After the exhibition, everything seemed to have returned to normal. Those who needed to work worked, those who needed to be tired tired, and those who needed to be distressed were distressed. The only difference was that the area in Panjim had suddenly become a construction site.
The assets received from the Portuguese Governor's Office and the Church were increasing. Other than leaving some for local consumption in Goa, Zhou Qingfeng transported most of it into the Time Island. Other than the plundered precious metals, there were also more than 100 female slaves, more than 200 Arabian horses, and the indigenous people who were skilled in rearing horses.
Ice Phoenix was very curious, so she volunteered to stay and guard for a while. Wen Ruolan and the others followed Zhou Qingfeng back to Tianjin in the biplane. As for the business, it was left to the accounting department sent by Xu Bing to handle it.
In the next three months of 1617, Goa was like the Revolutionary Army's back garden and vacation spot. The transmigrators took turns to vacation there. Zhou Qingfeng kept bringing the Time Island back and forth between Goa and Tianjin to handle all kinds of goods. He also transported a large number of people to Goa, including a complete infantry brigade of 5,000 people and a militia group of 10,000 people.
Xu Bing also planned to recruit and train 50,000 indigenous people in Goa, using whips and food to teach them how to properly obey and carry out orders. The Revolutionary Army needed them to transform Goa in order to better provide resources for the prosperity of the Chinese civilization. Gate Wu was temporarily appointed as Goa's garrison commander. Every day, he had a headache on how to train the stupid indigenous people.
In order to stabilize and maintain the situation in Goa, Zhou Qingfeng had even shipped six 50-ton naval commuter ships that were recently produced by the Jinzhou Shipyard. Coupled with the accelerated training of the naval personnel, Goa would quickly become a naval base. With these high-speed commuter ships, monitoring the waters around Goa would not be a problem. It could effectively prevent potential enemies from coveting it.
Colonizing overseas was not something that could be done in a day or two. It was easy to conquer Goa, but more meticulous work and time were needed to fully utilize Goa. However, the benefits of conquering Goa were immediate. When Zhou Qingfeng returned to Tianjin, the large amount of gold and silver he brought back was immediately sent to the mint in Jinzhou.
Tons of gold and silver were smelted anew. Zhao Ze, who was in charge of the mint, watched as a large number of gold religious figurines and even jewelry melted into liquid in the furnace. He punched Zhou Qingfeng, who was next to him, and said with a smile, "The Portuguese will hate you. Their hard work for hundreds of years was all in vain overnight."
"It's not just the Portuguese who hate me." Zhou Qingfeng also laughed heartily at the golden products in the furnace. "Just like how the Confucian scholars in the Central Plains hate me for destroying the House of Confucius, the religious fanatics in Europe will probably launch a crusade if they know that I've destroyed all traces of God in Goa."
Gold and silver were not the only things that were being melted. Large amounts of bronze were also being melted. The Goa Portuguese army was defeated and almost all of their artillery was abandoned. Zhou Qingfeng ordered that all the copper products be collected and shipped back. Even the copper bells and the brass pipes of the organ were not spared.
The organ is known as the 'king of musical instruments' in Europe, and its beautiful timbre is intoxicating. When the Imperial Guards ordered their men to dismantle the large musical instruments in the church, the Caucasians in Goa wailed in anguish. This was worse than being defeated. Some people wanted to buy these precious works of art, but Master Zhou felt that 'compared to gold and silver, I'm actually more in need of copper.'
The territory of the Revolutionary Army was getting bigger and bigger, and the population under their control was getting bigger and bigger. However, the conditions for the large-scale issuance of paper money were not yet ripe, and gold and silver coins were rarely used in daily life. Copper coins were actually in circulation in the market. The demand for copper was hundreds and thousands of times greater than gold and silver. Not to mention the territory of the Revolutionary Army, the whole of China was short of copper.
In order to obtain copper, Zhou Qingfeng even fished out the Portuguese armed merchant ship that he had sunk, just to get the copper cannons on it. He also offered a high price for the copper ingots and asked the merchants in Goa to send him copper. This was because copper was an indispensable and important material in daily life and industrial development.
The dissolved gold, silver and copper were made into thin sheets of the same thickness. These sheets were then sent into the steam stamping machine to be made into currency embryos. After polishing and other subsequent processing, the embryos would be stamped into exquisite currency again.
Zhao Ze accompanied Zhou Qingfeng as they walked around the Mint. Finally, they reached the coin sealing line. Skilled female workers were packing gold, silver and copper coins. These currencies would immediately become the issuing capital of the bank and be put into the market to solve the current money shortage.
Before the technology of color printing and currency paper matured, the metal currency would exist for a very, very long time. This was because the metal currency had a natural hedging property and could not be inflated. It would only shrink.
"How much is the current money supply gap?" Zhou Qingfeng asked.
"Very big." Zhao Ze said in a deep voice, "We are producing more and more things. Whether it is consumables such as cloth, salt, and food, or industrial products such as ships, farming tools, cannons, and firearms, the quantity is constantly increasing. This requires currencies of the same value to be put into the market to facilitate transactions.
But production is not stopping, and the currency can't keep up. It is about a quarter short. We are considering issuing a new silver and copper alloy currency of small denominations because we are really short of copper now. "
"A quarter short, so much?" Zhou Qingfeng was surprised. "Even the precious metals I got from Goa are not enough?"
"Not only did you get the currency, but you also got the goods." Zhao Ze laughed. "You used our obsolete guns and cannons to trade with the Goa King and brought back nearly 20,000 tons of rice, cotton, and teak in one go. Plus, we had a bumper harvest this year, and the price of food in the capital and southern Liaoning is the lowest in history. The low price of food has led to a huge increase in consumption.
The grain merchants in the north hate you. Many people feel that Tianjin is stuck because of you. The price of food in the north is bound to skyrocket this year, and the nobles in the capital are stockpiling food. But you have been shipping grain to the north, even more than in previous years. Not only did the price not rise, but it fell. Many people are puzzled. "
Last year, the Revolutionary Army started to build water conservancy and open up farmland in southern Liaoning. This year, they took over Tianjin and invested a lot in farmland construction. Coupled with the use of large amounts of animal power and farming tools, agricultural production was greatly developed.
Plus, the whole of eastern and western Liaoning was given to Kennu, which was equivalent to forcefully reducing the burden of shipping grain to the north. In the end, even without the transportation, the price of grain in the north did not rise. Many people who were looking forward to making a fortune in the country lost a lot of money. But the low price of food brought great benefits to the bottom of society. At least in winter, they would not easily starve or freeze to death.
Now, all of Korea and Goa were included in the Revolutionary Army's sphere of influence, and India's grain production was not small. Next year, these two places would be shipping grain to the Central Plains. With abundant grain, Zhou Qingfeng could develop the industry and expand the army.
Hearing Zhao Ze's interesting words, Zhou Qingfeng also laughed. The two of them walked out of the Coin Factory, turned a corner, and entered the nearby cannon factory. Zhao Ze's machinery department had established dozens of supporting enterprises in Jinzhou. This was the result of the continuous introduction and training of talents. Although the technical level of many of the enterprises was very low, it was a process from nothing to something.
The artillery factory was divided into several different workshops, and the person in charge was Sun Yuan Hua. When Zhou Qingfeng came in, he did not see Sun Yuan Hua, but he saw dozens of senior craftsmen poached from various Ming court bureaucracies. These craftsmen were often not young, over forty or fifty years old. They brought thousands of apprentices to become the technical backbone of the artillery factory.
"These craftsmen can be said to be clever with their hands, but they lack theory. We are organizing night classes and continuous training. The entire machinery department is currently doing the same thing. We want to transform the system of craftsmen passed down from master to disciple into the system of engineers trained by schools. I originally thought this would take at least forty or fifty years, but now with your grotto-heavens, I think it can be completed in five or six years. "
Zhao Ze was introducing, showing off, and asking for resources. The transmigrators had reached an agreement that the talents trained by the grotto-heavens would be given priority to the administrative department. After all, the administrative department was the brain of the Revolutionary Army, and all the development plans came from it. If the brain was not good, no matter how strong the limbs were, it was useless.
Zhou Qingfeng only smiled at this and did not respond. He took a cursory look at the few workshops of the cannon factory. They were categorized into army cannons, navy cannons, and fortress cannons. In order to meet the explosive demand for foreign trade, a cannon forging workshop was being built.
Forging was much easier than forging, and there were no difficulties in craftsmanship. It was especially suitable for large-scale production. Moreover, there was no need for high-quality carbon steel produced by the converter in the steel factory. Wrought iron was enough. Zhou Qingfeng set the price of a six-pounder artillery at one thousand silver dollars. This price was too black-hearted. From materials to labor, the cost of a six-pounder artillery was less than one hundred silver dollars.
The sand casting mold was placed on the metal frame in the workshop, and the workers carefully poured the molten red iron into the mold. The whole casting process was quite fast. As long as the iron was supplied, it was like playing a game to cast dozens of artillery in a day.
The cast artillery embryos were cooled in the later heat treatment to improve their physical properties, and then sent to the boring machine for fine processing. Finally, they could be fitted with wooden mounts and shipped away to be sold for money. For every six-pounder cannon sold, the money earned could be used to forge two large-caliber cannons for the Imperial Guards, or one heavy cannon for the fortress.
Therefore, the arms business must be developed well.
"How many artillery orders did you get?" Zhao Ze asked.
"The Arabs asked for one hundred, and the Goa king asked for fifty. But they can't afford that much money, so they asked for goods to be used as payment. I allowed it, "Zhou Qingfeng said.
"It doesn't seem like much. Casting artillery is very simple, so we should get more orders. Why don't you lower the price and do some promotions? "Zhao Ze suggested.
"Lower the price?" Zhou Qingfeng immediately shook his head. "The war hasn't started yet, but when it does, the price of firearms will only increase. I'm thinking about how to expand my business to Europe. When it comes to money, those Europeans are really rich. Also, the profit from just buying firearms is too low. I think we should provide more after-sales services. "
After-sales services were the real money!
Even a cannon brush could be sold for a sky-high price.
Zhou Qingfeng and Zhao Ze both chuckled. The two walked to the last workshop of the artillery factory and saw a few large-caliber, short-barreled heavy cannons being assembled. Zhou Qingfeng had never seen these cannons before, so he asked, "Who are they for? Longsong cannons? Siege cannons? "
"No, they're for our navy's main fleet cannons. Naval cannons need to be resistant to corrosion, so steel isn't suitable, so these are all bronze cannons. Just the barrel alone weighs three tons. " “
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