Why did the emperor rebel?

Chapter 252 The emperor seeks personal gain?

Talk about business?
Seeing the emperor's little fox-like face, Shen Shangshu couldn't help but be a little more vigilant, and said.

"If your majesty has something to do, just order it directly. Why do you need to talk about business?"

The smile on Zhu Qiyu's face became stronger and stronger, looking a bit malicious, said.

"Shen Qing doesn't need to be so vigilant. This time, I'm negotiating business with the Ministry of Households on behalf of the royal family. The business is concluded. Maybe in a period of time, Shen Qing won't have to worry about the money."

Is this really a good thing?
Shen Yi's heart moved, but on the surface he remained calm, said.

"Your Majesty please speak."

However, Zhu Qiyu pointed to the account book in his hand and asked.

"Shen Qing also saw it. The account book in your hand records most of the shops run by the royal family. I call them the royal shop."

"These shops buy and sell daily necessities, but although there are many shops, there are two important items missing."

Royal store?

This is a new thing, but Shen Yi can understand what's going on after thinking about it for a while.

As mentioned earlier, royal expenses are separate from the national treasury.

Although a fixed part of the annual tax revenue will be assigned to the emperor's inner treasury and the treasury of the empress dowagers of the two palaces, it is called Jinhuayin.

But the royal family needs to be decent, the emperor needs to support the people in the harem, and usually rewards his subordinates, and the money is always not enough.

Therefore, starting from the Yongle period, the so-called Huangzhuang appeared one after another.

To put it bluntly, it is the private field of the emperor, managed by the eunuch, who hires tenants to cultivate the field, and all the money and food obtained belong to the emperor.

However, the appearance of Huangzhuang was only accidental at first.

Huangzhuang during the Yongle period was formerly the Wangzhuang when Emperor Taizong was King Yan.

In the later period of Yongle, Emperor Taizong revoked Huangzhuang in order to show the selflessness of the emperor.

Now, this thing has started to appear again, because it is also the vassal king's successor today, and the Prince Yi's mansion still had its own private property before.

But what Shen Yi didn't expect was that the emperor didn't follow the old practice of the Yongle period and continued to build the Huangzhuang, but created such a Huangdian instead.

The Ming Dynasty paid attention to agriculture, so whether it was scholars, gentry or ordinary people, the most important thing was land.

Although Wang Zhen and others were eunuchs, they also purchased a lot of land.

It should be said that as long as these fields are managed by some people, they can easily be turned into Huangzhuang.

It seems that the emperor's behavior of selling the land upside down and opening some kind of shop is a proper prodigal son among the people!
However, whether it is Huangzhuang or Huangdian, it is the private property of the emperor after all, so it is not a rare thing.

Compared to this, Shen Yi was more concerned about the meaning of the emperor's words.

After re-reading the account book, he also had a solid understanding of the "business" in the mouth of the emperor, and said.

"What His Majesty said, what the Imperial Store lacks are salt and tea?"

Since ancient times, salt, iron, tea and horses have been the most strictly controlled supplies by the imperial court.

Needless to say, horses, as military supplies, basically do not flow in large quantities among the people, and are specially managed by the Taipu Temple.

In terms of ironware, the imperial court chose to control the source of iron smelting ore, grasp the raw materials, and curb the production and sale of ironware.

It is almost difficult to make any decisions about these two items.

The only things that are really regarded as goods in the private market and circulated in large quantities are salt and tea.

The Ming Dynasty implemented the salt introduction system.

Salt merchants can only go to fixed salt farms to sell salt by relying on the salt quotations given by the imperial court. There are detailed regulations on the time, place and quantity of sales, so as to ensure the income of salt tax.

Although the salt law is extremely complicated, because salt is a daily necessity and is controlled by the imperial court, there are still countless people who yearn to become salt merchants.

Relatively speaking, the tea law is relatively simple, and it is basically born out of the salt law, but the control is relatively less strict, and only border trade is prohibited.

For the household department, the income brought by the two items of salt and tea is the largest annual income besides the land tax.

This is the only "business" that can be negotiated by the working emperor himself!

Zhu Qiyu was obviously very satisfied with Shen Yi's approach, nodded and said.

"That's right, it's the two things of salt and tea. In my dynasty, the official management of salt and tea, salt and tea, and large-scale transactions of tea must be approved by the Ministry of Households and licensed before they can be carried out."

"To tell you the truth, Shen Qing, I plan to open a salt shop and a tea shop in the imperial shop, and assign a special person to be in charge of sales."

Seeing that the Son of Heaven was really planning this idea, Shen Yi's expression turned a little ugly.

I also want to know that the so-called imperial store of the emperor is to be handed over to the eunuchs to take care of it.

Although, for the Ministry of Household Affairs, it doesn't matter who owns the salt, as long as the salt tax can be paid on time and in accordance with the amount.

But Shen Shangshu didn't need to think about it, it was much easier to control salt in the hands of ordinary salt merchants than in the hands of eunuchs.

But he is not a stunned young man, so he wouldn't say something about the emperor and the people competing for profit at this time.

Holding his breath, Shen Shangshu spoke.

"I don't know how much salt and tea your majesty plans to exchange for this imperial store?"

Shen Shangshu thought, if there is not much, he will give it out evenly, who knows that the one in front of him is the emperor.

But what he didn't expect was that the emperor said as soon as he opened his mouth.

"Salt costs [-] yuan, tea costs [-] yuan."

What the hell?
Shen Shangshu almost jumped up.

Salt quotations are divided into big quotations and small quotations. The first quotation of the big quotation is four hundred catties, the second quotation of the small quotation is two hundred catties, and the first quotation of tea is one hundred catties.

Daming has seven Salt Promotion Divisions in total, and thirty salt farms under its jurisdiction. The average annual output of each salt farm is around [-] yuan.

The [-] imported salt already accounted for one-third of the annual output of a salt farm.

The same is true for Chayin. The current output of tea in Ming Dynasty is about 500 million catties per year, and [-] Chayin is not a small amount.

If it is calculated according to the value, the tax-paid silver is paid for the introduction of salt, plus the cost to the kitchen household, it will cost five or six taels of silver.

As for the value of tea Yin, it is more expensive than Yan Yin.

Then 30 salt quotations plus [-] tea quotations are a huge sum of [-] million taels of silver.

Shen Shangshu originally thought that it would be fine for the emperor to open an imperial shop, make thousands of salt tea, and spend tens of thousands of taels of silver, but he didn't expect the emperor to make such a big deal.

Even if it is a golden word, it is not possible to get two or three hundred thousand taels from the household department with a touch of red mouth and white teeth, right?

At that moment, Shen Shangshu couldn't bear it anymore, stood up and said.

"Your Majesty, this is not a small amount. Thirty thousand salt imports and tens of thousands of tea imports can make an annual profit of tens of thousands of taels. This is all due to imperial taxes."

"The so-called four seas are all royal lands, so why should Your Majesty compete with the people for profit?"

"What's more, the national treasury is empty now, and silver, salt and tea are needed everywhere. Although it is not as good as the land tax, it is not far away. I hope that your majesty will put the community as the most important thing, and think twice before doing it."

Seeing that Shen Yi finally couldn't sit still, Zhu Qiyu was still very calm and said.

"Shen Qing did this because she was worried that if salt and tea were introduced into the hands of eunuchs, it would damage the country's revenue."

"Since this is the case, I can give Shen Qing a guarantee. If the [-] salt coins and [-] tea coins are handed over to the imperial store, but the treasury revenue will be damaged, then Shen Qing can take my imperial store and go there at any time. How about debt repayment?"

Shen Shangshu was speechless for a while, and couldn't help but slander in his heart.

You said it so lightly.

What are you talking about using the imperial store to pay off the debt? It is your Majesty's property. Who dares to take it after eating the bear's heart and leopard?
Besides, even if he dared to take it, would the court afford to lose this man?
However, looking at the serious and confident Son of Heaven, Shen Yi also calmed down a little.

Since the Son of Heaven has said this, at least it shows that he has no intention of forfeiting the tax money that should have been turned over to the treasury.

With this as a foundation, Shen Shangshu can be considered a little relieved.

However, after pondering for a moment, he still shook his head firmly, stood up and cupped his hands.

"Your Majesty, forgive me for offending you. Even with your words of wisdom, I still cannot agree to this matter."

(End of this chapter)