Chapter 14 If you want to save yourself, you must first get money
On Meishan Mountain, a group of eunuchs were busy cutting down trees, while Chongzhen was overlooking the city of Beijing from the pavilion on the top of the mountain.
At this time, there were no tall buildings in Beijing, and there was no air pollution. When the weather was good, the visibility was quite high. Looking down from Meishan Mountain, one could basically see the entire city of Beijing.
"Your Majesty, there are so many crooked trees that I won't be able to cut them down in a while. I want to arrange for someone to cut them down slowly. Is that okay?"
"Don't be too anxious. You have to do everything slowly. Long live mountain is the palace's main mountain. It is not suitable to use crooked trees, especially big crooked trees. This is like governing a country. It is the same principle that you must use direct ministers.
But if you act in a hurry, it will inevitably waste people and money, so it is not advisable to do it quickly, but you must also spend time and push forward with heart!"
"The emperor can understand the principles of governing the country even when he looks at the mountains. This is indeed our great fortune in the Ming Dynasty!"
"Okay, let's not talk about it anymore. Daban, how much money does the palace have in the inner treasury now? Tell me the real number!"
"Your Majesty, the palace can only afford more than 800,000 taels of money now. The palace's income has been decreasing in the past few years, and now the palace's money is only over one million taels a year. Your Majesty,
This time, I decided to let Nanzhili’s money be put into Nangong, so that there will be less money available for internal funds in the future.”
The main sources of internal funds in the Ming Dynasty were gold and silver collected from taxes, commercial taxes, mining taxes, and regular taxes from the northern and southern Zhili provinces. Zhili province means a province directly under the emperor. Some people say that Zhili provinces belong to the central government.
The imperial court is directly under the jurisdiction. This is nonsense. The province in the Ming Dynasty is not under the direct jurisdiction of the central court? There is no permanent institution with normal structure between the province and the central court! The Ming Dynasty's Zhili really means that it is directly under the emperor's jurisdiction.
However, in fact, the administrative power of Zhili was still under the control of the imperial court, but the income from regular taxes was given to internal funds, which was regarded as the emperor's private money.
When the country is in chaos, it is not only the income of the household department that is affected, but also the internal treasury. In a normal year, the amount of money coming into the internal treasury will be more than two million. This is after my predecessor abolished the mine supervisor.
This is not possible now, it is just over one million a year. Otherwise, whether it was Sun Chuanting or Wu Sangui, why would they ask for millions of military expenditures? Because they know that the emperor can now spend this amount of money on his own.
Just counting.
"There are still 800,000? It's not that little! This money is now divided into three parts. The emperor's sister-in-law and the prince can't go south without some money. They must find a way to collect 200,000 pure silver for them to take with them south.
.The remaining money was divided into two, and I took out 300,000, and I lent it to Daban to open a money bank, and the rest was temporarily kept by me for other purposes!"
It was a natural idea to give the prince some money to travel south, but why did the prince suddenly want to lend me three hundred thousand silver? This is a strange thing.
"Your Majesty, how can you lend money to this slave? I don't need money, so I don't dare to open a money business."
"Listen to what I have to say. I am not giving you money to open a money bank. You can take this money and collect some money with eunuchs like Wang Zhangyin in the palace to set up a money bank! In the palace,
This money carries interest and I will not give it to you for free. I charge you 3% interest every year. After the money bank is established, you should not lend money to outsiders, but give it to the Ministry of Accounts.
You also need to collect interest from the Ministry of Accounts, just about 6% a year. Remember, when you discuss this matter in the future, you must discuss it with the Ministry of Accounts in the name of your bank, and let the Ministry of Accounts ensure that you can collect interest.
The official taxes of the prefectures and counties that come up with the taxes are used as mortgages. For the prefectures and counties where the Ministry of Household Affairs has pledged the taxes, you have to send people to supervise the money. From now on, those who can handle the taxes paid by those prefectures and counties can just collect them. There is another thing.
, the repayment period should not be set as one year, it should be at least three or four years, but the interest can be calculated every year."
The amount of information was a bit large. After listening to it for a long time, Wang Chengen still didn’t understand what the emperor was doing all this. It felt like the money was transferred from the left hand to the right hand. Apart from making some interest money for himself, it seemed that
It’s no good! It’s better to just give it to the Ministry of Finance directly.
"This slave is still stupid. I don't know what the emperor means by this. Please help me clear up my doubts."
"You don't need to figure it out, my dear friend. Just set up the bank's frame according to my arrangement. The first step is to go back and quickly find a few partners of the bank, and then find a house and a few people to support the facade to put up the sign. I have these few
This sign will be used in the sky. The specific money delivery can be done while talking to the Ministry of Accounts. By the way, the people to be used for this bank should not be officials in the palace, but people from outside, your family members.
It’s okay.”
"Your Majesty, we who are jointly opening a bank, how much capital do we need to invest in this bank?"
"It depends on your own wishes. It doesn't matter how much you want. Anyway, if someone buys the shares, just take the money. It doesn't matter if you don't have it. Of course, the amount shouldn't be too big. At most, add the money I lent you, and the total shouldn't exceed five hundred thousand."
If it’s too much, the Ministry of Revenue may not be able to borrow it!”
Let Wang Chengen open a bank with money from the inner treasury, and then lend the money to the court. The purpose of doing this is naturally to make money. When you are so poor, you don't want to find a way to make money, but really in Beijing
Waiting to die.
If you want to save yourself, you must first have money. Whether it is training troops, reorganizing the court, storing food, developing industry, and building new weapons, no matter what you do, you have to rely on money. The only way to get money in a short time is to grab it.
It can only be borrowed.
Borrowing money is hard to say and easy to say. It is difficult because in history, Chongzhen borrowed money but did not borrow much. It is easy because the Ming Dynasty still has some high-quality collateral. As long as these collaterals are put to use,
, you can still borrow money. These guys in Beijing can take out a lot of money. Otherwise, how could Li Zicheng steal so much money when he came over?
Like his predecessor, if he directly opens his mouth to borrow money from officials, it is not borrowing money. There is no difference between it and direct robbery. The difference is that he does not directly take out the knife like Li Zicheng. Such an elegant robbery will definitely not be able to steal money.
Money. Therefore, there must be rules for borrowing money, there must be a formal financing channel and platform, there must be formal pledges and repayment regulations, and you must also give interest.
The interest rate of 6% a year certainly doesn't sound as high as loan sharks outside, but it is pledged with tax revenue. As long as the Ming Dynasty survives, repayment is guaranteed. The most important thing is that after borrowing this money,
You can intervene in local government affairs by arranging supervision. As a big creditor, how can you not exert some influence on the local government?
Through Wang Chengen's white glove, Chongzhen's fundamental purpose was to open up the private sector to borrow money from the imperial court, so that more private capital would have the idea of becoming a creditor to the imperial court. Then, a formal and smooth financing channel would be established, thereby
The current situation has come to light. It is difficult for a rich man to be a man without money. The emperor is short of money, and the court is actually even more short of money. There is still room for maneuver in this matter.