The Rise of the European Emperor

In fact, Beihai Kingdom also issued brass coins to the country while minting fake French silver coins of nickel-nickel-white copper. Since 1508, the North Sea Country Mint has been minting zinc-brass coins of the same weight as the Finney (1.5 grams), and stipulated that 1 Imperial Finney with a silver content of 50% is exchanged for 8 coins with the Bullock family engraved on them. A brass coin with a golden eagle with 9 crosses.

This copper coin, also known as the "Nine Golden Eagles" by the people, is the smallest denomination coin in Beihai Kingdom at present. Since 1508, about 20 million Marlins have been issued and put into the market.

After 4 years of circulation tests, the people of Beihai Kingdom have basically accepted this small denomination currency with a smaller denomination, but it is very similar to gold coins.

Brass is very similar to gold, so this small copper coin looks like a gold coin. If Marin hadn't deliberately made the brass coin the size of a small silver Finney, it might have been mistaken for a gold coin. Because it is as golden as gold coins.

Therefore, this small copper coin, which looks like a gold coin, is very popular in the market. After many poor people took the brass coins, they often pretended to brag to their friends - look, I have gold coins...

Moreover, the appearance of such small denomination copper coins has indeed facilitated the transaction and circulation of small commodities. Unlike before, a Finney coin, which is equivalent to 50 yuan in later generations, can't be changed if you take it out.

In the past, when people went to beer halls to drink beer, they often had to pay bills because they couldn't get change. And now, the emergence of small brass coins equivalent to one-eighth of the face value of Finney silver coins has facilitated the consumption of drunkards. At the same time, it is also convenient to buy small commodities.

At the same time as the issuance of small denomination brass coins, this small copper coin was named "cent", which is the word for cents in later generations. At the same time, it also means change.

Moreover, Marin also enforced that both German and English call this brass coin "cent", and the pronunciation is the same. The reason for this regulation is to facilitate the integration of English and German as much as possible when the United Kingdom is united in the future, so that the English and Germans can communicate more closely and avoid excessive national differences that lead to mutual opposition.

In order to promote the use of the one-cent copper coin, Marin also took the initiative to reduce the city entry tax from 1 pfennig to 1 cent copper coin. Moreover, the soldiers guarding the city gate were deliberately not allowed to give change.

In this way, in order to save money, people will definitely take the initiative to exchange one penny copper coins to pay the city tax. Otherwise, it would be too much of a loss. You know, if you pay one pfennig into the city tax, it is 8 times more expensive than paying copper coins.

Therefore, when Marin returned to China, many Beihai people had already strongly demanded the issuance of one-cent copper coins. Especially those traders who often come and go in and out of the city, as shrewd as they are, they will definitely not be willing to pay the city tax with silver coins.

However, ministers have no right to issue currency. So, we have to wait for Marin to come back to decide. Because only the princes can order the coinage, and the regent has no right to order the Mint of Beihai Kingdom to coin coins.

Kohler brought this up when shipping fake French silver coins. Marin thought again and again and finally decided to issue an additional 500 million one-cent copper coins to promote domestic commercial circulation.

However, on the other hand, he wants to have people make 500 million nickel-nickel-white copper fake French silver coins. It seems that there are not enough people, and there are not enough screw presses. Therefore, Marin ordered to expand the scale of the Beihai Mint, recruit more people, and buy more machines.

However, it takes hundreds of tons of copper to mint 500 million one-cent copper coins, which is quite expensive. Fortunately, Sweden's Fajron copper mine now has half of Marin's earnings. The copper obtained is just used to mint coins.

...

But what Marin didn't expect was that he was thinking of using the copper coins from Sweden, and something went wrong in Sweden...

It turned out that when Sweden heard the news that Marin might be in a shipwreck, it was also a little eager to lose the shares of Marin's Fayilun Copper Mine.

It's just that there is a lot of noise in Sweden right now. Because, some timid Swedish nobles are afraid of the retaliation of the North Sea army.

After all, the Swedes have few people and a poor country, and the number of troops is limited, and they can pull up more than 10,000 troops at most. But now the North Sea Kingdom alone has an army of 30,000 to 40,000 people, and its combat effectiveness is very strong, which really makes them afraid.

Therefore, the Swedish Aristocratic Parliament finally decided - wait and see, at least after the North Sea Army is disbanded, can it be publicly relinquished to Marin's shares.

And their decision ultimately saved Sweden's life. Because, before they finally made up their minds to get rid of Marin's copper stake, Marin showed up...

...

Of course, Marin didn't know about this episode, otherwise, Sweden would have to look good. Moreover, Marin is not in the mood to worry about anything else now, and he is very happy. Because -- the first saltpeter from Chile arrives...

When setting off for Daming, Marin passed by Panama, and once let an exploration team take a group of slaves and camels purchased from Egypt, as well as hundreds of solar cookers, to land in the future port of Iquique in northern Chile, and to the desert Explore the depths of saltpeter mines.

The leader who landed in Iquique with hundreds of Egyptian slaves, dozens of camels and hundreds of solar cookers was called Kuska, who was originally just a criminal in East Frisian. Of course, he only committed the crime of offending a certain offshoot of the Sergei family that ruled East Friesland. Then, the whole family was thrown into prison, and the parents also died in prison. Only Kuska survived because of his youth and strength.

After Marin seized the country of East Friesland, he released all the prisoners who were persecuted by the Serksner family, except for the criminals who really harmed the society.

So, Kuscat came to the door, recognized Marin as his benefactor, and was willing to die for Marin. Because the Kuska family was originally a fisherman, Marin sent him to a sailing school to study and prepare him to be a captain.

But the problem is, this Kuska doesn't seem to be very smart. Aben, a fisherman who entered the captain's school like him, had already passed the assessment to become a captain, and Kuska had studied a few more years than Aben before barely passing the test. Therefore, Kuska is not very talented, and his ability is not strong.

However, one thing Marlin is clear - this person is very loyal and reliable. Outside, whoever dares to speak ill of Marin, this guy will get angry and want to duel...

It just so happens that the development of Chilean saltpeter is highly confidential and requires reliable people. Therefore, Marin chose Kuska, who was not very capable but loyal, as the governor of Iquique.

And Kuska did not live up to Marin's trust. After landing in Iquique, he did not take the risk of sending someone to find saltpeter immediately, but was busy building the Iquique base, especially the deployment of the desalination solar cooker... …

It took several months for Kuska to build a habitable seaside outpost in Iquique that would produce large quantities of fresh water every day.

Then, he sent troops to supervise those Egyptian slaves, including slave craftsmen who knew saltpeter, and rode camels to the depths of the desert to find saltpeter.

When Marin returned from Daming, the men and horses sent by Kuska found a saltpeter mine in the depths of the desert dozens of kilometers away from Iquique. He then began sending slaves to mine saltpeter and transport it on camels to the port of Iquique. Then, it was sealed and packaged in oil-paper bags that Marin had obtained from the Cape Breton Island paper mill, and shipped to Panama, and from Panama to the mainland...

The output of this first batch of Chilean saltpeter is not much, only more than 50 tons, and it has not been purified. Even, its main ingredient is sodium saltpeter, not the military potassium saltpeter. Because, sodium saltpeter is very easy to deliquescence deterioration. For long-term preservation, sodium saltpeter needs to be converted into potassium saltpeter.

The specific conversion method is also very simple, which is to mix and dissolve sodium saltpeter and plant ash (including) for ion exchange. Then, according to the principle of different solubility of potassium nitrate at different temperatures, the temperature change of the saturated solution is controlled to precipitate potassium nitrate, which is used as military saltpeter...