The area around Mochou Lake in Nanjing has become the most prosperous area in the Ming Dynasty, and has even surpassed the Qinhuai River.

Because this is the Daming financial center.

Since the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Youzhen changed the residence of the rebel minister Qian Qianyi in Nanjing into the base of the Daming Central Bank, which has become the concentration of Daming banks and securities institutions.

The Central Bank of the Ming Dynasty is still here, and it is the institution that truly controls the most wealth of the empire.

The Empire's national tax revenues, national debt revenues, and many large capitals, such as the royal capital, were stored here.

At the same time, he is the only currency issuer, making the central bank of Daming still the most powerful bank in Daming.

What's more, with the development of the power of the Ming Empire, the Ming silver dollar currency has been promoted to the entire East Asia and even South Asia, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Americas.

In addition, the Daming Central Bank also has its own subsidiaries, namely the Daming Investment Bank and the Daming Ocean Bank, which are responsible for foreign investment and colonial plunder, and even the funds of the Daming Central Bank can affect the stock price of Xiyi.

However, Daming naturally is not only Daming Central Bank, Daming Investment Bank, Daming Ocean Bank, these banks, there are many other banks, these are the banks established by Hui Merchants and Zhejiang Merchants and Zheng Group, they also do financial business, and take root in Nanjing Mochou Lake, and Daming Central Bank and other control the economic market of Daming.

It can be said that the area around Mochou Lake has become a gathering place for the rich of the empire.

When Zhu Youzhen appeared here, he found that this place was different from other places, countless people were dressed in brocade and silk, and a picture of wisdom beads was in his hands, but he also seemed very busy and cynical.

"The ministers have seen Your Majesty!"

When Zhu Youzhen appeared in Mochou Lake, Yang Mingshen, the current president of the Daming Central Bank, had to come out to greet him in person, followed by the presidents of other banks in addition to the executives of the Daming Central Bank, and they stood in front of him quite gentlemanly and saluted.

"Let's be flat."

Zhu Youzhen looked at all this with a smile, in recent years, through the eradication of the gentry class, so that the common people could have the opportunity to free themselves from the shackles of the gentry class and participate in the industrial and commercial activities of the empire, and through the stimulation of the commodity economy and the cultivation of the power of private merchants, as well as the encouragement of the establishment of merchant groups and the promulgation of the law on the protection of private property, the common people were able to avoid being exploited by the bureaucracy and have the ability to resist, and realized the situation of a large number of wealthy merchants now.

Now the wealthy businessmen represented by Yang Mingshen are the class that have risen because of him Zhu Youzhen, and these people are naturally very grateful to Zhu Youzhen.

In Zhu Youzhen's eyes, they are outstanding representatives of the first-class citizens of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Youzhen believes that they will be the masters of this empire in the future.

But Zhu Youzhen was not worried about this, and even all this in front of him was the result of his deliberate making.

From the very beginning, as the emperor, Zhu Youzhen did not regard the Ming Dynasty as his private property, and did not think about maximizing his personal interests, he just wanted the Ming Dynasty not to be destroyed by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, not to be humiliated by the West in the future, and even the whole of China would not repeat the mistakes of changing the dynasty and changing the dynasty.

Therefore, what Zhu Youzhen only wants to do is to break the pattern of the world.

Zhu Youzhen wants to make all the people in the empire realize that the empire is their common country, not the world of the Zhu family alone.

Officials do not have to embezzle and extort their own maximum interests without scruples because this is only the Zhu family's world, businessmen do not have to sell the country only because this is only the Zhu family's world, and farmers do not have to think that there is any difference between planting the land of the Xinjueluo family and planting the land of the Zhu family.

And to make people realize that the empire is also theirs, and to give them a sense of belonging to the empire, it is natural to make their interests consistent with the interests of the empire, and the way to make their interests consistent is to let them control the empire, not just let Zhu Youzhen control the empire alone.

Since the change of the political system, Zhu Youzhen has begun to consciously delegate power, not only to recognize the head of the cabinet as the head of the executive, which has begun to appear in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, but also to reform the tax policy and allow a part of the local self-retained tax to be used for public management.

But Zhu Youzhen felt that this was not enough, but he didn't know where to start, so he had to take a closer look, Yang Mingshen and other rich people treated Zhu Youzhen warmly, and they had no bad feelings towards Zhu Youzhen, the emperor.

Logically speaking, capitalists and handicraftsmen should have hated the feudal emperors, but because Zhu Youzhen did not excessively solicit his own interests, the contradictions between the bourgeoisie and the bureaucracy did not intensify in the Ming Dynasty.

At this time, Bai Yunzhen, the governor of Yingtian, suddenly rushed over at this time, and as soon as he saw Zhu Youzhen, he was busy prostrate on the ground: "Weichen didn't know that His Majesty's special train came so quickly, it was really a long way to go, I hope Your Majesty will forgive me!" ”

"Get up, your identity as the governor is responsible for the people, not for me, I don't need you to greet you, you don't have to report to me about political affairs, I have handed over administrative matters to the cabinet, I just came to Nanjing to see the changes in the Ming Dynasty, you don't have to pay attention to me, you can do whatever you have to do."

When Zhu Youzhen finished speaking, Yang Mingshen suddenly walked in front of Zhu Youzhen: "Your Majesty! The cabinet has been acting more and more recently, and the tax has been raised frequently, and now it has increased by 30 percent more than last year, although the ministers will not go bankrupt, but those small workshops cannot afford it, and now the number of displaced people in society has increased a lot, and most of them are engaged in theft, robbery, etc., resulting in a lot of accidents in Nanjing recently, and the people have suffered a lot, and the government only wants to collect money, and does not care about these at all. ”

Zhu Youzhen was directly stunned, he didn't expect that Yang Mingshen and these rich people would want to regain imperial power by themselves, and couldn't help but say proudly: "As a capitalist, don't you want the feudal emperor to release power, why are these capitalists of my Ming Dynasty reversed?" ”

At this time, Bai Yunzhen, the governor of Yingtian, also hurriedly came to Zhu Youzhen: "Your Majesty, don't listen to Mr. Yang's nonsense, the imperial court has its own difficulties in raising taxes, since last year, there have been floods in Shandong, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other places, and the victims have reached millions, and the imperial court has no choice but to raise taxes, and please believe in the elder of the pavilion." ”

"Nonsense, now that the treasury is full and the annual income is already a lot, why should a flood raise taxes, this is obviously your quibble!" Yang Mingshen directly quarreled with Bai Yunzhen, the governor of Yingtian.

Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but laugh dumbly, it was unimaginable that a businessman could quarrel with the governor of the Ming Dynasty, but now it really happened in front of Zhu Youzhen.

Zhu Youzhen didn't know what to say, he no longer had the intention of managing the administration, and he couldn't tell who was right and who was wrong, but he still stopped the two from arguing: "Don't mention this matter, I will ask Zhang Huangyan when I return to Beijing." ”

(End of chapter)