Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 81: Golden Flower Tribute Silver, who wouldn’t praise it as wonderful?
"Your Majesty!" Shen Shixing replied immediately, "Gold and silver are the tributes of the subjects of the world to their emperor and father. How can there be such disloyal and unfilial subjects in the world? Why would the emperor sacrifice his own gold and silver to show his favor to the world?"

"But those who advise the emperor to be frugal should continue to do so." Zhu Changluo was not too polite. "If the emperor is frugal, why not spend less money? If the emperor is extravagant, even if he is exempted from taxes, he can still arrange for annual expenses to build palaces and treasures."

"His Majesty……"

Shen Shixing looked at him with a pleading look, but Zhu Changluo said, "Sit down and talk, sir."

After he sat down, Zhu Changluo spoke again: "Don't I know that exemption can win the hearts of the people? But who are these people?"

This time, everyone's expression changed, including Tian Le's.

Shen Yikuan couldn't help but look at him: Do you want to let more people know that the emperor actually knows a lot?

Zhu Changluo also glanced at Shen Yiguan: "The Prime Minister also said that the subjects of the world should share the difficulties. I am naturally willing to show favor to the world. If I issue an order to reduce the amount of gold and silver to 500,000 taels, and the rest of the grain converted into silver is sent to the capital and counted in the Ministry of Revenue, will everyone celebrate?"

Chen Qi couldn't help but say, "Absolutely not!"

"Why?"

"..." Chen Qi looked at the three cabinet ministers with a chill on his back.

Wang Xijue snorted, then spoke: "What can't be said? Four shi of grain is equivalent to one tael of silver, and there has been no change since the Zhengtong period! If the million silver is halved, according to the current exchange rate of one shi of grain to nearly one tael of silver after the grain tax was changed, then the 500,000 taels of silver should be two million shi of grain! The canal can only transport four million shi a year, and it can no longer transport more. If the extra two million shi of grain is calculated based on the silver converted from grain tax, it will cost one million and eight hundred thousand taels of silver! Is the Ministry of Revenue in Beijing willing to do this? Are the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River willing?"

After he finished speaking, he stood up and bowed to Zhu Changluo: "Your Majesty, this cannot be done! Even if we don't talk about pardons, some people in the world just have some resentment in their hearts. If the gold and silver are reduced by half, there will really be chaos!"

Zhu Changluo looked at everyone one by one, and then smiled and said, "See, this is a game of numbers on the account. The gold and silver were originally designed to reduce the loss of transportation, but now it has changed like this. According to Wang Gelao's calculation, if the gold and silver were reduced by half, our Ming Dynasty's financial budget should have another 1.3 million taels of income per year. Where did this money go?"

Chen Qi's face was pale, but he was still standing there.

Tian Le sighed, stood up and said, "Your Majesty is very talented. I dare to advise you. This matter involves great consequences. As Wang Ge Lao said, this must not be done, otherwise there will be chaos in the world."

"There is no conclusion in the discussion before the emperor, so we just talked about it. Please sit down and talk."

The financial accounts of the Ming Dynasty were a confusing book. Now Zhu Changluo used the example of gold flowers and silver, but what he revealed was only the tip of the iceberg.

Zhu Yuanzhang was certainly a man of great talent and strategy. In terms of finance, he established a taxation system in kind due to the special situation in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. However, he also set up a family precept that prohibited his descendants from making any rash moves.

In the period of material scarcity, the circulation of physical goods certainly meets the financial needs of the vast empire.

But after the empire recovered to a certain economic level, it still clung to the system of taxation in kind, which was a bit outrageous.

The fact that they have been preserved to this day and only converted into silver in some aspects is naturally because the empire's senior executives found that there is room for maneuver in this way.

Take gold, flowers and silver as an example.

The most important financial matter is salary and wages. The financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty can be roughly divided into two major directions: one is the annual tribute to the royal family, and the other is other.

In order to make a living, the emperor had to support all the masters and servants in the Forbidden City; in order to secure his throne, he had to pay salaries to civil and military officials in the capital, give rewards from time to time, and bear the expenses of those departments that were only responsible to the emperor.

When the capital was still in Nanjing, everything belonged to Zhu Yuanzhang. At that time, the Ministry of Revenue did not have a Taicang warehouse, so he could do whatever he wanted.

After Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, the financial and taxation center was in the south, so a large amount of money, grain and supplies had to be transported to Beijing.

The emperor, concubines, and princes were in Beijing, as were most of the nobles and relatives, and there were also so many Beijing officials and military camps.

Their consumption is a huge number.

Throughout the Ming Dynasty, the land tax was about 27 million dan, of which about 40% had to be kept in the local area, and the remaining 60% had to be transported.

Of the 60%, 40% was collected from the north, mostly to be used as military rations for the nine frontiers; the remaining 60%, about 10 million shi, more than 1 million shi were left in Nanjing, and the rest should have been transported to Beijing.

However, the annual capacity of this canal is only about 4 million shi of grain to Beijing.

The amount of grain transported from the south to the north and the amount of loss along the way were also huge.

In the early years of the Zhengtong period, Zhu Qizhen was still young, and the officials came up with a solution: there was insufficient transportation capacity, and the grain transported by the Caohe River was mainly for the emperor's annual supply and the salaries of Beijing officials, meritorious officials, and Beijing camps, as well as for the people of the capital.

In fact, the capital city could not consume more than 8 million shi of grain every year, and the grain would go bad if left alone.

It would be better to do this: transport the 4 million dan of grain that should be sent to Beijing, 4 dan of grain is equivalent to one tael of silver, totaling 1 million taels, and directly transport the silver to the capital. This part of the silver will be given to the emperor, so that another 4 million dan of grain can be transported to Beijing.

It not only satisfied the food needs of the capital, but also completed the task of delivering 10 million dan of land tax revenue to the two capitals. It was not a big problem. The young Zhu Qizhen and Empress Dowager Zhang did not understand much and happily accepted it.

At this point, nearly 15 percent of the land tax quota of the Ming Empire was permanently fixed and converted into one million taels of silver and sent to the capital to be included in the imperial treasury, which was called gold flowers and silver.

Zhu Changluo said calmly: "The annual tribute in silver is naturally a good policy for the people to avoid the additional collection of rice consumption and the levy of labor service. But which prefectures were the gold and silver orders issued to?"

The so-called "Yudan" means that the imperial court divided the tax grain share converted into gold and silver to each province, and each province then divided its share and distributed it to the prefectures and counties.

When the emperor said this, all the ministers remained silent.

If it is for the purpose of avoiding losses, the one million taels of gold and silver should naturally be allocated to remote areas where transportation losses are greatest.

But what is the truth? On the contrary, they are distributed in Nanzhili, Jiangxi, Huguang, Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan and other places where shipping is most convenient, such as the canal or the Yangtze River.

If we look at it more specifically, we will find that these are often the relatively wealthy prefectures.

If we look further, we will find that the distribution of shares over the years has often been positively correlated with the imperial examination results of these places.

"I don't need to explain it now, do I?" Zhu Changluo looked at them. "Although it has been converted into gold and silver, the prefectures and counties where the single person is sent will still collect the transportation and consumption fees."

There are additional costs for transporting grain, but there are no additional costs for transporting silver? To exchange it for silver, we need to melt it into gold and silver that meet the specifications.

Chen Qi was sweating profusely after hearing this: Does the emperor understand so much?
In fact, at the local level, what is collected from the people is still physical goods.

When it finally reached the Ministry of Revenue, they only checked the amount of gold and silver that should be sent to various places.

During this long process, it was actually not necessary to transport the silver from the south to the north over long distances: if someone in Beijing could directly take out the corresponding amount of silver, wouldn’t that save trouble?
Secondly, the grain collected by the local areas that received the share, at the ratio of one tael of silver to four shi, did not need to be transported to the north, but could be retained.

Should we sell or use it? Who should we sell it to? How much should we sell it for? Is there any need to say it?

How much does one stone of grain sell for now?

In the north, it is about eleven cents to one ounce, and in the south, it is about eight cents to one ounce, and this is when there are no large-scale natural disasters.

In special circumstances, the price of rice may rise to two or three taels or even more.

In other words, if someone from a prefecture or state that obtained the gold and silver came forward to take responsibility for the gold and silver that the prefecture or state should pay, then the grain would naturally be his responsibility.

Four taels of silver for one stone, and the resale value is at least double the gross profit. The net profit can be divided into two parts according to the agreed proportion.

So in the end, the emperor in Beijing only knew that he had a fixed income of one million taels of silver every year. The local people still had to pay land tax and various surcharges and labor service silver, while the local officials and gentry were always scrambling for the share of gold and silver, finding various reasons to delay the payment of other taxes besides gold and silver, and hoping for exemption whenever there was a "happy event".

This is just the tip of the iceberg of the difficult truth about the Ming Dynasty’s financial affairs, starting with gold, flowers and silver.

With such gold and silver, who would not praise it as wonderful, from the emperor to the officials and gentry?

The emperor was advised to be frugal, but never advised to reduce the amount of gold and silver. The reason is simple.

It's all business.

"The treasury is empty and the financial situation is difficult. We keep complaining about this every year." Zhu Changluo said quietly, "I will not start a war over this. If there are places that are unwilling to return because they have not been exempted, I will not send gold and silver to them next year. I want to see what they want to do."

Chen Qi's heart trembled when he heard this: Are these two things linked?

Zhu Changluo continued, "I can pretend to be confused, but don't really think I am confused. It is true that the financial situation is difficult. Some prefectures and counties can be exempted from taxes due to disasters, but that is a grace that will be discussed later. Exempt the whole country? Humph! It is nothing more than once every few years, which encourages the localities to find excuses to accumulate debts and then wait for the right time to exempt them! Is this kind of people's sentiment worthy of being called loyal and filial?"

Using this simple example, everyone except the three cabinet ministers formally knew the new monarch.

I had known Tian Le for a long time, but I was still shaken at this moment.

If you use troops, what a move that hits the vital point? But it is too dangerous. If you go straight to the vital point, you will be surrounded by enemies after you show your strength.

"I have some thoughts on why the financial situation is difficult." Zhu Changluo continued, "You should also understand. I asked my father and grandmother to remove the mining supervisor and tax collector because this method could not solve the problem. I asked you to discuss it today to see if you have any ideas. As the edict of ascension said, I have set an example in saving money. You can help me solve my worries on how to increase revenue."

No one could speak immediately.

(End of this chapter)