Rule over Ming Dynasty

Chapter 279 The millennium's death, state-owned internal disease (monthly ticket 6)

According to statistics from later generations, the profits of the financial industry account for half of the total profits of all listed companies.

Throughout the feudal history of China in 2000, the financial industry has always firmly occupied a place, and the most important form of expression is lending.

As early as the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, there was the first incident of "emperor's breach of contract" in China, which gave rise to the idiom that is still used today-heavy debts.

In other words, in 256 BC, the state of Qin captured Yangcheng and negative millet in South Korea, and approached the city of King Zhou.Therefore, King Zhou Nan drafted an edict, distributed it to the six countries, and agreed on a time to concentrate troops to attack Qin.Because Zhou Tianzi's treasury was empty at that time, he had to borrow money from wealthy merchants to raise military expenses, promising to repay it with the booty after the Qin Dynasty was destroyed, and to pay interest.

Later, the Qin State sent a large army into the city of King Zhou, and King Nan of Zhou surrendered to Qin, and was driven to the new city south of Yique.

All the creditors rushed to the new city to collect debts from King Nan, and the desperate Zhou Tianzi had to flee to a post house built on a high platform to hide his debts. This high platform is called "debt escape platform" and "debt avoidance platform".

It can be seen that lending has existed since the birth of feudal society, and has even become a means of accumulating money for many people in power.

For example, Meng Changjun Tianwen of Qi State supported more than 3000 diners, and his source of income was mainly to earn interest from lending, while He Kun's wealth was inseparable from the income of the financial industry.

According to the "Book of Later Han Pang Can Biography", in the fourth year of Emperor Liu Huyong's reign of the Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Empire fought against the Qiang people, and the military expenditures increased greatly. Coupled with years of arrears, the official debts owed to private individuals amounted to billions.In the sixth year of Liu Baoyonghe, Emperor Shun of the Han Dynasty, the emperor issued an edict to borrow money from the wealthy people, and the decree for the fake people to have money is one thousand.

As an emperor, he has become a borrower, which shows that lending has already been integrated into the historical torrent of China.

In the Yuan Dynasty, lending became a cancer of the country, and the Yuan court also introduced a measure for this.

In the 13th year of Dading, because of the high interest in private pledges, Jin Shizong Wanyanyong ordered to set up pledge depositories in Zhongdu, Dongping, Zhending, etc. , the monthly interest is one cent, and if you don’t redeem it after 25 months, the pledged items will be sold off the shelves.

It's just that such measures are destined to fail to prevent the development of the private lending industry, and it is the famous Shanxi bank that pushed the financial business to the top.

According to statistics, the Qiao family's bank account alone has a yearly liquidity of 800 to 1000 million taels of silver.Qiao Zhiyong owns no less than 200 ticket offices and shops, and his total assets are more than tens of millions of taels of silver.

When Zhu Yuanzhang seized the world, he was also aware of the dangers of the financial lending business. Therefore, the "Law of the Ming Dynasty" clearly stipulates that the monthly profit of all privately lent money and debts and pawned property shall not exceed three cents. One benefit.

It's just that this law can't stop the development of the financial industry. The names of pawnshops in the Ming Dynasty alone include Jieku, Jiepu, Dianku, Dianpu, Jiedianku, Jiepawnshop, Pawnshop, Zhiku, Zhipu, Yinzipu, etc. There are several, and there are 230 pawnshops in Henan province alone.

The most important source of income for a pawn shop is not actually interest, but the pawn shop can get several times or even ten times the profit if the pawnbroker fails to return the money when it expires.

As for the cash lending of Dangfu and Qiansi, after all, this is an era when the people are governed but not the power. Otherwise, silver cannot become the most important currency in circulation, so it is not restricted by the "Law of the Ming Dynasty" at all.

There is a record in "Dream of the Golden House": New officials get 60% off when they take the Beijing account, six taels count as ten taels, and fifteen profits per month.In less than a year, only 300 taels, even the original [-] taels.

Today, Beijing debts and pawnshops have become the most important source of income for the powerful, and Zhu Ji, Princess Chongqing and Marquis of Huichang are the beneficiaries.

It's just that no one could have imagined that Hongzhi, who had just ascended the throne for a year and a half, swung a stick at the largest interest group in the capital without anyone being prepared.

East of the city, Prince Consort's Mansion.

"Seized? This princess will enter the palace to face the saint!"

East of the city, Xiangchenghou's Mansion

"Why didn't there be any news in advance? Quickly invite the other Hou Ye over to discuss countermeasures!"

City West, Ryanbury House

"Quick...quickly prepare the sedan chair, Benbo will enter the palace immediately, the Queen Mother must be the master!"

North of the city, Yin Mansion.

"The old man has retired for three years, is this going to settle the old score?"

In the north of the city, a certain house.

"Seized? Could it be that the small treasury of the miscellaneous family was known by His Majesty?"

……

The sudden seizure of his financial store by the imperial court shocked the entire elite circle in the capital, and made these people take action immediately.

It's just a few yamen's secret operations, and the commander of the [-]th Battalion personally led people to help seal it up, so that none of the [-] largest financial shops in the capital was spared.

For a moment, the entire capital seemed to be filled with grief, and some people even chose to flee the capital immediately.

In the Hall of Mental Cultivation, a stream of sandalwood rose from the copper furnace.

Zhu Youtang, who was wearing a dragon robe, was sitting in the hall. Although he knew that the dignitaries outside were in a state of panic, he seemed completely indifferent to the commotion outside and was seriously handling the affairs at hand.

I was in a pretty good mood at first, but compared with the troubles of those rich and powerful, I also felt a very headache after seeing some expenses that the imperial court was about to allocate.

Many people think that as long as the court's taxation is well managed, then Daming can create a new prosperous world and become a generation of Mingjun.

It’s just that in the farming society, there are always two very real problems that need to be faced: one is that the income from grain tax and salt tax cannot even solve the normal court expenditure; the other is how to improve the consumption ability of the people.

ZTE and Prosperity have never been enough for literati to write a few poems, but need to build healthy finances and at the same time cut into the consumption power of the people.

Like now, even though I have brought the shuttle weaving technology to this era, I have to face a thorny problem. Many people at the bottom still cannot wear the cotton cloth woven by the shuttle machine.

As for Daming's finances, Zhu Youtang thought he had done well enough last year, but there were only 300 million taels of silver available for free spending.It's just that after most of the silver was allocated to Tianjin Royal Shipyard to produce sea-going ships, the remaining silver taels were running out.

Although the imperial court has an income of 3000 million shi tax and grain a year, although the imperial court is responsible for military salaries, official salaries, vassal vassals and honorable lumets, etc., it also has to be responsible for water conservancy projects and water transportation.

Since the glaciers have been unsealed, more than [-] soldiers of last year's autumn grain are transporting grain northward.

Just to transport 400 million stone grains to the Tongzhou granary every year, the cost for one year alone is close to 200 million taels, which is [-]% of the loss.

As far as Zhu Youtang knows, corruption in the water transportation system is very serious.For example, shipyards that produce tank boats always cut corners, resulting in higher mortality rates for tank soldiers year by year, and even tank boats have to become fast-moving consumer goods.

In addition, 10,000+ Cao soldiers were exploited layer by layer. Not only did they not get the salary they deserved from the Water Transport Yamen, they even had to spend money for water to pass through the sluice.Although they brought souvenirs to the capital to earn some extra money, some water soldiers had to sell the boards of the water boats for their livelihood.

Zhu Youtang saw that the Yamen of the Governor of Cao Bing requested 30 taels for the production of water tankers, and 20 taels of conscripts to maintain the river embankment. In the blink of an eye, a full 50 taels would be allocated from Taicang to the Governor's Mansion of Water Transport.

After Zhou Nai, the governor of water transportation who is also the governor of the river, requested 50 taels for water transportation, the Yellow River also asked for 50 taels like a lion, and a total of 100 million taels needed to be distributed.

Zhu Youtang has never been a stingy person, but seeing that income is like milking a cow, while expenditure is like turning on a faucet, he can't help but secretly feel pain.

It's just that the water transportation of 400 million shi grains has to be repaired. After all, the grain in the north is still not self-sufficient, but it needs the grain from the southeast to supply the capital to meet the daily needs of millions of soldiers and civilians.

As for the Yellow River, there is no room for loss. This is related to the livelihood of the people in Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong.

Although Zhu Youtang felt very painful, but these two matters were related to the food security and water conservancy projects of the soldiers and civilians in the capital and the nine borders, but he had to allocate 100 million taels.

"Your Majesty, all the ministers are here!" Liu Jin came in from the outside, looking respectful and authentic.

In the imperial study room, all the ministers gathered together, but the atmosphere seemed a bit dignified.

No one expected that the emperor would seal up all [-] businesses in the capital. This was probably the biggest crackdown on merchants by the imperial court since Ming Dynasty.

Wan An and Liu Ji looked honest and serious, sitting in the front row with their eyes closed.

Although Li Yu, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, and Jia Jun, Minister of Industry, were anxious, they were more speculating about the emperor's intentions. After all, this time they were simply going to be enemies of the entire elite circle in the capital.

However, judging from the latest news, the emperor only asked various yamen to seal up shops, but did not make any moves to seize money, so he did not know the emperor's true intentions.

Although Li Si, Minister of the Household Department, and Wang Yue, Zuodu Censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, knew some inside information, as the emperor's trusted courtiers, they naturally would not speak up easily.

Chen Zheng, the left servant of the Ministry of Industry, and other officials frequently looked at the door. Since people came to the door one after another, they just wanted to find out what the emperor really thought.

If the emperor really wants to keep an eye on the wealth of these pawnshops, money shops, and money houses, with the emperor now firmly in control of the twelve capital camps, no one can defy the emperor's will.

After all, the emperor who has been on the throne for a year and a half has completely controlled the court, but he can do anything according to his intention.

Today is a sunny day, when a black shadow suddenly appeared at the door, all the officials stood up and saluted Zhu Youtang who came in.

When Zhu Youtang just entered the door, he had already seen the eager expressions of some courtiers, but he knew that the one hundred properties seized might have something to do with these people.

After all, he came from the era of the information explosion, but he knew that the officials present did not have a clean and honest official at all, and even a clever minister like He Kun had already been involved in the lending business.

Zhu Youtang asked everyone to return to their seats, and walked directly to the stairs over there: "Wang Aiqing!"

"The minister is here!" Wang Yue stepped out, looking respectful and authentic.

Li Yu, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, and others looked at Wang Yue, and then turned their heads to look at Zhu Youtang who was going up the stairs in doubt, wondering why the emperor suddenly let the Metropolitan Procuratorate participate in politics.

Zhu Youtang glanced down lightly, and said solemnly: "The Metropolitan Procuratorate is not one of the six ministries, so it is said that he cannot attend this meeting! It's just that Wang Aiqing wants to know the latest policy trends of Ming Dynasty, so that he can monitor all officials, so I He is specially allowed to come and listen!"

Audit?

Li Yu, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, and others looked at Wang Yue who was sitting next to him, and then opened their mouths in a sudden realization.

But I have to admire the wisdom of the emperor. While giving the Metropolitan Procuratorate great power, it also imposed some restrictions on the power of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

Now the six of them are in charge of the direction of the empire, and the Metropolitan Procuratorate, which is in charge of Wang Yue, is watching the six of them, so as to ensure the smooth sailing of Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Youtang turned his attention to Wang Yue, and also seriously warned: "Wang Aiqing, although you are in this meeting, you cannot participate in the discussion in the future!"

"The minister only has ears but not a mouth!" Wang Yue knew that it was a great favor for him to come in, so he assured him earnestly.

Zhu Youtang knew that Wang Yue was a person who understood the rules, so he looked at the officials present again: "I am announcing one thing here! Du Ming has retired and returned to his hometown, and the impeachment of the Du Ming project for corruption can be stopped. Stopped. If there is no proof of impeachment, it is impossible for me to investigate my important ministers, let alone search for family wealth for no reason!" After a pause, he seriously assured: "I know what some of you are worried about. It’s because I’m afraid that I’ll listen to the pretentious impeachment, so I searched my family’s wealth to prove whether I’m corrupt. I won’t do it now, and I won’t do it in the future, so you can rest assured!”

Du Ming, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment, left, like a tree falling and a monkey scattered, and many officials of science and Taoism impeached him one after another.In fact, this kind of impeachment undoubtedly carries a kind of temptation, I am afraid I want to see how I will react.

Zhu Youtang was unwilling to use "human nature is evil" to speculate on these ministers, but Wang Zhi, who was in charge of Xichang back then, told Xianzong: "The only civil servant in the world who is not corrupt is Yang Jizong."

An official who is not corrupt is already the number one upright official in Ming Dynasty. How low has this threshold been lowered?
Zhu Youtang believed that Du Ming probably took some money from the project when he was in charge of the Ministry of Industry, but he ransacked the courtier's home just because of this guess.

Don't say that you can't do this kind of thing, and you can't do it like this.

The most important thing now is to turn Daming into a world textile center. Only in this way can we continuously obtain materials from other countries, thus bringing benefits to the Chinese people.

If you have been focusing on confiscating the family wealth of officials, not to mention the confiscation of Hekun's 1000 million taels of Jiaqing will not bring prosperity to the country, and it will easily cause the officials below to be alienated and unable to do anything.

Zhu Youtang knew that now was not the time to vigorously combat corruption, and relying on the productivity of this agricultural society alone could not support the prosperity he wanted, so the most important thing now was to gather the strength of these courtiers to push the Ming Dynasty forward.

This……

Chen Zheng, the left servant of the Ministry of Industry, and Liu Zhang, the right servant of the Ministry of Industry, exchanged glances silently, and immediately felt relieved.

They knew that the emperor in front of them had always been a man who was consistent with his words and deeds. Now that the emperor would not investigate Du Ming because of the pretentious impeachment, he would not search their family property without evidence in the future.

Like Zhu Ji, the former commander of Jinyiwei, everyone knew that Zhu Ji had fallen out of favor, and Zhu Ji obviously had problems with his economic style, but the emperor did not torture Zhu Ji without evidence before he got the evidence.

A well-mannered emperor undoubtedly reassured them a lot.

Liu Jian, the left servant of the Ministry of Rites, didn't care about such things. After all, he had been staying in the Qingshui yamen, but he looked at Zhu Youtang who sealed up his wife and brother's pawn shop with a bit of resentment.

"I called you here today, the essence is to discuss with all my dear friends how to rectify the financial industry in the capital!" Zhu Youtang stated his intention, and then said to Liu Jin below: "Bring Song Cheng in!"

(End of this chapter)