When it comes to currency, it is impossible to avoid the copper coins with the largest circulation in the world in the Ming Dynasty.

Nowadays, countries of all sizes in South Asia, such as Siam, Jiaozhi, Ceylon, Zhenla, Java, Old Port, and even Japan and North Korea in East Asia, will inevitably encounter currency that must have sufficient credit in their normal life and transactions in the region so that they can smoothly engage in business transactions between the citizens and import large amounts of materials and commodities from other countries and regions.

If they are minting coins themselves, they first need to control the copper ore to obtain stable monetary resources. However, from the exploration, mining, ore dressing, to the construction of blast furnaces and smelting, and then mixing other metals to cast decent currencies, these high-end technologies are nothing short of a fantasy for the effects of these poor and backwardness.

So what should I do?

We can't always stay in the early stages of social development, right?

The exquisite porcelain and extremely smooth silks of the Ming Dynasty felt like heavenly sugar when they were eaten. When they were sick, they could get better with a few bowls of soup. These good things are so tempting, but they must be exchanged for gold, silver and copper coins.

Simply put, except for the Ming Dynasty, all the surrounding countries lack a currency that can be used for common purposes. This currency must be a currency that many surrounding countries agree with and has a good reputation.

To make a blacksmith must be strong, and to make a steel must have strong firepower.

If you don’t have diamonds, don’t take care of porcelain work.

These small countries cannot mint coins themselves. How can they solve the currency problem?

After thinking about it, since everyone is short of it and cannot make it themselves, then you can simply import the currency directly from a country with good credit.

So where do you import this common currency?

Of course, it was imported from the most powerful Ming Dynasty, with sufficient force and national strength!

So, after being in tune with each other, these Southeast Asian countries began to spontaneously regard the Ming Dynasty copper coins as the most important official currency. The copper coins made by the Ming Dynasty were like the green paper money common in the world in later generations, and became popular in Southeast Asian countries.

The Ming Dynasty not only had its strength in all aspects overwhelmed these countries, but also the quality of the copper coins officially cast by the Ming Dynasty was also unexplained.

In addition to the exquisite patterns and durability, there are very few cheap metals such as tin, iron, and lead doped in the Ming Dynasty copper coins. After several years of circulation, most of them still look yellow and orange, which makes people feel very relieved.

Moreover, the Ming Dynasty has been strong for more than two hundred years and has destroyed the country one after another. Although there are occasional mistakes in the middle, it will soon be resurrected with full health. This powerful force is the most trustworthy guarantee of monetary credit.

However, the credit of Ming copper coins has declined slightly in recent decades, because the reason is not because of the Ming Dynasty itself, but because of counterfeiting.

Some relatively powerful countries around the Ming Dynasty, such as Japan and Jiaozhi, imported a large number of Ming Dynasty copper coins under the premise of ensuring technology and copper resources, and under the official default, a large number of imitations of Ming Dynasty copper coins were used to facilitate their use. While it was convenient for their own country, it was also used to purchase goods from other countries and regions.

The quality of these imitation copper coins is much worse than that produced by the Ming Dynasty, mainly because there are too many other metal components doped during casting.

This problem has now been collected by the Jinyiwei and then passed into the palace, and Zhu Youjian is also considering solutions to this problem.

Zhu Youjian was of course happy that the Ming Dynasty copper coins were so popular in various countries. He was not too late to exchange these ores for various materials urgently needed by the Ming Dynasty. Where can I find such good things?

However, there is still a lot of cost to go from ore dressing to casting. If the paper money in later generations can be promoted, it would be a great fortune.

But at present, this is just a beautiful fantasy, or a long-term goal. Precious metal currencies will still occupy the mainstream of commodity circulation for a considerable period of time.

And the most important point is: the Ming Dynasty itself is a poor copper country and its copper ore resources are not abundant. Now the copper in China mainly comes from Tongling County, Chizhou Prefecture. Due to the backward mining technology, there are not many copper ore produced every year.

In view of the scarcity of copper ore in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youjian issued an order last year to import large quantities of copper ore from overseas to make up for the unfavorable situation of the increasing reduction of copper coins on the market.

However, importing ore means exchanging with silver or other commodities, and the cost in the middle cannot be ignored.

If you don’t have to buy it, just hire workers to start a mine.

As far as Zhu Youjian knows, the world's most abundant copper ore resources are Chile and Peru in South America, and Australia.

Since the Ming Dynasty has not yet had a large-scale fleet of ships voyages to South America, and the barren Australia is still in an undeveloped state, these most preferred items can only be temporarily abandoned. After the Ming Dynasty becomes stronger in a few years, sending people to occupy Australia will be put on the agenda.

In addition to the above countries and regions with rich copper ore resources, Luzon is the place where copper ore resources can be obtained in time.

Luzon's copper ore resources are mainly distributed in western Luzon, eastern Mindanao, eastern Banai Island, western Negros Island, central Cebu Island and northern Baohe Island. Not to mention the rich resources, the copper ore grade is better than that of Tongling County, and the copper yield rate is also higher.

This situation can be seen from the smelting center located near Tianjin Wei Wharf.

Now the Zheng family and more than a dozen merchant ships attached to the Zheng family travel between Luzon and Tianjin Pier every year, constantly transporting the copper ore purchased from Luzon to the Ming Dynasty, and after a certain procedure, they will turn into copper coins on the world.

However, since the second half of the eleventh year of Chongzhen, more than half of the dozen merchant ships have stopped this commercial activity.

The reason is that the Spanish Governor in Manila issued an order prohibiting the sale of copper ore to Ming merchants. Those who violate the order will be sentenced to death and deprived of their personal property.

It seems that the Spanish hatred of the Ming Dynasty was deeply rooted. After massacred more than 20,000 Manila Chinese during the Wanli period, they still did their own thing.

Zhu Youjian knew that if history continued to run according to its original trajectory, the Spanish would carry out the second massacre of Chinese in Manila in the 12th year of Chongzhen, that is, next year, Xili Park in 1639.

Zhu Youjian is waiting.

Wait for this time to come.

They were also waiting for the Netherlands to send the Spanish troops stationed in Manila.

After waiting for Liu Guoneng's headquarters in Dengzhou to obtain the defense map, it carried out corresponding offensive and defense drills.

When all this is ready, the news of the Manila massacre incident will also spread to the Ming Dynasty.

That was the time to send official troops to attack and destroy the Spaniards stationed in Manila.

One is to avenge revenge.

The second is for copper ore.

The third is to fulfill the promises to the Netherlands: the Ming army occupied Manila and then set aside a piece of land for the Netherlands to use, and the Netherlands evacuated all of them from Taiwan.

It has been four years since I came through. Before I knew it, Zhu Youjian's heart was getting harder, and it was no longer as soft as when he first arrived.

Even though he knew that many Chinese would die innocently next year, he would not warn in advance, or would send troops to Manila now.

Now you have to wait for all the conditions to be met.

No matter how the Ming Dynasty did not like the Ming people who went to Southeast Asia, this was at least a legitimate reason to send troops.

At that time, he will find a way to convince those important officials to agree to send troops.

Under the guise of righteousness, we will seize more benefits, and then everyone will share the money.
Chapter completed!