Daming is short of money?

The whole Ming Dynasty is short of money?

This question is really a bit difficult for the young Yongqing to understand, and even there is no such statement in the history books.

Will Daming be short of money?

You must know that the tax revenue of the entire Ming Dynasty is only more than 4 million taels a year, and the silver and copper coins in circulation are nearly 400 million taels, so the Ming Dynasty will be short of money?

Besides, you don't have to use money to buy things these days, and it's the same with food.

Yongqing was a little puzzled and said, "Master, there doesn't seem to be a problem with bartering, why do you have to use money to buy it?" ”

It's really okay for him to say this, these days, there have been more barters, for example, in the countryside, take a few eggs for some rice, or exchange bags of rice for coarse cloth, or take some rice for some meat or something, it's normal.

After all, not every family has silver, and even, there are not a few farmers who don't have a copper plate at home, and there are many people who exchange grain for things, and I haven't seen anyone say it's inconvenient.

This problem, if it is limited to the needs of personal life, is naturally not much of a problem, but when it comes to the transaction of large items, it is a big problem.

Yang Cong gave an example unhurriedly: "There are a lot of cloth villages and silk villages in Suzhou Mansion, the emperor should have heard of it, right?" At this time, Suzhou alone, the daily output of cotton cloth amounted to tens of thousands, in addition to silk and silk as many as thousands, that is to say, Suzhou alone, the daily output of cotton, silk and silk is worth more than 100,000 taels, a year, at least 40 or 50 million taels. That's it, it's just weaving, Suzhou Mansion is not only cloth, other such as tea, ironware and other production is also quite rich, if Suzhou Prefecture produces all the goods, more than 100 million taels a year. And the entire southeast is not only Suzhou, the five provinces and one capital in the southeast add up to hundreds of state capitals, how much silver does this hundred state governments need to circulate in a year? There is nothing wrong with the emperor saying that there is nothing wrong with bartering, that refers to the transaction of personal daily necessities, this bulk transaction can not be exchanged for goods, it is okay to exchange a bag of grain for a horse of coarse cloth, if it is 10,000 horses, can you exchange 10,000 bags of grain? If it's 100,000 horses, will you exchange 100,000 bags of grain for it? “

100,000 bags of grain, that at least thousands of carriages are needed to pull, and Suzhou Prefecture can produce tens of millions of horses a year for cotton cloth alone, that is to say, if you exchange grain, at least hundreds of thousands of carriages will be required to pull grain, which is also too exaggerated!

In fact, Yang Cong didn't think of this problem at first, but after he used most of the silver earned by the Yang family to exchange for antiques, calligraphy and paintings copied from Yan Song's mansion and the Tianshan shop, he found that the Yang family's business was a little difficult to do, because they lacked cash, and they were very short.

Originally, the business involved in the Yang family was only a part of the many businesses in the Ming Dynasty, and the share was not very much, and the silver in circulation in this part of the business was only tens of millions of taels, and he gave one or two million taels to Yongqing, and the treasury was full, but the silver in circulation in this part of the business of their Yang family was withdrawn by him.

He did this, so that there was a shortage of silver everywhere in the entire industrial chain, and the Yang family was also scraping together, trying to find money everywhere to slowly solve this problem.

Although the problem has been solved, Yang Cong has also realized the importance of circulating currency, you know, now that the Ming Dynasty is leveling, all kinds of business will definitely double under his deliberate promotion, and there will be a shortage of silver in business at this time, and the phenomenon of lack of silver will become more and more serious when the business doubles in the future!

Therefore, he came to Yongqing, as for the purpose, to put it bluntly, it is to make silver, and find ways to make silver.

Yongqing didn't know this, he thought about it, and then said embarrassedly: "Teacher, do you mean that we need to mine more silver and copper ore, and mint more silver ingots and copper coins?" ”

This problem, Yongqing actually thought about it, at the beginning, he even naively thought that if he had no money, he would dig silver and copper mines to mint money, anyway, all the mineral deposits belonged to him, who was the emperor, so it was not as much as he wanted, and the imperial court would not soon become rich!

It's a pity that he dispelled this idea after a little understanding, because silver ore and copper ore are not dug and can be used, and they have to be smelted, copper ore is better, if there is no tax supervisor to exploit it, how much can still make some money, silver ore is different, because Daming's silver mines are basically poor mines, and almost all of the ones with slightly higher silver content are all mined, and the rest are the kind where the silver content is low to a certain extent, and even the cost of smelting cannot be recovered.

In other words, even if he wanted to mint more silver ingots and copper coins, it would be useless, because no one would want to mine silver and copper mines at all.

Of course, Yang Cong knew this situation, he slowly shook his head and said: "We can try to mine this copper mine, we don't lack much copper money, the main thing we lack is silver, especially after the implementation of a whip law, all kinds of goods will definitely be priced in silver, and then we need more silver, and we are not rich in silver, mining will definitely not solve the problem." ”

When Yongqing heard this, he couldn't help blurting out: "Mining can't solve the problem, so what should I do?" Do you want to grab it! ”

Not to mention, the solution that Yang Cong came up with was to grab it!

He nodded without hesitation and said: "The emperor is wise, in this situation, we can only solve the problem of lack of silver by robbing it!" ”

, really grab it!

When Yongqing heard this, he couldn't help but be stunned and said, "Isn't it okay to grab things?" Besides, we don't have a little bit of silver, so where are we going to grab so much silver? ”

When Yang Cong heard this, he wanted to roll his eyes, this "robbery" is not the other "robbery", how can the matter of a scholar be regarded as a "robbery"?

Besides, the "robbery" he mentioned does not mean directly robbing others, but grabbing them through various means.

He explained helplessly: "Your Majesty, what Weichen said about robbery is actually grabbed through various means, just like when some people make special money in a certain business, others will say that he is robbing money." ”

Oh, that's what "rob" means.

Yongqing couldn't help but be curious: "Then where are we going to rob it?" ”

Yang Cong straightened his face and said solemnly: "Dongying! ”

Yes!

Where to rob the robbers?

That's too much, isn't it?

Yongqing was stunned again and said, "Dongying? Do they have silver? If they want silver, will they brave hardships and dangers, cross the ocean, and run to the Ming Dynasty to plunder? ”

Yang Cong still said with a solemn face: "Dongying is not short of silver, but short of living materials, they have a lot of silver mines over there, and the princes of all sizes over there are crazy mining silver in order to compete for hegemony, and there is simply a lot of silver over there at this time, and a shipload of things can be sold at a price more than ten times higher than that of Daming." ”

Is Dongying really that rich?

If Dongying really had so much silver, it would not be too much to run over and rob them, because they had all looted on the southeast coast of the Ming Dynasty for dozens or hundreds of years.

Yongqing couldn't help but say tentatively: "Teacher, do you mean that we will start a war with Dongying and go to rob their silver?" ”

Yang Cong nodded slowly: "Yes, let's find an excuse to start a war with them, and then try to grab their silver!" ”

This is how the Battle of Silver began, but this time it was not the European powers that provoked the Battle of Silver, but the Ming Dynasty in the Far East.