Ming Dynasty and New Rome and Infinite Magic Machine

Chapter 1587 Remuneration
The next day, today's class was taught by Master Sa as a guest lecturer.

Although the main speaker for this class was Zhang Sanfeng, there were actually five lecturers, including him. It seems that a mysterious lecturer will arrive for the final class.

This is Master Sa's second lecture. His topic today is Yap stone coins.

Today, Master Sa deliberately refrained from wearing sunglasses, opting instead for formal attire—even Master Sa, who usually wears beach shirts everywhere, would dress formally for a classroom setting. This is because, when standing in the classroom, both teacher and student transcend their own identities, for this is the "sanctuary" where human civilization transmits knowledge.

The topic of this class is economic history, and the Yap stone coins are also an important discovery in economic history.

"The topic of this lesson is to tell you what [money] is. So, everyone, please turn to the second to last page of the handout, where you will see the attached image."

During his lecture, Master Sa seemed more serious than ever before: “Everyone can think about what you have seen for a moment.”

The picture shows a series of stone discs. These discs are not perfectly round, with a polished circular hole in the center. They are simply left there, exposed to the elements and covered in moss. The edges of the stone discs are worn and weathered, and many of them have been there for decades or even centuries.

"After looking at them, I have a question—why do all these stone discs have a hole in the middle?"

He glanced down and then pointed to a familiar face: "Han Xingzhi, number 283892, you tell us what you think."

"Huh?" Han Xingzhi suddenly stood up. "It's supposed to be for easier carrying? You can just roll it through with a stick?"

"That's one point. But since I've called on you to answer, can you answer something that's not so obvious at a glance?"

"Forehead"

"Sit down." Master Sa waved his hand, gesturing for him to sit, then looked at Shang Luo and Zhu Xianxi sitting in the back row. His eyes lingered on Shang Luo and Zhu Xianxi for a moment before he finally called Shang Luo to stand up:
"Student number 283001, Shangluo, can you answer why all these stone coins have a hole on them?"

"Because you need to drill a hole to find out that this is currency, and not just an ordinary stone?"

“Absolutely correct, very good. So, how did you know that?”

“I’ve been to Ryukyu. Oh no, I’ve visited Ryukyu. I’ve seen that in the Ryukyu Dragon Palace worship, certain large stones are tied together with red ropes and regarded as ‘Mount Mitake’, which is used as the center of the worship and offerings are made to them. I asked the Ryukyu Dragon and the Ryukyu priestess at the time, and she said that these ropes are tied there, and in a bright red, to distinguish them from natural objects.”

"Hmm, very good, please sit down—what Shangluo said is the core of this lesson. What exactly is money? In short, the essence of money is [a universally accepted consensus on credit]. Any system built around money is reinforcing its characteristic of [a universally accepted consensus on credit]. Whether it's drilling a hole in a stone or tying a rope to it, in their cultural system, this is a universal consensus: the perforated disc is money, and the stone tied with a rope is a divine body."

After saying that, he added a reminder: "And regarding the Ryukyu, we can elaborate further, because the Ryukyuans generally believe that those stone gods are 'dragons.' As for why stones, streams, waterfalls, and the like are 'dragons,' if you're interested, you can look up relevant information in the library. This is the content of the last lesson, so you can organize your own study before class. You're all adults now; our classes aren't just about me lecturing and you listening. You'll need to conduct your own research in the future. Everyone needs to have an eye for identifying problems—okay, let's start by briefly discussing how these stone coins circulated locally."

"There's only one rule governing the use of these currencies—consensus. All rules revolve around consensus. If everyone knows that this stone belongs to you, and only to you, then it belongs to you. Isn't that absurd? Why should something naturally created be yours simply because you say 'it's yours'? Why did Sun Wukong claim the naturally created possessions inside the Water Curtain Cave as his own? Because of consensus. When Sun Wukong jumped into the Water Curtain Cave, he received testimony from the monkeys of Flower Fruit Mountain, who considered him their king and the Water Curtain Cave their palace. Therefore, not only currency, but many things in this world—wealth, power, credit—all originate from consensus. So, how is consensus maintained?"

"This matter is also recorded in historical books. Many of you here are history majors. 'Consensus' is not only the origin of currency, but also the origin of history. Because history itself is humanity's consensus on collective memory."

History is the foundation of Zhou rituals and the basis for the operation of the world order within them. The Zhou royal family could not personally rule every piece of land in the world, so it established a system of enfeoffment. Limited by the conditions at the time, the connection between the Zhou royal family and the vassal states might have been very weak. Therefore, the operation of Zhou rituals involved distributed ledgers among all the vassal states.

According to the Zhou ritual system, the various vassal states were required to communicate with each other, send envoys to inquire about each other's situations, and each state was obligated to compile its own historical records. All these historical records were to be reported periodically to the emperor's historians, and then the records of all the vassal states would be laid out before him for comparison to see if there were any omissions. If an event was not recorded in Lu but was recorded in Qi or other states, then Lu would be questioned by the emperor.

Another way to verify history is through astronomy, which serves as a second layer of encryption. Historical records must include astronomical phenomena because these phenomena are the most widely accepted facts etched in everyone's memory; the same celestial phenomena are experienced everywhere under the sun. For example, there was a comet on the day of Yiwei, a solar and lunar eclipse on the day of Bingshen, and a solar eclipse on the day of Dingyou. These indisputable astronomical facts are like wedges firmly planted in history, making it impossible for anyone seeking to falsify accounts to bypass these established facts. Therefore, to verify whether a historical record has been tampered with, the first step is to verify the accuracy of the astronomical phenomena recorded within it.

Events from any period can be corroborated by distributed historical records; historical records of any length can be examined to determine whether they have undergone large-scale alterations by verifying the accuracy of astronomical information.

These two factors ensured that the entire world was united under a single consensus. Although the Zhou dynasty's royal power did not extend to every corner of the known world, the Zhou dynasty's rule was engraved in everyone's consensus through these Zhou rituals, thus shaping their worldview.

"Therefore, from a historical and consensus-based perspective, you should be able to quickly understand the usage of these stone coins that I'm about to explain, because it boils down to two points: First, when stones are traded, a notary must be present as a witness, and large transactions must be witnessed by everyone on the island. This is to ensure that consensus is established. Who owns this stone, who owns that stone—this ledger is distributed in the memories of everyone on the island, forming a consensus. Second, all these stones come from limestone, which is not produced on the island, and are crafted by a specific family. This family possesses the ledger of all the stones, and they must report to everyone on the island when crafting the stones. These two factors combined mean that the stone coins do not actually need to be moved during transactions; they only need to be placed in a fixed location on the island. When the two parties are trading, they don't even necessarily need to be in front of the stones; they only need to confirm with each other."

"These two points combined constitute a kind of 'stone ritual.' It allows the economy to operate invisibly around a fixed stone. In our handouts, we gave an extreme example—a family owns an enormous stone coin, which is invisible and intangible because it sank into the sea when it was transported to the island. Even so, because the stone 'fulfilled the ritual of the stone coin,' everyone recognizes it as currency. Thus, everyone on the island agrees that the family possesses a 'huge, invisible, and intangible asset.' So whether it lies in the owner's house, in a currency exchange, or in the unfathomable sea, it makes no difference for transactions. Because consensus has already been established."

"There's even a consensus that placing these stones in public places is safer than keeping them at home. So the most valuable stone coins are often those with a larger circulation volume, rather than simply those with a larger size. Many legendary stone coins have their own names—which, of course, echoes the 'Kula rings' we discussed earlier in this lesson. You can refer to previous lecture notes for details, so I won't go into them again."

As before, this lesson was designed with the future in mind. Shangluo knew exactly what it was talking about—

Distributed ledger technology is actually referring to blockchain algorithms.

To check if a piece of information has been tampered with, one retrieves its key values—this is actually a hash algorithm used to verify the data's accuracy. A commonly used algorithm is MD5, which can generate such a string of characters from data of any length. By checking if these characters have changed, one can determine whether the program has been tampered with during transmission.

The importance of consensus has permeated human history. The main purpose of this course on economic history is to learn from history and analyze the "underlying codes" that have survived the test of time and underpinned economic operations. The underlying code of currency is consensus, and that is the subject of this course.

As for how to build consensus, that's a political question. How to use currency is an alchemical question. Neither of these will be discussed in this lesson.

After class, Master Sa was tidying up the desk on the podium when Shangluo walked up to him with his schoolbag on his back.

"Oh, Shangluo, you answered that question well. It's true that going out and seeing the world has its benefits—so, you came to see me because you need something, right?"

"Yes, yes, I have something to do."

Why do you seem a little embarrassed? Tell me, what's wrong?

"That one." He hesitated for a moment, "Can I ask how much I was paid for filming 'Wang Lingguan vs. Flying Yaksha'?"

"Ah." Master Sa smiled and shook his head. "I knew you'd ask about this, since you haven't asked me how much I charge. Speaking of which, how about I give you a little something extra? There's actually a section about stone coins that's not convenient to cover in this class. Firstly, it's not really monetary history, and secondly, it wouldn't be appropriate."

"How to say?"

"When the imperial court began to rule this island, it wanted to levy taxes. However, the trading process on the island was too primitive, and the cost of levying taxes in kind was too high. The tax collectors had no idea how to levy taxes. Then that guy was amazing. He graduated from the history department, and he saw the distributed ledger and wedge algorithm of these stones at a glance."

"I guess he used these stones to collect taxes?"

"Yes, he did that, but in a very outrageous way—he first got his hands on the ledgers from the local chief. This is normal, because distributed ledgers can't be kept secret; everyone's assets are public. Then, he took a marker and, in front of all the witnesses, drew a horizontal line on each stone. He then conscripted everyone to do corvée labor, building roads, canals, and docks on the island. Only after the corvée labor was completed would he use a different colored marker to cross out the year's corvée labor on the stone."

That guy found the correct way to use this currency directly:
So you want distributed ledger, right? He simply makes a mark on everyone's stone coins. Since everyone has to contribute, this becomes a consensus. Many people don't see their stone coins marked, and the stone coin that sank to the bottom of the sea can't be marked, but that doesn't matter; a consensus has already been reached.

Second, he used a hash value for encryption. He used a marker that wasn't found on the island; it couldn't be produced there, so no one but him could make the mark. Similarly, erasing the mark was useless, because the proof of completion of corvée labor wasn't about erasing the mark, but about using a different colored marker. This other marker, too, couldn't be found on the island.

[What kind of person is this?! Conscripting labor from island tribes is outrageous! And they actually manage to do it? Genius! Absolutely genius!]

Shangluo was also shocked: "This senior really does have a way!"

No wonder this isn't discussed in class; it really has a bad influence.

"So, Shangluo, you want a higher salary, right? I think we can also look to the future. Look at this stone, it's big and round. How about this, you act first, and we'll split the profits after the box office reaches 20 billion?"

(End of this chapter)