After the ancients finished the restaurant, leaving only a piece of broken silver to leave, how did the shopkeeper know that the meal money was enough?
I believe that many fans of martial arts dramas must know such a detail: the ancient martial artists or officials in the TV series eat in the restaurant, and when they are full of wine and food, they often leave a little silver on the table, and then generously say, "Don't look for it." The shopkeeper who took over the broken silver was also a non-committal, and his head was almost on the ground, saying to the guests, "Thank you Uncle."
However, these shopkeepers never looked directly after getting the money! They don't have a little bit of silver, in the end is enough wine money, just lick?
In fact, there is no need to see if the silver is enough, because as long as it is a piece of silver, it is enough. All of these things had to start with the ancient monetary system.
As we all know, of all currencies, the hardest are the rare metals gold, silver and copper, of which copper is the most produced and the lowest value. Therefore, in TV dramas, copper as currency usually appears in the form of copper plates.
This is followed by silver, which is probably the most commonly used currency in the impression of the ancients. In fact, at first, silver wasn't as much as you might think. In the early days, silver was a rare thing, and there was not much circulation in the market. It was not until the opening of the national treasury during the Ming and Qing dynasties and the maturity of silver mining technology that silver was gradually popularized.
The silver circulating in the market is also graded. The best quality is the tattoo silver, which is the standard silver issued by the government. When they leave the factory, they are all made into the shape of a yuan treasure, engraved with the official logo and the color and weight of striped silver. The worst quality is called bottom silver, which is mixed with a lot of copper, the luster is not as good as the grained silver, and the value is much worse.
The gold circulating between the royal family and the nobility cannot be seen by the common people at all, nor can they afford the function of currency circulation.
So how is the currency exchanged? Generally speaking, one or two pieces of silver can be exchanged for 2,000 copper plates, while a piece of silver can be up to 50 taels. This translates to 10,000 copper plates, equivalent to the largest denomination currency at the time. Of course, if it is the bottom silver, the weight of an ingot will be less than 50 taels, and the copper plate converted into a few.
The silver circulated by the people is generally broken silver, which is more flexible than silver ingots. Between the broken silver and the silver ingots is a fire and a mold.
So, why is the first shop of the ancient restaurant Xiao Er so happy to get broken silver? It turned out that there were at least one or two pieces of broken silver, that is, more than 2,000 copper plates, while the average price of ancient restaurants was dozens of copper plates. Even if it is a high-end restaurant, one meal is a meal of hundreds of copper plates.
Therefore, those heroes who give broken silver in the TV series can only give more, not less. Shop Boy Two will not calculate enough money at all when he sees broken silver, but will only nod his head and waist, respectful to you.
The people will not have much broken silver in their hands, but all copper plates. Only when encountering such a big event as a wedding banquet can crush silver be used, and the daily expenses of copper plates are completely sufficient.
As for the use of real money, the merchant will still count the money. They have a special scale called silver. So it's not that the little two don't count the money, but the customer gives much more money than the meal.