Agreed on the disposal of Qin Hui, the head of the household Chen Yu reported on last year's financial revenue and expenditure, the benefits of opening the sea to the Great Song Dynasty have appeared, so the relevant taxes will have four million taels of silver into the account, a total of 50 million yuan of income, and the two taxes and salt, wine, iron and other monopoly taxes are equivalent, plus miscellaneous income, the imperial court's financial revenue has not been much different from the best years of this dynasty, the treasury has leftover, this year the situation is better and is expected to continue to grow, he is also a lot better as a household secretary.

This is all thanks to the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, who spent nearly half of his income last year on military spending alone, but the emperor was quite kind, and allocated two-thirds of the seized property to the treasury, one-third into the inner treasury, and it didn't cost much to offset the imperial court. However, the emperor also assigned the task of building roads and water conservancy, both of which were also money-burning jobs. Chen Yu calculated, this is not a job that can be done overnight, as long as it is decomposed into a few years, the finances can still support it, and there is no need to borrow money from the emperor.

"Lord Chen, now the two roads of Yanjing and Dading have entered my hands, but the land there is vast and sparsely populated, although there are thousands of miles of fertile fields but no one cultivates them, and the southeast, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Sichuan and Shu are densely populated and the land is scarce, and the price of land is soaring, so landless tenants and displaced people can be recruited to move to the two places to fill the border defense!" After listening to the introduction, Zhao Ta said that he didn't know the specific numbers, but he knew it in his heart, at least from the accounts issued by his cabinets, so he was not surprised, he was afraid that the court would not be able to spend all the money, so he found a way for them again.

"What Your Majesty said is good, but Jiangnan is rich, and I am afraid that no one wants to recruit him, so it is better to move from the densely populated prefectures and counties to the north as a whole!" Chen Yu's heart trembled again. Recruitment comes at a cost, not only for travel expenses, but also for housing, cattle, and farming tools. The cost is huge, and the overall immigration does not care about the rich or the poor. You can save a lot.

"Although the cost of forced migration is small, it is easy to cause civil unrest, and moving to the north is also unstable, and the result of fleeing often outweighs the loss, so don't give up the money. As long as the population of the north increases and the land is developed, it will become a new land of wealth in a few years. Zhao Ta knew that there were few people who were not stingy in managing money, and they all covered their money bags tightly. said with a smile, "I don't want to go, because the conditions are not met, everyone can become a landlord if I go, I don't believe that no one is willing to apply, I have to explain to the people that there will be people who are willing to go!" ”

"The minister understands, and immediately orders the recruitment of all states and counties in the south of the Yangtze River!" Chen Yu was poked by the emperor, and his heart was broken and he blushed and said.

"Lord Chen, you can ask Your Majesty for advice on recruiting immigrants, there were more wars in Hedong and Hezhong back then. The population loss was serious, and after His Majesty pacified the northwest, the population increased by hundreds of thousands in a few years, and millions of hectares of fertile land were cultivated. Now the abundance can be compared to Jiangnan! Xu Jingheng turned his head and said to Chen Yu, he was a first-hand witness back then, and he admired the emperor's methods.

"The minister has also heard of the great achievements of His Majesty in the northwest. I have to ask Your Majesty to give me advice! Only then did Chen Yu remember that the emperor had also been working in the local area for more than ten years, and there was no means to shake his arms in the northwest. Can an army of 100,000 be gathered in a few days, so this is from the heart...

After a few laughs. Zhang Shuye, secretary of the Ministry of War, also made a special report on the formation of the Krüd Army and the Loyal and Brave Army, as well as the expansion of the desert brigade, the hunting cavalry brigade, and the artillery brigade. At present, the establishment of various ministries has been formulated, the necessary funds have been allocated, and personnel are being recruited and selected. The distribution of weapons, which was not a problem, became a problem, especially the lack of artillery and ammunition, because of the lack of copper in the Great Song Dynasty.

Zhao Ta listened and turned his gaze to the head of the household Shangshu Chen Yu wanted to hear his explanation, because he knew that the output of gold and silver in the Great Song Dynasty was very low, but on the contrary, the output of copper reached a very high level.

"Your Majesty, the minister has done his best, my Great Song Dynasty supervisors, the annual output of more than 25,000 catties of copper, after the casting is used up, the rest are sent to the ordnance superintendent, but the gap is still huge, can only be rerefined with recovered coins to supply the ordnance superintendent, but now there are few copper coin exchangers, so the supply is not available for a while!" Chen Yu saw that the emperor's eyes were not good, and hurriedly explained.

"For hundreds of years, the coins of all dynasties have been minted in trillions, how can no one exchange them?" Zhao Ta calculated 25,000 Song catties, and the total unit of measurement in modern times is fifteen tons, which is not as good as the output of a small workshop in later generations, but the casting of copper cannons is often hundreds of catties, compared to this little bit of copper is pitiful, but this output is already a very remarkable number in the production process and production conditions at this time. But China's coinage history is enough for a thousand years, the copper coins accumulated over the years, amounting to hundreds of millions of yuan, plus the copper coins of the previous dynasty, can be passed in the market unimpeded, only these are recycled, can also be used for a while.

"Your Majesty doesn't know anything, the whereabouts of copper coins are generally speaking, one is the storage of official treasury and private individuals, the second is to cast copper coins into bronze vessels, and the third is to flow out of our dynasty." Chen Yu said again, "The small state of the Tibetan country cannot mint money, and every time it gets Chinese money, it must be stored in the treasury, thinking that it is the treasure of the town." Therefore, those who enter Tibet do not go to the copper coins, and the goods are not copper coins and are not sold. The ships that come and go to the Tibetan ship are tall, deep and wide, and a ship can carry tens of thousands of documents, and our merchants also collect copper coins extensively, so that the exchangers are becoming scarce. ”

"Well, I see!" Zhao Ta nodded and said, he was born in trading, and he was able to understand both underworld and white, Chen Yu understood the mystery as soon as he mentioned it.

The Song Dynasty was the most developed empire in the world at that time, and it was also one of the largest maritime trading states. In addition to tea, silk fabrics, porcelain, lacquerware, etc., copper coins and copperware are also important export materials cherished by many foreign countries. However, it must be pointed out that copper coins are different from tea, silk fabrics, porcelain, lacquerware, and other export items, and are illegal smuggled export items. The Song Dynasty strictly forbade the export of copper coins, stipulating that "money going out of China and consistent literature shall be punished by death", and also "re-establish the reward and make people arrest".

The value of a commodity depends on the amount of labour expended to produce it. Many countries from Japan to Africa need currency due to economic development; Due to the difficulties in copper smelting and coinage technology, it is temporarily impossible to produce copper coins in large quantities. Under such conditions, Chinese copper coins have become the "treasure of the town" of these countries, and have become a very expensive and extremely popular hard currency in the world.

Due to the relatively advanced process of copper smelting and coinage in the Song Dynasty, the value of copper coins must be much lower than that of foreign countries. On the contrary, many foreign specialties, such as spices, pepper, precious wood, ivory, rhino horn, etc., are bound to be much cheaper than those of China. Therefore, overseas trade has become a very profitable business, "every ten times, you can exchange goods for hundreds of things; The number of hundreds can be exchanged for thousands of things".

Therefore, the export of large quantities of copper coins is unstoppable. If the annual export of 100,000 guan in 300 years is counted, it will be 30 million guan, which is equivalent to about 90,000 tons; Based on the annual export of 200,000 guan, it is 60 million guan, equivalent to about 180,000 tons. But in fact, there is no way to count how many copper coins are exported, and now they have stopped minting copper coins, making them a scarce material and invisibly raising the value of copper coins. Zhao believed that in addition to maritime merchants, officials, scholars, and even sailors would be involved in the smuggling trade of copper coins, and that the criminal orders strictly prohibiting the export of copper coins would be nothing more than a pile of waste paper under such huge profits.

"Can the mines of Dasong continue to increase production now?" Zhao Ta thought for a while and asked, he knew that the best way to curb this situation was to increase production to stabilize copper prices.

"Your Majesty, I have limited mines, Xinzhou Lead Mountain Field, Dexing Xingli Field, Shaozhou Cen Shui Field, Tanzhou Yongxing Field and other mines, all of which have fully implemented their wet copper smelting technology, and the whole country can obtain millions of pounds of bile copper, all with their best efforts, if you want to improve, it is also limited!" Chen Yu replied.

"Well, can you find a bigger copper mine?" Zhao Tazhi said that this kind of bile copper is a kind of copper smelting method, using the chemical method of copper and iron replacement to extract copper, and the output can reach one million, but it contains a large amount of iron, and there is not so much after re-smelting to remove impurities. And this method is already the most advanced way in this era, limited to the limitations of the times, I can't think of a better way, I can only think of a way to expand the surface.

"Your Majesty, the minister has done his best!" Chen Yu bowed down and said bitterly.

"Oh?! It's not your fault! Zhao Ta saw that he had no choice but to force Chen Yu, who was good at scheduling, and said helplessly, he understood that China is also a country lacking copper, even if it helps to discover that copper deposits are scarce under modern technology, not to mention the era when almost all of them rely on manpower.

"The ministers are guilty, and they can't share the worries of His Majesty!" Seeing this, the emperor was so worried that he hurriedly asked for guilt, and they also knew that the reason why the Song army was invincible was that firearms were relied on, and copper was an indispensable material for the production of firearms.

"I know that there are many copper mines in Dali, can I negotiate with them to buy them?" Zhao suddenly remembered that Yunnan was an important copper producing area in China, but it was now the territory of Dali.

"Your Majesty, the envoys of Dali have not yet left, and the ministers are willing to discuss with them!" As soon as Ma Kuo, the attendant of the Ministry of Rites, heard what the emperor said, he immediately asked for his life.

"Well, copper is related to the lifeblood of my Great Song Dynasty, this matter must be resolved as soon as possible, it is best to rent and buy its mines, if it promises, we will not let them suffer, if it is... Hum! Zhao Ta said with a slight sigh.

"Obey the order, go and do it yourself immediately!" Ma Kuo was thrilled by the emperor's gloomy tone, and hurriedly replied, while the others felt the murderous aura exuded by the emperor, and knew that if this matter could not be achieved, I am afraid that the emperor would rob it... (To be continued......)