Chapter 46: Mint

"Dr. Robinson is such a kind and good man. Google search and read"

After sending Robinson away, Strauss, who followed Liang Yao, sighed as he looked at Robinson's tall back.

He couldn't help but express his confusion.

"Why does Dr. Robinson not accept gold and run around for people who have nothing to do with him?"

"Everyone's pursuit is different. You and I pursue profit, but Dr. Robinson has his own life pursuit."

Liang Yao remembered the situation when Robinson ignored Captain Weber's opposition and tried his best to treat Deng Wenyao.

Because of gold, there are many examples of brothers turning against each other and friends becoming enemies in California. And Robinson is still the same Robinson, and has never changed.

Liang Yao was about to turn around and go back home, and Jones came to see Liang Yao trotting all the way.

"Boss, this is a sample coin minted by the mint. I wonder if you are satisfied?"

Jones carefully held a small pine box in both hands and presented it to Liang Yao.

A row of exquisite large-denomination coins are neatly arranged in the pinewood box, and their face values ​​are consistent with the current gold coin dollar face values, namely 20 US dollars, 10 US dollars, 5 US dollars, 3 US dollars and 1 US dollar.

Of course, Liang Yao also has his own little ideas. In addition to the necessary minting year and the words "United States of America" ​​on the coin, there is also a line of Chinese and English words "Bank of China" at the bottom of the back of the coin.

He is paving the way for his bank in advance and for the economic development of California.

Before the independence of the United States, the British colonial authorities prohibited the North American colonies from minting coins, resulting in a shortage of North American coins and the legacy to this day.

At the beginning of independence, the most circulated metal currency in the US market was not even the US dollar, but the Spanish silver dollar. Even in 1850, there were still many Spanish silver dollars circulating in the US market.

To what extent were early American coins scarce?

Until the period of President Jackson (1829~1837), the United States and the Qing Dynasty had to print precious metals into currency in advance before trading.

However, these metal currencies used for foreign trade are the best in quality among all metal currencies in the United States.

California is rich in precious metals, but few people would consider casting gold into currency. More people would directly use gold for transactions, and its value is agreed upon by both parties based on the purity and weight of the gold.

This made Liang Yao feel like he was dreaming of the Qing Dynasty.

This way of trading is inconvenient and inefficient, and it is undoubtedly an obstacle to the development of California.

Liang Yao came to the mint, and the words "United States Mint" on the gate caught his eye. Due to being abandoned for too long, the surrounding shrubs and weeds grew as high as Liang Yao's waist.

In order to ensure the safety of the mint, Liang Yao specially allocated three teams (30 people) from his corps to take turns to guard around this small factory.

This US Mint does not belong to the US federal government, but was built two or three years ago when the United States and Mexico were still at war. Colonel Mason, the then commander of California, and some early American immigrants in the area, and Sutter also participated in it.

However, the mint was later passed on to Brannan after several twists and turns. Brannan also minted some gold coins in the mint, but these gold coins did not flow into the market.

Liang Yao had found some scattered gold coins in Tingtao Garden. They were very new and almost unused. They must have been minted here.

The mint was very simple, with only a few old stamping machines and rolling machines. The original workers of the mint had long since run away. He spent gold to recruit the dozen workers in the factory.

Jones called the director of the mint, and his face was full of joy and excitement.

He knew very well what it meant for a bank to mint coins.

He admired the young boss more and more.

Don't look at the simple mint now, with few workers, with California's huge gold production and high purity.

The metal currency produced by this mint will be popular in the United States within three to five years and become the most valuable coin in the United States and even the world.

By then, the name of the Bank of China printed on the back of the gold coin will also be passed on by word of mouth among Americans.

This is the best advertisement for their Bank of China, an advertisement that all Americans cannot escape.

It was the first time for Wrigley, the director of the mint, to meet Liang Yao. It was the first time for Wrigley to meet the rumored new king of California. Wrigley seemed a little nervous.

"Wrigley, how many gold coins can we mint every day?" Liang Yao asked.

"We can only mint five or six hundred coins. Many machines are broken, and we don't have a steam engine. The efficiency of manual coin minting is very low." Wrigley told Liang Yao the truth.

Minting five or six hundred coins every day could not meet Liang Yao's needs at all.

Even if all the gold coins were minted with a face value of $20, the value of the gold coins minted every day was only $12,000.

Looking at Wrigley's embarrassed expression, Liang Yao knew that he had other difficulties to talk about.

"If you have any other difficulties, you can tell me directly."

"In addition to these, we also need copper, tin and iron. The raw materials in stock are only enough for us to use for another week. If you want to mint cents, we also need silver, a lot of silver."

Liang Yao nodded. Riggley's request was reasonable. A good cook cannot cook without rice. Without giving him the raw materials, he would not be able to mint coins for Liang Yao.

It is not difficult to get a small amount of copper, iron and tin, but it is difficult to get silver.

At present, the supply of goods produced by his small factories is tight locally, not to mention trading with Mexico and exchanging Mexican silver through trade.

Of course, he can also choose a simpler and more brutal method, which is to directly exchange gold with Mexico for silver of equal value.

"I will find a way to solve these problems, and you just focus on minting coins. If there is a steam engine, how much can the efficiency of minting coins be improved?" Liang Yao asked Rigley.

"At least five times more. If you can add more machines and manpower, it is not difficult to mint thousands of coins every day." Rigley said, "Other mints are waiting for gold to start working. Only the gold of the California mint needs to wait in line outside the mint to be minted into coins."

After inspecting the mint, Liang Yao returned to his residence and saw Cai Mingsheng pulling a cart of rice to Tingtao Garden.

Encouraged by Liang Yao, many Chinese have reclaimed farmland and planted rice near San Francisco and Sacramento, but the rice seedlings planted this year are not yet ripe for harvest.

Only Cai Mingsheng and a few other early Chinese immigrants have a few acres of rice fields. If you want to change your taste and eat fresh rice, you can only buy it from them.

Cai Laixi's death was a great blow to Cai Mingsheng, and his temperament changed greatly.

Cai Mingsheng has now resigned from his job at the guesthouse to Liang Yao and became the deputy sheriff of San Francisco.

In the western United States, the appointment and dismissal of deputy sheriffs is very casual. All you need is the nod of the sheriff, and at most you have to go through the procedures of the sheriff.

It is not difficult to get through the connections of Flagg and Griffin. It is nothing more than giving more gold.

The relationship between the sheriff and the deputy sheriff is essentially the same as the relationship between the colonel and those lieutenant colonels and majors. In the final analysis, they are the assistants of the sheriff.

Not to mention now, even in the late 19th century, the appointment and dismissal of deputy sheriffs in the American West was quite arbitrary.

It was not uncommon for a wanted gangster to run from a wanted state to another state and become a deputy sheriff in a local town.