Chapter 877 All the money was made by the people of Ming Dynasty

Author: Linglinghou

Chapter 877 All the money was made by the people of Ming Dynasty

Aurangzeb was looking at tax collection documents from all over the country.

Ever since his father Shah Jahan became ill five years ago, he had competed with several brothers for the throne. Until two years ago, he defeated his brother Dara Shuk and tied him to the back of a dirty baby elephant.

After being paraded through the streets and executed, the battle for the throne was finally over.

His father Shah Jahan also inherited the throne through war. Not long after he succeeded to the throne, the country fell into war caused by Sikhism.

Although the war subsided, his father did not adopt a policy of recuperation. Instead, he spent a lot of manpower and material resources to build such marvelous buildings as the Red Fort and the Taj Mahal.

In addition, several of their brothers fought for the throne for several years. Even though the Mughals were built on a huge gold mountain, their finances were exhausted.

Originally, Aurangzeb did not take this matter too seriously, because according to past examples, as long as he stopped fighting major wars for a few years, the country's finances could recover a lot.

Now that he has been in power for two years, he has not made any major moves and has basically adopted a policy of recuperation and recuperation. However, the country's finances are far from being restored to the level he expected.

He originally planned to send troops westward to annex Kutch and capture Assam this year.

As a result, the finance minister told him that if he wanted to carry out such a major military operation, he would have to accumulate finances and taxes for at least five years, and the country could not make any other major moves within these five years.

He was surprised and couldn't accept it at all.

When his father, Shah Jahan, was in power, he went through so much trouble and did not even mention financial difficulties. How could it be that when it was his turn to succeed, there were financial problems?

So he asked the finance minister to bring over the fiscal and tax documents from the past two or three years to show him, trying to figure out what went wrong.

Although Aurangzeb's talent was mainly in leading battles, he was also no stranger to financial problems.

First, solving logistical and financial problems is an important factor in winning the war.

Secondly, even if he doesn't know much about finance, there are many talents in this field around him.

After this inspection, Aurangzeb discovered that as early as seven or eight years ago, the fiscal and tax payments submitted by each province had begun to decrease year by year. A closer look revealed that the commercial tax, agricultural tax and even head tax in each province were decreasing, especially along the coast.

area.

"Why is this?" After reading the last financial and taxation booklet, Aurangzeb angrily swept these books off the Golden Table and asked: "Where has all the money gone?!"

The Minister of Finance hesitated for a moment and said: "Your Majesty, the people of the Ming Dynasty have made all the money."

"People from the Ming Dynasty?" Aurangzeb was surprised when he heard this. "How much money can the people from the Ming Dynasty make from us? Are you kidding me that I don't understand finance?"

From the prince of the Mughal Empire to the emperor, Aurangzeb's vision was certainly not limited to the domestic world. He knew that the Ming Dynasty had risen rapidly in more than ten years and even dominated the Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.

He also knew that there were many Ming merchants coming to trade in the country, and more and more Ming products had appeared in front of him in the past ten years.

Even so, he did not think that the Mughal Empire's financial difficulties had much to do with the Ming Dynasty.

The throne that Aurangzeb seized through force was quite prestigious in front of his subjects.

When he became angry, the finance minister quickly bowed his head and explained.

"Your Majesty, I would never dare to deceive you. All the money has indeed been made by the people of the Ming Dynasty.

In the past ten years, there have been more and more merchants in the Ming Dynasty. At first, they only bought cotton, linen, gems and other specialties from us, and they only sold traditional silk, porcelain, paper and other commodities.

Soon after, they asked many farmers to switch to cotton by signing contracts in advance.

The types of goods they transported have greatly increased in quantity. In addition to valuables such as silk, porcelain, glass, and paper, there are also cheap goods such as cotton, ironware, salt, sugar, and even grain!"

"Wait a minute!" Aurangzeb interrupted the finance minister and asked puzzledly, "We can also produce cotton cloth, ironware, sugar and other things. They are shipped from across the sea, so they should be more expensive than those produced domestically, right? Why?

Can it be sold?"

"Your Majesty, these products of theirs are indeed cheaper than those produced in our country, and the quality is better. From commoners to princes and nobles, everyone is eager for the products of the Ming Dynasty, and they are even proud to use the products of the Ming Dynasty.

In recent years, a large number of businessmen have gone bankrupt due to this, so the business taxes we receive are getting less and less every year.

A large number of farmers switched to cotton, and we could only receive cotton from taxes, and were forced to sell it to Ming merchants at low prices. Because there were fewer people growing food, we had to buy overseas grain from Ming merchants at high prices.

As a result, our agricultural taxes are actually decreasing year by year.

In addition, officials in various provinces became more and more corrupt in order to purchase luxury goods from the Ming Dynasty, which was also one of the reasons for the decrease in tax revenue.

Finally, in the past, some merchant ships from the West and some merchant ships from the East would trade in our coastal ports, allowing us to collect a lot of taxes.

But with the Ming Dynasty dominating the Indian Ocean in recent years, most of the eastern merchant ships sailed directly to the west, at most they would replenish their supplies here. However, the western merchant ships could not get through at all and were forced to trade with Ming merchants in the west.

This also makes us lose a piece of tax revenue. In short, the tax revenue has been decreasing over the years, all because of the Ming Dynasty!"

Aurangzeb knew that the Finance Minister's family was mainly engaged in business and would inevitably have conflicts of interest with Ming businessmen, so his words were probably a bit exaggerated.

But he still believed 70% to 80% of it.

Because he really felt that the influence of the Ming Dynasty on the Mughals had become more and more serious in recent years. When he was a prince, it was nothing, but now that he became the emperor, he had a sense of crisis.

"Mingguo..."

Aurangzeb stood up, walked to a sheepskin map, and looked west of the Assam region.

That was the Burma Province of the Ming Empire.

The reason why he was eager to capture the Assam region was that he was worried that it would be taken by the Ming Dynasty and threaten the Mughals.

But I never thought that the Ming Dynasty would quietly put the Mughals into financial difficulties.

As an "emperor on horseback", Aurangzeb seldom looked forward or backward when doing things and was always very decisive.

After thinking for a moment, he turned around and said: "Since the financial difficulties are mainly caused by the people of the Ming Dynasty, then we must expel the people of the Ming Dynasty and prohibit Ming Dynasty products from entering the country!"

The finance minister looked happy after hearing this.

Isn't the reason why he described the "Ming trouble" so seriously just for this result? His family's business has shrunk by more than ten times in recent years due to the squeeze of Ming products.

If the Ming people could really be driven out and Ming goods prohibited from entering, then his family's business would not only be restored, but they might even take the opportunity to expand.

After all, he was not the only family whose industry had shrunk because it could not compete with Ming merchants.

Now that he is the first to get the news, he will surely be the first to occupy the market vacated by the Ming merchants who were driven away.

Thinking that the family business would expand dozens of times because of this decree, the Finance Minister praised with a smile on his face: "Your Majesty is wise!"

···

Mumbai, the largest free port in western India.

Originally this place was occupied by the Portuguese in 1534, and they held it for more than a century. In another time and space, British colonists seized this place from the Portuguese in 1661, which marked the beginning of British colonization of India.

But in this time and space, because of the strength of the Ming Navy, Portugal and Britain were unable to gain much benefit in the East, and they did not want to provoke the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, when the Ming Navy threatened the Indian Ocean, Portugal began to abandon some of its port colonies in India.

The British were also not optimistic about this place, so they did not occupy the vacancies vacated by the Portuguese. The Ming Dynasty focused on Africa as its primary target, but instead allowed the Mughals to take the opportunity to seize several trading ports, including Bombay.

Because the Ming Dynasty did not occupy Indian ports by force like the Portuguese and British, and indirectly expelled the Western colonists from India. In addition, the "Ming people" were inherently kinder than the "Westerners", so the Ming Dynasty and the Moguls did not

My children's civil relations are pretty good.

I heard that the land in India is extremely rich, and many Ming businessmen came here to do business.

As the largest trading port in western India, Mumbai has been operated by the Portuguese for more than a hundred years. Although it is not as prosperous as later generations, it still has a population of 200,000 to 300,000 people.

Among them, there are as many as three to four thousand Ming people!
Chapter completed!