It is midsummer in the fifteenth year of Wanli.
On the outskirts of Beijing, as soon as a heavy rain stopped, cicadas started chirping in the lush green woods.
A large number of migrant workers were sweating profusely amidst the noisy chirping of cicadas. However, these migrant workers did not become agitated because of this. Instead, they were tamping earth and moving stones peacefully.
The insufficient circulation of silver coins caused a large number of private workshops to close down, which in turn led to a large increase in unemployment and vagrants. As a result, the imperial government had to increase the scale of infrastructure construction. To this end, the Ministry of Works obtained an edict to dredge the river and also requested an edict to widen it. The land route between the two capitals facilitated the passage of the large four-wheeled carriage invented by Qi Changguo, reducing the pressure on water transportation.
Now, these migrant workers are doing this project.
The reason why they felt satisfied and did not become more agitated and uneasy because of unemployment in the hot summer days was because the wages given to them by the court were really high, not at all lower than their income in private workshops, so it was difficult for them to be replaced by others. Literary men instigated trouble.
Under the deliberate propaganda in the official newspaper, they only thought that it was because the emperor was benevolent and willing to make their lives more prosperous, so he gave them higher wages.
But what they didn't know was that the imperial court was more interested in getting more silver coins to circulate in the market by issuing them to them.
After all, no matter how high their wages are, they are not much compared to wealthy households. Most of their wages are still used to support their families. Even if they save some, the savings will be used to send their children to study. Just sending their children to study is just a matter of time. The cost of a piece itself is not low, which makes it more difficult to save.
Therefore, the Ming court did not mind giving more to these migrant workers, because as long as more were given to these migrant workers, the circulation of silver coins on the market would increase, instead of saving them after receiving the silver coins.
Of course, Zhu Yijun was willing to spend a large amount of national funds to distribute to the common people, which was not something any emperor was willing to do.
Because this is actually equivalent to spitting out what you have eaten. Not everyone can do it.
Zhu Yijun can do it, firstly, because he comes from a later generation, and he is more willing to regard the common people as human beings. Secondly, because he knows that there are many interests in the world in this era that are worthy of his exploration, which can greatly increase his wealth, and The losses at this time are just based on the need for long-term interests. It is necessary to temporarily reduce some capital so that internal chaos will not occur due to money shortage, which will affect its future external expansion.
More importantly, the promotion of the New Rites for so many years has also led many ruling bureaucrats to accept the idea that the Han people are more valuable than the Yi. They believe that since the wages given to the Fanyi are to ensure their basic survival because the New Rites promote benevolence, then the Han people are more valuable. Yu Fanyi, as the emperor's pure son, naturally had to be treated more favorably, and the treatment he was given should not only ensure his basic life.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun was able to let the court support the people.
However, although Zhu Yijun and the bureaucrats who supported the Xinli Party were willing to use national funds to develop funds to feed the people, a large part of the bureaucrats were still unwilling and went to court to oppose it.
"The people are not in a state of starvation. Although famine is just caused by laziness, there are still a lot of industries in the world to support people, such as cultivating wasteland in the border areas, such as pulling fiber, working as a long-term worker for a large family, such as carrying a sedan chair, etc., and for small The reason why many people are unwilling to do it is because they dislike the hard work and are too poor to respect decency and do not know the virtues of frugality, so they cause trouble."
"But the imperial court condoned his misbehavior and did not hesitate to raise wages, so that the laborers and the hard-working people had enough money to drink tea and listen to music, without hesitating to spend a lot of national funds."
"If the national funds continue to be consumed at this rate, I really don't know if they will be used up in time! What's more, now that the Japanese Incident and the Luzon Incident are imminent, the cost of money is already a lot. Now if we build a large-scale project and do it at a high price, I'm afraid that In a few years, the imperial court will be at its wits end. If there is a natural or man-made disaster, how should the imperial court respond?"
"What's more, the mountain mausoleum has not yet been built. Although His Majesty advocates frugality, but according to etiquette, the mountain mausoleum must be built. Such a waste of national money, I really don't know where the money for the mountain mausoleum will come from in the future?"
"Today's Chief Assistant Shen Shixing deceives Your Majesty into benevolent and wastes a lot of national money. He promotes his own good name and ignores the future destiny of the country. His intentions are insidious and his actions are shameless. Please choose a wise man and stop this as soon as possible. The rule of subjugation!”
Censor Wang Zhixiang wrote such a memorial.
However, Zhu Yijun refused to report these memorials and still allowed the cabinet to continue spending large-scale national funds on large-scale projects.
That's hard on bureaucrats who opposed the move.
Many of them hope that the price of silver coins will continue to rise. As a result, because the imperial court continues to use this method to distribute the silver coins in stock to the people in the form of large-scale construction projects and various welfare benefits, the silver coins circulating in the market have continued to rise. Without a large-scale reduction, the price of silver dollars has only increased slightly, and the increase has not been as high as the expectations of the bureaucrats.
As more and more projects appear, more and more national funds are flowing into the hands of ordinary people, and more and more officials are becoming restless.
Wu Shilai, the censor of the capital, and Yang Yuting, both of Hu Ke and others, all came to the cabinet on this day and asked how long the cabinet was going to spend the national funds.
Yang Yuting even asked Shen Shixing directly: "When the national funds are almost exhausted and have reached the red line set by the Ministry of Household Affairs, if we continue to spend like this, has Yuan Fu thought about the consequences?"
Shen Shixing said calmly: "Both the cabinet and the Ministry of Revenue have a sense of proportion, so don't worry about giving advice."
Yang Yuting sneered: "I really don't know what your sense of propriety is."
When Wu Shilai saw that Yang Yuting's words were a little serious, he quickly stopped him and said, "Yang is so rude to remonstrate! It's enough for the cabinet to give an answer on this matter. We'll wait until the red line is reached!"
After hearing Wu Shilai's advice, Yang Yuting said: "Okay, I'll leave it here first. You don't have the long-term safety of the country in your heart, but I do! If the silver in Taicang really reaches the red line, I will I would rather be demoted to a remote place, but still have the right to refute it!"
"I'm so presumptuous today, please forgive me, sirs, and take my leave!"
After Yang Yuting finished speaking, he turned around and left.
"You should continue to collect silver coins at high prices, and use more valuable items such as land, houses, and maidservants to exchange for silver coins on the market!"
"Even if the maidservants from Guangsha who are replaced are paired with common traders, we will only have less silver dollars now, which will also affect the war against the Japanese, make the world's silver shortage more serious, and force the imperial court to pay even the military pay. I can’t even pronounce it.”
Gu Xiancheng also said this to Gu Yuncheng when the cabinet released Taicang and other silver coins from the treasury into the hands of the people, and sneered:
"In this case, there will definitely be a mutiny of soldiers and a popular uprising, and Shenwu County will fall because of this, and the emperor will at least get an evaluation of unknown people. He will either kill Shenwu County to restore his reputation, or blame internal funds to replenish the national treasury. The former will allow the new party that advocates restructuring Han Xin, the latter is also in line with the wishes of the gentlemen of the world, and the Emperor of Kong will use his money to benefit the world."
Gu Yuncheng also smiled and said: "As my brother expected, the powerful officials and gentry who are secretly dissatisfied with the New Party are doing this. Brother Dongning discounted his three thousand acres of irrigated land for less than one thousand taels. It was sold to the local people, and the fight was in response to the new gift, restrained the annexation, and greatly benefited the people. Therefore, many Nandu scholars praised it. However, there were Nandu science and technology officials who wanted to ask for a banquet, and the court had no choice. There is no warning, but we cannot blame him for malicious cashiering."
"This is the benefit of speculating on silver coins to achieve your goals. Follow Zhu Yijun's example and use new rituals to deal with new rituals. In this way, the emperor will not be able to abandon new rituals, and he will not be able to use upright men."
Gu Xiancheng said with a smile.
At present, the powerful bureaucrats are indeed exchanging their high value-added assets for silver dollars on the market.
At this time, Lu Yinchang, a foreign minister of the Literary and Selection Department, discounted a beautiful concubine he brought to Beijing for fifty silver dollars and gave it to Ren Yonggang, a commoner who came north to work, in order to get more silver dollars.
Ren Yonggang had long wanted to have a wife and he really coveted her beautiful maid and the price was indeed very low, so he gave up the plan of buying subscription tickets, and used his income from work and unused savings to borrow money from his co-workers. I bought this beautiful maid with some silver coins.
This was naturally a great loss for Lu Yinchang. You must know that he spent thousands of taels of silver just to cultivate the skills of this beautiful maid in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting.
But Lu Yinchang himself did not feel a loss. What he wanted was to see Shenwu County collapse due to the silver shortage, and the Department of Civil Affairs and Literature and Selection return to an era when officials could be sold and awarded titles. At that time, not only did the silver dollar appreciate, but the official position he obtained through hard work and performance also followed. appreciation.
And the powerful bureaucrats do have a lot of high value-added assets, after all, they have been annexing them for more than two hundred years.
So when they chose to sell at a low price, the imperial court was really unable to resist for a while. Seeing that the national treasury's silver balance was really about to reach the red line, Wang Lin, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, had to take the initiative to report to Zhu Yijun:
"Your Majesty, the price of silver coins is still rising. If we want to stabilize it, we can only rely on internal funds. The treasury can no longer withdraw money!"
(End of chapter)
