Wei Bao nodded and said perfunctorily: "That's right." ”

"If Lord Wei can help His Majesty solve the salary of the border army and the Beijing camp this time, it will really be a great favor to the Ming Dynasty, then I will be the first to ask for credit for Lord Wei, and it will not be too much to be crowned a duke." Ding Shaoshi continued.

Wei Bao smiled bitterly and said: "Lord Ding thinks too highly of me, where did I get so much silver, if you want to get silver, you have to look at the policy of the imperial court." And this policy has to be beneficial to the Ming Dynasty, which is not easy. ”

Ding Shaoshi heard Wei Bao say this, glanced at Wei Bao solemnly, and his impression of Wei Bao immediately improved a lot, no matter what Wei Bao thought, being able to say such a thing shows that Wei Bao is a capable minister and a cadre.

In fact, Ding Shaoshi knows very well how Wei Bao went from a child to the title of the gold list along the way, and he knows very well what Wei Bao's fame and examination are.

It's just that the imperial court now intends to advocate and mythologize Wei Bao, and he has simply lifted Wei Bao to the sky, becoming the most powerful prodigy in the history of the Ming Dynasty, and he is better than Zhang Juzheng who was on the high school gold list at the age of twenty.

Ding Shaoshi felt uncomfortable, but he would not deliberately smear Wei Bao.

Now listening to Wei Bao say this, I even think that His Majesty and Wei Zhongxian are also people with eyesight, maybe promoting this Wei Bao is not a bad thing for Daming, Wei Bao is greedy, and wants power, people, and territory, but it is indeed a bit of a brain, which is incomparable to a rigid reader.

"The word policy is used very well, then Lord Wei will think of a good policy, with the relationship between Lord Wei and His Majesty, and the relationship with all parties, only Lord Wei has the mind and the ability to get money to help Daming tide over the difficulties." Ding Shaoshi said.

At this time, Gu Bingqian, Wei Liangqing and others came closer, and when they heard Ding Shaoshi say this, they all agreed.

The Eunuch Party and the Donglin Party rarely agree on one thing.

Daming has no silver, and he can't get through the difficulty of lack of military pay at the end of the year, and no one is happy.

Wei Bao didn't answer, but warmly invited everyone to eat and drink.

At the beginning of the banquet, the purple drunk gold fan squandered, and the wine and food seemed to be as if he didn't want money.

This kind of life used to be Wei Bao's dream life, but Wei Bao is now a little numb.

No matter how delicious the food is, a person's belly is so big, and health issues have to be considered, how much can you eat?

Only the ever-expanding lust for power and prestige can never be satisfied.

In fact, Wei Bao has a way of making money.

All parts of the Ming Dynasty are systematic, and a Caoyun Governor's Yamen has been brought down, and a new Haiphong Governor's Yamen has been established, which is already the limit of what Wei Bao can do at present.

It is almost impossible to reach out to the provinces.

The Ming Dynasty is an agricultural country, and the gentry can't move the land, so basically nothing can be moved.

If you want to make money and make a big move, you can only open the sea and strengthen and increase the power of the Yamen, the governor of coastal defense!

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Taizu established a sea ban and tributary trade system. The maritime ban system forbade its own people to trade at sea, and only allowed overseas officials to trade tributary with the Ming Dynasty.

These two systems were strictly enforced during the Hongwu period and became an important part of the foreign policy of the Ming Dynasty.

During the Yongle period, although Ming Chengzu still adhered to the Hongwu ancestral system.

However, he took the initiative to send Zheng He to the sea on a large scale, and established a political and economic tributary relationship with overseas Eastern and Western countries.

The large-scale descent of the Ming Dynasty court to the sea promoted the development of shipbuilding and navigation technology and the production of handicraft products, and also objectively drove private overseas trade.

Although the imperial court imposed a ban on the sea, private trade at sea developed as an undercurrent in the early Ming Dynasty.

During the period from Renxuan to Wuzong, Xuanzong made the last Zheng He trip to the West.

During the Renxuan period, the Ming Dynasty gradually settled down, and the social and political atmosphere gradually became relaxed.

After a long period of peace, the Ming Dynasty was relaxed about private overseas trade, and private overseas trade developed in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

Although there was a great development of private trade in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, private trade was still an illegal act.

In order to make the growing private trade to the sea legal and under the management of the government, Qiu Jun proposed the idea of restoring the system of the city and the port of the Song and Yuan dynasties, so that the city of the Ming Dynasty could manage the private trade and collect taxes.

This thought of Qiu marked the birth of the idea of opening the sea in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the policy of banning the sea was mainly to defend against the Japanese invaders, and later it was transformed into a national monopoly on maritime trade.

This is also one of the reasons why Liu Daxia and others resolutely prevented going to the West, after all, it harmed the interests of the coastal government.

After Emperor Jiajing became a vassal king, he changed the style of Wuzong, advocated the strict implementation of the Hongwu ancestral system, and adopted a strict policy of prohibiting private trade at sea.

Maritime merchants going to sea were prevented by the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty's coastal defense, and the development momentum of overseas trade was suppressed by politics.

Due to the abundance of mountains and the lack of land in the coastal areas, trade at sea is an important means for the people in the coastal areas to obtain a source of livelihood and wealth.

The implementation of the maritime ban policy has made coastal businessmen and people in great difficulty.

The sea ban policy cut off the livelihood of coastal people.

However, in order to obtain a source of livelihood, the lower classes of the people did not hesitate to violate the ban on going to sea and trade privately in order to obtain more wealth.

In the 26th year of Jiajing, in 1547, after Zhu Kun, who was appointed as the commander of the military affairs of Fujian and Zhejiang coastal defense, took office, he severely cracked down on smuggling activities at sea, causing some coastal tycoons who secretly supported smuggling activities to be uneasy.

As a result, they instigated some officials to impeach Zhu Su for indiscriminately killing innocent people.

In the twenty-eighth year of Jiajing, Emperor Jiajing issued an edict to dismiss Zhu Kun from his post and sent personnel to interrogate him.

However, soon after, large-scale pirate robbery and burning occurred along the coasts of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong provinces.

In the face of the "Jiajing Rebellion", the Ming Dynasty mobilized almost the strength of the whole country, and it was not until the 43rd year of Jiajing that the turmoil was quelled.

After Zhu Kun's death, the Ming Dynasty's sea ban had already existed in name only, and relevant officials did not dare to say anything about the "sea ban".

At this time, many people of insight in the Ming Dynasty produced new maritime ideas, such as Hu Zongxian, Tan Lun and others.

After the rebellion subsided, Tan Lun, the governor of Fujian, sent the imperial court a plan to open the sea on the local security and people's livelihood issues in Fujian.

He mentioned in the recital: "The source of the evil is like a rat's hole, and one must be left; If it is still stuffed, the benefits will be worn out", and pointed out that "the Fujian people who live by the coast, do not know how many of them, and most of them are not allowed to eat unless they are born in the sea", "If everything is forbidden, there is no way to pass, and where to get food and clothing." If so, why not be a thief at the same time."

Therefore, he asked the imperial court to allow the Fujianese to open the sea for trade.

On January 23, 1567, Emperor Jiajing died of illness in the Qianqing Palace.

On February 4, his third son Zhu Zaiyuan inherited the throne for Mu Zong, Ji Yuan Longqing.

Ming Muzong told his ministers: "If there is any inconvenience in the decree of the first dynasty, it can be amended." ”

Soon, Tu Zemin, the governor of Fujian, asked for the opening of the sea ban and "allowed to sell the east and west." This recital was approved by the imperial court, thus forming a situation in which Longqing opened the sea.

The main reason why the situation of opening the sea in Longqing was that Ming Muzong and his imperial court learned about the relationship between "the general rule of the city and the transformation of the Kou into business, and the prohibition of the city and the transformation of the merchant into the Kou" through the "Jiajing War", and complied with the call of some people of insight for the proper opening of the sea.

On the occasion of Jialong, Fujian local officials repeatedly asked the province to open the sea, based on the living tradition of "Fujian people live by the sea, and they cannot eat unless they travel to and from the sea".

The reason why Fujian chose to open the sea in Yuegang is because Yuegang has become the largest smuggling trade port in the coastal areas of Fujian after the 16th century.

Yuegang is located in the southeast of Zhangzhou fifty miles, located at the mouth of the Jiulong River, because of its shape like a crescent moon and get its name.

As early as the Chenghua and Hongzhi years, it was already a giant town in southern Fujian where "the wind turns to the sails, the treasure bribes fill the boats, the gods race the gods of every family, the bells and drums ring to answer, and the giants of the Northeast compete for the horses".

In the twelfth year of Zhengde, the Portuguese were expelled in Guangdong and then moved to the area of Yuegang, and soon the Spaniards and Japanese also came to exchange markets.

During the Jiajing period, "the people of Zhangmin and the trade and dealers of Fanboyi came and went on the sea" from Yuegang to the sea.

After the opening of the sea in Longqing, all merchants who went abroad to trade from Yuegang adopted the annual application system.

They first have to survey and report to their neighbors to ensure the settlement, and then the provincial government where they are located will approve and issue it to the "ship guide".

The ship guide is the document for the maritime merchant to legally go to sea, and it is necessary to fill in the name, year, household registration, address, equipment carried, goods, country to go, return date, etc.

At the same time, the circulation number book of the superintendent and the state and county where it is located should also record the content of the ship.

When the maritime merchant returns to China, it must be verified according to the number book of the ship guide and the supervision office.

Every merchant ship that goes to sea must lead a ship.

All maritime merchants who receive the introduction of ships must pay the "introduction tax".

Initially, it was stipulated that each ship would be taxed three taels of silver, which was later increased to six taels.

At first, the government only controlled the total number of ships to be guided, issuing 50 tickets per year, and increased it to 100 tickets in the third year of Wanli, without restricting the countries that sailed to the sea.

In the seventeenth year of Wanli, the government set the total number of merchant ships going to the East and the West at 44 each.

Later, due to the large number of applicants to go to sea, the number of ship guides was expanded to 110.

The main reason for the opening of Longqing is to bring considerable economic benefits.

After the opening of the sea in Longqing, in addition to collecting "introduction tax", the Governor's Office also collected three kinds of commercial taxes: water tax, land tax, and additional tax.

The "water tax" was levied on the basis of the size of the merchant ship, similar to today's tonnage tax.

The "land salary" is levied according to the specific goods imported, and is paid by the shop merchants who pick up the goods on the ship.

The "Levitate" is a special tax levied on merchant ships returning from Manila who bring back only silver without cargo.

The silver and silver taels levied by the Governor's Pavilion began to be about 20,000 taels per year, and later approached 30,000 taels.

As for the Spanish silver dollars brought back to Yuegang by maritime merchants from Manila, Zhou Qiyuan, a native of Zhangzhou, said, "The money traded is hundreds of thousands of dollars a year."

In the late Ming Dynasty, the silver that flowed into China from Yuegang was about 285,000 taels per year in the seventies of the sixteenth century, about 889,000 taels per year in the eighties, and reached an average of 1 million taels per year after 1600, thus providing important conditions for the silverization of the Ming Dynasty.

With the influx of silver, China's raw silk and textiles, ceramics, lacquerware and other handicrafts, minerals and metal products, aquatic products, agricultural products and other commodities have also been continuously transported to Southeast Asian ports.

Taking raw silk and silk fabrics as an example, Gu Yanwu in the Ming and Qing dynasties once recorded that maritime merchants trafficked lake silk, and raw silk and silk fabrics from the Taihu Lake basin were transported to Southeast Asia, doubling their profits.

The value of silk goods exported by Chinese maritime merchants to the Philippine Islands was about 1.03 million taels per year around 1600 and reached about 1.35 million taels in 1630.

In addition to a small part of the Chinese silk fabrics shipped to the Philippine Islands, most of them were shipped to Latin America for sale through the Spanish galleons, and the price of Chinese silk goods was only one-third of that of similar products in Spain.

In Mexico and other places, in the thirties of the seventeenth century, 14,000 people specialized in the processing and manufacturing of Chinese raw silk; In many parts of Latin America, Chinese silk has become not only the clothing of some citizens, but also the decoration of churches.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the goods were of high quality and low price, so they became the most sought-after goods in the Southeast Asian market and the European and American markets.

At the same time, the overseas market demand at the end of the Ming Dynasty also directly stimulated the development of silk weaving, cotton weaving, dyeing and weaving, porcelain, ironware, sugar and other industries in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi and other regions.

The rise of the town economy, the regional characteristics of commodities are prominent, such as Husi, Songjiang cotton, Jingdezhen, Dehua porcelain, Foshan ironware, etc., are all famous in the domestic and foreign markets; Sugarcane is even widely cultivated in the mountainous areas of Gannan because of the large export of sugar.

The move also had an impact on China's agricultural development.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Latin American crops introduced by maritime merchants from the Philippines, including corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, tobacco, peanuts, peppers, tomatoes, etc., not only had a great impact on China's grain production and population growth, but also enriched the flavor of the diet.

Moreover, the opening of the sea in Longqing has also brought convenience to the introduction of new ideas and technologies from outside.

The so-called "opening the sea in Longqing" is actually just a "sea ban" that exists in name only and sweeps it into the garbage heap of history, which is essentially in line with the trend of the times of free trade, and any normal dynasty will do it.

So it's not essentially a political move worth mentioning, it's just a return to normal.

In the first year of Longqing, Tu Zemin applied for a ban on the opening of the sea and a request to allow maritime merchants to trade between the east and the west, but did not say when the imperial court would approve this application.

Including the later Wanli period, Xu Fuyuan, the governor of Fujian, only mentioned that Tu Zemin proposed to open the sea in the early years of Longqing in the "Dredging the Sea and Forbidden Dredging", and did not say when the imperial court approved this application.

So in the early years of Longqing, the former minister Tu Zemin, with the example of the past, for the sake of the situation, please open the market, easy to smugglers and for the public sellers, to stop the east and west oceans, not to go to Japan, but also forbidden to nitrate brass iron forbidden things, entrainment to the sea, by order to do, dozens of years, fortunately the thief did not do and the sea feast such as.

The location of "Longqing Open Sea", most people may subconsciously think that Yuegang in Haicheng County is the preferred location, but in fact it is not, the preferred location considered at that time is Meiling in Zhao'an County, but because there are too many bandits and thieves, obstructing road traffic, I have no choice but to choose the Yuegang area.

From the beginning of 3,000 taels of silver, to the Ming Dynasty almost every year to provide close to 30,000 taels of taxes, the income is very considerable, as for the forty-three years of Wanli why from more than 29,000 taels to more than 23,400 taels, mainly because Wanli sent tax inspector Gao Yu into Fujian to collect tyranny, accept bribes from the Dutch, plot to sell the Penghu Islands, and in addition to arrears of a large number of merchant property, but also burned a number of houses to suppress the reasonable demands of the people.

The officials and people of Fujian Province complained many times, and finally attracted the attention of Wanli, and removed Gao Yu in the 41st year of Wanli, and in order to comfort the people, the edict reduced one-third of the tariff, and the following 43 years issued an edict to reduce or exempt.

In the forty-first year of Wanli, the ministers discussed the case, withdrew the case and returned it, reduced the tariff by one-third, and the tax should be reduced by 11,700. The matter is known to the five customs and miscellaneous taxes, and the foreign merchants are the only ones who take advantage of the sea. That is, it can be supported without reduction, only three thousand six hundred and eighty-eight taels, but it cannot be said that it is not the grace of the Holy World Hongdong.

In the forty-third year of Wanli, the edict reduced the taxes and silver in various places. The Zhangzhou government has discussed that the tax amount of the east and west oceans is 27,8726 yuan and 3 cents, and now it should be reduced by 3,687,26 yuan and 3 cents of silver, and 23,400 taels of silver should be levied.

The impact of Longqing's opening of the sea can be divided into the following aspects: first, the impact on local businessmen in Fujian; the second is the impact on foreigners who come to China to trade; The third is the impact on the Ming government.

From the first point of view, the local businessmen in Fujian is a great beneficiary in the opening of the sea, as we all know that Fujian has a lot of saline-alkali land, it is difficult to rely on the cultivation of grain to get rich, the land is barren determines that this land will not be too rich, but after the opening of the sea, the foreign trade profits can reach as much as ten times, so the local people of Fujian have to go to sea, even if it is a restriction on the introduction of ships, but also can not resist the ambition of private sea.

Everyone rushed to the sea of prosperity one after another, not afraid of life and death in the waves, there are not a few people who made a fortune, and Yuegang was even known as "Little Suzhou and Hangzhou".

Therefore, the scheming person regards the waves as a strange and leans on the sail wall as a straw. Build a rich family with wealth, poor people with their bodies, lose the property of China, gallop in a foreign country, change their ways, and the profit can be ten times. Therefore, folk music is born, and the drums are continuous, and they are also used to it, and it is said that there is no more than this in their careers. Fang Qifeng turned back to the sails, the treasure bribes filled the boat, the gods of the family, and the bells and drums rang to answer. Northeast giants, competing for the horses. With the production of the shipowner, I look forward to the huge amount of money every day. If it is slightly overturned, bankruptcy will follow, and the number of cycles will also be circulated.

For the foreigners who come to China to trade, the opening of the sea in the Ming Dynasty is undoubtedly a good news, the Ming Dynasty has a vast territory and a large number of people, the trade demand is great, which also gives the foreigners to China the opportunity to make a fortune, not to mention the annual transaction volume of hundreds of thousands of money to attract a lot of Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch to come to ask for trade.

In addition to the law of selling in the Mu Temple, the Jia of the five directions, the bustling water country, across the ship, divided into the east and west roads of the city. It is bundled with treasures, so the foreign body is not enough to mention, and the money traded, there are hundreds of thousands of years without worrying, both public and private, and the south treasury of the son of heaven is also ...... However, the politics of Zecheng is not the most convenient person to patrol the country's wealth and strengthen the border!

Of course, there are also foreigners who are tempted by the profits of opening the sea and plan to forcibly stay in the sea of Fujian through illegal means to trade with the people of the Ming Dynasty, which is the Dutch.

In the twenty-ninth year of Wanli, the Dutch came to the sea of Guangdong in the hope of being able to trade, but were rejected by the local government of Guangdong, so in the thirty-second year of Wanli, the Dutch went to the sea of Fujian again, through the maritime merchant Pan Xiu, Guo Zhen and the two asked the Ming government to stay in the Penghu Islands and trade with the Ming Dynasty, and were rejected again, but the Dutch, who had already tasted the sweetness of trade, made up their minds not to leave.

So Xu Xueju, the governor of Fujian at the time, played the "First Report of the Red Hair Fanshu", explaining in detail why the Dutch could not stay in Penghu.

Haicheng projectile and can set up customs to tax, to commercial aviation will be in Si, can be according to the audit. If the boat berths at Peng Lake, it is not far from Dongfan and Xiaoliuqiu; Two thousand miles of seashore, two thousand miles of light ships, no one can not pick up their own goods in the past, He River can hook it. Fishing boats, dinghy, outlaws, knives, iron, and forbidden things, what are not for sale. Foreign ships can not be dispatched, coastal defense can not be set up, and Haicheng has nothing to do.

To put it simply, the merchant ships in and out of Haicheng are registered and can be taxed on this basis, but Penghu is not far from the land and can stay for a long time.

And what if these ships smuggle prohibited items out to sea for sale, and the outlaws buy prohibited items here to commit crimes?

The consequence of this is that foreign ships no longer come to trade, and the national coastal defense is equivalent to no setting, and Haicheng cannot become a customs, and there is no matter of Daming Customs.

Therefore, in order to get rid of the Dutch who replaced the Japanese on the coast, the Ming Dynasty also took a lot of effort.

For the Ming government, the most direct impact was the increase in wealth, with an additional income of nearly 30,000 taels per year, followed by a large amount of silver flowing from Japan and the Americas, making silver gradually become the mainstream currency and fully monetized.

In the early years of Jiajing, the large demand for silver promoted the development of silver mines in Japan, and after the Spaniards occupied Manila in the second year of Wanli, a large amount of silver from the Americas was mined and flowed into China, which played an important role in the financial reform of the Ming Dynasty at this stage.

Another point is the gradual rise of the status of merchants, taking the above-mentioned tax supervisor Gao Yu as an example, after he came to Fujian, he represented the emperor to collect taxes here, even if it was a tyrannical collection and arrears of money, as the lowest level of businessmen in the Shinong industry and commerce, where did he dare to argue with the messenger of the Son of Heaven.

Of course, it was a former businessman, and after the opening of the sea, these businessmen went directly to the government office to ask Gao Yu to repay the money when they couldn't bear the oppression, although this matter was stopped because Gao Yu directly sent people to suppress and beat the merchants, burned down the houses, and kidnapped Yuan Yiji, the imperial history of Fujian.

However, a large number of businessmen dared to face the government to seek justice, which is enough to explain the rise of the status of businessmen.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty always had an official monopoly on trade, but the people could not go to the sea, and other countries that wanted to trade with China had to carry out exploration trade after becoming vassals.

The Longqing switch is to allow private trading in several parts of the south.

As the people began to be able to safely trade with foreign countries, the commerce of the Ming Dynasty naturally began to soar.

In addition, the commercial tax of the Ming Dynasty was relatively low, and the economic development was very good, and a strange "capitalist sprout" appeared.

The Ming Dynasty did not form capitalism, and the Ming Dynasty was far from capitalism.

From the people to the state, there is no such consciousness, if you want to talk about the germination of capitalism, it is also in some areas of the south of the Yangtze River, and the most slap in the face is that there was also a "strange germ of capitalism" during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.

The scale of capitalism in the Qianlong period was even larger than that of the Ming Dynasty, but it was worse than that of Wanli in the middle and late Qianlong periods compared to the political environment.

Even though commerce was more developed during the Qianlong period, due to more corrupt politics, almost all of them were busy with exploitation compared to the Wanli period.

In order to collect tribute, Qianlong not only forcibly seized the officials below the country, but also destroyed the so-called "never increase the endowment" in disguise, and the officials almost exploited and squeezed the people out.

Mainly because of the germination of strange capitalism in the Ming Dynasty, it was difficult for capitalism to emerge without the support of the system, such as the later Qing Dynasty.

In any case, the switch of Longqing increased the revenue of the Ming Dynasty's finances, and it still had a positive impact.

After the switch of Longqing, Chinese and foreign exchanges became more frequent.

This is actually more impactful than simply increasing the finances.

More and more people are coming to China.

No matter what the purpose is, a lot of advanced equipment from the West and more complete knowledge than China were also introduced after the Longqing switch.

Such as Hongyi cannon, mathematics, astronomical calendar, geography. From 1607 to 1628, there were many translations, such as "Geometric Originals" and "Tongwen Counting Fingers". And printed something like the "Kunyu Wanguo Map".

These things could have laid a good foundation for the capitalist system of the whole country, but as the Ming government became more and more politically chaotic and for various other reasons, and finally during the Chongzhen period, from 1627 to 1644, it was closed again and foreign exchanges were reduced.

The late Ming Dynasty actually experienced a process of "inflation-deflation-economic collapse".

Therefore, the "Longqing switch" is related to the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Longqing announced the lifting of the maritime ban, adjusted the overseas trade policy, and allowed private people to sell the east and the west.

Since then, private overseas trade has gained a legal status, and the non-governmental overseas trade in various parts of the southeast coast has entered a new period.

The Ming Dynasty saw a comprehensive opening up.

From the "Longqing Switch" in 1572 to the fall of the Ming Dynasty in 1644, in the past 70 years, 1/3 of the total amount of silver produced in the world poured into China, totaling about 500 million taels.

At that time, silk fabrics, porcelain, tea, ironware, etc. produced in China were widely welcomed by overseas countries, but many countries were unable to carry out commodity exchange transactions due to the lack of goods necessary for the Ming Empire, so they had to pay with silver, resulting in a large amount of overseas silver flowing into China.

And the Ming Dynasty was a country on the "silver standard".

With the excessive inflow of silver, there will be a problem - the price of goods and the cheapness of silver.

That means inflation.

Silver is a rare metal, but it is not wealth in itself.

When hundreds of millions of pieces of silver flowed into the Ming Empire from overseas, it did not create new purchasing power, create new value, or promote innovation, but was concentrated in the hands of a few merchants and magnates.

The silver was used to annex land, buy property, or go underground.

As a result, the price of land and real estate became extremely expensive, and ordinary people simply could not afford it, so land and real estate were further concentrated in the hands of the powerful.

When the Ming Empire had an inflation of "expensive and cheap", foreign trade began to shrink, and the momentum of overseas silver flowing into the Ming Empire began to decline.

Therefore, in the early years of Chongzhen, after the complete closure of the customs, there was a shortage of silver inflow, which caused the Ming Empire to quickly fall into the quagmire of deflation.

At this time, what really wanted to worship Zhen's life was the "one whip law" that began to be implemented during the Zhang Juzheng period.

A whip law stipulates that the land levy, forced labor, and other miscellaneous levies shall be combined into one article, and the silver taels shall be collected together and paid according to the conversion per mu.

After the implementation of a whip law in the early years of Wanli, the effect was indeed quite good, not only increased the financial revenue of the imperial court, simplified the cost of tax collection, alleviated the economic crisis, alleviated the political crisis, but also brought a ray of light to the Ming Dynasty that was in decline.

But in the early years of Chongzhen, in the face of a shortage of silver, the economy tightened in an all-round way.

The continuation of a whip law would have two disastrous consequences.

Since the tax had to be converted into silver, the peasants had to pay the tax by converting the copper coins they had obtained from the sale of grain into silver taels, but by this time the price of silver had risen, which made the peasants' taxes even heavier.

The peasants' taxes could not be raised, the arrears were serious in various localities, and the treasury of the imperial court was greatly reduced, so it was unable to pay the military salaries of Liaodong and exterminate the military expenses of the peasant army.

Heavy taxes would make it impossible for the peasants to survive and cause peasant revolts.

The tax model of converting agricultural taxes into silver worsened the silver reserves of the imperial court.

Outside the Guan, the Eight Banners of Manchuria were eyeing the Central Plains, and in the Central Plains and Guanzhong, peasant uprisings were surging.

In the history that has been known, Chongzhen has never solved these two problems.

In the end, I can only run wild on this road to the end until I hang the coal mountain.

"Won't Tarzan come?" At the banquet, Wei Bao asked Zhang Zhiji.

"Dad, don't you know that yet?" Zhang Zhiji said with a smile: "Dad rarely participates in banquets outside the house. ”

Wei Bao nodded, knowing that Zhang Weixian cherished his reputation and was a conservative and cautious person.

In fact, it was really not Wei Baoxiang who fell in love with Zhang Meiyuan at the beginning, and he didn't know Guogongfu at all.

Although the final result is very good, the Guogong Mansion can be regarded as a backer, and Miss Zhang is also born in the country and the city, with a prominent family background, and Wei Bao is very compatible in all aspects.

But these are not what Wei Bao cares about, if there are no special circumstances, Wei Bao's wife in the main room is likely to win one of the two Wu Xuexia and Zhao Jinfeng, and the two women belong to the situation of five or five.

"Big brother, eat vegetables, you're welcome." Wei Bao smiled and greeted Li Chengne, who was sitting opposite him.

If there is no relationship between Wei Bao's brother, Li Chengnei really doesn't want to sit at Wei Bao's table.

Wei Bao's table can be said to have gathered the most powerful people in the Ming Dynasty today, and several cabinet ministers were all present, plus Wei Liangqing and Tian Ergeng, who were powerful ministers, except for Ding Shaoshi, who was the minister of the Donglin Party, and several neutral ministers, and the others were important ministers of the Eunuch Party.

Not to mention that it is a hundred households in brocade clothes like Li Chengnei, it is Luo Yangxing, and a quasi-high-ranking official like Xu Xianchun is not qualified to go to the Wei Bao table.