On the seventh day of the third month, the Imperial Finance Council, which had been expected by many people, was finally held in the Fengtian Temple, and although the participants in this meeting seemed to be a large number of black pressures, only high-ranking officials of the Executive Yuan, the Privy Council, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate could participate, and other officials below the ministerial level were not qualified to participate in this important meeting at all.

As the sound of a bell rang out, the clansmen, ministers, nobles and scholars present clasped their fists at the same time, praising the emperor long live, which was the prelude to the meeting.

Ning Yu sat on the dragon chair, looking at the ministers standing below, he was very keenly aware of the strange atmosphere among the people, and couldn't help but smile slightly on his face at the moment, it seems that these ministers have finally grown a little...... I finally began to understand the real play of party fighting.

Speaking of which, there are already faint seedlings of party strife in Ning Chu today, the cabinet is mainly the dispute between the first assistant and the second assistant, and outside the cabinet is the dispute between the cabinet and the Privy Council.

Whether it is a real gun and a real knife fight, or a fake performance, at least the court can't show a lot of harmony, the old foxes have long been well versed in this set, so even Ning Yu had a headache before.

In Ning Yu's view, party struggle is really an inevitable thing, and a benign struggle is more conducive to the pure bureaucratic ranks, and a group of harmony will only breed a pool of stagnant water, but how to fight needs to pay attention to rules and regulations, otherwise the whole country will be really damaged.

Fight but not break, harmony but difference. This is what Ningyu really wants to achieve, and it is also the ultimate direction of the future development of the government.

"Let's get started."

The first to stand up is naturally the cabinet chief assistant Ning Zhongjing, in recent days, he has somewhat reflected on his failure to keep up with the rhythm of the emperor, so he is also quite attentive to this court meeting, hoping to make a good start in the second year of innovation, after all, the emperor has revealed some ideas, that is, the future cabinet will achieve a term system.

In the cabinet under the tenure system, the first assistant and the second assistant are no longer just because of the emperor's likes and dislikes, but will be limited by the system, the first assistant will serve for five years, and the maximum will be two consecutive terms, that is, the first assistant can only be replaced for ten years at most.

In addition, there is an age limit for cabinet ministers and ministers of the Privy Council, and those over 70 will be compulsory.

The purpose of Ningyu in formulating these systems is not only to avoid the emergence of powerful ministers at the root, but also to ensure the normal flow of officials, as well as to make officials younger.

You must know that in the coming era, the whole country will undergo unprecedented changes, and it will not be a blessing for the country if the old-thinking officials occupy high positions for a long time.

Through these systems, Ning Yu can completely change the blood of the entire government smoothly, without worrying about the situation that the tail will not fall, of course, the premise of these system reforms is naturally that Ning Yu has firmly held the military power in his hands, and no one can shake in the slightest.

Because of this, Ning Zhongjing was more or less worried in his heart, hoping to keep up with the emperor's pace, at least not to go against the emperor anymore - he glanced around at the other ministers, and he had already prepared a draft in his heart before he slowly spoke.

"Colleagues, today's Imperial Council meeting is to discuss the issue of spending for the whole year, and the chief officials of the various ministries have drawn up the budget proposal for this year and submitted it to the Cabinet for centralized deliberation, which will be put forward by the Cabinet at the Imperial Council meeting today."

Hearing what Ning Zhongjing said, Ning Zhongyi also spoke as a privy envoy of the Privy Council: "The Privy Council has also collected budget proposals from various military ministries, and will submit this year's military expenses before the imperial meeting. ”

When these two bigwigs spoke before and after, they were followed by Li Fu, the left capital of the Imperial Procuratorate, and Zhengqing of Dali Temple, who also said something similar, which was the prelude to the imperial meeting.

"The plans submitted by the yamen of the various ministries will be agreed on today and tomorrow, but I have taken a cursory look at the budgets submitted by the various ministries, including the expenditures of industry and commerce, education, transportation, administration, and other aspects, about 22 million taels of silver, and the conditions are all important matters, so I really can't save it.......

Before Ning Yu finished speaking, his eyes had already glanced at the ministers, and he saw that the expressions of the ministers in the cabinet were slightly relaxed, while the expressions of the top military leaders represented by Ning Zhongyi were faintly gloomy.

"Of course, I have also seen the amount of spending by the military, and this year's expansion plan is already on the way, and the comprehensive refitting of the army is also extremely important, not to mention the new navy, which also needs a lot of money...... Together, it makes eighteen million taels ......"

"However, how big is our family, but I don't know if you know in your hearts? Dong Lin, the secretary of the Ministry of Finance, let's talk about it. ”

With Ning Yu's words, everyone's eyes suddenly fell on Dong Lin, the secretary of the Ministry of Finance, who is now Ning Chu's big man in charge of the money bag, and he is also a cabinet minister who has entered the cabinet, which can be called a high power.

"Your Majesty, this year, it is estimated that the land tax will be about 20 million taels after the land is cleared and the Ding silver is apportioned, and the customs duties, mining taxes, commercial taxes, and other tea taxes and salt taxes are expected to be 13 million taels, which is much higher than the previous year's estimate, mainly because of the sea trade, the tariffs are overcharged, but even so, this year's annual income is only a total of 33 million taels."

When they heard 33 million taels, everyone couldn't help but feel a sigh, this is not a small number, after all, in the past, the Qing court in its heyday, the annual income was only 30 million taels, and now after losing Jiangnan and the entire south one after another, I am afraid that the annual income of 10 million taels will not be able to be saved, which can be called the decline of the river.

The newly established Ning Chu surpassed the Qing court in its heyday with half of the annual income in the second year, which means that once Ning Chu recovers the whole country in the future, its annual income will be at least 45 million taels to more than 50 million taels, and this is just the beginning.

When there is such a number, the ministers for the Qing court is completely ignorant, this year is said to be a war, in fact, in the final analysis, it is still fighting money and fighting the economy, who is more rich, who can use their chassis more efficiently to collect taxes, who is the real boss, this is an unbreakable truth.

However, when everyone recovered from their excitement, they quickly did an arithmetic problem, the 22 million taels of the cabinet plus 18 million taels of the military, plus the 3 million taels of expenditure of the Metropolitan Procuratorate and other scattered departments, at least 43 million taels, which is 10 million taels more than the annual income, and this is not to mention the 330,000 taels that the imperial treasury needs to get.

The gap of 1,000,330,000 taels is not a small number......

Cui Wancai, the deputy assistant to the cabinet, then stood up and said softly: "Your Majesty, the reason why there is a gap of more than 10 million taels is entirely because the cabinet and the military have made a mistake in formulating plans...... The military has also added a new Admiralty, and the first naval budget required is as much as four million taels ......."

Cui Wancai sighed softly, bowed for a long time, and said firmly: "The minister thinks that the above plan may be ..... to be delayed."

When he said this, almost all the ministers looked at the second assistant, some people may applaud Cui Wancai's courage, but more people think that this second assistant is afraid that it is a big mistake.

Because anyone has a clear heart, the mastermind behind these plans is not the first assistant Ning Zhongjing and the privy envoy Ning Zhongyi, it is completely the emperor's own thoughts, so isn't it equivalent to letting the emperor slap his face?

However, Ning Yu did not have the slightest anger, but said softly: "Judging from the current year, our current actions are indeed bigger, and our steps are faster, but if you look at the current development trend of Da Chu, these are actually urgent tasks to be done at the moment....... If we stop now, it will take much longer to restart these projects in the future. ”

"Your Majesty, now my top priority for Dachu is the unification of the Northern Expedition...... These things will not be done until after the unification, and I am afraid that it will not be too late......" Cui Wancai sighed softly, his worries also represented the thoughts of a large number of people in the court today, and it was really a bit bold to spend ahead of time.

Ning Yu shook his head slightly, "I'm not just looking at Da Chu, not even the Qing court, but more than anything else...... As it stands, any reduction in the cost of cabinet ministries, or military spending, will itself have a serious impact on the current plan..... I have made up my mind, and I don't need to say more. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The ministers bowed their hands and kept planning, but the problem was in front of everyone, after all, how should the gap of 10 million taels of silver be solved?

Ning Yu waved his sleeves, without the slightest expression on his face, "Ning Zhongjing, the first assistant of the cabinet, Dong Lin, the secretary of the Ministry of Finance, and Ernst of the university, will form a financial restructuring committee to take the lead in formulating the financial restructuring work of my Dachu, as for the shortfall of 10 million taels, it will be realized through treasury bonds after the completion of the financial reform." ”

Hearing Ning Yu say this, the ministers had some understanding in their hearts, it seems that the matter of the national debt mentioned some time ago is really not just talking, at least in the emperor's opinion, the national debt belongs to a better way to deal with it.

It's just that the Sacred Heart has already made a decision, and even if others want to express their opposition again, it is impossible. This Imperial Council announced in an even more wonderful way that it had come to an end.

.......

In the imperial study, Ning Yu was holding the tea and tasting it carefully, while looking at the bills submitted by the cabinet and the Privy Council, his brows were slightly furrowed, after all, this matter was not as indifferent as he appeared on the surface.

Ernst was dressed in a red official robe, honestly followed behind Ning Zhongjing and Dong Lin, and saluted Ning Yu, he put his position very right, although he is now an earl, but after all, he is an outsider, and he does not dare to pose in front of the ministers.

In the final analysis, the real reason for talking about changing customs is always the binding of interests.

Seeing everyone coming, Ning Yu didn't ask Ning Zhongjing and Dong Lin first, but looked directly at Ernst and said in a low voice: "Ernst, I appointed you as a member of the Financial Restructuring Committee, do you know my intentions?" ”

"Your Majesty the Great Emperor, of course the minister understands your supreme order, in fact, this is also a point that the minister has thought about a long time ago, because in today's empire, the currency is too chaotic, and it is very unfavorable to use!"

Ernst said with a solemn face, he understood that what the emperor needed was not sycophancy, but to face the real problem and find a solution to it.

Hearing Ernst say this, Ning Zhongjing and Dong Lin were a little surprised, they didn't have much interest in this Westerner, but they also understood the emperor's thoughts, that is, the leader of this restructuring was not the so-called cabinet chief assistant and the Ministry of Finance, but this unattractive Westerner, so he didn't speak, just quietly listened to the other party's thoughts.

On the contrary, Ning Yu is more able to understand what Ernst means, which has a lot to do with the chaotic monetary system since the Ming and Qing dynasties, so that in this era, it is still chaotic and cannot be changed.

Speaking of this, we have to start with the monetary system in Chinese history, in fact, before the Ming Dynasty, the currency in Chinese society has always been copper money as the mainstream, gold and silver due to the small quantity, and difficult to trade, has always been not the mainstream circulation of the currency, and China itself is also an extreme shortage of copper place, so even copper money can not be fully guaranteed, like the Song Dynasty before there was a large number of iron money, the emergence of Jiaozi, is also to alleviate the problem of money shortage.

After the Ming Dynasty, due to the further lack of copper, there was even a situation of bartering in the early Ming Dynasty, and the currency also became more diversified, from copper coins, paper money, gold and silver to grain cloth, all of which fulfilled the duties of currency to varying degrees, but for various reasons, these systems were seriously damaged, and the monetary system became a mess, such as the Ming Dynasty treasure banknote evolved from a good government to a bad government.

Until after Longqing, due to the cancellation of the 'sea ban', so that the development of overseas trade has become very prosperous, a large number of European and American merchants have come to China, they have used a boatload of silver, in exchange for a large amount of silk, porcelain, tea, and in the annual surplus trade, so that a large amount of silver continues to flow into China.

In this case, the Ming Dynasty from a lack of silver country instantly became a country with a large amount of silver, which also made the southeast coastal area, the first to use silver as a circulating currency, and after Zhang Juzheng's reform, a whip law was fully promoted, making silver a real sense of circulation currency, completely replacing the status of copper coins and paper money.

Then, the problem arises, as silver in the original sense, it is extremely troublesome in actual transactions, and many strange systems have even been born.