At the end of the 22nd year of Chongzhen, the imperial treasury revenue had reached more than 80 million taels.
Compared with the past, the main tax revenue growth comes from the following two aspects:
First, the mission of verifying the privileges and exemptions of officials and gentry and calling for tax payment, represented by Zhang Pu, has been extended to the whole country. The cleared land taxes, arrears and labor taxes have increased by more than ten times than before the start. . It can be seen from this that these officials and gentry lie on the court and suck blood.
As the saying goes, cutting off someone's money is like killing one's parents. Most adults know this.
When Zhang Pu and others were ordered to do this job, they did not hesitate to commit suicide in order to refuse the job. From this we can see the difficulty in verifying the privileges and exemptions of officials and gentry and calling for tax payments.
Even though Zhang Pu was originally the leader of the restoration society and the representative of the officials and gentry, once he did this job, he was immediately suppressed by the officials and gentry. Even later, he even went so far as to kill him physically in order to slander Zhang Pu and arouse In the event of a civil uprising, even if they were not killed at the time, they would definitely be dismissed from office.
A good example of something similar is Liu Mao, who proposed to Emperor Chongzhen that the post station be demolished to reduce the financial pressure on the imperial court.
At that time, he reported: "Today, about seventy-eight out of ten people in Xiazhou County are trapped in inns, but only two out of ten in inns are used for official business, and eight out of ten are used for private matters."
Moreover, Liu Mao's strategy at that time was not to demolish all the stations, but also to strictly enforce the use of the stations and cut off the hands reaching for the stations, which resulted in a huge backlash.
When Liu Mao did this, officials, gentry and even their family members were no longer able to enjoy free food, accommodation and transportation at the inns when they went out; the local officials and others who used the inns to enslave the people everywhere were no longer benefited; there were also local officials who often used the inns. The benefits of the name are gone; and so on, the interests of countless parasites have been harmed, and only the court and ordinary people can benefit.
As a result, officials rose up to attack him. Emperor Chongzhen at that time was not from a later generation and did not have a golden finger such as a wiretapping system, which led to Liu Mao's miserable end. Even after his death, he still had to bear a reputation, which meant that he died because of his demolition of the station.
Zhang Pu's verification of the privileges and exemptions of officials and gentry and the payment of taxes can be said to be more harmful to the interests of the entire officialdom than what Liu Mao did. No matter how capable he is, under the influence of many bureaucrats, he is likely to end up An even more bleak end than Liu Mao.
However, Emperor Chongzhen was no longer the original Emperor Chongzhen. Not only did he come from later generations, but there was also an eavesdropping system. He used strong methods to deal with the counterattack of the officials and gentry. Not only did Qian Qianyi, known as the leader of Jiangnan literary circles, beheaded for treason, he was executed , in addition, he demoted and questioned more than a hundred local officials to support and promote Zhang Pu to continue to carry out his errands.
Thanks to Emperor Chongzhen's victorious battles and expansion of territory, his prestige became higher and higher day by day. He gave Zhang Pu and others the greatest support, thus completing the strategy of verifying the preferential exemptions of officials and gentry and urging the payment of taxes throughout the country.
After spending so much effort to implement it, the rewards will naturally be very high. Not only did the imperial court manage the country's land and other matters accurately, but the money collected from land tax and labor service was never in arrears again, which immediately provided great support to the imperial court's finances.
The second largest source of revenue for the imperial treasury came from war.
Most of the wars in the past few years have succeeded in opening up territories at a very small cost. Not to mention seizures and the like, after the successful expansion of territory, there was a huge demand for business, and I don’t know how much business tax the court collected. The routes that contribute the most commercial taxes are from Jiangnan to Nanyang and from Annan to Dongwu.
It is foreseeable that in the future, as the population of Liaodong and Hetao Plains increases, it will also drive business in the north.
Of course, the Ming Dynasty is now peaceful and the people are safe, and there is no more chaos among bandits. This has also greatly promoted commerce between various provinces in the country.
At this time, after Emperor Chongzhen verified the treasury income, he convened the cabinet and the six ministries to discuss increasing investment in transportation in various places, and no longer limited to local labor to recruit construction manpower during slack periods. Instead, we provide rewards and daily remuneration to attract people. In addition, rewards should be given to migrant workers and local officials who are the first to complete planned road construction. The reward method for migrant workers is, of course, money; while for local officials, it is reflected in assessment.
In this regard, Xue Guoguan and others can understand the emperor's eagerness to repair the transportation that controls the world as soon as possible, but they do not understand why they have to pay so much money to the people.
"My goal is to spend all the money instead of leaving it to rust in the treasury!" Emperor Chongzhen patiently explained to them, "Money is only money when it circulates. I spent the money and the people were active. Roads can be built quickly; and if people have money, they will have the confidence to buy what they want. In this way, it can stimulate various places to produce more things, and the court can receive more taxes. Only in this way, Only then can there be a virtuous cycle, where the court will have a steady flow of money, and the people will also have a steady flow of money."
Hearing this, many civil servants seemed to understand. Finally, Xue Guoguan asked: "Your Majesty, the world's wealth is fixed, how can money continue to come? The court has money, but the people have little money!"
The implication is that the court's money comes from taxes. If the court has more money, wouldn't the people have less money?
This view was used by Sima Guang to ridicule Wang Anshi for imitating Sang Hongyang and talking about Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. Even during the Ming Dynasty, this view was still popular among scholar-bureaucrats.
Isn't it that the wealth of the Ming Dynasty's treasury was obtained by Zhang Pu and his like from the common people (actually the officials and gentry) and from the merchants?
After hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen chuckled and said: "It seems that I have to publish another book on economics to educate you!"
"..." After hearing this, all the ministers couldn't help but look at each other. Judging from the emperor's behavior all the time, is it possible that there is something wrong with his own ideas?
Seeing their expressions, Emperor Chongzhen smiled and said: "Let me ask you, does the annual increase in silver mine income come from the court or from the common people?"
Silver is money, it is dug out of the ground. Nowadays, the most numerous place is Ishimi Yinshan, which was taken from Japan. Xue Guoguan listened and could not answer the emperor's question, but it did not mean that he was convinced by the emperor's point of view, so he immediately responded: "Your Majesty said, like a stone seeing a silver mountain, the silver originally belonged to the Tokugawa shogunate, but now it belongs to the Tokugawa shogunate. In the Ming Dynasty, the total number remains unchanged."
Emperor Chongzhen heard him secretly change the topic, no longer talking about the court and the people, but including the original Japanese country. He was not annoyed, so he asked again: "It's just iron, but if it is made into a steam engine, the value will increase." Multiple times, what’s the point of this money?”
"It comes from the people who bought it. The people have less money." Xue Guoguan listened, thought for a while and replied.
"..." Emperor Chongzhen was speechless after hearing this, so he had to ask again: "The common people bought the steam engine. Although they paid money, they also have a steam engine. This steam engine is also valuable. Did he suffer any loss?"
"..." This time, it was Xue Guoguan and others' turn to be speechless. How to distinguish this?
He turned to look at other colleagues, and finally said: "Your Majesty, steam engines are not money."
When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he immediately asked: "What do you think money is?"
"..." Xue Guoguan was a little dumbfounded after hearing this. Isn't money just money?
"Do you think that money refers to gold and silver, or the silver notes issued by the Royal Bank of the Ming Dynasty? There are also copper coins and so on. These are the money?" Emperor Chongzhen glanced down and asked again.
Isn't it? This idea is the idea of almost all the officials below.
For this era, officials are all based on officialdom, thinking about how to be an official, and the so-called officialdom is actually to manage people. This point has not changed in the land of China for thousands of years.
As for whether there is economic thought, there is certainly some, but it is not mainstream, let alone very in-depth.
After this communication, Emperor Chongzhen felt more and more necessary to popularize the knowledge of economics. Even if he himself was only half-experienced, he was definitely much better than people of this era.
This also gave him the idea that the system architecture of all walks of life must be set up by him, a time traveler. He may not be proficient, but he has put forward a framework for interested people to fill in and study this framework to form a complete system. This is a very important thing for Ming Dynasty.
In other words, in today's Ming Dynasty, if the economy wants to develop, the mind must also be liberated!
Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen taught these ministers economics lessons based on the concept of what money is, and finally told them that wealth is not fixed, but increases with the development of productivity.
In this way, what was originally a court meeting to discuss the court's major plans turned into a popular science school. Fortunately, after Emperor Chongzhen broke through the inherent understanding of these "students", with a little explanation, these elites of the Ming Dynasty could basically understand the new content of what Emperor Chongzhen said, as if it opened their eyes. It turns out that this matter This is such a situation!
After understanding this, Emperor Chongzhen told them that the imperial court would increase the issuance of banknotes (actually, they are almost banknotes) to adapt to the current economic development and avoid economic contraction that would affect the economy. They did not understand much. Difficulties.
Knowing that the money circulated into society through Daming Construction Bank will increase employment and promote further improvement of social productivity, I can barely understand it.
After the end of the dynasty, all the old men with white beards sighed: Live and learn, the ancients will not deceive me! Of course, they had to wonder, why is it that the emperor is younger than them and often goes out to lead troops in wars, but he has so much knowledge in his mind?
Emperor Chongzhen himself, after this incident, also began to write Ming Dynasty's "The Wealth of Nations".
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