From the village level to the cabinet level, maintaining such a large group of civil servants naturally requires eye-popping sums of money and office expenses.

In the pre-Zhou era, of the 80 million guan of the annual state revenue, nearly 8 percent of 60 million guan was used to pay for military expenses, and the remaining part of nearly 8 percent of 15 million guan was used to pay for officials, and the remaining part was used to pay for the Jurchen Tartars' annual coins and royal expenses.

Then it was gone, such a tight finance, in fact, there was no redundancy at all, once there was a natural and man-made disaster somewhere, disaster relief or other additional expenditures were needed, the economy of the Great Zhou court had to run a deficit.

Most of the prime ministers of the Great Zhou Dynasty who had some ability carried out certain financial reforms, cut redundant troops and officials, and reduced expenditure as much as possible.

However, if they were to know the figures of the Empire's financial expenditures, it is estimated that all the Great Zhou Virtuous Ministers would pick and choose to stop - this number was large enough to make them despair.

In 1796, for example, the empire's military expenditure was 180 million taels, and the official and office expenses were 90 million s$270 million!

In addition to this, the empire also had financial expenditures of 8 million taels to stabilize the lives of immigrants; 12 million taels for the resettlement of veterans and disabled servicemen; industrial enterprises invested 15 million taels; repay the interest on the national debt 30 million taels; 40 million taels of domestic disaster relief and recovery expenditures in disaster areas; 45 million taels of infrastructure for water conservancy, roads, bridges and other infrastructure; medical and health financial subsidies of 48 million taels; 75 million taels of education and science, including scientific and technological innovation awards, the Academy of Sciences, and the Academy of Engineering.

All expenses totaled 543 million taels!

The purchasing power of the empire's new currency is actually a little higher than that of the Great Zhou, and after the unification, the inner lord ordered the currency exchange, and the Great Zhou money (copper coin) was exchanged for 1 new dollar tael at 1050 Wen (1.4 yuan).

In other words, the empire's financial expenditure last year was equivalent to 760 million yuan!

That's the sum of the previous week's nine and a half years of fiscal revenue!

That is, the empire does not have royal and clan expenses (which are the responsibility of the inner treasury), otherwise this figure will be even more staggering.

Even so, this figure is no longer what the bureaucrats of the previous week could have imagined, and with an expenditure close to ten times the income, who do you let to fill this hole?

Of course, since the empire dares to spend so much money, it will naturally be able to earn more money.

The current empire is the only country in the world that is close to the end of industry, crushing the world in terms of productivity, and at the same time owns all the raw material sources and markets in the whole of East Asia, Central Asia, North Asia, and Southeast Asia, and can also sell various products to Tianzhu, Pars, and the more western world through sea trade routes to make a profit.

In addition, the empire has a more advanced tax system, which allows it to obtain more fiscal revenue through customs and more rational tax policies.

In 1796, there were 457 million taels of fiscal revenue, including value-added tax, import and export tax, stamp duty, resource tax, enterprise income tax, and personal income tax, in addition to the profits of state-owned enterprises (including industrial enterprises, banks, and farms and ranches) of 100 million taels and 50 million taels of treasury bonds.

The total revenue was 619 million taels.

The remaining 76 million taels of the treasury.

This figure only counts the portion that goes to the Cabinet treasury, the portion retained by local taxes, the retained profits of state-owned enterprises, and the profits of domestic government enterprises that belong to the Imperial Family (which pays taxes, but the profits go to the Imperial Family, not the Cabinet).

According to the budget reports of the various departments for the 1796 conference season, it is estimated that the imperial expenditure in 1797 will rise to about 630 million, but the fiscal revenue will properly exceed 700 million!

It can guarantee a financial surplus of 70 to 80 million yuan every year, and this kind of financial health is actually not as good as only the Jiangbei period, because Jiangnan entered the empire too late, and the industrial advantages have not been brought into play for the time being.

When the more advantageous Jiangnan economy is improved, the empire's fiscal surplus will definitely be richer.

When there is money, the imperial cabinet is very heroic in everything they do, and it is not without reason that they dare to transport 3.9 million stone of grain to the disaster area of Jiangxi Province in one go.

Moreover, when you have strong enough capital and dare to invest to the end, you will not lose money.

Even the delivery of relief to the disaster areas of Jiangxi Province was the same, and when the gentry had to sell the hoarded grain at a loss, the empire could instead make a profit of 1 million taels.

……

The empire is now so powerful that Xu Shiyang, as the helmsman, seems to be a bit lavish in spending money.

Before leaving Yanjing and starting to tour the country, Xu Shiyang proposed a high-profile reward through the propaganda department: if anyone can invent a steam engine that can operate normally for more than 24 hours, the crown prince will give him a direct economic reward of 3 million taels and the title of earl in his own name!

If anyone can put a steam engine on board and keep it running smoothly for more than 24 hours, he will receive a reward of 5 million taels and the title of Marquis!

If you can put a steam engine in a car, you will get 8 million taels of cash, and the title of duke!

In order to let the world know what the steam engine is, Xu Shiyang even released basic popular science, introducing the principle of the steam engine, and the basic knowledge of thermal expansion and contraction.

This is another desperate attempt by Xu Shiyang to forcibly raise the scientific and technological level of the empire.

Of course, he did not fail to understand that some basic research was more important than an important invention.

Therefore, Xu Shiyang set up the Imperial Royal Prize for Scientific Progress, which is selected once a year to reward new discoveries in mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

These awards will focus on numbers, formulas, and seemingly "useless" basic research, and the rewards will also be very generous.

The top three prizes in each discipline will be 500,000, 300,000 and 100,000 taels per year, and the awards can be obtained in a tie as long as they can be officially verified and the correctness of the data.

Gold Award holders can directly obtain nobility.

The Royal Prize for Scientific Progress in the Chinese Empire will soon grow into the world's highest-profile scientific award, and will continue to be for a long, long time.

……

Relative to Xu Shiyang, he spent money to promote the improvement of science and technology.

The emperor was particularly fond of spending money to build palaces.

The investment in Changle Palace in Jinling has exceeded 3 million taels, and it has not been repaired, it is estimated that about 2 million taels will be invested every year in the future, and it is possible to complete the construction after investing for ten years, and then it is estimated that the old hall renovation project will be carried out immediately, and the maintenance cost of 1 million per year is not much.

This is not counting the expenses of various royal utensils and staff such as female officials, palace maids, and eunuchs in the palace.

Moreover, it's just Changle Palace, there is a Meiquan Palace in Quancheng, Yanjing and the Forbidden City, and it is even possible to build Daming Palace in Chang'an in ......the future.

If it is placed in any of the previous dynasties, this is a sign of the emperor's extravagance and ruin.

However, in China, these expenses were all paid by the inner government of the imperial family, and had nothing to do with the imperial finances.

No, it's still something related – this kind of consumption is subject to luxury tax.