The Rise of the European Emperor

Welcome, please remember the address of this site: , mobile phone reading, so that you can read the latest chapter of the novel "The Rise of the Emperor of Europe" at any time...

Marin's plan was good, but Julius II did not agree with it. It is not that the Pope is unwilling to cooperate with Marin, but that he doubts the coinage ability of Beihai Kingdom. After all, Beihai Kingdom did not have a history of minting coins before, and it is a big question whether they have experience. The Bank of Siena did have a mint, but more than a dozen families in charge were killed by Marin.

You know, the mint is a very important department. In order to better control the mint, those banker families in Siena generally choose family children to control the mint and master the core technology. But Marin wiped out all the members of the dozen or so families, and the Siena Mint lost its core technology.

And, as Julius II knew, the mint needed a lot of craftsmen. For example, the mint in Tours, France, has three or four thousand mint craftsmen. Moreover, they are all skilled craftsmen. New craftsmen generally start out. After all, it's minting money, not producing ordinary things.

In this era, all coins in European countries were hand-forged. The mint first had ordinary artisans punch and cut round pieces of gold or silver of the same size. Then, experienced mint craftsmen, using hammers and stamping dies, hammer out the desired heads and letters on gold or silver pieces. Not only is this time consuming, but each forged coin is different.

Among them, the best forging is gold coins. Because, there is an unspoken rule in Europe - gold coins are not adulterated. Therefore, most gold coins in Europe are made of high-purity gold. High-purity gold is very soft, and when forging with a hammer and a die, it is easy to shape the avatar and letters, which is more trouble-free. Moreover, the reason why gold coins are only about 3.56 grams is because they cannot be made too large. If it is larger, the gold, which is inherently softer, is prone to misshapen coins. Likewise, silver coins. However, because various countries dope silver coins with copper, the silver coins are harder, so I don't worry that they will be deformed if they are made too large. But the problem that comes with it is that after being doped with copper, the silver coin becomes hard and it becomes difficult to forge the head and letters. Therefore, forging silver coins now is much more laborious than forging gold coins.

Julius II was actually very interested that Marin wanted to mint a batch of gold coins bearing his head for the Holy See. After all, his life is limited, but gold can survive for thousands of years. As long as the gold coin with his image on it is there, his reputation can be passed on to future generations and endure for a long time. It's just that the Papal State has never had a powerful mint, and he has no such idea.

As for Marin wanting to mint gold coins for him, Julius II did not trust Marin's coinage technology...

Marin saw that the Pope's father-in-law did not believe in his own strength, so he pretended to say:

"As of now, I have to show you the coinage technology of our Beihai Kingdom..."

Then, he turned his head and walked away (although he had a knife in his butt and couldn't sit down, but walking was fine), he came to the barracks of his own army and shouted:

"Who has the newly minted copper coins of Beihai Kingdom?"

"Who has the newly minted copper coins of Beihai Kingdom?"

...

The soldiers of the Beihai Mountain Infantry Regiment who came with him were a little stunned - what is the boss doing? Are you short of money? shouldn't be...

how do they know,

Marin just wanted to show his father-in-law the strength of Beihai Kingdom's coinage. Coincidentally, some time ago, Beihai Kingdom had trial-produced a batch of brass coins, which were pressed by a spiral coinage machine. The patterns were clear and exquisite, and it was just right for Julius II to see and let him see the Beihai Kingdom Mint. technical strength.

But the problem is that Malin is the ruler of Beihai Kingdom, and he doesn't usually carry silver coins in his hands, at least gold coins, how can there be copper coins? Therefore, he can only turn to his subordinates for help...

After shouting for a while, some soldiers finally reacted - it's definitely worth it to lend money to the boss and let the boss owe favors!

As a result, a group of soldiers took out the newly-issued brass coins with the golden eagle pattern of the nine crosses from Beihai Kingdom and scrambled to hand them to Marin.

Marin didn't know whether to laugh or cry, he wasn't really short of money to borrow money, he could only take a sample. Of course, he will not let his subordinates suffer. He picked out more than a dozen new Beihai Kingdom brass coins, but gave back as many gold coins as the soldiers who gave the brass coins. Then, with the dozen or so brass coins, he returned to the backyard of the Lateran Temple where Julius II was.

"Look, this is a newly minted copper coin from my mint. Look at the quality, isn't it good?"

"Gold coins?" Julius II had never seen zinc brass, and its color was very similar to gold. Moreover, because it was newly minted not long ago, it was still yellow and bright, which made Julius II mistaken for a gold coin.

But after carefully holding it in his hand and observing it, Julius II realized that this is the copper coin...

After observing these copper coins, Julius II was shocked:

"Why is this pattern so delicate, and the traces are so deep..."

His surprise was normal, because, in this age of handmade coins, copper coins are difficult to make. Because, the patterns and characters on the copper coins were beaten by the mint craftsmen step by step. The problem is that copper is very hard, and it only becomes soft when it reaches a certain high temperature after returning to the furnace. After the softened hot copper sheet is taken out, the mint craftsmen will step up the forging while it is still soft.

The problem is that hand-building is very slow, too slow to keep up with the cooling of the copper sheets. When the copper sheet cools down, it is no longer soft. It is more difficult for the mint to hammer out precise patterns and words on the copper sheet. Therefore, the casting of copper coins is often rough and the traces are not deep. Because copper is very hard after cooling down, it is difficult to hammer out deeper marks.

The North Sea Country Mint in Marin, on the other hand, used a screw-type mint to suppress coins for a short period of time. Just rotate the lever arm a few times and press the steel mold hard against the copper sheet, and the casting can be completed in no time. And the hot and soft hot copper sheet has no time to cool and harden. Moreover, the pressure of the screw-type minting machine is very high, and the marks are naturally much deeper than that of the mint craftsmen using a small manual hammer.

Therefore, the brass coins of the North Sea Kingdom that Marin showed to Julius II were not only beautiful and accurate in pattern, but also had deep traces. Ordinary craftsmen cannot beat such exquisite coins at all.

...

"Do you think the quality is okay? It's a copper coin. It's easier to make if it's gold."

Julius II looked at the dozen or so copper coins and nodded, but then asked:

"It's hard to make such a beautiful coin, right? What's the manufacturing speed? Can it keep up with production needs?"

Julius II did not know that Beihai Kingdom used machines to make coins, and thought that Marin had top-level minting craftsmen with superb skills.

With a smile, Marin explained to Julius II the use of the screw-type minting machine in Beihai Kingdom. Julius II's eyes suddenly lit up and wanted to introduce the screw-type mint for the Papal State.

Marin hurriedly stopped him, joking, the Papal State is not a hereditary territory, so why introduce such a good technology for the Papal State? Moreover, if the Papal State wants to mint coins, it can completely contract it to the Bank of Siena controlled by Marin. If the technology of the spiral minting machine is mastered by the Papal State, Marin can be sure that those greedy cardinals must be crazy to create bad coins and disrupt the market.

Under Marin's persuasion, Julius II, who felt that he would not live for a few years, finally gave up the idea of ​​introducing a spiral coinage. However, he still attaches great importance to the casting of the gold coins with his portrait...

"Well, I will send someone to ask the young and promising sculptor Michelangelo to help me design a money mold, and then give it to your people to mint gold coins. As for gold, you can use what you have. For example, those gold ingots, florin gold coins, ducat gold coins, etc. that you seized..."

"What's the new gold coin called? Ducat or Florin?" Marin asked.

"Just call it Pope Ducat..." Julius II thought about it and said. Previously, the Pope had ordered the minting of gold coins, but they were generally called florins. And Julius II planned to do something different, so he planned to change his name to "Pope Ducat". In addition to being different from history, it also has the meaning of being in line with the Ducat gold coins issued by Venice.

"By the way, where is the young sculptor Michelangelo... Well, it seems that he was sent to carve the ceiling fresco "Genesis" in the Sistine Chapel. I have to send someone to call him here..."

"Who is that, go to the Sistine Chapel and call Millet (Michelangelo) for me!" Julius II exclaimed majestically. That posture, it seems that instead of inviting a great artist, he is summoning a watchdog at will, making Marin a little stunned...

...