Then, Zhu Youxiao said: "Rewards for successful examinations can be divided into two ways. Small examinations at the end of the year will reward less, with double, three, or even four stipends, while those who excel in the Beijing Examination and the Great Plan Examination will be rewarded more. A few are used to create models, but not many. A dozen or so names in a province are enough and can be listed in local annals;
But the big reward is not about giving too much money and food at once to make it extravagant. It is mainly about improving the person's treatment, such as the court's kindness to support his staff, the number of doctors, the number of carriage and sedan bearers, the favor of servants and even concubines. How much, what scale should be allocated to him to build a mansion, etc., and even if he is given the title of wife and son, he cannot make himself suddenly rich! "
"What your Majesty said is true! But in this way, the court's money and food expenditure will increase a lot."
Fang Congzhe replied.
"This is what the court must bear, otherwise they will have to use various overt and covert methods to ask for it from the people!"
Zhu Youxiao said that he knew that if the Ming Dynasty wanted officials to govern the Qingming Dynasty, it had to take on more responsibilities, and if it wanted to make the court more centralized, it had to take on more functions.
The Ming Dynasty used to be a "small court". It levied few taxes and assumed insufficient social responsibilities.
According to Zhu Youxiao's idea, after the Ming Dynasty, there must be a "big imperial court" with more taxes and more social responsibilities and functions.
Because in Zhu Youxiao's view, the current "small court" model of the Ming Dynasty caused the gentry to be too "free" and did not play the social roles they should play, such as managing the place for the court and appeasing the people.
On the contrary, the number of refugees increased, and the gentry paid less and less attention to the court. The infrastructure was also very poor. The frequent increase in floods and droughts was related to the lack of improvement of water conservancy and other infrastructure. But in the Ming Dynasty, It is still an agricultural empire. If water conservancy and other infrastructure are not well constructed, it will affect the development of the entire empire.
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao said that this is what the court must bear.
Because these local officials must be controlled by the court through various welfare systems, and cannot be controlled by the gentry and wealthy businessmen through money and beauty.
"yes!"
Fang Congzhe asked.
"In addition, from now on, the salary and silver reward will no longer be distributed in grain, and all will be converted into silver. You will ask the Ministry of Rites to formulate a ceremony to invite the Taizu statue, and then order the Baoquan Bureau to mint a batch of silver coins with the Taizu statue;
These silver coins are used as salary and reward money for officials. The statue of Taizu is engraved on the silver coins so that officials can remember Taizu's instructions when getting silver coins. It is also to use Taizu's divine power to protect our Ming Dynasty money law and ensure the silver coins. The fairness of transactions will be summoned to the world when the time comes;
These silver coins with the statue of Taizu are specially issued by the Ming Dynasty. The silver coins have the statue of Taizu and the specific weight. This is to use the power of Taizu to ensure that the weight of the silver coins is accurate, thus facilitating market transactions without having to worry about the weight during transactions. Bring scissors to cut and weigh silver;
Anyone who dares to mint Ming Dynasty silver coins privately is engraving Taizu privately and is disrespectful to Taizu. Once all the privately minted silver coins are found out, he will be executed immediately!
Including burning and recasting into silverware or even making fake silver coins that are short of weight, it is also disrespectful to Taizu. Once found out, all silverware and fake silver coins will be confiscated and executed immediately!
There are also people who can use the power of Taizu to use silver coins for transactions and storage, but they are obliged to keep them properly. Anyone who damages or makes them too dirty is disrespectful to Taizu! Depending on the severity, the punishment ranges from serving more than three years to execution. "
As far as Zhu Youxiao knows, Ming Dynasty has never established a perfect currency system, making Ming Dynasty's current finance completely outside the control of the court.
However, the Ming Dynasty has now entered an era of using silver as the main currency for transactions among the people due to the large inflow of silver.
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao had long wanted to slowly establish the Ming Dynasty's currency system so that the Ming Dynasty could control the Ming Dynasty's economy, thereby making the Ming Dynasty richer.
Now asking the statue of Taizu to mint silver coins is the beginning of Zhu Youxiao's desire to develop official currency.
Zhu Youxiao did not engage in banknotes from the beginning, because the indiscriminate issuance of treasure banknotes caused celebrities to lose trust in official banknotes.
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao could only start by casting silver coins and distributing salaries and silver rewards to officials.
Zhu Youxiao did not directly prepare for the establishment of an official currency in terms of taxation.
That is, through taxation, only cash is collected but no grain is collected.
Because Zhu Youxiao knows that this is not an easy task. After all, if taxes only collect money, many self-sufficient peasants who do not have much commodity trading activities will only have food but no money. Asking them to pay only money will make them in order to pay taxes. They had to exchange grain for money with the wealthy gentry, and the wealthy gentry took the opportunity to lower the price of grain and exploit the farmers.
Especially the yeoman farmers in the north.
Therefore, Zhu Youxiao only used money as much as possible in terms of expenditure, but in terms of the court's input, he still adopted a flexible method of collecting grain and cash.
"Your Majesty, if all the money is paid out, the officials and their families will have to go to the market to buy grain. This will probably cause the price of silver on the market to become unstable, and the price of grain will increase again, which is not conducive to the livelihood of the people."
Fang Congzhe admitted that the emperor was very smart in doing this. It was indeed better to give out money than food. After all, the Ming Dynasty was not short of money or food, but he still had to remind Zhu Youxiao.
"Right now, the West Factory is very effective in collecting taxes in Nanzhili. Even if the collected grains are transported to the local area first to replenish the local government warehouses, there will still be a lot left over to be transported to Beijing, and then the capital will definitely be affected. The surge in grain increases the amount of money on the market to maintain grain prices and avoid hurting farmers;
However, the price of grain must be controlled by the court, so the court had to set up a grain industry bureau, which would set up official grain shops in various places to sell official grain to officials and people, thereby preventing the new grain from being spoiled in the official warehouse. Old grain, even old grain, eventually becomes moldy, and excessive loss of grain during storage occurs due to rodent infestations, fires, and human corruption. "
Zhu Youxiao started talking.
Fang Congzhe understood what Zhu Youxiao meant and knew that the emperor wanted to get back the silver coins distributed to officials by selling grain, and at the same time, control grain, an important material related to the world's livelihood, in the hands of the court. He replied: "Your Majesty is wise! I obey your decree!"
"I will give the officials a reward, but they can no longer be lazy, and the examination must be strict! No one can be idle! First, the central court must be strict. How much government affairs must be completed every day, and what must be completed if it cannot be completed. There is a plan, and if you fail to complete it beyond the planned date, you will be severely punished! Only when it is completed will it be included in the political performance and rewards will be prepared according to the completion effect!"
"The six ministries and the Metropolitan Procuratorate passed the exams for local officials and various government affairs, and the six subjects passed the Six Ministries and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the cabinet passed the six subjects, and the political affairs hall passed the cabinet exam. I personally passed the political affairs hall!"
Zhu Youxiao gave orders.
"I obey the decree!"
Fang Congzhe immediately replied.
Therefore, while Nanzhili was in full swing to clear land and collect taxes, the central court of the Ming Dynasty also started its official reform with great vigor.
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