Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 58 Using cash to offset taxes
"You kid, if you were born earlier, I'm afraid your father wouldn't always ask for money from his father."

In Wuying Hall, Zhu Yuanzhang gave Zhu Gaoxu a very high evaluation.

Originally, he thought that Zhu Gaoxu had simply learned how to march and fight, but he didn't expect that Zhu Gaoxu had even thought so thoroughly about how to reduce the burden on the army.

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Gaoxu with a much kinder look, but he still did not end his examination, but continued to ask:

"My grandson and I read your "On the Reduction of Domain". It's very good, but I don't know what your views are on other things besides reducing the feudal lord."

"Grandpa, what do you mean..." Zhu Gaoxu saw that Zhu Yuanzhang began to speak more fluently, and immediately followed him and called him grandpa.

Sure enough, when his title changed, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help stroking his beard faster. Zhu Yunwen, who was sitting aside, was slightly unhappy, but he didn't show it clearly, and Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Gaoxu's attention was not on him.

"Recently, people in Jiangnan, Fujian and Zhejiang have boycotted Baobao. Why do you think it is? What should I do?"

Zhu Yuanzhang's question made Zhu Gaoxu's pupils shrink. Zhu Yunwen next to him also turned his head to look at Zhu Yuanzhang in surprise, with an expression that seemed to say, "This kind of thing should not be told to him."

Faced with the two people's reactions, Zhu Yuanzhang said nothing, but just waited for Zhu Gaoxu's answer with a smile.

Zhu Gaoxu was very confused at this moment. He didn't know how to answer under Zhu Yuanzhang's gaze.

Of course he knew why the people in Jiangnan, Fujian and Zhejiang boycotted the treasure banknotes. From the seventh year of Hongwu to the present, the average number of treasure banknotes printed and issued by the Baobao Department was around 500 million ingots per year, which means that a total of 20 million banknotes were issued in the past 500 years. The ingot banknotes are equivalent to eighty-five million coins.

These treasure banknotes were issued by Zhu Yuanzhang to commend ministers, nobles, sergeants, and clan members. At the same time, they flowed into the market through state-owned salt, iron, tea, and wine, and he spent about 5000 million in succession.

Of course, a small part of this flowed abroad through rewards to foreign envoys, but in any case, the treasure banknotes flowing into the market were basically no less than 5000 million.

In comparison, the recycling situation of treasure banknotes is quite satisfactory, with only more than [-] million.

In other words, at least close to 4000 million of the treasure notes circulating in the Ming Dynasty market have not been recovered.

Such a number of treasure notes is definitely a large amount compared to the Ming Dynasty's economic market.

There is a proliferation of currencies in circulation in the market, and devaluation is an inevitable result.

Nowadays, the usual treasure banknotes can only be exchanged for 250 Wen. This is still the situation when Ming Dynasty had already recycled 400 million treasure banknotes last year. Otherwise, I am afraid that the treasure banknotes will depreciate faster.

After clearing his thoughts, Zhu Gaoxu knew how to briefly tell Zhu Yuanzhang the reason.

He bowed to Zhu Yuanzhang, then sorted out his words, and then said:

"Sun'er has calculated the production, expenditure, and recycling of treasure banknotes by the Baochao Department and the Sixth Department. The imperial court produced about 8000 million treasure banknotes, spent about 5000 million, and recycled about [-] million."

"Grandpa, let your grandson speak frankly..." Zhu Gaoxu took a deep breath and continued to explain:
"The number of treasure banknotes currently circulating in the market should be around 4000 million, and the population of the country is now only more than 54 and 200, which is equivalent to [-] million households."

"In other words, basically every household holds at least three ingots of treasure notes issued by the imperial court."

"If we extrapolate from the tax revenue of the country, the grain, gold, silver, cloth and grass bundles collected by the country from the people last year should be reduced to 2000 million guan. If the tax is [-] times, it will only be [-] guan after thirty times.

"If you include these 4000 million yuan of treasure notes, there will be a sudden increase of nearly eight cents in the market."

"Although the population of Guochao has grown in recent years, the growth rate is not as fast as the issuance of banknotes."

"In addition, the imperial court does not pay much attention to the recycling of treasure banknotes, and local officials mainly collect taxes in kind. If the treasure banknotes cannot be recognized by the court, they will naturally not be recognized by the people. Since the people do not recognize it, how can they accept it? Where is it?" At this point, Zhu Gaoxu took a deep breath: "If you talk about the method of making it, but not the method of execution, if the official has no capital, how can the people trust him?"

Zhu Gaoxu's words made Zhu Yunwen and Zhu Yuanzhang think deeply.

But before Zhu Yunwen could figure it out, Zhu Yuanzhang asked Zhu Gaoxu: "According to your words, as long as the imperial court collects the treasure banknotes, the people of Jiangnan can accept the treasure banknotes?"

"Not only that..." Zhu Gaoxu shook his head:
"It would be great if it was just that simple. It needs to be recycled now, but it cannot be recycled directly. Instead, the proportion of treasure banknotes in tax payments should be increased."

"For example, last year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development collected less than [-] yuan of summer tax money, less than [-] yuan of autumn tax money, and only [-] million yuan of local tax money."

"This ratio is too small compared to the 500 million tablets issued last year."

“If we want to stabilize Baoqi, we must open up local Baoqi to pay taxes.”

"The north and southwest suffered from the Northern Capsules and had insufficient money, so they could still use treasure banknotes. However, the land south of the Yangtze River had enough money, even enough to flow it overseas through trade. Therefore, it was necessary to introduce a banknote tax law to collect local treasure banknotes as taxes. .”

"Not only that, banknotes should be tied to money, not to money and food."

Speaking of this, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but complain a little to Zhu Yuanzhang: "The court's idea is good. It stipulates that treasure notes can be exchanged for rice to ensure that local people at least have food to eat."

"But such rules will only make the value of treasure money unclear."

"For example, the current banknotes in Nanjing are only worth two to three hundred cash, and a meter per stone is only three hundred cash, but the imperial court stipulates that the banknote is worth one thousand cash."

"The best thing now is to insist on making banknotes a permanent currency and allow people in the south of the Yangtze River to use treasure banknotes to pay taxes."

"..." After listening to Zhu Gaoxu's words, Zhu Yuanzhang just frowned slightly, but Zhu Yunwen couldn't sit still and turned to Zhu Yuanzhang and bowed:

"Your Majesty, if the treasure money in the south of the Yangtze River is used to pay taxes, judging from the land tax in the three provinces of Nanzhili, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian last year, the country's land tax next year will not exceed 600 million. stone."

"Besides, with the current local money shortage, treasure banknotes should be printed."

"As Gao Xu said before, as long as the population of the people can keep up, the value of the treasure banknotes will gradually rise. In this case, it is better to leave it alone. After more than ten years, the number of people will increase, and the treasure banknotes will naturally be accepted by the people. .”

Zhu Yunwen's words revealed what Zhu Yuanzhang was worried about. Although the finances were abundant in the early Ming Dynasty, he was still a little undecided about opening up treasure banknotes from Jiangnan, Beijing and three provinces to deduct taxes.

Today, nearly one-half of the population of the Ming Dynasty lives in these three provinces, and nearly one-quarter of its farmland is also in these three provinces.

If it were completely relaxed, although according to Zhu Gaoxu's analysis, the treasure banknotes could be restored to normal in two years at most, but if something went wrong, it would be a catastrophic problem for the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, if he did not continue to print treasure banknotes, the court's annual income would be reduced by millions. Zhu Yuanzhang had to ask the transfer department for such a decision.

But... Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly raised his head and looked at Zhu Gaoxu, his eyes facing each other, as if he wanted to see through Zhu Gaoxu.

Facing this gaze that seemed to penetrate people's hearts, Zhu Gaoxu instinctively puffed up his chest, but Zhu Yuanzhang's next words made all his thoughts freeze.

"You previously drew a map of gold, silver and copper mines in Yunnan for Wang Xuan, the son of Qianhu in Yiliang. How did you know about it? And why didn't you tell your eldest brother and grandson?"

　Today is the 92nd anniversary of the September [-]th Incident. Don’t forget the national humiliation.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)