In the political affairs hall, the Empress Dowager Liu sat on top of it, and below was Zhang Dian, Su Song, Xu Jiang, Li Qingchen, Cai Bian, Cai Jing, He Shikuan, Yang Wei and other three provinces of the governors, six books, each of whom sat separately, with an indifferent expression.

There are only about a dozen people in the entire Great Song Dynasty who are qualified to participate in this kind of high-level meeting, and at first glance, the spacious political hall seems a little empty; But who can sit here and make the city of Tokyo tremble by stomping their feet? If you feel it carefully, you will find that the powerful aura on their bodies has filled the political affairs hall with congestion, and those officials who are waiting for tea, passing documents, and waiting for greetings do not dare to come out one by one, and walk to take pictures of their hands and feet.

In general, the average age of the current three provinces and the six Shangshu is not very large, except for Su Song, who is in his seventies, Zhang Dan, Li Qingchen, and Xu Jiang are in their early sixties, and the rest such as Cai Jing, Cai Bian, He Shikuan, Yang Wei, Lin Xi and others are all around fifty.

Yang Yi is the youngest, but sitting among these people, he doesn't feel abrupt at all, his calm expression, calm appearance, and the same powerful aura on his body all declare that he should belong here.

Everyone was waiting for Yang Yi to speak, but he first took out a stack of curve charts and asked the officials to distribute them to the important ministers present, no one had ever seen such a chart, and they couldn't help but be a little puzzled.

"Zhang Xianggong, ladies and gentlemen, the horizontal side of this chart represents the year, and the vertical side on the left represents the amount of commercial tax, and according to the amount of annual commercial tax, this line curve represents the economic fluctuations since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty."

The curve diagram is very simple, even if Yang Yi doesn't explain it, they can quickly understand it with their intelligence.

"There are also these two charts, one is the increase or decrease in the number of troops in each year of our dynasty, and the other is the general situation of disasters in our dynasty years."

Zhang Dian looked at the three charts carefully, did not speak for a long time, and looked thoughtful.

Xu Jiang first asked: "What does Master Yang want to illustrate by asking me to wait to see these charts?" ”

Yang Yi nodded and replied: "Lao Xu Privy Counsel, from these three charts, I think you have seen that the economy of the Great Song Dynasty is closely related to military and disasters. ”

Li Qingchen bowed his head slightly and said: "This is nature, but in any year of famine, it has a huge impact on the economy and people's livelihood, who knows, what do you want to say?" ”

Yang Yi was a little funny, but he didn't show it.

"Li Xianggong, please take a closer look, the graph of the number of troops and the war of our dynasty is quite similar to the curve chart of economic fluctuations?"

After Li Qingchen took a closer look, Yang Yicai continued: "In the past, we usually thought that both the army and the war were a drag on the national economy, but from these charts, it seems that this is not the case, the number of troops in the Great Song Dynasty began to grow from the time of Zhenzong, and reached its peak during the war with the Western Xia during the Qingjing period of Renzong; If you look closely, the economy of our dynasty has not been dragged down with the growth of the number of armies and wars, on the contrary, the revenue of commercial taxes has increased with the growth of the number of armies and wars, and the two are like twin brothers. ”

There is no doubt that commercial tax revenue represents the country's economic prosperity, and there is no doubt that Yang Yi's words are evidenced by charts, and no one can refute them. Zhang Dian said lightly: "Master Yang, please continue." ”

"The increase in the number of troops, and the fact that during the war, our economy will become more prosperous, is clearly reflected in the charts. If there is anything inappropriate in saying it, I will ask you to testify; First of all, the economic prosperity of a country depends on the volume of goods traded in the country's market, as well as the speed of circulation.

After the number of troops increased, the demand for goods increased, and the imperial court spent seventy or eighty million yuan every year for this, and most of this expenditure was used to purchase military supplies; In fact, this created a huge demand for commodities in the market, and countless materials were gathered to the army, and this process of pooling, that is, the process of trading, countless merchants and people profited from it, and then promoted the prosperity of the Great Song Dynasty economy; Most of the people in my dynasty depend on farming for their livelihood, and most of them are self-sufficient on weekdays, and only a small amount of necessities of life, such as salt, tea, and farm tools, need to be traded in the market. In this case, although there are many farming people, they do not play a key role in the activity of commodity trading in the market; Therefore, the purchase of military necessities has highlighted the role of promoting the economy of the Great Song Dynasty, which directly affects the economic prosperity of our dynasty; In the past, people always thought that the more money hidden in the treasury, the richer and stronger the country became, and intuitively speaking, if the country was not rich and strong, the treasury would not be able to surplus so much money, which is true; However, when the country has money, is it right to keep it in the treasury as much as possible and not spend it? Obviously, this is not right; It can be clearly seen from these charts and figures compiled by this official that the more money the state spends, the more prosperous the economy becomes, and the prosperity of the economy will further bring more fiscal and tax revenues to the state, and as long as it is handled properly, a virtuous circle will be formed.

Therefore, what this official wants to discuss with you today is how to spend money, and how to spend the money in the treasury in the most appropriate way while ensuring the normal operation of the imperial court, so as to promote the economic and people's livelihood of the Great Song Dynasty to the greatest extent. ”

Yang Yi's big call made the deacons and scholars sitting a little confused, and everyone felt that their brains seemed to be insufficient.

Since ancient times, every dynasty and generation has tried in every possible way to think about how to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, so that the treasury can save more money. Yang Yi came to them, but he wanted to discuss how to spend money, which inevitably made people feel very ridiculous.

However, the data on these charts provided by Yang Yi show that it is true that the greater the expenditure of the imperial court, the more prosperous the economy; During the Shenzong period, a large amount of money was accumulated in the treasury, but the economy of the Great Song Dynasty did not improve, which also shows that the national economy did not develop if the imperial court did not spend money.

Don't think it's easy to spend money, how to spend it? Where is it spent? In order to maximize economic development, this is a university question.

Even the far-sighted Zhang Duan suddenly didn't know where to start, and there were too many things in his mind to digest.

We have to digest it, digest it well, and sort out the context of spending money and economic development first, otherwise we can't say anything.

Yang Yi waited quietly, his data and what he had just said had been clearly explained, and none of the people sitting here were stupid people, and I believed that they could distinguish between right and wrong.

After they thought for a while, Yang Yicai continued: "All the money has value, which is reflected in circulation, and if you keep money in the treasury, it can't be used as food or clothing, and it's nothing. Only by spending it can it reflect its value; The imperial court spent money to buy grain from the peasant households, so that the surplus grain of the peasant households could be digested, and with the money, it could be used to buy cattle, cultivate tools, and develop production, so as to produce more grain; The imperial court spent money to buy silk fabrics from merchants, and merchants could expand their workshops and hire more people when they earned money, so that the idle people in society could have a place to live, and merchants could produce more goods, so that the market supply was more abundant, and more taxes could be provided to the state; The materials of the Great Song Dynasty are sufficient, and they can be shipped to more countries for sale, so as to bring back more wealth for the Great Song Dynasty, in a word, this money must flow in order to promote the development of people's livelihood and reflect its value. Therefore, how to spend the money in the treasury is particularly important. ”

After Yang Yi finished speaking, everyone was still silent, still thinking carefully about his every word.

After a while, I heard Zhang Dian ask: "Bachelor Yang has said so much, is there already a belly case?" ”

Zhang Dian is like this, he will not drag the mud and water with you, as long as he thinks what you say is reasonable, he will ask you for the answer directly, Yang Yi has long been accustomed to this.

He nodded and replied, "Xiaguan does have some ideas, and this is for your reference. First of all, if the money of the state treasury is to be spent efficiently and where it is most needed, it is necessary to draw up a budget. The so-called political and financial budget means that each department of the imperial court formulates the amount of expenditure for the next year in advance according to its own actual situation, and submits it to the political hall for collective deliberation. The Ministry of Households will allocate funds to each department according to the approved amount. Which department is overspending, that's your department's business.

For example, in shipbuilding, how many ships you plan to build next year, how many ships need to be maintained, and how much expenditure you need in addition to the salaries of the officials in your department, you must budget them one by one and report them to the government office for review. The household department allocates funds according to the results of the audit, and will not allocate more. If there are special circumstances, a new application can be submitted to the Government Council for review, and only after passing can the additional funds be granted.

The same goes for the military, how much money you need to feed the army next year, how much money you need to build weapons, and whether you have a war plan, you need to draw up a detailed expenditure budget in advance and submit it to the government council for review. If there is a sudden war, the budget can be increased.

With this financial budget, whether the heads of various departments have the ability, whether they have innovative ideas, how much they spend each year, where the money is used, and whether they are effective will be reflected to the greatest extent; According to the current year's income, the government affairs hall can live within its means, and it has a plan in mind which department's expenses should be reduced and which department needs additional funds. In addition to setting aside a certain amount of money to deal with emergencies, the rest can be invested in the national economy and people's livelihood to promote the sustained economic growth of the Great Song Dynasty. ”

"It's a great good." Cai Jing was the first to agree, he was the secretary of the household department, if he really had such a political budget, his work would be much easier, and he would not have to deal with those officials who came to the household department every day to ask for money.

If you want money, apply first, submit it to the government hall for review, and then come to me if you pass it!

(To be continued)