Ming Dynasty: I am truly not the Emperor of Longevity

After being granted the title of Prince of Ying, Lu Chen was able to easily obtain accurate information about the Ming Dynasty's financial revenue.

In the seventeenth year of the Jiajing reign, the annual revenue of the Taicang Silver Treasury of the Ministry of Revenue of the Ming Dynasty was about two million taels of silver. This was the cash silver actually controlled by the central treasury and was mainly used to pay military salaries and wages.

In addition, there was approximately one million taels of gold and silver.

The so-called "golden flower silver" refers to the silver equivalent of tax grain from Jiangnan, which was used for royal expenses and was not under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue's granary.

The imperial court's total annual cash revenue was only around three million taels.

In addition, there were approximately 26 million shi of in-kind tax grain last year, which constituted the largest portion of fiscal revenue. Most of it remained locally, while a small portion was transported to the capital via the Grand Canal.

If converted into silver according to the Ministry of Revenue's standard of three qian of silver per shi, these tax grains would be worth 7.8 million taels of silver.

The nation's fiscal revenue, converted to silver, amounted to only 10.8 million taels.

Of these, 9.8 million taels belonged to the national treasury, and 1 million taels were received by the imperial treasury.

Although Lu Chen had lived hundreds of years in another dimension, he could not possibly know the financial situation of the Ming Dynasty in different periods; he only knew data from some key moments.

After Zhang Juzheng's reforms were fully implemented, the amount of land taxable nationwide surged from 400 million mu to 700 million mu through a new land survey.

The extra 300 million mu were lands hidden by powerful and wealthy families in various regions.

At the same time, the implementation of the Single Whip Law nationwide, which combined taxes and corvée labor and levied taxes based on land area, greatly simplified the collection process.

National fiscal revenue has increased several times over.

In the tenth year of the Wanli reign, the Ministry of Revenue's cash income from the Taicang granary reached 4.36 million taels, while the national treasury expenditure that year was 3.51 million taels, resulting in an annual national treasury surplus of 850,000 taels.

It was precisely because of the significant improvement in the imperial court's financial situation that the Wanli Emperor's prosperous reign lasted for decades.

Judging from these data, it seems that Zhang Juzheng's reforms were indeed a good solution to save the Ming Dynasty's dire financial situation.

However, if one were to see other sets of data, one might not think that way.

Portugal and Spain, the two earliest empires on which the sun never sets, had more fiscal revenue than the Ming Dynasty!

During the Jiajing reign, the Portuguese earned between three and four million taels of silver annually from maritime trade, approaching the revenue of the imperial granary during the Wanli reign.

Although Spain was not yet as powerful as Portugal at this time, it would not be long before the Spanish discovered three super silver mines in the Americas.

The earliest developed silver mine in Bolivia, Potosí, reached its peak production capacity during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, with an annual output of about 6.8 million taels of silver.

The other two Mexican super silver mines were developed slightly later, but even so, their combined annual output during the Wanli era reached about five million taels.

Their production capacity truly reached its peak during the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty.

The Zacatecas silver mine has an annual output of seven million taels, while the Guanajuato super silver mine has an astonishing annual output of thirteen million taels.

These three super silver mines in the Americas were all discovered in the mid-Jiajing period, which is only a few years ago!

Before long, massive amounts of American silver, several times more than the revenue of the Ming Dynasty's national treasury, will flow into the Ming Dynasty every year via the Manila Galleon.

Compared to the three super-large silver mines in the Americas, Japan's Iwami Silver Mine, which produces millions of taels of silver annually, pales in comparison.

Those who took the biggest slice of the pie were the participants in the maritime trade.

Just how much has the most powerful maritime trading group in the East China Sea acquired?

There is a lack of data to support the exact amount of income of Wang Zhi, the first overlord of the East China Sea and owner of the Wufeng Ship.

However, judging from his ability to support an armed force of tens of thousands of people, he should not be much worse than Zheng Zhilong later on.

Before accepting Xiong Tingbi's offer of amnesty, Zheng Zhilong commanded a navy of over 30,000 men.

The Zheng family not only operated their own maritime trade, but also levied "protection fees" at sea through their powerful fleet, amounting to as much as three thousand taels of silver per ship per year.

While there is no precise figure for the exact annual income, scholars generally believe it exceeded ten million taels of silver, and there is also evidence to support this.

In the second year of the Longwu reign of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the Qing army captured Anping and seized a huge amount of gold and silver treasures from Zheng Zhilong's mansion.

The gold alone amounted to over 900,000 taels, and the silver to over 10 million taels.

The various jewels also exceeded ten thousand taels.

It's not that these jewels are worth 10,000 taels of silver or gold, but that there are so many high-value jewels like pearls and gemstones that they are impossible to count and can only be weighed directly!

The Zheng family also stored up to hundreds of thousands of shi (a unit of dry measure) of grain in Anping.

The total value of the wealth seized by the Qing army from the Zheng family's old residence in Anping was at least over 30 million taels of silver.

This is just the reported figure. Everyone knows what kind of people the Qing army was; who knows how many others were lining their own pockets.

Is this all the Zheng family has to offer?

In the fifth year of the Yongli reign of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the Qing army captured Xiamen and seized a large amount of gold and silver jewelry, worth more than ten million taels of silver!

At this time, the head of the Zheng family was Zheng Sen, the eldest son of Zheng Zhilong.

After being robbed twice, did the Zheng family fall into ruin?

not at all!

Eight years after the plundering of Xiamen, Zheng Sen led an army of 200,000 men to attack the mouth of the Yangtze River by sea and won the Yinshan Victory in Zhenjiang, almost annihilating the elite Qing army led by Guan Xiaozhong, the Jiangning Admiral.

The First Battle destroyed the main Qing army forces surrounding Nanjing, completing the encirclement of Nanjing.

This is also the last chance for the Southern Ming to turn the tide!

Unfortunately, Zheng Sen made a major battlefield mistake, which led to a crushing defeat at the gates of Nanjing. He was forced to lead his remaining troops out to sea from the mouth of the Yangtze River and retreat back to Xiamen.

But just two years later, Zheng Sen was able to mobilize tens of thousands of troops again to recover Taiwan from the Dutch.

In the years leading up to the recapture of Taiwan, the Zheng family's annual military expenditure reached a staggering five million taels, several times more than the three to four million taels of military expenditure per year during the peak of the Guan Ning Army at the end of the Ming Dynasty!

Similarly, it far exceeded the national treasury revenue of the Ming Dynasty's Taicang during the Jiajing and even Wanli reigns.

At this time, the entire coastal area of ​​the mainland had fallen into the hands of the Qing government, with only Li Dingguo in the southwest and the thirteen families of Kuidong still struggling to survive. The Zheng family's enormous military expenditures relied entirely on income from maritime trade.

The phrase "wealth comparable to a nation" is not an adjective used to describe the Zheng family, but rather a factual description, without any exaggeration!

At that time in the Ming Dynasty, no one could imagine how wealthy the most powerful merchant in the East China Sea could be.

Lu Chen stood up and walked towards the private room where Chen Yunniang was.

The Ming Dynasty was riddled with internal problems, and reforms faced enormous resistance. Even if he were to implement reforms with an iron fist, like Zhang Juzheng in another timeline, he would only be repeating the old path that the Ming Dynasty had taken.

To truly break the deadlock, simply relying on reforms and implementing new policies is not enough!

What these vested interest groups in China are really guarding against is nothing more than the meager profits from the land!

Once I've swallowed the biggest piece of the East Asian maritime trade pie, I'll show these people what a devastating blow looks like!

Pushing open the door to the private room, Chen Yunniang bowed deeply to Lu Chenying.

"My lord, Yunniang is willing to choose the second path."