Anyway, Yang Fan had long seen that the eight imperial merchants were dissatisfied, and this time he wanted to deal with them. Why not take the money that Zhang Shize squeezed out with his ability?
If you don't take it, it will be free. Keeping the money will not do any good to the Ming Dynasty or the people.
If the eight imperial merchants were willing to use their money for circulation or even set up factories, Yang Fan would forget about it. Some factories will also be created to allow them to make equity investments and make them rich.
If they are willing to transform and become capitalists in the industrial and financial industries, Yang Fan would be happy to see it happen.
What Yang Fan hated the most was that they cast the silver into silver lumps and buried them deeply in the ground. This caused serious deflation in the Ming Dynasty.
In a country where silver is the currency standard, the emperor and the central government do not control the supply and issuance of this currency. This weird thing made Yang Fan speechless.
There are three forces that control the issuance of silver currency: Europeans, Japanese, and gentry (especially the southeastern gentry group.)
There is actually no Ming cabinet or emperor here. The cabinet and the emperor only had the right to issue copper coins. Of course, there is also the right to issue treasure banknotes.
However, Baobao was the first paper currency in the world to be endorsed by the credit of the government and the emperor and circulated throughout the country. Because of my irresponsible hair, I have become angry and look too thin for wiping my butt.
Even if it is used as toilet paper, it will be too fine and too thin, which will lead to the tragedy of forgetting to take the paper with you when you poop, and the paper will be torn by picking up the treasure.
In fact, both the cabinet and the emperor understood that there were huge hidden dangers in using a currency that they could not control. Therefore, in the early Ming Dynasty, silver was prohibited as currency. But guns cannot defeat the laws of economics. Similarly, the emperor and the cabinet could not prohibit the circulation of silver. Later, I had to let it go.
Most of the silver in the Ming Dynasty was imported, and many local mineral deposits were not discovered, or could not be refined because of associated ores.
One-third of the imported silver came from Japan. However, after the end of the Warring States Period, Japan began to isolate itself from the country. The outflow of silver was cut off.
One third comes from Europe and its overseas colonies. Especially the silver that Spanish galleons transported from America to Manila and then traded with the Ming Dynasty. This part also came to an abrupt end.
Because the Thirty Years' War broke out in Europe, this war lasted from 1618 to 1648.
The year is 1628, and the war has been going on for ten years. The huge consumption caused by the war and the loss of population led to a serious shrinkage in consumption. The European merchant fleet dropped sharply. Leading to insufficient input of silver.
However, the Ming Dynasty's own gentry sold physical goods to obtain silver and then hoarded it. This resulted in a serious shortage of silver in circulation.
If the total money supply is less than the total social production, it will cause deflation and cause a serious drop in prices. This leads to low grain prices and hurts farmers.
After Zhang Juzheng's reforms, farmers needed to sell their grains into silver to pay taxes.
However, silver continued to decrease in circulation, and even began to decrease at a cliff in the late Wanli period. As a result, farmers had to sell more grain than before to collect tax money.
This all led to financial difficulties. The Ming Dynasty was a country where agricultural tax was the main tax. It also greatly increased the burden on farmers. The rising price of silver has led to high living costs for citizens, and the lives of service industry workers and craftsmen have gradually become difficult.
In fact, the emperor and ministers knew the principles, causes and consequences of all this. They also made efforts. The first is to target overseas silver.
Yongle made seven voyages to the West in order to exchange silver, gold, and even goods that were lacking in the country through trade for barter. Strengthen the circulation of domestic goods. Stabilize prices and ensure people's livelihood.
Emperor Yongle went to the West, and Emperor Xuanzong and Zhu Zhanji also prepared to go to the West, but they died before they could succeed. Yingzong was also preparing to sail to the West. He had been preparing for half a year, but before he even started, he encountered the Tumubao Incident.
Emperor Wuzong not only enjoyed the Leopard Room, he also defeated Dayan Khan who unified Mongolia in the Battle of Datong, leading to the re-division of Mongolia. They are also preparing to sail to the West. But he soon fell into the water. The matter is settled.
In the Jiajing Dynasty, the emperor once again prepared to open the sea and hired Yan Song and others. Yan Song and others finally failed in the political struggle and were labeled as traitors and traitors. Kaihai was stillborn.
Jiajing understood that the deflation problem in Ming Dynasty had reached a point where it could not be solved without solving it. The rise in silver prices directly affects people's lives.
Yan Song forced the southeast coast to convert grain-growing land into mulberry fields for silk production. Many farmers starved to death and even led to riots. On the surface, it seems to be a complete bad government. Why would Jiajing do such a notorious thing?
The fundamental reason is that silk can exchange for much-needed silver for the Ming Dynasty from east-west trade.
Only when the imperial court had enough silver in its hands, and through salaries and projects, could silver be injected into the circulating blood vessels like blood, the anemia of the Ming Dynasty could be cured.
After the failure of Jiajing, Jiajing's son launched Longqing Kaihai, which was forced to be cancelled.
By the Wanli Dynasty, the war in Japan ended, and Japan began to close itself off. (Japan’s Warring States Period 1467-1615. It happened to be the period after the Chenghua of the Ming Dynasty.)
During the war, various forces exchanged urgently needed war resources through trade with the Ming Dynasty. As a result, the era of large amounts of silver flowing into the Ming Dynasty was completely over.
At that time, five to six million taels of silver flowed into the Ming Dynasty every year, which greatly alleviated the court's tax difficulties. The public has also benefited greatly. Stabilizes the value of the currency.
As Japan closed its doors to the outside world, only Nagasaki was left for foreign trade. The flow of silver into the Ming Dynasty decreased sharply.
Wanli had no choice but to find money from within, and sent out mining supervisors and eunuchs to various places to supervise the mining. Mainly open gold, silver and copper mines. These three types of mines are all related to the amount of money invested.
By the time of the Apocalypse, the situation had become even more serious. Because of the Thirty Years' War in Europe, the finances of various countries were exhausted by the war. Private wealth has also been heavily lent to governments in the form of financial financing. This resulted in a disruption in the flow of silver from Europe and the American colonies. There were great financial difficulties.
Emperor Taichang reigned for less than a month, in order to reward the heroes. He handed over the 7 million taels of silver left by Wanli to the Donglin Party and squandered it all. Before Tianqi came to power, the internal treasury and household department were all empty.
Tianqi had no choice but to use Wei Zhongxian to tap the potential from within. Increase revenue and reduce expenditure. Maintain the imperial court's shaky finances.
Now in the Chongzhen Dynasty, the two major overseas sources of silver have been cut off, and internal tapping has been forced to stop with the fall of Duke Wei. In the end, the only option was to resort to the method invented by Sun Chengzong to impose additional war taxes on land across the country. It's called Liao rates.
After the Qing Dynasty was established, it was discovered that the Liao salary used to annihilate itself was really a good thing. It can increase the court's fiscal revenue and alleviate the deflation problem caused by private silver hoarding. Not only was it not cancelled, it was also carried forward. But for the sake of looking good. Renamed Lijin.
The Qing Dynasty developed dozens of types of linjin tax, a military war tax temporarily allocated on acres of land. and continued until the Republic of China. In the third year of Xuantong (1911), the last year of the Qing Dynasty, the total amount of gold taxes nationwide reached more than 43.18 million taels of silver.
On January 1, 1931, the Nanjing National Government abolished the Lijin system. Later, by abolishing the two yuan and changing it to the yuan (abolition of scattered silver and using silver yuan), banknotes were issued as legal tender. The monetary system was completely reformed.
In the 1930s, the National Government carried out two currency reforms, namely the "abolition of the two yuan reforms" in 1933 and the implementation of the legal currency policy in 1935. The first currency reform abolished the silver tael, established the silver dollar standard, and unified the silver dollar. However, before consolidating the National Government, the second reform was carried out, and the country's silver was forcibly collected and sold in the international market in exchange for gold-standard pound notes. Then use the pound as a reserve to issue banknotes and legal tender.
The biggest feature of banknotes is that they can be printed without restrictions. With banknotes, deflation is no longer a problem. Inflation became a big problem later.
Yang Fan attacked the Donglin Party's financial center in the north and robbed Zhangjiawan Town in Tongzhou of nearly 20 million taels of silver, gold, jewelry, and other equivalent materials. This time, Zhangjiakou's goods worth nearly 20 million were stolen from the eight imperial merchants.
All the money will be used to carry out engineering and infrastructure construction and provide more employment opportunities. Let the people have money so that they can buy industrial products and support Yang Fan's factory.
Invest in building a factory and then go public. Invest in industry by buying stocks, and use the money of Ming Dynasty landlords, officials, and gentry to develop industry.
As the bank's capital, it provides loans to industry and commerce, and forcibly increases the circulation and velocity of currency.
Yang Fan alone cannot change the Ming Dynasty. Yang Fan must cultivate a new industrial and commercial group to fundamentally change the direction of this country.
Yang Fan was a little funny, now Zhang Shize has accepted the money. The army also set off as scheduled. When they arrived at Zhangjiakou, they found that there was only an empty city left there. I wonder what the expressions of these Shanxi old men who were bleeding would be.
