Wang Xijue's question was very direct. Unlike in the past, the Xin School liked to oppose under various lofty banners. Instead, he asked directly whether the financial resources could support it. This was because he was determined to be highly pragmatic or that the Ministry of Revenue no longer had the resources to support it. The remaining energy is used for performance elsewhere.
Is it true that the Ministry of Finance has no more energy left? This depends on whether Gao Pragmatic intends to implement the new system after he has gathered financial power.
If the original system was followed, the Ministry of Revenue would actually still have the ability to support this campaign, but if the new system was followed after he gathered financial power, this ability would be lost in the short term.
It seems inappropriate to say this, because after consolidating financial power, the financial resources controlled by the Ministry of Revenue will obviously increase several times. Why will it "lose this ability in the short term"?
In fact, this is not the case. After gathering financial power, the Household Department will really be temporarily short of money, because the Household Department will suddenly have a large amount of physical objects in its hands, and these physical objects cannot be quickly converted into real money, and then use real money to buy wars. All the materials needed as well as military pay, rewards and other expenses.
Here is a piece of trivia that will not be mentioned in most books of later generations, that is, the so-called fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty was only a few million taels (such as 4 million, 5 million), not the total fiscal revenue, but It simply refers to the silver that is taken into the treasury.
This is what the One Whip Law wants to change. Gao Pragmatism wants to consolidate financial power and cancel the conversion. The purpose is also to increase silver income, but the question is...how many other taxes are there?
After the completion of Gao Gongqing's ten acres of land, the national fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty last year, which was the 14th year of Wanli, was roughly as follows:
Tian Fu can be converted into about 18 million taels of silver, but most of them cannot be converted, that is, the vast majority of them are in kind;
The salt tax is equivalent to about 2 million taels of silver, and this revenue is all silver. However, due to the opening of Zhongfa, about 800,000 taels have to be paid to the border town, and the actual revenue of the Ministry of Households is about 1.2 million taels;
The commercial tax is 1.07 million taels, and this income is also all in silver. However, the northern provinces plus Guangxi, which has been restructured by Gao pragmatism, paid 370,000 taels, and the seaports paid 460,000 taels. The combined proportion of the two is already As high as 77.6%.
The prosperous Jiangnan area only paid 110,000 taels after removing port commercial taxes (actually tariffs). This was Zhang Siwei's income after several incidents such as collecting business taxes in Jiangnan. Before, it was only a few hundred taels, which was basically negligible. As for the remaining part, it is commercial tax revenue from places such as Sichuan.
(Note: According to the research and analysis of "Chinese Fiscal History", "Collection of Tax Departments, Bureaus and Commercial Taxes in the Ming Dynasty - Research on Commercial Taxation in the Ming Dynasty Part 2", during this period in history, the national commercial tax in the Ming Dynasty was only 23,054 taels of silver. …I’m sluggish.)
Chaoguan's income is 420,000 taels. Chaoguan was one of the customs offices that collected mainland tariffs during the Ming Dynasty. It was allowed to use Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes to pay taxes. However, because Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes were almost useless, although the treasure banknotes collected were as high as eight or nine million ingots, this " The actual value of "income" is far inferior to that on paper. After conversion, there are only 420,000 taels of silver left.
Once the above data is shown, we can see how serious the "silver shortage" in Ming Dynasty's finances is: last year, the total cash register in Taicang nationwide was 5.82 million taels, minus the salt tax, commercial tax and banknotes totaling 2.69 million taels. In fact, the land tax The silver payment part was only 3.13 million taels.
However, as we all know, the largest part of the Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue is Tian Fu. Now the proportion of Tian Fu cashiers is less than 20%, 17.4% to be exact.
Once Gao Pragmatic gathers financial power, he is equivalent to assuming the responsibility of realizing physical objects worth up to about 15 million taels of silver. He is not a god. Doesn't this realization take time?
What's more, you can't just sell it for cash. How to sell it at the right time and at the right price without causing significant price fluctuations across the country is his responsibility as the helmsman of the "Large Household Department".
This is just like the National Development and Reform Commission of later generations who are often scolded, but in fact the work of the National Development and Reform Commission is also really difficult. You can neither lose the national finance nor harm the people. If the balance is not right, how huge will the impact be? Assuming that Gao Pragmatic's plan to gather financial power is successful and he sells grain during the harvest season, the people will definitely scold him.
Of course, when that situation is reached, it is time to test the macro-control capabilities of the "large household department".
Looking back at the more than 18 million land taxes just now, excluding the 3.13 million taels of silver collected, there is actually 15 million in kind taxes. Not all of this 15 million in-kind tax is from food, but is roughly divided into the following categories:
There are more than 24 million shi of rice and wheat, 414,000 jins of silk floss, 563,000 jins of cloth, 222,000 jins of cotton velvet, and 8.63 million ingots of colored banknotes (i.e., the 420,000 taels of tariff mentioned above, which were recorded in Tian Fu in the Ming Dynasty) , I don’t know why.)
If readers still remember the time when Zhu Yingzhen and Gao Jingshi talked about the Shimazu family and the Japanese Shigao system, they asked Gao Jingshi "How many Shigao are there in the Ming Dynasty?", you will find that Gao Jingshi said at that time " surface".
Gao pragmatically replied to Zhu Yingzhen that the Ming Dynasty's "shigao" was about 2 billion. This statement was obviously only based on the area of cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty and the average yield per mu in the country. He avoided the question of how much land tax was actually collected. Therefore, Zhu Yingzhen made fun of Japan as a small country, only one hundred and one in the Ming Dynasty.
In fact, Japan's land tax rate at this time was far more than ten times higher than that of the Ming Dynasty, and the actual collection was much more reliable than that of the Ming Dynasty. There were basically no tax evasion projects such as hidden fields and flying mails in the Ming Dynasty in Japan, so Japan's financial resources at this moment In fact, it is not much worse than the Ming Dynasty, otherwise the 550,000 standing troops in their country would have no choice but to smoke and drink.
In the fifteenth year of Wanli, the plan to open vassal clans was first launched due to clan issues. The Ministry of Revenue had to pay for the "one-time buyout" of many distant clan clans, which was already a huge pressure.
Then came the northwest counterinsurgency battle. Although Gao Pragmatic tried his best to fight a "short and quick" battle, after all, in addition to the "Central Army" led by himself, the mobilization and combat of military forces in the northwest and surrounding areas also took a long time. Money, as a result, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War will lose a lot of money.
The part spent by the Ministry of War had nothing to do with the Ministry of Household Affairs, but now that Gao Pragmatic wants to gather financial power, the Ministry of War's accounts can only be taken over together, so the burden has to be transferred to the Ministry of Household Affairs.
The next step is the Battle of Northern Liaoning. The money spent this time is not very high, but after all, it is sending troops in winter, and the food, winter clothes and other materials consumed are not easy to come by. Now the Ministry of Revenue is still thinking of ways to replenish Liaodong. This "overdraft" costs money.
To make matters worse, Gao Pragmatic launched a plan to cancel the official salary conversion plan. Since all kinds of miscellaneous conversions are gone, only grain and cloth are temporarily retained. Therefore, the silver part of this salary expenditure at the end of this year is much higher than in previous years.
So, how much official salary did the Ming Dynasty need in the fifteenth year of Wanli?
The answer is: the total salary of 28,963 civil and military officials in the country is 5,966,378 taels of silver. If the rice price is six taels of silver per shi and all are converted into silver, the official salary required for the whole year will be as high as 3.58 million taels of silver.
In other words, even if the Taicang banknotes remain intact this year, they still cannot be given out, not to mention that most of them have been spent before.
Therefore, it is absolutely impossible for Gao Pangshi to not only pay a silver salary but also support Liaodong to start a new war.
Therefore, Gao pragmatically proposed a workaround. He smiled and said: "Old Wang Ge, let me tell you the truth, in terms of the silver deposited in Taicang, it is absolutely impossible for Liaodong to fight again and cancel the miscellaneous discounts on official salaries." . However, if the officials are willing to temporarily replace miscellaneous discounts with rice and grain discounts, this matter can still be done."
"Rice grain conversion?" Wang Xijue frowned slightly, and then shook his head: "Now all the officials are eagerly looking forward to canceling the conversion, and Da Sinong suddenly changed the grain conversion into rice grain... I'm afraid this is not good, right?"
What is good is definitely not good. Many officials may feel that their hope is in vain and their joy is all in vain. This approach of first giving hope and then extinguishing hope may make many people seriously dissatisfied with Gao Pragmatic and think that he does not keep his words.
Zhu Yijun was a little hesitant after hearing this, but he always had great trust in Gao Pragmatic's financial management ability. Since Gao Pragmatic said he couldn't do it, it must be that it really couldn't be done.
Thinking of this, even the Ninth Five Supreme Being had to be discouraged, with a look of disappointment on his face, and murmured: "I didn't expect this matter to be so difficult to handle, so what should I do?"
Gao pragmatic guessed that it might be because the Ming Dynasty had won too many wars in recent years, and Zhu Yijun's spirit was heightened. Nurhaci repeatedly provoked the emperor's psychological bottom line, which made Zhu Yijun want to teach him a lesson immediately, so he behaved like this.
But there is nothing we can do about it. We only have so much money. To ensure the smooth progress of the two major plans of opening the vassal ban and gathering financial power, some things have to be compromised.
At this time, Liang Menglong suddenly raised his hand towards Zhu Yijun and said: "Your Majesty, I have something to say, I don't know..."
"Liang Qing has something to say, but there's no harm in saying it." Zhu Yijun said before he finished speaking.
Liang Menglong glanced at Gao Pragmatic, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "I would like to ask Da Si Nong, if this year's grain and salary conversion can be slightly higher than in previous years, I wonder... is it feasible?"
The muscles on Gao Pragmatic's face twitched unconsciously, and he said to himself: Comrade Lao Liang, you really don't know how expensive firewood and rice are. If the salaries of officials across the country were counted as food, the equivalent would be as high as nearly 6 million shi. Even if I only increase it by 10%, that would still be an increase of 600,000 stone.
Do you think that the country’s rice and wheat harvest is 24 million shi, and these 600,000 shi are a small amount? Do you know that the expenditure of my household department is not only to pay salaries to officials, but also to pay military salary and clan lumi!
How much is the military salary required for the fifteenth year of Wanli? Excluding this year's two unexpected wars, the Battle of the Northwest and the Battle of Northern Liaoning, the standing army's salary expenditure was as high as 9.06 million taels of silver - of course, only about 700,000 taels of silver were directly allocated.
However, this means that the 8.36 million taels of silver military pay are actually mainly used to allocate grain, cloth and other materials. If all calculations are based on grain, it is equivalent to the need to allocate nearly 14 million shi of grain for military needs!
However, there is always Lumi to send. This is even more amazing, because if we do not count the reduction in lumi caused by the "opening of the vassal ban", then assuming that the total number of clan members this year is as high as 550,000, the required clan lumi will be as high as about 16 million shi.
Good guy, the national treasury is directly in deficit, and it is a food deficit. Even the military supplies and the clan alone will have a deficit of 6 million shi of food. As for officials, it is better to drink the northwest wind.
But of course this is impossible. The Ming Dynasty has long stopped paying full salary to the clans. Otherwise, how could Gao Pragmatic get the support of lower-level clans when he opens a vassal?
In fact, a large number of low-level clans would be grateful to God if they could get 30% of their real salary, but they were not allowed to make a living on their own, so they supported the "one-time buyout" plan proposed by Gao Jingshi in order to lift the vassal ban.
However, although this apparently high 16 million shi of Lumi does not need to be paid out in full, since the "one-time buyout" costs money, the Ministry of Household Affairs must sell grain to turn it into money, so this expenditure has increased again.
All in all, after going round and round, fiscal expenditures are still extremely tight, and not only is cash tight, but the "realization time" is also tight - this is the fundamental reason why high pragmatism is in trouble with the word "temporary".
According to predictions, this situation will definitely ease step by step with the smooth progress of various plans. After all, the opening of the vassal ban was originally to relieve the imperial court of its burden, but now that various things are piled together, it seems to be stretched.
What Gao pragmatism needs is time, but now that he has many things to do, what he lacks most is time.
"If it is converted into a 10% increase, the Ministry of Revenue will have to spend an additional 600,000 shi of rice..." Gao Pragmatic sighed softly: "I want to know whether this 10% increase can satisfy all officials? Mr. Wang Ge, if this is the case I wonder if you are satisfied with the conversion?"
Wang Xijue immediately looked unhappy and said: "Even if it doesn't go up or even cancels miscellaneous conversions, I don't care. The question now is not whether I am satisfied, but whether the civil and military officials are satisfied."
Gao pragmatic rolled his eyes inwardly and said to himself: That's natural. You are always the richest man in Suzhou. Maybe you are the second richest man in the Ming Dynasty after me, Gao. Naturally, you don't take this salary seriously. It's like I still don't understand what my own salary is.
In fact, he knew the total salary that Gao Pragmatic received, but he had never figured out which of them were "regular salary" and which were "subsidy" because he didn't care at all.
At this time, Shen Shixing didn't know why, but he suddenly smiled and stretched out his hand to stop Wang Xijue, and said: "Brother Yuan Yu's words really reminded me..." Then he raised his hand to Zhu Yijun: "Your Majesty, I think that the cabinet ministers and the ministries and departments Officials should indeed set an example. Even if the Ministry of Revenue is willing to give a 10% increase in rice grains to all officials instead of groceries, some cabinet ministers and officials in various ministries do not need to take the increase."
Zhu Yijun said thoughtfully: "Mr. Shen's intention is certainly good, but Gao Qing has not yet agreed to the 10% discount."
Good guy, are you forcing me to take a stand?
Gao pragmatic sighed, raised his hand and saluted, and had no choice but to say: "Since the emperor has said so, I can't refuse. The 600,000 kilograms of rice and grain have been sent to the household department."
After Zhu Yijun heard this, he suddenly laughed and said: "Okay, okay, Gao Qiuzhen is still the same Gao Qiuzhen!" Then he paused and said: "But since I am the master of the world, I cannot suppress everything. On your head. Let’s do this. The household department will provide 300,000 dan, and the internal funds will also provide 300,000 dan. What do you think?”
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