Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1410 Calling for the Battle (Part [-])
Wang Xijue's question was very direct, unlike the previous School of Mind who liked to oppose under the banner of various lofty banners, but directly asked whether the financial resources could support it. Spare time for performance elsewhere.

Is the Ministry of Finance really running out of energy?It depends on whether Gao Yushi intends to implement the new system after he has collected the financial power.

According to the original system, the Household Department still has the ability to support this battle, but if it follows the new system after he has gathered financial power, he will lose this ability in a short period of time.

It seems inappropriate to say this, because after gathering financial power, the financial resources held by the Ministry of Households will obviously increase several times, so why would it "lose this ability in the short term"?
In fact, it is not the case. After collecting the financial power, the Ministry of Finance will really fall into a temporary shortage of money, because the Ministry of Accounting will suddenly have a large number of real objects in its hands, and these real objects cannot be quickly converted into real money, and then use real money to buy wars. All the materials needed, as well as expenses such as military pay and rewards.

Here is a cold knowledge 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 400 million, 500 million), not the total amount of its fiscal revenue, but It is purely indicative of silver put into the treasury.

This is the one thing that needs to be changed in the first whip method. The purpose of high pragmatism to gather financial power and cancel the conversion is also to increase silver income, but the problem is... how much other taxes are there?

After the completion of Gaogong Qingzhang’s fields, last year’s fiscal revenue in the 14th year of Wanli was roughly as follows:

The land tax was converted into about 1800 million taels of silver, but most of them could not be converted, that is, most of them were real objects;
The salt tax is equivalent to about 200 million taels of silver, and this income is all silver, but because of the opening of China and France, it has to support about 80 taels of border towns, and the actual income of the household department is about 120 million taels;

The commercial tax is 107 million taels, and this income is also all silver, but the northern provinces plus Guangxi, which has been restructured by high pragmatism, paid 37 taels, and the open sea ports paid 46 taels. The combined proportion of the two is already As high as 77.6%.

However, the affluent Jiangnan region only paid 11 taels after the port commercial tax (actually a tariff) was removed.This is after Zhang Siwei's income after several incidents such as collecting business taxes in Jiangnan. Before that, it was only a few hundred taels, which was basically negligible.As for the rest, it is the commercial tax revenue of places such as Sichuan.

(Note: According to the research and analysis of data such as "Chinese Financial History", "The Collection of Tax Divisions, Bureaus and Commercial Taxes in the Ming Dynasty - Ming Dynasty Commercial Tax Research II", historically, the national commercial tax in the Ming Dynasty during this period was only 23054 taels of silver ...I'm stumped.)
The banknote income is 42 taels.Chaoguan was one of the tax customs that levied inland tariffs in the Ming Dynasty. Daming banknotes were allowed to be used to pay taxes. "The actual value is far inferior to the paper. After conversion, there are only 900 taels of silver left.

As soon as the above data are released, we can see how serious the "silver shortage" of Ming Dynasty's finances is: Last year, the national Taicang received a total of 582 million taels of silver, minus the total of 269 million taels of salt tax, commercial tax and banknotes. In fact, the land tax Among them, the silver payment part is only 313 million taels.

However, as we all know, the land tax accounted for the largest portion of Ming’s fiscal revenue, but now the land tax accounted for less than 17.4% of the income, [-]% to be exact.

Once Gao Yushi gathers the financial power, it is equivalent to assuming the responsibility of realizing the physical objects worth about 1500 million taels of silver. He is not a god, so it does not take time to realize it?
What's more, you can't sell blindly when you realize it. How to sell at the right price at the right time without causing large price fluctuations across the country is his responsibility as the helm of the "big household department".

Of course, when that situation is reached, it is time to test the macro-control capabilities of the "big household department".

Looking back, I said that the more than 1800 million land taxes just now, minus the 313 million taels of silver collected, actually still have 1500 million in kind taxes.The 1500 million tax in kind is not all food, and it can be roughly divided into the following categories:
There are more than 2400 million stones of rice and wheat, 41.4 jin of silk floss, 56.3 jin of cloth, 22.2 jin of cotton velvet, and 863 million ingots of folded banknotes (that is, the 42 taels of banknote tariff mentioned above. , and I don't know why.)
If readers still remember the last time when Zhu Yingzhen and Gao Yushi talked about the Shimadzu family and the Japanese Shigao system, they asked Gao Yushi "how many Shigao are there in the Ming Dynasty", you will find that Gao Yushi's statement at that time was very " surface".

Gao Wushi replied to Zhu Yingzhen at the time that Daming's "Shi Gao" was about 20 billion.This is obviously only based on the national arable land area of ​​the Ming Dynasty and the national average yield per mu. He avoided the question of how much land tax was actually collected. Therefore, Zhu Yingzhen made fun of Japan's small country, which is only as small as the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, the land tax rate in Japan at this time is ten times higher than that of the Ming Dynasty, and the actual collection is much more reliable than that of the Ming Dynasty. There are basically no tax evasion projects such as hidden fields and flying mails in the Ming Dynasty in Japan, so Japan’s financial resources at the moment In fact, it is not much worse than Daming, otherwise their 55 standing army across the country would have nothing to do but smoke.

In the 15th year of Wanli, the plan to open the feudal ban was first launched because of the clan issue, and the Ministry of Household Affairs had to pay for the "one-time buyout" of many distant clan clans, which was already under enormous pressure.

Immediately afterwards, the battle against the rebellion in the Northwest was fought. Although Gao Yushi tried his best to fight a "short, smooth and fast" battle, after all, in addition to the "Central Army" led by himself, the mobilization and combat of troops in the Northwest and surrounding areas also took time. Money, so the Ministry of Household Affairs 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 Accounts, but now that Gao Pragmatism wants to collect financial power, the Ministry of War accounts can only be taken over together, so the burden has to be transferred to the Ministry of Accounts.

Afterwards is the Battle of Liaobei. The money spent this time is not a lot, but after all, it is winter, and the food, winter clothes and other supplies consumed are not easy to come. Now the Ministry of Households is still trying to find a way to make up for Liaodong. The "overdraft" last time, and that costs money.

To make matters worse, Gao Shishi launched the plan to cancel official salary conversion. Since all kinds of miscellaneous conversions are gone, only food and cloth are temporarily reserved. Therefore, the silver part of the 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 15th year of Wanli?
The answer is: a total of 28963 civil and military officials across the country have a total salary of 5966378 shi. If the price of rice is calculated at six qian per shi and all of them are converted into silver, the annual official salary is as high as 358 million taels of silver.

That is to say, even if the Taicang deposit has not been moved this year, it will not be given out, let alone most of it has been spent before.

So now it is absolutely impossible for Gao Wushi to give a silver salary and support Liaodong to start a new war.

Therefore, Gao Wushi proposed a flexible strategy, he smiled, and said: "Mr. Wangge, to be honest, in terms of saving silver in Taicang, it is absolutely impossible for Liaodong to fight again and the official salary be cancelled. .However, if the officials are willing to temporarily replace miscellaneous discounts with rice conversion, then this matter is still possible.”

"Rice conversion?" Wang Xijue frowned slightly, then shook his head again: "Now all the officials are eagerly awaiting the cancellation of the conversion, but Da Sinong suddenly changed the miscellaneous discounts into rice...I'm afraid it's not good?"

Good is definitely not good, and many officials may feel that hope is in vain, and it is completely empty joy.This practice of first giving hope and then extinguishing it may cause many people to be seriously dissatisfied with Gao Yushi, thinking that his words don't count.

Zhu Yijun hesitated when he heard this, but he has always trusted Gao Pragmatic's financial management ability. Since Gao Pragmatically said it couldn't be done, it must really be impossible.

Thinking of this, even the Ninth Five-Year Supreme could not help being discouraged, with a look of disappointment on his face, he murmured: "I didn't expect this to be so difficult, but what should I do?"

Gao Pragmatically reckoned that it might be because the Ming Dynasty had won too many wars in recent years, and Zhu Yijun's spirit was raised.Nurhachi's repeated provocation of the emperor's psychological bottom line has already made Zhu Yijun want to teach him a lesson immediately, which is why he behaved like this.

But there is no way around this matter, there is only so much silver, and to ensure the smooth progress of the two major plans of lifting the feudal ban and gathering financial power, some things have to be compromised.

At this moment, Liang Menglong suddenly cupped his hands towards Zhu Yijun, and said, "Your Majesty, I have something to say, I don't know..."

"Liang Qing has something to say, but it's okay to say it." Zhu Yijun said without waiting for him to finish speaking.

Liang Menglong glanced at Gao Yushi, hesitated for a moment, and asked, "Ask the chief minister, if this year's grain and salary can be slightly higher than in previous years, I wonder if it is feasible?"

The muscles on Gao Yushi's face twitched unconsciously, and he said to himself: Comrade Liang, you are really not in charge of the family and don't know how expensive you are.If the salary of officials across the country is counted as food, it is equivalent to nearly 600 million shi.Even if I only go up by 60%, it will add [-] shi.

Do you think that 2400 million shi of rice and wheat harvested across the country is a small amount of 60 shi?Do you know that the expenditure of my household department is not only to pay salaries to officials, but also to pay military salaries and clan pilgrims!

How much is the military salary for the 15th year of Wanli?Excluding the two unexpected wars of the Northwest War and the Liaobei War this year, the standing army pay was as high as 906 million taels of silver—of course, only about 70 taels of silver were directly allocated.

However, this means that the 836 million taels of silver military pay is actually mainly allocated for food, cloth and other materials. If it is all calculated in terms of food, it is equivalent to the need to allocate nearly 1400 million shi of food for military supplies!

But, there's always Lumi to send.This is even more amazing, because if the reduction in Lumi caused by the "opening of the feudal ban" is not counted, then based on the fact that the total number of clan members is as high as 55 this year, the clan Lumi required to spend will be as high as about 1600 million shi.

Good guy, the national treasury is in direct deficit, and it's a food deficit.Even the military supplies and the clan alone will have a deficit of 600 million shi in food. As for the officials, let's drink the northwest wind.

But of course this is impossible. The Ming Dynasty stopped giving full salary to the clans long ago. Otherwise, how could the high-level clans support the low-level clans when they lifted the feudal ban?

In fact, a large number of low-level clans are thankful for being able to get [-]% of the real salary, and they are not allowed to make a living on their own, so they support the "one-time buyout" plan proposed by Gao Yushi in order to lift the ban on feudal clans.

However, although the 1600 million shi Lumi does not need to be paid in full, since the "one-time buyout" costs money, the Ministry of Households must sell grain and convert it into silver, so this expenditure has risen again.

All in all, after going round and round, fiscal expenditures are still extremely tight, and not only the cash is tight, but the "realization time" is also very tight-this is the fundamental reason why the word "temporary" is difficult for high-level pragmatists.

According to predictions, this situation will definitely be alleviated step by step with the smooth progress of various plans. After all, lifting the feudal ban was originally a burden for the imperial court, but now it seems that various things are piled up together.

What Gao Pragmatism needs is time, but now that he has so many things to do, what he lacks most is time.

"If the 60% increase is converted, the Ministry of Households will spend an extra [-] shi of rice..." Gao Wushi sighed softly: "I want to know, can the [-]% increase satisfy the officials? Mr. Wang Ge, if this is the conversion , I wonder if you are satisfied?"

Wang Xijue immediately looked displeased, and said: "Even if I don't go up, or even cancel the miscellaneous conversion, I don't care. The problem now is not whether I am satisfied, but whether the civil and military officials are satisfied."

Gao Yushi rolled his eyes inwardly, and thought to himself: That's natural, you are always the richest man in Suzhou, maybe you will be the second richest man in Ming Dynasty after me, someone Gao, so this kind of salary is naturally not taken seriously.It's like I haven't figured out how much my own salary is until now.

In fact, Gao Yushi knows the total amount of salary he gets, but which of them belong to "regular salary" and which belong to "subsidy", he really hasn't figured it out until now, because he doesn't care about it at all.

At this time, Shen Shixing did not know why, and suddenly smiled and stretched out his hand to stop Wang Xijue, saying: "Brother Yuan Yu's words remind me..." Then he cupped his hands at Zhu Yijun: "Your Majesty, I think that the cabinet ministers and all the ministers Officials should indeed set an example, even if the Ministry of Households is willing to increase [-]% of the rice and grain discounts for all officials and replace the miscellaneous gifts, some of the cabinet ministers and officials of the ministries do not have to take it."

Zhu Yijun pondered and said: "It's good that Mr. Shen has such a heart, but Gao Qing hasn't agreed to the [-]% discount."

Boy, is this forcing me to express my opinion?

Gao Wushi sighed, raised his hand in a salute, and had no choice but to say: "Since the emperor has said so, it is not easy for me to refuse. The 60 shi rice and grain households have been paid."

Zhu Yijun suddenly laughed when he heard this, and said: "Okay, Gao Qiuzhen is still the same Gao Qiuzhen!" Then he paused, and then said: "But since I am the lord of the world, I can't put everything in my hands. Your head. How about this, the Ministry of Households will give 30 shi, and the internal funds will also give 30 shi, what do you think?"
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(End of this chapter)