At this time, Jin Zhong, the right attendant of the Ministry of Industry in the "Two Golds", asked out loud: "What does the national teacher think that if the currency system is modified, what impact will it have on the Ming Dynasty?" ”

Although Zhu Di and Zhu Gaochi temporarily retreated into the background in the name of resting from illness and thinking behind closed doors respectively, their shadows were everywhere at the meeting.

Jin Zhong asked for the emperor.

They can not care about agriculture and industry, but they must care about money, especially bright money.

Therefore, they will not let Jiang Xinghuo be vague about many key questions, but will ask them what they don't understand.

Although Jin Zhong is just the right attendant of the Ministry of Works, among the people present, his official position is not the highest level, but he is a close confidant of the emperor and the second strategist of the Yan Army, the kind that goes to the battlefield with Zhu Di to give advice, and is very trusted by Zhu Di. Moreover, Huang Fu, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, is now with Chen Qia, the secretary of the Dali Temple, and is still stranded in the Jiaozhi Political Envoy Division, and it is estimated that he will be able to come back in the New Year, and the Ministry of Industry is not in fact controlled by Zhu Gaochi's descendant, Chen Shou, the left attendant, but the right attendant Jin Zhong.

The Ministry of Industry is also a department that cooperates more with Jiang Xinghuo, so Jiang Xinghuo had to answer patiently.

"Once the currency reform is initiated, it will cause short-term price deflation and economic recession."

The words inflation and deflation are not unfamiliar to the officials present.

Because in the rotation training class of Daming Administration School, these basic economic concepts have been taught, and the content of the rotation training class mainly includes Xunzi's Shengwang thought, as well as the concept of the nation-state and so on. However, there are also basic lectures on public administration and economics.

Jiang Xinghuo has trained the teachers of these administrative schools well, although they are not as powerful as Jiang Xinghuo, but at least they teach according to the textbooks, there is no problem.

As for how much these civil officials of the Ming Dynasty who came to the rotation training can listen to, and how much learning effect there is, it varies from person to person.

But their understanding of economics is estimated to be limited to some basic concepts, and as for something a little more flexible, it is difficult to work.

"Why?" Jin Zhong asked again.

Jiang Xinghuo chuckled lightly and continued to patiently explain: "Monetary reform requires that the actual value of the treasure banknote should be restored to at least about half of the value of the paper banknote, which is far from enough, even if it is by reducing the amount of treasure banknotes, issuing treasury bonds, paying salt in banknotes, and increasing the savings function of the 'bank-bank' system in the future to form a reservoir, I am afraid that it will take two to three years to recover the currency by these methods at the earliest, before the recovery of the value of the treasure banknote currency can be completed." ”

Seeing that everyone didn't react, Jiang Xinghuo simply broke it.

"But at the same time, with the development of the economy, the supply of copper coins in the Ming Dynasty is insufficient, and the demand for treasure banknotes will definitely increase, in addition to the internal currency demand, before the implementation of the dual-track system of domestic and foreign currencies, the vigorous development of overseas trade will also increase the demand for treasure money, because treasure banknotes are equivalent to playing the role of 'international currency'."

There is no problem with the comprehension ability of the senior officials present, Jiang Xinghuo made both ends of supply and demand clear, and after a little thought, he suddenly came back to his senses, but there are still many people who do not understand it thoroughly.

At this time, Zheng Ci, the secretary of the Criminal Department, personally asked: "Can the value of the currency not be restored to half?" In this way, there will be enough treasure money in circulation in the market at that time, and the economic development will not stagnate. ”

Jiang Xinghuo shook his head and said, "The better the currency value recovers, the less resistance there is to changing banknotes." ”

"And what if you don't exchange money?"

"If you don't exchange money, with the expansion of the scale of overseas trade of the Ming Dynasty, if it expands to the extreme west, and even the land that the Mongols have not arrived and conquered by land, then the gold, silver, copper and other precious metals that are very lacking for the Ming Dynasty will become extremely surplus in the future, which in turn will impact the value of the treasure banknotes. Precious metals naturally have monetary attributes, this is artificially difficult to change, take precautions, now the best countermeasure is to carry out the treasure banknote silverization in advance, otherwise once the circulation range and circulation of the Ming treasure banknote is getting bigger and bigger over time, then the difficulty of changing the banknote in the future, it will not be the same, when the time will not only shake the basic financial structure of the Ming Dynasty, resulting in the difficulty of increasing several times, or even more than ten times, you think, the long pain is not as good as the short pain, or has been enduring the pain? ”

Hearing Jiang Xinghuo's words, the cabinet was suddenly silent.

It is no secret to the high-ranking officials of the empire that there are mountains of gold and silver in Japan.

And listening to the national teacher, in addition to Japan, I am afraid that there are more places in the far west.

Gold, silver and copper, these things, as long as a large number of appear and enter the trade system, it will definitely become the currency impact inherent in the treasure money system, this is no doubt about the thing, after all, are the world's recognized hard currency, and the treasure banknote is to put it bluntly is the paper that carries the credit of the Ming Dynasty, for an indigenous tribe, the choice of real money or a piece of paper in front of them, is simply something that does not have to be thought about.

So from this point of view, the monetary system is really early to change.

Seeing that everyone had no objections, Jiang Xinghuo continued.

"Trade."

"Domestic trade, to resume domestic trade as the main body, cultivate a complete domestic commodity sales and flow system, open up the establishment of the overall commodity market within the Ming Dynasty, speed up the construction of canals, official roads including the infrastructure system, and moderately advance the establishment of 'point-to-point business routes' between the major economically developed cities, speed up the elimination of the remaining bandits in the areas that are difficult to come to the Ming Dynasty, and improve the ability to ensure road safety."

This time, it was the turn of Xu Siwen, the former deputy envoy of Beiping and the left attendant of the current Ministry of Officials, to ask, as Zhu Gaochi's descendant, he was very interested in many of Jiang Xinghuo's actions, especially those that had not yet been carried out.

"What does peer-to-peer business mean?"

Jiang Xinghuo glanced at the people present lightly, and said slowly: "Everyone knows that the domestic trade of the Ming Dynasty is extremely underdeveloped, and the most important obstacle is road traffic. There are two aspects of road traffic, one is the local remnant banditry, and the other is the de facto repeated collection of commercial taxes, the so-called 'point-to-point business routes', that is, the first is to open up a safe and will not be repeated between the cities with a highly developed economy and real trade needs, and the tax is only collected twice to recover the cost of road construction and maintenance of safety. ”

In fact, now the domestic trade system of the Ming Dynasty has been completely destroyed for various reasons, from the root cause, it is because the Battle of Jingyan is a civil war with a total strength of millions of people before and after, which directly led to a large number of stragglers who incarnated as mountain bandits and road tyrants on the spot after fleeing.

The lack of road safety, coupled with the high prices of raw materials and taxes, has created a large backlog of goods, which in turn has led to a very poor liquidity in the domestic market.

If you want to engage in domestic trade, you must build roads, build warehouses at certain intervals, and clear out bandits along the way, and have soldiers patrol along the way to ensure safety, otherwise merchants will not dare to go on the road.

And road construction needs money, even if the household has money now, this kind of large-scale infrastructure construction, it is difficult to develop too much at once, can only pick up the traditional sense of important business routes, priority establishment, it is equivalent to opening up a few major arteries first, the remaining blood vessels are also very important, but can only wait for the ability to talk about it.

For more than a year, Zhu Di has been busy sitting on the throne to eliminate the remnants of Jianwen and using troops against Annan, and he has not had time to devote his energy to eliminating banditry for the time being.

Now that the rule in the South is basically stable, the gentry have been suppressed, and the economy has recovered, they are able to carry out such a less intense but large-scale military campaign.

"But." An official stopped talking.

Jiang Xinghuo saw that it was the former Beiping Political Secretary Zuo Senator, Zhu Gaochi's descendant, and now Sun Yu, the left servant of the household department.

This Sun Yu can be said to be a rare figure under Zhu Gaochi who understands economics and finance, and he is a nail inserted into the household, in the high position of Zuo Shilang, he may not be obvious in ordinary times, but once it comes to a critical moment, he can restrain Xia Yuanji at any time.

"If you have any concerns, just say it!"

It's not that no one wants to move Lao Zhu's national policy of "valuing agriculture and suppressing business", but now that Jiang Xinghuo has completed the gambling contract of 2.1 million taels of silver half a year ahead of schedule, this "valuing agriculture and suppressing business" will sooner or later turn back to the Northern Song Dynasty's "four people".

And if it is gradually settled today, and it is a situation of change, the economy is put in the first place, and nothing is in vain without money.

Since there are not a few children in the soil, I have to focus on commercial taxes.

Sun Yu said: "Nowadays, the dynasty has a lot of expenditures, if you want to build roads between the main cities and send troops to suppress bandits, the money spent is too big to support." ”

Jiang Xinghuo bowed slightly: "There is a saying in this, that is, if you want to get rich, you must first build roads." ”

"Building roads allows goods to circulate, so that the people can use the specialties of different places, and the dynasty can collect more commercial taxes, but in the same way, we also have to bear the expenses of building roads and maintaining law and order along the way. Everything is difficult at the beginning, and we must bear this expenditure, but now the domestic situation in Daming is stable, although the treasury reserves are not rich enough, but there is no need to spread out the road construction stalls on a large scale, and one road at a time. ”

Jiang Xinghuo's face was still calm, but in the depths of his eyes, there was perseverance and expectation.

Some time ago, he did fall into anxiety and self-friction for a while, but soon he came out of it.

Because he has an unbeatable advantage, and that is that time is on his side.

His body is still young enough to be able to struggle for twenty or thirty years, or even forty or fifty years, who knows what will become of Daming in the future? All temporary disadvantages or unsatisfactory intentions, there is no need to worry, you can not be impatient, take your time, do your best, and leave the rest to time.

Not to mention Zhu Di, even if it is Zhu Gaochi, in terms of lifespan alone, Jiang Xinghuo feels that he can easily survive to death.

What's more, in just over a year, he has already achieved so much and progress.

In fact, this annual work report of the president's law change affairs yamen, not to mention that others sounded a little scary, but Jiang Xinghuo read it himself, and at a certain moment, he was a little embarrassed and incredulous.

Unconsciously, when I turned around, I had already walked so far.

And the road ahead is not confused, everything that needs to be done, and the estimated time for completion, have been designed blueprints.

Everything is moving towards a bright future.

Jiang Xinghuo turned the next page of the manuscript and continued to read.

At the same time he twisted his fingers, and as he remembered in his mind, there were not a few pages left.

"In overseas trade, the Ming Dynasty has established free trade relations of equality and reciprocity with Annam, Champong, Japan, Korea, Luzon, Ryukyu and other countries, and has initially established an insurance system for overseas trade commodities to help maritime trade merchants trade with confidence, and has reproduced the scene of the Northern Song Dynasty's 'opening up the sea and a prosperous country';

Here Jiang Xinghuo refers to the trial temple in charge of Jin Youzi, based on the "Yuanfeng City Shipping Regulations" introduced by Song Shenzong Yuanfeng period, the "Yongle City Shipping Regulations" was revised, which stipulates the legal status of the city ship trade and the specific responsibilities of the city ship division in the form of law.

"For foreign missions, the Municipal Shipping Department is in charge of receiving the tributary envoys and their attachés from various countries, and the Cabinet Ministers are appointed to supervise the role of the Municipal Shipping Department in permitting the sea, inspecting the sea, collecting customs duties, etc. In the next phase of overseas trade, the focus will be on promoting the abolition of the 'Relocation Order' and the relocation of coastal residents, as well as the establishment of angel pavilions in countries with which free trade relations have been established. ”

What I want to say here is that although there are only three cities in the Ming Dynasty today, which is far less than the four major cities and nine small cities in the Northern Song Dynasty, there are basically all that should be there. The Northern Song Dynasty is the four major cities of Mizhou City, Liangzhejiang Road City, Fujian Road, Guangnan Road, and Guangnan Road, and there are nine small cities below, but the scale of Mizhou City is not large in Shandong, and the small city is mainly the most prestigious in Quanzhou City, Guangzhou City and Ningbo City, which are collectively called "Sanlu City Division". That is, the three major cities that are now restarted by Daming.

Therefore, although there are not as many as the nine cities of the Northern Song Dynasty, the most important three can be regarded as restarted.

In fact, don't look at the coastline of Huaxia is very long, there are many coastal cities, but if you want to look at the route, there are actually only two.

One route is the Northern Route, that is, the Northeast Asia Route in later generations, which mainly starts from Dengzhou on the Shandong Peninsula in Daming, follows the coastline of the Bohai Sea in a clockwise direction to the Liaodong Peninsula and the Korean Peninsula, and finally arrives at the Japanese archipelago, which is the route of the Unarmed Free Trade Zone of Tomorrow.

If you start from Japan, you can also go south to the Ryukyu Islands, all the way to Luzon Island and even Java Island, this line can be traced back to the roots, in fact, it has been since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Qi is the main beneficiary, in Jiang Xinghuo's previous life is also known as the "Oriental Maritime Silk Road".

And with the passage of time, in fact, after the Tang Dynasty, the main place of trade with Japan was Ningbo, which is why Ningbo Bosi rose. Location is so important.

The second route is the southern route, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the local separatist forces in the south relied on this route to establish the country, which was called "Guangzhou Tonghaiyi Road".

In addition to these two routes, China's foreign trade only has the Silk Road and the Ancient Tea Horse Road on land.

In any case, the two national policies of valuing agriculture and suppressing business and banning the sea will definitely be abolished by the middle of next year, when the gambling contract is officially settled.

By the middle of the second year of Yongle, the national policy will become "all the four people" plus "open the sea and Yuguo".

There were only the last two pages left in his hand, and Jiang Xinghuo's speed slowed down.

"Specialty goods."

"Monopoly commodities are an important part of the Ming economic system, is the cornerstone of the country's tax stability, in today's rapid technology, commodity diversity is highly developed in the background, Daming should not only ensure the inherent monopoly goods, such as salt, tea, iron and other commodities stable sales, but also pay attention to the development of new franchise commodities such as glass, fertilizer. With the emergence of a new round of 'technology explosion', low-phosphorus steel, perfume and other commodities under development will also become an important part of generating income for the national treasury, thereby promoting the growth of the entire Ming economy. ”

An additional sentence to mention here is why the perfume, which is one of the income-generating artifacts of the traverser, was so slowly lit by Jiang Xinghuo.

In fact, in the past, Jiang Xinghuo only knew that there was rouge gouache in ancient times, but he really didn't know if there was a perfume in ancient times, and if so, what the perfume looked like.

But later, as he gradually understood, he roughly understood that there was indeed such a thing, and there was a perfume distillation technology, but it was not a local product, it was introduced to China from the Middle East during the Five Dynasties, and the original variety was called "Gu Ra Shui", that is, a perfume distilled from rose flowers, and this thing can even be eaten. In short, the people of the Song Dynasty have successfully mastered the preparation method of this perfume, and developed a variety of flower dews such as citrus, osmanthus, and jasmine, which are also used to make and incense.

This traditional method of making perfume is mainly based on selecting plants with strong aromas such as roses, jasmine and orange blossom, and then distilling the petals and leaves, that is, throwing them into jars to heat, and then collecting steam and cooling them.

In addition to plant perfumes, the ancients would also engage in animal perfumes, such as the musk deer's secretion "musk", and the sperm whale's secretion "ambergris".

But these things are still two key technical points and one point in time compared to modern perfumes.

The reason why Jiang Xinghuo has not come up with modern perfume for a long time is not because the technical principles of modern perfume are complex, but because of these two pre-technology points and a time point.

A scientific and technological point is high-purity alcohol, because the essence of modern perfume is to use a certain proportion of plant essential oil plus a certain proportion of alcohol and pure water to mix, this ratio is generally less than 30% of plant essential oil, 10% of high-purity alcohol, plus more than 60% of water, if the proportion of plant essential oil is added more, the smell will be strong, and the proportion will be lighter if the proportion is less.

Another point of technology is the glass bottle, because the breath of perfume is easy to volatilize, in order to maintain the quality of perfume, the ancients were stored in ceramic bottles and then placed in a cool and dry place, only when they are used, they are taken out, even then it is easy to disperse the smell, and glass bottles can avoid this problem.

After solving these two technology points, it is the most critical point in time.

That's the need for a cold enough winter.

The principle is also simple, the most critical plant essential oil liquid of perfume needs to be stirred and mixed after distillation for a period of time, so that the impurities in the flavor can fully precipitate, but it will still be turbid, especially the hotter the weather, the more turbid, and the cold is the opposite, so a good perfume, in the ancient workshop did not have enough cooling conditions, must be made when the weather is cold. In addition to precipitation, it is filtered, because the perfume will become translucent or foggy when it touches a lower temperature, and it is even worse in ancient times, if it is not cold enough when filtering, then no matter how you heat it in the future, even if it is heated with coking coal, the perfume is burned and evaporated, this thing will not be clarified, it will always be in a state of turbidity, so the perfume must be filtered in cold conditions.

As for aging, it's a very simple thing, Jiang Xinghuo can't do chemical aging, but physical methods. Well, in fact, it is a literal "physical method", directly asking people to take a stick and keep stirring, and the process is about three months.

Therefore, under the premise that everything is ready, after Jiang Xinghuo's guidance, the workshop will also be able to produce finished perfume products next year.

As for whether it can be recognized as a glass makeup mirror after it is introduced to the market, I don't know.

But if the crossing of the singularity does not deceive people, it is estimated that it can make a lot of money.

Money doesn't mean much to Jiang Xinghuo himself, but it makes a lot of sense for him to change the law.

Listening to Jiang Xinghuo's mouth, it was almost "from one victory to another", and everyone had different expressions.

But although some of them don't want to believe it so quickly, no matter who they are, they also know very well that since Jiang Xinghuo can take these things out, then this so-called "low-phosphorus steel" and "perfume" may really make money.

Jiang Xinghuo finally turned to the last page.

Looking at the thin white paper in front of him, Jiang Xinghuo fell into deep thought.

——Endless scenery at the dangerous peak.

And the road to the treacherous peak is always difficult.

Wang Anshi said that as long as you try your best, you will have no regrets, but if you try your best, you can't climb, and most of them have some regrets.

What is the most precipitous peak for the general direction of the economy?

Taxes, of course!

And what is the peak of the tax peak?

Collect taxes to the grassroots!

Throughout the ages, how many heroes and reformers who intend to reach the top of the mountain, in the face of this big stone, either cowered, or were hit on the head and bled out, or even broken bones, fell to the bottom of the cliff and died without a place to bury.

But even though he knew that this thing was not easy to do, Jiang Xinghuo still chose to do it without hesitation, and now that the conditions are met, he will do it next year.

"Taxes."

These two words came out of Jiang Xinghuo's mouth, like a drum, ringing in everyone's ears.

"Taxation is an important part of Daming's self-hematopoiesis, in the first year after the initial completion of the nationwide apportionment into the mu, the reform of the accounting system and the establishment of the local taxation system will become the main direction of the next tax reform, to promote the Ming tax system to standardization, polarization transformation in the accounting system, the future will be vigorously promoted to' In terms of the local taxation system, in the future, we will establish a separate local taxation system for administrative units at all levels, such as the political envoys, the government, (prefectures), and counties, with the progressive tax on household registration and the notary tax on separate families as the main sources of tax revenue, so as to reduce the financial burden on the central government, change the tax distribution model of the 'big housekeepers' who have no matter how big or small the household departments, and enhance the autonomy and enthusiasm of the localities. ”

The four-legged account, because it is not complicated to learn, has been implemented in various departments of the center.

Mainly due to the matter of the Ministry of Criminal Affairs on the right to purchase paper some time ago, this matter caused a lot of waves, a group of officials of the Criminal Department were implicated, and coupled with the shocking case of the previous two Huai Salt Envoys, so many salt taxes were embezzled, and the consequences were placed in front of everyone, so no one dared to say anything now that it was promoted.

After all, if it is really for this kind of thing, this kind of accounting system to go against the emperor, it is really unnecessary.

Whoever stands up and says that it is easy to be labeled as "is you afraid of being found out".

Therefore, the promotion of the four-legged account is still very easy.

As for the so-called central and local second-level taxation system, this thing has been warmed up for a long time, and the current tax power given to the local government is not large, mainly in the two types of taxes: the progressive tax on household registration and the notary tax on separation.

To put it bluntly, they were all taxes levied on the gentry.

In the eyes of the local government, they also knew that this was a conspiracy to encourage them to fight the local gentry.

But it can't be helped!

In the past, they didn't dare to move the gentry, that was because they needed the help of the local gentry in all aspects, after all, the magistrates were all rogue officials, and without the cooperation of local forces, it was easy to become a bare-bones commander, but now it is different, as long as money is involved, then many things are difficult to say.

Maybe it won't offend people too much, but in any case, the gentry's skin has to be stripped off, and the difference is only a matter of whether or not you can discuss how much to pick.

Of course, if it is only a local tax, it is not enough, because now the tax system of the Ming Dynasty has been said to be full of holes, if you want to return to normal, you must use more powerful means, but if you want to reach out to the township in the short term, this is very difficult, it requires a lot of financial, manpower, material resources, but also a set of strict and thoughtful plans to implement, it is not so easy.

But Jiang Xinghuo is obviously prepared for this, and what he talked about with Zhu Yong before was these things.

He had been preparing for a year since the establishment of the Tax Guard.

Tens of thousands of disabled veterans have been trained.

These veterans can read, count, and have enough patriotic feelings, Jiang Xinghuo thinks that these people will definitely be able to successfully complete the work of collecting taxes, after all, for them, the medals on their bodies are not deceiving.

"At the same time, we will strive to promote the tax pawns to go to the countryside, deeply integrate the tax pawns and taxes, and change the traditional 'imperial power does not go to the countryside' model through the tax pawns rooted in the townships, and promote the real establishment of the local taxation system and the efficient collection of national taxes, and promote the fairness and justice of taxation through the literacy and calculation of accounts by the old pawns."

(End of chapter)