I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 474: Income and Expenditure in the First Year of Apocalypse
Seeing that the emperor asked about the situation of the household department at the beginning, everyone looked at Wang Yingjiao.

Wang Yingjiao, who had been prepared for a long time, stood up immediately, bowed and said:
"Your Majesty, at the beginning of this year, with the support of Your Majesty, the imperial court implemented the tax reform of the Ministry of Household Affairs. First, it collected arrears and levied commercial taxes and miscellaneous taxes. Later, Your Majesty opened the internal funds to check the income, and the internal funds and materials were converted into silver. Half of it goes to Taicang, the Ministry of Household Affairs.

This approach greatly increased the revenue of the Ministry of Household Affairs. When the Wenhua Palace issued an edict at the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Household Affairs formulated this year's budget based on past income. It was concluded that the annual income of the imperial court's actual budget this year was about 4206 million taels. "

This number was already passed this year. Everyone present knew it and were not surprised when they heard it. Instead, they continued to look at Wang Yingjiao with expectant eyes.

Because after the Wenhua Palace issued an edict at the beginning of the year, the imperial court continued to implement fiscal and tax reforms, and the Ministry of Household Affairs had many additional revenue items.

Wang Yingjiao took a slow breath as he spoke. What he said just now was just the beginning, and what came next was the highlight. He then continued:

"Originally I thought this amount was already very high, but His Majesty is wise and powerful, and the princes of the imperial court also have plans for the world. Not only did he carry out salt tax reform, he also focused on piloting a new tariff system, and transferred the power of finance and taxation in Beijing to the Ministry of Household Affairs, and equalized land and servitude. , all these things have greatly improved the situation in Taicang, the household department.

Among them, the salt tax reform obtained a deposit of 1000 million taels from salt merchants, which has now been delivered to the Ministry of Household Affairs. After the new tariff was implemented in Shanghai County through restructuring, the effect was good, and it was subsequently implemented in many ports. Currently, more than 120 million taels of tariff have been collected.

Now His Majesty has abolished the mining ban and levied taxes on minerals. However, this tax has just been implemented and has made a profit of 11 taels. In the end, the five treasuries in the capital were cleared of 2505 million taels of silver.If these amounts are included, the "book income" of the imperial court this year totals 810 taels. "

Everyone who was full of expectations had already expected it, but they were still very surprised when they heard this number.

Even Zhu Youxiao was like this. This income was indeed a bit beyond his expectation, but after thinking about it carefully, he felt that it made some sense.

People in later generations have the impression that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the court had no money, and the household revenue of Taicang Silver was only two to three hundred yuan a year, which was not enough to support the entire expenditure of the Ming Dynasty.

But what they don't understand is that the Ming Dynasty's financial system is very complicated, and the Taicang Silver of the Ministry of Revenue is only one of them with very little income, which is generally only used for military expenses.

According to the Ming Dynasty Huidian, the total annual income of the Ming Dynasty totaled nearly 2000 million taels.

It's just that the 2000 million taels are not all controlled by the Ministry of Revenue. It is very troublesome for the Ministry of Revenue to transfer it. The other six ministries, nine ministers and even the local chief secretary will pass the blame and argue with each other. This caused the dilemma of the court having no money in the late Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, one of the most important things that Zhu Youxiao did after he came to the throne was to transfer all central finance and taxation powers, except internal funds, to the Beijing Ministry of Household Affairs.

He also pursued local tax arrears and cracked down on local officials and wealthy families who disobeyed the court.

For this reason, Bi Ziyan offended countless people in Jiangnan. Even Li Sancai, the leader of the Donglin Party, was killed as a warning to others, and Fang Congzhe, the former chief minister of the cabinet, was also humiliated.

Under such high-pressure conditions and bloody costs, the court's tax efficiency improved a lot, reaching as high as more than 3000 million taels.

Although this income is far lower than that of the Qianlong period of the Manchu Dynasty, compared with the income of the Ming Dynasty, it is indeed a record.

But Zhu Youxiao knew that this income was also temporary, and many of it were one-time income, such as the 1000 million taels from the salt dealer's deposit, the more than [-] million taels from the pursuit of arrears, etc.

At the same time, some income is paper income, which can only be used and cannot be spent as money.For example, there are still more than 520 million taels of original content (only cloth and grain are paid, no silver is paid) and so on.

Therefore, this money is only "book income". The Ministry of Revenue does not really have that much money, and there are many ways to use the money, such as Liaoning salary, Nine-Border Army salary, this year's severe drought, etc. The Ministry of Revenue does not yet know how much money is left.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao said slowly:

"This amount is indeed very high, but Aiqing also said that this is the accounting income of the Ministry of Accounts and cannot be calculated. I know that there are many places to spend money this year. Please calculate for me how much money the Ministry of Accounts has now. .”

Upon seeing this, Wang Yingjiao immediately bowed and replied, he had already figured this out.
"Your Majesty, the expenditures this year are also very high. Among them, 240 million taels of snowflake silver are allocated for internal funds, 560 million taels are spent on Liao's salary, 510 million taels of income (grain, cloth) are worth, and 270 million taels are paid for the nine-border army. This year, Liaodong and Shandong will spend a lot of money. In addition to the internal funds allocated by His Majesty, the Ministry of Household Affairs also allocated 100 million and 50 taels for disaster relief.

There are also 100 million taels for cannon casting and firearms workshops of the Ministry of Industry, 80 taels for the military expenses of the Beijing Camp, in addition to the expansion of the Military Academy, the expansion of the Imperial College, silver rewards for many great victories, official salaries, expenses of the other five ministries, Denglai, Tianjin, Training of naval forces in Southern Zhili and Fujian provinces cost nearly 620 million taels. "

While Wang Yingjiao was talking, Zhu Youxiao was counting on his fingers.It’s true that if you have money, you have a way to spend money, and if you don’t have money, you have a way to live without money.Zhu Youxiao did a rough calculation and found that the items mentioned by Wang Yingjiao alone were already 33 taels.

"There should be nothing more than these."

Zhu Youxiao was really heartbroken after all the calculations. He had spent so much money in one year. It was really a bottomless pit.

However, when Wang Yingjiao saw the emperor's inquiry, he did not reply directly. After a while, he slowly said:
"Your Majesty, this is only the most important thing. In fact, there is another big expense to counter the rebellion in the southwest. At the beginning of this year, your majesty discussed with the cabinet and said that a total of 90 taels of taxes from the five southwest provinces would be withheld for the purpose of countering the rebellion. Your Majesty also spent money on countering the rebellion. 100 million taels of silver were used to help the army, but it cost a lot to station the army in Guizhou. Later, an additional 150 million taels were allocated for military pay. After subtracting His Majesty’s internal funds allocation, the taxes and fees withheld from the southwest plus the court allocation, the Ministry of Household Affairs A total of 240 million taels of expenditure was spent.”

Zhu Youxiao felt a little numb after hearing this. There were too many places to spend money.

But even so, there was nothing he could do. The court would pay for this money no matter what.And compared with the tens of millions spent to suppress the rebellion in the southwest in history, this cost is already very low.

When Zhu Youxiao thought of this, he nodded and said:
"The money was well spent. The court's expenditure plus my internal funds allocated a total of 340 million taels, which quelled the rebellion in the southwest and stabilized the southwest. This money should be spent, and it was spent wisely."

When everyone present heard this, they all responded to the situation by flattering him and shouting that the emperor is wise.

From this, Zhu Youxiao was finally able to calculate clearly that the Ming court's expenses this year were approximately 7703 million taels, while the income was 810 million taels.

"Your Majesty, there are still 39 million taels of silver in the Ministry of Household Affairs! This is the highest amount of silver deposits in the Ministry of Household Affairs in the Ming Dynasty. This is all the result of your Majesty appointing good ministers after taking the throne, eradicating all evils, and renewing everything. Minister Every time I think about this, I dare not forget His Majesty’s grace.”

Although he spent so much money, Wang Yingjiao was in an unprecedented good mood.

When he took over as Minister of the Ministry of Revenue last year, he knew that the imperial court's finances were extremely difficult. The total revenue of the imperial court was only 600 taels, and only about 500 million taels were allocated to the Ministry of Revenue.

This made him, the Minister of Household Affairs, really nervous at the beginning of his succession, as if he was facing an abyss, walking on thin ice, thinking about how to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, so as to spend less.

It's just that he never expected that the emperor would bring him such a big surprise. It was like having a golden touch, and he could actually have so much money in just one year.It also makes the status of the Ministry of Accounts rise straight up, and other departments are not begging the Ministry of Accounts for money.

Liu Yishen and others also felt the same. It was easy to do things with money. Now that there was a surplus of more than [-] taels, the court could do a lot of things freely.

Seeing Wang Yingjiao's affirmative reply, Zhu Youxiao also beamed.

Although he knew in his heart that the cost of having this money was huge, the government's fiscal revenue next year would definitely be lower than this year's.

But when he heard this number, Zhu Youxiao immediately felt that all the costs were worth it.

With this money, he can go all out to attack Jianlu and further implement reforms. Thinking of this, he felt even more excited.

"This is not the result of me alone. It is the result of the collective efforts of all of you, Aiqing, to reuse talents, dare to use them, and serve the country wholeheartedly. Wang Aiqing, you have done a good job. Now there is so much money left in the Ministry of Revenue. It sounds good and you can do a lot of things this year. .”

"What your Majesty said is true, but I feel that since there is a financial surplus, we should take this opportunity to set a fixed quota for next year's Liao and Nine-Border Army salaries, so that the court will not have to worry about it anymore, and the soldiers can feel at ease. "

Upon seeing this, Liu Yishui also stood up to support. The most important and urgent issue for the court every year was military pay.

After these two sums have been distributed, other things can be done leisurely.

"Well, then as Liu Aiqing said, 560 million for Liao's pay and 270 million for Nine-Border Army pay. These two sums of money are first divided from Taicang silver and used exclusively for special purposes. Don't let the soldiers go hungry."

Zhu Youxiao didn't have any objections to this. Besides, the money was not all given to Liaodong and Jiubian Army Town at once. It will always be kept by Taicang, Ministry of Revenue. It is just registered separately and allocated every three months. once.

The first purpose of this is to control the Jiubian Army Town and prevent it from rebelling. The second is that if one year's Liao salary is all allocated to the border town at once, those generals will definitely embezzle the food and salary of the soldiers.

But while Zhu Youxiao was talking, his heart was bleeding and he couldn't help complaining that the military salary expenditure was too high.

The two add up to a total of 830 million taels. With such a reduction, the fiscal surplus of the Ministry of Revenue this year will instantly be left at 200 million taels.This does not include the expenses of the Beijing camp. If they were included, it would be even more.

Thinking of this, he secretly made up his mind to get rid of Jianlu.

Otherwise, this will be a bottomless pit with no benefits, and the gold-eating beast will slowly drain the Ming Dynasty's finances!

(End of this chapter)