Jingtai: Making the Ming Dynasty Great Again

Chapter 144 Bond Maturity

On the 16th day of the 10th month of the first year of the Jingtai reign, at the third quarter of the hour of Chen (7:45 AM).

The candlelight in the back hall of the Ministry of Revenue had just gone out.

Li Xian rubbed his sore eyes, picked up the teacup beside him, and took a sip.

The tea had long since gone cold, but he frowned and still swallowed it.

There were three stacks of account books piled on the table.

The thinnest stack in the middle contains the ledgers for the war bonds issued last year.

In September of the fourteenth year of the Zhengtong reign, the Ministry of Revenue was ordered to issue war bonds.

The face value is divided into five grades: one tael, five taels, ten taels, fifty taels, and one hundred taels, with an annual interest rate of five percent and a term of one year.

A total of 8,643 notes were issued, amounting to 800,000 taels of silver.

Among them, those who exchanged bonds for confiscated land and shops amounted to 210,000 taels of silver.

Those who used bonds to pay taxes amounted to 90,000 taels of silver.

The two items, totaling 300,000 taels, have been written off from the bond ledger.

There are more than 5,300 remaining bonds, worth 500,000 taels of silver.

According to the articles of association, these bonds will mature gradually starting this month.

Creditors can take the certificates to the Ministry of Revenue to redeem them for cash.

Li Xian picked up his pen and drew a line under "500,000 taels".

He then opened the stack of account books on the left.

This is the inventory record of this year's autumn grain entering the warehouse.

This year's autumn grain harvest totaled 6.2 million taels of silver.

With the four million taels of surplus from the summer harvest, the grain stored in Taicang is now worth 10.2 million taels of silver.

It looks like a lot.

However, if you look at it together with the ledger on the right, it's not the same story.

This ledger is the budget for expenditures over the next eight months.

The period will last eight months, from this month until the summer harvest in May next year.

Items that must be paid within eight months:

Military pay for the nine border regions, official salaries, and stipends for members of the imperial family —

The total amount required is 10.85 million taels.

However, the only taxes collected in these eight months were miscellaneous items such as commercial tax, salt tax, and tea tax, totaling a maximum of 1.5 million taels.

Li Xian leaned back in his chair, looking up at the roof beams.

This year's expenses are too high.

In particular, His Majesty's policies in the second half of the year were too expensive.

Firearms were replaced, especially as the Ministry of Works developed new granular gunpowder.

Correspondingly, all firearms and cannons need to be reproduced.

There was also the army, although the garrison was being reorganized.

However, it was impossible to recruit enough military households in a short period of time.

Many people still harbored doubts about the imperial court and were unwilling to become military households.

In order to maintain the army's combat effectiveness, the imperial court also had to allocate a large sum of money to recruit "contract soldiers," which is a form of conscription.

Since there are not enough soldiers to cultivate the land, the imperial court has to allocate funds for military rations.

This cycle continues, and now the military expenditure of the Ming Dynasty is an extremely alarming figure.

It appears that the imperial court's tax revenue for the entire year will reach 17 million taels.

This number is almost the same as the one two years ago.

However, the actual surplus of the Ministry of Revenue was only about 850,000 taels of silver.

850,000 taels sounds like a lot.

But that was eight months' worth of reserve funds.

What if the Yellow River breaches its banks?

What if the Oirat invade again?

What if there's a disaster somewhere?

Eighty-five hundred thousand taels is really a tight budget.

There are still 500,000 taels of bonds to be redeemed.

In peaceful times, the Ministry of Revenue would grit its teeth and release the funds.

But now—

The door to the back room was pushed open.

Li Xian looked up and saw Jin Lian walk in: "Minister Jin? You've arrived so early?"

Jin Lian was wearing a slightly worn blue robe.

He walked to the desk and glanced at the account books: "It's getting late, it's already dawn. You didn't go home all night?"

Li Xian smiled wryly: "I can't sleep. The more I think about these things, the more awake I become."

Jin Lian sat down on the chair next to him: "Where are we at in the calculations?"

Li Xian pushed the three stacks of account books forward: "In the next eight months, the available grain and silver in Taicang will amount to only 850,000 taels."

The bonds are now due and I need to pay out 500,000.

If all 500,000 taels of bonds are redeemed, Taicang will only have 350,000 taels left.

Three hundred and fifty thousand taels, eight months.

In case anything happens—”

He didn't continue.

The back room fell silent for a moment.

After a long silence, Jin Lian finally spoke: "Pay! We must pay! But not all of it."

Li Xian was completely confused by Jin Lian's explanation. What did it mean to exchange but not to exchange everything?

Kim Yeon began to explain: "It's about increasing interest rates to encourage some people to continue holding the bonds."

Once these two years are over, the financial pressure will lessen.

There won't be any problem exchanging them all then.

Then Jin Lian explained some more details, and Li Xian's eyes lit up when he heard them. He was surprised that this was actually possible.

A few days later, Jin Lian and others were handling affairs at the Ministry of Revenue when a clerk burst in: "Minister Jin! Vice Minister Li! Something has happened at the front gate!"

Li Xian frowned: "What is it?"

The clerk said, "A lot of people have come to the bond exchange point, saying they want to redeem their bonds."

There were only a dozen or so at first, but now there are at least fifty or sixty, and the number is still increasing!

Jin Lian stood up and said, "Let's go take a look."

Qianmen Street, the Ministry of Revenue bond exchange point.

This is a three-bay shop with a plaque hanging at the entrance that reads "Ministry of Revenue Official Silver Exchange Office".

Since the bond issuance last year, this place has been dedicated to handling bond subscriptions and transfers.

A few days ago, the bonds began to mature, and people started coming to redeem their money.

However, not many people came, and there haven't been long queues in the past few days.

However, a long queue had formed at the entrance.

Jin Lian and the others walked through the street and entered the exchange point.

Inside, there were three counters, and two clerks were busy at work.

Several boxes were placed on the counter, and the boxes were filled with gleaming silver.

After each person was transferred, the clerk would have him sign and affix his seal to the account book.

Then he took the silver out of the box and counted it in front of everyone.

Everything was in perfect order.

But Jin Lian noticed that the people at the very front of the line were dressed in unusual ways.

The leader was a fat man in his forties, wearing a silk robe.

Jin Lian walked up to him and cupped his hands in greeting: "What is your surname, sir?"

The fat man glanced back at him and, seeing that he was an old man in a worn-out blue robe, said impatiently, "His surname is Liu, and he runs a grain shop outside Chongwen Gate."

Are you here to redeem bonds too? Get in line at the back.

Jin Lian smiled and asked, "Manager Liu, how many bonds do you have on hand?"

Liu Datong shook the cloth bag in his hand: "Not much, five hundred taels."

Last year, the imperial court issued bonds, and I, Liu, believed in the court and bought five hundred taels in one go.

Now that the contract has matured, come and redeem the silver.

Jin Lian nodded: "Manager Liu is a straightforward man; he can get the five hundred taels back in no time."

Liu Datong snorted: "It would be best if we could redeem them. I heard that the Ministry of Revenue is out of money right now, and the bonds are going to become worthless."

I've come today to see if the imperial court truly keeps its word.

Jin Lian didn't reply, but simply nodded and walked to the side.

The procession was moving forward slowly.

Half an hour later, it was Liu Datong's turn.

He placed the cloth bag on the counter; inside were three bonds worth one hundred taels and four bonds worth fifty taels.

The clerk took the bond and examined it carefully.

Examine the paper, the printed text, the serial number, the seal across the seam, and the secret code/mark.

He checked for a full fifteen minutes before looking up: "Manager Liu, the bonds are correct. Do you wish to cash them out or continue holding them?"

Liu Datong was taken aback: "Can it still be held?"