Rebirth of Zhu Di's son

Chapter 110 Royal Bank of Ming Dynasty ([-])

evening.

In Wuying Hall, the conversation between father and son continued.

"Dad, my son has carefully investigated the cause of this matter and believes that in addition to strengthening the control of private lending, it is also necessary to improve the production capacity of the people. Otherwise, most of the people at the bottom will rely on the court's reserve warehouses, Changping warehouses and work-for-work relief , still unable to withstand the years of famine.”

After Zhu Gaoxu thought for a moment, he answered solemnly.

"The reserve warehouse of this dynasty was created by your grandpa Taizu, and it played a huge role in the stability of the Ming Dynasty. Coupled with the Changping warehouse and the local villagers' warehouses, how could it not be able to ensure that the majority of the people at the bottom can survive the famine years? ?" Zhu Di asked with a frown.

His question was not unreasonable. In the first year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang issued an edict, ordering Yang Siyi, the Minister of Household Affairs at that time, to preside over the establishment of "preparatory warehouses" in various prefectures and counties across the country to store grain in preparation for disasters.

After more than 20 years of hard work, the Ming Dynasty's reserve warehouse system gradually became complete, and finally the situation recorded in the history books appeared: "Millions of rice and millet were transported from the capital to other places, and the prefecture and county warehouses had abundant reserves."

After a famine, the government can lend the grain in the reserve warehouse to the people to tide over the famine, but after the disaster passes, the people have to return the loaned grain.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's original reserve warehouse made a great contribution to the stability of the world and the restoration of agricultural production.

Not only that, in order to stabilize prices in years of famine, the imperial court also set up a Changpingcang.

After the autumn harvest every year, the imperial court spent money to purchase excess grain on the market. In years of famine, the grain was sold at a low price to stabilize prices, so that the people at the bottom would not be unable to survive in the year of famine and become refugees.

In order to ensure that those people who were unable to work would not starve to death in years of famine, whenever the number of refugees increased, the imperial court would order local officials to open warehouses for disaster relief, and the warehouses opened were charity warehouses that the court organized local villagers to establish in various places. and reserve warehouse.

In addition, in order to cope with the drought, the imperial court presided over the construction of many water conservancy facilities. Such projects were basically built by the government and the people. That is to say, historical records record that "the work and materials were measured, and the work was done by the elders. After a while, both were completed. Open and close to prevent drought and floods."

In addition to building water conservancy projects and opening warehouses for disaster relief, the most important measure taken in the Ming Dynasty to maintain social stability was to provide work for relief.

According to historical records, "in the 23rd year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Chongming and Haimen were flooded with storms and seas. Officials were sent to revive them, and 25 people were mobilized to build embankments." By attaching the victims to the project, the victims would have something to do and food to eat, and would not have to worry about it. To survive, he killed officials and rebelled, and robbed granaries.

It can be seen from this that the Ming Dynasty's policies to deal with famines are very complete, so Zhu Di does not understand why Zhu Gaoxu thinks that the reserve warehouse, Changping warehouse and work-for-relief cannot allow the majority of the people at the bottom to survive the famine years.

"Dad, the reserve warehouse is a great and good government created by grandpa. There are countless living people, but this system still has shortcomings."

Zhu Gaoxu didn't keep Zhu Di waiting for a long time and directly pointed out the shortcomings.

"Although the imperial court provided money to buy grain and local officials established reserve warehouses, the people who directly managed the reserve warehouses were respected elderly people in the countryside."

"Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, the government agencies of the current dynasty only extended to the county level, which is the so-called 'imperial power does not go to the countryside', because rural education, verification, mediation of civil disputes, tax collection and other administrative matters under the county level all depend on the three elders. .”

Zhu Di knew that the three elders in the Qin and Han Dynasties were actually one person, not three people.

"Han Shu Gaodi Ji [-]" says: "If you are over [-] years old, have practice, and can command others to do good, you will be regarded as three elders, one from the township; the three elders from the township will be the three elders from the county."

Zhu Gaoxu continued: "Perhaps in view of the limited energy of one person, in the reserve warehouse management system designed by Grandpa Taizu, there were not one elderly person in the village, but many people. The reason for such an arrangement at that time, I think there were three main reasons. "

“The first is to achieve the purpose of providing relief to the victims nearby, because there is a reserve warehouse in the east, south, west, and north of each county, and these four reserve warehouses are far away from the county government headquarters, and local officials are beyond the reach of them. It is reasonable and reasonable to govern the people sincerely when they are young." (from "Ming Huidian")
"Second, the elderly are familiar with the situation in the township. When a famine occurs, they can assist local officials and lend out grain in the reserve warehouse for relief according to the different conditions of each household in the township. Lend more grain to those who are really poor, so as to achieve The biggest function of the reserve warehouse." "Third, the elderly can accurately collect the grain borrowed from the reserve warehouse from each household after the famine subsides, thereby realizing the cycle of storing grain in the reserve warehouse."

When Zhu Gaoxu said this, he changed the topic and said seriously.

"Even if the elderly are all older and prestigious squires or landowners in the countryside, as long as they are human beings, they will always have selfish thoughts of one kind or another, which often leads to food rotting in the reserve warehouse, fires, and thefts, etc. accidents."

After Zhu Di heard this, his face instantly darkened.

He knew that Zhu Gaoxu would not speak freely, and what he said must be supported by facts.

"What do you think about moving the reserve warehouses from various places to the county and still being managed by the elderly in the countryside in turn?"

Zhu Di asked seriously.

"At present, the reason why most elderly people in the countryside can do things impartially is, on the one hand, their own morals and prestige, and on the other hand, they are in the countryside, and their daily actions are seen by the villagers. In this way, they play an important role in managing the reserve warehouse. Sometimes you will have some scruples.”

After Zhu Gaoxu thought for a while, he said respectfully.

"Therefore, if the reserve warehouse is moved away from the countryside, the villagers will not be able to play the role of supervising the elderly in the countryside."

After listening to Zhu Gaoxu's analysis, Zhu Di couldn't help but nodded.

He knew very well that expecting the old people in the countryside to restrain their selfish thoughts with moral standards was tantamount to daydreaming.

If the reserve warehouse is moved into the county town, over time, it will inevitably happen that the elderly in the countryside collude with local officials, fabricate false household registrations, and embezzle disaster relief food.

Zhu Di believed that in the land where the mountains were high and the emperor was far away, there would be elderly people in the countryside who would seize the prepared warehouses and turn them into private property.

And after the old people in the countryside prepare the food in the warehouse, they will definitely try their best to fall on the villagers.

At that time, a vicious cycle will occur. The people will not be able to pay back the food, which will lead to the reduction of food in the reserve warehouse. This will make it impossible to effectively relieve the people in disaster years, so the disaster will become difficult to contain, and the people will not be able to pay back the food.

"Gao Xu, what do you suggest?"

Zhu Di couldn't think of a better way for a while, so he had to ask.

Historically, it was he who ordered the reserve warehouses to be moved out of the countryside and moved into the county. More than 30 years later, a large number of collusion between the elderly in the countryside and local officials appeared.

"My suggestion is to establish the Royal Bank as soon as possible and make it functional."

Zhu Gaoxu said respectfully.

(End of this chapter)