Chapter 121: Money Law

Zhou Chen said: "The minister has not thought about this problem before, Your Majesty is a celestial person, and the saint is far away from the heavens, so that the minister has a foolishness." His Majesty's galloping road built for the coal of the West Mountain is really a sharp weapon of the country and the lifeblood of the imperial court. ”

"The minister was in the west of the city yesterday, observing for a day, and the minister looked at it, the carriages on the galloping road were driven by two horses, and the load could reach more than 1,000 catties, and it should be possible to travel one hundred and fifty miles a day."

"And from Nanjing to Beijing, it is only more than 3,000 miles, if a gallop road is repaired from Nanjing to Beijing, then 20 stones of grain from Nanjing to Beijing is only a month."

"Now the transportation is going to take years."

"There is still a lot of transportation between the north and the south, but it is even more difficult to transport from Beijing to the border pass, and the people either push wheelbarrows, or people resist horses, which is doubly difficult."

"If you go straight from Beijing to Datong, Xuanfu, Yulin, Ningxia, the farthest is only more than a thousand miles, although there are mountains and rivers that are difficult to cross, but it is enough to reduce the consumption of grain and grass a lot."

"As for how much it can be reduced, Chen has no accurate data for a while, and it is not easy to calculate, but the final plan is a lot less than now, and the loss is saved, which is enough to make up for the gap in opening the Chinese law."

"And Your Majesty wants to overhaul the water conservancy in Hebei, costing tens of millions, thinking that after a few years, Hebei will be the granary of the north, and the grain and grass on the nine sides of the country will be saved too much if it can be transported from Hebei. Therefore, what was given to the salt merchants at the beginning of the country should be taken back. ”

And the minister also said that the first thing for the court should be to replace money with silver. However, the state pays a regular tax every year, and the silver taels are only three or five million taels, but the taxes on salt, tea, and mining are only, even if the sea was opened last year, the sum is only about seven million taels. The imperial court silver is less than a last resort. ”

"If you can collect millions of taels more from the salt tax. It is enough to support the great work of Hebei, and it is also enough to complete the silver accounting of various taxes of the imperial court. ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "Zhou Qing's meaning, I know it, but this matter is very important, and it must be discussed by the important ministers of the lower court." ”

Zhu Qizhen knows very well that even if he is the emperor, it is impossible to decide such a major matter in a word, not to mention that there are too many interests involved.

I really thought that those big salt merchants had no way.

A salt merchant without a way to do something so big would not have been able to do it. Zhu Qizhen used a knife on the salt law, I don't know how many people's interests were touched, and even a considerable part of them were military.

After all, the disadvantages in the opening of the law cannot be done without the cooperation of someone in the army.

Such a big event has a lot of weight. It is impossible for Zhu Qizhen to listen to Zhou Chen's words. However, Zhu Qizhen heard Zhou Chen talk about treasure money several times, and an idea popped up in Zhu Qizhen's heart, saying: "Even if the banknote law is not good, can the imperial court only use silver taels?"

”

Zhou Chen thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, it's not that the imperial court must use silver taels, but that there is nothing else to use except silver taels?" ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "How do you say this? ”

Zhou Chen said: "Since the founding of this dynasty, during the Hongwu period, the money method was used first, so during the Hongwu period, it was the dynasty that minted the most money in our dynasty. It is probably more than 10,000 yuan, but from the last years of Hongwu, there is a shortage of money, and the imperial court is to issue money. ”

"Since then, the imperial court has not been enthusiastic about coinage, such as the Hongxi Dynasty, there are almost no copper coins in the world, even if it is the copper coins of the orthodox dynasty, it is estimated that there are not many."

"The money law is not good, and the people can't barter goods every day."

"Therefore the use of silver and gold became the choice of the people."

"The habit of using silver was actually prevalent in the pre-Yuan period. The money law is irretrievable, the gold is too expensive, the people all use silver, and the court wants to reorganize the money law, so naturally it can only use silver. ”

Zhu Qizhen sometimes sighs.

History has both chance and inevitability, and it is difficult for him to say whether the use of silver is inevitable or accidental.

The shortage of money was the most headache in the Song Dynasty, that is, there were not enough copper coins in the world, no matter how many were minted, it was like pouring into a well, and there was no splash at all.

In Zhu Qizhen's view, the Daming treasure banknote is like a large-scale credit currency experiment, and then it was messed up.

Before, everyone knew that the Daming treasure banknote was no longer good, and they were still trying to save one or two, but in the orthodox years, the government and the opposition agreed that the treasure banknote was hopeless.

Zhou Chen's opinion is not only his own opinion, but also represents the opinion of a considerable number of people.

The financial chaos caused by the lack of treasure money can no longer continue. Their choice, naturally, is the easiest way, which is to replace the position of treasure money with silver, which has been occupied by the people on an absolute scale.

But in Zhu Qizhen's view, this is extremely irresponsible. It's a huge step backwards. It's not impossible to use silver, at least mint it into silver coins.

This kind of monetary policy, which is simple because of its ugliness, can last for 600 years. Zhu Qizhen couldn't figure it out.

But Zhu Qizhen didn't want to continue, Zhu Qizhen said: "Since you want to abolish the treasure banknote, the imperial court will use silver, it's not impossible, but it's too troublesome to use silver taels." In particular, the matter of fire consumption is extremely troublesome. ”

"What does Your Majesty mean?" Zhou Chen was confused for a while.

I have to say that even though Zhou Chen was a first-class financial expert at that time, he didn't have much sense of the influence of fire consumption, after all, the matter of folding silver was only popular from him. As for the various developments of fire consumption after that, it was really unthinkable for Zhou Chen.

Zhu Qizhen said: "How about using silver money? ”

Zhou Chen's heart turned around, and he said secretly: "Your Majesty probably wants to get money and interest." Naturally, he had no intention of objecting, and immediately said: "Your Majesty's intentions, the minister understands, as long as Your Majesty gives the money sample, the Baoquan Bureau of the Household Department will definitely mint all the silver collected by the Household Department into silver coins." ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "How about the copper coin casting? ”

Zhou Chen said: "There is a shortage of copper, which is also one of the reasons why the imperial court has not minted much money since Hongwu. Therefore, since Hongwu, the imperial court rarely minted copper coins. It's just that the people lack money, and there are many private mints, so it's time to rectify it. ”

Zhu Qizhen also knows this, the really good copper materials are very lacking, just look at the Xuande furnace.

The reason why Xuande furnace is so famous is because Xuande furnace is made of the best copper material in the South Seas, after twelve refining, after the Ming Dynasty, there are few such copper materials, and there are few such losers.

This makes Xuande furnace a swan song.

However, talking to Zhou Chen is comfortable, and almost before Zhu Qizhen has made his words clear, Zhou Chen has understood.

Zhu Qizhen said: "After Zhou Qing went down, he wrote these two things into a book and presented them to me. ”

Zhou Chen said: "The minister understands. ”

Immediately, Zhou Chen said goodbye with a very good look.

Zhu Qizhen pushed away all the summons after that for a while. One by one, they thought silently.

For war, there was the change of civil fort first. Zhu Qizhen naturally didn't want to go to the palace in person. Therefore, the preparations he made for the Wa Thorn, one in the grain, and the entire Hebei water conservancy plan, almost all served this thing. A general, Meng Ying, Jiang Gui, Ren Li, Cao Yi, Yang Hong, Guo Deng, Fang Jin, these are all generals who have been tested, and they are generals who only emerged after Zhu Qizhen ascended the throne.

Generally speaking, Zhu Qizhen is closer, as for the British Duke Zhang Fu, the Duke of Chengguo Zhu Yong, and their representatives of the old noble forces, there is no one who can't fight at all.

In fact, Zhu Qizhen even has an illusion sometimes.

This delusion is that he clearly knows that there are actually many problems in the Ming army. However, on the other hand, in the foreign war, it did not show much weakness.

Whether it is the Battle of the Northwest or the Battle of Luchuan. Whether it is Adai Khan or Si Renli, as long as they dare to fight with the main force of the Ming Dynasty, then the outcome is already doomed.

Overall, Zhu Qizhen did not feel that the Ming army was weaker than the tile spurs. It's just that it's a little passive in cavalry.

As long as the problem of money is solved, there is enough money for the war. There was enough logistical support, and he didn't believe that he couldn't beat it.

Therefore, he even put down the situation of water conservancy in Hebei for a while, and looked at some rules and regulations such as the Chinese law, the salt law, the money law, and the previous imperial court's notes on these systems.