Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The statutory holidays of the Ming Dynasty were mainly inherited from the Song Dynasty, but some random holidays were abolished.

On New Year's Day (Spring Festival), there is a seven-day holiday.

During the Lantern Festival (Lantern Festival), there is a seven-day holiday.

Between the Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival, I have to go to work normally. In addition, even on holidays, officials need to work overtime in shifts to ensure the operation of government offices at all levels.

The Spring Festival holiday has not yet passed, and Zhu Guoxiang is already at work.

There are some things that he must complete before abdicating the throne, which can also be regarded as his emperor's achievements.

It has been one year since the major case was stopped, and the revised second edition of "Da Ming Code" was copied to Zhu Guoxiang and Ju Ming respectively.

The entries are more detailed!

Perhaps because there were too many children exiled with their parents, the officials who revised the law could not bear it, so they designated "children under the age of seven" as a group that does not need to bear criminal responsibility.

Of course, if the ten heinous crimes are committed together, or if someone intentionally kills someone with his own hands, even the youngest child needs to be punished.

The officials changed it like this just to pardon many children.

For example, Li Bangyan has two grandsons and one granddaughter. Because he is under seven years old, he can pay a fine to take them away and does not have to continue to live in exile with his parents.

"I agree with this." Zhu Guoxiang made a tick with his pen.

Ju Ming nodded and said, "Okay."

Father and son continued to read the changed items and then discussed them one by one.

To be honest, the crime of exile in the past few years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty was not a true exile at all, but more similar to a kind of "forced immigration from the frontier."

When arriving at the place of exile, the government would not force labor, and would even distribute land, food, clothing, farm tools and seeds. How could there be such a comfortable exile in the world?

All the exiles essentially enjoyed "amnesty" treatment, but they were just left on the border and unable to go home.

After reviewing it item by item, Zhu Guoxiang said: "The second edition of the Ming Dynasty Code must be promulgated before I retire."

"No problem," Zhu Ming said. "This year is still the seventh year of Hongwu. I will change the Yuan Dynasty next year. When the Yuan Dynasty is changed, the new calendar will also be promulgated. By then, the new calendar will have nothing to do with you."

Zhu Guoxiang said: “I urge the Agriculture Department to make changes as well.”

"Have you thought about how to change it?" Zhu Ming asked.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "I have been thinking about it for several years. The Department of Agriculture Promotion will be merged into the Ministry of Household Affairs, which is equivalent to the National Agricultural Development Department under the Ministry of Household Affairs. The top leader is the doctor of the Department of Agriculture Promotion Department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, who is the director of the Department of Agricultural Development."

“At the provincial level, set up an agricultural promotion bureau, similar to the provincial agriculture department (certainly not as powerful).”

"At the government level, an agricultural promotion office is established, similar to the municipal agricultural bureau."

“There is no agricultural promotion department at the county level.”

"The lowest-level agricultural advisor belongs to the technical officer sequence, which is equivalent to agricultural researchers and agricultural technical officers."

"Only when you are promoted to the level of chief and deputy director of the Farming Office, you can become an eighth-grade administrative officer, and you can become a county magistrate, county magistrate and other officials."

"The higher-level officials of the Agricultural Promotion Bureau and Agricultural Promotion Department must be agricultural technicians and have experience in governing local areas. At this level, they are making development plans for agriculture across the country or the province."

Ju Ming smiled and said: "The idea is good, but it will turn sour."

"How do you say that?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Ju Ming said: "If I were a high official and my children and grandchildren failed to pass the Jinshi examination, then I would let my children and grandchildren become art officers. As long as they last for a certain period of time, they can be converted into political affairs officers and promoted to the position of minister of household affairs. Agricultural minister. Using this as a springboard, one can even reach the level of assistant minister or minister. If things go on like this, the low-level agricultural advisors will all be hard-working technicians, while the senior agricultural advisors will be the children of officials. When the time comes, the layman will guide the expert. "

"I will formulate promotion rules for agricultural officials," Zhu Guoxiang said. "Although nepotism cannot be avoided, there should be no problem in general. Even if you climb up through nepotism, you must understand agriculture to comply with the regulations. At least on the whole, this is the case. Let them take advantage of individual loopholes. If loopholes are exploited on a large scale, it will not be a problem of the Agriculture Department, but the whole country will be governed by corruption."

Ju Ming nodded: "That's right."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Everything has advantages and disadvantages, and I have considered it carefully. When I was the emperor, the agricultural officers could be free from the court. When I no longer be the emperor, I must make the agricultural officers regular, otherwise they will not be used. It will be over in ten or twenty years.”

…

In addition to the merger of the Agriculture Department into the Ministry of Household Affairs, there is another major event on New Year's Day this year.

The nation's currency minting and issuance institutions have undergone major adjustments. Gold coin, silver coin, and copper coin foundries in various places have been vertically managed together with banknote printing and issuance institutions.

The highest monetary institution is named "Baoquan Temple", and its level is temporarily equivalent to Dali Temple, Taichang Temple, Honglu Temple, etc.

Each province will set up a dispatched agency "Baoquan Bureau" to uniformly manage and distribute various currencies in the province.

Baoquan Temple mainly accepts the leadership of the Ministry of Household Affairs, but is relatively independent and is supervised by other departments.

This is just like Honglu Temple. It seems to be an independent institution, but it is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Rites and is also connected with other departments. The same is true for Dali Temple. It is relatively independent but is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Punishment and is also strictly supervised by the Inspectorate.

On the eighth day of the first lunar month, the New Year's Day holiday ends.

Outside Baoquan Bureau of Kaifeng Prefecture, wealthy businessmen from the capital gathered.

The Li family had been dismissed from their position as head of the line by their colleagues because they did not take orders at critical times, and there was a large amount of cloth piled in the warehouse that could not be sold.

Early in the morning, Li Dunyi took his son and his assistant to the Baoquan Bureau Yamen in a furious manner.

The streets were full of cars and horses, and boxes of copper coins were carried out. The smell of copper could spread across several streets.

"Those with a shop license can enter!" an official shouted.

Li Dunyi and Li Wenzhong, father and son, quickly jogged into Baoquan Bureau.

Baoquan Temple is only responsible for the printing, casting, issuance, transportation and recycling of currency, and is not allowed to get involved in other businesses. Similar to a central bank.

Kaifeng Baoquan Bureau does have exchange business, but it only handles large-amount exchange business and charges a 0.25% handling fee. In addition, any old or incomplete banknotes, no matter how small the denomination is, can be exchanged for new ones at the Baoquan Bureau.

If local government currency taxes need to be handed over to the central government, they can also be handled at Baoquan Bureaus in various places. After paying the handling fee, it will be sent to the central government by Baoquan Bureau. (This business only applies to currency. Baoquan Bureau does not accept physical tax business. This was actually done in the Qing Dynasty, but taxes were paid to the central government through private bank accounts.)

All small-value currency exchange operations are left to private money shops.

Private money shops need to apply for a license and have a fixed store and warehouse before they can obtain a legal license from the government.

Li Dunyi opened a money shop, which is a private bank. To this end, he also vacated a warehouse and sold all the cloth inside at half price.

Kaifeng Baoquan Bureau promoted Huo Zheng. When he saw that the merchants had almost arrived, he began to talk about business: "This year Baoquan Temple will only issue 12 million Guanbao banknotes. Sichuan, Hanzhong, six major cities, Bosi, Zhending , Chang'an, Jiangling, Jiangzhou, Yangzhou... these places all have to be divided, and Sichuan has the largest quota. Our Kaifeng Prefecture only received a quota of 600,000 guan for the issuance of treasure notes."

"So few?" The wealthy businessmen in Tokyo were very disappointed.

This is very strange. In the previous Song Dynasty, tens of millions of banknotes were issued in one year, which would inevitably cause local panic. Within a few years, the credibility of banknotes collapsed.

The Ming Dynasty issued 12 million Guan Baobao this year, but merchants thought the quota was too small.

Huo Zheng smiled and said: "Therefore, the Song Dynasty has learned from the past and should not issue paper money indiscriminately. For every 1 million guan of paper money issued by the Ming Dynasty, it will prepare 250,000 guan of copper coins. When the national treasury becomes more abundant, more treasure notes will be issued."

Li Dunyi asked: "There are 16 money shop licenses in the entire Kaifeng Prefecture. How can these 600,000 guan of treasure money be divided?"

Huo Zheng said: "Each family has a quota of 30,000 yuan, and the rest depends on drawing lots."

The wealthy businessmen were speechless. Tens of thousands of dollars in banknotes were too little. They didn't make enough money from doing business.

According to the money shop rules of the Northern Song Dynasty, a 3% handling fee was charged for the exchange of banknotes and metal currencies. Currently, the six major shipping companies are located in Yangzhou, Jiangling, Sichuan, Hanzhong, Chang'an... these places are also issuing banknotes.

For large transactions on major transportation routes, you no longer need to rely on off-site exchange, you can directly use Ming Dynasty banknotes. While the cost for merchants is reduced, the banknote exchange business is also profitable.

Of course, as the issuance of treasure banknotes increases, the handling fees of money shops must be reduced in order to compete with traditional exchanges.

Huo Zheng continued: "In addition to the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes, there are also 500,000 gold and silver coins this time. You don't need to hoard gold and silver. Gold and silver mines in various parts of the Ming Dynasty have resumed work, and several gold and silver mines have been discovered in Japan. There will be no shortage in the future. The price of gold and silver will not increase if it is collected, but may depreciate."

Baskets of treasure notes and gold and silver coins were carried out.

Huo Zheng took the officials to carefully count and confirm that they were correct before signing and sealing them.

The wealthy businessmen also asked their waiters to carry copper coins in. The huge amount of copper coins almost filled the yard.

When various companies subscribed for treasure banknotes and gold and silver dollars, a wealthy businessman couldn't help but ask: "How much gold and silver can Japan produce every year?"

Huo Zheng smiled and said: "It's difficult to say the specific amount. The gold and silver shipped back from Japan this year may be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. This is just the beginning. After all, only a part of those gold and silver mines have been mined, and the number of miners is still small. Not even enough.”

"In addition, the Japanese are increasingly fond of Ming Dynasty customs and are willing to use silver to buy silk, tea, and lacquerware... The Japanese are particularly fond of lacquerware and believe that lacquerware is a Tang artifact. They can also make it themselves, but the Japanese lacquerware is not as exquisite as the Ming Dynasty. Last year, only lacquerware was sold , the Ming Dynasty merchants brought back tens of thousands of taels of silver..."

It would take one or two hundred years for Japan's lacquerware craftsmanship to mature. The Ming Dynasty even went to Japan to learn lacquerware techniques.

At this time, Japan did not mint copper coins, so Ming maritime merchants went to trade, either bartering or shipping back silver.

Shipping back a small amount of silver, no matter how much, will be stopped by the shipping department. The merchants must sell the silver to the government, and then the court will make it into silver coins and issue it.

The import of silver is increasing year by year. In ten years, silver dollars are not likely to be scarce and can be seen in daily small transactions.

Li Wenzhong played with the silver coins he had just subscribed, and it seemed that the pressing process had become more exquisite.

"Is Li Wenzhong here?" Huo Zheng shouted.

"Wan Sheng is here." Li Wenzhong stepped forward to greet him.

Huo Zheng said: "The prince invites you to come to the East Palace for an audience."

As soon as these words came out, the wealthy businessmen turned their heads and looked at each other with envious expressions.