The Rise of the European Emperor

According to the silver-to-copper ratio of 1:160 in the Ming Dynasty, it is not even one-tenth of the 1:15 ratio in Europe. In terms of material cost alone, it is more than ten times lower. Of course, this is the origin purchase price. It would also cost a lot to transport red copper from Daming to Europe. But in any case, the cost is definitely much cheaper than purchasing Indian copper.

In addition, the manufacturing cost and manufacturing speed of copper coins, Marin's mint is much better than any country in Europe. For example, Spain, which has begun to use Indian copper to mint Malawi copper coins, is completely incomparable with the North Sea country in terms of the efficiency of copper coin minting.

Spanish coinage still uses the traditional technology of hand-hammering and engraving characters and patterns by craftsmen, which is very inefficient. Moreover, the scale of production is difficult to expand.

For example, the two Royal Mints in Toledo and Zaragoza, Spain, only have a total of more than 4,000 craftsmen. It's not that the two kings of Spain didn't want to expand the scale, but that minting craftsmen were not easy to train. Making copper coins by hand is also a technical job, and most people can't do it. As for the training of apprentices, with the European apprenticeship system, it often takes 7 years of training to become a teacher. Therefore, this affected the expansion of the Spanish coinage.

The Beihai State is different. The Beihai State Mint uses machines such as the spiral coin press to produce coins, and the technical requirements for workers are very low. What is really technical is actually making molds, which only requires a small number of skilled craftsmen. When pressing copper coins, there is no need for any technology at all. Just throw the bare copper plate into the machine while it is hot, rotate the shaft vigorously, and press it hard. One copper coin is ready, and the efficiency is more than ten times higher? The work of more than 4,000 craftsmen in the two Spanish mints can be done by two or three hundred people in the Beihai Mint.

Moreover, this time Marin did not intend to let Spain go. Spain's Malawi copper coins are also one of the goals of Marin's cottage. Even, the market size of Spain is larger than that of Venice...

Yes, you read that right, the Spanish market is bigger than Venice!

Although it is said that Venice's trade volume and fiscal revenue are higher than those of Spain. However, a fatal problem is that the native population of Venice is too small!

Venice's native population is less than 200,000, while Spain's population exceeds 8 million. The huge difference in population makes the Spanish market far larger than that of Venice.

Although Venice's annual trade process, the currency circulation is very large. But it is worth noting that Venice is engaged in international trade, which requires the use of currencies recognized by all countries. For example, Ducat gold coins, and Grosso with high silver content. Other silver coins with low silver content, as well as copper coins, are not recognized by anyone outside Italy.

Just like the Venetian copper coin, if you leave Italy, it will not be recognized by other countries. Even within Italy, there are not many countries that accept it, and only some neighboring states are willing to accept copper coins issued by Venice. Because the economic ties between these states and the Republic of Venice are too deep, and they are greatly affected. At the same time, it is convenient for them to go to Venice to purchase goods,

Only then did the Venetian copper coins be accepted. But counting the total population, it is not as good as the total population of Spain.

Therefore, the income of counterfeiting Italian copper coins is not as good as that of counterfeiting Spanish copper coins. But the problem is that Marin does not plan to go to Spain to recruit migrant workers. Therefore, Marin preferred to copy Italian copper coins instead of Spanish copper coins.

In addition, limited by the fact that copper coins are only circulated in the country and do not participate in international trade, even if Marin counterfeit Spanish copper coins, it is more difficult to put them into the Spanish market. After all, although Marin has a complete intelligence system in Spain, it does not have a complete business system. In Italy, because of the relationship of the Papal State and the fact that Marin had a good relationship with Venice very early on. Therefore, Marin established commercial channels in Italy early, and it is more convenient to sell privately minted copper coins.

Therefore, if you want to mint Spanish copper coins to collect money in Spain, you need to establish a secret business channel in Spain to facilitate the shipment of copper coins.

...

Although 375 Malawi copper coins are worth one Ducat gold coin, the accumulation of small amounts of money makes a lot of money. As long as enough coins are minted, the profits are considerable. The most important thing is that the cost of importing red copper from Ming Dynasty is low. More casting points, the profit is considerable.

For example, I minted 3.75 million Malawi copper coins, which are worth 10,000 gold ducats. However, to cast 3.75 million Malawi copper coins, only 7.5 million grams of red copper are needed, which is 15,000 catties. In the Ming Dynasty, 1 catty of red copper was only 0.1 taels of silver. Therefore, the material cost is only 1500 taels of silver, which is equivalent to more than 1300 gold coins.

If it is only calculated based on the material cost, the profit is more than 7.6 times! Even if the long-distance freight and casting labor costs are excluded, there will always be four or five times the profit. As long as there are secret shipping channels, the Spaniards are fine. After all, they don't have a professional secret service organization to investigate.

As it happens, the Spaniards are currently bringing back a lot of gold from Zimbabwe. Marin plans to use the Malawi copper coins secretly minted by his family to go to Spain to exchange for gold coins, and then use them for international trade.

Over the years, relying on the spice trade that Marin had no choice but to give to Spain, Spain has actually accumulated a large amount of gold and silver currencies from European countries. After all, spices are the hard currency that can be converted into gold and silver in Europe in this era. Every year, the Spanish royal family and some Spanish nobles who joined in to share the benefits can make a total of one million or hundreds of thousands of gold coins in huge profits. Most of these coins come from other European countries.

Today's Spain is full of money. Except for part of the gold and silver that needs to be brought to India for the purchase of spices, most of the rest of the gold and silver flowed into the Spanish domestic market, which pushed up the already high prices in Spain.

Marin plans to use cheap copper coins to enter the Spanish market and exchange for a large amount of gold and silver. Then, it is used for the procurement of various strategic materials. Spain is a country, because there are many mountains, food is scarce and prices are high, but there are also advantageous products.

For example, olive oil is a specialty of southern European countries such as Spain and Italy. This stuff, in Europe, is generally used by nobles and wealthy businessmen for meals, and poor families can't afford oil at all. Like the famous Betis olive oil in later generations, it is produced in the Seville region of Spain.

In addition, Spain's merino wool is also the best high-quality fine wool in Europe, which can be used to weave high-grade woolen fabrics.

But both of the above are not as important as Marin's emphasis on Spanish mercury mines. Spain is a famous mercury producing country in Europe, and mercury mines have been mined since the 7th century BC. At present, Spain is the largest producer of mercury in Europe. Its Almaden Mercury Mine and Idleia Mercury Mine in Slovenia are currently the two largest and most important mercury mines and mercury producing areas in Europe. Even the California Gold Rush in the mid-19th century used a lot of mercury from the Almaden Mercury Mine in Spain. This mercury mine was mined until 2003. It can be seen that the reserves of the Almaden mercury mine are astonishing!

What is mercury good for? The extraction of gold and silver in this era and the amalgamation method when dealing with gold and silver ores required a large amount of mercury. If there is not enough mercury, the development of gold and silver mines will be a problem. Why was Spain able to develop the gold and silver mines in the Americas to such a large extent? Isn't it because of its rich mercury resources? In France, there is not enough mercury to refine gold and silver mines.

Therefore, it is very cost-effective and important to purchase a large amount of mercury in Spain with privately minted Spanish copper coins. After all, Marin is definitely going to America to mine gold and silver mines.

In addition, the carrack sailboats and cork made in Spain are also things that Marin needs very much. They are exchanged with cheap copper privately minted into copper coins, which is low cost and very cost-effective.

...

For the same reason, Portugal, which is next to Spain, also began to use copper coins in large quantities. Marin also set his sights on Portugal. He planned to mint Portuguese copper coins privately, and then went to Portugal to purchase cork. In this way, the purchase cost can be reduced several times.

Unlike Spain, which only has intelligence agencies and lacks commercial channels, Marin has begun to secretly contact Baron Ferreira and other old ministers of João II.

Therefore, although Marin did not set up commercial channels in Portugal before, with the cooperation of local nobles such as the old ministers of Joao II, the inflow of copper coins was easier.

Anyway, the "two teeth" on the Iberian Peninsula are competitors of Marin's great voyage. Marin is very happy to cause them some trouble.

Of course, Marin has not yet understood that his private casting of copper coins of the two countries actually enriched the market economies of the two countries and stimulated the economic development of the two countries. Of course, the officials of the two countries will not be able to enjoy the lucrative coinage profits. On the contrary, among the people of the two countries, trade activities have become more active because of the large increase in small copper coins.

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