Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 174: Eliminating the Malpractices Caused by Collusion between Officials and Businessmen

Coming back to the topic, just after the court meeting ended, Zhu Houzhao called the cabinet chief minister Jiao Fang.

Jiao Fang also had to bow to Zhu Houzhao:
“Reporting to Your Majesty, I am thinking that if the Ming Dynasty wants to fight the Tatars, it will indeed consume a large amount of money and food, which will increase the expenditure of the national treasury. What Wang Hua said does not make sense!

Therefore, I do not know what the consequences will be if the Ministry of Revenue owes too much debt to the Royal Bank!
The national treasury has limited revenue, and your majesty and the nobles who hold shares in the Royal Bank will definitely not want to suffer losses. If the national treasury can't pay back the money, these nobles who hold shares in the Royal Bank will definitely suffer losses, and it's not a small amount, at least several million taels!"

Zhu Houzhao smiled slightly. He didn't expect Jiao Fang to see the key point here. He said:

"You are right. If the National Treasury borrows a large amount of money from the Royal Bank and is unable to repay, the wealthy and powerful who hold shares in the Royal Bank will definitely suffer huge losses, including me, the emperor. Therefore, you and I must find a way to make the National Treasury and the Ministry of Revenue pay back the money!"

"I understand! Your Majesty's move will undoubtedly force officials and gentry like me who hold shares in the Royal Bank and future monarchs, including the current Majesty, to find a way to make the Ministry of Revenue pay back the money;

The largest shareholder is the emperor. To protect the Ming dynasty, the emperor would not stop the Royal Bank from lending to the Ministry of Revenue! Unless the emperor wants to be the king of a fallen country!

Moreover, even the other officials and gentry who hold shares do not want the Ming Dynasty to perish. After all, if the Ming Dynasty perishes, the profits of the world's banks will naturally not belong to them. Therefore, they can only lend money to the Ministry of Revenue. In order for the Ministry of Revenue to be able to repay the money, they have to continuously increase the national treasury revenue and collect the world's profits from the Ministry of Revenue in the name of the court!"

Jiao Fang said.

Zhu Houzhao nodded. Just as Jiao Fang said, this was the fundamental purpose of his establishing the Royal Bank, which was to use it to cultivate a group of capital groups tied to national interests.

This capital group prompted the Ming Dynasty to achieve the goal of transforming the small peasant economy into a commodity economy by increasing national income.

Historically, Shanxi merchants and Anhui merchants played an important role in the transformation of Ming society from a small peasant economy to a commodity economy.

The background of the former was the northern gentry, and the background of the latter was the southern gentry. Politically, the struggle between the two was manifested as the north-south party struggle, which finally evolved into the struggle between the eunuch party and the Donglin party.

There is no doubt that whether it is the Shanxi merchant consortium or the Huizhou merchant consortium, their interests are inconsistent with the interests of the imperial court.

Their struggles in the court were all for the benefit of their own consortiums. Whether it was smuggling grain and ironware to the Qing Dynasty or keeping pirates, they were all making the court poorer and making themselves richer. Ultimately, the court could not even do anything to them, and even became their puppet court!
The capital consortium that Zhu Houzhao is now going to establish is composed of consortiums that are dependent on imperial power. As long as they want to increase their own interests, they will benefit the emperor because the emperor is their partner in common interests.

If the emperor and other officials and gentry in the consortium want to maintain such interests and privileges, they can only make the Ming Dynasty stronger and stronger. Otherwise, once the Ming Dynasty perishes, their privileges will be taken away by others.

"Since you are the chief minister of the cabinet, you should not only think about rectifying the administration and maintaining the order of the court. Whether the Ming Dynasty can be strong and whether the people can benefit from the court depends on you, the one who governs the country. Can you increase the income of the court and benefit the people?"

Zhu Houzhao said.

After hearing this, Jiao Fang naturally understood what Zhu Houzhao meant, and he also knew that as the chief minister of the cabinet, he had to find a way to increase the revenue of the national treasury not only for the benefit of the court but also for the benefit of his own family. However, how could he increase the revenue of the national treasury without causing major turmoil?

Jiao Fang thought of the wealthy people he had seen before, and a sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth.

When Urusborot was executed, the Royal Bank had once again borrowed three million taels of silver from the Ministry of Revenue to supplement border affairs!
After all, right now the little prince is very likely to be angered by the Ming Dynasty and lead his troops to attack, so all border towns must be adequately prepared.

Ever since Ye Qi, the Minister of Revenue in the Hongzhi Dynasty, changed the Sino-French system of paying grain to obtain salt to a system of paying silver to obtain salt in order to take care of the interests of the Huaiyang salt merchants, merchants all over the world no longer needed to transport grain to the border towns if they wanted to draw salt permits. They only needed to pay silver to the Ministry of Revenue, thus saving the cost of transporting grain to the border towns. The costs of the salt merchants were greatly reduced, and their commercial profits naturally increased a lot.

However, the consequence was that merchants no longer cultivated land and collected grain in border towns, which led to a decrease in the population of border towns and a relaxation of border defenses. The food supply was also greatly reduced, causing the price of grain in border towns to soar.

Because they paid silver to the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Revenue then paid salaries to the border towns and troops, and the border troops used the silver to buy grain themselves. However, due to the soaring grain prices and the falling silver prices due to the large influx of silver, the court's military expenditures increased sharply. After Wanli, it soared to over 10 million taels, and most of the national income was used to pay the border town troops!

In the end, Ye Qi's Sino-French reforms led to the collapse of the Ming Dynasty due to high military expenses.

It can be said that Ye Qi, the Minister of Finance during the Hongzhi Dynasty, was a treacherous minister of the Ming Empire!

He is from Huai'an.

There is no doubt that because the Ming Dynasty salt fields were mainly located in the Huaiyang area, the Huaiyang salt merchants behind him no longer had to transport grain to the border towns and enjoyed the huge benefits brought by the Sino-French Treaty.

Even merchants from Shanxi in the north began to move to the Huaiyang area, causing the population of border towns to decrease further. A further population decrease meant a weaker border defense, which directly led to the rise of the Jurchens in the later period. They were able to easily encroach on the land outside the Ming Dynasty and enter and exit the border towns at will.

Moreover, after a large number of merchants from border towns moved inland, especially gathered in the Huaiyang area, the number of gentry in the Huaiyang area increased dramatically. These gentry naturally wanted to annex a large amount of land, which also led to frequent famines in the Huaiyang area and a large increase in the number of refugees.

At the same time, it can be said that although Ye Qi's reform and opening up of China and France led to the rise of salt merchants.

But it harmed the entire empire.

However, ironically, Ye Qi was praised as an honest official in history. It is unknown whether he was honest or not, but his policy did benefit businessmen and harm the court.

Although Ye Qi brought an extra million taels of revenue to the Ming central court, this was at the cost of transferring the burden of maintaining the army and cultivating land from merchants to the central court. Compared with the military expenditure of millions or even tens of millions of taels, the extra million taels of salt tax revenue was undoubtedly meaningless.

Ye Qi, the Minister of Finance of the Hongzhi Dynasty, had long passed away. At this time, it was naturally unknown whether his original intention of changing the policy of paying silver for salt in exchange for the opening of the Sino-French Trade Agreement was for the country or for the Huaiyang Merchants behind him. However, it must be admitted that this was an important reason for the loss of Hetao during the Hongzhi period, because the loss of Hetao was not due to the invasion of Mongolia, but because the opening of the Sino-French Trade Agreement led to the migration of a large number of merchants, soldiers and civilians, which allowed the Mongols to take advantage of the opportunity to invade.

The terrible consequences of this policy are still affecting the Zhengde Dynasty, and as time goes on, the impact will become more and more serious until the empire is completely destroyed by foreign races.

Because of this, before Zhu Houzhao prepared to recover Hetao, he asked Ma Wensheng to go to the border towns to immigrate and cultivate land in order to curb the soaring grain prices in the border towns.

However, immigration to the border will definitely not have a significant effect in the short term, and immigration to border towns also requires costs. That is why, in the early stages, the Ministry of Households still allocated money to border towns to carry out immigration.

The court did not save money but increased spending instead.

In addition, the court's expenditure increased again due to the renovation of border walls, the training of local soldiers, and the strengthening of border defenses to make up for the problem of insufficient border defenses after the large-scale migration of population due to the Sino-French reform.

Now, in order to guard against the little prince launching large-scale attacks on border towns or even threatening the capital because his beloved son was executed by the Ming Dynasty, the court naturally has to strengthen border defenses. The old and outdated weapons of the border troops must be replaced immediately, and the owed rice must be reissued immediately, or even more must be issued to boost morale. At the same time, increasing the frequency of military training and military reconnaissance operations in border towns naturally requires spending money and food.

Therefore, the Ministry of Revenue could only borrow another three million taels of silver from the Royal Bank on the basis of a large amount of borrowing from the Royal Bank!
Emperor Zhengde Zhu Houzhao, cabinet ministers Jiao Fang, Xu Jin, Wang Hua, as well as the seal holder of the Imperial Household Liu Jin and the scribes Gu Dayong and Ma Yongcheng, as well as the chief of the Imperial Guards Ma Wensheng and the left governor Qiu Yue could only watch as Xu Jing handed the withdrawal voucher for three million taels of silver to the new Minister of Revenue Wang Qiong.

Jiao Fang and other imperial military and political officials and even those in power in the inner court were bleeding in their hearts, because they clearly remembered that the Ministry of Revenue had borrowed nearly 10 million taels of silver from the Royal Bank!
Now they are all shareholders of the Royal Bank. They know that if the Ministry of Revenue cannot repay the loan in the future, they and the emperor will suffer huge losses, but if the Ministry of Revenue can repay the money, they will make a huge profit.

But they could not stop the Ministry of Revenue from borrowing, because if the Ministry of Revenue did not lend money to strengthen border defenses, the Ming Dynasty would be in danger. Once the Ming Dynasty perished, their privileges would be gone.

"Your Majesty! The most important thing for the Ming Dynasty now is not to guard against the little prince, but to make up for the deficit of the court. Most of the profits in the world now belong to merchants, and the taxes on merchants are light. If we do not use the profits of merchants to make up for the deficit of the court, it will definitely hurt farmers in the future and force the world to rise up!"

After seeing the Minister of Revenue Wang Qiong following Xu Jing to the Royal Bank to withdraw silver, Jiao Fang felt extremely distressed and had to report to Zhu Houzhao his intention to seize the profits of the merchants.

"Your Majesty, I think what the Prime Minister said is very true. If we want to create a prosperous era, we must base it on agriculture. Cherishing the interests of the people is also cherishing the interests of farmers. Now that merchants are making profits and farmers are suffering, it is natural that there will be starvation everywhere! I am in charge of the Ministry of War and dispatching military rations throughout the country, but I found that since the Kaizhong Law was changed to paying silver for salt, the cost of military rations has increased sharply. I think we should restore the system of paying grain for salt, and let merchants cultivate land and transport grain to reduce the burden on the court and benefit the people!"

The second assistant Xu Jin also agreed.

He knew that if he directly levied commercial taxes now, he would definitely offend all the gentry. However, if he simply restored the system of paying grain to purchase salt, it would only deprive the Huaiyang salt merchants of the benefits given by Ye Qi, the Minister of Revenue during the Hongzhi Dynasty, which would naturally be easier.

"I think we should restore the system of paying taxes and buying salt! Although doing so will increase the burden on merchants, it was for this reason that Taizu set the merchant tax at only one in thirty! If merchants do not bear the responsibility of supporting the army, what is the point of the policy of reducing taxes!"

Wang Hua also followed suit.

"But Your Majesty, I have already distributed land to the people in the border towns. Now, all the unowned land and newly reclaimed land in the border towns have been granted to the soldiers and civilians in accordance with Your Majesty's will, and the permanent land and population-based land of the Tang Dynasty have been implemented. Moreover, 80% of the land is population-based land, and the people can only cultivate it but cannot sell it. It will be returned to the court in fifty years!"

"If we restore the system of paying taxes and obtaining salt now, we will have to ask merchants to continue to return to the border towns to cultivate land. However, there is almost no land to cultivate in the border towns, and it seems meaningless for merchants to hire people to come to the border towns," said Ma Wensheng.

What Zhu Houming meant by Bai Ma Wensheng was that the Ming court had now implemented a policy of settling immigrants and cultivating land on the border areas through the government. Even if merchants wanted to come to the border towns to cultivate land in the future, it would be meaningless because a large amount of land belonged to the government and they could no longer buy it themselves.

However, Zhu Houzhao still decided to impose taxes on salt and encouraged merchants to go to the border towns to cultivate land, saying:

"There is no land for farming in the border towns inside the Great Wall. Can't we go outside the Great Wall? The whole world belongs to the king. Can the merchants of our Ming Dynasty only dare to farm inside the Great Wall? What you said is very appropriate. We can restore the system of paying taxes and obtaining salt, encourage merchants to go out of the Great Wall to farm, and tell them that the territory of the Ming Dynasty does not end within the Great Wall! I support them to farm next to the little prince's tent!"

Therefore, the Cabinet and the Imperial Household Department began to prepare to restore the system of paying taxes and obtaining salt.

But the salt merchants naturally would not sit idly by. The imperial court was now paying more and more attention to border defense, and there was even the possibility of a war with the little prince. They were also worried that the imperial court would restore the system of paying taxes to obtain salt.

Therefore, Ye Zhi, the son of Ye Qi who was then the Minister of Taichang Temple, submitted a memorial requesting that his mother be granted an imperial edict in order to test the court's attitude. As long as the court did not restore the system of paying grain to obtain salt, it would naturally give Ye Zhi this grace to appease the hearts of the salt merchants behind him.

But the cabinet chief Jiao Fang did not hesitate to vote: "It has been heard that her mother abused a concubine's daughter, and her reputation is not virtuous. Her husband was posthumously awarded the title of Prince Taibao. If she is given an imperial edict, wouldn't it overshadow her husband? No!"

Liu Jin from the Imperial Household Department naturally approved it without hesitation.

In the current Zhengde Dynasty, the Silijian and the cabinet always keep in step with each other, which can be said to be a harmonious society. However, the businessmen and the gentry groups behind them are not happy about this.

Because the cabinet refused to confer an imperial decree on Ye Qi's wife, the salt merchants realized that the court really wanted to restore the system of paying grain to obtain salt. For a time, they became a little panicked and tried to find ways to deal with the problem.

……

The Ming Empire had a vast territory and a large population, so naturally there were many affairs to deal with. Zhu Houzhao had no time to think about how the salt merchants would respond. He believed that Jiao Fang and others could handle the matter well. After all, these people were all winners in historical political struggles. Logically, their wisdom in officialdom was far superior to his own, and they would not be defeated by the officials and gentry.

Now, Zhu Houzhao has to pay more attention to the little prince.

Thanks to my friend Green Sheep for the 100 Qidian coins reward

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(End of this chapter)