Chapter 285 Currency Circulation
If a territory wants to achieve great development, it must not only have hard power, but also soft power.
The so-called soft power is propaganda and people's hearts.
Since Richard became the earl, the Harland territory has begun to build soft power, not only building museums, but also building arenas and grand theaters. Invest part of the funds to enrich the spiritual life of the people.
If a country or a territory wants to be stable, it must grasp material civilization with one hand and spiritual civilization with the other. Both hands must be strong.
Today there is only material civilization, but spiritually it is a cultural desert, and it is also easy to be penetrated by the enemy's culture and invaded by ideas.
In the past two or three years, the development of the Haaland Territory in the cultural field has also been amazing.
Today in Fort William, musicians, dancers, theater actors, and minstrels often perform at the Grand Theater on weekends. The Earl's Mansion also hired painters to paint portraits and court paintings for members of the Harland family, and put them on display in the museum. Ordinary freedmen already had some entertainment.
The warehouse is well aware of etiquette and has rich cultural and artistic activities, which is enough to prove that the development of Harland territory has reached a relatively high level.
After more than ten years of development, the territory has finally begun to look like a city. Especially areas such as Fort William have the highest level of economic development. There are a large number of high-income people. The living standards of free people far exceed those of the Nolan middle class. The territory also has A heartfelt supporter. People's hearts have stabilized, the rule of the Haaland family has a basic foundation, and the foundation is relatively stable.
After the breakthrough in the manufacturing of steam engines, Richard spent most of the next period of time at the Institute of Botany, working with the staff of the institute.
The transplantation and domestication of red gum grass is very important. If this plant is successfully planted on a large scale, Harland will be able to produce a large amount of red gum, and will soon enter the steam engine era, and productivity will increase tenfold and a hundredfold.
At this critical moment, Richard did not dare to relax at all. Even Sophia was dragged to the Institute of Botany by Richard, because Sophia had made many achievements in the research of life magic and was very proficient in magic in this direction. .
"It has been two months since the discovery of red gum grass. We have basically studied the characteristics of this plant, but the transplantation and domestication work is the top priority. Next, I will send mages who are good at life magic to participate in the transplantation and domestication work. Once the large-scale planting of red rubber grass is successful, the work of the Institute of Botany can be considered successfully completed."
Richard called Cartman to his office, gave a few special instructions, and then continued: "The domestication and planting of red rubber grass have already been completed. The most important project in the territory, all resources will be tilted towards this project. The glass greenhouses, fertilizers, and magicians you need will be provided. Your task is to eliminate all interference and clarify the scientific issues that arise during the research. Try to ensure the success of the project."
Richard knew that any scientific research could never guarantee success.
The discovery of red gumweed was filled with a few coincidences. This plant is also relatively rare in the western part of the Eagle Mountains. The distribution range of the plant is less than 300 square kilometers, scattered on three mountain ridges.
In just two months after the discovery of red rubber grass, from early July to early September, the Institute of Botany organized 16 field expeditions into the jungles in the western part of the Eagle Mountains. Seven of them encountered food. More than forty plant researchers, terrain surveyors, and soldiers responsible for security missions died on the job.
Their footprints were all over the western part of the Eagle Mountains. Together, they wrote more than a million words of investigation data and investigation reports, but they still could not find red rubber grass anywhere else.
This is enough to show that there is something special about the place where red rubber grass grows. This plant is difficult to propagate.
After two months of research, Cartman and others found that red gum grass is a phototactic plant and has very high requirements for light. It needs more than ten hours of light a day to survive normally.
In addition, the root system of red rubber grass is relatively fragile and it is difficult for it to compete with shrubs and weeds for nutrients. Its seeds are hidden in the fruit. The fruit is relatively heavy and difficult to be blown by the wind, which is not conducive to the spread of plant genes.
The western part of the Eagle Mountains is full of dense, towering forests. Due to special biological characteristics, it is difficult for red rubber grass to survive in this environment. However, this plant was born in the special climate environment in the western part of the Eagle Mountains. Without a long period of artificial domestication, it cannot adapt to the climate environment in other areas.
The Harland Territory is located in the middle of the Eagle Mountains, less than 200 kilometers away from the western region. It is on the same dimension, but it is wetter than the western part of the Eagle Mountains.
The climate difference between the two places is not too big. According to common sense, transplantation and domestication should be successful. But scientific research, as long as the results are not released, everything is still uncertain.
After more than ten years of development, glass greenhouses have blossomed everywhere in Haaland territory, and even spread among the people.
Some wealthy freedmen began to build glass greenhouses in their courtyards to grow off-season vegetables and improve their lives.
When building a greenhouse, the largest cost is the cost of glass materials, followed by the fuel supply in winter.
Coal mines were discovered in the Harland territory. A ton of coal cost about three to six silver coins, and the cost of fuel supply was not high for the wealthy.
After more than ten years of development, the glass kiln has continuously summarized experience and improved its technical level. Today, large flat glass is widely used in house construction. Although the cost is still very high, building an acre of glass greenhouse requires investing more than a dozen gold coins, which is no longer a problem for the wealthy people in the territory.
After more than ten years of accumulation of experience, the Harland Territory has accumulated a lot of experience in temperature control and water-controlled greenhouse cultivation. Under Cartman's promotion without considering the cost, the biological characteristics of the red rubber grass were quickly understood by the Harland Territory. .
By mid-September, all the red rubber grass was successfully planted in the glass greenhouse.
When the good news came, Richard immediately allocated three thousand gold coins to the Institute of Botany to reward those who discovered and planted red gum grass. The families of the expedition team members who died in the forest also received a generous condolence payment.
After receiving the reward funds, the Institute of Botany held an awards ceremony. Richard appeared at the venue in person to award medals and bonuses to those who sacrificed and made meritorious services.
After the meeting, Richard also held a banquet at the Earl's Mansion to entertain meritorious officials.
At the banquet, Cartman took the time to report the results of this stage to Richard.
"Glass greenhouses have been successfully planted with red rubber grass. It should not be difficult to produce red rubber grass on a small scale in the future. However, the number of glass greenhouses in the territory is still small and the construction cost is high. Our next task is to plant red rubber grass into ordinary In the farmland. Because the climate and environment are different, the domestication work may take a long time, and the red rubber grass also needs to constantly adapt to the environment. I hope that the earl can set aside a special territory for the Botanical Research Institute as a test field, and give us a few Years, don't push the task too hard."
After listening to Cartman's request, Richard nodded and said: "Your request is not too high, I can agree to it. Although I will not set a time for completing the task, but your work We can't slack off. If the project has not made progress for a long time, I will replace him." The
planting and domestication of red rubber grass came to an end, and Richard went to Tongshan Town next.
The construction of Tongshan Town has lasted for five years. In the first three years, infrastructure construction and terrain exploration were carried out. Last year, copper mining and ore smelting began. A mint was established in Tongshan Town this spring and began to mint copper coins.
Although gold coins have high currency value, they are rarely circulated in the market. In ordinary life, the most circulated coins are silver coins and copper coins, especially copper coins, which are widely used and have the largest circulation on the market.
Before the construction of the mint, the Harland territory had been in a state of money shortage. Gold coins were relatively good, mainly used for foreign trade, and were relatively rare on the market. The foreign trade proceeds of the Haaland territory were basically converted into gold coins and shipped back to the territory.
The shortage of silver coins is more serious. In recent years, the Harland Territory has been needing to find coin merchants to exchange gold coins into silver coins and pay salaries to soldiers and officials. The handling fee paid every year has been two to three thousand gold coins. In the past two years, transportation When the situation improved, the caravan would also bring back a large amount of silver coins, and the money shortage situation improved slightly.
The shortage of copper coins was the most serious. Because of the severe currency shortage, there was a relatively serious deflation in the Harland territory. In many cases, private transactions even required barter.
The normal exchange rate in Grant Kingdom is one gold coin for three hundred and sixty copper coins. But in Harland territory, the value of copper coins skyrocketed by thirty to fifty percent.
If there had not been a previous ban on migration, it is estimated that a large number of private merchants would have brought copper coins into the Harland Territory.
In the past two years, with the repeal of the prohibition on migration and the circulation of the commodity economy, this situation has occurred in large numbers. Smuggling of copper coins has become very common, and border residents specializing in smuggling copper coins have appeared in border areas.
Even if strict inspections are ordered at the border after entering the territory, smugglers can think of various ways to sneak into the country. The border defense and taxation departments have been annoyed and checked batch after batch. Unless the current situation of money shortage is alleviated, there will not be such high profits.
The town of Copper Mountain is a young castle that primarily serves the nearby copper mines. The castle is not very large, with only one important factory: the mint, the copper ore smelting factory, and the weapons manufacturing factory, which are built on the outskirts of Tongshan Town, near the copper mine.
The castles in Harland's territory were basically built with mud, masonry, and cement. Richard made calculations himself and found that it was cheaper to build a castle with bricks. Although building a castle with stone is stronger, it requires the establishment of a quarry on the mountain and requires huge human resources. The Harland Territory has mastered the technology of wheeled brick kilns. The same person can burn bricks a hundred times more efficiently than mining stones. Of course, they will not choose to mine stones and use them as building materials.
The architectural style of the territory is actually determined by industrial technology and production efficiency.
After entering Tongshan Town, Richard went directly to the mint.
"How is your work this year? How many copper coins have been minted, and has the money shortage problem been alleviated?" The
director of the mint is named Collens. He has only been in Harland territory for a year and a half. This man is a high-level craftsman at the Mint of the Grand Duchy of Stanik. He not only knows the smelting of more than a dozen alloys, but also knows the coin manufacturing process. After being captured by Richard in Lia Castle, he joined the Harland Territory in order to save his family's lives.
In fact, such high-value talents are basically coerced by Richard to join Haaland's leadership.
Because he was a high-tech talent in urgent need in the territory, Currens was pardoned by Richard and became a free citizen directly. He also served as the director of the mint and became an important official in the economic system.
Collins had not been in the territory for a long time. Although he was appreciated by Richard, he did not understand the earl's character at all. In his impression, Richard was a heroic, cruel and decisive aristocratic lord who killed people without mercy.
When facing Richard, Collins felt strong pressure. His legs were a little shaky, and he stumbled and said: "The smelter sent 300 tons of copper ore this year. According to the plan, we will cast all these copper ingots into copper coins, with a total value of about 24,000 gold coins. Converted to There are only fourteen new copper coins under each person's name. The problem of money shortage cannot be solved in a short time, but can only be slightly alleviated." "Can the
number of copper coins minted be increased in a short time?" "
This is subject to copper Mine output, if the copper mine output increases, it is not difficult to cast copper coins. But we have to consider the economic situation of the territory. Minting too many coins will cause the copper coins to depreciate and cause inflation. This problem arises for a territory. , is not a good thing for a country.
How many copper coins are minted every year is a scientific question that requires rigorous calculations. I am just a senior craftsman at the Mint of the Grand Duchy of Stanek, proficient in craft manufacturing issues. How many copper coins need to be minted economically? For questions, the earl needs to ask scholars who are proficient in economics. The mint only has executive capabilities, and decision-making issues require decision-making by the top leaders of the territory." After listening to Corrence's
answer, Richard knew that people have limits to their abilities and cannot force themselves to do anything.
The quantity of money supply was a university subject in Richard's previous life.
There are countless messes caused by the currency release. How to release money appropriately will be a great test for the ability of economic officials.
"I have already considered the issues you mentioned. A central bank will be established in a while, and the mint will be placed under the jurisdiction of the central bank. They will be responsible for decision-making." Despite more than ten years of development,
Haaland Territory still faces a talent shortage. shortage.
It has been more than ten years since Richard established education. More than 1,000 students have graduated from Harland Territory Primary School, and nearly 4,000 students are currently enrolled.
A large number of these primary school students, who are proficient in writing and proficient in arithmetic, have entered all walks of life, and the quality of the territory's grassroots managers has been greatly improved.
Although a lot of basic talents have been cultivated, which are barely enough in recent years, high-end talents are still in short supply. Harland's territory can only graduate a few dozen middle school students every year, and they are scattered among the major departments, which is simply not enough.
(End of chapter)