Whether calculated by the price of rice or the metallic weight in later generations, ten thousand taels of silver amounted to only a few million in modern currency. Although ten thousand taels in this day and age could buy several large estates in the Capital or dozens of properties in Yangzhou, Zhao An felt that housing prices were not a suitable benchmark for the value of silver. If one were to use housing prices, a courtyard house inside the Second Ring Road in the capital of a later era could easily fetch hundreds of millions; surely that did not mean ten thousand taels was worth billions.
Clearly, it was not. Therefore, he was accustomed to converting silver based on grain prices to see how much of the currency from his previous life it could "exchange" for. Regardless of whether harvests were bountiful or meager, the price of grain in any era—barring natural or man-made disasters—remained relatively stable. The conversion was roughly accurate.
To shell out millions at once—in his previous life, Zhao An would have been a "big shot" worth over a hundred million. For a "big shot" to give a few million as a first meeting gift for a bride was not excessive. Besides, the money was coming from the Old Ancestor anyway. As the most loyal subject of the Great Qing was taking a wife, the Old Ancestor should at least contribute something. Moreover, since the money was going to the Ding family, what difference did it make whether it went to them or his own family? Once the eldest …
Chapter 131