"Your Majesty!"

"The problem of insufficient silver dollars in the market is indeed getting worse!"

"First, the inflow of silver from outside is not enough to meet the needs of this dynasty, so although the skill of minting silver dollars is becoming more and more sophisticated and the scale of minting is also increasing, the lack of domestic silver itself will still make the production of silver dollars limited;"

"The second is that Haoyou is more willing to hoard silver dollars and not spend them because the silver dollar is becoming more and more valuable, so that the silver dollar will flow into the market less and less."

"And because of the shortage of silver dollars, the price of grain is not high, and the people who work in the countryside are seriously abandoned, and are unwilling to cultivate in large quantities, especially in places where a whip is introduced, because the income from farming is not enough to pay taxes, so they do not want to farm, but simply abandon the land and go to work in the towns;"

"Even if some places do not implement a whip, because they can't make much money from growing grain, they are only willing to grow enough food for life, and are unwilling to plow more;"

"As a result, although the price of grain is not high, the phenomenon of food shortage is getting worse and worse, and many people have become hungry because of this, as was the case with the great hunger in Guangxi and Shaanxi and Shanxi last year."

"Other than that."

"In the city, the shortage of silver dollars also caused many commercial goods to be sold far away, so it was not possible to solve the problem of making a living for the unemployed vagrants in large quantities."

"Nowadays, the problem of insufficient silver dollars is becoming more and more serious, the trade routes are becoming more and more blocked, and many workshops that were originally still some scale have closed their doors because of the reduction of buyers, and the dismissal of the closed doors has led to a surge in unemployed vagrants, according to Ying Tianfu Daily, the phenomenon of thieves in Nandu is more serious than in previous years."

Shen Shixing talked to Zhu Yijun about the shortage of silver dollars in front of the emperor.

After hearing this, Zhu Yijun nodded: "Didn't I ask your political hall to discuss how to solve this matter, but what strategy did you come up with?" ”

At this time, Shen Shixing said: "Back to Your Majesty, there is a strategy. ”

"Come on."

Zhu Yijun said.

Shen Shixing said: "Please let Your Majesty let Zhang Ge play." ”

Zhu Yijun bowed his head: "Then please ask Zhang Qing to speak." ”

Zhang Xueyan, who was in charge of internal affairs, got up and said: "Back to Your Majesty, there are five ways for the ministers to discuss:

One is to open a mine to extract silver, and if there are few silver mines in the Guan, go outside to look for it;

The second is to reduce taxes, so that more silver dollars can remain in the people, so that more can be circulated, especially for customs goods, so that they can exchange more silver back;

The third is to develop water conservancy and transportation projects, and by recruiting more people to work, the silver stored in the imperial court will be spent, so that it can be circulated among the people, after all, there is a shortage of silver dollars on the market, and a very important reason is that many silver dollars are stored in Taicang after being collected in the form of taxes;

Fourth, by compensating the orphans of fallen soldiers and helping widows, widows and lonely, to ensure that the disadvantaged will not starve to death due to lack of food due to insufficient silver dollars;

Fifth, it is necessary to crack down on profiteers who maliciously collect silver dollars with heavy money and profits, and on the grounds of disrupting the money laws of the imperial court, they will confiscate all their silver dollars from profiteers who dare to directly collect silver dollars at high prices. ”

"Very good."

"Mining and extracting silver, this is more than sending people to the outside to investigate; Tax cuts can also be reduced; ”

"It is also a way to engage in infrastructure such as water conservancy, but since it is to increase the amount of silver dollars on the market, it cannot simply be a cash for work, but a large-scale infrastructure construction so that more people can have more silver dollars in a short period of time, and more silver dollars can be circulated; As for increasing relief for the disadvantaged, it is also appropriate to give food directly to almshouses, nurseries, etc., so as to prevent officials from embezzling their welfare. ”

Zhu Yijun made his own instructions on this.

"Yes."

Regarding the problem of insufficient silver dollar circulation in the market, Zhu Yijun's ruling ministers have actually been committed to solving this problem.

That's why.

Before that, the cabinet asked the household department to change this spring's rice to its true color, that is, to distribute rice, so that more of the silver dollars saved could be distributed to the people in the form of infrastructure construction and welfare charity.

Anyway, behind the bureaucracy are the landlord class, and there is no shortage of silver dollars, let alone food.

A few days after Zhu Yijun agreed to their five solutions to deflation, the cabinet formally submitted a request to the government to carry out large-scale dredging of the world's major rivers with 5 million taels of silver dollars, and to build embankments on the above-ground rivers in Henan to prevent the destruction of large areas of farmland and the displacement of a large number of people after floods in Henan in the future. At the same time, a one-time supplementary pension of 20 taels of silver dollars will be issued to the orphans and widows of the fallen soldiers.

However, Zhu Yijun's holy decree gave Miao Chaoyang the opposition to the increase of welfare for the orphans and widows of the laid-in nursing homes, nurseries, and fallen soldiers, saying that this would aggravate the corruption of low-level officials, not to mention, but also aggravate the laziness of the beneficiaries, making them even more unable to stand on their own feet, and increase the financial burden of the imperial court.

"I have given a lot of money to my ministers and workers, how can I not say that it will exacerbate the degree of laziness?"

"I see that this Miao Chaoyang is simply evil!"

"And the problem of insufficient silver dollars, he has never mentioned it in the matter as a household department, I see that he is very lazy, in this case, it is better to let him be diligent first, and transfer him to Daning to serve as a miscellaneous officer, so as to punish him for the crime of slandering my people."

After Zhu Yijun received Miao Chaoyang's recital, he directly ordered him to be dealt with strictly.

Zhu Yijun couldn't accept Miao Chaoyang's behavior of not wanting his country's disadvantaged people to live better, so he didn't be too polite to him.

After Miao Chaoyang received the holy decree, his whole person instantly became bad, and he couldn't help but slander: "Of course, I am not diligent, but there is no need for the saint to be so strict!" ”

Miao Chaoyang slandered his belly, but he still had to obediently wait for the appointment of the ministry and then went to Daning to take up his post.

During the period when Miao Chaoyang went to Daning, the problem of money shortage was getting worse and worse.

Because Gu Xiancheng and other Haoyou deliberately speculated the price of silver dollars in secret, such as deliberately using various antiques and jade, etc., and even exchanging land for silver dollars.

The circulation of silver dollars in the market is still decreasing.

In addition, the emperor only ordered to carry out infrastructure construction and increase welfare subsidies, so the effect of the imperial court's regulation has not yet appeared, and the speculation of the wealthy right has already begun.

Therefore, in June of the fifteenth year of Wanli, in the hot summer, a large number of factories began to close down in the Jingshi area due to the reduction of large orders.

Meantime.

A large number of non-governmental grain merchants also stopped buying grain into Beijing because the silver dollar was too scarce and the grain price was too low, and they also began to change to the silver dollar to wait for its appreciation, after all, grain is becoming less and less valuable than the silver dollar, and the purchasing power of the silver dollar has been increasing rapidly.

As a result, there were many hungry people who had no silver and no food in Jingshi City.

And on the sixth day of the sixth month of June, many scholars began to organize many hungry people to come to the Daming Gate, knelt down, and shouted: "Please release grain from the court, we want to eat!" ”

"Please let the court release grain, we want to eat!"

"Please let the court release grain, we want to eat!"

……

The two brothers Gu Xiancheng and Gu Yuncheng, who had entered Beijing, also came to Daming Gate on this day to watch this scene, and laughed proudly.

Gu Yuncheng first asked Gu Xiancheng: "Brother, did you say that the imperial court will release grain?" ”

"Definitely! Wouldn't it be contrary to the way of benevolence? ”

"It's just that the amount of food coming into Beijing now must be limited, and I don't know how long these hungry people can eat?"

"Shenwu County should think about this."

Gu Xiancheng said with a smile at this time.

Shen Shixing and his cabinet were indeed prepared, and immediately began to send pre-arranged officials with food and paperwork after the appearance of hungry people, not only to distribute food to these hungry people, but also to recruit them on the spot to participate in the construction of infrastructure, and the wages were not low, the lowest was as high as two taels of silver dollars a month.

These hungry people were very happy, and the resentment caused by unemployment was swept away, and they kowtowed and shouted Long live the emperor.

"Long live the emperor!"

"Long live the emperor!"

"Long live the emperor!"

……

Gu Xiancheng lowered his face when he heard this voice, and couldn't help but say to Gu Yuncheng: "Shenwu County is wantonly using the silver dollars of state funds to fool the Son of Heaven!" ”

"That's right!"

"To pay such a high wage to the hungry is really a sin!"

"I really don't know how long the silver dollar of the national treasury will be abused by the remnants of the Zhang Party, but I am afraid that when the public is in the Ying Dynasty in the future, the court will have no money, and when the time comes, it will really have the idea of playing the internal money."

Gu Yuncheng also said at this time.

Gu Xiancheng suddenly smiled and said, "I also thought of a countermeasure!" ”

Saying that, Gu Xiancheng said to Gu Yuncheng: "Go and meet a few friends in Jingkedao for my brother, let them come out and speak, and don't let the national funds be indiscriminately distributed by the cabinet!" ”

(End of chapter)