At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 418: The Important South Sea and the Difficult Blade Turning Inward

On October 15th, the twelfth year of the Han calendar, in Chang'an City, Jianzhang Palace.

The Han Dynasty's annual sages' meeting was held again.

The old friends got together, but everyone was filled with sorrow. The economic crisis this year had so overturned their worldviews that they all felt like they had been through a war.

Who could have imagined that when the Han Dynasty was in its heyday, like a blooming brocade and blazing fire, a basin of cold water would suddenly be poured, chilling them to the core.

If the imperial court had not quickly and effectively come up with a 10 billion infrastructure plan, many people would probably have disappeared today.

Prime Minister Xiao He reported on the Han Dynasty's achievements in the past year. Surprisingly, the Han Dynasty's fiscal revenue still exceeded one million gold, reaching 122 million gold, an increase of gold over last year, even though the income of counties and prefectures generally decreased this year.

The wise men checked the data of the court's income and found that the court's taxes decreased by 15 coins, but the income of the Shaofu skyrocketed. The sources of the surge mainly came from two major sources. One was the copper mine in Luzon. This year, Luzon imported 17 million catties of copper, catties of silver, and gold, which was a precious metal worth billion coins.

The reason why the Luzon copper mines could increase so quickly was that the Han Dynasty court changed its thinking, causing a surge in the import of Luzon copper.

The quality of the Luzon copper mine was very high, but the local smelting technology was very poor and the production capacity was extremely limited. Later, Zhao Gao came up with an idea. He dug out the copper mine directly, and after simple sorting, he shipped it directly to Kuaiji County, where it was smelted and cast into Han Wuzhu coins. As a result, the copper mine's production capacity soared to three times the original level.

It can be said that the import of precious metals from Luzon filled the gap left by the reduction in the Han Dynasty's tax revenue.

Shusun Tong sighed: "Nanyang is the money bag of our Han Dynasty. The consequences of losing Nanyang are unimaginable."

As more and more civilian fleets arrived in Southeast Asia in recent years, the price of spices continued to fall uncontrollably, and it only stopped falling to around 200 coins per catty. If the price were any lower, it would not be cost-effective for caravans to go to Southeast Asia to purchase spices.

Of course, this did not cause any loss to the Han court. Although the price of spices fell, the total amount increased, and the market for spices expanded. Canned fish and meat along the coast used a large amount of cheap spices, and the total market value of spices doubled.

Moreover, the fleets went to Southeast Asia not only to transport spices, but also mainly began to transport other special products of Southeast Asia. For example, the princes of the Han Dynasty opened up palm fields in Nanyang, and palm oil became one of the must-have goods for the fleets to go to Southeast Asia.
Now copper ingots have become one of the specialties of Nanyang. Nanyang alone has provided the entire Han Dynasty with wealth worth millions of gold. The Han court directly received more than 30 gold in taxes. Tariffs have surpassed the textile industry and become the second largest fiscal revenue of the Han Dynasty (the first is agriculture).

Fu Sheng hesitated and said, "But this is not enough. Half a year ago, the court could not borrow a million gold even if it wanted to."

When the Han Dynasty government took out millions of gold to rescue the market, it caused a sensation throughout the world and quickly reversed the economic crisis.

By August, except for the textile industry which was still suffering from overcapacity and the money lending industry which was dragged down by the textile industry and suffered widespread bankruptcy, other industries had returned to normal.

But it was very confusing for people like Fu Sheng. The fiscal revenue of the Han Dynasty was very high, with the land tax and taxes close to two million gold, but the expenses of the Han Dynasty court were also very large.

The fastest growing industry is the education industry. The Han Dynasty is promoting the policy of building primary schools in every village and middle schools in every county. The court's annual investment now reaches 20 gold. It can be said that more than half of the Han Dynasty's fiscal growth has been swallowed up by education.

The other small half was consumed by medical care. Every year, the Han Dynasty built medical clinics for remote counties and prefectures. The imperial court also set standards for these medical clinics, which required one year of experienced attending physician, three interns who graduated from medical school, and 6 to 10 nurses.

The standard for building a medical clinic is a brick and stone structure with 10 to 20 beds. The cost of building such a standard hospital is about to million yuan.

The salaries of doctors and nurses were directly funded by the Han court, supplemented by the medical expenses of local people. Generally speaking, the court had to pay 3 to coins per year for a medical clinic. Therefore, the Han Dynasty's medical expenses were very high, and they were increasing at a rate of coins per year.

Even though the Han Dynasty's finances were growing every year, the surplus was roughly 200,000 gold. The annual Sages' Meeting was held to strive for this financial transfer that the court could manipulate and control.

Now the copper production in Luzon increases by about 1 million catties a year. One catty of copper can be used to cast 000 five-zhu coins. Even if the cost is not counted, 100 million catties is only 1 billion coins. Adding the annual surplus of the Han Dynasty, it is only 000 billion coins at most. Where do these 10 billion coins come from?

Fu Sheng carefully looked at the increase in the fiscal revenue, and took a deep breath, saying, "This year, the imperial court dug up 200,000 catties of silver and 20,000 catties of gold from the Japanese island. This is also a spice island. Is there a treasure trove everywhere overseas?"

Fu Sheng and his men also knew that the imperial court had discovered silver mines on the island of Wa, but they only estimated the amount of silver on the island of Wa based on the size of the Han Dynasty. Duke Chen also found silver and copper mines in Nanzhong, but the value of the minerals mined each year was only about 2 million coins. Adding the cost of refining, the actual income was only about tens of millions of coins. All of this money was used to build the Jiaochi Road in Shuzhong.

Fu Sheng and his colleagues thought that the silver mines in Wadao were almost the same, but they did not expect that the number was more than ten times more than they imagined. This perfectly explains why the court's taxes were decreasing but the total revenue was increasing.

Shusun Tong sighed, "Your Majesty is truly blessed by Heaven. A catastrophic disaster was averted without a trace."

Even people like Shusun Tong, who respected ghosts and gods the most and kept their distance from them, believed that the emperor was truly blessed by gods and ghosts. Otherwise, how could one explain the silver and copper mines that fell from the sky? This was clearly a plan prepared by God for this disaster.

But this was not a blessing from heaven, but Xu Fan had started preparing for it two or three years ago. After all, searching for a specific target was much more efficient than searching aimlessly.

The other sages saw a similar situation when they saw the income table of the Han Dynasty.

Cao Xing even said: "Nearly 30% of the court's income now comes from overseas, and our fleet is still too small to protect these overseas territories at all."

The wise men around nodded after hearing what Cao Xing said, agreeing that the court should increase its overseas investment.

To the wise men of the Han Dynasty, overseas was a land of wealth, with spice islands, copper mines, and silver mines. These were only what the court had discovered in the past few years. If more islands in the South China Sea were developed, who knew what other precious treasures might be found there.

Xiao He ignored the discussion below. After reporting the income of the Han Dynasty, he reported the expenditure of the year. The expenditure of the Han Dynasty this year was extremely huge, and it increased by one third directly, reaching 280 million gold, far exceeding the fiscal revenue of the Han Dynasty.

Then Xiao He explained to the wise man the source of the one million gold rescue funds. Among them, 20 gold was the surplus from last year, and the other 30 gold was the wealth brought by Luzon copper and Japanese silver. The court over-issued paper money worth gold to supplement liquidity and fill part of the fiscal gap. The remaining gold came from loans from money houses.

In the end, the 40 gold is a real debt that must be repaid, and there is no way to avoid it.

Xiao He said with a heavy face: "In order to pay off this debt as soon as possible, the court has formulated a debt repayment plan.

The debt of 40 gold will be repaid in four years. The court and local counties must cut down on spending. The court will bear 4 gold of debt, and the local counties will bear 11 gold of debt. Each year, 12 to gold will be saved to repay the debt. Before the end of this year's Sages Conference, each county must formulate a debt repayment plan and report it to the Sages Conference, which will be supervised and implemented by the sages of the world. "

"Every year, the debt repayment status will be checked. If any local county official who fails to fulfill his debt obligations is found, his rating will be downgraded by one level."

As soon as these words were spoken, the whole place fell silent, especially the nine ministers of the Han Dynasty. The faces of the local governors were so gloomy that water could drip out of them.

It has always been easier to increase spending than to reduce it, especially during this year's economic crisis. In order to save themselves, local counties have been trying their best to cut spending. Now they are also required to streamline their staff. I am afraid that all the Han officials working in the localities will give up their jobs.

The Han Dynasty was in the process of transforming from an agricultural country to an industrial country. The court affairs were extremely complicated, huge in number, and increasing every year.

In addition, Emperor Xu Fan was a man of the industrial age. He brought with him many habits of the industrial age and increased the administrative affairs of the Han officials below.

Therefore, the government affairs that the Han officials in the local areas of the Han Dynasty had to handle were extremely large and complicated, far exceeding those of their counterparts, the Qin officials.

In the previous two years, the economy was booming, and local workshops had large surpluses, so many Han officials received annual bonuses that even exceeded their salaries. Although the grassroots officials at that time were tired, they were still able to actively handle government affairs because of their high salaries and good treatment.

But this year, the bonuses of local counties and prefectures were cut, and the Han officials below complained bitterly. These prefects could clearly feel that the efficiency of the Han officials in handling government affairs had plummeted. They would delay or push things off whenever they could, and it was difficult for them to command as easily as before.

But the governors who were military men also understood that such things were inevitable. If they wanted their subordinates to work actively and proactively, they had to firstly pay them enough and secondly lead them to achieve political achievements so that they could see the hope of promotion.

But this year's economic crisis has dealt them a major defeat. They can forget about their political achievements and it is considered good that the court has not punished them.

This has already lowered their prestige. As a result, due to the economic crisis and the financial crisis caused by it, they even paid less money. Naturally, it is impossible for the people below to work as hard as they did a few years ago.

Now the imperial court wants them to continue turning their swords inward, and the resentment of the Han officials below is likely to be overwhelming.

Li Shang immediately said, "Prime Minister, in order to cope with the economic crisis this year, the Han officials below have worked extremely hard. It's fine if the court doesn't reward them now, after all, the court has no money, and everyone can understand that. But if the court cuts them off, isn't it a bit too inhumane? I'm afraid the people below will not accept it."

Chen Rui also said: "This year, the court has launched a large number of projects, and the amount of government affairs in each county has increased greatly. Your Majesty has always taught us that power and responsibility are equal. It is impossible for the people below to do more work but get less money. This is not the consistent purpose of our Great Han court."

Other county governors also began to complain. If they took these conditions back, the people under them might really quit their jobs.

At this time, Qin Bo retorted: "Only the Khan officials are in trouble in this world, while ordinary people are not in trouble.

This economic crisis has caused the craftsmen in Chang'an City to generally cut their wages by more than 20%, and in local counties the cuts have even reached 30% to 50%. Tell me, is it difficult for the people of this world?

They work honestly and behave themselves, but suddenly their income drops sharply, and they are even forced to leave their homes and go to the land of Baiyue and Nanyang to reclaim wasteland. You all say that it is difficult to be a Han official, so why don't we change it and let the Han officials go to Nanyang and reclaim wasteland in Baiyue, and the people who reclaim wasteland can help them handle these government affairs."

Zhang Qiang immediately retorted: "Qin Bo, you are being unreasonable. The people have no experience in handling politics."

Qin Bo sneered and said, "Zhang Qiang has only been a Han official for a few years. How come you, Zhang Qiang, can be a prefect? ​​Is it a problem for ordinary people to be a minor official?"

Zhang Qiang was speechless for a moment. This topic could not be discussed any further. To continue discussing it would be politically incorrect. The Han Dynasty had always publicized that it had the support of the people of the world and that was the source of its legitimacy.

How come these peasants, who had no noble ancestors and no aristocratic blood, could become princes, aristocrats, and governors with an official salary of two thousand stones? It was because they had the support of the people of the world, they served the people, and the people rewarded them with titles.

Shusun Tongdao said: "Qin wise man, we are not discussing academic matters now, but we need to solve practical problems. The Han officials below are not saints. They know that the court is in trouble now, and we should work together. Such people are a minority after all.

They have their own ideas. If the money they are given is not enough, they will naturally complain, and the efficiency of handling government affairs will inevitably decline, which in turn will affect the people of the world. "

Qin Bo said: "Even if the interest rate of the bank has dropped, the annual interest rate is still as high as 4%, which is as high as gold. This is equivalent to the tax revenue of a large county in the Han Dynasty. Where does the tax revenue of the Han Dynasty come from? It is paid by the people. The longer this debt is delayed, the greater the pressure on the people."

When the economic crisis began, in order to promote the development of industry and commerce, the four major banks of the Han Dynasty uniformly adjusted their interest rates, reducing deposit interest rates to half a point and loan interest rates to one point. Otherwise, the Han Dynasty would have to repay 8 taxes a year, which would have put even greater pressure.

Xiahou Ying thought for a moment and said, "Mayor, you take this debt too seriously. In order to cope with this economic crisis, the court raised 100 million gold coins and preserved the achievements of the Han Dynasty's economic development. In the end, we only owed 40 gold coins.

It can be seen that increasing debt can promote the development of the Han Dynasty. As long as the Han Dynasty maintains its high-speed development, the increased taxes can also cover the debt. Given the size of the Han Dynasty, what is a debt of 40 billion? Even a debt of billion can be borne. Why should the court be so stingy? "

(End of this chapter)