prosperous age

Chapter 1056 1147 Station

"Shandai, besides the post office, is there anything else that can be changed in the Ministry of Revenue?"

At this moment, Zhang Juzheng also asked following Feng Bao's words.

"The Ministry of Revenue and the Treasury Department can be abolished or used for other purposes."

Wei Guangde said without thinking, maybe he was really drunk today. Usually he would think more before answering.

"The Treasury Department?"

When Zhang Juzheng heard Wei Guangde say the name of this yamen, he felt strange.

There is a Baochao Bureau in the inner court, which is one of the twenty-four yamen, but the job of this yamen is to provide toilet paper to the imperial palace.

The toilet paper produced by Baochaosi comes in coarse and fine textures, as well as printed and flavored ones. In short, there are many different kinds of paper.

However, the Tizhusi that Wei Guangde mentioned was not responsible for this. It was an office under the Ministry of Revenue and was responsible for printing Ming Dynasty treasure notes.

Although the Ming Baochao is not even as good as toilet paper now, the imperial court has not abolished the Ming Baochao legally, so this yamen still exists, and this is also where local officials make money these days.

A small proportion of the tax silver paid each year can be replaced with treasure notes, and some treasure notes are also stored in local government treasuries, but there are actually no treasure notes in circulation on the market.

It is impossible for officials to accept treasure notes to pay taxes, so there is still money to be made from this.

So up to now, although the Baochao has been abolished, no one has reported the matter.

"No, no, no."

Zhang Juzheng shook his head at this time and answered Wei Guangde's words.

"Haha, it's still very troublesome to abolish the treasure banknotes. After all, it is related to the ancestral system."

Feng Bao also found it funny and interrupted, "Why don't you consider doing something else? What to do?"

Feng Bao was just talking along the way, but when he got to this point he realized that Wei Guangde must have thought about it.

"What to do? Haha."

Wei Guangde was drunk at the moment, so he laughed twice and rubbed his forehead.

"Tell me, what else can the Treasury Department do?"

Feng Bao was very curious at this moment about what tricks Wei Guangde could play with the Baochao Tizhusi.

"The Ming Dynasty's treasure notes are now even cheaper than straw paper among the common people."

"Be careful with your words and be cautious with your lending."

Zhang Juzheng still retained a trace of rationality and hurriedly reminded him.

"Hey, that's a rough point."

Feng Bao then spoke up, "Shan Dai, go on, what else can the Baochao Tizhusi do besides printing useless Baochao?"

“Paper money.”

"Pfft, haha."

Feng Bao was also drunk, and he burst into laughter when he heard Wei Guangde's words.

Fortunately, there was no alcohol in my mouth, otherwise I would not have been able to eat the food on the table.

In fact, people like them would never lose their composure like this under normal circumstances, but the answer given by Wei Guangde was really unexpected.

Feng Bao was laughing loudly, and Zhang Juzheng also smiled, but he did not laugh as wildly as Feng Bao.

Wei Guangde looked at the two of them and said with a straight face: "Do you think I'm joking?"

Seeing Wei Guangde's reaction, they were both slightly stunned and gradually put away their smiles.

"Shan Dai, you don't really think that letting the Baochao Tizi print paper money is a good business, do you?"

Feng Bao asked slightly puzzled.

"People have been burning paper money for a long time, probably in the Han Dynasty."

Wei Guangde began to search his memory, went through the ancient books he had seen before, and started to explain.

The origin of burning paper money can be traced back to the Wenjing period of the Western Han Dynasty, but the custom was truly formed during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

The Chinese have a tradition of "treating the dead as if they were alive" and believe that money is also needed in the underworld, so they bury money with the dead.

In the pre-Qin period, burying real coins was not only unsafe but also wasteful. It was discovered in the Han Dynasty that the money buried in Emperor Wen of Han was not only unsafe but also wasteful. The "Records of the Grand Historian: Biographies of Cruel Officials" records: "Someone stole the buried coins in Emperor Xiaowen's Garden", which means that the money in Emperor Wen of Han's tomb was stolen by tomb robbers.

"Yi" and "Yi money" later specifically referred to money used for burial, which is the most primitive state of paper money.

Because of concerns about theft, it was later changed into a replica, and the imitation materials included copper, silver, tin, lead, pottery, clay, etc.

Even so, it was often stolen. Zhu Yi of the Song Dynasty recorded in "Yijueliao Miscellaneous Notes": "People in the Han and Jin dynasties buried a lot of money, and they were often excavated!"

Although the imitations were cheap, the production process was cumbersome, so they were quickly eliminated. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, paper "buried money" appeared.

"Fengshi Wenjianji" said that "paper was invented by Cai Lun in the Later Han Dynasty, and paper money did not exist until the Wei and Jin Dynasties."

At this time, paper buried money was not modified until Xiao Baojuan, the Eastern Hun Hou of the Southern Qi Dynasty, upgraded it. Hong Xingzu of the Song Dynasty wrote in "Du Shi Bian Zheng": "The Eastern Hun Hou of the Southern Qi Dynasty was fond of ghosts and gods, and cut paper into money to replace the silk."

By the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty, the custom of using paper money as burial material was widely used in imperial ancestral ceremonies, and the form of burying money began to take shape. The Old Book of Tang, Biography of Wang Yu, says: "They were dedicated to praying for good fortune during sacrificial ceremonies, and they would burn paper money every time they performed ancestral ceremonies to pray for blessings."

Unlike the yellow paper burned in later generations, the paper money burned in ancient times was made into the shape of a battle array. At first, the paper was made into the shape of cloth coins or knife coins. Later, when gold and silver became circulating currencies, they were made into the shape of ingots.

Of course, doing this is actually quite time-consuming. Paper is not cheap, and labor is also required, so it naturally won’t be cheap either.

Why did the rough yellow straw paper sold in later generations have holes in the middle? In fact, they represent copper coins.

In ancient China, coins were made in large quantities using the mold-turning process. The appearance of the coins produced by the molds was actually similar to those punched paper coins.

As for the so-called ghost money that appeared later in imitation of various foreign currencies, it is actually not without origin. Similar things existed in ancient times.

"Paper money is not cheap nowadays. If it is printed like treasure notes, the cost will be at least half as much."

Finally, Wei Guangde said.

It is true that the paper money that is popular in the Ming Dynasty now is made of yellow and white paper in the shape of gold ingots, and the price is not cheap.

Rich families burn a certain amount, while poor families burn less.

After Wei Guangde said this, Zhang Juzheng remembered something, so he said: "I remember that paper money with words printed on it appeared during the Five Dynasties, and it was called bionic money."

"That is, let the Baochao Tizhusi print paper money in the style of Baochao. After the imperial court issues an order, the paper money will be produced for the imperial court. This is a monopoly industry. As long as the price is right, it should be easy to promote it."

Wei Guangde said casually.

"Disaster."

After listening to Zhang Juzheng's words and Wei Guangde's advice, Feng Bao instinctively felt that something was wrong.

"Whether the Ministry of Revenue wants to do this business or not, Brother Shuanglin, what are you worried about? When the time comes, they will report it to you, and you can leave it to His Majesty to decide."

Wei Guangde smiled.

In fact, the three people all knew that this was not difficult to do and it would be easy to form a stable and profitable business.

The reason is very simple. In ancient China, the emperor was the Son of Heaven and had the right to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth and command the heavens, the earth and the human world. China has never had a religious leader. Even the Heavenly Master of Longhu Mountain in Taoism was a right granted by the emperor.

That’s because emperors in ancient China could be deified.

The emperor's deification was an important religious and cultural activity, reflecting the close connection between the emperor and theocracy.

This tradition stems from ancient Chinese religious beliefs and cultural traditions, in which the emperor was seen as the one chosen by heaven and having the ability to deify, which was not only a symbol of his power but also the maintenance and expansion of the national sacrificial system.

Therefore, in a sense, the Chinese emperor can actually be understood as a combination of special secular power and religious leader.

With an emperor, there is naturally no need for other religious leaders, such as the pope or the pope.

The emperor had such great power that he only needed to issue an edict and order money to get the job done.

According to the people's thinking at that time, the paper money produced under the emperor's order could naturally be circulated in the underworld.

"I can talk to Ru Guan about this idea of ​​Shandai and see what he thinks."

Zhang Juzheng laughed.

Zhang Juzheng actually wanted to tell the Minister of Revenue Wang Guoguang about Wei Guangde's seemingly absurd proposal, which actually shows his bias.

It's not a big deal, you can do it.

At this time, Wei Guangde still remembered a piece of news that Yuegang had once passed on to him, which was the views of the missionaries who arrived at Yuegang on some Chinese traditions, including different opinions that the Chinese emperor could actually be deified.

Well, in the face of Western monotheism, the Chinese emperor's act of deifying himself was naturally considered to be a heinous crime.

Don’t blame others for knowing that the Chinese emperor had the right to deify people. Emperor Jiajing loved deifying people so much that he kept adding titles to his own deity status. It’s hard for others not to know about this.

So Wei Guangde told Zhang Juzheng and Feng Bao what the Yuegang missionaries had said.

"Those missionaries of the Christian Church believe that humans are inferior to gods, so the emperor's deification is disrespectful. They also believe that the emperor governs the living, not the ghosts and gods. When the emperor deifies a god, he will say something like "protecting the country's lakes and seas", saying that this is to drive the gods, but humans cannot drive the gods."

Wei Guangde happily told Zhang Juzheng the news he had heard. Zhang Juzheng was fine, but Feng Bao's face turned ugly.

No matter what, eunuchs are the most loyal royalists in this country.

Everything they have comes from the emperor, so naturally they hope that the emperor is extremely powerful.

Even now, the young emperor seems to be more beneficial to them, but in Feng Bao's eyes, imperial power is definitely greater than divine power.

Even the gods have to obey the emperor's orders.

As an emperor, you must have the spirit and courage of an emperor. How can you command gods and ghosts?

The Heavenly Master of Mount Longhu also said that "the law does not apply to the Emperor". Even if the gods are dissatisfied with the emperor, they cannot use Taoism to harm the emperor.

Of course, this has something to do with the differences between Western and Eastern religions and cultures, so it naturally cannot be accepted by the three people present.

In the East, our traditional concept is that gods have always been mortals, so it is normal for humans to become gods.

  Everyone knows that Wei Zheng slew the dragon. If the famous ministers under the emperor can kill gods, why can't the emperor govern ghosts and gods?

Moreover, in our traditional concept, gods are also part of the way of heaven. The innate gods are the personified embodiment of a part of the great way, and the acquired gods are mostly in line with human nature and have their own duties.

We are grateful for the virtue of gods, so there will not be a situation where gods are supreme and humans are lambs. What's more, we have always believed that gods are just mortals.

So these ideas are different. Even if people question the emperor's deification, they are still happy to hear the story of Jiang Taigong's deification. This is the hero of culture.

In the minds of the vast majority of Chinese people, it is believed that gods were conferred by Jiang Taigong. In fact, Jiang Taigong did confer gods, but it was the Zhou emperor who gave Jiang Taigong the authority to confer gods.

This is well-known in the Book of Changes, which says in the Book of Changes: "Observing the divine way of heaven, the four seasons are not wrong. The sages teach with the divine way, and the world is convinced."

If you understand the laws governing the operation of nature, you will not miss the four seasons. The sages teach with the way of gods and the world will be at peace.

Feng Bao, who had originally not taken the matter seriously, became furious when he heard that some foreign missionaries questioned the imperial power.

However, he was in Yuegang in the south of the Yangtze River, not in the capital, so he couldn't find anyone to attack him even if he wanted to.

"The Ministry of Revenue can discuss it. If they decide to report it, I will discuss the matter in the palace."

Wei Guangde noticed that his few casual words seemed to have influenced the current ministers of internal and external affairs, and he couldn't help feeling secretly happy.

Well, this seems to be a good thing.

Wei Guangde thought to himself.

In later generations, there was a case where supervisory personnel in a certain place sealed off a shop for selling ghost money, and the reason was counterfeit money.

It seemed absurd at the time, but if the monopoly system of ghost money had been established in the Ming Dynasty, the case of fake ghost money would have been confirmed.

Well, Wei Guangde suddenly felt guilty.

The monopoly system is essentially a monopoly.

Although the government will have various reasons to explain the benefits of official monopoly, it is actually easy to breed various problems.

There was no monopoly in this industry in the country before, but he took the initiative to add a project. He doesn't know whether people in the future will scold him for this.

"Shan Dai, let's talk about the post office. How do you think we can reform the post office and save money?"

He did not react as strongly as Feng Bao to Wei Guangde's joke. He also looked down on the barbarians and simply ignored their suggestions.

"Post?"

Hearing Zhang Juzheng's concern, Wei Guangde thought for a moment before saying, "This matter involves the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of Personnel. It would be best to call the three ministers and discuss it together."

Wei Guangde started practicing Tai Chi, and now he is talking about these four things. He doesn’t know if the other side will be unhappy about it.

"No problem, let's just discuss it and figure it out."

Zhang Juzheng ignored Wei Guangde's thoughts and said directly: "I think the first step is to find out the situation of the post stations in various places.

I remember reading a document from the Ministry of War to the Ministry of Revenue. There are more than 2,000 post stations across the country. I think some of them can be closed down, and some of the ones that are closer can be merged."

"Reducing the number of post stations can indeed save a lot of money."

Wei Guangde had no choice but to continue speaking along with Zhang Juzheng's words, but what was on his mind at this moment was whether Zhang Juzheng's abolition of the post system would force out Li Zicheng.

Well, Emperor Chongzhen abolished the post stations to save money for the court, but it ended up driving out a few bandits.

These people used to be people within the system.

If Emperor Chongzhen had not abolished the post stations, perhaps they would have devoted their lives to the Zhu family until their death.

As long as there is no chaos in the north of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty can still maintain its sovereignty over Liaodong alone.

Even if we could defeat them on the battlefield, we could still drag down the Jianzhou Jurchens.

Well, Nurhaci should be dead, but Li Zicheng’s elders should still be working in the post stations in Shanxi and Shaanxi.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde suddenly understood why many of the later policies of streamlining the military and government became mere formalities, with departments being abolished but the number of employees not being reduced.

It started to expand again during the next institutional reform. They have also studied history.

"We should also urge the Ministry of Personnel and local inspectors to conduct strict investigations and inspections."

Wei Guangde was still thinking about something, but Zhang Juzheng was already talking to himself.