Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 26 Bank
Xu Jing had been waiting here. After all, Zhu Houzhao had promised to give him an official position, so there was no reason for him to leave immediately.

When Zhu Houzhao asked this, Xu Jing hurriedly came up like a fat ball, pulling up his tightly stretched robe, and said with a narrowed smile: "Your Majesty, I am Xu Jing here."

"From now on, you, the head of the attendant room, will manage the inner treasury for me. This means that the eunuchs and officials in charge of the inner treasury will be responsible to you. Do you understand?"

After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, he asked Xu Jing.

Xu Jing was born into a wealthy merchant family. He had been exposed to business since childhood. He also knew that managing the imperial treasury was a lucrative job, so he bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty, I understand. Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I will manage the affairs of the treasury for you."

Zhu Houzhao nodded and said nothing more. Instead, he stood up and looked at the Cabinet Chief Liu Jian and others:
"You all should go back. I am also going back to the Leopard House. Xu Jing is with me. Now he is in charge of the inner treasury, so he naturally needs an official position. I have decided to establish a new head of the attendant room and an attendant officer. The rank does not need to be too high, from the seventh to the eighth rank will do. They are mainly responsible for managing my internal affairs and will be registered under the name of the Hanlin Academy. They will be granted the titles of Hanlin Academy Reviewer and Hanlin Academy Bookkeeper. Although the official position is not high, it will not affect the reputation of the court. You can handle it with the cabinet and the Ministry of Personnel."

The Minister of Personnel Ma Wensheng said "Yes!" He had no objection to the addition of a new official position. After all, he was still waiting for Emperor Zhu Houzhao to make him the Prime Minister, so there was no need for him to displease Emperor Zhu Houzhao.

The Ministry of Personnel was in charge of all officials in the country and could directly appoint minor officials of the seventh and eighth ranks. Now with the support of the Minister of Personnel Ma Wensheng, it would be easy for Zhu Houzhao to appoint Xu Jing as a minor official of the seventh rank.

However, the chief minister of the cabinet, Liu Jian, and others still looked at Xu Jing again. They felt that the emperor had eight eunuchs around him and now there was another jester.

Zhu Houzhao returned to the Leopard House, and the cabinet quickly drafted an edict to be approved by the Imperial Household Department, ordering that the inner treasury be separated from the Ministry of Households and directly managed by His Majesty the Emperor Zhu Houzhao.

At the same time, the Ministry of Personnel also issued a document to establish the Secretariat and appointed Xu Jing as the director of the Secretariat and the reviewer of the Hanlin Academy. Zhu Houzhao took the opportunity to directly order the Neiku to be renamed the Imperial Taxation Bureau and Xu Jing to be the director of the Imperial Taxation Bureau.

Zhu Houzhao had long thought of separating the Neiku from the Ministry of Households and having officials appointed directly to manage it. He even wanted to turn the Neiku directly into the Royal Taxation Bureau, which would be equivalent to setting up a special taxation department specifically responsible for collecting commercial taxes and customs duties.

The incident of Zhu Houzhao's opening of the Royal Exposition intensified the conflicts between Ma Wensheng and Liu Jian within the civil service, which gave Zhu Houzhao this opportunity. Zhu Houzhao decisively seized this opportunity and took control of the inner treasury, which was equivalent to holding the power to collect commercial taxes and customs duties from all over the world in his own hands.

Although in this era, because the Ming Dynasty was still dominated by a small peasant economy, coupled with a small proportion of commercial taxes and most of the profits from commercial trade were controlled by the tax-exempt privileged classes such as the gentry and dignitaries, commercial taxes and tariffs were not the main sources of tax revenue for the court.

But Zhu Houzhao believed that commercial taxes and tariffs would become the main source of fiscal revenue for the Ming Dynasty in the future. If he held them in his hands, he would be in control of the future financial fortunes of the Ming Dynasty.

However, Zhu Houzhao knew that even if he was in control of the Neiku now, it did not mean that he could arbitrarily impose commercial taxes and customs duties, because it did not mean that if he imposed commercial taxes now, the civil servants would obey unconditionally. That was naturally impossible. Zhu Houzhao felt that he had to change the way the Neiku operated.

Because of this, Zhu Houzhao turned the inner treasury into the Royal Taxation Bureau, which was responsible for collecting commercial taxes, customs duties, and mining taxes related to the interests of the royal family. The higher the income of the Royal Taxation Bureau, the more wealth the emperor could obtain, and the more funds he could have, even sustainable funds.

Of course, based on his own interests, Zhu Houzhao also knew that he would have to impose additional commercial taxes in the future. Otherwise, even if he allowed the Ming Dynasty's business to develop, the income of his Royal Tax Bureau would not increase.

In this way, he also had the foundation to run a bank. However, Zhu Houzhao did not plan to run a bank by himself. He had to let others invest and set up a royal bank with him. Only in this way could he tie the interests of some people to his own interests as an emperor, and he could have truly like-minded people.

The Royal Bank was the private treasury of the emperor, but Zhu Houzhao wanted to turn it into a commercial company, but also a financial institution through which he could regulate the macro-economy, and a way for him to control and bind the vested interest groups.

Zhu Houzhao wanted to turn the Royal Bank into a central bank, at least for now. He also wanted to implement a joint-stock system for the Royal Bank. As the emperor, he would definitely own the majority of the shares. Allowing other people to participate in the establishment of the bank would not only control them from the perspective of economic interests, but also give them some feedback so that they would realize in the future that it was beneficial to follow him as the emperor.

Only in this way can more people be willing to follow us in imposing commercial taxes and find a balance between collecting commercial taxes and encouraging the development of industry and commerce.

Because the Royal Bank is a company, the managers of the Royal Bank need to be good at running business. Zhu Houzhao still decided to choose Xu Jing as the general manager of the Royal Bank because Xu Jing came from a wealthy businessman.

Of course, there are many people who come from wealthy business families, but Xu Jing had experienced being suppressed by the powerful, and he happened to meet Zhu Houzhao, so Zhu Houzhao naturally promoted him.

Zhu Houzhao did not let one of the eunuchs among the Eight Tigers manage the Royal Bank, not because he really wanted to take the feelings of the civil servants into consideration, but because the Eight Tigers were now each responsible for other affairs of the emperor, and Zhu Houzhao could not entrust his finances to one of them, as that would break the balance among the Eight Tigers.

Xu Jing followed Zhu Houzhao to the Leopard House and listened in detail to Zhu Houzhao's idea of ​​establishing the Royal Bank. Being smart, he understood what Zhu Houzhao meant and only asked, "Your Majesty, will we, the shareholders, have a share in the tax revenue of the Royal Bank in the future?"

"Yes, I will take the majority of the money myself, and a small part will be used as operating expenses for the Royal Bank. The rest can be shared by you and everyone in the world. The more money you invest, the more shares you will get. It's up to you to invest as much money as you want."

"Your Majesty, can the eunuchs still participate in the shares?" asked Liu Jin and other "Eight Tiger" eunuchs.

"Of course you can. Anyone in the world can participate in the shares, and you are naturally not excluded. However, the managers will be appointed by me myself, and the management method will be the responsibility of the managers," said Zhu Houzhao.

(End of this chapter)