The collapse of the entire society at the end of the Ming Dynasty was certainly due to the factors of thieves inside and enemy countries outside, but in the final analysis, it was due to the collapse of the social economy. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 However, this collapse was not due to the widespread poverty of society in the late Ming Dynasty, as some experts in later generations believed.

In fact, since the beginning of the era of colonialism in Europe in the 16th century, most of the silver that several large colonial empires in the early days, such as Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and other countries, plundered through colonization in South America and Southeast Asia, went to the Ming Dynasty.

In particular, Spain, the first empire on which the sun never sets in the early days of colonialism, occupied several of the most silver-producing colonies in Central and South America, such as Mexico, and the large quantities of silver they drove to be mined by the Native Americans were basically shipped to China in exchange for large quantities of porcelain, silk and tea.

According to the statistics of later Westerners, in the first three decades of the seventeenth century alone, the average annual inflow of silver from all over the world into China reached 250,000 to 300,000 kilograms.

Even according to today's weights and measures, a kilogram is calculated at twenty taels, then the annual inflow of silver from overseas into China alone reached five million to six million taels per year.

This state of affairs has been going on for more than thirty years. Even if it is calculated according to a relatively short period of time, that is, 30 years, then by the time Emperor Chongzhen ascended the throne, there was at least 150 million taels of silver in China from overseas alone.

It can be said that the silver, which flowed into China from the West in the late 16th century, remained in China until the late 19th century, when it flowed out of China and back to the West as an indemnity paid by the Manchu government to the Western powers. So, in the early twentieth century, the poverty in China at that time was the real poverty.

In the early part of the seventeenth century, at least the kind of poverty during the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, it was not the abject poverty of the entire country and society, but only the abject poverty of the Ming court and the central finances. There is no doubt that there was a large amount of silver at that time, which was left in the people.

In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen in history, the peasant army of the Dashun regime led by Li Zicheng attacked the city of Beijing, and the inner carrier treasury of Emperor Chongzhen did not have a tael of silver at that time.

In order to maintain the operation of the Dashun regime, the Dashun regime, which boasted that the king had come and did not pay for food, had no other way but to tear off the mask of hypocrisy and openly rob the wealth of the people in the capital. This was only the city of Beijing, and at the end of the Ming Dynasty, this was not the place where wealth was most concentrated.

From this, it can be imagined that in the late Ming Dynasty, the people were rich and the treasury was poor. If Emperor Chongzhen in history was really ruthless enough, how could there be no silver flowers? Thinking about the despair when Emperor Chongzhen finally broke into the siege of the city and Emperor Chongzhen raised silver from hundreds of officials and nobles to reward the soldiers guarding the city, it was really heartfelt sadness for him.

Having said that, since the actual situation in the late Ming Dynasty was like this, then under the situation of the increasing prosperity of commerce at that time, there should be no shortage of silver in Chinese society in the late Ming Dynasty!

However, it is so strange that one of the biggest problems in Chinese society at the end of the Ming Dynasty was precisely the alternation of deflation and inflation. Deflation was mainly due to the general lack of hard currency such as silver, which everyone believed in, and inflation, mainly because the imperial court lacked silver, so it had to print a large number of treasure money and mint iron coins or inferior copper coins with little copper content to replenish the number. As a result, the situation in society as a whole is getting worse and worse.

Emperor Chongzhen of this life knew the crux of this society in the late Ming Dynasty, so naturally he could not let it repeat the mistakes of the past. Because it is absolutely impossible for the imperial court to have no silver, and as in history, it was first added to the Liao salary for the purpose of leveling the Liao, and then the training salary was levied for the sake of the thief, which not only did not receive much money, but also made the heavens angry and resentful.

Because the money that was added and collected actually fell to the poor people in the end. The original Emperor Chongzhen would say one sentence every time he was sent, that is, "tiring my people for another year".

Emperor Chongzhen himself, like the common people, first handed over the gold and silver collected by the palace Ouchi to the Ouchi Silver Bureau and melted them into gold ingots and silver ingots, which were used as military salaries and hundreds of officials. But what is the result? The officials didn't appreciate it, and the people didn't want to endure it anymore, so they rebelled against him one after another.

In that case, why estimate so much! His routine is very simple, first of all, by raiding the house to get money. Now the results are good, at least there is a basic starting capital.

However, it is not enough to have piles of silver, and it is not enough to let them lie quietly in the inner carrier warehouse as a stock. This is to mint silver coins and solve the problem of deflation and illiquidity.

Of course, the emperor's thoughts are many and rich, and the only thing that can be said to the ministers is to mint Chongzhen silver dollars.

After listening to the emperor's words, Li Guowei actually knew what the emperor meant, since the emperor thought about it so carefully, it meant that this matter was imperative, so he said frankly: "Your Majesty, the minister doesn't know much about coinage, and he really doesn't have many good opinions. But after listening to what His Majesty said, he felt quite reasonable. Since silver has been circulated all over the world, it is natural that coinage with silver will also be successful. ”

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he knew that the first assistant Li Guoyan was indeed a layman on issues such as currency circulation, so he didn't say much, and asked Xu Guangqi and Bi Ziyan directly: "Xu Aiqing, Bi Aiqing, what do you think?" ”

Xu Guangqi said: "Your Majesty, the minting of money with silver has naturally never been done in my Ming Dynasty, but the ministers have tried to interact with Western missionaries, and I have heard that Western countries have always used gold to mint gold coins and silver coins to mint silver coins, which has been used for a long time, and both the government and the people benefit. The minister thought that there was nothing wrong with His Majesty's proposal to mint the Chongzhen silver dollar. ”

After hearing Xu Guangqi finish speaking, Bi Ziyan immediately said: "What Xu Ge said is extremely true. Since the apocalypse, the price of silver has risen in the north and south, resulting in high prices, and the main reason is that the wealthy families in various places have always enjoyed the cellar of silver. The silver earned was turned into ingots, which were hidden in the house and buried in the ground, so that they could be passed on to their children and grandchildren, so as to protect the wealth of the family. This is the reason why my Ming silver is expensive and cheap, and prices are constantly rising. It is based on what His Majesty said, and the minister fully agrees. However, if according to His Majesty's words, money is minted in silver according to yuan, jiao, and fen, then will treasure money and iron money continue to be circulated and used? ”

In this regard, of course, Emperor Chongzhen had already thought about it, so he said: "In the future, after the Chongzhen silver dollar is minted, the treasure banknotes will stop printing, and the iron money will also stop being minted, and the ones that have been issued will continue to circulate, or the household can also be converted and recycled according to the price." In these matters, the Cabinet and the Ministry of Households should jointly discuss and come up with a regulation for the passage of silver coins, and after the silver coins are minted and circulated, they will be promulgated throughout the world.

"As for the one yuan, one dime, and one cent of silver coins, their actual silver content, and the proportion of lead, zinc, tin, and other things, the household department should work with the Ministry of Industry, as well as the local treasure source bureaus to which they belong, to unify the specifications, and there should be no more or less, uneven, and damage the reputation of the imperial court. If you need to refer to the Western money coinage method, Xu Aiqing can contact a Western priest who is familiar with the Western money method for assistance. In addition, it is necessary to prohibit the forgery of the people, and those who mint silver dollars privately will be beheaded once they are caught, and they will not be tolerated. ”

Minting silver coins, unlike the issuance of banknotes and other banknotes, does not require a large amount of reserves at all, after all, the materials used themselves are real gold and silver precious metals, although their own value is slightly lower, but not much lower, so it will be easy to circulate.

This is also the reason why the current Chongzhen Emperor does not issue paper money, but mints silver coins first. Nowadays, Daming's financial situation is very fragile and can't withstand the toss at all, so if you can't toss, you won't toss. The income from the issuance of banknotes is naturally much larger than that of the issuance of silver coins, and it can be said that it is a profitable business, but the tens of millions of taels of silver copied by the copyist are used as the principal to issue banknotes, and once there is a run, it will immediately face the crisis of collapse. Once such a situation happens, the credibility of the Chongzhen court will really be lost. The issuance of silver coins does not have such a problem at all, as long as you are not overly greedy, you can also make money.

For example, if a silver coin weighing one tael is used as one tael of silver in circulation, if its silver content is about eight yuan, it is a 20% profit. A silver coin of one tael will earn two cents of silver, so the profit of issuing ten million such silver coins will be about two million taels, which is not a small amount. Of course, such profits must be monopolized by the imperial court, and all dynasties have regarded the right to mint coinage as extremely important, and this is the reason.