Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 887 Billion

In the ninth year of Shaotian, summer.

Zhu Yihai walked slowly in the Qianqing Palace with a dragon stick. Although this dragon stick added a bit of the majesty of the emperor, it clearly revealed that the emperor's dragon body was not in good condition.

After walking around for a few times, Zhu Yihai returned to the imperial case and faced the memorial of that case again.A few years ago, Zhu Yihai had already delegated power to the crown prince. All the memorials of the empire were originally submitted directly to the emperor, especially the important military affairs. Before the emperor approved them, no one had the right to see them, even the prime minister. The chief prime minister at the office can only see the seal title of the memorial, and the contents inside must be submitted to the emperor for review first. For general affairs, one copy is directly submitted to the imperial court, and the other is submitted to the cabinet scholars for drafting. It must be handed over to the emperor for approval.

This is an important step to ensure the supremacy of the imperial power, especially there are many secret records, from the center to the local government, from local officials to military generals, etc., thousands of officials who have obtained the qualifications for the secret records, and various reports of internal and external contexts and military affairs , Only the emperor knows, the monarch and his ministers contact directly, and no third person is allowed to take over.Officials were not allowed to write the secret memorials for their masters and staff, and the emperor did not allow a third party to approve them. After these secret memorials were passed on, they had to be returned to the emperor.

A few years ago, Zhu Yihai gave the crown prince a copy of all the memorials, and even gave him the power to dispose of them.

The emperor traveled west for several years, and the crown prince stayed behind to supervise the country, so that the center of the empire could continue to operate normally.

The crown prince will send the original copy to Zhu Yihai to deal with the memorial, and the copy will be issued, and even for important matters, the emperor must be asked for permission first.

Therefore, in the past few years, he actually knows the operation of the Ming Empire very well, but gradually more and more powers are delegated to the crown prince.

"There is too much money in the treasury."

The prince is very restrained in spending money, even a little frugal. The prince is also very frugal and never engages in ostentation. He toured the west for three years. The city of Beijing has changed a lot, and even expanded to the south of the city. The East Palace has not been changed much, but the residences of the concubines, princes and princesses in the East and West Six Palaces have been slightly repaired.

Apart from the dresses for formal occasions, the crown prince usually wears common clothes, which are all woven by the concubines in the Eastern Palace. They are not even dyed, and the diet is also very frugal. Three dishes and one soup, one Meat and vegetarian, never waste.

Although the imperial court has been fighting wars in the past few years, the wars they fight are still profitable wars. Among the remaining expenditures, military expenditures are the most important, followed by official salaries, and then palace expenditures. In recent years, military expenditures have been maintained at about 5000 million silver dollars per year, but The budget of the Ministry of War has a surplus every year. The main reason is that although the army is fighting everywhere, the imperial court pays a lot of money, so there is not much increase in the military salary during the war, and most of it is military expenditure.However, no matter whether it is the military action against Japan or the colonization of Annan, basically there is no war at present, and they have all entered the stage of colonial occupation, and through the taxes, commercial taxes, customs duties, etc. The land, minerals, etc. sold are not a small income.

After these income offset the expenses of the garrison, etc., there is still a surplus, especially in the previous wars, Annan, Japan and other conquests, signed a treaty with them, and after the garrison, they all made indemnities to Daming, and they also had to pay Daming every year tribute.

Even in poor and remote places like Myanmar, they earn a lot of money because they sell trees and mines there. In addition, the army sells captives as slaves. The military budget is budgeted every year, and it actually makes money every year. .

The imperial court spends a lot on equipment every year, but the military industry is very developed now, and the foreign military sales are full of profits. The money earned is more than enough to subsidize the military expenditure of Ming Dynasty.

Even in the past few years in the Western Regions, Zhu Yihai has mobilized a lot of troops after destroying Yarkand and conquering various Mongolian tribes, but they did not push 20 million at a time, but were scattered everywhere, and even food and grass were mostly local Supplies, various rewards, salaries, etc., have all been supported by war.

"If you have money, you have to spend it. If you don't spend it, if you store it in the treasury, it becomes dead money. You must let the money circulate, otherwise it will lead to insufficient circulation of silver dollars, which will lead to deflation and affect economic development."

Daming’s current normal tax revenue has reached more than [-] million yuan, which is equivalent to one silver dollar contributed by each citizen of Ming Dynasty. In fact, the proportion of land tax and small silver dollar has been decreasing year by year, but tens of millions of yuan, more come from industrial and commercial tax , tariffs, special taxes such as salt, tea, tobacco, alcohol and sugar.

This does not include the income from the official handicraft industry, shopping, trade, etc., which are not directly included in the national treasury, nor does it include the income of the royal industry, which is the income of the royal treasury.

Over the past few years, the continuous foreign immigration and development have reached a very high level of expenditure, second only to military expenditures, and higher than official salaries.

The prince has a lot of money in his hand, but he spends it carefully.

All money needs to be budgeted first, then reviewed, and finally used strictly according to the budget, and it is strictly forbidden to overspend at will. The tax money retained by the local government according to the budget also has strict terms of use. The salaries of system officials and non-staff officials, as well as food silver, as well as honesty money, subsidies and benefits, etc. must all be implemented in accordance with strict regulations.

Any additional projects in the local area have to be approved at various levels. It is not allowed to set up projects casually, neither to apportion the common people indiscriminately, nor to ask the court for money at will.

The money bag is tightly covered, and the economic environment is good, so the more money you save, the more money you save.

The treasury income is 8000 million a year, the prince only spends [-] million, and there is still a surplus of [-] million. After three years, he has a surplus of [-] million. After helping Zhu Yihai repay the various bonds issued before, there is still [-] million left.

This is not counting the part of the profits turned over by those government-run industries. The money is not in the treasury, but in the treasury of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Households. A large sum has also been saved.

"If you are not in charge of your family, you don't know how expensive the firewood is. If you are the master of your family, you have to plan carefully. There are thousands of miles of land and 10 million people. When you wake up every day, your expenses will cost tens of thousands of silver dollars."

Wen Anzhi, the chief minister of the prime minister and chief minister of the cabinet who was summoned, directly thought that it would be better to save some money when facing the emperor. The economy is good now, but it may not always be good in the future.

In the past few years, the imperial court has opened up a lot of land, and also expanded a lot of troops, from garrison battalions to provincial patrol battalions, to station soldiers, post town soldiers, and even the newly added local regiments also need to increase expenses. of.

There are also many yamen, officials, and office expenses in the newly opened land, all of which are regular expenses that will not be reduced after the increase.

In the past few years, the imperial court's economy has been so good that Wen Anzhi's capital assistant is a bit unbelievable. If the taxation and expenditure model of the Ming Dynasty were followed, it would have collapsed like Chongzhen. After all, the land tax is only a few thousand a year. Ten thousand taels, but the military expenditure exceeds 5000 million a year, and the others add up to more than 8000 million.

This is because the royal treasury has money, and the expenses of the court and clan are basically covered by the treasury. The money that the imperial court gives to the court and clan every year is actually only a symbolic 100 million yuan.

In the past, all dynasties mainly relied on land tax and small tax, while the Tang and Song dynasties also relied on high salt taxes to subsidize their finances, but their finances were still tight.

Now that the imperial court has taken a completely different route, it can still save money every year, and even Didingyin only accounts for a small part of the treasury's revenue.

Although the current treasury income is very good, Wen Anzhi always feels a bit unsteady, worried that it won't last long, so he also supports the prince's practice of frugality as much as possible.

Unexpectedly, the emperor now bluntly said that he spent too little.

"The national treasury has a lot of income now, so we have to consider two issues. One is whether the taxes collected are too high, and whether it is necessary to consider reducing taxes to reduce the burden on the people. The second is whether the expenditure is reasonable, and whether some local expenditures are budgeted. Too few, or some livelihood projects have not been done?"

Zhu Yihai didn't want to see the treasury accumulating so much money every year, transferring so much money to the bank of the household department, and then taking it out for lending, sitting and eating interest. This seemingly safe behavior is not a good way.

"Your Majesty, the imperial court's taxes on the common people are actually very low nowadays. For a standard tax mu of land, the cost of land and fire is only two buckets, four liters and two combinations. However, the yield per mu of a standard tax mu can at least reach Three stones, good land and bad land have been converted, and the tax rate is the same. Without other additional levies, especially the burden of Yao slaves, this tax rate is actually very low."

Although the regular tax looked very low in the past, the actual burdens add up to a heavy one. Now it is less than one of the twelve taxes.And now it is divided into mu, and only those who have land are taxed, and tax is paid by mu. No matter how many people are small, they are only discounted according to the number of acres. Even all parts of the country have long since unified the standard, so it is great for the poor people. The burden is relieved, and now their taxes are indeed very light.

"Then reduce the salt tax a bit. Everyone must eat the salt tax. It is essentially a poll tax, and then reduce it."

"Your Majesty, the salt tax has been adjusted several times, and it is actually not high now, especially for the guaranteed type of ordinary salt. The salt tax is low, and the salt price is also low. Only the middle and high-grade salt has a slightly higher price."

"Then lower the ordinary salt tax and salt price, this kind of basic livelihood material, so that the people can feel the real benefits."

In the past, the imperial court was short of money, so it used the salt tax to collect poll tax from the people in disguise. Now that the imperial court is no longer so short of money, it is also beneficial to the people to lower the salt tax and salt price appropriately. After all, salt is not very valuable. artificially controlled.

"For small businesses and hawkers, as well as some household manual production of farmers, the taxation should be adjusted, the threshold should be raised, and those who cannot reach the threshold should be exempted. Those who reach the threshold should also be divided into files. Lower it."

Small businesses and hawkers have limited income, and they are all breadwinners. Taxes are collected from them, not only do not collect much, but also have a great impact. Now that the financial situation is good, it is better to raise some standards.

"Money should be spent well, as long as it is not spent indiscriminately. Regardless of the central government or the local government, financial savings are something worthy of reward and appreciation,"

"I think there are a few places where the budget is still too low, and should be increased appropriately. First, the budget for immigrants is low now. Some resettlement fees, demolition fees, immigration subsidies, etc. should be added to the immigrants, so that those who move to the frontier The common people can settle down in the border area as soon as possible, and can quickly stabilize and start production. These require more investment from the court. The immigrants are mainly poor people, and they have left their hometowns for thousands of miles. It is not easy. Starting from scratch, they have to subsidize food rations for at least a few years, and even they have to provide interest-free loans for building houses, buying cattle, buying farm tools, etc., and even give some subsidies..."

"The other is basic construction. One is roads, and the other is water conservancy. These should require the court to increase special budgets and appropriations. Our agriculture still depends on the weather, especially in the second half of the year, when water shortages are common. Seriously, if a reservoir can be built, or a water diversion canal can be built, it may be possible to ensure a bumper harvest for the villagers, but this kind of thing requires a lot of investment, and the imperial court should be responsible for taking the lead. It is also responsible for sending craftsmen to investigate and investigate , do a good job in the design, and then organize the construction of the people, and it is best to use money to subsidize it. It cannot be completely the old method of the past, directly recruiting the people to do free labor. Although it is doing things for the people, it will still disturb the people. Therefore, the imperial court gets the big head, and the common people go out to work, but the imperial court has to subsidize their wages, etc."

"For another example, in many places in the Northwest, people are extremely short of drinking water, so they rely on the rain from the sky to store some rainwater in the cellar. For these situations, the imperial court should set up projects to help dig wells and divert water to solve these serious livelihood problems.

Another example is that in some rural areas, the traffic is extremely inconvenient, and it is necessary to open mountains to build roads, or to build bridges across rivers. It is not advisable to put down the bank to generate interest.

It is enough to keep 5000 to [-] million yuan each year, and the treasury should not exceed [-] to [-] million yuan. If there is more, add some project budgets. Remember, what is taken from the people is used for the people.If there is a large surplus in the national treasury, then adjust the proportion of local reserves, keep more money than local governments, and even increase funds for poverty alleviation in remote and impoverished areas.

Ming ZTE has a long way to go. The most important thing is not how many soldiers and artillery we have, but how much support we can get from the people. "

"Finally, I add a requirement. The money must be spent, but the review must also be strengthened. Every penny must be spent where it should be spent, especially not to be corrupted by others."

"Is the tithe exempted for the various denominations?"

"No, this will become the permanent law of the Ming Dynasty. In the provinces directly under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty, those sects that act in accordance with the Great Law can spread, but they must be strictly controlled. Similarly, no matter Han people or barbarians, they can also choose to believe in those sects. I can give them this power for sects approved by the imperial court, but they must be registered and pay tithes, this will never change. Superstitious beliefs without registration will be punished as illegal and strictly punished.”

"The barbarians who accept Sinicization can be exempted from this special tithe!"

(End of this chapter)