Chapter 1238： Chile produced saltpeter

In fact, while casting fake nickel silver nickel-copper silver coins, Beihai also issued brass coins to the country. Beginning in 1508, the Beihai Mint began to mint zinc brass coins of the same weight (1.5 grams) as Finney silver coins, and stipulated that one Empire Finney containing 50% silver should be exchanged for 8 coins with the Brock family The brass coin of the Golden Eagle with nine crosses.

This kind of copper coin, also known as "nine golden eagles" by the people, is the smallest denomination in the North Sea country. Since 1508, Marin has issued about 20 million pieces and put them on the market.

After 4 years of circulation test, the people of Beihai have basically accepted this smaller denomination, but it is much like the small denomination currency of gold coins.

Brass is very much like gold, so this small copper coin looks very much like a gold coin. If it weren't for Malin's intention to make brass coins the size of Finney's small silver coins, it might be mistaken for gold coins. Because it is as golden as gold coins.

Therefore, this small copper coin similar to the appearance of gold coins is very popular in the market. After many poor people took brass coins, they often pretended to boast with friends-look, I have gold coins ...

Moreover, the emergence of such small denomination copper coins has indeed facilitated the trading and circulation of small commodities. Unlike in the past, a Finney silver coin, equivalent to 50 yuan for later generations, could not be changed when taken out.

In the past, when people went to a beer hall to drink beer, they often had to keep accounts for consumption because they couldn't find change. And now, the appearance 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 for the purchase of small commodities.

While issuing 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 imposed a mandatory rule-whether in German or English, this brass coin is called "cent" and has the same pronunciation. The reason for this is to facilitate the integration of English and German as much as possible in the future when the United Kingdom is united, so that the English and Germans can communicate more closely, and avoid excessive ethnic differences that lead to opposition.

In order to promote the use of a penny copper coin, Marin also actively reduced the entry tax from 1 Finney to 1 penny copper coin. Moreover, the soldiers guarding the gates were deliberately not allowed to change.

In this way, in order to cost-effective, people will definitely take the initiative to exchange a penny of copper coins to pay city tax. Otherwise, it is too bad. You know, if you pay a Finney entry tax, it is equal to 8 times more expensive than paying copper coins.

Therefore, when Marin returned to the country, many people in the North Sea countries had strongly demanded the issuance of a penny. Especially those vendors who often travel in and out of the city, as shrewd as they are, will certainly not be happy to take Finney silver coins into the city tax.

However, ministers do not have the right to issue currency. Therefore, Marlin must wait to decide. Because only the princes can order the coinage right, the Regent has no right to order the Beihai Mint Mint.

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

However, on the other side, he still needs to make 500 million nickel-nickel-copper fake French silver coins. It seems that the manpower is not enough, and the spiral coin press is not enough. So Marin ordered to expand the scale of the Beihai Mint, recruit more people, and add more machines.

However, casting 500 million one-cent copper coins requires hundreds of tons of copper, which is quite expensive. Fortunately, Sweden's Failun copper mine now has half of Marin's proceeds. The resulting copper was used for coining.

...

But what Marin did not expect was that he was thinking of using copper coins from Sweden, and there were moths coming out of Sweden ...

It turned out that after hearing the news that Marin might encounter a shipwreck in Sweden, he was also eager to move, and actually planned to divest himself of Marin's shares in Fa Yilun Copper Mine.

It's just that there is now a lot of noise inside Sweden. Because some timid Swedish noblemen feared revenge from the North Sea army. After all, the Swedes are few and poor, and the number of troops is limited. But now Beihai has only 30,000 to 40,000 troops in its own country, and its combat effectiveness is very strong, which really scares them.

Therefore, the Swedish noble parliament finally decided-wait and see, at least until the North Sea army is disbanded before they can publicly lose 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 mine shares, Marin appeared ...

...

Of course, Marin didn't know this episode, otherwise, it must be beautiful in Sweden. Moreover, Marin didn't care about anything else now, and he was very happy. Because-the first saltpeter produced in Chile arrived ...

When he set off for Daming, Marin passed by Panama and had an exploration team bring a group of slaves and camels purchased from Egypt, as well as hundreds of solar cookers, to the future port of Iquique in northern Chile and land in the desert Explore the saltpetre mine deep.

The chief who landed in Iquique with hundreds of Egyptian slaves, dozens of camels and hundreds of solar cookers was called Kuska, which was originally a criminal in East Friesland. Of course, his offense was only offended by a collateral child of the Seker private family who ruled East Friesland. Then, the whole family was put in prison, and the parents died in prison. Only Kuska survived because he was young and strong.

After Marin seized East Frisian Lambert, he released all prisoners who had been persecuted by the Sussex family, except those who really harmed society.

As a result, Kuscat came to the door and recognized Marin as a benefactor and was willing to die for Marin. Because the Kuska family turned out to be fishermen, Marin sent him to a nautical school to study and prepare him to be a captain.

But the problem is, this Kuska seems not very smart. The fisherman Aben, who entered the captain's school like him, has passed the assessment and became a captain, and Kuska has spent more years studying than Aben before he barely passed ~ www.novelhall.com ~ This person is not talented and capable.

However, Marin is very clear-this person is very loyal and reliable. Outside, who dares to say Malin a bad word, this guy will be angry and duel ...

As it happens, the development of Chilean saltpeter is highly classified and requires reliable people. Therefore, Marin chose the weak but loyal Kuska as the governor of Iquique.

Kuska also lived up to Marin ’s trust. After Iquique landed, he did not risk sending people to find saltpeter immediately, but first busy building the Iquique base, especially the desalination of the solar stove ... …

It took months of work for Kuska to build a habitable seaside stronghold in Iquique that produces large amounts of fresh water every day.

Then he sent troops to supervise the Egyptian slaves, including slave craftsmen who knew saltpetre, riding a camel to find the saltpeter in the depths of the desert.

When Marin returned from Daming, the men and women sent by Kuska found a saltpeter mine deep in the desert tens of kilometers from Iquique. Then he started sending slaves to mine saltpetre and transported it to the port of Iquique with camels. Then, they were sealed in oil paper bags from Marin Cape Breton Island paper mill, and shipped to Panama, and then 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 component is sodium saltpeter, rather than military potassium saltpeter. Because sodium salt rock is very easy to deliquesce and deteriorate. For long-term preservation, it is necessary to convert sodium saltpeter to potassium saltpeter.

The specific conversion method is also very simple, which is to mix and dissolve sodium saltpeter and grass ash (inclusive) 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 as military saltpeter ...