The capital of the public government in the Tang Dynasty was naturally the usury of the government, and the government selected a part of the high-ranking households under its rule to distribute the capital, and collected profits month by month, generally six or seven cents of interest. This part of the income is generally distributed as the welfare of officials, such as monthly materials and taxes.

Usury is a profiteering industry, and if it is also a government business, it is even more profitable, and there is no risk at all. But even so, in many places, including in the Kyoto Baishi, there is often a phenomenon of insufficient profit and even a deficit in capital.

This phenomenon is nothing more than a few situations, either the officials in charge of the affairs are enriching their own pockets, or the government is colluding with the rich households, and those who are affected by the former rich households act as middlemen and forcibly distribute their capital to the poor households, and those poor households rely on nothing more than farming and weaving for a small income, and they themselves bear many heavy burdens such as rent and mediocrity, and then they are forcibly assigned, and they will naturally go bankrupt.

In either case, it reflects that the government-run usury has its own institutional defects. So can it be scrapped directly?

It really can't be abolished, first, this part of the income is an important supplementary part of the government's normal tax collection, second, the government can also use this to clamp down on the rich households under its rule, and third, usury does have the basis for its existence at the moment, even if the government withdraws from this market, it will naturally be powerful people, wealthy families, temples, etc. to join in and compete for the market.

Of course, there is a fundamental reason, that is, it is easy to go from thrift to luxury, and it is difficult to go from luxury to thrift. Extravagant pleasure has become a habit, and the interests of the entire bureaucracy are at stake, and it is not easy to abolish them outright.

It was not for a while that Li Tong set his sights on the capital of the official government, and he had such an idea since a very early on. One is that this matter itself is a miscellaneous matter other than military and political affairs, the second is that there are many goods and personnel involved, and there is a lot of room for maneuver, and the third is also related to a matter of his grandmother's heart.

Although the capital of the public party has a long history, it is not very important. As early as the reign of Gaozong Yonghui, it was stopped for a time, but soon after, with Gaozong's raiding of the border areas and the construction of the eastern capital, he was unable to cope with this part of the additional expenses, so he could only give up control, and during this period, it also spread rapidly from the original Baisi in Beijing to the local area.

During the Yifeng period in the later period of Gaozong, his condition became more and more serious, and Wu Zetian, who was still the queen of heaven at that time, also became more and more authoritarian, and the contradiction with the crown prince Li Xian became deeper and deeper.

Under such circumstances, Wu Zetian started to pay for the capital of the public party and turned to pay by increasing household tax, the purpose of which was naturally to concentrate this part of the power in his hands. If you want to make people obedient, of course, you have to grab their money bags first.

But this situation did not last long, with Xu Jingye and Yue Wang Li Zhen rebelling one after another, and the pace of the Tang Revolution became more and more urgent, in order to stabilize the situation of the people's hearts, it was necessary to thin the people's endowment, but also to reward the hundred officials, miscellaneous money, and at the same time to build a large scale and hold ceremonies, this ban can only be released again.

Therefore, when Li Tong proposed that the capital of the public party could be included in the imperial court, Wu Zetian was so interested that he even put on a shameless attitude. Although she is the lord of the world, she is also trapped by money at the moment, and she is a little irritable to chop her hands.

"The capital of the prefectures and counties is different, ranging from tens to thousands, although the amount is not large, but if you look at it in summary, there are hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you don't judge the distance and the center, the leg power of the states will be doubled! ”

Wu Zetian nodded after hearing this, and his eyes lit up at the same time.

For example, there are differences between the inside and outside of the capital placed today, and there are many official offices between the two capitals, so the capital of the public party is large, and there are more than 200,000 yuan.

Specifically in the local area, the official party is scattered and not centralized, and in addition to the capital of the public party, there are other kinds of capital, such as boats, vehicles, bridges, relief, etc., which are ignored in case of trouble.

The young king's estimate of tens of thousands of yuan is actually conservative, and if you talk about the total amount of public money, I am afraid that three million yuan will not be stopped. The amount of rent collected by the imperial court on the anniversary is only worth more than two million. In recent years, although there have been new losses to offset the tax, and all kinds of servants can pay money to serve on their behalf, but the income is only between one million yuan.

Although the number is very large, because it is all over the world, it is really difficult to transport, and if you want to manage it as a whole, the difficulty is even higher than that of her heroine.

But now the flying money bill created by Shaowang can offset the freight to negligible. Although the states did not have to leave the country for their money, the imperial court deprived them of the right to manage the money with this piece of paper.

Although Wu Zetian does not have too advanced financial concepts, he is by no means an ordinary person who is staring at money and real things, if he can deprive the states of the right to manage the capital in the form of a legal order, she is still afraid that the states will violate the law and still lend money privately?

Of course, money does not leave the country also needs to consider how to manage revenue, originally these matters are in the states and counties, if you build a special team for this matter, not to mention how efficient, the cost of employment is also a nerve-wracking problem.

However, she didn't rush to ask, but stared at the young king with interest.

"The number of flying money remittances is itself detached from the money capital. If you want to use its power well, you must use things as a load. The standing positions set up by the states are sufficient for this purpose. ”

Li Tong's tone was slow, because as he spoke, he had to sort out his thoughts. The flying money bill is simply that there must be corresponding money or things if there is a ticket, if not, it is a piece of waste paper.

As for credit money, in the present era, it is too advanced in terms of dominating technology, the commodity economy, and the basic development of productive forces. Not to mention using paper as money, even the new money made during the reign of Gojong could not be circulated because of its simplicity and crudeness.

Flying money bills and credit money are two concepts in themselves, so they must be supported by physical objects. Rebuilding a network can be costly and unpredictable. However, the standing liquidation system has been around for a long time, and if the two are operated in parallel, then there is a material basis for the ticket line in the world.

When Wu Zetian heard this, he couldn't help but clap his hands and exclaimed: "Wonderful, really wonderful!" ”

Isn't that wonderful? The combination of bills of exchange and standing positions only solves a basic exchange problem. Although Chang Ping is relatively independent of the jurisdiction of the local government, it is not a profit-making organization in itself, and in fact it does not fundamentally solve the fact that money and grain are still in the local government.

"For the purpose of money and goods, it can be attached to the Tugong of Zhuzhou and imported into Gyeonggi, and the amount can be increased according to the current price of the capital. The state is above with tribute, and the imperial court is at the bottom with flying money bills. ”

Nowadays, financial behavior cannot be separated from the physical carrier. The so-called Tugong is the local specialties contributed by each of them in addition to the regular tax, which are cheap in the township and rare outside.

If the local government is allowed to pay the local government at the current price in the capital, it can offset the resistance of the local officials to the greatest extent.

This is equivalent to the fact that they only need to actually take out a few thousand or even less money to redeem tens of thousands of tickets here in the imperial court, but the premise is that you have to be obedient, otherwise, you won't even get a hair.

When Wu Zetian heard this, his brows furrowed slightly at first, and then stretched out after a while. After all, she is not a market woman who lives a few meters, and compared to the amount of wealth, she actually attaches more importance to the psychological control of those magistrates through this exchange.

But she still couldn't help but ask: "Although the various kinds of things mentioned can be called good, they are not involved in profit after all. The capital set by the states is related to the food and clothing of the bureaucrats, if there is no sufficient remuneration, how can they meet the needs of hundreds of officials? ”

Li Tong was naturally stunned when he heard this question, and continued to laugh: "The special office set up by the imperial court naturally can't just collect it. The tribute paid by the states can be easily sold in the market. Although it is only the current price, the capital has been collected, and the huge wealth accumulated from this can be done calmly. ”

"Go on."

Wu Zetian's eyes were bright, and he raised his hand to urge with a curious expression.

The capital of the states has been collected through such twists and turns, and Li Tong does not intend to directly invest these capital in market trading activities. On the one hand, the quantity is too large and difficult to operate, and on the other hand, it has a government-run background and strong capital.

"After that, the revenue will be calculated, and whether it is feasible or not needs to be corrected by His Majesty."

He was humble at first, because the next thing he wanted to say was something that offended people: "In the Jingbai Division, there are many extraneous benefits in addition to the ministry. For example, the horses fed in the stables of the driving department, although the horses that died of illness were skinned in the Sifu Temple, the meat was easy to use in the market and not for official use. Hundreds of years of checks, the remnants of the treasury are missing. The local criminal department pursued the stolen goods and redressed the stolen goods, and the sentence was light in order to seek self-concealment. There are many piles and piles, and they cannot be counted. ”

What Li Tong said is all the shortcomings of the current officialdom. The ancients were never stupid, and some small deeds in officialdom for thousands of years have long been thought through. For example, the year-end audit surprise spending budget and the like are quite slippery.

Tang Law stipulates that only stolen money that exceeds a certain amount needs to be handed over to the central government, and within a certain amount, it is reserved for local use. Naturally, some people take advantage of such loopholes in the law and deliberately depress the value when valuing the stolen goods, which can not only reduce the culpability of the criminals, but also keep the stolen goods in place.

"If these extraneous benefits are placed in the capital department, the so-called collection of armpits into a fur, the annual surplus will be long, and it will also make the officials honest and ......."

With so much money in his hands, bullying the common people is not called a skill, and if he wants to do it, he will run the government.

When Wu Zetian heard this, the smile on his face was already great, and he pointed at the young king and nodded again and again, which showed that he was extremely satisfied. After a while, she said again: "Recently, I have been living in the inner garden, and I have come to discuss matters with your grandmother. You don't need to worry about everything outside, and you don't need to ask about it! ”

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