The Rise of the European Emperor

In fact, apart from the idea of ​​playing French silver coins, Marin has already set his sights on Italian currency. However, this time, instead of casting fake Italian silver coins, he planned to copy Italian copper coins.

Yes, in this era, copper coins have begun to circulate in Italy. In the Middle Ages, European countries seem to have abolished the copper coins that had been in circulation since ancient Rome, and instead used only gold and silver coins, and then minted the silver coins smaller and smaller. At the same time, copper content has been rising and silver content has been falling.

But anyway, a silver coin is a silver coin. Although the silver content of silver coins in many Italian states is less than 25%, they are still silver coins after all. Even if the price of copper is so expensive, the ratio of silver to copper is still 1:15. Therefore, no matter how small the silver coin is, the denomination is still too large.

In addition, the Italian nobles who are very business-minded are also very unscrupulous. Previously, it was flattering to say that the Italian Denier small silver coins contained less than 25% silver. In some Italian states, the silver content of Denier silver coins is even less than 5%, the lowest can be as low as about 2%, and it is almost impossible to see that they are silver coins. After all, copper accounts for 98% of the ratio, and it looks like a copper coin, a little whitish at most.

So, the Venetians thought—anyway, silver coins are almost the same as copper coins. Why don't we mint copper coins directly?

They did not cast copper coins out of their own imagination, but followed the example of ancient Rome and Byzantium to cast copper coins. The first copper coins to be minted are called Bagattini copper coins (bagattini, the plural of bagattino), which were minted around 1472 to test the water, weighing about 1.5 grams, similar to the standard Denier silver coins (later due to the fall in copper prices, increased to about 1.74 grams). Later, more than 6 grams of Sudi copper coins (soldi, the plural form of soldo) were introduced, which weighed about the same as the one-yuan coins of later generations. Then, the Sudi copper coin became the small base currency of the Venetian standard as a measure of prices. Bagatini, on the other hand, is actually regarded as 1/4 of Sudi.

According to the law of the Republic of Venice, 1 lira = 20 sudi, and 1 ducat = 6 lira and 4 sudi, that is, 1 ducat = 124 sudi. And 1 ducat = 60 standard pfennigs, that is to say, 1 standard pfennig = 2 multi-point sudi copper coins.

At the same time, Spain's Malawi copper coins, Spain officially stipulated that 1 Ducat = 375 Malawi. In other words, 1 sudi = 3 Malawi di. Sudi's coin weighs about 6 grams, similar to a 1 yuan coin, while Malawi's coin weighs about 2 grams.

However, although Venice was the first to mint the Bagatini copper coins, it later preferred to make Sudi copper coins. why? The difficulty of minting coins is different!

Copper, unlike gold and silver, is stronger and more stable at room temperature. Therefore, it is more difficult to be forged into words and become coins. For copper coins, the smaller the coin, the more difficult it is to forge. However, Sudi copper coins are easier to make because they are 4 times larger.

That is to say,

Although Bagatini copper coins are smaller and have a lower value, they are more difficult to forge and more expensive to manufacture. Therefore, the Venetians prefer to mint larger Sudi copper coins. At the same time, Sudi copper coins are also used as the most basic currency measurement unit. The smaller Bagatini copper coins are only regarded as auxiliary coins of Sudi copper coins. Or, just call it a quarter sudi.

At present, in Venice, an apprentice in a shipyard earns 6 copper coins a day. The skilled veteran craftsman earns 24 copper coins per day. The copper coins here all refer to Sudi copper coins. And 2 sudi = 1 pfennig. Therefore, the daily salary of an apprentice in a Venetian shipyard is 3 pfennigs. The veteran shipbuilder's daily salary is as high as 12 pfennigs, which is 1 shilling.

Of course, this is Venice, the richest state in all of Europe. The shipbuilding industry is the core industry of the Republic of Venice, and the wages of craftsmen are indeed high. In other European countries, it is generally not so high. For example, in England, the daily salary of 1 shilling is definitely a very high salary. Even after the North American War of Independence nearly 300 years later, the "price revolution" had already been experienced. The British hired Hessian mercenaries to suppress the North American militias, and the bid was only 1 shilling per day. Therefore, Marin was able to use a high salary of 1 shilling per day to poach Old John from England and help him cast the Hongyi cannon.

...

In fact, the minting of copper coins by the Republic of Venice is very tricky. In fact, the 6-gram Sudi copper coin does not bring much convenience to people's transactions. After all, a Sudi copper coin, worth half a pfennig, is of limited help to the convenience of transactions. It is difficult to make Bagatini copper coins, which greatly facilitates people's transactions. After all, a Bagatini copper coin is only equivalent to 1/8 of a Finney, which is very suitable for receiving money, and it is about the same value as the North Sea State brass coin.

It's just that the Sudi copper coins and Bagatini copper coins in Venice are made of red copper, while the North Sea copper coins are made of brass.

Copper is copper with high purity, and the Venetians minted copper coins with little profit. But why are they so keen on making copper coins? This is why the Venetian chicken thief is mentioned above...

It turned out that the Venetians had frequent trade with Asia, and they could still contact India through middlemen. Like Marin, the Venetians can also purchase very cheap Indian copper. The silver-copper ratio in India is currently around 1:80, while the silver-copper ratio in Europe is 1:15, a difference of 6 times. Even if Arab merchants had to make a lot of profits because of the lack of direct flights, the price of Indian copper imported by the Venetians was no more than half of the European copper price.

Therefore, if you use cheap copper coins imported from Asia, even if you don’t make minting profits, you can earn at least double the profits on materials alone. This is the secret of Venice's copper coins. After all, the Venetians trade frequently with Asia and know the huge difference in copper prices between Asia and Europe.

And this time, Marin also intends to apply the "money ability" to Italy...

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As the wealthiest state in Italy, Venice's behavior was obviously imitated by other states. For example, the Kingdom of Naples began to mint copper coins early, almost at the same time as Venice. And powerful states such as the Duchy of Milan also began to mint copper coins to facilitate small-scale private trade.

In addition, apart from Italy, only Spain and Portugal, two Iberian Peninsula countries, also use copper coins. The Spaniards also followed Marin, using cheap Indian copper to mint Malawi copper coins, and made a lot of minting profits, which were much more profitable than Venetian copper coins. After all, Spain can purchase cheap copper directly from India without going through Arab middlemen, and the cost is much lower than that of the Venetians.

Therefore, this time, Marin intends to use the "banknote ability" to let the Beihai Mint add a group of workers and spiral coin presses to start making Italian copper coins, intending to make a fortune.

In this way, the cost of hiring migrant workers in Italy can be recovered by minting Italian copper coins with cheap copper.

You know, Marin is not the only channel where India can buy copper. Right now, Marin can still buy cheaper red copper from Daming. In Daming, a catty of red cooked copper is only worth 0.1 taels of silver. 1 catty is equal to 16 taels, that is to say, 1 tael of silver can buy 160 taels of red copper, and the price ratio is 1 to 160! This price is almost half of the copper price in India!

Marin used the red copper imported from Ming Dynasty to cast Italian copper coins, which is simply huge profits!

Moreover, it should be pointed out that Italy itself has a lot of "black money" minted privately by the people. The so-called "black money" mainly refers to privately minted money among the people. Generally speaking, most privately minted money is short of catties and belongs to "fake money". For example, the French Denier "silver coin" minted by Marin is out-and-out "fake money". However, "fake money must be privately minted, and not all privately minted money is fake money."

What Marin is going to do this time is to cast high-quality red copper coins. While going to Italy to collect money, it will not hinder the circulation of these "privately minted money" in Italy.

After all, Marin didn't plan to be short this time, but planned to use enough red copper. Moreover, Marin has a spiral coin press in his hand, which is very convenient for casting copper coins.

The characteristic of copper is that it becomes soft at high temperature, and the characters and patterns on copper coins can only be hammered when the copper plate is hot. Of course, this refers to the current coinage process in other European countries, excluding Marin's Beihai Mint.

Generally speaking, when copper coins are hammered by hand, the copper is often cooled and hardened, and the minters often only beat part of the characters and patterns. Therefore, at this time, the coin-making craftsman needs to hold the half-beaten copper plate with iron clips, throw it into a small tempering furnace, and reheat it until it becomes red and soft. Then, take it out and continue to beat it while it is hot.

Therefore, it takes a long time to beat copper coins by hand normally, and it also needs to prepare for multiple tempering and heating, which is costly and low in output.

But it is different with the screw press machine, as long as you prepare the red-hot copper plate, throw it into the machine, and then turn the shaft, you can quickly emboss the words and patterns before the copper plate cools and hardens. And the quality is high. As long as a craftsman beats a copper coin, the screw press machine has already pressed a dozen or twenty copper coins of better quality.

This is a bigger difference than minting gold and silver coins, because gold and silver are softer and don't need to be tempered multiple times. As for copper coins, it is troublesome to cast them because they need to be tempered many times. Therefore, the current European countries generally refuse to mint copper coins. Mainly, casting is too difficult.

Only the Italian states, Spain and Portugal, who have a way to get very cheap copper and ensure high coinage profits, are keen to mint copper coins.

What Marin has to do is to mint a batch of "private coins" of low-cost Italian copper coins. Use good quality to open up the Italian market. At the same time, it also made huge profits from Italy.

The situation of "privately casting money" in Italy itself is very serious, so Marin is not worried about being noticed. Of course, the "private minted money" of the Italian copper coins he minted will not be directly distributed to the Italian migrant workers who come to work in Beihai, which means that they will not recruit themselves. He planned to use the intelligence and business network of the North Sea State in Italy to ship in batches in a low-key manner. Then, use the gold and silver coins exchanged for it to pay the wages of Italian migrant workers.

...

This can be regarded as another display of Marin's "money ability", and this time, Marin is not worried about being found out that the coins are true or false. Because he doesn't tamper with the materials, the copper coins he makes are definitely "conscientious money", and he is not afraid of being inspected.

The only concern is that he is afraid that someone will follow the clues and find out the fake French silver coins. Therefore, he decided to use his "money ability" in a low-key manner to collect money in Italy to recover the cost of hiring a large number of migrant workers in Italy...

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