Speaking of this, Wang Wenle took a sip of tea and continued: "When Emperor Muli was in power before, the ministers strongly opposed the great voyage, because tens of millions of taels of silver were spent on the great voyage every year, so the voyage was a huge expense, wasting the people's fat and ointment, and should be banned. ”

"Qi'er, what do you think about this!" Wang Wenle asked with a smile.

"Childe, the slave maid thinks there is something strange about this matter." Qi'er replied in thought.

"Oh? Let's hear it. Wang Wenle said curiously.

"Childe, it's very simple, when Emperor Muli was in power, the Great Voyage spent so much money, but the empire did not raise taxes and was not poor and could not pay military salaries, and after stopping the Great Voyage, a lot of silver should be saved every year, but where did all this silver go? Not to mention saving 10 million taels a year, it is saving 1 million taels a year, and after these 200 years, there should be ...... in the treasury Ten million taels in ten years, ten thousand taels in a hundred years, and twenty thousand taels in two hundred years, there should also be 20,000 taels of silver in the treasury, and if 10 million taels are saved every year, there should be 200,000 taels of silver. If the money had not been diverted for other purposes, the money would have been saved, but this is not the case, Gongzi said that the empire had increased taxes and arrears in the end, and it was already poor, so Qi'er thought that there must be something strange in this. Qi'er replied after thinking carefully.

"Oh, Qi'er can do the math, it's amazing." Wang Wenle looked at Qi'er in surprise and said.

"Gongzi Xie praised that the palace maid must learn arithmetic before she can be promoted again." Qi'er blushed and avoided Wang Wenle's eyes.

"Oh, I see." Wang Wenle nodded and continued: "What Qi'er just said is right, when everyone analyzed the great voyage of the Great Sun and Moon Empire in later generations, most people's conclusions were the same as those of the ministers at that time, but most people ignored one of the most important questions, where did the money saved every year after the sailing go, and no matter how the ministers whitewashed the successive emperors after Emperor Muli, no emperor could match or surpass the strength of Emperor Muli during his reign, and could not hide the fact that the empire was getting poorer and poorer. But if we think the other way around, we can at least prove that the Great Voyage did not drag down the Empire's finances.

So how did Emperor Muli manage to spend a lot of money without dragging down the empire's finances? Let's just say that one of the two methods that Emperor Muli used to accumulate wealth quickly and the most was to use overseas trade to drive the economic growth of the empire so as to obtain more silver, in short, the special products of the empire were transported to other countries by sea, and used to exchange the special products of other countries needed by the empire or sold in exchange for gold and silver. For example, if the empire is short of copper, then the special products will be shipped to countries with more copper to exchange for copper. And so on, if the empire lacks something, it will take special products to go to overseas countries for something, and if there is nothing to change land, it will bring back gold, silver and jewelry.

Then after the exchange, the inventory of the empire's special products will be reduced, so it is necessary to continue to manufacture and increase the inventory, so that the workshop will not stop producing, such as this silk workshop, first of all, the weaver needs to make silk into silk, and the silk needs to make silk, then it is necessary to draw the cocoon into silk, the silk is spit out by the silkworm, so the person who needs to raise silkworms, the silkworm needs to eat mulberry leaves to survive, and the person who needs to plant mulberry trees needs to eat mulberry leaves. Silk needs to be dyed in a dyeing workshop, and then the dyeing workshop needs a group of people to dye according to the workflow, and these people get paid through their work, because they don't have time to farm, so they use the wages to buy rice and grain to eat.

In this way, the peasants can make a profit by selling rice grains or meat and eggs, and when the peasants have money in their hands, they can buy better seeds and agricultural tools to carry out fine work and increase grain production; Workshops have money in their hands and can buy more advanced tools to improve production and quality, and both workshops and farmers want to be able to get the maximum return with the least amount of manpower. So this in turn stimulates artisans to produce tools, so that artisans can make money and money to promote technological progress and innovation.

As long as you can think of what the industry needs, then the industry that is needed will be able to make money through this industry.

And the emperor had to build ships and need craftsmen and sailors to ship these special products by sea; Sailors are needed to escort them; There is a need for all kinds of personnel necessary for navigation; It is necessary to purchase necessary supplies and so on, and then export the goods overseas to make a profit, or pull the exchanged overseas special products back to the country for sale, make profits on both sides, and obtain benefits from the beginning to the end of every link, and the emperor is the biggest profiteer, which is the secret of Emperor Muli's wealth. ”

Wang Wenle stopped and took a sip of tea, and Meng'er said: "Oh, I heard Gongzi say this, it turns out that this money is actually everyone making money together, although the emperor earns the most, but everyone makes money together!" But Childe, not only can the emperor drive everyone to make money together, but even businessmen can do it? ”

Wang Wenle said with a smile: "Meng'er asked this question well. Qi'er, we've talked so much, after connecting the previous and the next, what do you think of Meng'er's questions? ”

Qi'er thought for a while, and said slowly: "According to what Gongzi just said, in the shallow view of slaves, this world belongs to the emperor, not to the merchants. This money was earned in the hands of the emperor, and when the treasury had no money, the emperor had to take silver from the inner treasury to subsidize the treasury no matter how stingy he was. First of all, it is impossible for the minister to take out a large amount of silver to subsidize the treasury, the clean officials really have no money, and they can't take it out if they want to, and the corrupt officials are really rich, but they don't dare to take it out; Secondly, how could a merchant come up with silver to subsidize the treasury? This empire is not a merchant's, who made this empire the emperor's? Therefore, the purpose of making money for the emperor and the purpose of making money for the merchant is completely different. ”

Wang Wenle stroked his palms and laughed: "What Qi'er saw hit the nail on the head, no matter what, don't ignore this premise, this empire belongs to the emperor, not everyone." Therefore, whether it was a minister or a merchant, even when the Great Sun and Moon Empire fell, they did not take out the silver to subsidize the treasury.

And vice versa? The world is not the world of one person, but the world of the people. It's ridiculous to think about it, Ben Gongzi was poisoned too deeply by Jiang Shang, or the ministers of the Great Sun and Moon Empire read well, the merchants also read well, Qi'er's books read even better, and he was not deceived by books at a young age, alas! I'm ashamed, I think my son was deceived by books, how can it be everyone's, reading a dead book kills people! ”