It should be said that this time in the reform of the political system, don't look at Li Yongji's personal participation, and there are many young people of the foreign faction who help the staff officers, but to put it bluntly, he is still a rather immature freak.

Why? Because this new bureaucratic system is a combination of Li Yongji's later China's red Chinese political system, plus the separation of powers in the West, and the feudal tradition of traditional China, and finally blended into a four-in-one, such as the system of the Internal Affairs Office and the Internal Affairs Committee, how do you look at it and feel weird.

Although it is a four-dislike, in fact, this system of government still has merits, because the most critical point of this system is that the emperor firmly controls the financial power and military power, and the other powers are delegated as much as possible.

In fact, the governance of an empire boils down to two things: one is taxation, which is to maintain the normal operation of the entire empire through the collection of taxes; The second is to maintain stability, that is, to ensure that the operation of the empire is not too flawed through various means, such as violent mechanisms.

Other qiē and qiē, such as the government system, the military shape, foreign policy, etc., all revolve around two points, so as long as these two points can be guaranteed, it doesn't matter whether the system is suitable or not, as Li Yongji himself said, if it is not suitable, it will be changed.

Although taxation and stability maintenance are the two most critical points, in the case that Li Yongji has a golden finger and can buy modern materials, it can actually be summed up as a problem, that is, financial problems.

So, what was the financial situation of the Chinese Empire? The answer is pretty good, even nice and somewhat deformed!

The Chinese Empire was a nascent power, which did not yet rule all of China, and only owned all of Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang, most of Anhui, all of Shandong, northeastern Hebei, and the Beijing-Tianjin region of Beijing.

Although the site is not small. However, because most of the territory was newly conquered, no formal tax collection had begun, so the tax burden of the Chinese Empire was actually only in all of Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang, which is commonly known as the Jiangnan region.

In addition, there are currently four main revenues of the Chinese Imperial Government, one is the customs tariff, one is the land tax, the other is the luxury tax, and the last is the commercial tax.

In it. Because the land tax itself is very low, and it is mainly used for education subsidies, it can not be counted for the time being, so the only taxes that can really enter the government operation are the customs tariff, luxury tax and commercial tax.

Let's start with customs tariffs.

As mentioned above, the trade volume of the Chinese Empire's exports to foreign countries is currently 2.2 million taels of silver per month, and it is increasing rapidly at a rate of more than 10 percent per month.

Of these, aspirin and heropark account for a quarter of the drug trade. Stainless steel and other modern products account for a quarter, Suzhou uses modern machines to produce high-grade silk accounted for a quarter, only the remaining quarter is tea, porcelain and other traditional trade goods.

Of course. The real largest quantity is still traditional trade goods, as for the first three-quarters of the materials, most of them are small in quantity and high in price. It's all about luxury.

As for imports, the bulk materials imported by the former Jiangnan government from abroad were mainly opium, cotton and rice, although jadeite jade continued to increase. However, it is not yet the mainstream, and the average monthly import volume is about 800,000 taels of silver, of which the opium trade accounts for most of it.

As for the incremental rate of imports, the average monthly growth rate is only about 3 percent, which is very small compared with the value of exports.

It must be noted that almost all of this trade volume comes from the Jiangnan region, specifically almost all of the output of Suzhou, Shanghai, Wuxi, and Changshu, and the production capacity of other new places has not yet begun to explode.

The former Jiangnan government, now the Chinese Empire, has always been a two-way customs tariff on foreign trade, that is, exports are taxed, imports are also taxed, and the amount of tax collected is different.

In terms of export taxes, the overall tax is quite favorable, for example, Bayer Pharmaceutical's drug tax is as high as 15 percent, while the traditional porcelain tea is exempt from duty, so the average tax amount is 7 percent.

In other words, the tax revenue from exports every month is about 154,000 taels of silver.

In terms of import taxes, although the opium tax is relatively large, the tax on cotton and rice is quite normal, with an average tax of 10 percent.

Calculated together, the monthly import tax is 80,000 taels of silver.

The above is a positive tax, plus the tonnage tax of the ship, which is about 30,000 taels of silver per month.

In this way, only by collecting customs tariffs every month, it is only 264,000 taels, which is pitiful and even lower than in the previous Qing government.

Then there's the luxury tax.

The luxury tax mainly refers to the tax of traditional bad habits such as foot tax, large household tax, small concubine tax, and large cigarette tax, thanks to the fact that the Jiangnan region was less affected by the disaster during the reign of the Jingwu Army, and there were more large households, so it can collect about 1.3 million taels of silver every month, and this increase is constantly decreasing, indicating that more and more people have given up those traditional bad habits.

The last is the commercial tax, due to the implementation of the low tax policy, the commercial tax here mainly refers to the stamp duty, the monthly stamp duty is about 500,000 taels.

Looking at it this way, it seems that the monthly income of the Jiangnan government is only more than 2 million taels, although it is still increasing at a high speed, but compared with the previous Qing Dynasty rule, the difference is not big, because in the Manchu era, such as the early years of Xianfeng, the tax revenue in Jiangsu and Zhejiang has exceeded 20 million taels of silver a year.

It seems like a good problem, but when you think about it, there are a lot of problems.

The simplest problem is that the Jiangnan region has always been rich, even if you remove those novelty drugs and stainless steel products, it is impossible to rely on the traditional export of silk and tea alone, and the trade volume is not so small, right? What's more, the opium trade volume could not be so small, otherwise it would not have caused the Qing State to lose 150 million taels of silver in the ten years after the Opium War!

For example, as early as 1858, the Qing government was forced to sign the "Treaty of Treaty on the Aftermath of the Treaty of Commerce" with Britain, France, and the United States, allowing foreign merchants to sell opium in treaty ports, and agreed to pay taxes in the name of "foreign medicine" and paying 30 taels of silver per 100 catties in the name of "prohibition".

Since then, the import of opium has increased dramatically, and the import of opium in 1858~1859 alone exceeded 60,000 quintals! And half of this amount is traded in Shanghai!

A load in the Qing Dynasty was 100 old catties, which was about equal to 60 kilograms in modern times, so it was 60,000 catties. That's 3.6 million kilograms, 6 million old catties, remove half, that's 1.8 million kilograms, 3 million old catties of opium!

The import price of opium in Hong Kong is one catty and one tael, one hundred catties and one hundred taels, and the tax is thirty taels, which means that the amount of opium purchased by the Qing Dynasty in the past year alone is as high as 6 million taels of silver!

Then the Shanghai area has been less affected because it has been damaged. Crow. The film trade has not been hit hard, and it has even improved.

According to statistics, in the six months from February 1860 to August 1860, the port of Shanghai imported 20,000 quintals of opium! If it is calculated according to the old system, it is converted into silver, which is two million taels of silver!

However, because of the rise of Li Yongji, he vigorously cracked down on the opium trade by economic means, and directly purchased it in the name of Li Yongji's direct firm. So the price of opium has dropped to the price of 5 cents a pound of silver, which has dropped by half.

That is to say, in that half a month, the Jiangnan area arrived in Hong Kong normally. The estimated expenditure on opium is at least one million taels of silver!

So, where does this expenditure go? Even if it is calculated according to the tax of three cents, it will cost at least 300,000 taels of customs tariff. How can it be so little?

Don't worry, there's an inside story involved, more precisely. It's a matter involving Li Yongji's direct enterprise.

That's right, this inside story lies in the government's import and export figures, which are aimed at ordinary small and medium-sized foreign businessmen and Chinese businessmen who pay taxes according to regulations.

If nothing else, let's talk about the opium trade and drug trade with Jardine Matheson.

In the six months from February 1860 to August 1860, the direct transaction volume between Bayer Pharmaceuticals and Jardine Matheson exceeded 30 million taels of silver!

Among them, Bayer Pharmaceutical's import purchase of opium directly from Jardine Matheson is 6 million taels of silver, and the sales of export drugs are 24 million taels of silver, adding up to exactly 30 million taels of silver!

All in all, Bayer Pharmaceuticals alone sold more than 60 million taels of silver for exporting aspirin and heroine in six months, and purchased 10 million taels of imported opium.

This amount is only a preliminary statistic, in fact, the main number jù appeared in the last three months, and the initial amount was relatively small, and it began to explode in the last three months, especially the last two months.

If there is no accident, simply put, if Europe and the United States cannot imitate these two universal drugs, then the explosive growth of Bayer Pharmaceuticals will continue for a long time until it dominates the medical community in Europe and the United States.

In the six months from February 1860 to August 1860, the sales of cultured pearls alone were as high as 10 million taels of silver, and other products such as stainless steel products, aluminum products, as well as man-made diamonds, opals, etc., were more than 30 million taels of silver, and as for imported jadeite products, it was only 8 million taels of silver.

In addition, the activities of CITIC Money and foreign investors to buy gold should not be underestimated, and to date, it has used the large influx of silver to buy more than 200 tons of gold, almost emptying the number of Japanese gold exports.

All these trades are not taxed, they are directly from the company to the foreign bank, and they are not counted by the government, and all of them are regarded as the profits of Li Yongji's private company.

Obviously, considering the cost of Li Yongji's acquisition of these things, such as aspirin, the average of ten tablets is only four cents, and the factory price of Bayer Company is directly one pound ten tablets, and the retail price in the UK is 2 pounds and 10 tablets!

Not to mention the comparison, 1 pound contains 7.322 grams of gold, so everyone understands the profit here.

Although the cost of falling in the sea is slightly higher, but 10 catties of opium can produce 1 catty of falling in the sea, and 10 catties of opium is only 5 taels of silver, counting the cost of labor and machinery, but 7 taels of silver, and the production of a pound of high-purity falling in the cause of the seafall is often mixed with other things to neutralize, and the finished product of the falling in the sea is about equal to 3 catties.

The export price of Bayer Pharmaceuticals is 300 pounds, which is 100 pounds and 1 pound of low-pure seafall!

Don't look expensive, but the effect is fast and good, so it is basically in short supply, and in fact, the 1 catty adulterated seafall was transported outside, and the smart foreign businessmen quickly learned to continue to mix things in. Even if you have a conscience about turning 1 catty into 10 catties and taking them out, it is normal for 1 catty to become 100 catties.

This 1-in-10 low-purity dropdown retails for £50 for a pound of dropdown powder in the UK!

In order to transport Chinese medicines and luxury goods such as pearls, Britain, France, the United States and other countries have begun to organize special fast sailing ships, that is, small tonnage, but super fast speed.

How fast can it be transported with such a ship? Let's put it this way, under normal circumstances, it takes five months for a large steamship to travel from China to the British mainland, and with this kind of fast sailing ship, it takes less than three months to travel from China to the British mainland. Half a year back and forth!

It's about the same from China to the United States, normally it takes five and a half months, about six months, but if it's a fast sailing, you can get from Shanghai to New York in three and a half months!

In addition, in addition to these ultra-lucrative transactions that use time and space transactions, such as bulk tea, porcelain, silk, etc., are actually not through the normal customs, but the business names of Li Yongji's subordinates. For example, Jingwu Commercial Bank directly purchases from various places at preferential prices, and then directly trades with foreign businessmen, and does not pay tariffs during the period. The trade volume has also exceeded the mark of 10 million gross income in half a year.

To put it simply, only those leftovers are collected by China's major businessmen. Then deal with those small and medium-sized foreign merchants who have just arrived, and those will naturally have to pay taxes.

In a word, the current situation in the Chinese Empire. It was Li Yongji's personal money bubbling, but the financial income of the Chinese Empire was very low, and the Chinese Empire was indeed a little embarrassed when Li Yongji personally did not give up these profits.

In other words, if you don't support the army, the Chinese Empire is naturally quite rich, but if you support the national defense army and militia, plus you have to support the bureaucrats, with an income of two million taels of silver per month, it is indeed a little unbearable.

"I understand your difficulties, man." Facing Li Yongchang's complaints, Li Yongji shook his head, "But you have to know that I haven't released these high-profit things yet, why do you want to do this, don't you need me to explain more?" ”

"Wechen knows." Li Yongchang also knew about the All-Spirit Sect that Li Yongji was messing with, so he nodded, "However, even if according to what Your Majesty said, you have fully subscribed for the issuance of treasury bonds, but after a long time, this government is in debt, and this is not a problem." ”

"I'm not afraid to be in debt." Li Yongji said with a smile, "In fact, the production capacity of the Chinese Empire has not yet exploded, such as industry and agriculture, which are not counted at all." Not to mention industry, there is not much for the time being, but agriculture has a lot to offer. ”

"But don't we collect agricultural taxes?" Li Yongchang said suddenly.

"We don't collect agricultural taxes, but we have to supervise the trading of agricultural products." Li Yongji said, "There is a grain bureau under the Ministry of Agriculture, and according to our regulations, the purchase and sale of agricultural products owned by peasant households must be carried out under the supervision of the grain bureau, and must use the grain bureau's weights and measures.

As for the sale of the grain bureau, the grain bureau has to collect a certain amount of income from the purchaser in proportion as a supervision fee, that is, stamp duty, which is 20%, which is a lot.

In other words, we control circulation, and then collect agricultural tax from the circulation field according to the model of commercial tax.

It's hard to say now, because when we made this decision, the grain had already been collected, but by next year, the stamp duty on this agriculture would be very promising. ”

"Well, even so, it's only one or two million a year." Li Yongchang shook his head, "I still can't fill this bottomless pit." ”

"There will be more and more taxes on the contribution of commerce and industry." Li Yongji said, "You see, in the future, all restaurants will have to pay health permit fees, public security management fees, fire protection fees, industrial and commercial license fees, brothels and the like will also have to pay high-end consumption tax." The amount of these taxes is not large, and it is not much pressure for a single small business, but it adds up to a lot of money, and it adds up to a considerable amount. In addition, we will have value-added tax and personal income tax in the future, in short, as long as the economy is prosperous, the higher the government's taxes.

Therefore, as long as the government does not collapse, it is not afraid of how much money it owes, and if it is not possible to use a five-year treasury bond at a time, you can continue to issue the next treasury bond and continue to owe it, which is called deficit finance!

As long as the country's economy can develop, the big rivers will be full of water, and the tax revenue will rise even more, and one day we will pay off the arrears completely, of course, at that time, maybe we will continue to play deficits...... Do you understand what I'm talking about? ”

"Oh, what do you mean by saying that our government can keep owing money? Constantly spending money tomorrow or even the day after tomorrow? Yin eats grain? ”

"It's just that Yin eats the grain!" Li Yongji clapped his hands. "Naturally, a family will go bankrupt, but we are the country, what is the country? That is, if you owe money, you can cheat!

Besides, there is really no money, we can go out and grab it in the future, look around, North Korea, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines...... Oh. And Russia, hum, it's all rich people, grab it a few times, and you have everything. ”

"Majesty!" Li Yongchang's brows furrowed, "It's not a good thing to move troops lightly, the cost is huge, and the blessings and misfortunes are unpredictable." ”

"Hmph. You don't have to worry about that. Li Yongji waved his hand, "If I want to fight foreign countries, I will definitely not use the National Defense Force and the National Guard, just listen to the name." Unless it's a national war, or bullying Korea and Japan, my Imperial Praetorian Guard is enough. But what about the profits, such as signing unequal treaties, the country can reap a lot of benefits. Well, that's later. ”

"Hey, okay." Li Yongchang no longer persuaded him, "Your Majesty, since this is the case, the minister will send the new official system down for trial operation, do you think it's okay?" ”

"Well, that's right, send it down first, try it out, and cross the river by feeling the stones." Li Yongji said with a smile, "Anyway, if you want to be an official, except for the one I directly promoted and appointed, there is only the exam, either the civil service exam, or the internal affairs exam, and the more advanced one is the judicial exam. ”

"Understood." Li Yongchang nodded, "Then Your Majesty, will the new banknotes, silver dollars, and treasury bonds be issued by the newly established China Imperial Bank, or will they be jointly issued with China CITIC Bank?" ”

"In the case of banknotes and silver dollars, the Imperial Bank should issue them separately." Li Yongji said, "The positioning of the China Imperial Bank is that it is a national bank, subordinate to the Ministry of Finance, and should be a financial management and control department, and should not be too involved in the actual private financial behavior.

As for the CITIC Bank, it is my personal private bank, which is managed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and of course it has to participate in private operations, and even engage in some secret financial activities, which are different in nature.

Therefore, the issuance of treasury bonds should be decided by the Imperial Bank itself, after all, this is a treasury bond, a debt on behalf of the country, and can only be issued by the Imperial Bank.

But coinage is not the same as printing banknotes, although how many silver coins are minted, how many banknotes are printed, must be planned in a unified way, and it is said that it is also under the control of the Imperial Bank, but as I said, although CITIC Bank is a private bank, this is to facilitate the future to do things that are inconvenient for some countries, so it is necessary to obtain the right to mint money and the right to print money, so the right to issue banknotes is jointly issued by the two banks.

Well, I think so, if you find out about banknotes, you can set up a board of supervisors of the Imperial Bank, referred to as the China Banking Regulatory Commission, and the members of the Banking Regulatory Commission are the Imperial Bank and CITIC Bank, and you can join other banks in the future, so let's do it. ”

"Then who is in charge of this CBRC? The Imperial Bank is from the Ministry of Finance, but the CITIC Bank is from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and this ......"

"Then it will operate independently and be subordinate to a special department directly under the State Council, but the Internal Affairs Office and the Senate will be involved in supervision, and that's it."

"Well, that's all there is to it." Li Yongchang nodded, "Then Your Majesty, since you think that the number of treasury bonds mentioned by the minister last time is wrong, how much should the first phase of treasury bonds be issued?" ”

"First issue 30 million five-year treasury bonds." Li Yongji said, "I subscribed for half of it myself, and the remaining half was publicly issued, and foreigners could also buy it, and the interest rate of the five-year treasury bonds would be calculated at 5 percent." ”

"Five percent? Too high, right? Li Yongchang was taken aback, "Our interest is calculated on an annual basis, if this is the case, if we borrow 30 million, we will have to pay 1.5 million interest a year, and after five years, won't we have to repay 37.5 million?" It's going to be 7.5 million in five years, which is too high. ”

"Damn, is this still high?" Li Yongji shook his head speechlessly, "Then how much is appropriate?" It has to be easy to make people profitable, and be willing to make up their minds to buy it. ”

"Let me say, three percent is high." Li Yongchang said, "If the interest rate is three percent, the people will definitely be interested, after all, they will earn three percent a year, which is equal to one hundred taels of silver, and after a year, they will be three taels more, which is very profitable." Besides, this is a national debt, as His Majesty said, as long as the country is not destroyed, there will be no debts that will not be repaid, so the common people must be interested. ”

"Okay, then three percent." Li Yongji shrugged, "As long as you can sell it." ”

"How much money and silver dollars do we give?" Li Yongchang asked.

"How much is it?" Li Yongji pondered, "How many silver reserves do we have in our hands now?" I said silver! ”

"As for silver, it is mainly in the bank treasury of China CITIC Bank, and there are now a total of 80 million taels of silver and 20 million yuan of silver dollars."

"In this way, let's be conservative first, the silver dollar will be issued for 50 million yuan, and the banknote will be multiplied by five on the basis of the silver dollar, and 250 million yuan will be issued." Li Yongji said, "All issuances are issued in the form of official procurement, now, don't you have money?" ”

"Fifty million silver dollars is easy to say, but, but two hundred and fifty million is too much, too outrageous." Li Yongchang's mouth opened wide, "It's so high, there will be problems!" ”

"The problem of hair!" Li Yongji pouted, "I'm already cautious enough if I don't send one billion, but in fact, it's no problem to send five billion." ”

Indeed, if the general reserve principle of precious metal reserves is followed, if banks are conservative, they usually issue banknotes according to the reserves at a ratio of 1:10, and 1:100 is also common.

In other words, with one reserve, ten or even one hundred banknotes can be issued into circulation without worrying about the danger of being forced back.

In fact, reserves are not necessarily precious metals, this mainly depends on credit.

The reason why gold and silver are commonly used in the world is because these precious metals have been used for thousands of years, and human beings have long formed an inherent trust in this kind of precious metals, which is beyond the concept of the state, so when the national credit is not completely popular, the gold standard or silver standard is implemented in the world.

The middle of the nineteenth century was the era of the great powers, and most of the great powers practiced the gold standard, so the gold standard was popular in the world.

But in China, the common people also recognize silver, so it is perfectly fine for silver to be used as a reserve.

What Li Yongji has is silver, not to mention a large amount of silver that comes in through guò trade, if necessary, Li Yongji himself can get a large amount of silver from modern society, after all, silver has long been not a circulating currency in modern society, but an ordinary industrial product.

"It's okay, just give it to your heart's content, as soon as you have a lot of money, the economy will be stimulated, and it will come alive immediately, which will promote the development of the economy." Li Yongji waved his hand, "According to my estimate, with our current development momentum, sending out 300 million is probably not enough." As soon as this money is spent, not only will you have money to spend, but the whole society will also be beneficial, well, just do it...... Of course, the national debt still has to be issued as usual, those are two different things, don't get confused. ”

"This, this ......" Li Yongchang trembled a little, "Your Majesty, can you do it?" This isn't child's play! That's 300 million!

Our Imperial Hua Yuan, although one yuan of silver is only seven pieces of silver, but it is spent as one or two pieces of silver, not to mention paper money, it is completely a piece of paper...... In other words, if we send 300 million, it is 300 million taels of silver! And these 300 million money can go directly to the bank to exchange huàn silver, we go out with so much money, in case, in case they have to exchange silver with us, we, we ......"

"Although rest assured, it is impossible for everyone to come to the bank to exchange silver, after all, the silver is not easy to use, and the bank also has a fixed amount of silver, and it is impossible to issue unlimited money in a day, which gives us sufficient time to prepare, not to mention that we still have the power to intervene administratively at any time. Besides, your 300 million is not a one-time hair, but a batch of batches little by little, what can be the problem? Li Yongji pouted, "Anyway, if something goes wrong, I have nothing, I don't have anything else, just silver!" (To be continued......)