Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1043 The court please borrow money from the emperor
The emperor's internal treasury is managed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and stored in the internal treasury.

Cui Guozhang, who is the minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, also has no right to intervene. The money in the emperor's treasury comes from the tribute from the vassal state and the country, as well as the operating income of the royal farms, mines, workshops, caravans, etc.

The internal servant supervisor of the Ministry of Internal Affairs stepped forward, and he reported to the emperor the current income and expenditure of the internal treasury in detail.Generally speaking, the income of the inner treasury is still good. The vassal states and vassal states pay a lot of tribute, but they only account for a small part of the income of the inner treasury. Handicraft workshops, as well as income from royal caravans.

Although the emperor replaced a large number of Huangzhuang near Liujing to other roads and frontiers before, there will be more acres of land after the replacement. After all, the land in Liujing is expensive.The Royal Workshop includes a lot of handmade products, from gold and silver ornaments to clothing embroidery, to bronze mirror combs, to iron pots and hoes, needlework scissors, and some face medicine rouge, etc. In short, the scale of the Royal Workshop is It is huge, and there are specialized workshops in many big cities to produce all kinds of goods.

The Royal Handicraft Workshop has an excellent reputation for its skilled craftsmen and high-quality goods. Therefore, the goods have always sold well and earned a lot.The Anle Medical Center and Huimin Pharmaceutical Bureau established by the emperor before the Ministry of Internal Affairs have now opened hundreds of branches. Originally, this was a project to benefit the people, and the imperial court was unwilling to do it for fear of losing money.As a result, the emperor let the Ministry of Internal Affairs use the money from the internal treasury to do it, and sent eunuchs in the palace and royal stewards to do it. Not only was the efficiency high, but the key was that they did not lose money and made a lot of money.

The medicine industry, no matter what era it is, is a very profitable business. Even if the emperor specifically asked for a fair price to benefit the people, it is still very profitable compared to other medical shops and pharmacies.

Caravans were also very profitable in the royal business. The emperor had caravans that traveled on the frontier grasslands, merchant fleets that sailed along the canals and Yangtze River, and even maritime caravans that ran exclusively along the coast.

There are North Sea merchant fleets running on the Bohai sea route, and there are South China Sea merchant fleets running from Jiangdu to Guangzhou and Jiaozhi.

These days, trade is all about making money, and it is generally monopolized by the rich and powerful. The emperor doesn't care about competing for profits with the people. Can earn huge profits.

Although the emperor did not allow the royal caravan to evade taxes, he still reported and paid taxes truthfully, but after deducting the heavy industrial and commercial taxes, the income was still extremely high.

Of course, the emperor's income was high, but his expenses were also high.

Although the imperial court is responsible for the palace expenses, there is a prescribed amount for the palace expenses, and this amount is set by Luo Cheng, which is not high.

Therefore, the emperor had to use his own treasury to subsidize the palace expenses, purchase various palace expenses, and even rewards in the palace. There were a lot of expenses and rewards for concubines, princes and princesses.

The emperor would also buy farms, villas and other properties for the princes and princesses. According to the standards of this era, the princes would need at least [-] guan to marry in the future, while the princesses would need at least [-] guan to marry.

The money had to be prepared in advance, and the imperial court could not be expected to pay for it. The imperial court had a quota for its expenditure, at most one or two thousand guan, and there would be no more.

Therefore, if the emperor wants his princes and princesses to be more decent, he has to save money by himself.Not to mention, when the princes grow up, they will be entrusted with the feudal domains, and the emperor has to prepare the money, silk and population for the princes to build the country, and the father himself has to pay for these from the internal treasury.

And usually honoring the Supreme Emperor and the Empress Dowager, rewarding the emperor's relatives, meritorious officials, these also have to be paid from the emperor's internal treasury.

In short, rewards take up a lot of money.Rewards in the name of the imperial court are paid by the treasury, but if the rewards are paid in the name of the emperor, the emperor has to pay for them if the treasury does not pay.

This itself is also a rule set by the emperor himself before, to avoid the separation of the treasury and the internal treasury, and to set an example, so that the emperor will not embezzle the money from the treasury and spend it extravagantly.

Fortunately, the emperor is relatively profitable, otherwise, the inner treasury would not be able to make ends meet.

Now the emperor asked Neiku how much money he had left.

The Minister of Internal Affairs is very proud to say that there are still more than 300 million yuan in money.

This is equivalent to more than 300 million guan, including gold, silver, silk, money, etc.

After Cui Junsu heard this, he couldn't help being extremely envious, and even his eyes turned red.He is in charge of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the national treasury is under his control, but the treasury is now so empty that mice can be starved to death, while the emperor's internal treasury has more than 1000 million guan.Although the national treasury of the Ministry of Civil Affairs has an income of tens of millions a year.

But it’s all going in here and going out there, all supported by those monopoly taxes, market taxes, industrial and commercial taxes, but the expenditure is like flowing water. There was no money left in the national treasury in [-], and this year's war has caused him to be so poor that he owes money everywhere.

"Drop 1000 million from the internal treasury to the national treasury."

said the emperor.

Li Xuandao, the internal servant, became anxious when he heard this.

"Your Majesty, the separation of the national treasury and the internal treasury is a system established by His Majesty before. How can you just withdraw money from the internal treasury like this now? Isn't this a mess?"

The internal servant, who was born in the Li family in Longxi, insisted on refusing.

"Although the internal treasury is the emperor's private money, but now that the court is in urgent need of money, it is appropriate to use the money from the internal treasury." Cui Junsu was not willing to let go of the more than 1000 million yuan, and immediately started arguing with Li Shousu.

In the end, Li Xuandao had no choice. Seeing that all the ministers wanted to rush forward and snatch all his money, he had no choice but to retreat.

"As long as His Majesty is willing, it's fine, but the Ministry of Civil Affairs has to write an IOU. If there is a loan, it must be repaid, and as much as it is borrowed, it must be repaid." Li Xuandao insisted.

"Does this still require money?" Cui Junsu refused.

When the emperor heard this, he laughed.

"I think Li Jian's words are reasonable. The court needs money urgently. It can be used from the internal treasury first, but it must be borrowed. Otherwise, the rules will be broken. Otherwise, in the future, if the internal treasury has no money, it will be taken from the national treasury. It’s not a mess to take money from the internal treasury if you don’t have money, so why should there be an internal treasury and a national treasury?”

"I see, this money not only needs to be an IOU, but also has to bear interest."

Cui Junsu was even more puzzled. If the court borrowed money from the emperor, did they still have to issue an IOU?

Luo Cheng asked, "The internal treasury can lend 1000 million guan, but 1000 million guan is not enough."

For hundreds of thousands of imperial troops, the monthly salary and military expenditures are no less than 300 million guan.What's more, the IOUs in the hands of the soldiers and civilian husbands had to be settled first, which was an expense of over tens of millions.

And now North Korea, Yunnan, Western Regions, and Qinghai are still using troops. Although there are not many troops, maintaining an army of more than [-] people for combat costs a lot.

What's more, Su Dingfang also reported that he would build two big cities by the Minjiang River, build roads, build military stations, and beacon forts. To build a big city, at least hundreds of thousands of guan, this is also a huge expenditure.

"I borrowed 1000 million guan from the internal treasury to lend to the national treasury, but it is far from enough, so I have to borrow from the people from noble officials, wealthy businessmen."

As soon as the emperor said that he wanted to borrow money from the people or from noble officials, some people immediately objected loudly.

"Your Majesty, I think it's inappropriate to say it's a loan. How is it different from apportionment, or even from robbing? Wouldn't it make people in the world resentful and dissatisfied with such a loan?"

Luo Cheng looked up, but saw that it was Chen Shuda, the servant of the door who stood up and objected loudly.

(End of this chapter)