I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 125: Millions of canal workers, their food and clothing depend on it!
Sea shipping!

Everyone looked a little solemn.

Millions of canal workers depend on their food and clothing!
Any official who has served in a local government, dealt with the collection of grain and taxes, and dealt with grain transport knows that this 2,000-mile river from north to south involves the interests of so many places and so many people.

Zhu Yijun glanced at the expressions of the crowd, saw what was happening, and spoke calmly.

"Sea transportation existed in the pre-Yuan Dynasty, but it was abandoned in the Ming Dynasty since the Yongle period, and all transportation was replaced by canal transportation. However, since the Xuande period, there have been frequent discussions in the court to change canal transportation to sea transportation, but every time there were too many people opposing it, so canal transportation continued to be used.

This palace checked the Ministry of Revenue's cabinet and found that during the Hongzhi period, the Ministry of Revenue submitted a memorial stating the advantages and disadvantages of grain transport and sea transport. For example, one memorial said, "

Zhu Yijun stretched out his right hand, and Feng Bao, who had been standing in the corner as an invisible man, immediately took a few steps forward and handed a stack of copies to him.

Zhu Yijun shook the copy and began to read: "A ship with a capacity of 1,000 tons needs 100 people to operate it and can carry 1,000 tons of grain.

The cost of building a 1,000-ton seagoing vessel can be used to build 20 100-ton river vessels, each of which only needs 20 sailors and can carry 2,000 dan of grain in total. It is not afraid of being overturned by the waves.

Comparing the two, canal transport is better than sea transport.”

Zhu Yijun smiled and shook his head, and continued reading: "During the Chenghua period, a certain official in the Ministry of Revenue seriously calculated that there were 1,100 seagoing ships transporting 800,000 dan of grain to Beijing every year, and the loss was 300,000 dan.

What a joke, where did this loss come from? Could it be that the ship deliberately went into the typhoon waves?

The canal has 1,300 river ships, which can transport 200,000 shi of grain at a time. This can be done three times a year, totaling 600,000 shi without any loss.

How could there be no losses in water transport?
I have read the documents of the Ministry of Revenue. Since the eighth year of Chenghua, the annual grain transport quota has been 4 million dan. Not counting the rest, since the Zhengde period, the annual grain loss has been between 400,000 and 800,000 dan. "

Zhu Yijun sneered and said, "These people are indeed well-read scholars, and they are very good at playing word games.

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, sea transportation has never been popular, that is, it has never been carried out on a large scale. So, if the annual transportation of 800,000 dan of grain is 300,000 dan of grain, how is it calculated? In my opinion, it is completely imagined by some people.

However, the annual loss of canal shipping, which is between 400,000 and 800,000 shi, is recorded in black and white in the documents of the Ministry of Revenue, but they turn a blind eye to it.

First make a conclusion, then rack your brains to find evidence. Even to prove that canal transport is better than sea transport, you really don’t care about your dignity.”

Everyone listened quietly.

Zhu Yijun threw the first few copies on the table and continued.

“The cost of grain transport is much more than this! First of all, grain transport requires ships. How many ships are needed every year?

Since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the canal transportation began in the Yongle period, using more than 14000 ships of various types. After the Tianshun period, the quota of canal ships was set at 11770, and the number of officers and soldiers for canal transportation was 12, with the latter being the norm.

According to the documents in the Ministry of Revenue's Jiage Library, the cost of building a grain ship at the Qingjiangpu Shipyard in Huai'an was 105 taels of silver. If 2000 grain ships needed to be replaced every year, the annual shipbuilding cost would be about 21 taels of silver.

This is still the number on the surface. Every year, a huge number of people are temporarily conscripted to serve in the grain transport. Millions of people are conscripted to serve in the grain transport. How much money, grain and manpower are wasted?"

Zheng Luo, Xiao Daheng and others were very curious when they heard Zhu Yijun calculating the "economic accounts".

The Ming Dynasty's governance had never been calculated in this way, nor in such detail.

Li Zhi was very excited.

This is the true way to manage the country’s finances!
Only when every penny and every cent is calculated clearly can we calculate the manpower occupied clearly.

The country's fiscal spending is in a mess, and the people are the ones who suffer the most.

"Is this the only cost of water transport? It's not enough. There is another big expense, which is the regular dredging of the canal and the regulation of the Yellow River and Huai River every year.

The Yellow River is difficult to control, and the Huai River is even more difficult to control.

I have checked the Ministry of Transfer and the Ministry of Works. My Great Ming needs to spend 600 to 1 million taels of silver every year on river management and dredging canals. If there is a major flood, it will be a bottomless pit. There are also 2,000 miles of canals, hundreds of sluices, canals and other facilities that need to be maintained every year, which is another expense." Zhu Yijun put the copy in his hand on the table and began to speak without a script.

“I asked the Accounting Department of the Coordination Bureau to do a preliminary calculation of the annual cost of grain transport.

The shipbuilding cost of replacing the grain transport boats was 210,000 taels of silver per year.

The cost of river management and dredging was 800,000 taels of silver.

The annual expenditure for maintaining the facilities of the 2,000-mile canal and the salaries of officials is 1.6 million taels of silver.

There are 120,000 soldiers in the grain transport garrison, and each soldier needs to pay three shi of food grain per month, which means the annual expenditure on food grain is 2.6 million taels of silver.

These are the big heads. We will ignore the others that cannot be seen or are too thin for now.

But how much money and grain were spent on these accounts alone? Five million and two hundred thousand taels of silver were needed every year to maintain the normal operation of this canal.

Five million two hundred thousand taels of silver in money and grain!"

Zhu Yijun's calculations made everyone uneasy.

You really don’t know until you calculate it. Once you calculate it, you will be shocked!

The money and grain of 5.2 million taels of silver was more than the food and salaries of the nine frontiers, and it was another bottomless pit.

Zhu Yijun patted the copy on the table. "Okay, we have calculated the canal expenses, now let's calculate the benefits it brings. According to the custom, the canal needs to transport 4 million dan of grain to the capital every year, as well as countless other daily necessities such as silk, cotton cloth, tea, etc.

To be honest, I cannot calculate its value, but the entire canal is vital to the stability of the north and the nine borders.

The problem was that the grain transport system was full of problems and inefficient. Grain from Huguang, South Zhili, Huainan, Huaibei and Jiangdong was transported to the Grand Canal and then transported north. Some of the grain was transported as far as a thousand miles away, which was a long journey and costly.

How can we be considerate of the people when governing the country?
I think the most important thing is to improve efficiency. The cost of water transport is borne by the people. If we improve efficiency, the burden on the people will be greatly reduced. "

At this time, Xu Wei, who was Zhu Yijun's confidant, sighed in time, "Your Highness, the long-standing problems in the grain transport system are obvious to all, but it is so difficult to change them."

Everyone nodded.

"That's right. How many people get a share of the 5.2 million taels of silver that sustains the grain transport every year?"

"Previously, the canal transport was first carried out by the branch transport method, then by the exchange transport method, and now it has been changed to the long transport method.

The long-distance transport method is the simplest. People from all over the country no longer need to go to the garrisons to deliver grain. After harvesting, they can leave the grain on the spot in the fields, and the soldiers in charge of grain transport can go directly to the people to collect the grain. "

"But they can manipulate it, and the money can be lost, which is another large amount of extra income, and the profits are shared by the upper and lower levels."

Everyone present here is capable and competent, and they are all well aware of the local malpractices.

Li Zhi said, "During the Tianshun period of our dynasty, the imperial court stipulated that grain transport ships could carry some local specialties to the capital or sell them in riverside areas, and 'they were exempt from taxes and banknotes if they carried local specialties.'

The duty-free amount is calculated by weight. During the Hongzhi period, the duty-free cargo was 10 dan per ship, and it increased to 30 dan during the Zhengde period. I think this is also a major interest point. "

Zhu Yijun glanced at Li Zhi, then looked at the others and nodded approvingly.

My team is full of capable people. If those present were just those noble and famous people who could only talk big, I would be very worried.

"That's right. Millions of canal workers depend on their livelihood! This huge conflict of interests cannot be changed. But why do I still want to promote sea transportation?
Can you gentlemen understand my painstaking efforts?"

(End of this chapter)