Daming: I help my wife be the empress

Chapter 877

What Aurangzeb was looking at were tax files from all over the country.

Since his father, Shah Jahan, fell ill five years ago, he has been competing with several brothers for the throne.The battle for the throne wasn't over until two years ago when he defeated his older brother, Dara Shook, and executed him after being paraded through the streets on the back of a filthy baby elephant.

His father, Shah Jahan, also inherited the throne through war. Soon after he took the throne, the country fell into war caused by Sikhism.

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

In addition, their brothers fought for several years to fight for the throne. Even though the Mughals were built on a huge golden mountain, their finances seemed to be exhausted.

Originally, Aurangzeb didn't take this matter too seriously, because according to previous examples, as long as the country stops fighting for a few years and does not fight big wars, the country's finances can recover a lot.

Now that he has been on the throne for two years, he hasn't made any major moves. He has basically adopted a policy of rest and recuperation, but the country's finances are far from being restored to the level he expected.

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

As a result, the Minister of Finance told him that in order to carry out such a major military operation, he would have to accumulate at least five years of taxation, and the country could not make other major moves within these five years.

He was surprised and completely unacceptable.

When his father Shah Jahan was in power, he made so much trouble and didn't mention financial difficulties. How could there be financial problems when it was his turn to succeed?

So he asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer to bring over the fiscal and tax documents for the past two or three years to show him, trying to figure out what went wrong.

Although Aurangzeb's talent is mainly in leading the army and fighting, he is no stranger to financial issues.

For one thing, solving logistical and financial problems is an important factor in winning a war.

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

After this inspection, Aurangzeb discovered that as early as seven or eight years ago, the fiscal and taxes paid by the provinces began to decrease year by year.If you look closely, the commercial tax, agricultural tax, and even poll tax in all provinces are decreasing, especially in coastal areas.

"Why?" After reading the last fiscal and tax booklet, Aurangzeb angrily swept these books off the gold table and asked, "Where did all the money go?!"

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

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

From the prince of the Mughal Empire to the emperor, Aurangzeb's vision is of course not limited to the country. He knows that the Ming Dynasty has risen rapidly in the past ten years, and even dominated the Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean.

He also knows that there are many merchants from the Ming Dynasty in China now, and more and more Ming products have appeared in front of him in the past ten years.

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

The throne that Aurangzeb seized by force is quite prestigious in front of his subjects.

He was so angry that the chancellor bowed down to explain.

"Your Majesty, I dare not lie to you, the people of the Ming Dynasty have indeed earned all the money.

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

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

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

"Wait!" Aurangzeb interrupted the Minister of Finance, and asked puzzledly, "We can also produce cotton cloth, ironware, and sugar. They are shipped from across the sea, so they should be more expensive than domestic ones? Why? Can it be sold?"

"Your Majesty, these products of theirs are indeed cheaper than those produced in our country, and their quality is better. From commoners to princes and nobles, everyone flocks to Ming products, and even takes pride in using Ming products.

In recent years, a large number of merchants have gone bankrupt because of this, so the commercial tax we have received has been decreasing year by year.

A large number of farmers switched to cotton, and we could only receive cotton after taxation, and then were forced to sell it to merchants in the Ming Dynasty at a low price.Because there are fewer people growing grain, we have to buy overseas grain from merchants in the Ming Dynasty at a high price.

As a result, our agricultural tax is actually decreasing year by year.

In addition, officials in various provinces have become increasingly corrupt in order to buy luxury goods from the Ming Dynasty, which is also one of the reasons for the reduction 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.

However, as the Ming Dynasty dominated the Indian Ocean in recent years, most of the merchant ships from the east sailed directly to the west, and at most they resupplied at our place.However, Western merchant ships could not get through at all, and were forced to trade with Ming merchants in the west.

It also cost us a piece of tax.In short, the continuous decrease in tax revenue these years is all because of the Ming Dynasty! "

Aurangzeb knew that the finance minister's family was mainly engaged in business, so he must have a conflict of interest with Ming businessmen, so his words were probably a bit exaggerated.

But he still believed [-]% to [-]%.

Because he really felt that the influence of the Ming Dynasty on the Mughals had indeed become more and more serious over the years.When he was a prince, he was fine, but now that he is an emperor, he has a sense of crisis.

"Ming Kingdom..."

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

That was the Myanmar Province of the Ming Empire.

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

But he never thought that Daming would let Mughal fall into financial difficulties without making a sound.

As an "emperor on horseback", Aurangzeb seldom looks forward and backward in his work, and has always been very decisive.

After thinking for a while, he turned around and said, "Since the financial difficulties are mainly caused by Ming people, then expel Ming people and prevent Ming products from entering the country!"

The Minister of Finance was overjoyed when he heard this.

Isn't it for this result that he made the "bright danger" so serious?His family's business has shrunk by more than ten times over the years due to the squeeze of Ming products.

If it is possible to drive out the Ming people and prohibit the entry of Ming products, then his family's business can not only resume, but may even take the opportunity to expand.

After all, he was not the only family whose business had shrunk because they couldn't compete with merchants from the Ming Dynasty.

Now that he is the first to get the news, he will be the first to occupy the market that has been vacated due to the expulsion of Ming merchants.

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

···
Mumbai, the largest free port in western India.

Originally occupied by the Portuguese in 1534, it has been occupied for more than a century.In another time and space, the British colonists captured this place from Portugal in 1661, which became the beginning of British colonization of India.

But in this time and space, because of the strength of the Daming Navy, it is difficult for Portugal and Britain to gain much benefit in the East, and they don't want to provoke Daming.

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

The British were also not optimistic about this place, so they did not occupy the vacancy vacated by the Portuguese.On the Ming side, Africa was the primary goal. Instead, the Mughals took the opportunity to collect several trading ports, including Mumbai.

Because the Ming Dynasty did not occupy the port of India by force like the Portuguese and the British, and indirectly expelled the Western colonists on behalf of India, and the "Ming people" were kinder than the "Western people", so before the Ming Dynasty and the Mughal My son's civil relations are pretty good.

I heard that this land in India is very 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 30 million.

Among them, there are as many as three or four thousand Ming people!
(End of this chapter)