New Shun 1730

Most reforms cannot be rushed, they have to be done little by little.

However, the many changes caused by the abolition of the canal and the change to the sea cannot be slow.

The court allocates millions of taels of silver every year to protect the Yellow River and the canal. This is just the financial allocation of the household government. In fact, it is clear that the money allocated by the Dashun household government is not the bulk of the money, and the bulk is still the local labor and corvee.

If there is no allocation of millions of taels, and no local levies allowed by the court, the canal will not last long.

If the canal is not transported and the court does not maintain it, even if it can still be used, it will silt up in three years at most.

The purpose of Hongze Lake is to raise the water level to flush the silt. Now it is conceivable that the water level is lowered to prevent floods in the upper reaches of Anhui and to prevent the threat of hanging lakes in northern Jiangsu.

Even as before, in fact, the grain transport boats could no longer move in many places, and they needed to use various small tools - such as large shit brushes, egg beaters and the like, to stir up the mud in front, and the deep-water cargo ships and grain transport boats followed quickly.

The emperor knew very well that if the transportation of salt was affected by abandoning the grain transport and the canal was abandoned, the people could still eat salt, but it would definitely not be official salt.

The millions of taxes a year were like a broken arm for the court of Dashun, which had only a few cents in fiscal revenue.

If you want to reform, you have to spend money.

The household government is definitely not interested in building a navy.

But the household government must pay for the management of the Huaihe River, and there is no dispute about this.

The emperor also has internal treasury, income from Nanyang, the monopoly of Ceylon, and the export of official kiln porcelain.

But he still had to borrow money from the Netherlands because if he really wanted to move, the money was not enough.

Since they can think of a million water transport workers, they will naturally consider 100,000 salt workers.

The historical reform of changing salt permits to salt tickets directly triggered protests by tens of thousands of salt workers in Huai'an, and an uprising almost broke out.

They are not salt cookers, but under the salt permit system, they have to pack, bundle, and package salt, all of which depend on the salt administration for their livelihood.

How to evaluate such an uprising? Of course, we must praise and commend them. If people's livelihoods are cut off, but they are not compensated or given new ways out, they will naturally resist - the court should think of ways, can they rely on their own consciousness?

For the emperor, he knew one thing very well: miners, dock workers, porters, water transport workers, salt workers... If these people do something big, they are much more terrible than farmers. First, they have their own organizations, and second, they are in important commercial towns. Once something happens, the whole world will be shaken immediately.

It takes money to settle them.

Now the emperor is really the kind of emperor who is stumped by a penny.

I just feel that the world is so big and I am the emperor, but I lack money everywhere.

The canal workers need money.

The salt workers need money.

Disbanding the old canal patrol needs money.

Arranging new anti-smuggling routes needs money.

Repairing the Huaihe River needs money, and the tens of thousands of "government soldiers" planned to be settled in the new Huaihe reclamation area as the basic base need money. Now the Lingnan tea porters who have started to revolt need money to prepare to suppress them.

Disasters in the Huaihe River and Huaibei need money.

Not long ago, the earthquake relief in Maozhou, Chengdu Prefecture, still needs money.

Under huge pressure, the construction of the navy cannot be stopped. This is a profitable business. If we really want to conquer India in the future, we can earn back all the money invested.

The maritime trade treasury, monopoly fees, and the company's navy construction accumulation funds cannot be moved. We must ensure that they are used where they should be used.

So much money was invested in the Huaihe River at once, and we were suddenly stretched to the limit and could not make any big moves within a few years.

As for money, there is no other way but to increase income and reduce expenditure.

But some expenditures cannot be reduced.

A group of people suggested giving up the Western Regions, saying that they spent millions of taels of silver every year on immigration, but the grain in the Western Regions could not be transported out. It was a waste of money. What's the point? It's better to abandon the Western Regions.

The emperor didn't allow it.

Some people suggested withdrawing the garrison in the snowy mountains. They would go there when there was something to do. There was no need to station thousands of soldiers when there was nothing to do. This would save a lot of money.

The emperor still didn't allow it.

The rest...

There are 200,000 or 300,000 field troops. It's true that there is no war now, but can this be saved?

Can the salaries of officials be saved?

Can the disasters in Lianghuai, Gansu and other places be saved?

None of them can be saved. Military expenses are the big part, but it is impossible to dismiss the 200,000 field corps that was trained with great effort.

Some people suggested that the land allocation system for retired soldiers and the sailor registration system set up by the Duke of Xingguo should be saved.

Let those retired soldiers make a living on their own. Why should the court spend money? Even if they have to spend money, they should spend less. At least they don't have to go to Jinghai or somewhere else, and then give them land and farm tools and oxen.

Aren't cotton spinning workshops rising in some places now? Or mines also need people. And these new soldiers who have taken guns are all strong and obedient. It is better to put them in the mines to dig and move stones. In this way, the court can save a lot of money. They can even be transported to plantations in Nanyang.

The emperor thought about it and felt that his family wanted to sit on the throne for a few more years, so it's better not to die.

It's better to arrange them to go to Meng, the Western Regions, Jinghai, and Yezo to be farmers, and they are the kind of farmers who have land and pay less taxes.

Who is the base of Dashun, who can stand up when the country is in crisis?

The emperor felt that he still had to rely on those soldiers and self-cultivating farmers who paid blood taxes, and he couldn't rely on others. That was the most loyal knife of the court.

Anyway, the gentry was unreliable. Dashun still remembered what happened in the late Ming Dynasty.

Merchants...that's even more nonsense.

As for those miners, they have proved to be the most solid comrades of "then Dashun" at the end of Ming Dynasty, but the problem is that now is "now Dashun".

Who will become "then Dashun" in the future is unknown, but it is certain that "now Dashun" will be "then Ming Dynasty". You have to sit on your own butt, otherwise it will be Jiugong Mountain.

Now the cycle has been established, and the annual recruitment and retirement are balanced. Anyway, there are only 20,000 to 30,000 people every year. Even if you save, you can't save more than one million taels. The money of these people should be paid to let them cultivate land as capital.

So he also specially reminded the prince.

But the prince didn't seem to agree with this, thinking that this was a replica of the policy of redundant soldiers, which was an old problem of Song Dynasty.

Now the emperor and the household government are really living a tight life.

This can't be saved, that can't be saved, it's almost time to live with fingers.

In this case, the news that the attendant said that the Duke of Xingguo brought some boxes back to Beijing was really like a timely help.

Although, in fact, most of this "heavy snow", including the repair of the Huaihe River, the abolition of the canal transport, the reform of the salt administration, the military reform of the pension and aftermath, was caused by Liu Yu, and 60% of the responsibility cannot be escaped.

The current Dashun is a "old thousand-mile horse" in the Iron Age, pulling a set of "Soho Manufactory standard 3 horsepower water pump" in the steam age.

The machines are getting better and better, but the core power is still the same old one, how can there be no shortage of money?

But after all, Liu Yu, who was described by the attendants as "a row of large carriages pulling boxes", was really like the old man delivering charcoal on that cold day.

"Quickly call!"

The emperor used the word "quickly", and the attendants only felt that the Duke of Xingguo was extremely gracious, but they didn't know that the word "quickly" was purely for the sake of money.

While waiting for Liu Yu to come in, the emperor did not even say a polite word like "My dear minister, you have traveled all the way", but asked directly: "Have you calculated it clearly?"

Although as an emperor, as a moral role model, he should not be so anxious about money. But the emperor really couldn't care less, and he was already anxious about how much money he had made.

"Your Majesty, everything has been calculated clearly. It's just that the numbers are complicated, and the general account must be reviewed by Your Majesty. I didn't bring silver this time, but paper money receipts. If Your Majesty wants gold and silver, you can exchange them directly."

The emperor has seen the molds and styles of paper money. Moreover, many technologies are simply impossible for the people to have, and the court must come forward to provide technical support.

In addition to special bark paper, various dyes in the royal palace, anti-counterfeiting ink, and old craftsmen of the royal official craftsmen, the emperor had already seen the samples before printing money in Songjiang Prefecture.

This thing was used in the Song Dynasty because China lacked gold, silver and copper, and the total economic volume was large, but the currency was insufficient. It was legal tender for a long time from the Yuan Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, and it was nothing special.

The emperor also knew that if the court was allowed to manage the printing of money, it might cause panic at least in the short term. After all, the memory of paper money in the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty was not very good, and it was basically gold yuan coupons in the later period.

Only Liu Yu had a good reputation among merchants, so he printed it in Songjiang Prefecture for the time being, waiting for everyone to approve it, and then mention other things.

Originally, someone suggested that the two yuan should be abolished and the coinage tax should be collected. Europe and Japan minted silver and gold coins by themselves, and Dashun only minted copper coins. The coinage tax was not worth mentioning and could not be mixed with much.

Now it is directly done in one step, even the two yuan and the yuan are saved, and the paper currency exchange coupons are directly used.

The emperor then smiled and said, "Even if you use gold and silver, many things can be bought in Songjiang Prefecture. As long as you can spend it, it doesn't matter whether it is Baochao or Jiaozi. I am at ease with your work, and this matter must be supervised by you."

"Although there are many places to spend money now, the places that spend the most money are still Jiangzuo and Lianghuai. Since paper money can be used everywhere, it's just right. I remember that the largest denomination of this paper money is 100 taels. But I heard that you brought a row of carriages here, I'm afraid one carriage can carry a million or a hundred thousand taels?"

Liu Yu thought to himself, am I dreaming? If those dozens of large carriages are all loaded with paper money, do you think I dug up the Potosí Silver Mountain in Nanyang?

Hearing that the emperor was anxious, Liu Yu hurriedly handed over the account of the emperor's dividend.

The emperor tried his best to maintain his posture, slowly and methodically opened the account, glanced at it, and was overjoyed.

On the official kiln porcelain side, there are high-end porcelains customized with foreign patterns, and... the emperor banned religion, but allowed some special official kilns to burn "special monopoly export goods with cross patterns", with a total gross profit of 1.4 million taels. Liu Yu didn't care how the emperor divided it or what the cost was.

Ceylon's cinnamon, betel nut, and gems made 1.1 million taels.

Ceylon's per mu tax, minus the local interception, still had 30,000 taels.

Ceylon's gems, there were also four large gems and a batch of small gems of varying quantities.

This year, the Western Trading Company had its first successful business, and had to pay a monopoly fee, a total of 1.2 million taels. The court promised to crack down on smuggling, strictly investigate, and not allow private smuggling to India or other places.

According to the standard 17% dividend, let's not talk about it.

In addition, there is another "special" item of income:

In order to "thank" His Majesty for imposing high tariffs on the Danish Asiatic Company, according to the purchase orders found in the Danish company's trading house, the original plan to purchase 3,284,054 pieces of porcelain this year has definitely been ruined now.

Of course, these porcelains were all mid- to low-end porcelains. The maritime merchants’ shareholders meeting divided the porcelains according to the types of porcelains, and gave the emperor a total of 160,000 taels in benefits. The key is that the quantity sounds scary, but many of them are small items such as tea cups and tea bowls. There are not many really expensive large items that can earn more than ten taels per piece.

In addition to porcelain, one-third of the original market share of these Danish companies in tea, brass, rhubarb, raw silk, etc. was given to Sweden and Russia, and the remaining two-thirds were eaten up by Dashun maritime merchants.

Together, these things gave the emperor another 200,000 taels in benefits.

The emperor was actually a little embarrassed, thinking that it was no different from being an official and getting paid to do things, right?

But the key is that 360,000 taels of silver are so fragrant. No matter how embarrassed you are, you can't be embarrassed with money.

I took a closer look at the statement above, and thought that it was not bad. It is not easy to call the historian "straightforward". It can only be said that these people "donated to serve."

In fact, for the sake of money, the emperor paid special attention to the production of porcelain once and made a "brain decision". From then on, he never paid attention to it again.

A few years ago, the French prince got married for the second time. Of course, China also sent gifts, and the prince also specially customized a batch of porcelain.

In particular, some particularly expensive customized products such as "glazed lanterns", "jade porcelain sheng", "snow gongs" and other particularly strange and eccentric products were customized.

Money is not an issue, and the designs provided there are also designed to show luxury and specialness.

The emperor paid attention to it at that time and felt that it was impossible to sell this thing based on Dashun's aesthetics. But in Europe, is it so expensive? I also asked some people who have been to Europe, what is the emphasis on transgression and overstepping the rules in France?

Those who have been there say they have never heard of any specialties in porcelain. The emperor thought that these things were so expensive and could not be sold at home, so why not burn more and sell them in Europe?

He gave guidance just once, and as you can imagine, it turned out to be quite embarrassing—customized goods are only rare and can be used to show off. You have made them into bulk goods, how can you pretend to be so?

It was quite embarrassing, and he even sent the French Dauphin a batch of exquisite colorful bottles and new "pink-glazed rose" porcelain, which was considered a small diplomatic commotion.

From then on, the emperor, at least in business, no longer slapped his head.

After all, the money for the customization was advanced with internal funds, because the designs of the Prince of France were bizarre and demanding, and the yield was quite low. After shipping, they were too expensive and not many pieces were sold.

Bring it back, no one wants it in China, the aesthetics don’t match, who can hang a porcelain lantern?

Sending gifts directly in Europe would be like slapping the French Crown Prince in the face, and he would have to smash it in the end.

Apart from this, it should be said that now, except for some special coastal areas, the only place where crosses can be seen publicly in the inland areas of Dashun is Jingdezhen.

Because special export porcelain needs to be fired, crosses, Virgin Mary, John, etc. can be painted as needed.

To ban religion is to ban religion, and to make money is to make money.

Of course, the emperor monopolized the money related to this "cross pattern". The imperial court banned religion, but had no control over the emperor's property.

Dashun's porcelain sales have been getting better and better in recent years, because Japan's Imari ware, which had just started, was completely scrapped in less than ten years after Dashun shut it down.

Exports have been locked again. They could have gone to Europe, but now they can't go to Europe. They are also facing a blow from Jiangxi Porcelain. Dashun's porcelain trade is really booming.

Therefore, in addition to the high-end porcelain monopolized by the emperor, the mid- to low-end porcelain sold well without the competition of Japanese porcelain and made a lot more money.

After reading these accounts, the emperor was already a little drunk.

Xin said that he knew before that trade was profitable, otherwise those Westerners would not have taken such a big risk and come all the way.

Before, Aiqing only said that you can't make a lot of money by just sitting on the ground collecting money, but in my heart I doubted how much I could make.

That day he said that the Swedish company earned 1.2 Swedish treasury revenue in the first year. I still didn't believe it. Now it seems that this statement is true. No wonder that Swedish company burned its books before...

The emperor had no doubts about the Swedes burning their ledgers, because he understood very well what it means to burn ledgers, what it means to borrow food from evil soldiers, and what it means to have accounts destroyed by floods.

But he still didn't expect that in history, the Swedes sank the Gothenburg themselves in order to destroy the ledger and the captain's personal gain. It is said that the cargo recovered still had a 14% profit.

Now Dashun is not just doing business, but also making money from the most profitable "vegetable seller" here. The amount of money is of course dizzying.

Liu Yu estimated that the emperor would become disillusioned after reading the account books, so he quickly poured a ladle of cold water on it.

"Your Majesty, this trade is very special. Firstly, the war in Europe has just ended. Secondly, Europe has not had enough spices for two or three years. Thirdly, before this, the British and Portuguese merchant houses were closed down due to the opium case. This is not the norm. After a few years of stabilization, profits may decline temporarily.”