A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Emperor Yuan Cong

Chapter 425

When the imperial examinations began in the second year of Zhenguan, the imperial court also officially ordered the establishment of Zhidu Division in Zhudao.

Zhidu Division consists of Zhidu Cao, Zhuanyun Cao, Yantie Cao, Changping Cao and Si Cao.

For each Zhidu department, there is one Zhidu envoy, two deputy envoys, one judge, and several other members such as the master book, the recorder to join the army, the recorder and the four cao to join the army, and the military to join the army.

The ten divisions are headed by the judge.

This newly established institution has a lot of power. Transshipment Cao is in charge of water and land transshipment and national grain and goods transfer, cashier, salt and iron Cao is in charge of salt and iron tea and wine monopoly, mining and metallurgy, and coin casting. Changping Cao is in charge of Changping warehouses in various places. Management, goods and purchase, foreign trade, Zhidu Cao is responsible for the audit of money and food revenue and expenditure, and formulating budgets.

The emperor also gave the branch envoys and deputy envoys of each way a secret duty to visit the officials of the way to understand the power of public and private, and gave them a certain right of supervision, and they could directly report to the emperor in secret without going through the central government.

This is an institution that holds the power of financial auditing and at the same time undertakes the task of making money.

The channels of making money are mainly foreign trade, the wholesale purchase of goods from Hu merchants, the purchase of market goods, mining, casting money, and the monopoly of salt tea and some wine.

In the plan, Changping Cooperative will also be established to raise a sum of money to borrow food and money for the common people. However, the difference from the original public money lending is that this Changping Cooperative does not require all the funds to be released every year. There is no high interest rate of 100% annual interest.

"Your Majesty, the Changping Loan can also be called the Green Crop Loan. It is mainly to help the peasants ease their temporary difficulties. It adopts the method of lending and receiving twice a year. One is at the end of the first month and is repaid after the summer harvest. The other is at the end of May and is returned after the autumn harvest. .”

"What about the interest?"

At the financial meeting in the palace, Li Shimin was still looking forward to Wu Huaiyu's reform.

"In the past, the public house loan was [-] principal, with a monthly interest of [-], and a monthly profit of eight cents. Calculated on an annual basis, it was double the interest. The interest on public house loans was too high. Common people and merchants complained. rationing.

Now our Changping Loan is also known as Qingmiao Loan. It is a policy to help farmers. It is not mainly for making money, but when helping the people, it can also get some income, so that it can have a long-term virtuous circle and become a living water that will not dry up.

Therefore, I thought that Qingsiao Loan was once every six months, and the interest was only charged two cents each time, and the actual annual interest was only four cents. "

Compared with the current public money lending with a ten-month interest rate, the two-cent interest rate in the past six months is less than half, which is indeed much lower.

Many people are poor, especially after encountering some natural disasters and diseases, they may not even have seeds, and there is no surplus food to wait until the next harvest. Repaying the three, or the ten-year interest of the public money, or the nine-out thirteen return of the folks, lamb loans, etc., are very heavy burdens, and even drinking poison to quench thirst.

Now the imperial court spends a sum of capital, and can receive grain at a fair price in places with good harvests, and store it in Changping warehouses in various places. These grains can be sold when the grain price rises, or part of it can be used as capital. Loans to farmers at a two-cent interest rate to alleviate the exploitation of private usury.

"Borrowing grain directly to meet the famine, or converting it into money and lending it to help the people buy seeds, farm tools, livestock, etc."

"If there is any surplus after the Changping cooperative distributes young crops to the common people, it can be loaned to handicraftsmen in Fangshi and Chengguo."

Fang Xuanling directly raised the question, "The half-year interest on Changping loans is only [-] cents, but now the loans in the market usually have an annual interest of [-] cents or even more than [-] cents.

How to ensure that this precious capital of the imperial court will not be arbitraged by unscrupulous people and profiteers? "

this is a problem.

If someone colludes with government and businessmen to lend out the capital of the imperial court at an interest rate of two cents for half a year, and then release it at a rate of four cents, five cents, or even six cents for half a year, wouldn't it be profitless and empty-handed?

This kind of thing is not uncommon in future generations. There are some low-interest or even interest-free loans in the policy of benefiting the people. As a result, those who are really qualified do not know or cannot do it.Or give qualified people a little money, and they can use their identity to get loans with no or low interest, which is much cheaper than normal loans.

"First of all, the qualifications of borrowers must be limited, and the loan amount of each household must be limited, and then five or ten households must be combined into one guarantee, with the third-class households as the guarantee.
The summer loan must be applied for before the [-]th day of the first month of each year, and the autumn loan should be applied for before the [-]th of May. The summer and autumn loans should be repaid in May and October respectively.

Green crop loan is based on helping farmers, so the priority is given to farmers. When borrowing money, the purpose of the loan must be clearly stated. It can only be used for personal use and cannot be re-loaned. be held accountable,

The borrowers are rich and poor, and 10 people are the guarantees, checking each other.The loan amount is divided into nine grades according to the assets of each household. The first grade households can borrow nine credits each time, and the bottom grade households can borrow one credit each time. They can borrow cash or grain, and they can repay whatever they borrow. "

After Fang Xuanling and the prime minister heard this, they all nodded involuntarily.

"These measures are good. They can help the people and help production when there is a shortage of money. They can also restrain private mergers and crack down on private usury."

Wei Zheng was not so polite, he asked Wu Huaiyu, "In the past, the imperial court used public money to lend money, and its intention was to help the people's needs, but in fact, everyone knows many problems in the public money lending. Yes, there are those who forcibly ask the people to borrow money, and some people who hitchhike and use their private money to cover their official capital to lend money. Public money lending second?"

"What Wei Xianggong said is not impossible, but when our Changping Loan was established, its policy was good. If officials took the opportunity to commit crimes, or even corrupted the law, it was not the Changping Loan itself's problem, but the official's fault. problems, even problems with the supervisory department.”

"The annual interest rate of public money loans is [-] cents, and the semi-annual interest rate of Changping loans is only [-] cents. The interest rate has dropped by less than half, and it can really be used by ordinary people. Isn't that good enough?"

Li Shimin applauded with high-fives, "Huaiyu is right. The policy is fine. If there are problems with people, then just deal with them. You can't even refuse to implement this policy just because there may be officials who will take advantage of corruption."

Wei Zheng asked again, "What about the capital?"

"Even if the policy is good, if there is no capital, how many people can it benefit?"

Wu Huaiyu replied, "This time, the imperial court collected the capital of the capital and local companies into the Duzhi Division, and used them as capital for each branch division. Part of it will be used as capital for Changping loans."

"How much can that be?"

Take the capital as an example. In name, the capital of the public office is more than [-] guan, but in fact it is more than that. A small fortune, not only the [-] guan in the account is now correct, but also an extra [-] guan, and the imperial history has [-] guan in public money.

These are all official books, not counting the private books of officials and officials who caught money.

Yushitai handed over 1000 guan to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and more than [-] guan were left unpaid. The money was kept as Yushitai's small treasury.

In Yongzhou, which Wu Huaiyu is in charge of, the public house money is richer than that of Yushitai. After cleaning up Wanguan, the main reason is that there are more pigs killed, half of which is directly handed over and half is kept.

There are more than 10,000 companies in the capital, and the company's money is turned over, and there are [-]+ Guan, which is still kept in a small treasury.

The amount of local government money is even greater. Today, there are 41 governor's houses, 360 five prefectures, more than 600 counties, and more than 100 military government houses.

This is still based on the lowest number. For example, Lingnan Road is basically negligible, and the total cost of the public office is only reported to be [-].

The more than 100 million yuan is the capital accumulated by the capital and local governments for ten years.

But now there are many things to be done with this money. After collecting this capital, all the office expenses and official salaries of government offices at all levels will have to be paid by the finance department, so the money must be able to increase in value. , and the annualized rate must be high, otherwise the cost will become less and less.

These more than one million guan are distributed among various stalls, and there are not many people who can finally go to the Changping warehouse to buy grain, and the grain in the Changping warehouse cannot be used for lending, only part of it can be loaned.

This has to be apportioned to more than 300 counties in more than 1000 states, which is not much.

Wei Zheng pointed out that Wu Huaiyu's policy actually didn't benefit many people.

Another prime minister, Wang Gui, who had been silent all this time, finally spoke.

"Yi Guogong said that the green crop loan is guaranteed by ten households, and the rich and the poor are matched. I think there is a problem here. The downsizing urgently needs a loan, but there is no guarantee of repayment, and the upswing does not need to borrow. The starting point of the policy is good. , to ensure that the loan of the lower household can be guaranteed, and then can get relief, but the upper household does not need to borrow or is unwilling to borrow. Isn’t the matching of the rich and the poor now a forced apportionment?
When the lower household is unable to repay, it will naturally implicate the upper household. In my opinion, the result of this is that the upper household will become impoverished, and the lower household will only be deeply in debt. In the end, the capital of the court will become bad debts. "

Li Shimin stroked his beard, "What Wang Xianggong said is also reasonable. You can get a loan of nine guan for a household, but the nine guan is not bad for a household."

"Your Majesty and Wang Xianggong are right. This is something that I have not considered carefully. I think it can be modified. For example, among the ninth-class households, only the fifth-class households below the middle and below will be loaned. The number of loans will range from ten to two. Yes, money and food.

As for the guarantee, there is no limit to whether the guarantor is rich or poor.

As for whether the money will be repaid, I think the Changping Loan itself is for the purpose of helping the people and helping the farmers, so if the people are really in trouble, the court should take the loan. It can be repaid in installments, with a little interest added appropriately, and there is no need to force collection immediately. "

If the old debts are not repaid, the eligibility for new loans will be suspended.

Wei Zhengdao, "I think it's still too little to use part of the grain in the Changping warehouse as the capital, and it won't have much effect."

"Wei Gong, the starting point of the Youth Loan is good, and the policy is also good. Even if the capital is small and the benefit to the people is limited, if the capital increases in the future, it will benefit more people. What's more, don't do something small."

"Besides, regarding the problem of low cost, I actually have another plan,"

(End of this chapter)