Fenghou

The summer in Jingzhao is quite difficult. The sun is like a fire, shining on the earth fiercely, and the whole land is burning, but the heat in Jingzhao is better than the sultry heat in Jiangnan. The hearth, in the summer in the south of the Yangtze River, enters the steamer, the kind of stewed steam with water vapor, which makes people have nowhere to escape, unlike the north, where it is very cool to hide in the shade of trees when there is wind.

The summer in the Tang and Song Dynasties used ice cubes. Every big family had an ice cellar. In winter, the ice cubes were transported to the upper reaches of the river, stored in the ice cellar or ice well, and placed in the sandwich wall to cool down in summer, or made into delicious food. Ice drink.

After entering June, the sun began to breathe fire, scorching the earth mercilessly. After working half a day under the sun, a layer of skin would be burned off, which was especially cruel to the laborers.

Despite the extremely hot weather, Chen Qing, Xiangguo and dozens of officials still came to the Guangyun Lake outside the East City. Of course, they did not come to inspect the excavation of the Guangyun Lake, but to welcome the spoils from the far north.

The booty transported from Linhuang Mansion took more than three months on the road before arriving at Jingzhao. The belongings in 10,000+ carts traveled more than 1000 miles to Daxing Mansion and boarded a boat to go to Yongji Canal. Enter the Yellow River, pass through the Sanmen Gorge from the Yellow River, enter the Weihe River, and then transport it to Jingzhao through the Tianbao Canal.

This is the first batch of more than 3000 two-thousand stone cargo ships. A total of more than 1 cargo ships are needed. It will take at least four or five trips to complete the shipment, and it will be shipped until the end of the year.

The officials stood under the shed, watching the [-]-stone cargo ships docking to unload their cargo. Everyone had complicated expressions. These properties were looted from Bianliang by the Kingdom of Jin back then. After more than [-] years, these properties were looted again. came back.

The big boxes were unloaded from the slide, and the laborers put them into donkey carts to transport them to the warehouse. Xu Xiantu walked up to a big box and gently stroked the words on the box.

Chen Qing stepped forward and said with a smile, "Xu Xiangguo knows this box?"

Xu Xiantu smiled wryly, "Not only do I know each other, I wrote the words that came forward."

Chen Qing stepped forward and took a look curiously. It said that it was worth a thousand taels of gold, and there was also a vague seal, which was the fourth year of Xuanhe.

"Is this 1000 taels of gold?"

Xu Xiantu nodded, "Not long after I was admitted to Jinshi, I was assigned to the Ministry of Household Affairs. The Ministry of Household Affairs had to issue a membership, and there must be a basis for issuing the membership. The basis was 50 taels of gold and 500 million taels of silver. As an official of the household department, I Participated in the accounting inspection, confirmed that it was 1000 taels of gold, and then sealed the box and nailed it to death. I wrote 'Quality Gold Thousand Taels' on it, and stamped the seal of the household department. The gold and silver were placed in the pledge warehouse and issued based on it Huizi, Huizi will be taken back in the future, and new Huizi will be issued. At that time, there was still a basis for issuing Huizi, which was pledged with these gold and silver. Later, Jin Guo snatched the pledged gold and silver, and Huizi lost its foundation. Becoming worthless, and finally reduced to waste paper, thinking of these, I feel emotional!"

Chen Qing said with a smile: "Actually, I still have a question that I have been confused about. I just want to ask Xu Xiangguo!"

"Don't dare, please speak, Your Majesty."

"At that time, the Western Army seized these properties. I thought most of them were copper coins. Later, I found out that there were no copper coins. I was confused. It stands to reason that the Kaiyuan Tongbao of the Tang Dynasty was also used in the Song Dynasty. The copper coins cast for more than 200 years have been handed down. It is conceivable that, together with the issuance of copper coins for more than 100 years in the Northern Song Dynasty, at least 50 guan are minted every year! There are also privately minted copper coins. These copper coins have at least two to three hundred million guan. Spamming clubs."

Xu Xiantu smiled slightly and said: "The problem of insufficient copper coins appeared in the late Northern Song Dynasty. Otherwise, Sichuan and Shanxi would not have issued iron coins, and Jiaozi also appeared from this. We have also summed up where the problem is? One is private storage, because the issuance Paper money, everyone can’t believe it, rich families store copper coins, there are thick burials, there are temples casting bronze statues to melt copper coins, and then there are wars, people escape the invasion of the Kingdom of Jin, copper coins are not easy to carry, they are buried deep in the ground, and they are ready to return. If you take it again, you will never be able to go back, in fact, this is the main reason, don’t look at the skyrocketing housing prices in Lin’an back then, the price per mu was tens of thousands, but in fact the transactions were very rare, who can easily get tens of thousands of copper coins?”

"But Jingzhao's land is real money!"

"Your Majesty, the land of Jingzhao was bought by people from all over the world. Although Lin'an is the capital city, it was once captured by Wanyan Wushu's army. The world's rich and powerful families did not trust it, but Jingzhao is different. The Western Army drove out the Tartars. , Restoring the Han family, based on this, it will give the world's rich and powerful families a sense of security, and they are willing to invest their money in Jingzhao."

Chen Qing nodded, "There are still copper coins. The imperial court collects the savings of the world's wealthy and wealthy through the land, and then spends it through finance, such as giving military salaries, building bridges and roads, and building water conservancy projects. When it flows into the hands of the people, the water will live."

"Your Majesty is right. There is money. The key is to let it flow. The imperial court has a lot of resources, which can be utilized slowly."

Chen Qing and the senior officials only watched for half an hour before going back in a carriage.

Xu Xiantu and Zhou Kuan rode in a carriage, and Zhou Kuan served as a servant. He had the right to review the court's decisions, but he and Xu Xiantu rode in a cart because they wanted to discuss with each other about the distribution of wealth.

"According to the system, the Zuo Zang treasury of our imperial court will get half of the wealth taken back from the Kingdom of Jin, and the emperor's inner treasury will get half. I hope Xu Xiangguo will clarify this point."

Xu Xiantu nodded, "I also know about this system, but what worries me is that the palace's treasury is not big, how can it hold so much wealth?"

Zhou Kuan laughed, "So I want to ride in a carriage with Xu Xiangguo. Xu Xiangguo confused the emperor's private treasury with the inner treasury. Our inner treasury and Lin'an's inner treasury are not the same thing."

Xu Xiantu's old face turned hot, and he said apologetically, "Please advise Zhou Xiangguo!"

"The emperor's internal treasury was originally called the government treasury. Together with the temple treasury of our internal affairs hall, they were both called the national treasury. Why should we divide the emperor's treasury and the imperial treasury? This is because the financial rights of the two sides are different. Like many normal expenses, non-wartime Military salaries, official salaries, court and local government funds, as well as imperial palace expenses, education expenses, expenses for helping orphans and widows, and normal bridge and road construction. It will be implemented, but the annual expenditure budget will be reviewed by the emperor.

The expenditure of the inner treasury must be approved by the emperor. It is mainly used in three aspects, half of the war expenditure, various major projects and sudden major disasters. , Xu Xiangguo should understand! "

"Now I really understand that they are actually the treasury, but the financial rights are different."

"That's right, that's what it means!"

"But when I audited the account yesterday, I found out that there is still the emperor's salary. What does this mean?"

Zhou Kuan laughed and said: "This is our characteristic. Does Xu Xiangguo think that the palace expenses are all the palace expenses? In fact, it is not the case. The food and clothing of the officials and his family are borne by themselves. What clothes the queen buys, What kind of jewelry to use is her private matter, and the court cannot interfere, as do other concubines and children. In a word, the official family and his family do not need to be supported by the court, so the official family must have a salary. Otherwise, what will he use to support the family? "

Xu Xiantu didn't know whether to laugh or cry, he nodded and said, "I understand, but isn't eight hundred guan a month too little?"

Zhou Kuan squinted his eyes and said with a smile: "The official family has other income!"

"Can Zhou Xiangguo reveal a thing or two, in case I make mistakes due to ignorance!"

Zhou Kuan said in a low voice: "Half of the Zheng family's property belongs to the emperor, and Liu Dajiang is an imperial businessman who does overseas trade for the emperor, and there is nothing else. By the way, there are also Yi Anya and Qingfeng The teahouse is related to the queen."

Xu Xiantu nodded again and again, "Thank you for telling me, I will remember!"