Great time travel

Chapter 11, Damn Virtual Currency!

In order for the saviors to have a fuller understanding of the European concept of wealth in the Middle Ages before the Age of Discovery, Knight Li Wei took out his money bag from the cabinet under the desk, then loosened the string at the mouth of the bag, and clattered. Dump out a large pile of coins.

——In this purse, there are four coins of different denominations.Two are copper coins: the obole and the half-opole, which are small change in the Middle Ages and can be compared to the one-yuan and five-cent coins in modern China.

The other two coins with more purchasing power are silver coins.The small silver coin follows the name of the ancient Roman Empire, called Denier (denier), which can also be translated as dinar (the silver coins of Arabs and Europeans are called this way, but they are actually the heritage of Roman civilization) .This was the general equivalent unit commonly used in the Middle Ages.What is more special is that in Britain, this kind of silver coin is called "penny", and it has been used until modern times.Of course, medieval pennies were not the same thing as modern British pennies, and had infinitely more purchasing power.

The big silver coin is the unique French Grostournois (grostournois), which weighs 4 grams. One is equal to 22 or 13 French dinars, but it is only equivalent to 14 pennies-because the medieval British The financial situation of France is much better than that of France, and the silver content of pennies has not been greatly reduced.On the contrary, the French dinar was mixed with more and more impurities, devalued year after year, and finally devalued from silver coins to copper coins.Of course, the French dinar at the moment is considered a silver coin mixed with a lot of copper...or a copper coin mixed with a lot of silver.

According to the prices in southern France at that time, a chicken cost six dinars, a big hare cost twelve dinars, and a bottle of Western-style vinegar made from grapes cost two to five dinars. A pound of high-end crackers in the store can be sold for three dinars, but because the price of sugar and cream is very expensive, ordinary stores can't afford it, so the medieval pastries are not as sweet and delicious as modern pastries.

Obviously, if the value of antique collection is not considered, the medieval Opole copper coins are worthless in modern times. As for the medieval silver dinar coins...the silver content is also very problematic. I don't know how many impurities.And even if it is a genuine pure silver coin, this kind of gadget that is less than three grams each is not worth a lot of money-don't forget, a gram of silver in the modern world is only worth a few yuan!
In short, after listening to the prices introduced by Li Wei, Wang Qiu wondered whether he should mint some silver coins to buy materials in the Middle Ages.

At the same time, Doraemon frowned and stuffed all these coins into the [Automatic Pawn Machine], and then found to his disappointment that the stingy [Automatic Pawn Machine] did not take these Opor copper coins and the first Gnar silver coins are valued as antiques...

"...It's only been exchanged for [-] yen in total, which isn't even enough to pay for the medicine I gave you just now!" Seeing such a lonely bill in his hand, Doraemon couldn't help but sigh, "... Is it the pocket money of elementary school students? You are still a lord! In modern society, unless you are a homeless man who can’t eat, any working adult will not go out with such a pitiful little money! "

"... There are already eight turgros, more than 100 dinars and more than 300 opors in this bag. You still think it's too little?"

Knight Li Wei rolled his eyes, "...this price is enough to hire a small team of strong men to fight with you!"

——Well, the salary level of ordinary civilians in Europe in the Middle Ages seems to be so sad. The daily salary of a textile worker is only one dinar.

As for gold coins of higher value, the British pound, franc and mark do not exist these days, let alone the ruble.In Europe in 1348, only the Italians were able to mint gold coins on a large scale. Specifically, there were three kinds: the Genovino gold coin (genovino) minted in Genoa, the Florin gold coin (florin) minted in Florence and Venice. Ducat gold coin (ducat).No matter what kind of gold coin, the weight is 3 grams, and the purity is relatively high.Among them, the Genovino gold coins of Genoa are mainly circulated in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea region, and rarely appear in the European market.As a result, an international gold coin pattern in which florins and ducats were divided into two parts was formed in continental Europe.

According to the market price of gold in 2014, the value of a florin gold coin is about 1000 RMB, which is very valuable.

Because he often does business with merchant ships from Asia Minor, Palestine, and Egypt, Livi has three types of gold coins, florins, ducats, and genovinos.But the question is, is the amount of these gold coins... a little too little?

"...ninety, ninety-one, ninety-two... Well, that's all. But you can't take it all, I have to pay taxes next month, and pay the servants and guards—although I don't know How many of them will survive to the next month..."

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Li Wei counted out gold coins one by one from a beautifully crafted cedar wooden box, and piled up two small gold mountains on the table, "...the eighty gold coins here, you all Take it! It’s the money for the medicine just now and my wife’s obstetrics and gynecology hospital expenses..."

——Eighty gold coins, with a net weight of 280 grams, roughly equivalent to 21 RMB at the beginning of the 8st century...

Well, although this is already the income of an ordinary person for a year, it is probably enough to let pregnant women give birth to a child in the hospital after deducting the medicine and living expenses, but you are a dignified lord, living in such a big manor , How did you come up with such a small amount of money?This is too stingy and too cheap!

Moreover, you are only willing to spend such a small amount of money in total, how can Doraemon make a profit from it to pay off the debt?

Seeing that Li Wei was so stingy at such a critical moment of life and death, Doraemon, who was in debt of 150 billion yen, was immediately dissatisfied, "... Hey, Mr. Li Wei, it's already this time, why don't you Are you still thinking about saving money? Now is not the time to be diligent and thrifty! Could it be that you are still nostalgic for this medieval Europe that was shrouded in plague, and don’t want to go back to your hometown? Then let’s count it as a waste of time!”

"...Yeah, brother Li Wei, you see that Doraemon is so unhappy, you should open the vault as soon as possible! Do you still want to hold gold and learn from Grandet? Now it seems that life is at stake. It's almost gone, how can you be reluctant to part with the money?" Ma Tong also echoed and persuaded.

"...the treasury? I don't run a bank. How could there be such a thing." Li Wei rolled his eyes angrily, spread his hands, and threw the pile of 1 gold coins on the table in front of Doraemon. Push it, and suddenly it fell down, "...all the gold coins in the entire manor have been placed here, and there are about [-] silver dinars left. You can't find it even if you dig three feet More... Believe it or not, it's up to you!"

"...Is there really only this little money? No way!" Wang Qiu touched his chin suspiciously, "...Didn't you say before that this manor is the commercial base of the Knights Hospitaller, and tens of thousands of gold are spent every year?" Florin's big business? How can you get so little money?"

"...Please! Business is business, cash is cash! Would Bill Gates pile hundreds of millions of dollars in banknotes in his villa?"

Knight Li Wei rolled his eyes again helplessly, "...Of course I have assets worth tens of thousands of gold coins, but if you want me to take out tens of thousands of gold coins at once... unless it is a Jewish loan shark, otherwise In this era, no chamber of commerce can casually hand out tens of thousands of gold coins!"

As he spoke, he opened a locked drawer and took out a thick pile of account books, IOUs, deeds and mortgage contracts, "...Let's see! The fifty thousand florins I inherited from the Bacon family, It's all on these things! Can you turn them into money?"

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Before Columbus discovered the New World and obtained gold and silver from America, the precious metals of gold, silver and precious metals in Europe in the Middle Ages were always very scarce.

Since the ancient Roman Empire, due to the need to import oriental silk and spices, gold and silver from the Euro-Mediterranean world have been continuously flowing out to the east.In the era when the Roman Empire was strong, Europeans could also obtain a certain amount of gold and silver supplements from Black Africa, which was rich in gold and silver south of the Sahara Desert.However, with the Arabs' large-scale conquest and the occupation of the entire North Africa, even this only channel for supplementing gold and silver to Europe was cut off.

The above-mentioned situations were not a problem in the darkest early Middle Ages, because at that time the commercial trade in Western Europe almost stopped, and the few remaining commercial exchange activities were mainly based on barter. Professional merchants and currency were even imported from Western Europeans at one time disappeared from social life.

However, with the revival of European civilization, merchants, trade and currency also entered the stage of history again, resulting in a huge demand for metal coins.However, with the relatively scarce gold and silver stocks in Western European society, it will soon become increasingly difficult to mint a sufficient number of coins to meet the surge in demand for money with the development of commerce, which means that the money supply cannot keep up with the demand for market transactions , leading to deflation.

If it is in the era of credit currency in the 21st century, facing this situation, the governments of various countries only need to carry out "quantitative easing" a few times and print more money.But in this ancient age when only gold and silver were recognized, it was not so easy to issue money indiscriminately—where did the gold and silver used for coinage come from?

America has not yet been discovered, and the Gold Coast in West Africa is still the largest territory, while the gold and silver mines in Europe are almost exhausted.

The economic countermeasures of some medieval kings were to continuously reduce the silver content of coins until they turned silver coins into copper coins and realized a special form of quantitative easing in the coinage era, but the effect was very bad—a rough look at the excessively issued banknotes It looks exactly the same as the original banknotes, but the silver coins with reduced silver content can be seen at a glance of their poor quality, so they are rejected by the people or used at a spontaneous discount, which makes deflation even worse.

Especially on the eve of the outbreak of the Black Death, the population of the European Catholic world reached a peak, productivity was greatly developed, and commercial trade was also increasingly developed, but the total social stock of gold and silver did not increase much—coins were not enough, business How to do it?
Moreover, there were many small countries in Europe in the Middle Ages, bandits were rampant, and the security environment was very bad. Many nobles and knights in the countryside also had the habit of guest robbers.It would be very dangerous for unarmed ordinary merchants to carry a large amount of gold and silver coins in the wilderness.

Therefore, as described in "Wolf and Spice", European merchants in the Middle Ages mainly relied on mutual credit and money order transactions to do business. The era of money and virtual currency!

——Although Europeans love gold and like to count their income and expenditure in gold coins in their account books, they mainly get silver coins.

Of course, compared with modern e-commerce, this medieval bookkeeping transaction relies heavily on honesty and reputation, because the main property of most merchants is on other people’s debt lists. If everyone is used to dishonesty and bad debts, then It means the total collapse of the entire trading system!
In other words, the European merchant circle in the Middle Ages was a closely connected network system, connected by countless contracts, bookkeeping and bills of exchange.In this network system, every businessman owes money to many people, but there are also many people who owe money to him. As long as someone’s credit can be maintained, the flow of funds can still be turned over, even if the deficit on the books is no longer High, can also continue to operate.Unless this businessman was unlucky enough to encounter a serious crisis, was on the verge of bankruptcy, and unfortunately got wind of it, there would not be many people flocking together to collect their debts.

But on the other hand, once there is an emergency and a large amount of gold and silver coins needs to be called out urgently, even a well-run business has no place to raise too many coins for a while, and must be distributed among colleagues, relatives and friends. Try to borrow money in time, or go to the usury merchant to get a loan.

The problem is that in the face of a catastrophe that cannot be resisted by humans such as the plague, the Jews who lend money are usually the fastest to escape.

In this way, due to this advanced virtual credit currency system, Doraemon could not get a sufficient amount of gold and silver coins from Li Wei.

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"...The situation is like this. I do have a net worth of more than [-] florins on the books, but I have to go to Florence, Venice, Paris, Lyon, Antwerp, Cologne, London and Bordeaux with the contract. Wait for these distant places to be cashed into coins. And in the sad time of the Black Death outbreak, I doubt that by the time we travel long distances with the contract to find the place, the other party will be dead to the bone There are none left. As for the Jews who lent money in Marseilles, they fled with their families as soon as the Black Death came."

Sitting behind his desk, playing with a quill, Mr. Levi, who is more like a businessman than a knight, talked so eloquently.

"...Even if it's an bookkeeping transaction, there should be collateral! We also accept gold, silver and jewelry!" Ma Tong said with a frown.

"...Collateral, of course there are some, if you want, you can just take it..."

Knight Li Wei said so calmly, and at the same time handed over a box of very important collateral: a lot of various land deeds...

Well, these title deeds are indeed very strong and valuable collateral, but unfortunately they are worthless to Doraemon.

In desperation, Doraemon and others had no choice but to lose face and integrity, and ransacked Li Wei's villa—from the silver tableware used for eating, the gold wine bowl and gold wine cup in Li Wei's private collection, Everything from his wife's gold and silver jewelry and mink fur coat, which are considered family heirlooms, was swept away.In the end, most of the horses in the stables were even removed: anyway, the knights in this manor have almost died of plague, and the remaining horses are useless to keep, and they need to be carefully served and cared for, it is better to pawn them directly It came cleanly: a good horse of European descent can be sold for at least 6 to 1 yuan in modern China, and even a poor horse for pulling a cart can be sold for at least [-] yuan.

After all the tossing and going to the end, Doraemon finally found about 3000 million yen in money-although it was still a drop in the bucket.

Of course, in return, not only did Doraemon agree to bring Li Wei's pregnant wife back to Nobi's house, but also arranged for her to stay in a professional hospital in Tokyo to wait for delivery-for such a "black household" without household registration and documents, there are only supernatural powers Only the lawless Doraemon can handle the hospitalization procedures—Ms. Ju Chuan Shizuka also explained to Li Wei the simple treatment of the Black Death in detail, so that he can use it in his next medical practice.

"...Those plague patients who have not been sick for a long time and have mild symptoms can be taken orally with sulfa powder and an equal amount of sodium bicarbonate powder. But generally speaking, only the bubonic plague has a more obvious effect... By the way, These two medicinal powders are white, so don't confuse them!"

"...streptomycin injection is a specific drug that can treat all types of plague, and the dose needs to be increased for severe patients."

"...There is no panacea in this world, and antibiotics and sulfonamides cannot guarantee that every plague patient will be cured. Please don't make random promises."

……

After Teacher Ju Chuan Shizuka finished explaining and demonstrating to Knight Li Wei, everyone else was ready to go back on the road.

——Right now, in Nobi Nobita's room, there is still a political commissar Guo Jingguo who fell from a height and his bones were shattered and unconscious!Although it has been rescued before, it is out of danger, but it can't be left casually, can it?

It wasn't until this time that Wang Qiu suddenly remembered something, and turned to Li Wei and asked, "...By the way, Brother Li Wei, I already know about your French camp. But what about those who are forced to stay in this world in the British camp? Newcomer, do you know any news?"

"...This... I don't know anything about those guys in the fried chicken team. I don't even know how many of them there are in total, and I haven't met each other on the battlefield..." Li Wei shrugged , "...do you have any news about them?"

"...Unfortunately, not at all. You are the only surviving rookie shown on the "Book of Time Traveling." Wang Qiu raised his head and looked at him in confusion, "...you all escaped alive on the losing side They entered the battlefield, but as members of the victorious side, why didn’t they survive?”

"...All the members of the fried chicken team are dead?" Li Wei was startled when he heard the news, but then he was relieved, "...Uh, this is actually understandable. We left the battlefield after the Battle of Crecy. And Ying After the army won the Battle of Crecy, they had to sweep Normandy and besiege Calais, and they fought continuously for more than a year before they were able to return home in triumph. During such a long period of time, it is really normal for a few people to get sick, get injured and die. but……"

"...Probably can only be explained in this way!" Wang Qiu sighed, "...Okay, brother Li Wei, let's say goodbye for now! We will take our sister-in-law back to the hospital to wait for delivery. In order to reunite your family as soon as possible, You have to work hard here to change history and earn points!"

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PS: Alas, the current website is getting more and more insane. Even the word jasmine has to be blocked. What should people say?