Chapter 136: Money

How much is one tael of silver equal to?

This is a very unsolvable question.

If according to the lowest grain price at this time in the Ming Dynasty, one tael of silver can be sold for four stones of grain, and one stone of grain is ninety-two kilograms, that is, three hundred and sixty-eight kilograms.

Twenty-five kilograms of flour on Taobao are about 100 yuan. I erased the fraction and rounded it up, and it was only fifteen hundred dollars.

Even if we ignore the refined grains and coarse grains, the grain prices of the Ming Dynasty have not been maintained at the level of 250 wen and one stone for a long time. This estimate is also quite unreliable.

Not to mention anything else, in many records of the Ming Dynasty, a servant was only a few taels of silver. Many people have two or three taels of silver to marry a wife. The courtyard houses in Beijing are only a few dozen taels of silver. Some people have already complained that housing prices are vacating, and it is not easy to live in a big place.

Therefore, the value of silver is still very high, especially before the large inflow of overseas silver, the value is even higher. It was depreciated all the way to the end of the Ming Dynasty.

The so-called Wanguan family wealth is calculated as copper coins, and if it is converted into silver, it is only ten thousand taels, or even less.

Many of the extremely poor people in the Ming Dynasty have never seen silver, and as for the practice of hanging up a thousand silver coins, no matter how many local tyrants will not do it.

Zhou Chen suddenly realized and said, "Shengming is nothing but Your Majesty. The minister will change it. ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "In this case, the silver of these two Huai is sent to the Beijing Division, and the household department is responsible for minting silver coins. Let's talk about it later. ”

Zhou Chen said: "Yes." ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "From now on, the imperial court will no longer issue treasure banknotes, and all the treasure banknotes converted to hundreds of officials will be put into silver coins. This is customized. ”

Zhou Chen said: "The ministers of the capital thank Your Majesty. ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "I have suffered a hundred officials over the years. I also know about this matter, but it is only that the imperial court is in financial difficulties now, and today I have obtained this windfall, so I dare to do this, and I must let the officials know the hardships of the imperial court. ”

Yang Pu secretly said in his heart: "In this way, if you dare to say a good word about the salt merchants, you will be attacked by the group." Your Majesty's weight is very appropriate. ”

Da Ming Yulu is meager, and this thing seems to be passed on as the truth. But in general, Emperor Taizu is not the kind of emperor who must starve to death of hundreds of officials.

He is very pragmatic.

The smallest official among the hundred officials, Jiupin, is not even in the stream, and under his arrangement, it is actually enough to support the family. Of course, it's also true that it's not high.

But how did the Ming officials' fortunes come step by step to the point where they are absolutely insufficient.

First of all, there is the treasure banknote.

It was as if the imperial court used a treasure money that was hard to wipe the buttocks to buy salt from the stove household, and the imperial court also used this thing to replace a part of the officials' money, and it is said that for a while it was all of it

Instead, the treasure money was worthless later, and became a part of the treasure money, and the rest of the money and grain.

And in the Orthodox years, this was the situation.

But the treasure banknote is the legal tender of the Ming Dynasty, even if the whole world knows that the treasure banknote can not be used, but the court decision-making on the treasure banknote is still money, even if the folk one or two hundred treasure banknotes can only be exchanged for a few hundred copper plates, but in the calculation of the imperial court, the treasure banknote has always been a thousand copper coins.

In this case, the Ming officials' originally low salaries were discounted.

As for the later officials, the pomp and circumstance became bigger and bigger, the expenses increased greatly, the silver flowed in a large amount, and even the silver was worthless, and the prices soared.

Therefore, Zhu Qizhen's order, on the one hand, is to let the treasure banknote be coldly treated, and the court will not say that it will be abolished, but from now on, the court will no longer use it, and within a few years, this treasure banknote will be launched into the circulation field.

In fact, almost all of them have quit now.

On the other hand, it is also a general salary increase for hundreds of officials, especially Beijing officials.

When Emperor Xuanzong was there, he realized that there were too few officials, especially Beijing officials, after all, the local officials still had some extra money, but the Beijing officials did not have them.

Emperor Xuanzong also thought about raising his salary at that time. But in the end, he did not dare to change the ancestral system easily, however, Emperor Xuanzong's approach was not to increase salaries, but to increase bonuses.

So, the court celebrates the festival, the court pays bonuses, wins the battle, and the court pays bonuses, but the prince is born, and the court pays bonuses.

Sometimes with a stroke of the pen, it is a year's worth for these Beijing officials.

After Xuanzong's death, the Empress Dowager was more picky. The days of happy bonuses before are gone.

But the problem remains.

In terms of the ancestral system, Zhu Qizhen didn't dare to do it easily, so he just learned from Emperor Xuanzong and patched it. Treasure money is exchanged for silver. It has only returned to the level of the Hongwu period.

Generally speaking, from Hongwu to the orthodox years, the Ming Dynasty has recovered step by step, and various basic prices have been lower. Therefore, Zhu Qizhen estimated that if all the treasure banknotes were exchanged for silver, the purchasing power of Ming officials should be a little more generous than that during the Hongwu period.

After this adjustment, Zhu Qizhen will not be ready to move for a long time in the future.

Yang Pu said: "Your Majesty intends to mint money, but there is one thing, but it must be dealt with, that is, if all the things about minting money are given to the Ministry of Households, then the Baoquan Bureau of the Ministry of Industry, how should it be good?" ”

Zhu Qizhen remembered when he heard this. Daming has two minting agencies, a Baoquan Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and a Baoyuan Bureau of the Ministry of Households, in fact, the two yamen are responsible for the same thing, which is to mint money.

Zhu Qizhen said: "In the future, the Ministry of Industry will be responsible for copper coins, and the Ministry of Households will be responsible for silver coins, and neither of them will be disturbed. ”

To tell the truth, Zhu Qizhen faced more than 10 million taels of silver from salt merchants,

The eyes are a little red. He made a profound review, that is, although the Ming court did not have silver.

But that doesn't mean that there is no silver in the people.

As long as the imperial court tightens its control over the people, this endless stream of money will come over.

In essence, this salt law reform is a national advance and a retreat.

And Zhu Qizhen paid attention to coinage, which naturally made Jinyiwei do some investigation, and as a result, Jinyiwei presented it in one go, I don't know how many versions of orthodox Tongbao.

Zhu Qizhen immediately looked at this kind of person who dared to make private money. Naturally, I want to go under the knife on this.

Yang Pu said: "Your Majesty, the imperial court has always been concerned about the matter of casting private money, and the matter of casting private money is not as good as private salt, and the matter of private salt, you only need to hold the salt field, you can do it from beginning to end, and capture it in one fell swoop, but private money is all over the world, hidden in the mountains, it is really difficult to catch." ”

"And there are frequent big cases in the world, how do people in the world think of Your Majesty?"

Zhu Qizhen listened to it and said: "I understand what Mr. means, but today I issued an edict to reiterate the order prohibiting the minting of private money, and the worst thing is death." ”

What Yang Pu said is actually two things, one is the administrative cost.

The reason why the Lianghuai salt case is so easy this time is because it is impossible not to collude with the government for selling illicit salt, otherwise where would their illicit salt come from.

But minting money is different.

Whether it is mining privately or minting money with copperware, it has never been high-tech, and they do it privately, who can know?

If the whole world is tracked, not to mention how many people are sent, even after sending people, it will be clear that you must know that those who dare to mint private money in various places are first-class tigers.

is the 21st century, isn't there anyone who dares to mess with CCTV reporters, and the emperor is far away, even if it is Jinyiwei, he is the oldest

Directly killed and buried in the mountains, who knows?

Even if the imperial court tracks it down, they may not dare to occupy the mountain as a king and become a bandit.

You must know that many of the bandits exterminated by this dynasty have been inherited for hundreds of years, so it is not for nothing that this bandit nest has been inherited longer than the emperor's time.

Even if the Ming Dynasty was strong during the orthodox period, it was impossible to ban bandits.

The second is Zhu Qizhen's reputation among the people.

After all, whether it is the people or Shilin, they all like Renjun, and you don't see how badly Song Renzong fought in Western Xia, but even now everyone still likes Song Renzong. Even now, everyone prefers a benevolent leader rather than an iron fist.

If Zhu Qizhen comes one big case after another, no matter how you look at it, it is not Renjun's style.

This kind of reputational loss may seem unimportant, but in many cases, it is still very important, after all, the people can't get in touch with the emperor, all they can hear is fame.