Chapter 938: Copper coins and 0 money

At this auction, there was a very interesting scene where Marin received a lot of fake silver coins that he minted ...

These counterfeit silver coins mainly come from the vassals of western Germany near France. They trade frequently with France, and naturally receive a lot of French silver coins. Moreover, by comparison, those fake silver coins are more like real silver coins. Real silver coins are too rough, like fake ones.

It was Marin who made the masters of the mint roughen the money model. If a better model is adopted, it is estimated that the French coin can be thrown a few streets. Moreover, Marin can also see that the western princes did not realize that these were counterfeit currencies.

It's no wonder that France's silver coins contain more copper than silver, and silver coins become very hard. If you want to bite with your teeth, you will definitely fall apart. The appearance of fake silver coins made by Marin is not much different from that of real silver coins, and no one knows the existence of zinc and nickel in this era. If you mix tin and copper, you get bronze instead of whitish silver coins. Therefore, no one can tell the truth.

After receiving these fake French silver coins, Marin felt a bit bitter. After all, this is a brick and smashed his feet. However, since no one found it to be a counterfeit currency, Marin decided to take the counterfeit silver coins received as soon as possible and use them in France for the purchase of fine breeds of cattle such as Charolais cattle and Berchurren horses ...

But Marin didn't know that the fake silver coins he got out, because no one could recognize them as fake, so there was no need to rush to use them in France.

In ancient times, distinguishing the authenticity of coins was nothing but the authenticity of coins by means of feel, comparison of size, and density calculation by weighing. If it is a gold coin, you can also bite it to see if it is soft or not. Silver coins won't work, because silver coins are too much copper, so they can't bite. However, these methods are completely ineffective against the nickel-copper-copper silver coins made by Marin. Marin, a half-literate liberal arts student, has even the density of French real silver coins. How can you tell? In terms of appearance, density, and corrosion resistance of coins, the nickel-copper silver coins made by Marin are no less than real French silver coins. Therefore, those fake silver coins, which circulate happily in the French market, have all flowed into German territory. If it were not for Kohler ’s men who knew that fake silver coins look more real than real silver coins, they might not even find these fake coins ...

Strictly speaking, before the massive influx of gold and silver from the Americas into Europe, all European countries lacked precious metals that cast money. The problem with insufficient currency is the lack of market vitality. Even, it will lead to the primitive trade of barter. Therefore, Marin minted a large number of fake silver coins with no problem for France, not only did not pit into France, but promoted the circulation of money in the French domestic market. Of course, he is not pitted. For example, French King Louis XII, he made a huge profit from the mint tax, and was earned by Marin ...

In fact, in this era of Europe, due to the lack of precious metals, prices have been low. The low price has the consequence that it is difficult to change coins.

For example, in the German area, a male laborer's daily wages are 2 Finney silver coins. The problem is that Finney is the smallest unit of currency in Germany in this era, and there is no change for smaller units.

This has caused that if you want to buy goods, if you use Finney small silver coins, it is difficult for the other party to get change. For this reason, people in the German region have invented a method of using rye and salt as change to solve this problem. Or, use the bookkeeping method and wait for 1 Finney's full money before charging the currency. However, this is still very inconvenient.

In fact, Marin once thought about using copper coins. Moreover, in this era, Spain in southern Europe has begun to use a copper coin called Malawidi as the smallest unit of currency.

However, Marin also had his concerns. His main concern is that the current European copper price is too high, resulting in a falsely high value of copper coins.

For example, the ratio of silver to copper in Europe is now 1 to 15. In other words, only 1 pure silver coin can be exchanged for 15 copper coins of equal weight. The problem is that the current silver content in European silver coins is generally very low. Like silver coins in France and Spain, copper accounts for more than half. For example, the Spanish copper coin Malawidi was originally a small silver coin similar to Finney. However, as the silver content decreased and the copper content increased, the Spanish simply cast Malawidi into pure copper coins, no longer doped with silver.

This has led to that in Spain, a silver coin can only be exchanged for several copper coins, and the value of the copper coins is too high.

The original intention of Marin to promote copper coins is to match the silver coins with change. However, only a few silver coins can be exchanged for one silver coin, which is hardly a change.

Only like Hua Xia, one or two silver coins can be exchanged for 1,000 coins, so the coins can play the role of change. Like Europe, a silver coin can only be exchanged for a few or a dozen copper coins. It is difficult to use copper coins as a change of silver coins.

For example, let ’s compare the wages of a German man ’s 2 Finney coins a day to 100 yuan for later generations. Then, a Finney silver coin is equivalent to 50 yuan.

However, if it is exchanged for copper coins, the high price of copper in Europe at that time, plus the low silver content of silver coins, a Finney silver coin can only be exchanged for a few copper coins. Calculated in this way, the value of a copper coin is almost equivalent to about 10 yuan ...

In other words, even if copper coins are used, their value is still as high as about 10 yuan. But Marin knew very well that even if the price of China's later generations soared, the dime was used as the smallest change unit. And between a dime and 10 yuan, there are three currency units of 5 cents, 1 yuan and 5 yuan ...

Calculated in this way, now the promotion of copper coins in Europe can not achieve the role of the smallest change. Unless, copper prices plummeted ...

If the price of copper falls to a silver-copper price ratio of 1 to 100, then copper coins can be fully used as a change of silver coins. One Finney silver coin equivalent to 50 yuan can be exchanged for 100 small copper coins if it is exchanged at a silver-copper ratio of 1 to 100. And a copper coin is reduced to a level almost equivalent to 5 cents. Although it is still a bit inadequate, it is enough to be used for change ....

But that is only a hypothesis. The reality is that the lack of copper mines in Europe has led to high copper prices. Marin's idea is difficult to realize.

If the value of copper coins is too high, it is difficult to act as a medium for small transactions. In this way, it is difficult for business to become active.

In fact, Marin also considered using paper money. However, after thinking about it, he gave up. Because, there is no effective anti-counterfeiting technology. Then, counterfeiting of paper money will be very easy. If a lot of paper money is forged ~ www.wuxiaspot.com ~, then the economy is likely to collapse.

It is not that banknotes are not good enough, but that banknotes were difficult to implement in ancient times. Not to mention that the public is not necessarily willing to accept it, and it is not easy to promote paper money if it cannot contain counterfeiting. Moreover, it is difficult for Marin to guarantee that his descendants will spam paper money, leading to economic collapse. After all, his descendants are not traversers, but he is not cautious. Just like the Ming dynasty in this era, the official misprinted treasure banknotes, which caused the value of treasure banknotes to plummet. Even though the imperial court's three-for-five and five-dollar banknotes were legal currencies, everyone still refused to buy them. In the end, it was copper coins and silver that circulated in the Daming Empire. As for Bao banknotes, no one is willing to believe this ... It seems that in Zhengde years, the Bao banknotes issued by the Ming Dynasty were abolished and became waste paper ...

Therefore, to make coins, precious metals such as gold, silver and copper have to be used. But the question is, where does the copper come from?

The Fayilun Copper Mine has begun to produce large amounts of copper, but it is estimated that it will take some years to reach the level of supply to all of Europe. Then, the introduction of cheap copper from India and China has become a shortcut. However, it seems that China also lacks copper. So, only develop the copper mountain in Japan? It seems that the development of Tongshan in Japan is still very low. Lian Shi sees that Silver Mountain has not yet been developed, let alone those Copper Mountain? Therefore, in the future, Marin not only has to shoulder the responsibility of the developer of Ishigami Silver Mountain, but also needs to provide technology to those Japanese big names and encourage them to develop copper mountains in Japan on a large scale to provide enough cheap copper. In the original history, it seemed that the European copper price was suppressed by the Dutch cheap copper shipped back to Europe from Japan ...

And until the day when the copper price is suppressed, the role of copper coins as small change in small transactions can really be brought into play. Unlike now, because of the high price of copper, copper coins simply cannot play the role of change, which greatly hinders the development of the European market economy ...