high official

Chapter 1134

In the spring of the third year of Hongxi, after three years of hard reforms by Emperor Hongxi and his ministers, the Ming Dynasty finally passed the most difficult period. The phenomenon of this phenomenon is very rare. Although the debt of the national treasury has not been paid off, the finances are still stretched.But everyone can see that the extremely heavy carriage of the Ming Dynasty has already left the edge of the cliff with difficulty and is driving on the track of recovery.

It’s just that this recovery is much more difficult than expected, especially in big cities, the life of citizens is even worse than that of the Yongle period. Although there is no need to worry about starving to death, there is a shortage of supplies in the market, and there are many department stores in Yongle Dynasty. The scene no longer exists, and even the number of stores has been reduced by more than half.Because the common people have almost no money in their pockets, they can't afford consumer goods other than firewood, rice, oil and salt. The merchants can't make money, so they can only reduce their operations or even close their doors.

The Ming Dynasty solved the hyperinflation during the Yongle period by abolishing the treasure notes, but fell into the predicament of deflation.This principle does not even need to be reminded by Wang Xian. Xia Yuanji, a once-in-a-thousand-year financial management expert, has already explained to the emperor in the memorial that in recent years, there have been continuous bumper harvests, and the famine of the people has basically been resolved, but the imperial finances have not improved for a long time. , because industry and commerce have shrunk very sharply.

The reason why industry and commerce shrank is because the imperial court enforced strict thrift and stopped all purchases, so that the industrial and commercial people who depended on it for a living had no work.The more important reason is that the abolition of precious banknotes was hasty. When Emperor Hongwu issued precious banknotes, there was a very important reason. The shortage of precious metals in the Ming Dynasty caused a serious shortage of currency in the market, so paper banknotes were used to supplement them.Today, the scarcity of gold, silver and copper has not changed, but the abolition of precious banknotes will naturally lead to serious deflation.

Xia Yuanji told the emperor that agriculture is the foundation of the country, but it can only ensure that the common people do not go hungry.But if you want to make the country rich and strong, you must develop industry and commerce, and if you want to develop industry and commerce, you must solve the crisis of deflation!
Although Xia Yuanji's memorial was regarded by many civil servants as a criticism of the new policy and as a call to the soul of the old policy of the previous dynasty, Yang Shiqi was not blinded by the narrow views of the sect. Please go back to the capital and ask him how to solve deflation.

Xia Yuanji gave three strategies: top, middle and bottom. The best strategy is to issue new banknotes with reserves as in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty; the middle strategy is to resume voyages to the West, exchanging silk, porcelain, and tea from the Chinese dynasty for overseas gold and silver to make up for it. The domestic currency is insufficient; the worst policy is to vigorously mine gold, silver and copper mines across the country, prohibit private storage of silver and copper, and mint as many coins as possible.

It is a pity that Yang Shiqi finally adopted the worst strategy after deliberating with the emperor.Whether it is Zhu Gaochi or Yang Shiqi, they all think that the treasure banknotes have been abolished with great difficulty, and this opening cannot be opened again, otherwise, sooner or later, they will return to the old road of excessive issuance.Sailing to the West is even more laborious and costly, and the effort is far out of proportion to the harvest. If it stops, don't reopen it.

As a result, the emperor only ordered the mining of gold, silver and copper mines nationwide, and prohibited the private storage of silver and copper, and ordered mints in various places to mint as many copper coins as possible to solve the crisis of deflation.

For this, Xia Yuanji was very disappointed, he never thought that Emperor Hongxi and Yang Shiqi would be so conservative!If how much gold and silver can be mined from the mines in various places, Yongle's finances in the last years will not be so tight!
Disagreeing with each other, the discouraged Xia Yuanji declined the emperor's and Yang Shiqi's persuasion, and resolutely embarked on the road back home.

Hearing that Xia Yuanji had left, Yang Shiqi, who was extremely busy in the cabinet, just sighed and continued to work.

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Compared with the haste of the emperor's summoning and traveling day and night, Xia Yuanji's return journey was much more leisurely.No one urged him to rush on his way, and no one set a time limit for him to arrive home. The old man simply drove slowly, traveling to the mountains and rivers, visiting friends and looking for old times, and returning to the south in a leisurely manner.

It took more than a month for Xia Yuanji to arrive in Dezhou. As soon as he entered the city, he felt very different.He found that this place was much more prosperous and lively than the last stop, Cangzhou.The old gentleman visited a few shops casually, and found that the supplies inside were very rich, and the transactions were also very active.

After only standing in the store for a while, Xia Yuanji saw several transactions. What surprised him even more was that the buyers and sellers were not using gold, silver or copper coins, but something like banknotes!
This aroused Xia Yuanji's great interest. When the business in the store was over and the shopkeeper was free, he went over to say hello and asked: "Shopkeeper, the little old man is a passing passenger. I am very curious about something. Please." Feel free to teach me."

"The old man is too polite, you can just ask." Seeing Xia Yuanji's extraordinary appearance and superhuman bearing, the shopkeeper knew that the old man had an extraordinary background, so he politely stood up and clasped his fists.

"Just now I saw that you are trading with banknotes, right?" Xia Yuanji asked, "Didn't treasure banknotes be completely invalid since the beginning of the year? Why do you still accept them here?"

"Hehe, old man, have you looked carefully, is this a treasure note?" The shopkeeper chuckled, took out a 'paper note' from the drawer, and placed it in front of Xia Yuanji.

Xia Yuanji took a closer look, and found that it was indeed not a precious banknote. Although they were all paper banknotes, the paper quality, color, and characters were all new to him.I saw two big characters 'bank notes' printed in italics on the top of the head, and a line of words 'Take the official level silver two hundred and two whole by post' written on the bottom, 'Tianzi XX number' written on the right side, and the left side is On a certain day in the second year of Hongxi, there is a seal of "Jinan Guangsheng Bank" on the signature, as well as a series of monograms and seam seals.

"What is the origin of this Guangsheng Bank?" Xia Yuanji knew the goods, and when he looked at the banknote, he knew that it was some kind of banknote issued by private parties that could replace money.

"Have you never heard of the Guangsheng?" The shopkeeper said with an incredulous expression, "It was established by Zhen Guogong, Shandong Chief Envoy, Shandong government offices, and dozens of rich men. Big money bank! There are branches in the whole province, and you can cash out cash from them with this bank note!"

"Like you guys, are there many people who use bank notes to do business?" Xia Yuanji looked at the shopkeeper, his heart pounding. He never imagined that there would be someone in Shandong who wanted to go with him, and it had already been implemented.

"Of course, I don't know about other places, but everyone in Shandong recognizes this thing!" The shopkeeper said, and wanted to take back the banknote, but Xia Yuanji held it down.

The shopkeeper thought that he was going to steal the money, and immediately changed his face, but saw Xia Yuanji slapping a gold ingot in front of him, and said in a deep voice, "I bought this bank note!"

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Coming out of that shop, Xia Yuanji had no intention of traveling around the mountains and rivers. He visited and investigated the city of Dezhou, visited the Dezhou Branch of Guangsheng Bank located on Fuqian Street, and went through the streets to investigate the operating conditions of the shops. Even go to the homes of ordinary people to see how their lives are going.

The result surprised and delighted Xia Yuanji. The business prosperity in Dezhou can even catch up with places like Jiaxing in Wuxi in the south of the Yangtze River. It is even more prosperous than his hometown in Changsha. Miracle!
The only thing he didn't expect was that his actions actually attracted Jin Yiwei, Xia Yuanji had to reveal his identity, so that he wasn't arrested as an enemy agent.

Not wanting to socialize with the local government, Xia Yuanji left Dezhou, did not stop on the road, and rushed directly to Jinan.

When he arrived in Jinan City, Xia Yuanji was even more shocked. He could only see the scene of business travelers gathering and shops like forests in the central cities in the south of the Yangtze River, such as Suzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing. It was unique in the entire north of the Yellow River!
If it were an ordinary person, seeing such a scene, they might just sigh, "It is worthy of being the world's most beautiful city of Jinan, and it really lives up to its reputation!" 'But Xia Yuanji has been the housekeeper of Daming for more than 20 years, how could he not know what Jinan was like?Only five years ago, Jinan was still in the lower reaches of the national provincial cities, only better than those provincial cities in the southwest and northwest, not to mention Hangzhou, Suzhou and Nanjing, and cities like Taiyuan, Xi'an, and Changsha could not compare.

Xia Yuanji is more aware that there are many problems in Jinan and Shandong, such as heavy labor, heavy taxes, long drought and no rain, corrupt officials, rampant cults, rampant tyrants... It can be said that Shandong has problems in every province in the world, and there are many problems. Unique to Shandong, Xia Yuanji even thought in despair that Shandong was destined to be the heaviest burden of the Ming Dynasty and would drag the empire into the abyss.

At the beginning, Zhu Di decided to use shock therapy on Shandong to make all the abscesses burst, which was largely based on Xia Yuanji's judgment.However, in less than five years, Jinan and Shandong have stepped out of the quagmire. How can Xia Yuanji not feel ashamed when they have developed to this level?
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Xia Yuanjiben planned to have a good time in Jinan City, but was caught by Chu Yan.

"Oh, Mr. Xia! It's old to find you!" Chu Yan saluted Xia Yuanji with a smile, "I heard from the prefect of Dezhou that you came to Jinan, so I asked someone to wait at the gate of the city. Who knows these idiots?" , I actually missed you!"

In the past when Chu Yan was a member of the household department, Xia Yuanji was his court official, and he was regarded as Chu Yan's old boss seriously.But Xia Yuanji didn't put on airs as an old boss, he smiled back at Chu Yan and said, "I've been a grassroots person for a long time, just wandering around to pass the time, how can I alarm the government?"

"Hey, you've been fooled by what you've said. Man said that you are the boss of the lower official, but just said that our father-in-law has already ordered that when you pass by Jinan, we must treat you well and try to let you be as old as possible." Stay for a while so that we can learn more from you."

"Duke Zhen isn't talking ironically, is he?" Xia Yuanji smiled wryly when he heard the words, "It should be the old man who asked you for advice."

(End of this chapter)