In the fifth year of the Apocalypse, the changes in Beizhili are absolutely amazing. After several years of continuous construction, the water conservancy facilities of Beizhili have become extremely perfect.

At the same time, the infrastructure of the towns in Beizhili has also been improved, whether it is urban drainage, public health, or civilian living facilities, all of which have been improved at an astonishing speed with the funding of the imperial court.

An even bigger change is the rise of a large number of industries. Steel is undoubtedly the pillar of the economy, and the steel manufacturing industry and machinery manufacturing have developed by leaps and bounds.

The heavy industry of Beizhili has risen completely, so much so that the steel smelting and steel manufacturing in other provinces of the Ming Dynasty have shrunk further in the fifth year of the Apocalypse.

A large amount of cheap steel has greatly boosted the productivity of all walks of life.

In terms of light industry, Beizhili has also developed well, especially the textile industry, under the protection of trade barriers in the New Deal area, the textile industry is getting bigger and bigger.

Today's Beizhili, the five years of the Apocalypse has a population of nearly 20 million, plus the population of the Northeast region, Taiwan, Luzon, the 'internal market' of the textile industry in Beizhili, with a population of nearly 30 million.

At the same time, Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan and other places are also the advantage of the textile industry in North Zhili, and the textile industry in Songjiang Prefecture has no more cost advantage than the textile industry in North Zhili.

In particular, after the machinery manufacturing factory developed the first water conservancy textile machinery, various textile machinery began to spring up like mushrooms after a rain.

The reason for such rapid invention is mainly due to the official encouragement of total exemption, and at the same time, the scale of the Royal Institute of Science and Technology continues to expand.

In terms of mechanical research, the first batch of talents with scientific knowledge has been trained, and these talents have invested a lot of energy in the research of agricultural machinery and textile machinery with the support of official funds.

However, the steam engine is the most important project in mechanical research, and the speed of research is also gratifying. All kinds of devices are constantly being improved. The performance of the steam engine is constantly improving, and it may not take a few years to develop a steam engine that can be used on a large scale in the real sense.

Because of the protection of trade barriers, the light industry in Beizhili has developed not only the textile industry, but also other light industry fields.

In addition to the support of the internal market, the northern market is also an important support. Many products have even entered the southern market, and the share of overseas markets is becoming larger and larger.

Beizhili has a population of 20 million. The employment rate is very good today. At the same time, the food supply in Beizhili is stable, and a large number of fish products have been transported back to Zhendong Province, providing cheap protein food. The cultivation of sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn has also been greatly supplemented in terms of food.

Because of the good employment environment, the people's livelihood has been significantly improved. Coupled with the continuous rectification of the rule of officials and the improvement of social security measures in the past few years, there has been no starvation to death in Beizhili for a long time. Nowadays, it is basically impossible for Beizhili to starve to death, and if you have no food, you can go to the Civil Affairs Bureau! The Civil Affairs Bureau is always indispensable for a bite of food.

While the economy and people's livelihood have been developed, the social atmosphere has also been cracked down on in the five years of the Apocalypse. and the introduction of the civil honor system, which successfully suppressed the bad atmosphere.

At the same time, the establishment of provincial and provincial courts, and the beginning of the examination of unjust and wrongful cases, the establishment of the public security bureau to maintain public order in various localities, as well as the construction of the township administrative system, also greatly enhanced the imperial court's ability to control the localities.

There are fewer and fewer opportunities for those powerful people to openly oppress the people, which makes the people of Beizhili really feel what it means to be a big rule.

Zhu Youxiao looked at the reports at the end of the year, and he was overjoyed.

"This year, the various business taxes and personal income taxes of Beizhili are added together. reached 43 million yuan, and the salt taxes of the provinces were added together. There is also a fiscal revenue of 15 million yuan, and the seigniorage tax has dropped significantly, with only 18 million yuan of income this year, of which more than 5 million yuan is the income from the minting of copper coins. The customs tax revenue reached 12 million yuan, and the agricultural tax of the provinces increased to 31 million yuan, of which only the agricultural tax in Beizhili and Liaodong increased. Agricultural taxes are declining in other provinces. ”

Guo Yunhou, the secretary of the household department, summed up with a happy expression and said: "Throughout the year, the fiscal revenue in terms of taxation reached 119 million yuan. In addition, the assets of the imperial court were sold, and the income was 23 million yuan, and the silver income seized from the attack on Luzon was 12 million yuan. A total of 154 million yuan of fiscal revenue, and the current treasury has 83 million yuan in cash. ”

"It seems that next year's budget is finally more abundant, but there are still too many places to spend. Do you think there will be any other places that can be open source next year? Zhu Youxiao asked the ministers.

"Your Majesty, the salt tax can still be raised. First of all, although the price of official salt is low, it still does not completely cover the entire Ming Dynasty, and there are still a lot of private salt in many provinces, not to mention the private salt in Fujian, Sichuan and other provinces, even the private salt in Nanzhili still remains. Next year, the imperial court can step up its anti-smuggling efforts and vigorously crack down on smuggling salt throughout the country. At the same time, roads were built so that official salt could also be transported into some provinces with inconvenient transportation, and the economy continued to develop to increase the purchasing power of the people. With such a multi-pronged approach, the imperial court's salt tax revenue can completely exceed 30 or 40 million yuan a year. The household department suggested Jiang Dejing in the matter.

"The salt tax does still have potential, and according to Aiqing, we will strengthen the anti-smuggling next year and state all salt-producing areas in Fujian and Sichuan." Zhu Youxiao nodded.

"Your Majesty, now that the income from coinage is declining, the imperial court might as well issue paper money in the New Deal area. Now that the conditions for the imperial court to issue banknotes are fully ripe, as long as the issuance volume is controlled, the issuance of banknotes will be maintained. At this time, Shen Yan proposed the issuance of banknotes.

Now the royal consortium has basically completely controlled the Beizhili market, and a large number of commodities such as grain, steel, and textiles are involved in production, and the pricing power of commodities in the market is in the hands of the royal consortium. As long as the royal consortium recognizes and accepts the banknotes, the issuance of banknotes can be described as easy.

Ordinary people do not accept paper money, there is only one situation, that is, paper money cannot buy anything, or after they exchange silver and gold for paper money, paper money begins to depreciate wildly. This is what makes people boycott paper money.

However, the official controls the issuance, only a little more every year, and adopts an appropriate inflation policy. At the same time, it controls the pricing power of goods, and at this time, the merchants who supply goods are willing to issue banknotes issued by the corresponding countries, and at the same time are no longer willing to receive precious metals, and the buyer must first go to the bank to exchange the banknotes if they want to buy something.

At this time, it is not a question of whether the people resist or not to boycott paper money. Rather, the market, dominated by the royal consortium, had to accept paper money.

And because the power to set prices for commodities is in the hands of the royal consortium, paper money can even be pegged to precious metals and adopt a floating exchange rate.

Of course, with the current economic pattern of Daming, it is still linked to precious metals.

After being linked to precious metals, the imperial court can still issue banknotes that exceed the amount of precious metals, after all, within the circulation range of banknotes, banks do not exchange precious metals internally. Only the exchange of precious metals externally means that it can even be overissued by more than 50%.

After all, not everyone will take the money and exchange it for precious metals to escape. And not everyone will be able to escape. To exchange precious metals for foreign countries, you need a valid reason. Is it foreign investment, or something else. The government can adopt certain financial control measures to curb the evacuation.

If it is an immigration, a tax evasion can also be levied at the time of immigration.

Of course, there is also foreign trade, which will also lead to the outflow of precious metals if the size of imports exceeds the size of exports. However, Daming is currently the world's largest commodity exporter, and there has always been only the phenomenon of precious metals flowing in. And there is no outflow of precious metals.

Currencies are pegged to precious metals, and inflation can also be carried out. As long as the rate of inflation is controlled, it is fine. This meant that as long as paper money was issued, seigniorage would no longer be limited to the amount of silver.

"It's time to issue banknotes." After careful consideration, Zhu Youxiao immediately decided: "The household department and the bank will hold a meeting and come up with a specific banknote issuance plan. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The benefits of issuing banknotes clearly have more than one seigniorage aspect. It can also get rid of the limit on the amount of silver and curb the occurrence of deflation.

Compared with a moderate amount of inflation, which can stimulate the economy, deflation has a great ability to suppress the economy, especially when a country frequently encounters natural disasters, once the currency in circulation is insufficient. The scale of production would be hit again, and the famine would be exacerbated.

During the Ming Dynasty during the Xiaoice River, deflation was also one of the biggest tests.

If he had banknotes, Zhu Youxiao would be able to completely get rid of the limitation on the amount of silver, and he could increase his purchasing power by issuing more banknotes, thereby expanding the scale of agricultural and industrial production, and ultimately greatly enhancing his ability to resist disasters.

At this time, currency is the biggest problem restricting the economic development of the Ming Dynasty, and silver is something that the imperial court cannot control, the Spaniards are still frantically mining silver in Central and South America, and there must be paper money that can be controlled independently, so that the Ming Dynasty can pass this most difficult historical stage.

"Your Majesty, there is still great potential for open source in the customs next year, and the imperial court can increase investment in customs construction and maritime anti-smuggling, and at the same time continue to improve the customs tariff. In addition, next year, Daming's foreign trade will definitely continue to grow. ”

"The potential of customs is immeasurable, and the focus is on developing ocean trade. How much has the number of merchant ships in Daming increased this year? Zhu Youxiao asked.

"Your Majesty, the number of large merchant ships with more than 3,000 materials has increased by a total of 632, of which more than 100 are built by private merchants, and the rest are merchant ships built by shipyards under the royal family. Half of them belong to the soft rice type merchant ships. The Ministry of Industry Shangshu replied that Wang Wei, the Ministry of Industry, was promoted by Zhu Youxiao from the Royal Institute of Science and Technology after Xu Guangqi resigned.

Wang Wei is proficient in mechanical manufacturing, and like Xu Guangqi, he has previously had some exposure to European academics. In the second year of its establishment, the Royal Institute of Science and Technology went to the Royal Institute of Technology to preside over the research and development of machinery. After Xu Guangqi resigned, Wang Wei was promoted to the Ministry of Engineering by Zhu Youxiao, and directly served as Shangshu. Compared with Xu Guangqi's Donglin Party background, Wang Wei's background is much simpler, and he doesn't have so many ideas politically.

"More than 600 of them! However, ships are still not enough, continue to encourage shipbuilding, continue to increase the training of mechanics and seafaring personnel. Zhu Youxiao commanded.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

For Daming, there will definitely not be too many problems with the boat. Only when there are more ships can we transport overseas resources back to our homeland, and only then can we transport a large number of goods overseas for sale.

Even if there is not enough cargo to transport, these ships will not be idle. It's always okay to transport people! In short, it is impossible for these ships to rest.

The financial growth in the six years of the Apocalypse is obviously very potential, as long as the central finance is completely revitalized, it is basically impossible for the Ming Dynasty to go to extinction.

In the next year's budget, it was finally set at an unprecedented 280 million yuan, and the treasury did not leave some money to deal with emergencies like last year, just to ensure that the imperial court did not have a fiscal deficit.

There are so many budgets, mainly because the national treasury has accumulated 80 million yuan of fiscal revenue and has not spent it because the previous budget was relatively conservative.

It is the money used to deal with emergencies, and Zhu Youxiao does not have much money in the internal fund now, but the Royal Bank has now become the new internal fund.

The profit of the royal capital in the five years of the Apocalypse can be described as extremely rich, with a large amount of capital accumulation, and in the event of an emergency, it is enough to provide enough funds for the imperial court to settle the troubles. (To be continued.) )