After the words turned back, just after the court meeting, Zhu Houzhao called Jiao Fang, the first assistant of the cabinet.

Jiao Fang also had to salute Zhu Houzhao:

"Returning to Your Majesty, the minister is thinking that if the Ming Dynasty wants to fight with the Tatars, it is indeed necessary to spend a lot of money and food, and it will increase the expenditure of the treasury, what Wang Hua said is not reasonable!

Therefore, the minister did not know what would happen if the household department owed too much debt to the Royal Bank!

The treasury income is limited, Your Majesty and the magnates holding shares of the Royal Bank will definitely not want to suffer losses, and once the treasury cannot repay the money, these magnates holding shares in the Royal Bank will definitely suffer, and it is not a small amount, at least a few million taels! ”

Zhu Houzhao smiled slightly, he didn't expect Jiao Fang to see the key to this, and said:

"What you said is right, once the treasury borrows a large amount of money from the Royal Bank and cannot repay it, the magnates holding shares in the Royal Bank will definitely lose a lot of money, including me, the emperor, so I and you all have to find a way to make the treasury pay back the money!"

"I understand! His Majesty's move undoubtedly made the ministers and other gentry who held shares in the Royal Bank and the kings of later generations, including the current Majesty, have to find a way to make the household department pay back;

And the largest shareholder is the Son of Heaven, and in order to ensure the social welfare of the Ming Dynasty, the Son of Heaven will naturally not let the Royal Bank not lend to the Ministry of Households! Unless the Son of Heaven wants to be the king of the dead country!

What's more, even the other shareholding gentry don't want the Ming Dynasty to die, after all, if the Ming Dynasty dies, the benefits of the world's banks will naturally not belong to themselves, so they can only borrow money from the household department, and if the household department can afford to pay back the money, they must constantly increase the treasury income, and collect the benefits of the world in the name of the imperial court! ”

Jiao Fang said.

Zhu Houzhao nodded, as Jiao Fang said, this was the fundamental purpose of his establishment of the Royal Bank, that is, to cultivate a group of capital groups tied to national interests.

Let this capital group prompt the Ming Dynasty to achieve the goal of transforming the small peasant economy into a commodity economy by increasing national income.

Historically, in the process of the transformation of Ming society from a small peasant economy to a commodity economy, it was the Jin merchants and Hui merchants who played an important role.

The background of the former is the northern gentry, and the background of the latter is the Jiangnan gentry, and the political struggle between the two is manifested in the struggle between the north and the south, and finally evolves into the dispute between the eunuch party and the Donglin party.

There is no doubt that whether it is the Jin Shang Consortium or the Hui Shang Consortium, their interests are not consistent with the interests of the imperial court.

Their struggle in the court is for the interests of their own consortium, whether it is smuggling grain and iron tools to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, or raising pirates, they are making the court poor and making themselves rich, and in the end, the court can't even do anything to them, and even the court has become their puppet court!

The capital consortium that Zhu Houzhao wants to establish now is a consortium that is dependent on the imperial power, and as long as they want to increase their own interests, they will benefit the emperor, because the emperor is their common interest partner.

And if the emperor wants to maintain this kind of interest and the other officials and gentry of the consortium want to maintain this kind of interest privilege, they can only make the Ming more and more powerful, otherwise once the Ming is dead, their privileges will be taken away by others.

"Since Aiqing is the first assistant of the cabinet, what he wants in the future is naturally not only to rectify the rule of officials, maintain the court, whether the Ming Dynasty can be strong, whether the people can be well-being in the court, it is all in Aiqing, who upholds national politics, can they increase the income of the court and benefit the people!"

Zhu Houzhao said.

After hearing this, Jiao Fang naturally understood what Zhu Houzhao meant, and also knew that now as the head of the cabinet, whether it was from the interests of the imperial court or from the interests of his own family, he had to find a way to increase the revenue of the treasury, but how to increase the revenue of the treasury without causing major turmoil.

Jiao Fang thought of the rich gentry he had seen, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but sneer.

At the time of the execution of Urusborot, the Royal Bank had again borrowed three million taels of silver from the household department to replenish the border affairs!

After all, at present, the little prince is very likely to be provoked by the Ming Dynasty and wave his army to attack, and the border towns must be fully prepared.

Since Ye Qi, the head of the household department of the Hongzhi Dynasty, in order to take care of the interests of the salt merchants in Huaiyang, changed the system of receiving grain and salt in China and France to the system of receiving salt in silver, if the merchants of the world want to withdraw salt, they do not need to transport grain to the border towns, but only need to pay silver to the household department, thus saving the cost of transporting grain to the border towns, and the cost of salt merchants is greatly reduced, and the commercial profits are naturally increased a lot.

However, the consequence is that merchants no longer collect grain in the border towns, which leads to the slackening of border guards due to the decrease in the population of border towns, and the grain is also greatly reduced, which makes the grain prices in border towns skyrocket.

And because the silver is paid to the household department, the household department then pays the border town border army, and the border army itself uses silver to buy grain, but because the price of grain soars and the price of silver falls because of the introduction of a large amount of silver, it leads to a sharp increase in the military expenditure of the imperial court, and it soars directly to tens of millions of taels after Wanli, and most of the national income is used for the military salary of the border town!

In the end, because of Ye Qi's reform of opening the Chinese law, the Ming Dynasty was dragged down by high military spending.

It can be said that Ye Qi, the head of the Hongzhi Dynasty, is a traitor of the Ming Empire!

And he himself is a native of Huai'an.

There is no doubt that because the Daming salt field is mainly in the Huaiyang area, the Huaiyang salt merchants behind him no longer need to transport grain to the border towns, and enjoy the huge benefits brought by this opening of the Chinese law.

Even the Jin merchants in the north began to go to the Huaiyang area, which made the population of the border towns even smaller, and the lower population meant that the border defense was weaker, which directly led to the rise of the Jurchens in the later period, which easily encroached on the land outside the Daming Pass, and could enter and exit the border towns at will.

Moreover, a large number of merchants from border towns moved inward, especially after gathering in the Huaiyang area, which led to a sharp increase in the number of gentry in the Huaiyang area, and these gentry naturally wanted to annex a large number of land, which also led to frequent famines in the Huaiyang area and a large increase in the number of displaced people.

At the same time, it can be said that although Ye Qi's policy of reforming and opening up China and France led to the rise of salt merchants.

But it harmed the entire empire.

However, the irony is that Ye Qi has been praised in history as a clean official, and it is unknowable whether he is honest or not, but his policy is indeed beneficial to businessmen and harmful to the imperial court.

Although Ye Qi also brought an extra million taels of income to the central court of the Ming Dynasty for this reason, this was at the cost of transferring the burden of raising troops and tuntian from merchants to the central court, compared to the military expenditure of millions of taels or even tens of millions of taels, the more than one million taels of salt tax revenue was undoubtedly meaningless.

Ye Qi, the head of the Hongzhi Dynasty, has long been an ancient person, and at this time, he naturally does not know whether his original intention of changing the policy of China and France to take salt for the silver is for the country or for the Huaiyang business group behind him.

However, it has to be admitted that this is an important reason for the loss of the Hetao during the Hongzhi period, because the loss of the Hetao was not occupied by the Mongols, but because of the reform of the Kaizhong Law, which led to the internal migration of a large number of merchants, soldiers and civilians, so that the Mongols took advantage of the weakness.

The terrible results of this policy still affect the Zhengde Dynasty today, and this effect will become more and more severe as time goes on, until the empire is completely destroyed by the aliens.

It is precisely because of this that Zhu Houzhao asked Ma Wensheng to go to the border town to immigrate to Shibian Tuntian before preparing to recover the Hetao, so as to curb the soaring grain prices in the border town.

However, there will definitely be no obvious effect in the short term, and immigration to the border towns also requires costs.

The imperial court did not save money because of this, but increased its expenses.

In addition, the renovation of the border wall and the training of village soldiers to enrich the border reserves to make up for the lack of border reserves after the reform of the Kai Zhong and French countries led to a large number of internal migrations, and the imperial court expenditure still increased again.

Now, in order to prevent the little prince from attacking and harassing the border towns because his beloved son was executed by the Ming Dynasty, and even threatening the Beijing Division, the imperial court naturally has to strengthen the border guards, and the obsolete and aging ordnance of the border army must naturally be replaced immediately, and the arrears of Lu rice must be repaid immediately, and even more to boost morale.

Therefore, on the basis of borrowing a large amount from the Royal Bank, the household department could only borrow three million taels of silver from the Royal Bank again!

Emperor Zhu Houzhao of Zhengde, Jiao Fang, Xu Jin, Wang Hua, and Liu Jin, the chief of ceremonies, and Ma Yongcheng, as well as Ma Wensheng, the general staff of the Guards, and Qiu Yue, the governor of Zuodu, could only watch Xu Jing hand over the three million taels of silver withdrawal voucher to the new household department Shangshu Wang Qiong.

Jiao Fang and other imperial military and government officials and even those in power in the inner court were dripping blood in their hearts, because they clearly remembered that the household department had already borrowed nearly 10 million taels of silver from the Royal Bank!

And they are now all shareholders of the Royal Bank, and they know that if they can't repay the loan in the future, they and the emperor will suffer huge losses, but if they can afford to pay the money, they will make a big profit.

But they can't help but let the household department borrow, because if the household department does not borrow to enrich the border reserves, the Ming Dynasty's Jiangshan Sheji will be at risk, and once the Ming Dynasty dies, their privileges will be gone.

"Your Majesty! The most important thing now in the Ming Dynasty is not to guard against the little prince, but to make up for the deficit of the imperial court, most of the world's profits have now been attributed to the merchants, and the taxes of the merchants are light, if you do not take the profits of the merchants to make up for the lack of the imperial court, it will definitely hurt the peasants in the future, and force the world to rise up! ”

After Jiao Fang watched Wang Qiong, the head of the household, follow Xu Jing to the Royal Bank to withdraw the silver, his heart was extremely painful, and he had to explain to Zhu Houzhao the purpose of wanting to take advantage of the merchant.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that what the head said is very true, if you want to open a prosperous world, you should be agriculture-oriented, cherish the interests of the people is also cherish the benefits of the farmers, and now the merchants are benefiting and the farmers are affected, which naturally makes the starvation all over the wilderness! The minister was in charge of the military department, dispatching the world's military rations, but found that since the opening of the Chinese law changed to pay silver for salt, the cost of military rations has increased sharply, and the minister thought that the system of collecting grain and salt should be restored, and the merchant Tuntian and the merchant transporting grain was to reduce the burden of the court and realize the move to benefit the people! ”

The second assistant Xu Jin also chimed in.

He knew that if the commercial tax was directly increased now, it would definitely offend all the gentry, but if it was only to restore the system of paying grain and taking salt, it would only take away the benefits that Ye Qi, the head of the household department of the Hongzhi Dynasty, had given to the salt merchants in Huaiyang, and it would naturally be easier.

"The minister has felt that the system of paying grain and taking salt should be restored! Although this was a strategy to increase the burden on merchants, it was precisely because of this that Taizu only set the commercial tax at 1 out of 30! If the merchant does not take on the responsibility of raising the army, then what is the point of the policy of light taxation! ”

Wang Hua also seconded.

"But Your Majesty, at present, the ministers have divided the land in the border town before this, and now the ownerless land and the newly cultivated land in the entire border town have all been granted to the military and civilians of the border town in accordance with His Majesty's will, and the Yongye field and the mouth field of the Tang Dynasty have been implemented, and eighty percent of the land is divided into the mouth, and the people can only cultivate but cannot sell it, and it will be returned to the imperial court after fifty years!"

"If the system of collecting grain and salt is restored, it is inevitable that the merchants will continue to return to the border towns to settle fields, but there is almost no land left in the border towns, and it seems that there is no point for merchants to hire people to come to the border towns," Ma Wensheng said.

The meaning of Zhu Hou's lighting of Baima Wensheng is nothing more than that the Ming Dynasty has now carried out the policy of immigrating to the real border of Tuntian, and it is meaningless for businessmen to come to the border town of Tuntian even if they want to come to the border town in the future, because a large amount of land belongs to the government, and they can no longer buy it in their own hands.

However, Zhu Houzhao still decided to pay grain and take salt, prompted the merchants to go to the border town of Tuntian, and said:

"There is no field to be tuned in the border town of Guannei, can't you go outside the wall, the whole world is not the king's land, do my merchants of the Ming Dynasty only dare to tuntian within the wall, what you said is very appropriate, you can restore the system of collecting grain and salt, encourage merchants to go out of the tuntian, and tell them that the territory of the Ming Dynasty will not be within the wall! I support them in bringing Tuntian to the little prince's tent! ”

As a result, the cabinet and the celebrant began to prepare for the resumption of the system of collecting grain and salt.

But the salt merchants naturally will not sit still, the imperial court is now paying more and more attention to border defense, and may even fight with the little prince, they are also worried that the imperial court will restore the system of collecting grain and salt.

Therefore, Ye Zhen, the son of Ye Qi, who was the Taichang Temple Cheng at the time, sent a note asking for his mother's edict to probe the direction of the imperial court, as long as the imperial court would not restore the system of collecting grain and salt, he would naturally give Ye Zhen this grace to appease the hearts of the salt merchants behind him.

But Jiao Fang, the first assistant of the cabinet, voted without hesitation: "I have heard that his mother is disposed of by abusing the concubine, and her name is not virtuous, and her husband posthumously presents the crown prince Taibao, if you add another order, it will not overshadow her husband!" Forbid! ”

Liu Jin, the celebrant supervisor, naturally did not hesitate to approve the red.

In today's Zhengde Dynasty, the celebrant and the cabinet are always in the same step, and they can be said to be politically harmonious, but for the merchants and the gentry group behind them, they are not happy about this.

Because the cabinet refused to seal Ye Qi's wife's edict, the salt merchants realized that the imperial court really wanted to restore the system of collecting grain and salt, and they were also a little flustered for a while, and they went everywhere to think of countermeasures.

……

The Ming Empire is vast and has a large population, and naturally has a lot of affairs, Zhu Houzhao didn't have time to think about how the salt merchants would deal with it at this time, he believed that Jiao Fang and others could handle this matter, after all, these people were all figures who won the political struggle in history, and it stands to reason that their wisdom in the officialdom is far stronger than their own, and they will not be defeated by the gentry.

Now, Zhu Houzhao has to pay more attention to the little prince.