The funds raised in public bonds are still rising!

In less than three months, the entire Daming Stock Exchange raised more than 5 million silver dollars through the sale of public bonds!

Zhu Hou looked at the boxes and boxes of silver dollar bills shipped from Guangzhou Mansion, and couldn't help but ask Xia Yan: "This money must be enough for you to fight Goa City, India three times, how do you plan to arrange this fund?" ”

"Back to Your Majesty, according to the budget of the minister and Wang Zhitai, and according to the intelligence of Jinyiwei, the fleet of the Franc aircraft now in Goa has twenty-one ships, forty guns, sixteen hundred soldiers, and twelve thousand other non-combatants and slaves; Therefore, the minister planned to prepare a third-class battleship with 750 soldiers, three fourth-class battleships with 350 soldiers, a total of more than 1,000 people, plus ten warships responsible for charging, burning, and landing all kinds of warships, a total of more than 2,000 officers and soldiers, plus muskets, ammunition, fire, flying crows, etc., and silver, about 1 million silver dollars! The remaining more than 4 million, the minister has not yet thought about it, please show it to Your Majesty! ”

Xia Yan replied.

Xia Yan really didn't think about it, because he didn't expect that the issuance of public bonds could raise so much money.

The officials of Liangguang did not expect it, and they all looked at Emperor Zhu Houzhao excitedly to see how Emperor Zhu Houzhao arranged this fund.

Of course, because the Imperial Sea Trade Corporation is a state-owned company of the Ming Dynasty and was established by Xia Yan in the name of the Minister of Nanyang, these funds are all public funds and do not belong to private individuals, so they can only be arranged by Zhu Houzhao, the emperor.

This is also a special feature of this colonial era, large maritime trading companies are owned by the state or the royal family, especially the centralized empire of the Ming Dynasty, private capital, that is, businessmen, it is difficult to compete with the imperial court in the maritime trade, it can be said that the entire maritime interests of the Ming Dynasty are now almost controlled by the government and the imperial court.

Zhu Houzhao is very willing to see this result, because the public ownership economy accounts for the main body, which is of great significance for maintaining the stability of the empire.

Banks such as the Royal Bank, the Central Bank of the Ming Dynasty, industries such as the Royal Industrial Corporation, and projects such as the Infrastructure Bureau are all owned by the royal family and the imperial court.

This is also a Ming characteristic.

And now, when Zhu Houzhao wants to do it, how to benefit the vast majority of the funds occupied by the Ming court to do things that are beneficial to the national economy and people's livelihood.

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but think of what he met in Haitian Shengyuan a few days ago, and he had to admit that with the rise of capitalism in the Ming Dynasty, the lives of the powerful officials and eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty were becoming more and more extravagant.

Now that the stock exchange is established, there are more opportunities to make a fortune by speculating in money and playing finance, and it is easier for these powerful officials and eunuchs who hold most of the interests of the empire to work at ease and no longer invest their funds in industry, so that the development of the productive forces of the Ming Dynasty cannot be promoted.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao felt that as the emperor and the largest capitalist in the Ming Empire, he had to first not let the empire's funds flow into the beds of the imperial nobles and become a drop of 0 essence and 0 liquid.

"Tomorrow, I will convene the civil and military officials above the fourth rank in Haojing, and I will decide to hold a court meeting to discuss how to use these funds and how to use the public interests of the court in the future, so that Jiao Ge Lao, Han Wen, Shouning Hou, and Xiangcheng Bo will also participate."

Zhu Houzhao said that he returned to his place in Haojing overnight, and wrote down on paper the idea of how to use the large amount of public funds obtained by the state to benefit the people without making the people lazy, and revised it several times into the final copy, and then put it forward at the court meeting on the second day: "This is what I wrote overnight last night, you can pass it on first, and then I will talk about how to arrange it." ”

Xia Yan and other officials hurriedly said yes, and passed it on one after another.

And Zhu Houzhao also waited for these people to pass it on, and said: "Recently, I came to Guangzhou to see a lot of indiscretions of high-ranking officials and nobles, Rao is once the first assistant of the cabinet and even Shangshu such a minister, and he is also deeply involved in it, which really makes me sad, I am strong and strong, and the foreign captives naturally can't destroy us, if one day, the Ming Dynasty decays and goes to extinction, in addition to the fact that the emperor is willing to fall will be a reason, the corruption and degeneration of you princes and eunuchs is also a reason!" ”

Zhu Houzhao's opening sentence made all the officials present bow their heads, especially Jiao Fang and Han Wen and others.

Everyone knows in their hearts that Emperor Zhu Houzhao is right, compared to before the early years of Zhengde, who is not a beautiful wife and concubine now, indulging in lust, and even building mansions, which is more luxurious.

Everyone knows that this is not a good phenomenon, but in addition to saying that "the world is declining, and people's hearts are not ancient", the rest can only comfort themselves with the fact that it is a peaceful and prosperous world so they can enjoy themselves, after all, as a courtier and a common man, what can he do.

"I know that when facing a large inflow of wealth after the opening of the empire, you will be confused and at a loss, and even you will only say that this is the disadvantage of the imperial court's emphasis on business and opening up the sea, and it is better to abandon business and profit and focus on agriculture, but what I want to say is that you can't stop pursuing a strong country and a prosperous people just because money can wear down people's will."

Zhu Houzhao said and said: "Regarding the public interests of the Ming court, how to arrange, I have already written on it, I will briefly say it now, the court makes money naturally to strengthen the country and enrich the people, and the power is naturally easy to understand, it is undoubtedly to train elite soldiers and manufacture sophisticated ordnance and warships, but to enrich the people, you can't simply send money to the people, that will only let the people enjoy the favor of the court, and no longer work hard, that will only destroy the country and destroy the people!" ”

"Therefore, I believe that the public interests of the imperial court should be mainly spent on things that are conducive to the prosperity of the country and the common interests of the people in the world, such as the construction of government-run hospitals for the poor, the construction of schools, and even the establishment of some institutions for the government and the people to consult, such as legal consulting institutions, as well as policy advisory institutions, and other nursing homes to increase the treatment of the elderly!"

"For example, this time, the remaining more than 4 million silver dollars, after the new route is opened, the sea route from Haojing to Guangzhou will also flourish, and your officials in Guangzhou can use the funds to build a better port along the coast of Guangzhou;

In addition, once the port is to be built, it is necessary to relocate the poor people in the surrounding area, and then the government will directly pay a huge amount of money, and even put forward a relocation notice half a year or even a year in advance, so that the people have more time to prepare, and naturally they can spend the money in the best way. ”

As soon as Zhu Houzhao said this, Zhang Run, the political envoy of Zuobu in Guangdong, couldn't help but say: "Your Majesty, the people have always been cunning and cunning, if the government issues a relocation notice in advance, the ministers are afraid that these people will take the opportunity to build houses, and the government will compensate for the relocation at that time." ”

"I mean that I want to give these common people the opportunity to take advantage, and the large amount of money obtained by the imperial court is better to let these ordinary people get away than to give them shares to the wealthy gentry and let them pursue pleasures, although they are slippery, but they are still industrious, and the sharing of the public benefits among them will not make them feel free to work at once;

And they build houses, they must need a lot of bricks and tiles, which can promote the income of the brick and tile workshop, and even, your Guangzhou government can ask for compensation only for the cement brick and tile houses, which can also promote the Daming cement workshop to find a way to increase cement production! ”

"In addition, you can also concentrate the best doctors, the best schools and even the best welfare in Guangdong to the urban areas near the relocated people, and also build the best houses for sale in the urban areas near the relocated people, and the houses are concentrated in a square, which is equipped with gardens, guards and even institutions dedicated to the people of the village, which can also be called a property company! Do you understand? ”

"In this way, you can raise the price of the house here, you can directly let some businessmen develop, you only sell official land, but the price is higher, so that the common people have to spend all the demolition money that your government compensates them, so that although they live in the best house and have the most peaceful and peaceful life, they have no money in their hands, and if they want to pursue pleasure, they can only continue to work, continue to plow the fields, or fish, in short, as the government, let the rich not be too rich, and the poor can not be too poor, The ultimate possible outcome is to make all the people of the Ming Dynasty rich! ”

Zhu Houzhao's words made the officials present look at Zhu Houzhao with a look of consternation as if they had been empowered, and they seemed to have begun to understand the benefits of controlling the most profitable industry in the hands of the imperial court.

Most of the officials present are also officials who are deeply educated by Confucianism, and they also have a longing for the ancient Datong society.

Xia Yan couldn't help laughing at this time, and secretly thought to himself: "Let everyone be rich, in the past, I only thought that this was just the fantasy of the world, but now I heard Your Majesty say this, it seems that it is possible to achieve it, no matter what, I, Xia Yan, have to follow Your Majesty to try to do this once, let the court dominate the interests of the world, so that the rich cannot be too rich, and the poor cannot be too poor." ”

"Of course, this is difficult to achieve, at least not in the short term, but in any case, people's desires cannot be stopped, as long as people are not absolutely richer than others, he will not be satisfied, so we can't let the people have too much spare money, we can make their houses better and better, let them walk better and better, let their parents and officials that is, you become more and more honest, let them travel more and more conveniently, and eat better and better, but we just can't let him be more and more idle!"

After Zhu Houzhao said, he asked, "Do you understand?!" ”

"Wait for you to understand!" The bureaucrats present all stood up and replied in unison.

Thereupon.

Three days later.

Zhang Run, the political envoy of Zuobu in Guangdong, issued a notice to prepare to build the port of Guangzhou, and some coastal fishing villages in Guangzhou need to be relocated, and the government will compensate at the price of 50% of the high price of parity, and in the house, the compensation price of the cement brick and tile house will be doubled, and the price of the house will be calculated according to the square of three feet, and the area below the square of three feet will not be counted.

Some coastal people in Guangzhou have built houses one after another, and cement workshops and brick and tile workshops have sprung up in Guangzhou for a while.