Wang Xijue's question was very direct. Unlike in the past, the Xin School liked to oppose under various lofty banners. Instead, he asked directly whether the financial resources could support it. This was because he was determined to be highly pragmatic or that the Ministry of Revenue no longer had any resources.
The remaining energy is used for performance elsewhere.
Is the Ministry of Household Affairs really running out of resources? This depends on whether Gao Pragmatic intends to implement the new system after he has gathered financial power.
If the original system had been followed, the Ministry of Revenue would actually still have the ability to support this campaign, but if the new system after he gathered financial power were followed, this ability would be lost in the short term.
It seems inappropriate to say this, because after consolidating financial power, the financial resources controlled by the Ministry of Revenue will obviously increase several times. Why will it "lose this ability in the short term"?
In fact, otherwise, after gathering financial power, the Household Department will really be temporarily short of money, because the Household Department will suddenly have a large amount of physical objects in its hands, and these physical objects cannot be quickly converted into real money, and then use real money to buy wars.
All the materials needed as well as military pay, rewards and other expenses.
Here is a piece of trivia that will not be mentioned in most books of later generations, that is, the so-called fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty was only a few million taels (such as 4 million or 5 million), which was not the total fiscal revenue, but
It simply refers to the silver that is taken into the treasury.
This is what the Whip Law wants to change. Gao Pragmatism wants to shrink financial power, and the purpose of canceling the conversion is also to increase silver income, but the question is...how many other taxes are there?
After the completion of Gao Gongqing's ten acres of land, the national fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty last year, which was the 14th year of Wanli, was roughly as follows:
Tian Fu can be converted into about 18 million taels of silver, but most of them cannot be converted, that is, the vast majority of them are in kind;
The salt tax is equivalent to about 2 million taels of silver, and this revenue is all silver. However, due to the opening of Zhongfa, about 800,000 taels have to be paid to the border town, and the actual revenue of the Ministry of Households is about 1.2 million taels;
The commercial tax is 1.07 million taels. This income is also all in silver. However, the northern provinces plus Guangxi, which has been restructured by Gao pragmatism, paid 370,000 taels, and the Kaihai ports paid 460,000 taels. The combined proportion of the two has been
As high as 77.6%.
The prosperous Jiangnan area only paid 110,000 taels after removing port commercial taxes (actually tariffs). This was after Zhang Siwei collected commercial taxes in Jiangnan and other incidents. Previously, it was only a few taels.
One hundred taels is basically negligible. As for the rest, it is commercial tax revenue from places such as Sichuan.
(Note: According to the research and analysis of "Chinese Fiscal History", "Collection of Tax Departments, Bureaus and Commercial Taxes in the Ming Dynasty - Research on Commercial Taxation in the Ming Dynasty Part 2", during this period in history, the national commercial tax in the Ming Dynasty was only 23,054 taels of silver.
...I'm sluggish.)
The income from the banknote is 420,000 taels. The banknote is one of the customs offices that collected mainland tariffs during the Ming Dynasty. It is allowed to use Ming Dynasty banknotes to pay taxes. However, because the banknotes of the Ming Dynasty are almost useless, the banknotes collected are as high as eight or nine hundred.
Thousands of ingots, but the actual value of this "income" is far less than what is shown on paper. After conversion, there are only 420,000 taels of silver left.
Once the above data is shown, we can see how serious the "silver shortage" in Ming Dynasty's finances is: last year, the total cash register in Taicang nationwide was 5.82 million taels, minus the salt tax, commercial tax and banknotes totaling 2.69 million taels. In fact, the land tax
The silver payment part was only 3.13 million taels.
However, as we all know, the largest proportion of the Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue was land tax. Now the proportion of land tax to cashiers is less than 20%, 17.4% to be exact.
Once Gao Pragmatic gathers financial power, he is equivalent to assuming the responsibility of realizing physical objects worth up to about 15 million taels of silver. He is not a god. Doesn't this realization take time?
What's more, you can't sell blindly when cashing out. How to sell at the right time and at the right price without causing significant price fluctuations across the country is his responsibility as the helmsman of the "Large Household Department".
Of course, when that situation is reached, it is time to test the macro-control capabilities of the "large household department".
Looking back at the more than 18 million land taxes just now, excluding the 3.13 million taels collected from silver, there is actually 15 million in kind taxes. Not all of these 15 million in kind taxes are grain, and they are roughly divided into the following categories:
There are more than 24 million shi of rice and wheat, 414,000 jins of silk floss, 563,000 jins of cloth, 222,000 jins of cotton velvet, and 8.63 million ingots of colored banknotes (i.e., the 420,000 taels of tariff mentioned above, which were recorded in Tian Fu in the Ming Dynasty)
, I don’t know why either.)
If readers still remember the time when Zhu Yingzhen and Gao Jingshi talked about the Shimazu family and the Japanese Shigao system, they asked Gao Jingshi "How many Shigao are there in the Ming Dynasty?", you will find that Gao Jingshi said at that time "
surface".
Gao pragmatic replied to Zhu Yingzhen at that time that the "stone height" of the Ming Dynasty was about 2 billion. This statement was obviously only based on the area of cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty and the national average yield per mu. He avoided the question of how much land tax was actually collected, so Zhu Yingzhen made fun of it.
Japan is a small country, only as big as the Ming Dynasty.
In fact, Japan's land tax rate at this time was far more than ten times higher than that of the Ming Dynasty, and the actual collection was much more reliable than that of the Ming Dynasty. The tax evasion projects such as hidden fields and flying mail in the Ming Dynasty were basically non-existent in Japan, so Japan's financial resources at this moment
In fact, it is not much worse than the Ming Dynasty, otherwise the 550,000 standing troops in their country would have no choice but to smoke and drink.
In the fifteenth year of Wanli's reign, a vassal ban plan was first launched due to clan issues. The Ministry of Revenue had to pay for the "one-time buyout" of many distant clan clans, which was already a huge pressure.
Then came the northwest counter-insurgency battle. Although Gao Pragmatic tried his best to fight a "short and quick" battle, after all, in addition to the "Central Army" led by himself, the mobilization and combat of military forces from the northwest and surrounding areas also took a long time.
It's money, so the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War will lose a lot of money.
The part spent by the Ministry of War originally had nothing to do with the Ministry of Accounts, but now that Gao Pragmatic wants to consolidate financial power, the Ministry of War's accounts can only be taken over together, so the burden has to be transferred to the Ministry of Accounts.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Next is the Battle of Liaobei. The money spent this time is not a lot, but after all, it is sending troops in winter, and the food, winter clothes and other materials consumed are not something you can just open your mouth.
Come on, the Ministry of Household Affairs is still thinking of ways to make up for this "overdraft" for Liaodong, and this will also cost money.
To make matters worse, Gao Pragmatic launched a plan to cancel the official salary conversion plan. Since all kinds of miscellaneous conversions are gone, only grain and cloth are temporarily retained. Therefore, the silver part of the salary expenditure at the end of this year is much higher than in previous years.
So, how much official salary did the Ming Dynasty need in the fifteenth year of Wanli?
The answer is: a total of 28,963 civil and military officials in the country have a salary of 5,966,378 taels. If the rice price is six taels of silver per shi and all are converted into silver, the official salary required for the whole year will be as high as 3.58 million taels of silver.
In other words, even if the silver deposited in Taicang remains intact this year, it cannot be paid out, not to mention that most of it has been spent before.
Therefore, it is absolutely impossible for Gao Pangshi to not only pay a silver salary but also support Liaodong to start a new war.
Therefore, Gao pragmatically proposed a workaround. He smiled and said: "Old Wang Ge, let me tell you the truth. In terms of the silver deposited in Taicang, it is naturally impossible for Liaodong to fight again and cancel the miscellaneous discounts on official salaries."
.However, if the officials are willing to temporarily replace miscellaneous discounts with rice and grain discounts, this matter can still be done."
"Rice grain conversion?" Wang Xijue frowned slightly, and then shook his head: "Now all the officials are eagerly looking forward to canceling the conversion, and Da Sinong suddenly changed the grain conversion into rice grain... I'm afraid this is not good, right?"
What is good is definitely not good. Many officials may feel that their hopes are in vain and that their joy is completely empty. This approach of first giving hope and then extinguishing hope may make many people seriously dissatisfied with Gao Pragmatism.
He doesn't keep his words.
Zhu Yijun was a little hesitant after hearing this, but he always had great trust in Gao Pragmatic's financial management ability. Since Gao Pragmatic said he couldn't do it, then it must be that he really couldn't do it.
Thinking of this, even the Ninth Five Supreme Being had to be discouraged, with a look of disappointment on his face, and murmured: "I didn't expect this matter to be so difficult to handle, but what should I do?"
Gao Pragmatic estimated that it might be because the Ming Dynasty had won too many wars in recent years, and Zhu Yijun's morale had been raised. Nurhachi's repeated provocation of the emperor's psychological bottom line made Zhu Yijun want to teach him a lesson right away.
, that’s why it behaves like this.
But there is nothing we can do about it. We only have so much money. To ensure the smooth progress of the two major plans of opening the vassal ban and gathering financial power, some things have to be compromised.
At this time, Liang Menglong suddenly raised his hand towards Zhu Yijun and said: "Your Majesty, I have something to say, I don't know..."
"Liang Qing has something to say, but there's no harm in saying it." Zhu Yijun said before he finished speaking.
Liang Menglong glanced at Gao Pragmatic, hesitated for a moment, and asked: "I would like to ask Da Si Nong, if this year's grain and salary conversion can be slightly higher than in previous years, I wonder... is it feasible?"
The muscles on Gao Pragmatic's face twitched unconsciously, and he said to himself: Comrade Lao Liang, you really don't know how valuable food and rice are. If the salary of officials across the country is calculated as food, it is equivalent to nearly 6 million dan. Even if I only raise it by 10%
, that also adds 600,000 stone.
Do you think that 600,000 shi is a small amount since the country’s rice and wheat revenue is 24 million shi? Do you know that the expenses of our Ministry of Household Affairs are not only to pay salaries to officials, but also to pay military salaries and clan lumis!
How much military salary will be needed in the fifteenth year of Wanli? Excluding the two unexpected wars this year, the Battle of Northwest and the Battle of Northern Liaoning, the standing military salary expenditure will be as high as 9.06 million taels of silver - of course, only about 700,000 taels of silver will be allocated directly.
However, this means that the 8.36 million taels of silver military pay are actually mainly used to allocate grain, cloth and other materials. If all is calculated in terms of grain, it is equivalent to the need to allocate nearly 14 million shi of grain for military needs!
However, there is always Lumi to be distributed. This is even more amazing, because if we do not count the reduction of Lumi caused by the "opening of the vassal ban", then the total number of people in the clan this year is as high as 550,000, and the required expenses are calculated
The clan Lumi will be as high as about 16 million stone.
Good guy, the national treasury is directly in deficit, and it is a food deficit. Even the military supplies and clan alone will have a deficit of 6 million shi of food. As for officials, it is better to drink the northwest wind.
But of course this is impossible. The Ming Dynasty has long stopped paying full salaries to the clans. Otherwise, how could Gao Pragmatically gain support from lower-level clans when he opens a vassal?
In fact, a large number of low-level clans are grateful to God for being able to get 30% of their real salary, but they are not allowed to make a living on their own, so they support the "one-time buyout" plan proposed by Gao Jingshi in order to lift the vassal ban.
However, although this apparently high 16 million stone lumi does not have to be paid out in full, since the "one-time buyout" costs money, the Ministry of Revenue will definitely have to sell grain and turn it into money, so this expenditure has increased again.
All in all, after going all over the place, fiscal expenditures are still extremely tight, and not only is cash tight, but the "realization time" is also tight - this is the fundamental reason why high pragmatism is in trouble with the word "temporary".
According to predictions, this situation will definitely ease step by step with the smooth progress of various plans. After all, the purpose of opening the vassal ban was to relieve the imperial court of its burden, but now that various things are piled together, it seems to be stretched.
What Gao pragmatism needs is time, but now that there are many things to do, what he lacks most is time.
"If it is converted into a 10% increase, the Ministry of Revenue will have to spend an additional 600,000 shi of rice..." Gao Pingshi sighed softly: "I want to know whether this 10% increase can satisfy all officials? Mr. Wangge, if this is the case
I wonder if you are satisfied with the conversion?"
Wang Xijue immediately looked unhappy and said: "Even if it doesn't go up or even cancels miscellaneous conversions, I don't care. The question now is not whether I am satisfied, but whether the civil and military officials are satisfied."
Gao pragmatic rolled his eyes inwardly and said to himself: That's natural. You are always the richest man in Suzhou. Maybe you are the second richest man in the Ming Dynasty after me, Gao. Naturally, you don't take this salary seriously. Just like me.
I still don’t understand how much my own salary is.
In fact, he knows the total amount of salary that Gao Pragmatic receives, but he has never figured out which of them are "regular salary" and which are "subsidies", because he doesn't care at all.
At this time, Shen Shixing didn't know why, but he suddenly smiled and stretched out his hand to stop Wang Xijue, and said: "Brother Yuan Yu's words really reminded me..." Then he raised his hand to Zhu Yijun: "Your Majesty, I think that the cabinet ministers and the ministries and departments
Officials should indeed set an example. Even if the Ministry of Revenue is willing to give a 10% increase in rice grains to all officials instead of groceries, some cabinet ministers and officials in various ministries do not need to take the increase."
Zhu Yijun mused: "Mr. Shen's intention is certainly good, but Gao Qing has not yet agreed to the 10% discount."
Good guy, are you forcing me to express my opinion?
Gao pragmatic sighed, raised his hand and saluted, and could only say: "Since the emperor has said so, I can't refuse. The 600,000 kilograms of rice and grain have been sent to the household department."
After hearing this, Zhu Yijun suddenly laughed and said: "Okay, okay, Gao Qi is still the same Gao Qi!" Then he paused and said: "But since I am the master of the world, I can't suppress everything.
On your head. Let's do this. The household department will provide 300,000 dan, and the internal funds will also provide 300,000 dan. What do you think?"
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