Chapter 356 About Currency

"Sending people to the Greek city-states to hire scholars as teachers is certainly no problem." The first thing Maximus thought of was the pirates led by Archipenpas, who are the most powerful channel for the Nix tribe to connect with the Mediterranean world today.

"But in the eyes of the Greeks, we are a barbaric and backward wasteland. Are those Greek scholars willing to come here?" Maximus did not have much hope for this.

"Chief, you should know that Macedonia was also a representative of barbarians in the eyes of the Greeks hundreds of years ago, but Aristotle still accepted King Philip's invitation and became Alexander's teacher, and eventually educated Alexander into a great conqueror!" Kephisofon said excitedly: "There will always be some Greek scholars who have ideals and hope to integrate barbaric and backward places into the world illuminated by civilization!"

"For example, you Kephisofon!" Maximus smiled and interrupted.

Kephisofon was a little ashamed. He was forced to stay in the rebel army by the situation. Later, he came here and was entrusted with important tasks. He was able to show his strengths, and then he began to sincerely serve the Nix tribe.

He adjusted his mood a little, and then said: "Chief, I have studied in Rhodes for many years and met many classmates. After returning to the city-state, I still have some contact with them. In the past few days, I have carefully analyzed their respective situations and think that several of them are likely to be willing to come here, so I wrote letters to them separately, and the addresses are written on the envelopes.

Chief, you can send someone to give them the letter first, and then send an invitation. I believe it will be successful."

Rhodes... Maximus had heard of this place when he was in Italy. It is a famous academic center in the Mediterranean region. Many young people from Greece and Rome go there to study. According to the memory of the previous life, it seems that Caesar also studied there.

Kepisophon saw that Maximus did not speak, and hurriedly said: "Don't worry, chief, I did not reveal the secrets of our tribe in the letter. You can check it."

What secrets of the Nix tribe cannot be leaked to the outside world? Of course, the fact that this tribe was established by the slave uprising army, once fought side by side with Spartacus's team in Italy, and defeated many Roman armies.

"Kephisophon, you are the etiquette instructor of the tribe, one of the most important tribesmen of the tribe, and you have been working diligently for the tribesmen. How can I not believe you!" Maximus looked firm and spoke sincerely, and then asked softly: "What kind of paper do you write the letter on?"

"Of course it is made by the papermaking workshop--" Kephisophon suddenly realized that something was wrong and stopped talking.

Maximus reminded softly: "Thanks to the blessing of the goddess Danu, we have made magical paper that other city-states and countries do not have. If we don't want to attract the attention of the Romans, we should not circulate these papers for the time being."

Kephisophon said embarrassedly: "Chief, I neglected it. I will rewrite the letter with papyrus, but this papyrus--"

"There is still some papyrus left in the warehouse. I will let my men send it to you later." Cornelius interrupted.

Kephisophon thanked him repeatedly.

"When you finish writing the letter, I will send someone to take the letter to Chalsipompus and ask him to help us do this." Maximus said.

"Thank you, Chief!"

"Don't say such words of thanks in the future. You are thinking about the tribe. I hope to invite back a few knowledgeable teachers to teach the children better!"

Maximus smiled and encouraged, but he was thinking: Before sending the letter, I still have to let Cassius check it carefully to see if there are any important secrets of the tribe in the letter to avoid attracting the attention of outside forces...

This thought flashed through his mind, and Maximus looked at everyone and said: "Let's stop today's meeting in the Political Affairs Hall. After everyone goes back, we will start to take over the northern territory according to our previous plan."

"Chief, our Ministry of Commerce now has a problem that urgently needs to be discussed and solved in the Political Affairs Hall." Pigris said loudly.

"What's the problem?"

"Our Ministry of Commerce is responsible for managing the market. Most of the shops in the market are also managed by the Ministry of Commerce. They sell goods produced by various workshops. Only a small part of the shops are sold by the tribesmen with their own products..."

Pigris said slowly, obviously prepared in advance: "Since the tribesmen don't have gold and silver coins, we made a rule when the market was established - wheat will be used to replace gold and silver coins, and we also set the approximate price of wheat for other goods.

For example, an ordinary pottery bowl is eight catties of wheat, a pair of straw sandals is two catties of wheat, an ordinary wooden stool is four catties of wheat, and a A kitchen knife, ten kilograms of wheat...

Except for some tribesmen who like to barter, all the shops under our management strictly follow this.

At the beginning, our tribe had few people and a small territory, and not many tribesmen came to buy goods. Moreover, the market was built in Snowtia and Westney Village, so the Ministry of Commerce could manage it easily. But now the situation is different-"

Picris emphasized his tone and complained: "Now the territory of the tribe has expanded several times, and the population is approaching 200,000. These new tribesmen, like the old tribesmen, have gradually liked the pottery, furniture, and ironware produced by our workshops...

The market has become very busy, and now that the situation at home has improved, the old people want to buy more expensive goods, such as the Quyuan plow, which has a price tag of seventy pounds of wheat! But according to our statistics, more than 30 people have requested to buy so far, and there are also some people who want to buy stone bricks to renovate their homes...

In order to allow the ethnic people to purchase goods more conveniently, our Ministry of Commerce has not only built markets in towns, but also built markets in villages, such as the market near the Linkou checkpoint and the market near the mountains to the east of the Sava River. Market, and the market that is about to be built near the military camp near Minghe River in the southeast——"

Maximus frowned slightly: "Pigeris, I know all about the efforts your Ministry of Commerce has made for the tribe. Can you just tell me what the difficulties you are encountering now?"

"Yes, chief." Picris said very seriously: "The problem our Ministry of Commerce encounters is that the number of trades among the tribes is increasing sharply, and the trade volume continues to increase. But instead of gold and silver coins, to purchase goods However, the wheat began to hinder the development of tribal trade, and even started to hinder trade. "

"Oh!" Maximus suddenly got excited: "Tell me more specifically."

"When the people in the village want to go to the market to buy things, they have to bring enough wheat in advance. Since most of them don't have a cart, they have to carry it themselves and walk several miles. When they get to the market, they see so much wheat. goods, I wanted to buy this, and I wanted to buy that, but in the end I found that I didn’t bring enough wheat...

Not only is it troublesome for the ethnic people to buy things, it is also troublesome for our Ministry of Commerce staff who are responsible for managing the market and running the shops. There is a shortage of manpower. When selling a piece of goods, the weight of the wheat must be weighed repeatedly to avoid being punished for undertaking. , busy from morning to night with little rest, but not much business can be done, because half of the time is spent harvesting wheat.

Within two days, the wheat harvested at the market can be piled up into a hill, and it has to be sent to the property department quickly, because the market does not have a warehouse specifically for storing grain, and it will be troublesome if it rains.

But after it was sent to the Ministry of Property, they had to spend time weighing the wheat again. Every time, officials from the Ministry of Property would blame us for the discrepancy between the weight of wheat sent and the record. But can we be blamed?

The tribesmen handed the wheat to the staff at our shop, who then had to transfer the wheat to a temporary storage place in the market. Then they had to move the wheat from the temporary storage place onto a pack truck, then transport it to the grain warehouse of the Ministry of Property, and then move it again. Come down and weigh... Each step may cause a small amount of consumption, and when added up, it will be a relatively large loss——"

"Pigeris, your Ministry of Commerce feels troublesome, but our Ministry of Finance feels aggrieved!" Cornelius interrupted him and said loudly: "Chief, the Ministry of Commerce uses a batch of wheat every two or three days, and our Finance Ministry feels aggrieved!" There are not many people in the department, but they have to carefully and accurately weigh the wheat, record and file it, and then transport it to the warehouse for proper storage... This takes most of a day, which means that our finance department is busy half of the time every month. Regarding this matter of your Ministry of Commerce.

At the end of the month, we also have to pay salaries to officials, craftsmen and other personnel in various departments of the tribe. That’s several thousand people! The wheat given to each person also needs to be repeatedly weighed, checked, signed, and filed... It will take our Finance Department seven or eight days to complete this task.

Our Property Department is not as relaxed as your Commerce Department. We spend most of the month dealing with Maizi, which affects our energy to deal with other matters! …”

Cornelius was both complaining and complaining.

"Since using wheat to purchase goods has seriously affected the normal operations of the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Finance, and has also made the people who buy things very inconvenient... Chief, it is better to issue a decree to allow the people to start using gold again. Silver trading?" Capito suggested.

"This is impossible! No matter the old people or the new people, they don't have gold and silver coins at home, so how can they use them for trading?!" Volenus objected.

"If we don't have gold and silver coins, we can slowly let them have them." Capito raised his head: "We only need to ask the Ministry of Property to no longer use wheat when paying salaries to department officials, craftsmen and other personnel next month, but instead Use gold and silver coins, and resume using gold and silver coins to purchase goods...

As time goes by, other ethnic groups will also realize the benefits of using gold and silver coins, and will find ways to exchange gold and silver coins with the tribes, and then go to the market to purchase goods. In this way, the problems of the Ministry of Property and the Ministry of Commerce will be solved. "