the shogunate was not recognized by all parties in the actual transaction. For example, the Dutch bought a large amount of copper bullion in Japan and shipped it back to Europe, making a profit of twice as much.

Then, if Matsumae used silver to pay for this batch of copper coins, even if calculated according to the ratio of 1:100, they would have to pay 400 taels of standard Daming Kuping silver, and the net profit rate reached 45%. Wei Boqiu was also drunk when he calculated this profit rate at the beginning. It is equivalent to making a net profit of more than three renminbi for every copper coin made. This seigniorage is really soft.

①: Let me talk about the monetary policy of the Edo period in Japan, that is, the simultaneous circulation of gold, silver, and copper.Simply speaking, gold coins in circulation are mainly small pennies (one tael) and one penny; silver coins are divided into units of Wen and Wen, mainly Dingyin and Doubanyin, with different weights and messy shapes; copper coins are copper coins, with Guan and Wen as units. A unit of one thousand texts is called a consistent text.According to the exchange rate given by the shogunate, Jin Xiaopan = Silver Fifty Wen = Copper Coin Four Guan Wen, and the standard weight of the text is 3.759 grams.

(End of this chapter)