"Start your Majesty!"
"The problem of insufficient silver dollars in the market is indeed becoming more and more serious!"
"First, the silver flowing in from outside is not enough to meet the needs of this dynasty. Therefore, although the skills of casting silver coins are becoming more and more sophisticated and the scale of casting is getting larger and larger, the lack of domestic silver itself will still limit the production of silver coins;"
"Second, because silver coins are becoming more and more valuable, Haoyou is more willing to hoard silver coins without spending them, causing less and less silver coins to flow into the market."
"And because of the shortage of silver dollars, the price of food is low, and the people who are farming in the countryside are seriously abandoned and are unwilling to farm a lot, especially in places where the one-whip policy is implemented, because the income from farming is not enough to pay taxes. If you don’t want to farm, you might as well abandon your land and work in the towns;”
"Even if some places don't implement the one-whip policy, because they can't make much money from growing grain, they are only willing to grow enough grain to meet their daily needs and are not willing to farm more;"
"This has resulted in the fact that although food prices are not high, food shortages have become more and more serious, and many people have become hungry as a result. This was the reason for the severe famine in Guangxi and Shaanxi and Shanxi last year."
"besides."
"In the city, the shortage of silver dollars also prevents many commercial goods from being sold far away, which means that it cannot solve the livelihood problem of the unemployed in large numbers;"
"Nowadays, the problem of shortage of silver coins is getting more and more serious, and trade routes are becoming more and more blocked. Many workshops that were still of a certain size have been closed down due to the decrease in buyers. As a result, the number of unemployed people has increased sharply. According to Ying Tianfu According to reports, the phenomenon of thieves in Nandu is more serious than in previous years."
Shen Shixing told Zhu Yijun about the shortage of silver coins in front of the emperor.
Zhu Yijun nodded after hearing this: "Didn't I ask your political hall to discuss how to resolve this matter? Have you come up with any strategy?"
At this time, Shen Shixingzou said: "Your Majesty, you do have a strategy."
"Say it."
Zhu Yijun said.
Shen Shixing said: "Your Majesty, please let Mr. Zhangge play."
Zhu Yijun nodded: "Then let Zhang Qing speak."
Zhang Xueyan, who was in charge of internal affairs, stood up, held his scepter, and said: "Back to Your Majesty, I have discussed five strategies:
One is to mine for silver. If there are few silver mines in the pass, we go outside to look for them;
The second is to reduce taxes to allow more silver dollars to remain among the people and circulate them more, especially tax cuts for goods exported from customs, so that they can be exchanged for more silver;
The third is to carry out water conservancy and transportation projects. By recruiting more people to work, the court's silver deposits can be spent and circulated among the people. After all, there is a shortage of silver coins in the market. The important reason is that many silver coins are collected in After the tax was collected, it was stored in Taicang;
The fourth is to provide care for the orphans of fallen soldiers and provide relief to the widowed and lonely to ensure that the vulnerable will not starve to death due to lack of food due to insufficient silver coins;
The fifth is to crack down on profiteers who maliciously collect silver coins with high amounts of money and profits. On the grounds of violating the court's money laws, all silver coins will be fined and confiscated for profiteers who dare to directly collect silver coins at high prices. "
"Very good."
“When mining for silver, we need to send people out to explore; we can reduce taxes if we can;”
“Initiatives such as water conservancy projects are also a way to increase the amount of silver dollars on the market, so it cannot simply be a work-for-relief project, but a large-scale infrastructure construction project so that more people can live in a short period of time. There are more silver coins, so more silver coins can be circulated; as for increasing relief to the disadvantaged, it is also necessary. It is best for almshouses, nurseries, etc. to provide food directly to prevent officials from embezzling their benefits."
Zhu Yijun made his own instructions on this.
"According to the order."
Regarding the problem of insufficient circulation of silver coins on the market, Zhu Yijun's ministers in power have actually been committed to solving the problem.
Because of this.
Just before this, the cabinet asked the Ministry of Household Affairs to change this spring's salary to its original salary, that is, rice, in order to distribute more of the saved silver dollars to the people through large-scale infrastructure construction and welfare charity.
Anyway, behind the bureaucrats are the landlord class, and they are not short of silver dollars, let alone food.
A few days after Zhu Yijun agreed to their five solutions to deflation, the cabinet formally submitted a request for approval, spending five million taels of silver dollars to carry out large-scale dredging of major rivers in the world, and to add water to the above-ground rivers in Henan. Build embankments to prevent future floods in Henan from causing large areas of farmland to be destroyed and a large number of people to be displaced. At the same time, two million taels of silver dollars were used as special funds to distribute the purchased grain to various county almshouses and nursing homes across the country. At the same time, a one-time additional supplementary pension of twenty taels of silver dollars will be provided to the orphans and widows of fallen soldiers.
However, according to Zhu Yijun's imperial edict, Miao Chaoyang opposed the use of state funds to increase benefits for almshouses, nurseries, and orphans and widows of fallen soldiers, saying that this would intensify corruption among lower-level officials, and would also intensify the burden on those receiving relief. His level of laziness made him even more unable to stand on his own feet, which increased the financial burden on the imperial court. Moreover, the impeachment application was too broad and wasted the country's money, so he should be deposed.
"I gave all my ministers and workers a large amount of salary to support their integrity. Why didn't I say that it would aggravate their laziness in governance?"
"I think Miao Chaoyang's performance is simply malicious!"
"Furthermore, he has never mentioned the issue of insufficient silver coins as a household clerk. I think he is very lazy in politics. In this case, it is better to let him work hard first and transfer to Daning to work as a miscellaneous worker. , to punish him for his crime of falsely accusing my people."
After receiving Miao Chaoyang's memorial, Zhu Yijun directly ordered him to be dealt with severely.
Zhu Yijun could not accept Miao Chaoyang's behavior of not wanting his country's disadvantaged people to live a better life, so he was not too polite to him.
After Miao Chaoyang received the imperial edict, his whole body suddenly felt bad. He couldn't help but cursed: "Of course I am not diligent, but there is no need for the Holy One to be so strict!"
Miao Chaoyang was full of slander, but he still had to wait for the appointment of the Ministry of Personnel before going to Daning to take up his post.
During the time when Miao Chaoyang went to Daning to take up his post, the problem of money shortage was getting worse.
This is because Gu Xiancheng and other powerful right-wingers are secretly deliberately inflating the price of silver coins, for example, deliberately exchanging various antiques, jades, etc., or even using land to exchange silver coins.
The circulation of silver dollars in the market continues to decrease.
In addition, the emperor just issued an order to carry out infrastructure construction and increase welfare subsidies, so the effect of the court's regulation has not yet appeared, and the right-wingers have already begun to speculate on the price of silver coins.
Therefore, in June of the fifteenth year of Wanli, during the hot summer, even the capital area began to see a large number of factories close down due to the decrease in large orders.
at the same time.
A large number of private grain merchants stopped buying grain in Beijing because there were too few silver dollars and the price of grain was too low. Instead, they began to stockpile silver dollars to wait for their appreciation. After all, grain was becoming less and less valuable compared to silver dollars, but the purchasing power of silver dollars had always been is increasing rapidly.
As a result, many hungry people without money or food appeared in the capital city.
On the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, many scholars began to organize many hungry people to come to the Ming Dynasty Gate. They knelt down and shouted loudly: "Please ask the court to release grain, we want to eat!"
"Please ask the court to provide food, we want to eat!"
"Please ask the court to provide food, we want to eat!"
…
The two brothers Gu Xiancheng and Gu Yuncheng who had already entered Beijing also came to Daming Gate on this day to watch this scene, and they laughed proudly.
Gu Yuncheng first asked Gu Xiancheng: "Brother, do you think the imperial court will release grain?"
"Of course it will! Wouldn't it be against humanity not to let him go?"
"It's just that the grain brought to Beijing now must be limited. I don't know how long these hungry people can be fed?"
"Shenwu County should think about this issue."
Gu Xiancheng said with a smile at this time.
Shen Shixing and his cabinet were indeed well prepared. As soon as hungry people appeared, they immediately sent pre-arranged officials with food and documents. Not only did they distribute food to these hungry people, they also recruited them on the spot to participate in infrastructure construction. The wages paid are not low, with the lowest being as high as two taels of silver dollars a month.
These hungry people were very happy, and their grievances caused by unemployment were wiped away. They kowtowed and shouted long live the emperor.
"Long live the Emperor!"
"Long live the Emperor!"
"Long live the Emperor!"
…
Gu Xiancheng's face dropped when he heard this voice, and he couldn't help but said to Gu Yuncheng: "Shenwu County is arbitrarily using silver dollars from national funds to flatter the emperor!"
"That's right!"
“It’s such a crime to pay hungry people such high wages!”
"I really don't know how long the silver coins of the national treasury can be held on after being ruined by the remnants of Zhang's party. I'm afraid that in the future, when the people are in full swing, the imperial court will have no money. At that time, it will really have to consider internal funds. .”
Gu Yuncheng also said at this time.
Gu Xiancheng suddenly smiled and said, "I have thought of a countermeasure!"
With that said, Gu Xiancheng said to Gu Yuncheng: "Brother, I'm going to see some of my old friends in Jingke Road and ask them to speak out. We can't let national funds be misused by the cabinet!"
(End of chapter)
