Chapter 113, when will Jinling song and dance stop? (iv)

Compared with the total amount of social funds, the total number of goods on the market is always in short supply.

Nowhere was this ironclad rule more evident than in the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, when the collapse of the Union State and the collapse of the social order brought to the bottom of the vast wealth accumulated by decades of hard work in the former Soviet Union. Because when the crisis came, the Soviet people instinctively put all their money into the retail market to sweep and hoard, for such a large and dense instantaneous flow of funds, the retail market in any country could not afford it, the only result was a surge in the price of basic necessities, and a massive depreciation of goods unrelated to daily life.

Even if it were the United States, it would not be able to withstand such a drastic change -- even if the dollar was still the world's currency at that time, if tens of trillions of dollars poured out of the "monetary reservoir" of the stock market, funds, and banks, and rushed to the retail market, then the world market order of the entire earth would collapse in an instant: because all the countries of the world combined would not be able to provide daily commodities worth so much currency in a short period of time!

Under these circumstances, whether or not those in power are crazy about the printing press, a debilitating hyperinflation is inevitable.

Just the huge amount of cash that panic has forced out of the stock market, funds, banks, etc., is enough to make the market doomed!

Similarly, in China at the end of the Ming Dynasty, a similar situation occurred, thus dealing a fatal blow to the crumbling Ming Empire.

-- When Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, in order to achieve the goal of family business for thousands of generations, he implemented a national strategy dominated by agriculture. He not only symbolically opened up farmland in the palace, but also took the prince to inspect the countryside many times, telling them that this was the foundation of the entire Ming Empire.

Focusing on the operation of agriculture, Zhu Yuanzhang designed a series of systems to build the whole of China into a super large countryside.

The entire civil bureaucracy of the Ming Dynasty revolved around agriculture. They cleaned up their hukou and measured the land, forming a vast network of data that served as the basis for collecting agricultural taxes. In the countryside, a grain chief is elected for every certain number of households, and their task is to be responsible for collecting grain. After the grain is collected, each local warehouse has a special ambassador (custodian). The task of transporting food to the capital and the border was also completed by special Cao transport troops and a certain number of designated peasants. All levels of government have data files on their accounts. People in the land have corresponding household registration according to their respective occupations, and military registration and civilian registration should not be confused. Peasants can only keep to their own household registration addresses, and cannot move at will, and everything is strictly regulated.

In order to deal with the nomads in the north, the Ming Dynasty retained a huge army of millions at the beginning, but the state finances at that time were extremely withered, and it could not support such an army. Zhu Yuanzhang still adopted a very rural method to solve the problem -- the tuntian system stipulated that each guard post (military region) had its own land, and thirty percent of the strong soldiers were used to defend the city and fight, and seventy percent of the manpower was used to plough the fields and feed themselves.

At that time, the Ming court directly distributed rice and cloth to officials. Because the common people pay taxes and pay agricultural products such as rice and cotton. With regard to local infrastructure construction, Zhu Yuanzhang also had a set of methods -- in addition to paying taxes on rice and cotton, the common people of the Ming Dynasty also had to contribute to the government free of charge. In the so-called servitude system, the levy refers to taxation, and the levy refers to servitude, that is, a period of time is set aside for the government to work as labor for free, such as road repair, water conservancy and so on. In short, the peasants farmed and paid taxes when they were busy, built infrastructure for the government in their spare time, the government collected grain and handed it over to the public, the army ploughed the fields and fought wars, and most of the handicraftsmen concentrated in the royal factories in the capital. Whether it is taxes or wages, rice and cloth are paid. Politically and economically, there is no internal need for any change in development. Such a super-stable static system, almost like a mummy, can theoretically be incorruptible for thousands of years. Zhu Yuanzhang is obviously proud of his ability to stay there. Those who are familiar with history may have a sense of déjà vu. Yes, this was the economic system of the Han Dynasty.

But don't forget, the Han system was tailor-made for BC China, and 1,500 years had passed by the Ming Dynasty. Twenty or thirty years ago, you took Big Brother, and it was a fashionable rich man that everyone envied; Now he is still taking Big Brother out to swagger, which is an old antique that everyone laughs at.

Grain and cloth as the standard currency is very uneconomical in times of peace, where grain will rot and will be lost every year when stored. In addition, the transportation of large quantities of grain is also heavy, and the cost of transferring it from one part of the country to another is very staggering. What's even worse is that Hongwu? During the period, the grain part of the imperial court's income was 29.4 million stones, more than 27 million stones in the Hongzhi period, and more than 28 million stones in the Wanli period. In the 30 years of reform and opening up in modern China, the state's fiscal revenue has increased by 50 times, and the Ming Dynasty's fiscal and tax revenues have remained unwavering for 200 years. Zhu Yuanzhang's mummy is really incorruptible for thousands of years. While the total income remained unchanged, various expenses such as the royal family's income and official corruption gradually increased, and eventually the finances fell into bankruptcy.

As a result, by the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, this antique financial system, somewhat similar to the wartime economy of the Soviet Union, became more and more overwhelmed, and finally collapsed. In this regard, the people of insight in the Ming Dynasty set their sights on silver: if the tax was changed to silver, it would be convenient for the peasants to hand it over and it would be convenient to transport it. Hoarding silver is neither moldy and rotten, nor eaten by insects, so it doesn't matter if it's lost, and silver is much easier to transport than rice.

As a result, there was a whip method of Zhang Juzheng, that is, the great reform of the Ming Dynasty's financial silver. His basic idea was to merge all the original taxes and conscription. In the past, farmers had to produce rice and exert their strength. After the introduction of a whip law, the peasants did not care about anything as long as they paid the silver. The government takes the money and then hires people to build houses and build water conservancy ...... At this point, silver replaced grain and became the blood that maintained the operation of the Ming Empire.

But the problem is that the rulers of the Ming Dynasty lacked modern financial knowledge, they just used silver as a convenient management tool, and did not think that silver and grain were different - it was not a consumer product, but just a currency, and the purchasing power represented was changing all the time!

-- Whether in Jiangnan or Saibei, a stone of grain can feed a person for at least three months. But if it is exchanged for one or two silvers, the number of goods that can be bought in Jiangnan and Saibei is very different!

For example, after the reform of fiscal silvering, the peasants switched from transporting 10 stone of rice to the border and handing it over to the army, to handing over the corresponding price of silver, and the government took the silver and then bought rice for the border guards. On the surface, it seems to be the same thing, but in fact, there are many articles in it.

According to the procedure, farmers in Henan, Shandong and other places paid taxes according to the local price of one stone of rice and five coins of silver. The silver was then sent to the border by the imperial court. However, there is not so much grain in the border market, and the price of rice is bound to rise. Five coins of silver will certainly not be able to buy a stone of rice, and the interests of the military will be lost invisibly. What's more serious is that the previous front-line armies all hoarded food, and after the silver reform, everyone believed that with money they could buy anything, and there was no need to hoard food. As soon as there was a war on the frontier, the army had to temporarily buy a large amount of grain to attack, which caused food prices to soar. Usually five or six dollars a stone, by this time it will rise to three taels of silver per stone! As a result, military spending has increased by six times. The trouble of paying the salaries of the court officials was even greater, and the prices of daily necessities such as grain and vegetables rose sharply every time the court officials in Beijing paid their salaries. In the end, the imperial court had to promulgate a special regulation, and some people were not allowed to buy vegetables in the city after taking the money, but had to go to the suburbs to buy them.

These are only short-term price fluctuations. As for the long-term trend of price changes, it is even more worrying -- since the advent of the Age of Discovery, because of the thirst of foreigners for Chinese porcelain, silk and other special products, the gold and silver excavated by Europeans from the Americas, and the silver mines dug up on the Japanese islands, have been flowing into China in a steady stream, and the total amount is at least a few hundred million taels, which is equivalent to a huge round of quantitative easing.

But the strange thing is that although hundreds of millions of taels of silver flowed into China, causing the amount of money to rise sharply, the commodity prices of the Ming Dynasty were still running at a low level all year round, and did not cause very serious inflation -- during the period of Zhu Yuanzhang, the price of one stone of rice in Jiangnan was two coins and five cents of silver, equivalent to two hundred and fifty copper coins, and it only rose to five coins of silver in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and this price was maintained for about a hundred years, until the end of Wanli, unless there was a major natural disaster, the price of rice in Jiangnan never exceeded one tael per stone. And the price of other food products is not too expensive: chicken is 45 wen per catty, pork is 78 wen per catty, and sesame oil is 10 wen per liter. One or two pieces of silver can make a family run a running water seat.

is also a tael of silver, under the rule of Emperor Wanli and Emperor Kangxi, its actual purchasing power is more than ten times worse!

It can be seen that despite the influx of silver into China in the late Ming Dynasty, the amount of money in circulation and the quantity of goods in the Ming Dynasty remained in harmony throughout the year - it is clear that the social productivity of the Ming Dynasty did not increase explosively without the Industrial Revolution and overseas colonization. 、

Therefore, if prices can remain stable, then there is only one reasonable explanation: most of the silver did not enter the market circulation, but was sealed - although the nobles, officials and wealthy men of the Ming Dynasty knew that silver could be used as currency, but because of the Chinese nature of saving money, more of them still collected it. Ladies and gentlemen, if there is a surplus in the annual income, they will either use it to buy land property, or they will be turned into silver ingots and hidden, and they are reluctant to spend it at all. For example, Shanxi Jin merchants once cast silver into hundreds of catties of large silver nuggets and stored them in cellars, known as "ghosts and sorrows" (thieves can't steal it even if they touch it). Even ordinary people, when they have silver, most of them hide it for later use.

As a result, the astronomical amount of silver, in this way, slept in the mansions of the eunuchs and the landlords and gentry, virtually acting as a central bank to regulate the currency, so that the amount of currency circulating in the market was always limited, maintaining the stability of the price of the Ming Dynasty, and also maintaining the strength of the silver price.

But this false price stability was only temporary, and by the year of the Apocalypse, prices that had not changed for a hundred years finally began to rise rapidly.

-- Since the Sarhu War, which arose among the Jurchens at the end of Wanli, the Great Tomorrow has begun to become chaotic. Natural disasters during the Xiaoice River at the end of the Ming Dynasty greatly reduced food output, but the amount of money did not decrease, so food prices began to rise. In the first month of the first year of the Apocalypse, the palace posted a notice to choose a concubine, causing a panic among the people, in order to prevent her daughter from being robbed into the Forbidden City by eunuchs, a wave of urgent marriage swept Beijing. If you want to get married, you have to buy things, and the wine, fish and meat used for the banquet immediately became a scarce commodity. Just a month later, the long-hidden price inflation broke through the ground, and the prices of daily necessities skyrocketed -- from this point on, a tael of silver in Beijing could no longer buy a stone of rice.

Since the amount of silver on the market at this time far exceeded the amount of commodities, a small fuse detonated the entire imperial economic system. This excessive market reaction soon caused widespread panic, and all goods in the market, from grain to cloth, from land to houses, began to rise in price across the board. And this further irritates those who have silver in their hands - the silver is worthless! What to do? Of course, it is to sell off quickly and hoard consumer goods such as grain and cloth, and the result is a further vicious circle, which makes the price of silver fall more and more!

During the Apocalypse, because the imperial government could barely function, hyperinflation had begun, but the price increase was not very fast.

In the Chongzhen period, which was full of wars and droughts for many years, because the rogue and natural disasters that ravaged the interior further undermined agricultural production, and the chaos of social order forced people to start hoarding materials, and the silver that had been sleeping in the cellar flowed into the market in large quantities to participate in trading, resulting in a larger and larger gap in the market, and all kinds of prices naturally rose rapidly like rockets, and it was common for a stone of rice to be sold for five taels of silver.

In the modern world, in the face of such a terrible situation, the government will have to use the strategic material reserve to stabilize prices. The problem is that the official warehouse of the imperial court at the end of the Ming Dynasty has long been embezzled, and Emperor Chongzhen has no such material reserves in his hands. So he only felt that the more money he made in the palace, the more money he lacked. In the face of this situation, no matter how much money he has, he will be furious, not to mention that he doesn't have much money in his hand?

As a result, Emperor Chongzhen continued to urge more silver, and repeatedly blamed the local government for its ineffective efforts in urging salaries. However, he did not know that under the condition of the rapid decline of agricultural productivity and the continuous decline in grain production, the more silver was allocated, the more prices soared, the more scarce silver appeared, and the speed at which the imperial court could never keep up with the rate of market price increases. In the first year of Chongzhen, the materials bought with three million taels of silver per year may be able to sustain more than 100,000 troops in Liaodong for continuous campaigns, but in the last years of Chongzhen, due to the soaring prices, five million taels of silver per year may not be enough for a mere 30,000 or 40,000 Guanning troops to make ends meet.

Don't think that silver won't depreciate, in fact, in the late Ming Dynasty, the purchasing power of silver was not as strong as the renminbi in the 21st century!

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Under the rule of Emperor Yonghe in Nanjing in this time and space, the supply and demand of materials in the Jiangnan market were also in a rapid deterioration.

There is no way, although the current Jiang? There was no disaster, but whether it was the war spreading in Jiangbei or the situation in the world where the two emperors were confronted, it meant the collapse of social order and the imminent war in the minds of the people. And as the flames of war have been ignited in all directions, the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River have become the last haven and lifeboat in people's minds, and I don't know how many people are pouring into this last pure land, completely ignoring whether this small land can withstand it - the large number of refugees who fled from the north of the river has created a pre-apocalyptic prosperity for the city.

-- Although these people have left their homes, most of them have some money with them. After arriving in Nanjing, they needed food to satisfy their hunger, a house to live in, and medicine if they were sick. And all these basic necessities had to be exchanged for the goods they carried. If the money runs out, they will have to sell their labor at the lowest price, or go to the swindle and kidnap, just like the illegal immigrants of later generations.

As a result, with the influx of a large number of people from other places, Nanjing's market is now showing a kind of abnormal prosperity -- law and order are rapidly collapsing, market transactions are booming, and the prices of daily consumer goods are rising steadily. The rapid acceleration of inflation, in turn, caused panic among the people in Jiangnan, who used to be eager to save a few mouthfuls of silver in bed every day, but now their hands are so hot that everyone is anxious to turn the accumulated silver into cloth, grain, salt, and any daily consumer goods...... As a result, as many as hundreds of millions of taels of Jiangnan folk silver also gushed out.

-- Just like when the Soviet Union collapsed, the raging war in the Jianghuai region and the support of the Nanjing court for a new emperor were like a big hand squeezing a sponge, releasing a huge amount of private silver deposits. As a rich place since ancient times, Jiangnan has always had the most rich people in the world, not to mention so many Yangzhou salt merchants who moved south with their families...... As a result, an unprecedented currency frenzy has been formed in the market!

In this way, Pandora's box was completely opened. Silver, which had been dormant for many years, awakened and poured into the market like a volcanic eruption, turning into a white terror that created a hyperinflation...... Since last month, the price of rice in Nanjing has begun to rise explosively, reaching ten taels of silver and one stone three days ago, and now it seems to have risen again. The unit of measurement of grain prices has also changed from the previous stone to liter. The price of pork has also risen to 360 Wen per catty, which is equivalent to 50 times that of the Wanli period! The inflation in this era of metal money can be compared with Germany after World War I, Japan after World War II, and the Kuomintang in the late Liberation War! Many people's money has become waste before they know it!

-- The "archaeological team" of traversers who came to Nanjing to settle down for investigation was just in time for this wave of price increases, which led to a sharp increase in expenses.

As for this outbreak of hyperinflation, the basic countermeasure of the Nanjing imperial court was to ignore it, and even suspected of adding fuel to the fire -- this small imperial court, which adhered to the Donglin Party's policy of "lightly taxing and paying little taxes," could neither collect much tax nor have any food and material reserves, and it was impossible to stabilize prices. Not to mention that many court officials also secretly instructed their family members to hoard and further raise grain prices...... In order to make huge profits.

“…… At present, the time before the price of grain begins to skyrocket is still relatively short, but compared with last year, the price of grain in Nanjing has risen by two or three times, and the price will definitely continue to rise in the future, thus driving the price of all daily commodities up. If we take advantage of this opportunity to sell grain to Jiangnan, we will definitely make a lot of money! Do you want to try it? The old professor of history, who seemed to have studied ancient economics, said incitingly.

For this tempting-sounding suggestion, Wang Qiu and Political Commissar Guo lowered their heads and thought for a moment, but finally chose to refuse.

“…… Hey, I think it's better to forget it! Although this transaction sounds like a good profit, if you really want to do it, I am afraid that there will be a lot of trouble. ”

Wang Qiu shook his head and replied, "...... First of all, we had no sales channels in this area, and we could not sail our warships directly to Yanziji in Nanjing--none of the previous traverser forces had dumped grain in the south of the Yangtze River, so we don't know how much work it would take to make temporary contact. Secondly, since those black-hearted grain merchants in the south of the Yangtze River are deliberately hoarding grain and rice, further raising prices, and trying to scrape a lot of money from the heads of the people in the market, wouldn't it be a good thing for us outsiders to rush in a large amount of grain? God knows what kind of revenge will be!

Thirdly, we had sold millions of "rice, wheat, corn and potatoes" in Tianjin, and in exchange for so many displaced people who needed to be given rations for resettlement, the two republics in the Americas did not have much surplus food. Rice, in particular, is not much used to be trafficked to Jiangnan.

Fourth, even if we successfully make such a large grain deal, what will we make in the end? Tens of thousands of taels of silver? ”

He said with some disdain, "...... At present, Huameng is sitting on several continents of mineral deposits, and there is no shortage of silver, land and any other resources, and the only thing that is lacking is population. And if we don't use force, there will be no way to collect a large number of immigrants in Jiangnan......"

“…… So, this idea that doesn't really benefit is so let's dismiss it! And you don't have any time left. ”

Political Commissar Guo added with a serious expression, "...... The Allied Gangnam Raiders have entered the countdown, and a landing battle will soon be launched. We have come here to take you out of enemy-occupied areas...... You have to leave tomorrow and the day after tomorrow at the latest, is there anything else you want to see? ”

Yu Guozhen exchanged glances with several old professors, thought about it again, and finally replied: "...... Other attractions are fine, but there is also a pagoda of Bao'en Temple located outside the Jubao Gate. I want to see it anyway - this thing was destroyed in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and it is no longer in the modern world! ”

After a while, when night fell, standing on the balcony of a two-story small building in the house, Guo Political Commissar and Wang Qiu squinted to the south, and sure enough, there was a bright place, it was said to be the spire of the Bao'en Temple Tower, the whole Bao'en Temple Tower was spliced together with colored glass, under the reflection of the lights lit in the temple, the glazed glass of the spire was dazzling, and the swarthy city formed a sharp contrast. Even from a long distance, it's amazing.

“…… Is this the pagoda of Bao'en Temple? Well, it's a bit interesting, but the city gate has been closed today, and I'm afraid it's a bit troublesome to get out of the city. Let's take advantage of tonight to hurry up and pack our luggage, and go out of the city collectively tomorrow morning to see the Bao'en Temple Tower! ”

The next day, after temporarily hiring an errand boy and sending a farewell letter to Fang Yizhi, Yu Guozhen, Wang Qiu, a group of old professors and Ma Tong, who was still suffering from a hangover, went out of the city from Jubaomen in a cart and a cage, preparing to visit Bao'en Temple before leaving Nanjing...... After walking out of the treasure gate, the tall glazed pagoda stands out like a landmark. In comparison, the other halls in the temple seem ordinary.

The beautiful glazed pagoda is located in the middle of a wide square, surrounded by people who come to visit and worship. The whole pagoda has nine layers in addition to the base, each layer has eight sides, each side is pasted with white porcelain, the tower is inlaid with a lot of five-color glazed bricks that draw the Buddhist theme patterns such as lions, white elephants, flying sheep, etc., exquisite and abnormal, the top of the tower is all spliced by glazed tiles, and then decorated with jewels, gold and silver items, shining with brilliant brilliance in the sun. Strings of wind chimes hang under the corner beams on each floor, making a pleasant sound in the breeze.

Although everyone has seen all kinds of magnificent skyscraper buildings in the modern world, and has seen the night view of this glazed pagoda from afar in Nanjing before, when you really stand under this glazed pagoda after a long journey, you are still deeply shocked by its momentum and exquisiteness - worthy of being listed as one of the seven wonders of the medieval world! The supreme jewel of human art and engineering in this era!

“…… This pagoda is 78 meters high, the circumference of the base is 100 meters, the construction lasted 19 years, consumed more than 2 million taels of silver, since the pagoda was built in the Yongle years, the one hundred and forty ever-bright lamps on the tower have never been extinguished, so the night lanterns are bright, particularly conspicuous, when called the first tower in the world, also known as the light of China. When many people from overseas come here, they will go and worship. Until the end of the Opium War in 1841, when the British warships went to Nanjing to sign the Nanjing Treaty with the Qing court, the first thing the British sailors did when they got off the ship was to visit the glazed pagoda of the Great Bao'en Temple. ”

An old professor leaned around Wang Qiu and explained with great interest, "...... Zhang Dai, a famous writer of this era, also wrote an article on this pagoda, saying, "China's great antiques, Yongle's great kilns, the pagoda is also ......"

Next, everyone went to the glazed pagoda to visit the Buddha statues and murals, and secretly took out their cameras to take pictures countless times in this exquisite art palace. The old professors have been observing for a long time, but they still can't get enough of it-"...... Hey, it's really a beautiful and immortal masterpiece! It's a pity that when it came to the Taiping Heavenly Civil Strife, Wei Changhui was afraid that Shi Dakai would observe the situation in the city on the tower, so he actually blew up this glazed tower, which is really hateful! ”

An old professor stroked the mural on the wall and muttered reluctantly, "...... I'd love to see it for a few more days......"

“…… Well, it would be a pity to let such an artistic treasure be destroyed in the flames of war. At present, I am afraid that this Nanjing city will not be peaceful for long. ”

Looking up at this exquisite ancient building, Wang Qiu also nodded in agreement, "...... As...... How about we take it back as a souvenir? ”

As he said this, his eyes lit up with excitement, and he quietly pulled out the shrinking light from his package......

-- Late that night, a strange incident occurred in Bao'en Temple in Nanjing: The glazed pagoda that had stood in the temple since the Yongle period disappeared, leaving only a big pit on the ground...... After the news spread, the whole Nanjing was a sensation, and there was an endless stream of idlers from the four towns and eight miles who came to Bao'en Temple to investigate, so that the monks in the temple wanted to cry without tears. And this unbelievable incident has naturally become a hot topic of conversation among Nanjing citizens.

However, half a month later, the news hotspot that the people in Nanjing are most concerned about has been replaced by another equally unexpected news:

“…… Urgent! Urgent! Southern thieves have come from the sea to fight Hangzhou!! ”