Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 638 Copper Coin ([-])

If the profit of 45% of casting money is already very high, then if we change the payment method, it may make you even more dumbfounded. If you don’t believe me, continue to read.

Since the Matsumae clan opened a certain number of gold mines in Ezo, and produced a large amount of placer gold every day, they had quite a lot of gold in their hands.If the people on the east coast demanded that they use gold to pay for copper coins, then this would be even closer to robbery.There is no other reason, because the gold-silver ratio between 1:5 and 1:6 in Japan at this time is really cheating, and the copper coins of 60 kanwen need to pay the Japanese gold small sentence (one tael, 2848 grams) 170.87 pcs, totaling 1 kg.If so much gold is calculated according to the European gold-silver ratio of 14.5:280, it is equivalent to about [-] silver dollars on the east coast. The rate reached [-]%!

What an amazing profit!

Of course, you have to leave a certain amount of profit for Matsumae Fan. It is really stressful for them to get a bunch of fake money from you and use it back.Especially in terms of quality, fineness, and exquisite appearance, these fake money all exploded the seventeen or eighteen streets of real money minted by the shogunate, and a discerning eye could see the problems inside at a glance.Fortunately, the demand for copper coins in Japan at this time is in units of tens of millions of kanwen. It is really not a big deal for the more than 2 kanwen copper coins stamped and manufactured by people from the east coast to circulate in the market.

Moreover, based on the law that bad money drives out good money, ordinary people will inevitably keep it at home after receiving the full-quality fake money from the East Coast, and continue to use the low-quality real money minted by the shogunate on hand, so This virtually further reduces the influence of fake money on the East Bank.

When five hundred boxes were neatly stacked on the ground of the Kushiro Port pier, Yoshinosuke Imamura had calmed down. He and his subordinates had no interest in checking more than twenty boxes at random. up.It is impossible for the people on the east coast to lie to them. They have always been good at minting money, so there is no need to lie to them. The money in these boxes must be real money.That being the case, it's time to talk about the price.

"It's not impossible for you to ask for payment in gold, but we don't have enough gold at the moment, so I hope the form of payment is half gold and half silver, how about it?" Imamura Yoshinosuke asked.

"Yes." After pondering for a while, Wei Boqiu nodded lightly, as if he agreed to the Japanese proposal.

"Then, the total price proposed by you is 400 taels of treasury flat silver, which is fair. If gold and silver are paid in half..." Having said that, Imamura Yoshinosuke turned his head and looked behind him, and then a The entourage came up and told him the calculated result.

"Gold and silver are paid in half, and we need to pay you a total of 142 catties of gold (Japanese catties, about 85 kilograms), and 783 catties of silver, right?" Imamura Yoshinosuke continued.

"Imamura-kun's calculation is correct." Wei Boqiu and others nodded their approval after repeatedly calculating on paper.Gold and silver are paid half and half, and the income of the people on the east coast from casting this batch of money should be more than 7000 taels of silver (calculated according to the European gold and silver exchange rate), and there is almost a 150% profit after this trip.

No wonder the Dutch are desperately using goods and silver to buy gold and copper in Japan. It turns out that the profits here are so large that the Dutch East India Company believes that the profit of Japanese copper trade exceeds that of selling silk and porcelain from China to Japan. The profits are so great that they do everything possible to make up for the deteriorating relationship with the Japanese so that they can continue to do business in Japan.

"However..." At this point, Imamura Yoshinosuke's words suddenly changed, and then he continued in a blunt tone: "In view of the high risk we face in using this batch of currency, as well as some other problems, According to the agreement between us, we have the right to ask you to give us a certain discount rate."

here we go again!Wei Boqiu sighed helplessly, and then negotiated with Imamura Yoshinosuke and others from the Matsumae Domain. After talking for more than an hour, the two parties finally decided on the discount rate: 95% off!This is a quarter of the profit lost, plus the fact that the Japanese Matsumae clan has already killed the other party when they bought copper blocks. The profit of the Matsumae clan this time is really not small, probably between [-]% and [-]%.After such a toss, the profit of the people on the east bank this time is only about [-]% (more than [-] taels of silver), which is less than double the profit.However, considering that this is just the beginning, and the climax of the copper coin business with Matsumae Fan is yet to come, thinking about it, Wei Boqiu suddenly felt that the finances of the Far East Blackwater Pioneering Team's jurisdiction had become much brighter.

After the transaction of copper coins between the two parties was completed, Matsumae Fan spent money to buy more than [-] pieces of processed leather that Temple Street sent to Dabo. Luxuries such as soap, whale oil candles, pendulum clocks, etc. At the same time, they also sold food, sulfur, lead and other items brought along with the ship to the people on the east coast.

In addition to these commodities, the "goods" brought by the Matsumae clan also included about 300 Japanese samurai and their descendants. These people had just disembarked from the old-fashioned Ataka boats of the Matsumae clan at this time, and they were standing at the pier in unison. Come on, prepare to meet Wei Boqiu, the new Patriarch.

Of course Wei Boqiu didn't dare to regard these warriors bought with public funds as his retainers, so he asked Zhou Zuoding to take these people to settle down first.The stand-up team has been fighting continuously outside, and the wear and tear is not small. It is urgent to replenish soldiers. These Japanese samurai can be replenished after a few months of training.Anyway, they are cannon fodder, and they are not required to master complex tactics or skills, as long as they dare to attack with a bare blade at critical moments.

Besides, most of these so-called wild samurai are left by the people of Matsumae clan. After several years of trade, Matsumae clan has greatly increased both economic and military strength. Worked.Therefore, there is really no need to pay too much attention to these selected remaining warriors, just treat them the same as those Ming and North Korean soldiers, they are all cannon fodder.

After the transaction was completed, Yoshinosuke Imamura of the Matsumae Domain came to say goodbye.Seeing that he hesitated to speak, Wei Boqiu guessed in his heart that he was going to talk about Kushiro Port again, so he simply didn't give him another chance, and directly reasoned that he still had something to deal with, and then walked to the small wooden houses behind I left Imamura Yoshinosuke and others on the pier to stare at Zhou Zuoding and Huang Yi.

When Imamura Yoshinosuke saw this, he understood what was going on, so he sighed deeply, then took his leave and boarded the ship and left.The feudal lord's business with these people on the east bank is getting bigger and bigger, and now they even get involved in the copper coin trade. In fact, this has gradually surpassed the scope of the Shandan trade that the shogunate acquiesced, and it is tantamount to playing around the edges of the shogunate's lock-up order.According to the development of the current situation, things like the invasion of Kushiro Port by people from the east bank are actually trivial things. The real trouble is that the Matsumae Domain is weak and weak, and may not be able to control the growing scene today.

"It seems that after going back, we have to tell the feudal lord how bad it is, and bring the surrounding Deba clan over, otherwise we won't be able to keep the fruits in our hands. If this is not enough, we will also drag the Date family, which is the most powerful in the Northeast region, into the water. Date The family is too poor to die, haha, the black eyes are the most distasteful money, if the Date family can be successfully brought in, then this business will be stable for a long time." Imamura Yoshinosuke was sitting along the North On the ship sailing southwest with the wind, I was still thinking about the situation facing the Matsumae Domain in my mind.

After Imamura Yoshinosuke and others left, Wei Boqiu also considered the current situation in the Heishui area.In general, the situation in the Blackwater area is not bad-except for financial problems.When thinking of this financial problem, Wei Boqiu felt a headache. Marshal Mo set up a standing team with [-] soldiers in the Heishui area. He also sent guns, cannons and armor to Li Chuang's remaining troops (these could have been sold to North Korea and Japan for money). The monthly cost is an astronomical figure.

Among other things, the military salary of Moonlight is 3000 yuan. If other expenses are included, the total annual expenditure in the Heishui area is about 115 million yuan (including 40 million yuan for grain purchases), which is almost 46% of the total local financial expenditure in 51.This is not ignorance, it’s shocking, a small black water development team spends half of the local funds every year, it’s really speechless, the hole that Marshal Mo poked is really big enough of.

As for income, the Far East used to be a military-administered area, and a material rationing system was implemented, with very little income.That is to say, in the last year, there has only been a small amount of commercial activities among the various regions under the jurisdiction of the Heishui area, which has made the general fiscal revenue of the local government achieve a certain increase.In the whole of last year, the general financial income of the Blackwater Pioneering Team was about 80 yuan, an increase of 10% over the previous year; in addition, the special financial income (income from loot) was not easy to calculate, and it was about [-] taels. .Moreover, there are a large number of livestock, books, artworks and other things that are not easy to value among the loot, and can only be stored in the warehouse to be digested slowly later.

In general, if the Blackwater region in the Far East is to operate safely and healthily, then economic development becomes an inevitable choice. After all, looting alone is not a long-term solution at all.For this point, Wei Boqiu has a deep understanding, and this is exactly what he has been doing.

At the end of last month (September), the three steam-engine sailboats newly arrived from the mainland not only brought a large number of mechanical parts and weapons and ammunition, but also many thick glass cans.These glass cans were specially requested by Wei Boqiu to be shipped from the mainland. He planned to use the rich fishery resources and meat resources in the Heishui area to make some cans, and then began to sell them in the surrounding areas, and more or less returned some funds.The cannery is located at Dabo Port, and it will start construction after the port thaws in the spring of next year (9).

(End of this chapter)