Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

In the abandoned wine cellar of Nelson Manor, Liang En and the others quickly took out their equipment and began to search the ground. As a result, they immediately discovered some small black metal discs, with some silvery light exposed at the same time.

"This should be an eight-rial silver coin." After picking up a piece of metal and looking at it carefully, Liang En immediately recognized what this coin was. After all, this coin is also a very famous coin in history. of coin varieties.

This Spanish coin, called the eight real silver coin, is very easy to recognize: on the front is the Spanish national coat of arms and on the back is the royal family coat of arms. There are also Latin letters and Arabic numerals on the edge of the coin.

Like many traditional aristocratic emblems, the coin is divided into four by a cross. Four small patterns are divided on the front and back of the silver coin. The four small patterns can be combined into one large pattern.

The pattern on the front is "Two Lions and Two Cities", with two castles facing each other on the upper left and lower right, and two standing lions facing each other on the upper right and lower left.

This is the unique national emblem of Spain. The standing lion and the castle represent the ruling royal power. The cross represents the cross, indicating that the Spanish state religion is Catholicism. As a country with the most religious atmosphere at that time, there must be religious symbols on the currency.

On the front of the coin is written: Hispania RVM, which means King of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor. Although the Holy Roman Empire throne, which is neither holy nor Roman nor an empire, has a lower gold content, it is still an emperor after all, so it will naturally be made. on the coin.

As for the origin of the name eight reals, it is because of the octal system of Spanish coins. 8 reals are equal to one Spanish dollar, or "a silver dollar": one yuan is the standard, and below 8 reals, it is divided into 4 reals, 2 reals, 1 real.

The silver coins discovered by Liang En and the others were produced early enough, so they are actually a type of struck coin, to be precise, they should be silver nuggets with marks. Although the shape is irregular, the weight and fineness are appropriate. Casting began in Spain in the mid-to-late 16th century.

In the mid-16th century, Spanish colonists began to mint coins from silver developed in the Americas in Mexico City. Later, the Santo Domingo Mint was opened in the West Indies.

Then the Spanish adopted the principle of proximity and established mints near the silver mines of Podosi in Bolivia and Lima in Peru. The 18th century saw the development of the mints of San Bogota, Guatemala, Popayan and Santiago.

Most of the existing Spanish silver coins can be divided into two categories, one with the Spanish coat of arms on the front and a cross on the back, and the other with double columns on the front and a cross on the back. The former appeared earlier, and the latter appeared later, and was It is called a double-column silver coin.

This irregular silver coin casting continued until 1732. In the same year, the Mexican mint began to use machines to cast new double-column silver coins, ushering in the era of mechanized coinage.

Interestingly, although mints across South America are produced according to the styles designed by the Spanish Empire, the coins not only have the logos of each mint, but are also very different from the patterns of coins made in Spain.

What's more important is that the silver content of this kind of currency in the manual era also fluctuated up and down. Liang En and the others dug out these silver coins in the wine cellar, at least most of which could have a silver content of 90%. They should be considered to have the highest silver content. part of it.

However, at least 1/5 of the silver coins contain insufficient silver, ranging from 85% to 60%, and it can be seen from the source that they come from various foundries, and the casting time is also different. There is a high probability that corners were deliberately cut back then.

This is the reason why some professors did not think this currency was a credit currency when Liang En was in college. Because of the uncontrollable silver content, this kind of silver coin has been circulated according to the weighing method of silver bullion for a long time. Not the same as counting silver coins.

This situation did not change until the machine-made double-column silver coins were put on the market in the 18th century. Because they were cast by machines, they had standard color and shape, exquisite patterns, and were easy to carry, so they could be valued by coins.

After a simple screening, they found that most of these silver coins came from Spain's South American colonies, but this is not surprising, because historically this silver coin itself was mainly minted by the colonies.

"Why do Spanish silver coins appear in this place?" Joan of Arc asked Liang En after placing a handful of silver coins she had cleaned out in a plastic box next to her. "This is England."

"There is nothing surprising, because this currency is the first currency in global circulation in the world. You can think of this thing as the U.S. dollar issued since the 16th century." Liang En replied with a smile.

When he was in college, the professor repeatedly emphasized this currency because the "eight real silver coin" was a direct product of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire and was also the first truly global currency.

After this currency was first minted in the 1670s, it spread throughout Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas within just a few decades, establishing a global dominance that lasted into the 19th century.

It was the silver from the Americas that helped the Spanish king become the most powerful ruler in Europe. The silver trade was not only concentrated in Europe, but Spain also established a Far East trading empire in Asia centered on Manila, Philippines.

To give the simplest example, according to statistics, South America produced 130,000-150,000 tons of silver from 1500 to 1650, of which 40-50% flowed into China through different routes, which was nearly 50 times the silver produced by China during the same period!

This also led to the fact that once overseas trade routes were cut off, China, which adopted the silver standard and relied on overseas silver, would inevitably experience a huge financial crisis. Historically, this node appeared in the late Ming Dynasty.

Because the Spaniards had exhausted their wealth during the Thirty Years' War, they naturally had no silver to exchange for Chinese goods. As a result, the financial crisis caused by deflation and the natural and man-made disasters in the last years of the dynasty finally destroyed the Ming Dynasty.

Liang En spoke very well in this regard, so not only Joan of Arc was listening, but Professor Alexander's students and Nelson's workers were also listening to his story while working.

It is much better to work while listening to interesting explanations than to simply work, so the overall efficiency of everyone is very good. At about 10 o'clock in the evening, a dozen of them emptied the entire wine cellar.

According to the cleaning situation, there were a total of 14 wooden barrels placed in the wine cellar before. Two of the barrels contained silver coins, which totaled a little more than a ton.

As for the other 12 wooden barrels, all of which were filled with black powder, everyone was shocked when it was first confirmed. After all, even if there are too many black fires piled together, the power cannot be underestimated.

Fortunately, these black powders are hundreds of years old, so the moisture they have absorbed for so many years in this humid environment has long since turned into a puddle of mud and has expired.

But even so, they put the muddy black powder into containers and filled them with water as soon as possible to avoid any danger.

And after they cleaned up the black powder that had been mixed into a pile, they found large and small silver badges at the bottom of some boxes.

"******, what's going on?" Liang En quickly frowned after picking up a badge, because judging from the silver coins just now, this secret room is probably three to four hundred years old, so the current incumbent appears. The Queen's royal number is obviously not normal.