King of Han Dynasty of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 149: The mess, Xia Yuanji’s difficulties

This statement came out.

The atmosphere in the field suddenly condensed, and all the ministers looked at him.

Feeling the eyes focused on him, Zhu Gaoxu rubbed his hands, turned to the side and looked at Xia Yuanji, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, and asked:

"Lord Xia"

"Now that our Ming Dynasty treasury has deducted the old man's expenses for the Northern Expedition, how much silver is left?"

After hearing this, Xia Yuanji suddenly frowned, with a wry smile on his face, he cupped his hands and said:

"Report to the prince."

"Excluding His Majesty's Northern Expedition, there is less than one million silver left in the national treasury."

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, no matter who is the emperor, it seems that the Ming Dynasty's treasury has never been truly full.

In the eyes of outsiders, he, the Minister of Household Affairs, is in charge of the entire Ming Dynasty's money bag. Logically speaking, he can be regarded as a fat man, but he knows the sour and refreshing taste. How can it be called a fat man? A chore.

Especially Zhu Di is not a peaceful master, he wants to do this and that, and he always wants to fight.

Thinking of this and listening to this 'astonishing number', Zhu Gaoxu subconsciously cast a pity look at him.

"The Ming Dynasty's tax revenue is not much, so the total tax revenue is only tens of millions of cash."

As far as Ming Dynasty's finances are concerned, no one except Xia Yuanji is willing to take over. Even if someone is willing to take over, I'm afraid they won't be able to do anything!

With such a treasury, he really didn't know how the Ming Dynasty could support Chongzhen's generation.

He hasn't finished what he said next, but everyone is not a fool, so they can naturally understand what he means right now...

Naturally, he met an unreliable emperor.

"Where have all the taxes and money collected over the years been spent?"

Supervise the country?

"Old man Xia, why is the Ming treasury so poor?"

We know that Ming Dynasty is poor and our treasury is empty.

But he never dreamed that the mighty Ming Dynasty could be so poor with such a vast land.

I finally understood why Zhu Di was so polite to Xia Yuanji in front of him.

These two deceitful bastards!

It's so outrageous that his mother opened the door to outrageous people. It's outrageous.

"Go back to your lord."

In this way, he also greeted the old man from head to toe in his heart.

Xia Yuanji's face was full of embarrassment, he smiled coquettishly, his eyes were full of helplessness, as if he thought of something, he couldn't help but let out a long sigh and responded:

"Your Majesty these years"

No wonder the boss was so generous and didn't feel the slightest bit uncomfortable with him overseeing the country.

Hey!

Such a reply made Zhu Gaoxu almost unable to hold back his expletives.

This made him, the Minister of Household Affairs, miserable!

Zhu Gaoxu: "."

What bullshit, he raised the issue and he solved it himself.

Fortunately, he had anticipated such an outcome and had made preparations early.

Otherwise, he would really have to sit on the wax.

After a brief moment of silence, Zhu Gaoxu narrowed his eyes, with a faint smile on his face, and asked aloud:

"Old Man Xia"

"Do you want the treasury to be replenished?"

"Have endless money, and can it continue to flow?"

This is a question, can you not think about it?

You must know that Xia Yuanji rarely has a day without worrying about the treasury and expenses of the DPRK.

Who wants to live a miserable life when they can live a prosperous life?

The problem is that with the situation of the Ming Dynasty, it is not easy to fill the treasury. They have thought of countless ways to do this, but they have never been able to do it.

Although Xia Yuanji didn't have much hope in this regard, out of respect and courtesy, he raised his hand and asked, "Does the prince have any good ideas?"

"I would like to hear the details."

After saying this, everyone looked at Zhu Gaoxu, waiting for his answer.

"Old man Xia, I wonder how much the annual salt tax brings in?"

"How was the Ming Dynasty's salt tax collected?"

Xia Yuanji looked stunned, thought for a moment with his eyes half-closed, and then said:

"The Ming Dynasty adopted the stove system and unified sales through the government or those who had salt."

After hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu nodded with satisfaction. It was the same as what he knew before.

Today's edible salt in the Ming Dynasty relies on the methods of drying, boiling and brine to obtain salt.

However, these methods are not only inefficient, time-consuming and labor-intensive, but the salt obtained is still the lowest form of coarse salt. Of course, there is also refined salt, but these are generally royal tributes, and the output is extremely rare.

After a moment of silence, Zhu Gaoxu half-squinted his eyes, looked around at the people in front of him, and asked:

"I wonder what you guys think of the 'Zhongkai Method' that is being used in the imperial court today?"

The method of opening the middle can be roughly divided into three steps: reporting the middle, guarding the branch, and changing the market.

In the Ming Dynasty, merchants were encouraged to transport grain to frontier fortresses in exchange for salt, and a system was granted patents for selling salt.

Also known as the Kaizhong method. The system of Kaizhong followed the Song and Yuan systems, but in the Ming Dynasty more Kaizhongs were used in border areas to attract merchants to transport grain to the border and enrich border military grain reserves.

In the fourth year of Hongwu (1371), the salt regulations were enacted. Depending on the distance, one to five shi of grain could be exchanged for a small amount of salt (two hundred kilograms) from the government.

This example will continue to change in the future as the situation changes and the price of rice rises and falls.

According to the report, the salt merchants, in accordance with the requirements of the Ming government's investment list, transported the grain to the designated granary in the border area and exchanged salt with the government.

Shouzhi means that after the salt merchants exchange for salt, they go to the designated salt field to wait for the salt; market trade means that the salt merchants transport the salt to the designated area for sale.

Because of the huge cost of transporting grain over long distances, salt merchants hired laborers from various places to cultivate fields and produce grain, and then warehoused it locally in exchange for salt, so as to make more profits.

Because this form of farming was run by merchants, it was also called merchant farming.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Shangtun was located in Liaodong in the east, Xuanda in the north, Gansu in the west, and Jiaojiao in the south. Its prosperity played a certain role in food reserves for border defense and the development of border areas.

As soon as these words came out, everyone was slightly stunned, and their expressions became extremely solemn.

What do you mean?

On the first day when the King of Han took charge of the country, was he going to take action against the Salt Law?

"Your Majesty!"

"With one shot, it affects the whole body!"

"The Salt Law and Salt Tax are the foundation of the founding of the Ming Dynasty. They are good policies that benefit the country, the people, and business."

"It has solved a lot of trouble for me, Daming."

"If we act rashly, something may happen."

"And as far as our current Ming Dynasty treasury is concerned, we can't afford such trouble!"

"My lord, you should think twice about this!"

Hearing this, the smile on Zhu Gaoxu's face instantly faded, his eyes were full of coldness, he looked around at everyone and said angrily:

"The original intention of this law is also to increase the court's income and relieve the pressure on the court."

"The question is, has the court's income increased over the years?"

"Old man Xia is in charge of the household department and has the most say. If nothing else, the revenue from the salt tax has been decreasing over the years, right?"

"How many dignitaries, royal families, and merchants use salt to induce chaos and seek benefits from it?"

"Don't tell me, you don't know these things clearly."

"answer me!"

(End of this chapter)