Chapter 38 Fang Xiaoru’s Crisis
Nanjing has some differences in its control methods. But the situation is the same.
After all, the Ming court did not purchase weapons workshops before.
The problem lies in market and scale.
Driven by He Xi, the two iron works expanded production on a large scale. In order to sell iron, He Xi even intervened on a large scale in Hebei's agriculture and sold many steel farm tools. Iron was mostly used in shipbuilding and carpentry. pieces.
There are also ironware sales and so on.
There are also steam engines and the use of railways. Both require large amounts of iron.
In short, under market-oriented mass production, the artillery, firecrackers and other weapons needed by the military are of course bulk commodities produced by iron factories, but they are equally divided among the costs of other iron tools. In this way, the purchase price of the same artillery in Beijing is cheaper than that in Nanjing.
More importantly, because they have such a large market to support, the profits of these two major ironworks are quite high. Especially steam engines are extremely profitable. As a result, the profits of the two major iron factories are enough to cover most of the costs of weapons production.
Even if it's not completely covered, the rest is enough to bear. It’s just that I won’t pay much money to the higher-ups.
But the Taiping Iron Works was different.
Technically, the Taiping Iron Works is the cradle of today's steel technology. But only the cradle. Because the way Taiping Iron Works operates is very decadent. Although the scale has expanded a bit, it is still very different from the two major iron works in Liaodong and Zunhua.
And because there is a stable source of profit, the supply of iron materials in the southern market, the supply of weapons in Southeast Asia, and the consumption of weapons in the army. Taiping Iron Works was content with this stability and had no idea of expanding production capacity.
Faced with the sudden expansion of production capacity.
Taiping Iron Works directly cut off the sale of private iron materials, and the source of profit suddenly disappeared. They can only rely on court subsidies. Even if we don't talk about the cost issue, Nanjing's burden is much heavier than Beijing's. Not to mention, there will be a huge market gap in the south due to the problems of the Taiping Iron Works.
They even let Beijing's iron materials come to the south through various channels to share military expenditures for Beijing.
Not to mention, other expenses.
He Xi offered an average salary of about twenty taels to the soldiers of the twelve armies, but what is it here in Nanjing?
Nanjing would not have this idea at all. Without him, if Nanjing raised the army as Beijing did, even if it had the family assets left by Zhu Yuanzhang, it would inevitably go bankrupt. Even Xu Da could not solve this problem.
At most, the soldiers should be given more subsidies, at most one stone of food per month. Three or four taels a year, this is already overwhelming.
This is why the guard system is different from Beijing’s new military system.
The burden of raising soldiers under the guard station system lies with the guard station. The Beijing military system is essentially a recruitment system, and the burden lies with the capital.
Basically, in one year, the army consumed tens of millions of dans of food, or even more. Not to mention the other expenses of the war. There are more problems here, and there is another problem than in Beijing, and that is the issue of the hands of people below.
Beijing is almost a new imperial court, created by He Xi and Zhu Xiongying. Two people have absolute authority.
In many things, people below dare not take things lightly.
Although the system is new and has many loopholes, everyone has hope of promotion, or has just been promoted. After all, under He Xi's Cabinet and Privy Council, there are twenty or thirty ministerial-level departments, which means another twenty or thirty ministers. .
Many people are very satisfied with their current positions.
I dare not say that no one is corrupt, but it is much cleaner than Nanjing.
When Zhu Yuanzhang was here, under high pressure, the people below did not dare to mess around. After Zhu Yunwen came to power, in order to bribe ministers, many things were not so strict, and retaliatory corruption would naturally occur.
Fang Xiaoru himself was not greedy. He even strongly opposed and eliminated several people. But compared to Zhu Yuanzhang's level of cleanup, Fang Xiaoru's methods cannot be described as merciful and soft-hearted. It can even be said to encourage corruption.
Therefore, in this case, the Nanjing court was far inferior to Beijing in terms of fund utilization.
Of the imperial court.
Because Zhu Yuanzhang left a solid family background, many things have not yet been revealed.
But both Ding Xian and Qi De explained one problem, that is, Nanjing's finances have huge problems. But this problem is still hidden in the future.
Zhu Yunwen wanted to understand this and had already made up his mind. Just to solve this problem, I must meet Fang Xiaoru.
Zhu Yunwen said: "Come, go and ask for Fang Shoufu."
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Fang Xiaoru was mentally prepared for Zhu Yunwen's summons.
When Zhu Yunwen asked Fang Xiaoru about financial issues, Fang Xiaoru said: "Your Majesty will not summon you, but I will also invite you. There is one thing that your Majesty knows."
Zhu Yunwen said: "What happened?"
Fang Xiaoru said: "Beijing's debt is about 130 million yuan."
Zhu Yunwen didn't believe it at first, but seeing what Fang Xiaoru said, it seemed like he wasn't joking and said, "Is this true?"
Zhu Yunwen knew the concept of 130 million yuan, but now the gold, silver, banknotes, food and other reserves in Nanjing City may not have this number. It sounds like the total of two or three years of the Hongwu period. But Zhu Yuanzhang only left so much wealth to Zhu Yunwen.
After all, it was only in the last few years that Zhu Yuanzhang could save some money without struggling.
Before that, the expenses were very high every year. Otherwise, there would be no large-scale overissuance of currency.
As soon as the 130 million yuan came out, Zhu Yunwen was suddenly in crisis.
After all, before this, Zhu Yunwen knew that there would be financial problems in the future because he had been unable to make ends meet. But the imperial court still has savings, so there is no problem in supporting it for a year or two. At least the finances in Beijing are even tighter.
But it is different now. If this is true, it means that there is not much financial difference between the two parties.
Fang Xiaoru said: "I also hope it is false. But it is almost impossible to be false."
Zhu Yunwen said angrily: "How is this possible? How can anyone be willing to lend such a large amount of money to a traitor? Are there so many rich people in the world?"
Fang Xiaoru said: "Your Majesty, He Xi is a master of the golden touch. He has a good way of acquiring wealth, and I admire him very much. But now is not the time to talk about this. How should the court deal with it?"
Fang Xiaoru didn't want to put more effort into this matter.
Because he knows, as Zhu Yunwen said, where are there so many rich people in the world? In an environment like the Ming Dynasty, powerful people naturally have money, and rich people and powerful people are highly overlapped. That is to say, the richest people in the world are roughly the same group as the most powerful people in the world.
Who are this group of people? Which ones are there in Nanjing?
Fang Xiaoru knew it, but he didn't dare or didn't want to say it.
Speaking out is troublesome.
It feels natural to ignore it and go directly to the topic.
Zhu Yunwen was not a fool, on the contrary, he was very smart. Naturally, he could see that Fang Xiaoru was deliberately avoiding this question. Various thoughts came to his mind, and he was already vaguely speculating. He thought to himself: "Damn it, I won't let any of these people go. "
But he knew that he could only say such words in his heart, and saying it verbally would be of no use. If you say you can't do it, it will make people look down on you.
Zhu Yunwen could only write down these things and settle the accounts in the future. He said: "Chief Assistant, how should we deal with this situation?"
He also didn't expect that he was going to talk to Fang Xiaoru about the financial crisis, but he didn't expect Fang Xiaoru to tell him in advance.
Fang Xiaoru said: "I have noticed that since the war began, although the north and the south were divided, they still use the same banknotes, and the banknotes were printed in Beijing. I think that the treasure banknotes have lessons learned from the past, and what He Xi needs to do in Beijing has already been done. It’s very clear.”
Zhu Yunwen was stunned and said: "He wants to issue more currency? Is the value of banknotes fluctuating now?"
Fang Xiaoru said, "Except for some abnormal food prices, there are no other fluctuations. But I think He Xi is unique in the world in the way of currency, and even some theories and ideas in this regard
, all proposed by him. Just because we can't notice it doesn't mean He Xi didn't do it. ”Kanshu La
"Therefore, I would like to ask Your Majesty to make plans in advance."
Zhu Yunwen said: "What plan should we make?"
