The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Brother, the current predicament of the imperial court cannot be solved overnight. There is no other way but to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.

I have also read Brother Shu's article "There is a Way to Make Money", which says, "This is the way to make money." ’

Unfortunately, the imperial court spent too much money and could not make a balance at all, so it had to find ways to collect all the money receivable.

From the perspective of Shandai, this tax deduction can be completely given up.

When Taizu discovered the treasure banknotes, it was mainly because of the shortage of copper materials in the Ming Dynasty. The printing of treasure banknotes facilitated the circulation among the people. As for what happened after that, that is a story for another day.

Although copper is still in short supply today, what He Qing said just now made my eyes light up. Now that overseas silver is pouring in, and the court is making money, it seems that it can be made from silver. "

The silver money Wei Guangde mentioned was not the silver circulating in the Ming Dynasty and the money made at this time, but he planned to make silver coins directly in the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, an important reason why the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties turned to paper banknotes was the shortage of copper materials. The previous dynasties did not reach the level of commercial prosperity in this era, so a small amount of copper coins could meet the needs of commodity circulation, and the previous dynasties were very poor in bulk commodity transactions. Cloth is also used as a medium of payment.

In the Song Dynasty, iron coins were issued by the court due to insufficient copper materials. This actually shows that when the economy has developed to a certain extent, coins are restricted by material supply and cannot meet market needs.

Wei Guangde didn't know how much gold and silver there was in the Ming Dynasty at this time. This data was really difficult to estimate, but he did know that after Longqing opened the sea, a large amount of global silver flowed into the Ming Dynasty. It is said that the total amount exceeded hundreds of millions of taels.

With such a huge inflow of silver, Wei Guangde certainly felt that the Ming Dynasty should abandon its past model of indifference to silver transactions and start using silver as its legal tender.

Of course, this actually also has the interests of the imperial court involved.

You know, the money made in the past was not made of pure copper, but copper alloy, which was mixed with other metals.

In Wei Guangde's imagination, the silver coins minted in the Ming Dynasty could be made of 80% or 90% silver, and the remaining raw materials could be cast in copper, so that the cost of minting coins and the money earned by the court would come out.

Moreover, the silver dollar does not necessarily have to be the full weight of one tael. It can be enough to weigh only twelve or three coins, which can be used as one tael.

In addition, smaller amounts of silver coins can also be issued, such as one coin, five coins and other small silver coins. According to the exchange ratio currently circulating in the market in the Ming Dynasty, one coin of silver is seventy coins, which can also make up for the shortage of copper coins.

But to do all this, a very important step is for the court to receive sufficient silver ingots and smelt these silver ingots into silver coins.

As for putting it out, it's actually very simple, including officials' salaries, military pay, etc.

As for whether the people will accept it indirectly, it is just like Lao Zhu's policy at the beginning, which banned the trading of gold, silver and copper coins and only allowed the use of treasure banknotes. Now it has become a ban on private gold and silver trading among the private sector and only allows the use of silver coins.

Even in the future, the court can also consider collecting gold and issuing gold coins.

Wei Guangde politely stated his idea in front of Zhang Juzheng, and Zhang Juzheng also went from being careless at the beginning to thinking intently later.

To put it bluntly, as soon as the silver comes in and out of the hands of the court, the court can get 20 to 30% of the benefits. For the Ming court, which was in financial distress, it was a good rain after a long drought.

"Make silver coins with 80% to 90% silver mixed with copper, and implement it in the form of a decree. Although the method is good, the imperial court is still too short of silver. There is only one million taels of silver in Taicang. Even the inner court is estimated to not have this amount. "

Zhang Juzheng was excited and soon realized that although there were many benefits to promoting this method, especially in solving the financial problems of the imperial court, some problems were difficult to solve when considering the specific implementation process.

"Jiangxi and Nanzhili implemented a whipping method, in which all items except in kind were converted into silver. If all the chief envoys and envoys across the country did this, the annual income of the imperial court would be no less than ten million taels of silver.

Through coinage, revenue can be increased by one to two million taels, which is enough to make up for the current financial deficit. "

Wei Guangde immediately said, "In addition to ensuring enough grain and other necessary grain, the real thing can be exchanged for silver if we can."

As far as I know, the losses caused by improper storage of the physical goods collected by the imperial court every year are not small. If not only enough necessary grain and part of the food for disaster relief are left, but all of them are converted into silver and returned to Beijing, this can also increase the silver income. "

He remembered that the Ming Dynasty began to use silver during the Wanli Dynasty. In essence, it was a silver standard. All fiscal and tax expenditures were quantified in silver. Undoubtedly, this was the best time to fix China's monetary system.

Wei Guangde had long discovered that the Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue was not two to three million taels of silver per year as later generations said. It was at least two to thirty million taels in kind, but most of it was in kind, and the proportion of gold and silver was very small.

We don't expect all of it to be converted into silver, but just a part of it will be enough to keep the Ministry of Industry busy.

However, Wei Guangde didn't know that what he did actually hid huge hidden dangers. The root cause was that the Ming Dynasty lacked self-produced silver and copper and relied entirely on imports from outside.

In the context of the Ming Dynasty's products selling well all over the world, there will naturally be no problem with the huge inflow of silver. On the contrary, the inflow of silver will activate the Ming Dynasty's economy at first, but will cause violent inflation in the later period.

The biggest crisis is that once Ming Dynasty cannot absorb sufficient silver inflows, an economic crisis may occur domestically.

In fact, later scholars also believe that the underlying reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty is related to the global economy during this period.

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, although it has always followed the path of small-scale peasant economy and self-sufficiency, this is only a general explanation.

With the continuous development of global history, the beginning of the European Renaissance and the advent of the Age of Discovery, the Ming Dynasty has joined the globalized economy and trade without knowing it.

As early as the time of Emperor Chengzu and Zhu Di, Zheng He's large-scale voyages to the West began. It can be said that after the middle period of the Ming Dynasty, it had become more and more closely connected with the world economy and could no longer be completely defined as self-sufficient. The small-scale peasant economy route.

The economic development of the Ming Dynasty was relatively complicated. In the early Ming Dynasty, paper money was used, and later copper coins were used. Later, silver also became the currency in circulation. This complex transformation is closely related to the increase in global silver production.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, silver has become the most important trading currency in Eurasia. Because merchants from various countries trade with each other and do business with each other, everyone must reach a consensus and choose a currency as the recognized currency for global circulation. currency, and this recognized currency is silver.

At that time, most global trade was settled in silver, and the demand for silver was increasing day by day in many countries, including the Ming Dynasty.

When the demand for silver skyrocketed, Europeans discovered the largest silver mine so far on the American continent. The increase in silver production also stimulated the improvement of smelting technology. The silver coins minted in Europe had less loss, were more exquisite in shape, and had higher purity. high.

Large amounts of silver from the Americas were continuously shipped to Europe, then minted into silver coins, and then shipped non-stop from Europe to China in the East, where they were used to purchase various commodities of the Ming Dynasty, mainly luxury goods, such as porcelain, silk, etc.

The financial collapse in the late Ming Dynasty coincided with the religious reform in Europe, which was known as the "Thirty Years' War".

This war was a war between the two major camps of European Protestantism and Old Christianity, and the war lasted for thirty years. During this period, Europe's demand for silver surged, and naturally there was no time to consider trade with China.

At that time, the Ming Dynasty was in an inflationary period with rising prices and falling silver prices. The demand for silver surged.

During the Longqing period, silver was relatively scarce in the Ming Dynasty, so its value was relatively high.

With the opening and closing of Yuegang, the amount of silver flowing into the Ming Dynasty was huge, and the speed was too fast, which inevitably led to rising prices, followed by inflation, currency depreciation, and silver prices began to fall.

Until the price of silver in the Ming Dynasty was equal to or even lower than that of overseas markets, those "arbitrage" merchants felt that it was no longer profitable, and the silver of the Ming Dynasty began to flow out in large quantities, which was equivalent to a large amount of hot money pouring out of the market.

At this time, the outflow of hot money, that is, the outflow of silver, could be said to be a catastrophic blow to the Ming Dynasty's economy, causing the economy in the middle and late Ming Dynasty to fall directly into deflation.

To put it bluntly, an economic crisis caused by silver broke out in the Ming Dynasty.

In later generations, there were various restrictions on economic overheating and severe inflation, such as raising interest rates and reducing loans, so as to reduce hot money in the market and cool down the economy.

There are not many ways to deal with deflation. Most of them can only be alleviated by issuing additional currency and attracting foreign investment. The main thing is to rely on its own economic development to get out of the predicament.

But under the silver standard, the Ming government could not release liquidity to the market to alleviate the crisis like today's central bank.

Because the Ming Dynasty could not increase the supply of money by printing paper money, because silver is non-renewable, the Ming Dynasty did not produce much of its own, and mainly relied on external imports.

Therefore, a financial crisis in the Ming Dynasty triggered a systemic economic crisis in the entire society, which led to a series of subsequent crises, such as corruption, increased private taxation, peasant uprisings, etc., which led to the collapse of the dynasty. .

"All in silver?"

Zhang Juzheng fell into thinking at this time. This was not a trivial matter for the Ming Dynasty.

Prior to this, the income of the Ming Dynasty's household department consisted of a large amount of physical objects plus a certain amount of gold and silver and a small amount of treasure notes. According to Wei Guangde's intention, the physical objects, especially grain, could only meet the needs of the court and part of the emergency grain, and all of it was shipped to the capital in the form of silver.

These silver ingots were made into silver coins and then distributed. The trading of silver ingots was prohibited on the market, and all silver coins were used instead.

According to Wei Guangde's calculations, the profits gained from coinage can really make up for the court's deficit.

"The changes have been too great, and I'm afraid a ministry meeting will be called."

Zhang Juzheng said hesitantly.

"If a whip method is to be implemented all over the world, it will have to reach this point sooner or later. That is to break silver. Otherwise, how can it be implemented?"

Wei Guangde saw Zhang Juzheng's hesitation, so he continued.

Zhang Juzheng just nodded when he heard this, indicating that he knew about it.

In fact, regarding the whipping method, Zhang Juzheng naturally had his own considerations, that is, the taxes were still collected in kind according to the rules set in the early Ming Dynasty, and the labor was collected in cash, and the government recruited labor to do it, leaving the farmers in the fields and no longer going there. Served in corvee service.

"Actually, what I'm worried about is the lack of silver on the market. This is why it was only trialled in Jiangxi and South Zhili and not rolled out across the country."

After a long time, Zhang Juzheng said again.

Wei Guangde knew that in the past few years and for some time to come, Ming Dynasty would receive massive amounts of silver, which would flow into the country and flood cities and villages, so Zhang Juzheng's worries actually did not exist at all.

However, he couldn't say these words. After all, he couldn't tell how he got the news.

Then Wei Guangde smiled and said: "What I said just now is just what I thought after hearing He Qing's words. Some of them have been thought about before, but I only understood them after talking to you.

Uncle, brother, please think again about the imperial court's casting of silver coins. Let's discuss it again when we have a chance, okay? "

Wei Guangde also felt that it was too early to implement the silver standard in the Ming Dynasty. At least until Zhang Juzheng saw a large amount of silver circulating among the people, he might not have the confidence to do this, so he simply said.

Moreover, Wei Guangde vaguely remembered that after the Republic of China began to implement the silver standard, changes in the silver policy of the United States led to the outflow of a large amount of silver dollars, and finally had to abandon the issuance of legal tender silver dollars.

It seemed that he had to figure out the relationship carefully. After Zhang Juzheng's cautious response, Wei Guangde also reacted, as if he had really taken care of it.

Although he didn't think his idea was wrong, especially the method of casting silver coins, it was definitely right, but there must be something he hadn't considered.

On the way out from Zhang Juzheng's check-in room, Wei Guangde was still thinking about this problem. When he passed Lu Tiaoyang's check-in room, Wei Guangde suddenly realized what he had missed.

Yes, in fact, Wei Guangde knew about this before, but he never thought about it deeply. That is, the current price of gold in the Ming Dynasty is six or seven taels of silver, but Wei Guangde remembers that in the early Ming Dynasty, the price of gold should be four or five taels of silver.

We know this mainly because Wei Guangde's merchant ship has been secretly engaged in transactions with the Japanese country. The price of gold is higher in the Japanese country, about the price of ten taels of silver.

Thinking of the price of gold, it all came down to Lu Tiaoyang's previous mention of the Yi people exchanging silver for Ming Dynasty gold.

Although Wei Guangde has been doing this, most of the goods they shipped out were purchased with gold, silver and copper coins. When they were in Japan, apart from the Japanese specialties, the rest was silver and copper.

Most of the copper materials shipped back to the country were used to cast copper coins. In addition to purchasing goods, the silver was exchanged for gold, made into various exquisite ornaments, and then exported to Japan in exchange for more silver.

The changes in gold and silver prices shocked Wei Guangde.

In principle, if Ming Dynasty gold is transported to Japan, it can be exchanged for more silver.

Nowadays, a large amount of silver is flowing in. In fact, for the Yi people, it means taking the low-priced silver to the Ming Dynasty to buy goods.

When the Ming Dynasty is flooded with silver, the price of gold will inevitably rise sharply. Whether there will be a large inflow of gold and silver by then will depend on the overseas market for Ming Dynasty products.

If the gold price in the Ming Dynasty exceeds ten taels of silver, I am afraid there will be an outflow of silver in the Ming Dynasty. People will bring gold to purchase goods next time and exchange for silver later.

The Ming Dynasty implemented a silver standard currency system. A large outflow of silver will definitely affect the economy and cause a reduction in taxes. Will it be changed to the gold standard at that time?

Wei Guangde returned to the check-in room and pondered for a long time, and finally came to the conclusion that he had to think about it carefully, but this did not affect him from writing letters home and converting the silver he received into gold for storage. (End of chapter)