Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 68 Economic Manipulation
When Fan Jingwen, chief assistant of the cabinet, said this, all the officials present couldn't help laughing.

However, at this time, Zhu Youjian suddenly slapped the table angrily: "What's so funny!"

"You don't feel ashamed, I'm still ashamed for you! From the minister to the minister, from the scholar of the Hanlin to the official of the Kedao, each one is richer than the other, and the total amount is more than 4000 million taels. Don't tell me, it's all What they get from being an official!"

With Zhu Youjian's roar, all the officials present lowered their heads, not daring to laugh anymore.

"Dang Chongya, the left servant of the household department, tell me, how much income has the imperial treasury received in recent years? How much is the total estimate for this raid?"

Zhu Youjian asked with a calm face.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the revenue of the imperial treasury in previous years was only 200 million taels, and even your Majesty's internal funds were only a million taels. Now the house raids total about 4000 million taels, including about 1000 million taels of silver and gold."

When Dang Chongya spoke, he didn't dare to look up at Zhu Youjian, and his voice was very low, for fear that His Majesty would be even more annoyed when he thought of the 4000 million taels he got from the house raid.

"Okay, the properties of eight criminal officials have just been confiscated, and they have stolen more than 4000 million taels. Even if only cash silver and gold are counted, it is not less than ten million taels, which is worth five years of income from the Ming treasury!"

As Zhu Youjian spoke, he looked at Gao Hongtu and Zhang Shenyan, cabinet scholars who were quite protective of the power of officials and gentry: "Tell me, where did most of the world's wealth go?"

Both Gao Hongtu and Zhang Shenyan remained silent, and the other officials also remained silent.

Seeing this, Zhu Youjian also laughed angrily: "I thought it would be scary to have a total of more than 400 million taels of cash from the families of treacherous officials who copied the capital, but I didn't expect that officials with wealth of tens of millions could be copied here in the south of the Yangtze River." Gentleman's House, it seems that this Jiangnan is really a rich place, and the business tax and personal income, as well as maritime trade and various customs duties are not levied."

"I know that there must be some of you who are richer than the companies that were copied, but as long as you don't commit any crimes, I won't pursue it. However, if you dare to obstruct the tax reform of the New Deal and don't give the court a way out, then Just don't blame me for not collecting taxes, but instead ransacking the house to benefit the people!"

When Zhu Youjian said this, the officials present had no choice but to shout: "I dare not wait!"

"It's good to know if you don't dare. All the acres that have been confiscated right now belong to Huangzhuang, and Huangzhuang will rent out the land for the refugees to cultivate and use, so as to avoid being annexed by other powerful people;

As for the auction of the confiscated houses, various properties and antiques, both officials and wealthy businessmen can participate, and I will not ask why you can afford the auction;
1000 million taels of cash silver and gold are stored in the sealed warehouse, plus the previous 800 million taels, there is no need to worry about money and food in the next year or two;

In order to appease the hearts of all people and give the whole world a buffer period, the cabinet drafted a decree for me:
That is, from July [-]st of this year to July [-]st of next year, only the relevant tax registration will be done, and no tax will be collected, which means that all taxes in the world will be exempted from tax for one year, and will be officially levied in July of the next year. After all, thanks to the wealth of these big bureaucrats who committed crimes, I can still win the hearts of the people for a year. "

Zhu Youjian didn't expect that he would get tens of millions of taels of wealth just by relying on Qian Qianyi's treason case, so now he also made a personal favor and exempted from actual taxation for one year.

And this year is a crucial year for the resistance against slavery in the future.

Exemption for one year can avoid intensifying the conflict between him and the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River during this year, so that he can prepare for the battle more calmly.

As long as they arrive at Zhujian slaves and go south during this year.

Yijiannu's strength is not enough to unify the world with its small Eight Banners and some Han troops.

What's more, he had to digest and resume production when he built slaves and occupied the north.

Therefore, as long as a year later, Daming resisted Jiannu's southward movement, Zhu Youjian would be free to clean up the official and gentry groups as he wanted, and then forcibly collect taxes according to the tax registration records.

Of course, Zhu Youjian has other purposes for exempting the world from taxation for one year.

If his expectations are not bad, once his decree is issued, it will stimulate the wealthy businessmen to sell crazily in this year, the commodity economy will be in an extremely active state in a short period of time, and the price of goods will also drop due to the active market. Especially the necessities of life such as food and salt.

In that case, Zhu Youjian can train and support a larger and even stronger army at a lower cost.

The cabinet ministers didn't expect that Zhu Youjian would be exempted from taxation for one year because he copied so much money, so they hurriedly called his majesty the king of benevolence and love, and his virtue is the world.

"Let's go back to the court", Zhu Youjian saw that the officials present were all smiling because he was exempted from taxation for one year, so he couldn't help but secretly smiled. These people are so cheap. They refused in every way, and now they are forced by themselves to return more benefits to the imperial court, because they are exempt from taxation for a year, and they are all overjoyed.

After the seven members of the cabinet retired, they had to follow Zhu Youjian's instructions to formulate how to formulate the tax collection policy of the New Deal, while most of the other ministers did not take the New Deal to heart at all. They are now more concerned about tax exemption year thing.

The bureaucrats knew that it was impossible to prevent His Majesty from implementing the New Deal, so they had no choice but to accept it, but they were not interested in participating.

What they are more interested in is to immediately take advantage of this year's tax exemption and earn all the money they should earn into their own pockets.

So these bureaucrats began to instruct their family's business agents to increase promotional efforts and production scale.

After all, part of the money earned after one year will belong to the imperial court, and how much money earned in this year is his own.

……

"Immediately tell Zheng's family that all 30 sets of porcelain will be converted into food from Nanyang at [-]% off the usual price, and will be delivered to our major grain shops immediately after being shipped back from Nanyang, taking advantage of the tax exemption and high food prices this year Hurry up and earn the money from selling porcelain and grain!"

"Tell Steward Zhou that all major cloth stores in Liu's have reduced their prices to [-]% off, which is the same as last year. In short, we must sell all the cloth this year!"

"The Lu family has already started to lower the price of grain to last year's level. We can't fall behind, and we will also reduce it by [-]%. Taking advantage of this year's tax exemption, we will sell everything we can!"

"Tell the salt merchants in Shandong and Yangzhou that all the salt must be sold this year, or else they will lose all their money by next year!"

Like a gust of wind, the New Deal in the court let the gentry and common people in the whole Jiangnan know.

And the one-year tax exemption seemed to be a spark that completely ignited the economic fire in Jiangnan.

In the entire Jiangnan market, prices of grain, cloth, salt, oil, tea, and iron ore are falling crazily, and even land and houses are also falling.

The problem of soaring commodity prices in the south of the Yangtze River caused by the emperor of the Ming Dynasty's stay in the south of the Yangtze River was solved at once. Merchants no longer dared to hoard and rushed to sell the supplies that were in short supply.

"Your Majesty, the price of goods has started to drop, and these merchants are saying that they want to take advantage of the tax exemption to make a fortune;
Someone asked them if they were not worried about increasing the scale of transactions in this way, would they not be afraid that the tax would increase when the imperial court actually collects it next year?Some people actually said that it is not sure who is the master of this country, and that the new master may be changed next year. Who knows whether it is better or not worse to levy taxes or not. Make some money. "

Li Ruolian, the commander of Jinyiwei, informed Zhu Youjian of the surveillance information on the market.

After hearing this, Zhu Youjian couldn't help laughing: "It's understandable. After all, this year is tax-free, and next year's situation is unpredictable, so it's better to earn all the money this year. Since they want to play like this, then I will accompany them." They play!"

"Since the prices of various military supplies have also dropped, you are now secretly sending people to buy grain, iron ore, salt, cloth, especially cotton jackets, etc. in large quantities at low prices. In addition, you are ordering Huangzhuang to immediately purchase land in large quantities at low prices!"

After Zhu Youjian said it, he couldn't help but secretly complacent.

In his view, at this time, the Ming court had to take advantage of it, obtain military supplies at a lower cost, and save military expenses;
Moreover, the continuous purchase on my own side can also prevent the price from falling too far, which will lead to deflation. The price is too low, and the merchants can't survive, and the common people who work for a living can't survive.

For the first time, Zhu Youjian tried to use his own policies to manipulate the entire commodity economic market in order to achieve his political goals.

　Thank you for the reward of 100 book coins from book friend Thunderbolt Six Disasters Canglong.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)