In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 470: War is indeed the most profitable

When Qin Zhuo came up, he first set off a big bomb to let the ministers intuitively feel how big the Song Dynasty was now.

After talking about area, let’s talk about population. In the sixth year of Yuanzhen, a nationwide census began, and a lot of money was spent on this.

Shanxi and Hebei did not take it back at that time, and the census was not completed until the end of 2007, which took two years.

At this time, including some territories of the kings of western Mongolia, except for Hebei and Shanxi, the entire Song Dynasty had a population of more than 130 million.

During the Jiaqing period, the statistical population of the Southern Song Dynasty was 1267 households, with a population of more than million.

Nearly thirty years have passed since the middle period of Jiading.

The population has reached more than 130 million.

In addition to Zhao and Rui who recovered many places and gained the population of Jin Dynasty, Xixia and even Mongolia, they also spent all kinds of efforts to encourage births and built hospitals to ensure survival rates. In addition, there were no wars in the country, and almost all wars were Fighting abroad ensured that the population of the Song Dynasty continued to rise.

After acquiring Hebei and Shanxi, it is estimated that several million more people will have to be added. Within twenty years at most, the population of the Song Dynasty will exceed 150 million.

There are now more than a thousand counties in the Song Dynasty, and each county determines its independent expenditures based on population.

But now Zhajia does not need to be built every year, and war horses can now be produced in the Southern Song Dynasty, which is quite cheap. These two important expenses were relatively high in the first few years, but gradually decreased later.

These three major expenditures currently exceed 80 million dollars, of which military expenditure is the largest, exceeding 60 million dollars.

"That's about it." Qin Zhuo also smiled bitterly: "But it's much better than before Jiading years."

At present, of the nearly 1.3 million people in the army, only one-fifth is equipped with flintlock muskets. In the future, more flintlock muskets will need to be built to replace them.

Qin Zhuo explained: "In those days, many officials who became official were still receiving salaries, and the imperial court conquered many new territories. When the officials were resettled, their whole families immigrated there, and there were various expenses such as settlement fees and routes."

Even if the Song Dynasty has more than one million troops so far, not everyone has a flintlock rifle.

Everyone suddenly realized.

"This expenditure is also 9 million yuan."

This piece adds up to another 30 million yuan.

In the Song Dynasty, Zhao Yurui spent a lot of money every day without doing anything.

Qin Zhuo then talked about other expenses, including government expenses for various yamen in the imperial court, and various infrastructures, including overseas construction of cities and forts, annual shipbuilding, river management, war casualties, death compensation, immigration, etc., and even many military supplies, The commencement of construction was not included in military expenditures.

Small and medium-sized counties only have a few thousand guan, or even thousands of guan.

The main reason is that the population of the Song Dynasty increased, the territory became larger, and there were more management personnel, so the number of officials naturally increased.

Among them, government expenditures are fixed by the imperial court.

Compared with before Zhao and Rui ascended the throne, the salary of senior civil servants has shrunk, while that of middle and low-level officials has increased.

why is it like this? Because the most officials in the world are grassroots officials, Zhao Yurui just needs to focus on winning over these grassroots officials.

Wei Liaoweng also smiled bitterly and said: "If I don't do anything in the Song Dynasty, I have to spend more than 80 million yuan a year?"

And Qin Zhuo also said that the cost is not much higher than before. At least in terms of labor costs, it has been reduced a lot.

"As of the end of last year, our Song army numbered more than one million." Qin Zhuo did not say the actual number this time, but it was actually around 1.28 million.

But in those days, the occupying officials, Hai Sanwei, Jin Kingdom, and Xixia, all had to arrange new officials. If you didn't pay a high price, who would be willing to go there, so the cost was higher than now, and it was all settlement fees, and even the fields had to be divided. Houses, etc., are all included and converted into money.

Military expenditures, including soldiers' salaries, have exceeded 60 million yuan and are currently the most important expenditure of the Song Dynasty.

It was these more than 80 million coins that maintained Zhao Yurui's rule and allowed him to firmly control the vast Song Dynasty with billions of people.

According to officials, this data has not changed much. It has increased by more than 2,000 people from the time of statistics a few years ago.

But compared with later generations, in terms of fiscal revenue, military expenditure accounted for more than half of the Song Dynasty's fiscal revenue, which is indeed quite large.

Someone noticed this detail, and Wei Liaowen asked strangely: "I remember that at the end of Baoqing and the beginning of Yuanzhen, the number of officials and servants was less than now, but the expenditure was more?"

In addition, before Zhao Yurui ascended the throne, there was a large amount of high income, and the official officials were no longer paid (the Song Dynasty used to like to support high-ranking officials), which made the official expenses much less than in previous years.

"As of the end of last year, the number of officials in our Song Dynasty was 300,000."

The officials were in an uproar.

"As of the end of last year, we had more than 16,000 officials in the Song Dynasty."

However, as time goes by, this cost will definitely come down.

At present, the cost of a flintlock gun is nearly ten guan, and the military salary is the largest expenditure of the Song army.

This expenditure is about more than 10 million guan, which averages per head. Each official has about 30 guan per year. It is also one of the heavy burdens of the imperial court.

For example, before Zhao Yurui ascended the throne, a Zha armor in the Southern Song Dynasty cost more than 30 guan, and a war horse was even more expensive.

This time to recapture Hebei and Shanxi, many more officials will be added.

On average, for an individual, it costs about fifty guan to raise a sergeant, which is really not expensive.

Nowadays, the average number of officials in the imperial court is more than thirty per year.

The largest county only spends 10,000 yuan a year.

There are approximately hundreds of thousands more than when we counted them a few years ago. This is mainly due to the increase in troops being surrendered, the increase in territory, and the increase in the need for overseas colonization.

Those who can calculate it can do it silently. The average annual expenditure per official is about 500 yuan, which is not too much, but not too little either.

The number of officials and government servants has also increased a lot in recent years, mainly due to the increase in officials and officials added after the expansion of the colonial territory of the Song Dynasty, as well as the increase in local hospitals, craftsmen, and teachers.

This saves much money than later generations.

At present, the most important thing is the salary of officials. Local government expenditures, such as infrastructure and river management, are all funded by the court. There are not many places for local government to spend money, so the expenditures are naturally small.

In the seventh year of Yuanzhen's reign, the country spent 110 million yuan, which was not much higher than before Zhao Yurui ascended the throne.

The main reason is that Zhao Yurui is very strict about spending money and spends money wisely, saving a lot.

If Shi Miyuan of another time and space were still alive now, he would issue a large number of Hui Zi again. The annual expenditure of the Southern Song Dynasty was over 100 million, but the income was not enough, so he could only issue a large number of Hui Zi.

After talking about the expenses, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

At the peak of that year, Zhao Yurui's court spent 140 million a year. Now that the territory is larger and the population is larger, the expenditure is less.

This is a sign that the court is becoming more and more stable.

And as the imperial court gradually completes infrastructure construction, river management and other matters in various places, this amount of money will be spent less and less in the future.

After talking about expenses, of course let’s talk about income.

In the seventh year of Yuanzhen, the national grain tax was more than 37 million shi in summer and autumn, and in the seventh year of Baoqing, it was more than 36 million shi.

Eight years have passed, but there has been little increase in national taxes and grains.

But in fact, the population and area of ​​the Song Dynasty increased so much, and the area of ​​grain fields also increased significantly. Especially the promotion of rye ensured that it could be promoted on a large scale in Liaodong and the Far East, as well as in the north, and the output was not low.

However, the early promotion of rye was tax-free, and it was tax-free for several years in Liaodong, the Far East and overseas areas to encourage people to immigrate, so there is currently no increase in grain taxes. Including Zhao Yurui's continuous tax reform in recent years, which has reduced the tax rate for ordinary people by ten or twenty acres.

And these common people are the largest in the country. Zhao Yurui feeds off the big households and collects taxes from the big households.

In the seventh year of Yuanzhen's reign, one stone of grain cost an average of about 500 taels, which translated into about 50 million taels of cash.

When rye is fully promoted and taxes are collected in tax-free places, the grain tax is estimated to be close to 45 million dan.

"In the seventh year of Yuanzhen, the national commercial taxes, including taxes levied overseas and at alleys, other miscellaneous taxes, etc. -" Qin Zhuo paused when he said this, with a proud look on his face: "A total of 54 million yuan .”

"Hiss!" The ministers gasped again. Some who had just joined the cabinet in the past few years had never heard this number before, and they were all shocked.

"So much business tax?" Some people couldn't believe it.

"Only for the two items of "Red Mansion stall blocking", the national tax revenue exceeds 20 million yuan." Qin Zhuo said with a smile.

Zhao Yurui auctioned off all red buildings and stalls across the country. There were more than a thousand counties across the country, with an average of three in each county.

Each family's annual license fees and taxes are calculated as 3,000 guan, which is 10 to 20 million guan.

In fact, in a big government like Lin'an Prefecture, there are dozens of red-story stalls, each of which charges tens of thousands of dollars in license fees plus taxes, and one prefecture has several million dollars a year.

Everyone was silent after listening. It was true that they could receive so much. Why didn't the previous emperors think of it?

The imperial court now has quantitative requirements for red buildings and blocking stalls. If you ask the ministers on the scene to pay thousands of guan every year to open a blocking stall or red building in the county, they will be willing to do so.

This is one of the most profitable businesses nowadays.

Qin Zhuo added, and the state-run factories of the imperial court, such as sugar factories and shipyards, all have to pay taxes, as well as overseas trade taxes at alleys in various places, including taxes collected in the Persian Gulf, and commercial taxes from shops in various places. The total personal taxes of mid-level and senior officials total more than 50 million yuan.

"Are other taxes so high?" someone asked again.

"We have more than a thousand counties in the Song Dynasty. Each county has an average of 100 shops, and each shop pays 20 taxes per year."

"One county is more than 2,000 guan, and more than 1,000 counties are more than 2 million guan."

Qin Zhuodao, in fact, many large shops have to pay hundreds, even thousands, or even thousands of guans a year.

For example, the Qin family used to be the richest man in the Song Dynasty. They had shops all over the country and they were still doing the most profitable business.

They also have the right to sell overseas goods, such as ivory from abroad. In addition to government operations, they can also sell it.

This store alone pays thousands of dollars in taxes a year.

According to Da Song's current tax rate, the more profitable a shop, the higher the tax.

An important part of this income is overseas taxation. The imperial court collected money in Quanzhou like Zheng Zhilong did. Passing ships were guaranteed to be safe and taxes were paid based on the cargo. This was a large amount of income.

At his peak in the late Ming Dynasty, Zheng Zhilong had tens of millions a year. Nowadays, the coastal trade of the Song Dynasty is also developed, and there are several tax collection ports. Not to mention 10 million, five or six million can be collected casually.

Coupled with the income from the Persian Gulf, Hanzhou Bay and other places, the income is not low.

Therefore, the current total tax and grain of the Song Dynasty is close to 100 million yuan, which is barely enough to cover expenses.

Then the real money comes from doing business and fighting wars.

"In the seventh year of Yuan Zhen, the imperial court's business operations made a profit of more than 40 million guan, and the tax paid was 10 million guan." The tax was just counted as the previous item, and the actual income was more than 30 million guan.

The imperial court had many state-run ways of making money, such as sugar, glass, shipyards, including maritime trade, and the navy had done business in Persia.

The remaining transactions with Korea, Japan and other nearby countries are also at record highs every year.

This area alone now generates more than 30 million yuan in revenue a year.

As the Chagatai territory was occupied by the Song Dynasty, the business with Central Asia and West Asia would expand in the next step, which would also increase income.

"So, I made a profit of about 30 million yuan last year?" A minister said happily.

Zhao Yurui has been on the throne for almost 20 years, and he has basically made a profit every year. The balance of payments has been negative for one or two years, but he has still made money through wars and plunder, including his loan sharking.

So after so many years of winning, some people are already thinking, how rich is the Song Dynasty treasury now? I'm afraid five to six billion have been saved.

"More than that." Qin Zhuo added: "We conquered Balni last year. Although Balni is a small country, it is very rich. The royal family has a lot of gold and silver. We raided all the noble and wealthy households in Balni, and finally -"

The obtained wealth, various treasures, spices, and Song Dynasty copper coins were obtained.

Qin Zhuo tried not to laugh unless he couldn't help it: "About 160 million yuan."

After he finished speaking, he couldn't help it anymore and burst out laughing involuntarily.

Many of the ministers twitched their lips and tried to grab a large sum of money?

"Wars are indeed profitable." Wei Liaoweng sighed, referring to Zhao Yurui's famous saying, in this era, wars are the most profitable.

This would be replaced by the previous time when Shi Miyuan was in power. The Confucian ministers of the Song Dynasty would say that this was the work of bandits and not the behavior of a country of etiquette. Everyone would despise the emperor Zhao Yurui, and some would even persuade the emperor not to do this. , which is harmful to the national system.

But Wei Liaoweng and his group watched Zhao Yurui snatch them all the way.

From robbing landowners across the country, to robbing landowners in the Jin Kingdom, to robbing landowners in Mongolia, to robbing overseas landowners, the Song Dynasty became richer and richer.

Otherwise, how could we have so much money to support Zhao and Rui in destroying the Jin Kingdom, driving out the Mongols, and making the Northern Expedition to reclaim their homeland?

Sure enough, there is still a war to be fought. Many people did not expect that the small Bo Ni country is so rich.

When I played in Hanzhou (Fei Lubin) before, I never made so much.

There is no way, there is no kingdom in Feilibin, they are all indigenous people, and it will cost money to conquer them.

But after they were conquered, the Song people used the indigenous people as free labor, digging locally, growing sugar cane, making sugar, farming, building cities and factories, etc., and started to make profits in the third year.

Although it is slower than grabbing money, it is better than the slow flow of water, and you can have a steady stream of output in the future.

Of course, Bo Ni Country is not a one-time deal. There are tens of thousands of people in the country. After the robbery, these people can also be used and they will be able to produce in the future.

At this time, someone looked at the map and whispered: "Little Bo Ni is so rich, then-"

Everyone followed his gaze towards Champa, Annan, and even the kingdom near the Persian Gulf.

How much money will it cost to rob all these places?
"You can't look at it that way." Zhao Yurui finally spoke and laughed loudly: "Some kingdoms look small, but they are rich, and some look big, but have little money."

For example, in Mongolia, Zhao and Rui occupied Chagatai, Tolei and many other territories, but in fact they did not gain much wealth.

Everyone is convinced that it depends on the country's wealth, and Mongolians are relatively poor.

Qin Zhuo added: "This year we have Hebei and Shanxi. There are many wealthy Han households in these two places. It is estimated that we will have to make another fortune."

He originally wanted to say grab it, but after thinking about it, he was embarrassed and changed it to get it.

They are all Han, some people thought silently, and then thought, they all need to be robbed, oh, no, they all need to make a fortune.

According to Zhao Yurui's efficiency in robbing the Kingdom of Jin, if Hebei and Shanxi were robbed again, there would be no problem in increasing revenue by 50 million guan this year. If the robbery was done well, no, if it was done well, 100 million guan would be possible.

(End of this chapter)