Jiangnan is a heavily endowed area, for example, the two prefectures of Susong are the highest in the country per mu, reaching one dollar and two cents of silver, plus the burden of transportation and the cost of vain, it is also the area with the most serious arrears. The amount of gold and silver distributed by the five prefectures of Susong and Changjiahu in Jiangnan basically accounts for more than 40%, which can be regarded as a kind of economic compensation for the area with the highest amount of money by the imperial court, and the local government can use the monetary leverage effect of gold and silver to adjust the proportion of the burden of servitude of the people under its rule.

At this point, Ma Shizhang's gold and silver inscriptions obviously carry some kind of indication or intention, and at the same time, they are also his political wisdom.

First of all, this proposal will obviously be supported by the imperial court, although the gold and silver have always been directly understood, but the Yongming Emperor is not the Wanli Emperor, and now the use of gold and silver actually belongs to the household department, which is a large part of the financial revenue, of course, the more the better, and the real sense belongs to the emperor's private treasury is the female official treasury in charge of Wu Yan.

For local governments and counties, gold and silver is a kind of silver to clear, in fact, it belongs to the monetization of the field endowment, but the land rent is not monetized, and it is still mainly paid in kind, even if there is a monetary rent in the area, it is very rare. In fact, the reason lies in the fact that the discounted grain price is much lower than the market price of grain, especially in years when the grain harvest is poor and the grain price is high. Although this way of converting silver can alleviate the pressure of endowment and alleviate the hardship of the people, it is the landlord who really benefits, not to mention that the discount rate itself has a strong subjective arbitrariness and blindness.

The main purpose of Ma Shizhang's inscription is to increase the discount rate, which ultimately affects the price of land. Generally speaking, the return on income of agriculture is low, time-consuming and long-term, and the price of land is the discount of its income, and this part of the income from the difference in silver is included in the income of land. This part of the income shrinks, which means that the return on income is much lower, which naturally affects the discount price.

However, raising the discount rate of gold and silver is beneficial to the state's fiscal revenue.

A road reform has led to a series of questions, no matter what the reason, in fact, it is a game of interests.

Of course, the best thing is to find the best solution, a solution that satisfies all parties, but what is the perfect solution?

As soon as Ma Shizhang's proposal came out, it really attracted the courtiers to turn their heads one after another, so that the imperial history and the preface immediately came out to picket and impeach, which suppressed the private discussions of the courtiers.

And he didn't finish it, and then he calculated an account:

"Based on the gold and silver paid by the four prefectures of Susongchang Town last year, the total amount is more than 360,000 taels, and according to the ratio of four to one, then the converted tax grain should be more than 1,460,000 stones, and the total amount of tax and grain allocated to these four prefectures, including the rent of the official land, is 4 million stones. In this way, gold and silver account for more than 30% and less than 40%. ”

"But the total land endowment of my dynasty is about 29.5 million stones, of which 4 million stones of gold and silver are grain, which only accounts for more than one percent of the total tax, although the amount of taxes distributed by these four governments seems to be a lot, but because of the low discount rate of gold and silver, the actual payment is greatly reduced because of this low discount rate, and as for the collection of additional consumption, the four governments have paid more than they should bear."

However, in the total field endowment of 29.5 million stones, of which about 13.5 million stone of tax grain was transported to the border town guards, Jingshi, Liudu, and stored in Linqing and Dezhou. Moreover, many of them are official land, and the land rent is also included. ”

"Su Song, Changzhen, Jia, these five prefectures are rich, especially the silk spinning industry is developed, and the imperial court has always hoped that these five prefectures can bear some more taxes to relieve the pressure on other places. But why hasn't anyone ever counted this big account? Of course, it's not that no one has counted it, but it's just that it's all counted, and I'm afraid it's all counted on the people. Therefore, the problem of endowment should not only see that the people are in arrears of taxes and grain, but also why the people have not enjoyed the sufficient benefits brought by the low discount rate? ”

This is a question that hits the soul! Wu Yan, who was standing next to Emperor Yongming, listened to his remarks and thought so in his heart.

Then I suddenly remembered that when I talked to the county magistrate Siwei about leasing the county school field in Liuhe last year, he and the master had expressions that wanted to speak and stopped.

Now Wu Yan suddenly realized, it seems that he has taken many things for granted in the future thinking and thinking about many things at the moment! If it weren't for the price of renting the Lianshan Racecourse to their satisfaction, I'm afraid they wouldn't have rented the school to themselves at that time.

At this time, she was still thinking divergently, and someone in the room asked out loud: "Then please tell me more about the matter, since you think that this silver discount rate is too arbitrary, then how should it be determined?" How much is not arbitrary? ”

Wu Yan followed the prestige, it was the governor Su Song and the household servant Su Xirui of Zhejiang, and his face did not look good.

Originally, the governors returned to Beijing in August every year to discuss matters with the courtiers, which was a rule, but now they returned to Beijing in April for the sake of land transportation, and it can be seen that Emperor Yongming had already made arrangements.

Ma Shizhang didn't answer directly, he pondered for a moment before saying to the emperor: "Your Majesty, the minister just thinks that the discount rate should follow the price of grain, and there is no specific value. ”

Su Xirui couldn't help but sneer when he heard this: "Since Master Ma can't give a specific value, then how can you assume that the discount rate in the past is random and blind?" ”

Ma Shizhang listened to his indignant words, and couldn't help but sigh, this is unfair?

At this time, Gu Dehai, the head of the household department in the train, stood up and said to the emperor: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that he can discount silver at the rate of eight coins per stone." ”

Eight dollars for the rate? Emperor Yongming thought for a long time, and didn't understand what rules he said about the eight coins?

Is this your thoughtful statement?

The emperor was about to ask Gu Dehai where the eight money rate started, and someone from the rank of Cao stood up and asked Gu Dehai.

"Gu Shangshu is really good to calculate, the summer tax is seven dollars per stone, the autumn grain is eight dollars per stone, and now the gold and silver are eight dollars as the rate, but the Lu rice is seven dollars per stone, which is the rest of the number, in order to make up for it...... When will the depreciation of silver also rise? ”

However, as soon as these words came out, the atmosphere immediately changed completely, and the early dynasty, which was already seriously overtimed, made everyone impatient, but at this moment, it seemed that everyone pricked up their ears and wanted to hear how Gu Dehai answered.

This battle is inexplicable and funny!

Wu Yan wants to laugh a little, this topic is really level! At the same time, I secretly applauded in my heart, this question is so critical, I also want to know!

Although her own income is Jinyi Weifa, but Jinyiwei's money and food also come from the household department, even if the female official's income is meager, but this is after all the remuneration she gets for her labor, and she still has to work three jobs to have such an income, which is a sin to think about it. If there is a slight deduction on the exchange rate, then ......

Hey, I can only endure it.

Even after the whip law, the monetization rate of the central fiscal revenue of the entire Ming Dynasty was only a little more than 40%, but the monetization rate of fiscal expenditure was close to half. Of course, this ratio does not include the Changying Treasury and the Jieshen Treasury, as well as the Guanglu Temple's conscription and depreciation of silver.

Seeing that the atmosphere of the entire early dynasty was about to change, Emperor Yongming spoke out at this time, intending to stop what Gu Dehai was going to say next.

"Alright, I'm tired...... I'm here today...... It's all back......"

It was originally a very serious early dynasty, but at the end, the emperor said, "It's all gone", which made people cry and laugh. It turned out that when the issue of Yulu was mentioned, even the emperor retreated!

Of course, the problems that have not been resolved in the early days will naturally continue to be discussed after they come down, and this 'discussion' is actually a bit of a 'vassal state' negotiation.

The governors who are currently in Beijing, such as the governors of Shandong, Zhejiang, and Nangi, have to fight for the discount rate of gold and silver. The governors of the northwest and border towns, such as the governors of the nine borders, the governors of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, as well as the governors of Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi, have not yet arrived in Beijing, and only the governors of Shuntian are there.

Therefore, it remains to be confirmed what kind of attitude the governor of Wucao Province upheld. However, only one thing is clear to everyone, even if the central government is not considered, there is competition between local governments, after all, the interests of each other are different.

Land transportation and water transportation are not zero-sum games, the problem is only to balance all parties, which has to be discussed by everyone......

————————————

The next day there was no morning pilgrimage, a day of pause,

Wu Yan thought to himself, this can't be that His Majesty didn't want to raise the issue of Yulu and deliberately avoided it, right? Well, even if the emperor is capricious, the minister really can't, then the emperor doesn't want to go to court, except for a few crooked words in the imperial history, no one else can control it.

She had already done everything she had to do, and finally waited for the emperor to come to the study to work. This time, she 'repeated the old tricks', but Li Dongyan did not 'cooperate' with her, and only looked at her coldly.

It's just right that you ignore me! Wu Yan thought so in his heart, then picked up the account book and handed it to the table of Emperor Yongming, and said: "Your Majesty, the account book of Dongyu Treasury that you asked the minister to sort out has basically been completed, please take a look." ”

Emperor Yongming picked up the ledger this time, and opened it casually and looked at a few pages first, and saw that most of the pages were marked with a checkered box, and the values were written in the box, and there was rarely a description of the whole text, and even if there was, it was a simple sentence or two. However, the ledger marked out in this way is clear at a glance, and the classification is clear, so you can quickly find the information you want.

Emperor Yongming is still very satisfied, because he has seen Wu Yan's accounts, and has always been impressed, although it is different from the current way of bookkeeping, but it is indeed very convenient to check the accounts, and a little explanation can also be understood.

Naturally, the emperor did not know that Wu Yan used the modern double-entry accounting method, which was different from the four-column accounting method commonly used today, as well as the Longmen accounting method popular among private trading houses. Although the principle is similar, the form is more concise and easy to use.

Besides, what is reflected in the ledger is actually the emperor's personal income. Aside from the gold and silver, the actual income is very miscellaneous, there are physical goods and silver, which can be roughly divided into several parts, one is the land income, including the silver of the Huangzhuang and the palace.

There are more than 30 royal estates in Gyeonggi, with a land area of nearly 40,000 hectares, but this part of the income will not go to the female treasury. And the three major palaces, Qianqing Palace, Cining Palace and Kunning Palace, each have their own palaces, adding up to more than 10,000 hectares.

The three palaces are less than 60,000 taels of silver, and the average is 20,000 taels for one palace.

What are the benefits?