Xu Youzhen complained after hearing this: "You haven't shown up recently. I was originally the minister in charge of water conservancy, but as a result, I was also in charge of all the daily affairs of the Ministry of Works. I was so busy that I could hardly touch the ground. This crime It’s really a big deal.”
It turns out that Zhou Chen has been obsessed with coinage and outer city construction recently. He spends most of his time in the outer city and rarely returns to the Ministry of Industry. In this way, I feel at ease and don't have to get involved in the bad things in the court.
But doing this would make Xu Youzhen miserable. Zhou Chen replied sheepishly: "Yuan Yu, you are still young, you have to work more.
I am seventy-two years old. I will work for another two or three years. After seeing that the outer city is built and the mint is on the right track, I will retire and go home to look after my great-grandchildren. "
Xu Youzhen walked to the table, picked up Zhou Chen's silver coins and looked at them carefully: "The Ministry of Industry has minted seven kinds of coins in total. Are there any other styles in the future?"
Hearing this, Zhou Chen took out two more gold coins from his sleeve and handed them to Xu Youzhen: "Now there are five kinds of copper coins: Xiaoping coins, two coins, three coins, five coins, and ten coins.
There are two kinds of silver coins. The small silver round is one penny of silver.
A large silver dollar is one tael of silver, which is worth ten small silver dollars and a thousand small coins.
There are also these two gold coins. The big gold circle is one tael of gold, and the small gold circle is one penny of gold. However, the patterns of gold coins are more complicated and fine, and the casting cost is higher. This is a sample coin that has just been made by the Ministry of Industry and has not yet been officially issued. "
Xu Youzhen nodded: "When will this be fully circulated in Ming Dynasty?"
Zhou Chen smiled and said: "I don't know when it will be fully circulated in the Ming Dynasty. But these Jingtai Tongbao have already been circulated in the capital.
I can guarantee that in as little as two years or as little as three years, the streets and alleys of the capital will be filled with Jingtai Tongbao. People in the capital will use Jingtai Tongbao for all daily transactions. "
Xu Youzhen didn't believe it: "So fast?"
Zhou Chen showed off with a proud look on his face: "Do you know how many Jingtai Tongbao our Ministry of Industry has cast? Do you know how many more will be cast this year?"
As the saying goes, if wealth does not return to its hometown, it is like walking in brocade at night. After minting so much money, Zhou Chen felt uncomfortable without showing off.
Xu Youzhen asked tentatively: "Has one million taels been minted?"
Zhou Chen shook his head: "The copper coins alone are worth more than six million taels of silver. I have already minted more than two million taels of silver coins.
In the remaining five months of this year, we will mint five million taels of silver coins. "
Xu Youzhen was shocked: "Impossible, where did you get so much money?"
Zhou Chen smiled and said: "When the Holy Spirit went to the western suburbs to build Prince Qi's Mansion, he allocated a total of 300,000 taels of gold and 4 million taels of silver to the Ministry of Works. Then our Ministry of Works collected 300,000 taels of silver as casting expenses. .
The rest was cast into copper coins of equivalent value to Prince Qi's Mansion, and then during the construction process, Prince Qi's Mansion spent all the Jingtai Tongbao worth millions of taels of silver. The Prince of Qi's Mansion was particularly kind and also provided a Qi State Avenue connecting the capital and the western suburbs.
These Jingtai Tongbao flowed into the pockets of the people in the capital in the form of material money and labor money.
The Ministry of Husbandry exchanged the treasures that the Holy One had snatched from the Yexian tribe into silver, and allocated one million taels to the Ministry of Works, plus the four million taels received from the Prince of Qi's Mansion, for a total of five million taels.
We have already minted 2 million taels of silver coins, and there are still 3 million taels of silver and 300,000 taels of gold lying in the Treasury of the Ministry of Industry.
In addition, in order to build the outer city of Beijing, our Ministry of Industry and Ministry of Household Affairs also raised two million taels to cast Jingtai Tongbao. "
Xu Youzhen took a breath of cold air: "In other words, counting copper coins and silver coins together, there are a total of eight million taels of Jingtai Tongbao worth of silver in circulation in the capital."
Zhou Chen nodded: "Princess Qi just allocated another three million taels of cash to the Ministry of Industry and commissioned us to cast Jingtai Tongbao."
Xu Youzhen was even more surprised: "Why is Prince Qi's palace so rich?"
Zhou Chen shook his head helplessly: "We were tricked by the Holy Emperor. At the beginning, the important ministers and the Holy Emperor reached a consensus: the proceeds from the confiscation of the homes of civil servants, military generals, nobles, and relatives should be returned to the imperial court.
The proceeds from vassalage by vassal kings, eunuchs, royal guards, monks, and Taoists were returned to the inner court.
During this mutiny, all the eunuchs in the inner court were wiped out. Don't look down on eunuchs, they are much richer than civil and military officials and noble relatives.
Most importantly, eunuchs were generally friendly with monks. In this mutiny, a large number of monks and even entire temples were involved. In addition, much of the eunuch's wealth was entrusted to monks.
According to the previous agreement, all the properties of these eunuchs and monks belonged to the Holy One.
Therefore, after the house was confiscated this time, the wealth in the hands of the Holy Master was unimaginable. Three million taels is just an appetizer. At least tens of millions of taels will be handed over to the Ministry of Industry for casting later.
Our Ministry of Industry has already made a lot of money just by collecting the minting fees from Prince Qi's palace. "
Xu Youzhen was speechless when she heard this: "Old Minister, you are so powerful, you still dare to collect minting fees from the Holy One?"
Zhou Chen asked with an innocent face: "What if I don't accept it? Don't we have so many craftsmen in the Ministry of Works who don't want to eat? Does the copper in our Ministry of Works fall from the sky? It's all from the major copper mines under our subordinates. It's mined and smelted. Aren't these all costs? There is no way to mint coins for free.
Moreover, the Holy Spirit also approved a business for the Ministry of Industry to mint silver coins for other wealthy and prominent families.
For example, if you have 10,000 taels of silver in cash at home, you can send it to the Ministry of Industry. I will charge you 300 taels of minting fee and exchange the rest for you into Jingtai Tongbao of equal value.
But this is not mandatory. If you want to change, you can change it. If you don’t want to, you can pull it down. "
Xu Youzhen nodded: "Wait a minute, let me figure it out. This is the plan of the Holy One:
The first step is to cast Jingtai Tongbao and abolish the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes that robbed people's wealth.
The second step is to steal the eunuchs and monks who suck the blood of the people and get a lot of wealth.
In the third step, the Holy Emperor used this wealth to restart Western trade. Once Western trade resumes, four to five million taels of silver will flow into the hands of the imperial court every year.
The fourth step is that with this extra income of four to five million taels per year, the imperial court can significantly reduce domestic commercial taxes, which will firstly reduce the burden on the people and increase their savings; secondly, it will allow cheap goods to circulate throughout the country. Once the goods are circulated, Jingtai Tongbao will naturally begin to circulate throughout the country. "
Zhou Chen added: "Not only that, I guess, when the fourth step is successful, the Holy Emperor will even completely lift the sea ban and even stop collecting commercial taxes on overseas trade.
Originally, I thought that the powerful and wealthy merchants in the South would definitely oppose the voyage to the Western Ocean. But if the sea is no longer allowed and taxes are no longer collected, they will not be happy enough, so why should they object?
That way, there would be no need for smuggling at sea, no need to mess with Japanese pirates, and the south would really be at peace.
During the Taizong era, the imperial court paid for the voyages to the West, and the profits from overseas trade went to internal funds. In this way, Zheng He continued to sail to the West seven times.
Now it's completely reversed. Most of the expenses for resuming the voyage to the West will be paid by the Holy Emperor himself, but all the income from overseas trade will go to the imperial court.
Once the income of the imperial court increased sharply, the Holy Emperor once again greatly increased the salaries of all officials. At that time, there may not be many people who will oppose the voyage to the West. "
Xu Youzhen nodded: "At that time, Taizong established great prestige by conquering the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty in the north, destroying Jiaozhi in the south, and opening up territories in all directions. In this way, he forcibly maintained Zheng He's voyages to the West.
If the Holy Emperor can expand the territory, he can also maintain Western trade with his huge prestige.
It's too far away to say otherwise, and it's up to us to see if we can beat Annan down quickly. "
Zhou Chen nodded: "Wang Ao asked him to govern the place, which was good, but when he asked him to command the army, it was nothing. He made Liaodong look like that.
Now that he has become the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, if he is really allowed to attack Annan, wouldn't it be a disservice to the country?
It seems that the Holy One will replace him soon, but the ministers in the court are dying, retreating, old, and sick. There are not many available people, and I don’t know who the Holy One will send. "
Xu Youzhen said with a smile: "I will take the initiative to ask for help from the Holy Master. Mr. Zhou, please quickly recommend a Minister of the Ministry of Industry to share the general affairs."
"Ah? Yuan Yu, are you going to lead the troops to fight?"
"Of course, it's about eating the emperor's salary and being loyal to the emperor. In just two years, I went from being a sixth-rank Hanlin lecturer, receiving great love from the emperor, to being a second-rank minister of the Ministry of Industry.
How can a person who is a minister of others not repay such kindness?
I want to make meritorious deeds and assist the Holy One to become a wise king and a holy lord, so that I can follow suit and become a Ming minister of Zhongxing, so that my name will go down in history and be famous for generations to come. "
Zhou Chen heard this and praised: "It's good to be young. Opportunities are for you young people, so take advantage of them. I went to the cabinet to write a memorial, handed over the gold coin sample, and then went on to mint coins."
Xu Youzhen smiled and said: "Then I will also go to the cabinet to write a memorial."
(End of chapter)
