Smuggling Daming

Jiao Fang, Wang Qiong, Wang Shouren, and Zhang Cai, they are the main force behind Zhou Zhong's promotion of reform, and they are all in place now, but Zhou Zhong is not alone in deciding how to reform. Although I understand the shortcomings of Ming Dynasty, there is no detailed charter on how to reform. This requires everyone to work together to discuss a specific reform process.

In the side hall of King Zhao's Mansion, Zhou Zhong looked at Jiao Fang and the others sitting on both sides, and said firstly: "Everyone knows the situation of Daming, one is the law, and the other is the administration of officials. The fatal wounds on Da Ming’s body, if you want to make the giant dragon of Da Ming take off, you must remove these two fatal wounds. I don’t know what everyone thinks about this, but just speak out boldly. Those who discuss this matter, even if their consideration is not perfect, can use everyone's strength to supplement it."

As soon as Zhou Zhong finished speaking, Wang Qiong immediately stood up and said, "My lord, the matter of the reform is of great importance, especially the reform of the law of the ancestors. First, we need the support of the superiors, we don’t have to worry about this, and the second is that we need a group of capable reformers. It’s not enough to rely on us alone, we must have a group of capable Officials who resolutely implement the reform, so if they want to reform, they must clean up the administration of officials and put some capable people into various departments of the court, so I feel that the administration of officials should be put before the reform!"

Regarding Wang Qiong's words, Zhou Zhong also secretly agreed. He also felt that he wanted to change the laws of Ming Dynasty.There must be a group of capable manpower.Otherwise, rely on them alone.It is simply impossible to complete the reform, and it may even be like Wang Anshi in history, because of ineffective employment, the result is that the law that benefits the people becomes the law that harms the people.

Like Zhou Zhong, Wang Shouren and others agreed with Wang Qiong's point of view, but the elderly Jiao Fang raised her own objection: "Although what Mr. Wang said is good, there is something wrong with it!"

"Oh? I also ask Mr. Jiao to give me some advice!" Wang Qiong smiled calmly.Although his own personal morals are dirty, he likes to make money.But he is not a complete villain like Zhang Cai, on the contrary, he is very graceful in other aspects, which is why he can become one of the three ministers of the Ming Dynasty.

"I don't dare to give advice, but the old man thinks there are some problems." Jiao Fang also smiled and said, "I also think it is reasonable to put the clean-up of officials before the reform, but has Mr. Wang thought about it? If the prince presides over the clean-up of officials , given the status quo of Ming Dynasty, most of the officials will definitely be offended. Although these officials may not dare to show it clearly, but when the law is changed in the future. These officials do not work hard, or even secretly play tricks. Wouldn't it be like the past About Wang Anshi's political reform?"

The current situation in the officialdom of Ming Dynasty is that there are no officials and no corruption. Even those young people who have just entered the officialdom and are full of ambitions to be good officials for the country and the people, but after a few years in the big dye tank of the officialdom, they will I found that if you don't accept those routines other than salary in the officialdom, then you will be rejected by all the officials, not to mention serving the country and the people, I am afraid that you will not even be able to keep your official position in the end, so in this case, most of them will choose For example, Wang Qiong and Jiao Fang in front of Zhou Zhong, they all came from that step, and even now they receive some routines such as ice charcoal filial piety every year, these have become the rules in the officialdom, anyone All must be complied with.

Regarding the question Jiao Fang mentioned, Zhou Zhong also had an idea before, and he suddenly said at this moment: "Old Jiao Ge, I know very well about the current situation in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, but I don't think so Not everyone likes to be greedy for money. The root cause of the current situation where no one is not greedy is that the salary of officials in Ming Dynasty is too low. If an official lives only on salary, the whole family will probably go hungry. Do you think it is possible to increase the salaries of officials, and then put an end to those regular incomes, then the legal income of officials will not be much less than before, just like what the king did in the Governor's Mansion before, so that a large number of officials can be prevented from corruption .”

When the Governor-General’s Mansion was established before, Zhou Zhong treated the officials under his hand very preferentially. In addition to the imperial salary, the Governor-General’s Mansion also had generous subsidies. Other gray income.And after taking the subsidy, you must not be greedy anymore, otherwise don't blame Zhou Zhong for being rude.This method worked well. After all, Zhou Zhong's subsidy was not less than the regular money they received before. With these legal incomes, most officials would not take the risk to collect those gray incomes.

However, Zhou Zhong’s method has two disadvantages. The first one is that it costs money. The Governor’s Mansion of the Four Seas had a lot of income before, so it can be supported. If it is implemented in the entire Ming Dynasty, it will bring a lot of pressure to the treasury. But now that Daming is rich, it is not impossible to realize it.The second one is not a shortcoming. Although Zhou Zhong put an end to the secret corruption of officials, it is not without loopholes. For example, Zhang Cai, he instructed his relatives to run the sea trade, and used his position to grasp a lot of information. As a result, he made a lot of money. This kind of thing can't be eliminated in later generations, and Zhou Zhong can't do anything about it for the time being.

Hearing Zhou Zhong mention the method implemented in the Governor's Mansion before, Jiao Fang and Wang Shouren fell into deep thought. After a while, Wang Shouren said: "My lord, it is also a way to increase the salaries of officials, but the governor There are relatively few officials in the government, and the salaries can be distributed uniformly, which is also convenient for supervision, but if it is implemented in the entire Ming Dynasty, among other things, the unified distribution of salaries alone will be a big problem. If it is paid from the treasury, then transportation will be very difficult Convenience, if it comes from the local government, it will have to let the local government intercept part of the tax revenue, this way, it will be very convenient for local officials to be greedy for these taxes, so if this problem is not solved, it will only be empty talk to increase the salary!"

"This..." Zhou Zhong couldn't help having a headache when he heard this. Daming is not the future generation, and there is no such convenient transportation as the future generation. In addition, the current currency is copper coins and silver, and transportation alone is a big problem. They want to distribute them uniformly. Salaries for officials are very difficult. If they cannot be distributed uniformly, it will be very difficult to supervise, which will bring great convenience to officials’ corruption. Even if it is enforced, the effect will be very limited in the end.

How did later generations solve this problem?Zhou Zhong asked secretly in his heart, after coming to Daming for so many years, although his memory of later generations is still very clear, but he recalls it less and less, and sometimes he has even forgotten that he is a time traveler. Instead, he regards himself as a real Daming person.

"Bank!" Zhou Zhong suddenly said. After searching in the memory of later generations, he finally thought of a way to solve the unified distribution of officials' salaries, that is to open a bank, to be precise, to establish a central bank of Ming Dynasty, and then use the central bank Integrate the existing banks of the Ming Dynasty. In the future, the Ming Dynasty will distribute salaries to officials from various places. It only needs to send the money to the corresponding banks, and then these banks will naturally use their own channels to distribute them to officials from various places.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zhong is also very excited. Daming's bank business has formed a considerable scale. For example, there are banks in Beijing, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and other major cities. In the south, it is called a bank, and there is no difference in essence. The business mainly includes deposit, deposit, remittance, issuance of bank notes and exchange. It can be said that it has formed the embryonic form of a bank in the future. Its imperial supervision has made it difficult to circulate tickets between banks, and there is also a lack of communication between banks. Except for a few trusted banks that can exchange tickets with each other, the tickets issued by each bank can only be issued within the same bank. exchange.

In addition, the role of banks is not limited to this. With the development of Daming industry and commerce, currency circulation has become more and more important. In the past, Daming lacked copper, which led to the shortage of copper coins in Daming. However, after Zhou Zhong occupied Nanyang and other places, soon Several large copper mines were discovered. Among them, the copper mines in Luzon alone were enough for the Ming Dynasty to make money. In addition, the mining of the Ishijian silver mine in the country made the Ming Dynasty the silver and copper capital of currency. It is no longer lacking, but these two metals are very heavy, and it is very inconvenient to circulate. For example, if a merchant wants to purchase goods from another place, he needs to bring a large amount of silver or copper coins. This is not only inconvenient, but also very unsafe , But with a bank, you don't have to worry about this problem anymore.

Of course, the above are only the functions of ordinary banks. If Zhou Zhong can set up Daming’s central bank, then he can supervise the business of ordinary banks, so that Daming’s banks or banks can be transformed into regular banks. In addition, Daming can also use some money through the bank Financial means, so as to carry out macro-control on the country's economy, this is definitely a significant event of extraordinary significance for the entire country.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zhong immediately expressed his vision for the central bank. As a result, Wang Qiong, Jiao Fang and others were all dumbfounded after listening to it. After thinking about it, they found that maybe this method is indeed feasible. Although they don't quite understand how the central bank regulates Ming's economy, at least it can do it in terms of uniformly distributing salaries to officials. (To be continued..)