"Spanish silver can be seen all over Europe." —King Charles II of England.

This sentence is talking about the rampant smuggling in the Americas.

In the first two decades of the 17th century, the amount of silver imported into Spain from the Americas reached more than 200,000 kilograms per year.

By the 30s, it had plummeted to an average of only 140,000 kilograms per year;

By the 50s, only 40,000 kilograms of silver from the Americas were left that flowed into Spain each year.

The "reduction in silver production" in the Americas was initially caused by flooding in Mexico, which caused water accumulation and landslides in silver mines due to continuous rains. Moreover, silver is refined with mercury, and the consumption of mercury resources is excessive, resulting in the inability to smelt silver from the miners.

This situation, in fact, is slowly recovering.

Why does silver production in the Americas continue to decline? Colonial officials, of course, deliberately inflicted results!

A large amount of silver was mined and refined, and it was not reported to the king at all. Instead, it was traded privately and flowed into European countries, which is why Charles II, the yin and yang weird sentence: Spanish silver can be seen all over Europe.

The king of Spain, unaware of the situation, tightened restrictions on the galleon trade to prevent too much silver from flowing into China. In addition, the Japanese shogunate also forbade the daimyo to mine silver, which really caused a silver shortage at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Forbidden City, Imperial Garden.

Song Yingxing, who has retired, took out the first edition of the manuscript of "Economic Knowledge", sipped tea and said: "This year, prices in coastal cities have risen sharply. Tracing back to the source, it is the increased inflow of silver from the Americas and Japan. ”

Zhao Han flipped through the manuscript casually and listened to Song Yingxing continue.

Song Yingxing said: "Li Quan took the fleet to trade in the Americas, so that the Spanish officials on the west coast of the Americas were completely open to smuggling. Not only did they smuggle with Li Quan, but the Spanish officials and navy themselves ignored the king's ban and filled their cabins with goods and silver. The Japanese shogunate was in power, and the silver mines that were banned from mining resumed one after another. All this silver is flowing to the coastal provinces of the Celestial Empire. ”

"It's also a worry to have too much silver." Zhao Hanwan said with a smile.

Song Yingxing also said: "The minister carefully consulted the "Price Sparse" of the past years, taking Jiangsu, Lianghu, and Sichuan as examples. The rise in prices in Jiangsu will affect the two lakes in about two to three years, and Sichuan in about five to six years. In the northwest and southwest regions, the impact is even more sluggish. ”

Zhao Han said: "I can only carry it hard. ”

There is really no way, at this time, Chinese commodities occupy an absolute dominant position in the world, and China is a net inflow of silver. In the new dynasty of Datong, maritime trade became more and more prosperous, and this situation became more obvious, and the continuous rise in prices could not be stopped.

It is the peasants who suffer!

Merchants have rolling profits, businessmen and citizens can raise their wages, and only the peasants, who earn from grain, are the most affected (the increase in the purchase price of grain is far from keeping up with the increase in prices).

Of course, China is large enough to cushion this effect.

European countries are small in size, and this situation is called scary, and a proper noun - price revolution was directly born.

Due to the massive inflow of silver from the Americas, there are still so many commodities produced. In Spain, prices nearly doubled in the first 50 years of the 16th century, and then rose by about 60% in the next 50 years, until silver production declined.

France was the first to be affected, followed by Italy. Ordinary people are already stupid, their income is not increasing, but buying things is getting more and more expensive.

Charles II was fortunate to have returned to China to take the throne at a time that coincided with the peak of the rate of price growth in England. This product has to face not only a financial dilemma, but also skyrocketing prices, who made the "price revolution" in Britain come so slowly? Spain and France have already finished their work.

Song Yingxing continued: "Now, the imperial court has issued gold yuan again, the official has lowered the price of gold and silver, and the merchants have also gone to India to trade. I have heard that those Indian merchants like to pay with gold and silver coins, and gold coins account for a large proportion. In the future, not only will there be a large inflow of silver, but also gold. ”

"What countermeasures does Song Qing have?" Zhao Han asked.

Song Yingxing said: "When collecting land taxes, we must be extra cautious and pay more attention to local grain prices to avoid imposing too heavy a burden on farmers. ”

Since Zhang Juzheng's reforms, the collection of Chinese land endowments has been changed to currency. As for the discount of grain, it varies from place to place, and there is a lot of room for officials to operate, and it has always been chaotic.

The Datong New Dynasty is taxed according to the number and grade of the acreage, and the tax rate also follows the local grain price.

At present, grain prices continue to rise, but farmers often sell grain at a lower price. In most provinces, taxes in kind are no longer collected, and farmers can only pay taxes with money. With the change of the denomination of official and military bills from grain units to monetary units, Datong Bank has also successively reduced the amount of grain it collects, and turned grain transactions more into non-governmental activities. The slightest carelessness will place a heavy burden on the peasants.

In addition to natural disasters, wars and other factors, the outbreak time of the previous major uprisings highly coincided with the violent fluctuations in silver prices. The reason for this is that the collection of agricultural taxes is seriously lagging behind in the change of relative prices, and the peasants can only rebel if they cannot survive.

Zhao Han nodded and said: "We have to let the cabinet communicate with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Households, and the Ministry of Commerce to set a more detailed system to minimize the impact of prices on the land endowment." ”

It can only be alleviated, but not eliminated, even in modern society, the peasants are always the most unlucky group.

Zhao Han doesn't know anything about economics, and although he can understand Song Yingxing's "Economic Knowledge", he can't give more hints. This science can only be explored slowly, supplemented and developed by more scholars.

Zhao Han said: "The book was printed in 5,000 copies, half of which were distributed to various yamen officials, and half to private booksellers for distribution. Officials and civilians alike can write letters to supplement their views and submit them to the Cabinet for study and discussion. In the future, economic issues will be discussed every two months. ”

Zhao Han closed his eyes and thought, and said: "Let the Datong Bank in the coastal provinces raise interest rates, absorb more deposits from businessmen and ordinary people, and reduce the amount of silver in the market." Then take this money to purchase overseas grain and transport it to Hebei for storage as military rations for the conquest of Mobei! ”

Song Yingxing was stunned, and then clapped his hands: "Wonderful, this has to be written into "Economic Knowledge"! ”

In ancient times, money banks really didn't save money and charge storage fees.

At least since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, with the prosperity of the commodity economy, money banks have to pay interest on deposits. There was also a dispute, the leader of the private club, depositing the collective funds into the bank, was suspected of embezzling the interest on the deposit.

With Zhao Han's limited economic knowledge, he can only think of raising interest rates when inflation.

Not to mention the South Seas, with the development of Taiwan and Hainan Island, the grain output of these two places is more than enough, and a large amount of it is trafficked to the mainland provinces every year. Datong Bank raised interest rates, absorbed more deposits, and then lent them to the imperial court, which used them to buy grain overseas as materials for the conquest of Mobei, which was equivalent to solving many problems at once.

The Manchu Dynasty was civil and military, and no one expected that Zhao Han decided to send troops to Mobei, and the direct cause was inflation.

Compared with the reckless Mughal and Bengal emperors, who are also expanding externally, Zhao Han's operation can throw the brothers out of eight streets.

Of course, the silver used by the imperial court to buy grain will definitely flow back to the coastal areas, but at least the buffer time will be extended. And some silver, as military spending, was scattered to Hebei and Monan, and some materials were purchased on the spot, which was also to alleviate the shortage of silver there and stimulate the economic development there.

Perhaps, in the future, the recovery of Xinjiang can also be done in the same way, and by the way, the imperial court's standard silver dollar can be more strongly promoted to the Western Regions.

Even if there is no war, the silver absorbed by interest rate hikes will be used for infrastructure construction such as roads and water conservancy, and by the way, it will also create more jobs. In doing so, it will definitely increase the debts of the imperial court, and I am afraid that the treasury will not be able to fill up all the time.

This is tantamount to changing the financial thinking of the imperial court and developing in another direction. It is completely different from the traditional treasury that always saves money and uses it when doing things, and collects taxes when the treasury is insufficient.

What really gave Zhao Han a headache was that there were no commercial competitors in the world (the late Qing Dynasty could even have a trade surplus). In the next tens of hundreds of years, or even longer, silver will only have a net inflow, and if you are not careful, prices will skyrocket. How to make prices rise steadily is the key, which can only be left to future generations.

Song Yingxing sat in a carriage and was escorted home by the palace guards.

Zhao Han went to Yingmin Hall to work, read the work report of Kuang Hong, the governor of Palembang, and compared the reports of overseas territories such as Luzon, Coconut City, Semarang, Malacca, and Pattani.

After thinking about it for several days, Zhao Han sorted out his future colonial ideas.

It is a place where there are more familiar land, the number of Han people is large, and the terrain is not complicated. For example, Semarang, Palembang and Coconut City can be quickly colonized violently, like Zhang Xianzhong to the end, but when encountering mountains and jungles, they have to slow down.

In places like Siberia and Luzon, the terrain and climate are extremely complex, and the number of Han Chinese is relatively small. In this case, the cost of military expansion is too high, and even if the territory is defeated, there are not enough Han Chinese to occupy it, so it is necessary to deter the natives by force and convert the natives into Han people.

Luzon is easy to do along the coast, and the middle is full of mountains and jungles, Zhang Xianzhong's set can't be played, and he has to be like Zheng Guozhong.

Siberia is cold enough, it is difficult to transport materials, and it is extremely difficult to immigrate.

There are also things like Hamgyong Province and Pyongan Province in North Korea, which are very civilized, intellectuals can also read Chinese characters, and the terrain is not suitable for violent rule. Then give priority to preferential care, give priority to education, and turn them all into Han Chinese.

Zhao Han's thinking became clearer and clearer, and he wrote the "Essentials of the Governor", and all expatriate officials in the future must have a good understanding of this book.

Specific policies are subject to availability.

Confucianism pays attention to moderation, and moderation is not to follow the flow with the mud, which belongs to the ignorant who want to be literate.

The core idea of the golden mean is the unity of heaven and man, and the harmony of heaven, earth and man is emphasized.

The narrow sense of moderation, talking about human cultivation, talking about how to be a gentleman.

The mean in a broad sense, talking about how to do things. To put it bluntly, you must stick to your principles and know what your goals and bottom line are. Then, according to the environment and interpersonal relationships, make the most appropriate choice, according to the time, local conditions, and people's conditions.

Zhao Han's colonial policy is moderation, the core is development, and the rest is decided according to the situation.

(End of chapter)