When the eunuch who delivered the decree arrived, Yang Fan was painting the ladies' eyebrows.
Yang Fan deliberately gave Mei Xiang a painted face like a kitten, with three whiskers on one cheek. Xiao Niangpi and Lin Yueru burst out laughing. Seeing everyone laughing at her, Mei Xiang cried in anger.
Yang Fan tried his best to coax Mei Xiang.
Mei Xiang is usually the most well-behaved and doesn't have a strong sense of presence. Yang Fan deliberately teases her.
As a result, the family was making a fuss when the angel came. Yang Fan changed his clothes and went out to receive the order.
After a while, Yang Fan came back with the imperial edict. With no expression on her face, Xiao Niangpi couldn't help but ask: "Master, is there anything good that His Majesty has given you?"
Yang Fan smiled bitterly and said, "If there's anything good you can do, come and wipe your ass with me."
Yang Fan threw the imperial decree on the table next to him and said, "Your Majesty is messing around and making a big deal. Zhang Shize bombarded Dong Jishu, and the Xuanwu army collapsed and fled into the south city. They broke up, looted, and set fire. The north city was also in chaos. I don’t know who is wrestling with them. They are hacking and killing every day, and some people are setting fires. Your Majesty asked me to return to the capital."
Lin Yueru said unhappily: "How can there be such a truth in the world? There is no need to face the front, but there is no need to face the back. Don't you have dignity? Your Majesty is shouting around like this."
Xiao Niangpi also said angrily: "No, I'm still on sick leave to recuperate."
During this period of time, it is rare that my master is with me every day, and I am enjoying this long-lost family life. The imperial court caused this mess again and asked the master to wipe their butts.
Yang Fan said with a wry smile: "We still have to go if we should, otherwise we will appear to be petty. Besides, what good will it do to us if the capital is in chaos. Zunhua is so close to the capital. We need stability."
Xiao Niangpi thought about it and felt that what Yang Fan said was reasonable. Considering their own interests, the chaos in the capital will have a great impact. The Yang family's business in the capital generates huge income every year. Now the Yang family supports too many people.
The army is almost 150,000 strong. There are 50,000 cavalry troops and 50,000 infantry troops. Engineer regiment, Pontoon regiment, three retainer regiments (Xinghe regiment, cavalry training regiment, retainer cavalry regiment), female corps, river boat fleet, Jeju Island fleet and marines. There are also a large number of pirates.
There are almost 50,000 people working in shipyards, various factories, and scientific research institutions. There are still 100,000 people building dams and reservoirs, which are expected to be completed by the end of this year. Railways and roads are also being built on a large scale.
Last year's military expenditure was 11 million taels. This is a frightening number. Financial expenditure was 7.8 million taels of silver. The total is close to 20 million taels.
The military expenditure seems to be a lot. When it is spread evenly on a soldier, it is only 73 taels of silver, less than one hundred taels. This includes military uniforms, firearms, ammunition, transportation, injuries, pensions, military pay, weapons research and development, and many other expenses.
The little girl had never managed such a big stall before, and she had no idea that raising an army was so expensive.
The Yang family's total income last year was just over 8 million taels. This also includes the million taels stolen by the pirate group.
Last year, the total fiscal deficit reached 10.8 million taels of silver. When I was settling accounts at the end of the year, I was so scared that my hands and feet were numb.
But Yang Fan can always come up with money to fill the hole. Yang Fan also told Xiao Niangpi not to worry. He will take care of the money matter. I don’t know what the master is capable of, but he can always bring out boatloads of snow-white silver.
In fact, there is nothing surprising.
In modern times, silver is plentiful and worthless due to the development of science and technology. One gram only costs five yuan.
According to statistics from scientists, before the Ming Dynasty, China excavated and refined a total of 15,000 tons of silver. Through trade, 10,000 tons of silver were obtained from overseas.
By the peak of the Qing Dynasty, China had accumulated 45,000 tons of silver. Considering that the Qing Dynasty was closed to the country, the amount of silver imported was not high. The amount of silver in China during the late Ming Dynasty was estimated to be around 40,000 tons.
A rough calculation is based on one tael containing 33 grams of pure silver. One ton is thirty thousand taels of silver. The entire Ming Dynasty is estimated to have 1.2 billion taels. Excluding Liaodong and southwest minority areas, the eighteen provinces also have at least one billion taels of silver.
It's just that all this silver has been hoarded by officials, wealthy businessmen, gentry, and landowners.
Because there was no banking system in this era, and the gap between rich and poor was extremely
big. Silver can only be buried and stored. The result was severe deflation in the Ming Dynasty. There is very little silver in circulation.
The price of silver was high, and the people had to pay taxes in silver, which was miserable.
The imperial court could not collect taxes due to insufficient money on the market.
The poor are the main subjects of tax burden, but they don’t have much money in their hands. The gentry and officials had the vast majority of silver in their hands, and they did not pay taxes.
Insufficient money has caused prices to rise and all industries to be depressed. In addition, wars between the north and the south continued, and military expenditures were flowing like water. The imperial court's finances collapsed.
Yang Fan knew that his large-scale development model must have huge silver payment capabilities. Making money from the Ming Dynasty is one way. In addition, he also needs to send silver from modern times.
In 2022, the total global silver production was 31,250 tons. In 2021, China extracted 24,600 tons of silver from its huge industrial output such as electrolytic copper and electrolytic aluminum. China has a serious overproduction of silver.
There are no large silver mines in China, but silver is associated with many minerals. The total amount of this silver by-product is staggering. After modern silver withdrew from currency, it only had some industrial uses, causing silver to become the same metal material as copper and iron.
Last year, Yang Fan sold gold and made thousands of small goals. Within one year, a total of 2,000 tons of silver were secretly purchased from the international market using small orders. Equivalent to sixty million taels.
All the silver was pressed into silver coins and kept in Yaoguang's place. Bring it up when needed.
This is also the reason why Yang Fan dares to take an unconventional development route. He does not have to worry about not having enough money. Xinghe's silver coins are a hot commodity on the market. Everyone is willing to accept it.
This is a thousand pure silver worth one tael. The Yang family’s silver coins are simply the conscience of the industry.
There are almost no money shops that do not take advantage of their customers.
As soon as the Yang family's silver coins came out, the Ming Dynasty gradually showed signs of abolishing the Liang Dynasty and changing the Yuan Dynasty. The fineness of silver is complex and cutting is troublesome. Smelting and purifying consumes a lot of fire, and exchanges are prone to disputes. Far less convenient than silver coins.
Moreover, the banknotes issued by Yang Fan can be freely exchanged with silver. One yuan of Soft Girl Coin practice coupon can be exchanged for one silver coin.
As a result, many businessmen exchanged their silver for banknotes at the local Xinghe Bank, and then went to the local Xinghe Bank to exchange it back when they arrived in the target city.
This is easy to carry, very safe, and there are no remittance fees.
But soon, they discovered that these banknotes were more useful than silver coins.
There is a 93% discount for buying steel and other materials with banknotes, which is a net profit of 3%. This led to an explosion of credit for banknotes, which began to be widely used in North Zhili and South Zhili.
Last year, Yang Fan handed Xiao Niangpi 30 million silver coins. 11 million will be used to fill the fiscal deficit, and the remaining 19 million will be used for this year's deficit reserves.
The silver coins spent by Yang Fan brought huge benefits to the people of Beizhili.
That is to fill the severe situation of deflation in the north. And all this money has been earned by the people who work, build railways, and build dams.
And when they have money, they spend it again. A multiplier effect was produced. Feed more people.
This silver entered circulation instead of being taken away by the gentry and stored in hoards. On the contrary, gentry officials purchased large quantities of luxury goods, causing a large amount of silver to flow into the Yang family, where it was purified and pressed into silver coins and re-entered circulation.
Although the situation in various parts of the northern Ming Dynasty has deteriorated year by year in the past two years, Northern Zhili, especially the Gyeonggi region, has maintained relative stability and prosperity. Even the imperial court gained millions of taels of income every year as a result.
