The Ming Dynasty's Five Hundred Years

Chapter 291 Ministry of Industry
The capital was thrown into chaos and turmoil by an imperial decree.

This involved hundreds of officials, thousands of clerks, blacksmiths, carpenters and other craftsmen who made a living around them, as well as artisans and small merchants who undertook various small businesses for the government.

Many nobles were involved in these schemes, and now the court intends to abolish them directly.

Before the first wave of officials could submit their objections, the cabinet had already issued the first batch of documents requiring the Ministry of Works to be restructured.

It's reasonable and expected.

The Ministry of Works was in charge of all the nation's industries, mining and fishing, pottery and utensils, water conservancy and roads, and coordinated the nation's engineering construction, resource development and material production.

Such matters naturally warranted action against the Ministry of Works.

The Ministry of Works had four departments under its central authority: the Department of Construction, the Department of Forestry and Water Conservancy, and the Department of Agricultural Settlements, each responsible for specific tasks.

The Construction and Maintenance Department was responsible for the construction and maintenance of palaces, mausoleums, and government offices; the Forestry and Fisheries Department managed the harvesting of fish from mountains and lakes, the logging of timber, and the manufacture of military equipment; it also coordinated water conservancy projects, canal transport management, and bridge and road construction; and the Land Reclamation Department supervised the reclamation of official land, military settlements, and the supply of charcoal and firewood.

Basically, everything related to manufacturing was under the Ministry of Industry.

This reform primarily targets the Ministry of Industry.

In addition to the engineering and manufacturing mentioned above, the Ministry of Works also had affiliated institutions such as the Coinage Bureau (coin minting), the Ordnance Bureau (weapon manufacturing), and the Weaving and Dyeing Institute (government-run textile manufacturing), forming a complete management system from planning to production.

Of these four departments and three bureaus, except for the Department of Agricultural Settlement and the Department of Forestry, the other two departments and three bureaus must all be reorganized into commercial firms.

The textile and dyeing workshops will be abolished, and the imperial court will establish three major textile bureaus in Jiangnan as state-run enterprises.

These businesses were responsible for manufacturing for the royal family and also for participating in commercial operations; in other words, they had to prepare to compete with the big merchants of Jiangnan for business.

The Baoyuan Bureau, which was responsible for minting coins, was reorganized into the Ming Central Bank according to the court's wishes. Since the Ming Dynasty mainly used silver, it was called a bank. In the future, it would be responsible for minting silver coins, issuing paper money, and participating in the Ministry of Revenue's budget audit and year-end verification. From then on, it shouldered the responsibility of supervising and auditing the Ministry of Revenue.

Most importantly, private money shops will need a decree from the central bank to be established, and the margin deposits of private money shops must be reviewed by the central bank, and the upper limit of lending interest rates must not exceed the central bank's regulations.

The imperial court assigned the Central Bank the rank of second grade, and the head of the bank was called the bank manager.

This is the only department in the entire Ministry of Works reform that has seen a significant increase in power while still remaining a government department.

Other departments, however, were not so lucky.

According to the cabinet's reform plan, all the key construction personnel in the Ministry of Works will be abolished and will no longer receive salaries from the imperial court.

Instead, several imperial merchant bureaus were established, namely the First Engineering Bureau of the Ming Dynasty, the Second Engineering Bureau of the Ming Dynasty, the Third Engineering Bureau of the Ming Dynasty, the First Water Conservancy Engineering Bureau of the Ming Dynasty, the Second Water Conservancy Engineering Bureau of the Ming Dynasty, the Third Water Conservancy Engineering Bureau of the Ming Dynasty, the First Armament Manufacturing Bureau of the Ming Dynasty, and the Second Armament Manufacturing Bureau of the Ming Dynasty, totaling eight engineering bureaus.

From then on, they would no longer be officials of the imperial court, but imperial merchants.

What is a royal merchant?

Although they were not included in the formal official rank system, the imperial court would bestow upon them a similar rank based on their merits.

As the popular joke goes, a person with the same rank as a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) is not a Jinshi, and a concubine is not a concubine. Similarly, a person with the same rank as a Jinshi is not a true official, but neither is a commoner.

Rather, they were somewhere between officials and commoners. In the eyes of the common people, the order naturally followed: scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants. But these imperial merchants were placed after scholars and before farmers. When the cabinet issued this specific reform notice, the officialdom in the capital was silent for a moment. Everyone was shocked by the completeness and high feasibility of this reform notice.

The above clearly states that "the reason for the reform is that officials are not conscientious in their work, and the court pays for everything, good or bad. Moreover, the money and supervision are all handled by one person, which leads to rampant corruption, such as the corruption case at the imperial tombs."

Now, we should allow various businesses to compete, with the Ministry of Works acting only as a regulator. Officials will not see the project funds, and merchants and artisans, being of low status, will not dare to be corrupt. Only in this way can a balance be maintained.

The moment the corruption case involving the imperial tombs came to light, it silenced many people. The case is still under investigation, hanging like a sword over the heads of countless people, who are afraid of getting involved.

Many people believe that it was this shocking corruption case that made the emperor realize the chaotic system within the Ministry of Works, which led to the reforms that are being implemented today.

No one is truly stupid. After the reform, although it is impossible to completely eliminate corruption, it is definitely better than before, and competition has also been introduced.

but!
This is still unacceptable.

This reform meant that many people would lose their official hats and their status as scholars. They refused to become merchants, and within a single day, the Minister of Works' desk was piled high with resignations.

The Minister of Works himself was quite embarrassed. The Vice Ministers on both sides and a group of officials from the Ministry of Works surrounded him, looking at him with piercing eyes, their eyes filled with sorrow.

"Grand Minister of Works!"

Are you just going to sit here and do nothing about this?

Why not submit a petition?

The Minister of Works sighed and said, "This was personally promoted by Grand Secretary Li, and His Majesty also agreed to it, and this policy..."

"But the Ministry of Works is finished!"

"Grand Minister of Works, once this matter is actually implemented, what will our Ministry of Works have left? Are we just going to live off those one or two departments from now on?"

Once these two departments and three bureaus are truly separated, our Ministry of Works will be inferior to even the Ministry of Rites, no, even to those idle departments.

What will become of our careers? What will become of our future?
What will you say when you attend the finance meeting at the end of the year?

Does this mean that my Ministry of Works only has a handful of people, yet this year it has spent a thousand taels of silver?

The Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works was heartbroken. If the Ministry of Works were to be abolished, how could he possibly achieve any political accomplishments?
The Ministry of Works is a place that gets things done. Once a project under its supervision is successfully completed, it can usually earn a credit, and the benefits are substantial. The thought of restructuring makes him feel so heartbroken that he can hardly breathe.

The Minister of Works' expression changed several times. "I think the Cabinet's intention is to allow the Ministry of Works to act as a supervisor and even approve various projects in the future. The Ministry of Works still has a lot of power. After all, they are a merchant firm and cannot compete with the Six Ministries."

Upon hearing this, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works immediately said, "Grand Minister of Works, a local official is more powerful than a county official, and besides, the Ministry of Works is not the only department that can be under his jurisdiction."

In the past, we had jurisdiction over everything, and we decided how projects were built. But what about now?

We're only responsible for approving the project, calculating the price, and overseeing and accepting the work. The actual construction is completely none of our business; that's…”

That's the part with the most profit!

(End of this chapter)