Chapter 67 The total number of treasure money

Tie Xuan nodded and said: "The treasure money system was determined in the seventh year of Hongwu, but in fact, at the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, this policy has been implemented, as for the number of treasure money before the seventh year of Hongwu, it is no longer possible to test, at the beginning of the founding of the country, everything is complicated, and there is no rule in many things." One thing is certain, though. That is, after seven years of Hongwu, all the old banknotes were replaced by new ones. How much is this new banknote? I estimate it at more than 10 million ingots. In addition, there is one more thing that needs to be considered, and that is the Hu Weiyong case. ”

"Maybe everyone ignores one point, Hu Weiyong's case involves treasure money. The biggest crime was that he had more than one million ingots of self-printed treasure money. ”

Although Tie believes that the court is honest and honest. But this part should also be noted. It's not just this number to note. Before and after the Hu Weiyong case, the number of Daming treasure banknotes was almost empty. In many places, it is not reconciled. I don't know if I dare to make the account. ”

"But there is one thing that can be calculated, and that is the production capacity of treasure money. Since the seventh year of Hongwu, the treasure banknotes have been made by the treasure banknote lifting superintendent. The annual output is fixed, with a maximum of more than seven million ingots produced a year. From the seventh year of Hongwu to the eighteenth year of Hongwu, the annual production quantity ranged from five million to seven million ingots. Take the middle number, which is about 66 million ingots. ”

"However, the expenditure of treasure money is not so even."

"In order to recover the treasure money, the imperial court can collect the treasure money every year, but it also needs seven dollars and three dollars. In the fourteenth year of Hongwu, only about 220,000 yuan of treasure money was recovered. Since then, it has increased year by year, but the most years have only reached about 4 million. ”

"And the fixed expenses of the imperial court to issue banknotes, there are more than 1.6 million ingots every year. This is not much, but it is just a soldier and a court official, and everyone must have received it. ”

Speaking of which, there was a bitterness below.

It was all low in the Ming Dynasty, but in fact, Zhu Yuanzhang was not low. It can only be said that it is not high. The real low is the depreciation of the treasure banknote, which has fallen so much from the beginning to the present. The already low income is naturally unable to make ends meet.

When He Xi saw this, he understood one thing more and more. The matter of treasure money cannot be solved without solving it. Not just commercial, but also political, but also military.

Solving the problem of treasure money is the idea of many people, but it is also a problem that is difficult for everyone to face.

Because the number is too large.

Sixty-six million ingots, that's still estimated. Not to mention that there are many that are not counted in the statistics. It's okay to say 70 million ingots. 70 million ingots are not equal to 70 million yuan, ingots refer to silver ingots, and a few taels of silver are different. However, here it is to take five taels, and one ingot of treasure banknotes is equal to five treasure banknotes.

That is, 350 million yuan, and the total circulation of Ming copper coins, silver, and gold is estimated to be less than half of this amount.

But even so, in terms of the depreciation of the treasure banknote, it is already calculated.

Because there is a certain lag in currency depreciation. I really want to say that before the fourteenth year of Hongwu, the depreciation of treasure banknotes was not too strong. On the contrary, after 14 years of Hongwu, even if Zhu Yuanzhang used a lot of means, the depreciation of the treasure banknote was as unstoppable as a landslide and tsunami.

After all, he had printed so much before, and there was financial inertia, so it was difficult for Zhu Yuanzhang to offset the gap of treasure money with other incomes for a while.

It is impossible for the imperial court not to use treasure money.

Financial dependence is not so easy to solve.

And Zhu Yuanzhang from the fourteenth year of Hongwu decided to start on the treasure banknotes, until the eighteenth year of Hongwu to reduce the amount of treasure banknotes, as for the eighteenth year of Hongwu, although the printing of treasure banknotes is still continuing, but the annual production has been very small. Even craftsmen are being dismantled.

Everyone can see Zhu Yuanzhang's intentions.

Even the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang was able to do this was due to He Xi, who opened the sea and increased taxes at sea, filling the hole for the imperial court. This allowed Zhu Yuanzhang to use his spare time to manipulate the treasure banknotes, otherwise Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know the problem of treasure money in history? Why can't it be solved, don't you want to?

It's as if the United States doesn't want to solve its own national debt problem? Don't want to? It's that they simply don't have the financial margin for this.

"The largest of the total expenditures of the treasure money is actually military expenditure." Tie Xuan said: "In the most year, more than 15 million ingots were supported in military spending, and in just a few years, the treasure money fell by I don't know how much. The matter of treasure money is really at a time when it can't be solved without solving it. It's just that the minimum reserve for the adult developed silver ticket. Ten to one, it also costs thirty-five million taels, silver or gold. Subordinate, I really don't know what to do about this thing? ”

He Xi's forehead was slightly sweaty, and this amount did not exceed He Xi's expectations. said: "You forgot to calculate according to market value, not by face value. ”

Tie Hyun said, "In this way, we will probably have enough silver in our hands. But it is only enough to change money, and answer the original question, the problem of treasure money may be solved, but what about the new Beijing City? ”

Yang Shiqi said: "This thing must be done slowly. First of all, the first point, that is, all the treasure banknotes already owned by the imperial court will be invalid and will no longer be issued. In the future, the court will replace the following with silver tickets, which cannot be discounted in face value. ”

Tie Xuan said: "One million six hundred and sixty thousand ingots, eight million three hundred thousand taels of silver tickets per year." Moreover, no matter what adults do, the issuance of silver tickets will inevitably exceed 100 million taels, and how to maintain the value of silver tickets without depreciation is also a big problem. Daming can no longer afford the second treasure money problem. ”

"I'm afraid that if you do it again, the people of Daming will never trust any banknotes again."

He Xi had to admit that Tie Xuan was right, the legal tender of the Ming Dynasty was a treasure banknote, but the silver taels used below, in essence, silver was just a precious metal, not legal tender of the imperial court at all, but so what? In the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was very inconvenient to circulate silver taels, and there were no silver coins.

This is the backlash that follows the repeated failures of the paper money policy. Paper money has completely lost the trust of the people.

Even to the point that whoever engages in paper money is a traitor who brings disaster to the country and the people.

There is no mistake at all.

In the last few years of Chongzhen, Chongzhen thought about printing paper money, but all the officials of the court opposed it, so he had to give up. However, when it comes to Chongzhen's original intention, it is probably just a legitimate plunder.

If paper money is not solved, the Ming Dynasty wants to develop capitalism, and there is a natural problem, that is, a shortage of money.

The history of the Song Dynasty can be illustrated.

The Song Dynasty had such and such problems, but commerce was very developed, but the developed economic development did not bring benefits, but caused a shortage of money, that is, because the development of productive forces exceeded the development of monetary aggregates.

As a result, the already scarce currency will become more and more valuable.

In this way, why should we develop productive forces, just hide the money, and it will automatically appreciate. Why bother to work?

Not to mention capital, even money has become scarce. The advanced commodity economy is simply not sustainable. This is also the reason why paper money was born in the Song Dynasty. The problem is that there is a practical need to play paper money in the Song Dynasty, and the Song people play well, especially in the Southern Song Dynasty, a total of more than a dozen paper money, except for the final collapse, they are all maintained well.

The reason why the paper money of the Southern Song Dynasty collapsed was entirely because the financial pressure brought about by the military pressure was too great. It has reached the point where the small court of the Southern Song Dynasty cannot solve it. After all, the battle was fought to the end, and the two Guangzhou, the two lakes, and the two Huai were all battlefields. It is only the Jiangnan area that can really provide support, and it is strange that the Southern Song Dynasty court has not collapsed.

In the end, financial means cannot be created out of nothing.

But the Jin Yuan did not have such delicate techniques, especially the Yuan Dynasty, which was purely used to collect the people's wealth.

The industrial revolution, which did not take place in China, has its own answer in various fields, and some people think that the industrial revolution itself is nothing more than an accident from the point of view of probability. From a financial point of view, the fact that paper money cannot be circulated in China is an important reason.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Jiangnan was very prosperous, and the most important reason was the continuous inflow of silver. But the question is, the same precious metals continued to flow in, and the Spanish Empire collapsed instead?