Chapter 838: The art of paper money

"Paper money!"
Pang Yukun was a little surprised when he heard the words. In the history of the country, Great Yu has been using vouchers like silver bills, and there has never been a paper currency.
Xiao Ming had a foreboding of Pang Yukun's reaction, and he directly used the technology spar to tell Pang Yukun what paper money was.
"There is no doubt that industry will enrich products, and at the same time the currency representing the flow of products will also increase. In this way, the court needs to issue currency based on the number of private products to maintain transactions between goods."
"If that's the case, how much should I issue?" Pang Yukun was a little confused.
"Naturally, the number of issuances should not be random. Simply put, paper and pen are equivalent to the previous copper coins. Too much issuance will cause the copper coins to depreciate. Originally, one copper coin can buy a burying head, but now it takes ten coins to buy a steamed bun. It will cause turmoil in the country, so the issuance of banknotes must be equal to the current total industrial and agricultural production in the country. At the same time, in order to ensure the value of the currency itself, the currency needs to be linked to gold and silver." Xiao Ming said with a deep voice.
Although the country’s firearms tend to surpass the West, there are still many imperfections in the country’s social system.
Especially in the area of ​​finance, he lags behind too much, so after expelling the barbarians and the country is basically stable in Dayu, he decided to make up for this lack.
And he has a big ambition, which is to establish an international monetary system dominated by the Great Yu State and construct financial hegemony.
Although there is still some distance from this ideal, we must start preparations now, and this issuance of banknotes is what we need to do now.
Pang Yukun gradually understood under Xiao Ming’s explanation. He said:
If this is the case, the old minister suggested that the current Great Chongqing adopts a silver standard currency. After all, gold is too scarce, and silver is the currency that Great Chongqing has been circulating."
Xiao Ming nodded. He once wanted to establish a gold standard monetary system, but now the conditions are still not met.
"That's what I mean, but you can also mix gold and silver to formulate a gold-silver ratio exchange system." Xiao Ming said, he is planting the back hand of the gold standard so that he can directly use the gold standard in the future.
Pang Yukun thought for a while and raised his last worry. He said: "The emperor, there are many people who counterfeit silver bills. If banknotes are issued, how can they be eliminated?"
Without diamonds, he would not take porcelain work. Xiao Ming dared to issue banknotes, so that the Great Yu country could realize the money printing technology, so he said: "You don't have to worry about this, I have a solution."
Pang Yukun nodded, "In this case, the old minister went back and disposed of the Cao Family Bank first."
After that, Pang Yukun bowed and turned away.
Watching Pang Yukun leave, Xiao Ming called out the information in the technology spar. Issuing banknotes is not a simple matter, so he naturally didn't dare to mess around.
The reason why it is now on the agenda is that the Cao family bank was uprooted on the one hand, and the other is that the quality of the banknotes issued by him confidently is strong enough.
Generally speaking, banknotes have very high requirements for paper, and ordinary paper must not be used. After all, this type of paper can easily be damaged by water.
Therefore, the real paper used for banknotes is banknote paper, which is made of cotton linters.
This kind of cotton linters is also called cotton linters. The short fibers are still left on the cotton seeds after ginning, and these short fibers are peeled off with a stripping machine, which is cotton linters.
Because of the complex collection process, short lint can be much more expensive than ordinary papermaking raw materials.
Having the materials is only the first step, and the next thing to master is the raw material formula of this paper, which is produced in strict proportion.
In this way, the paper produced is smooth and delicate in texture, tough and foldable. Hold the banknote paper in your hand and shake it in the air, or pull the two ends of the banknote in both hands loosely and tightly, or flick the paper with your fingers. On the surface, there will be a clear and crisp sound.
Relatively speaking, the raw materials of ordinary printing paper are mostly straw, straw, etc. The texture of this type of paper is soft and rough, with insufficient toughness and tension, and it is easy to break. If it shakes in the air, the sound will become dull.
Therefore, it is only the manufacturing level of this banknote paper that the merchants in the country cannot imitate, after all, the cost of imitating will be very high.
In addition, he also has another magic weapon for anti-counterfeiting is the watermark.
Watermarking is an ancient anti-counterfeiting method. His country was the first country to master watermarking technology in ancient times.
At that time, the paper curtain was woven with threads to form a texture or pattern that protruded from the curtain surface. When the paper was made, the density of the pulp was different, and there were bright and alternating patterns in the light perspective, thus forming a watermark.
In the Tang Dynasty, there was "Yanbo Jian" watermarked paper, and in the late Qing Dynasty, it was watermarked paper with the words "Wang Liuji". In Europe, the Saxon banknotes issued in Prussia in 1772 used watermarks. Since then, the use of watermarks has become more common.
In addition to these two, the third banknote printing technology that Dayu State can achieve is letterpress printing, which uses raised patterns.
In this way, the surface of the banknote will become convex and concave, and the last thing is the printed pigment, the mineral pigment.
Compared with plant pigments, the colors of various paintings painted by mineral pigments will not change for a long time, and will not fade for thousands of years.
Thinking of this, Xiao Ming said to Qian Dafu: "Now follow me to the printing workshop."
"Yes, the emperor." Qian Dafu responded and went out to prepare.
At this time, Xiao Ming picked up a pen to record the key technologies. Next, he will mobilize technical backbones to establish a banknote workshop.
This workshop will be a high-level secret of the country, and the method of printing banknotes will be a secret among secrets.
After finishing writing, Xiao Ming got up and went to the printing workshop. This workshop was always in charge of the newspaper. He directly asked Fan Zeng to draw some people with clean backgrounds from it~EbookFREE.me~ and at the same time ordered him to establish one in accordance with the newspaper's printing procedures. Set from papermaking to printing workshops.
And he gathered the selected people to Qingzhou University.
Because the issuance of banknotes is very important, Xiao Ming asked the government office to prepare a confidentiality agreement for each of them, and signed the agreement. They will strictly guard the secrets of the banknote printing workshop. Any violation will violate the Confidentiality Act of China .
The craftsmen selected by Fan Zeng are all people who have lived in Qingzhou City for generations. The information for several generations is very clear, and the entire family also lives in Qingzhou City.
Such craftsmen are safe for Xiao Ming, because they have a lot of scruples and the probability of being bribed is very low.
In the next few days, Xiao Ming handed them the core technology of printing money. Of course, the procedures were separate, and each craftsman could only master some of them.
At the same time, he also instructed the Equipment Department to build a sawtooth peeling machine. With the current industrial capabilities, this machine is not a problem.