Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1244 Crazy Finances

"Borrowing new debts, filling old holes, and living without food every year is also a miracle." In the office of Dongfang County, the capital, Zhou Shenwo, the Central Executive Committee, Minister of Finance, and Director of the Precious Metals Administration, picked up a big seal, "Vicious "He stamped towards the end of a document, and then said bitterly: "If it wasn't for the news that a large amount of silver was brought back from the Far East this time to stimulate the market, plus our government's relatively high credit over the years, how could it be so easy? Raised 250 million yuan in the two major markets of Qingdao and West Lake, and it was a ten-year bond?"

Sometimes the Army can do good things!This is what Zhou Shenwo thought in the past two days. Without him, the silver from the Far East just returned to China with the immigration ship. The ship was loaded with a full 100 million taels of silver and gold worth 15 taels. Officials met their immediate needs.The money mainly came from the Battle of Huai'an Mansion in 1658. The wealthy Qingjiangpu was breached by the people on the east bank, and a large number of gentry, wealthy businessmen, and official officials who lived here were looted. The tax bank, the tax bank in Qingjiang Puchao Pass, and the money collected from several nearby counties (Liao Xiaoyao picked up a handful when he retreated) were also swept away. The total amount is extremely scary. —— Ministry of Finance Some people are even wondering whether the Blackwater Pioneering Team and the Southern Theater Command have seized the concealed parts, because they heard that these people withheld more than 20 taels of customs duties that were originally planned to be distributed to the Shun Army, because the Shun Army had no choice Defending the Huai'an Mansion, so there is no need to leave money for them to recruit troops. This once made the relationship between the two armies extremely tense.

15 million taels of Qing treasury flat silver, which is equivalent to 141.83 million East Bank silver dollars, which is a lot of money!The money plus the gold coins and foreign currencies stored in the Army's No. 240 Prison amounted to nearly 300 million yuan.If we include the profits that the Executive Committee has extracted from state-owned large and medium-sized enterprises such as the State Reserve Grain Depot, Nanhai Fishery Company, Ping’an Weaving Factory, Northern Arsenal, and Dong’an Building Materials Company, this amount can increase to nearly [-] million yuan at most. .

However, although large state-owned enterprises are the reservoir of national finances, it is obviously not advisable to draw blood excessively. Therefore, the withdrawal of a few 10 yuan this time is already the limit. These enterprises may not be able to slow down in a few years, so To get through this debt crisis safely, we still have to think of other ways.But no matter what, the more than 100 million yuan in cash sent back from the Far East is of great significance, and it has made great contributions to the country's repayment of foreign debts.

"This year, the principal and interest of due bonds will be repaid with a total of more than 42 yuan. In addition, the Precious Metals Administration will also prepare about 50 yuan in cash to pay for due bills of exchange, treasury bills, and gold exchange notes. In addition, there are payments to Italians. Southwest Railway’s bonuses and subsidies are about 35 yuan (partially paid last year), and the cost of buying out some Italian laborers whose contracts have not yet expired is nearly 10 yuan. These are all prepared before April, and of course they have been included It is included in the financial budget..." Zhou Shenwo picked up a cup of yerba mate tea and said while drinking: "But we still have a huge hole to fill this year, and it is still not included in the financial budget, or other The amount is too large, close to our total fiscal revenue for two years, which will directly lead to the bankruptcy of the government's finances. At 4 million yuan, I did not agree to build this railway at the beginning. Forcing the horse, overdrawing the national strength..."

The tragic Hai Dafu sat in Zhou Shenwo's office again. After seeing his immediate boss pointing fingers at some **** and talking nonsense, he became even more restless on the chair, and dared not say anything. I can't pretend not to hear anything, don't mention how depressed I am.Fortunately, Zhou Shenwo didn't continue to "torture" him, and only heard him say quickly: "Forget it, the army finally has a little conscience, and it's a surprise to get back so much money all at once. Let the Shipu Mint do it as soon as possible." To be minted into silver dollars, to be paid as part of the road purchase when the railroad is completed."

It is said that Japanese people are really "not picky eaters". They accept silver bars and rials from Spain, Ducats and Gulden from the Netherlands, and the "yuan" cast by people on the east coast is even more recent. No rejection——Gein's "Yuan" has not changed in the past 30 years. It has always been 27 grams of silver + 3 grams of copper. Knowing how many times it is better, it has been widely popular in the Black Sea, White Sea (Aegean Sea), Livonia and some Spanish territories in recent years, and Japanese people are naturally willing to accept these currencies.And since the Japanese are willing to accept it, then the people on the east bank are naturally willing to export "yuan" to them. After all, there is a huge amount of seigniorage to collect.

As for the Southwest Railway that is about to be completed, those who have no hope of profit are determined to activate the repurchase clause, which means that people on the east coast will have to pay 1000 million yuan in cash for this railway. And this clause is mandatory. If the people on the east coast do not want to damage the relationship between the two countries and lose their credibility, this money must be paid.

Of course, the money has to be paid, but how to pay is also negotiable.From last year to this year, the Communists have sent several groups of representatives-this year's representatives even came from Italy, representing multiple consortiums involved in the construction of the railway, including the famous St. George Bank/ The trading house - came to negotiate with the people on the east coast, but the details of the payment of the railway payment have not yet been fully agreed.

The part that the two parties have reached agreement so far is limited to the general framework of the payment, that is, people from the East Coast pay a total of 1000 million yuan for road purchases in the form of cash, goods and trade concessions.Among them, the amount of cash has not yet been fully determined, but the general range is between 400 and 500 million yuan; and the method of goods offset is not rejected by the public, but the specific types and quantities of goods will be determined by them. The price was negotiated by both parties, and the two parties also agreed that the total amount should not exceed 300 million yuan; the biggest dispute between the two parties should be the price of the 20-year trade franchise in the New Spain market. A trade concession - which allowed the Japanese to sell goods from the Old World into the New Spanish market, and the East Coast could only provide a portion anyway - was sold for 300 million yuan, but ** **** thinks it is too expensive, and is only willing to pay 200 million yuan for it. This is the focus of the current dispute between the two parties, and it is estimated that several more rounds of negotiations will be needed to reach an agreement.

But no matter what, the Far East sent back such a large amount of money, which suddenly shortened the funding gap of the Ministry of Finance, so that it was originally going to borrow heavily from the Bank of La Plata, the Bank of Sao Paulo, the Bank of Palermo, and the Bank of San Giorgio. Zhou Shenwo's confidence has greatly increased, because this means that the degree of exploitation by the gangsters has been greatly reduced-you know, the annual interest rate requested by those guys is 6.5%, and the East Coast Republic has such a good financial reputation. , this interest rate is really not low-probably only need a loan of 100-200 million yuan to solve the problem.

As for the 4.5 million yuan in cash they raised from the domestic market by issuing bonds (250-year period, annual interest rate [-]), except for part of the support for the army’s road construction and preparation of war supplies, the rest can be gradually put into the domestic market in two or three years. , Produce all kinds of goods needed by *** people to offset the arrears.In this way, the debt crisis caused by the repurchase of the Southwest Railway will probably be greatly alleviated, and everyone in the Ministry of Finance can also breathe a sigh of relief.

However, what they didn't know was that Baron Angel Bravo, who was rushing from Lima to Port Oriente, as the special envoy of the Kingdom of Spain, was coming with an important mission—well, a very expensive one duty of.To put it simply, the Spaniards couldn't bear the pressure, and they probably wanted to marry the eldest princess Maria Theresa to Louis XIV, and this has always been what the French insisted on, otherwise they would fight each other.The muddy army in Spain can't even beat Portugal, let alone the powerful French army. Therefore, even though there are many "dissuasions" from Austria, the East Coast, and the United States, they are still in the French army. After successively conquering Roussillon, Cerdani, Artois, the Principality of Liege and parts of Luxembourg, the Spaniards could no longer hold on, and in principle agreed to the marriage between Princess Teresa and Louis XIV.

As in history, the French proposed a dowry of 50 gold ecu (which also means war reparations), as compensation for the French Bourbon royal family’s abandonment of their claim to the Spanish throne, and the Spaniards had no choice but to agree to this request. After all, this is not too much for the eldest princess to marry, especially considering that Spain did not pay war reparations to France, this clause can be called loose.

However, 50 gold crowns, this is not a small amount, because it is denominated in gold, not Tourliver, whose currency value plummeted because of the war.The 50 gold crowns, equivalent to no less than 1500 million East Coast silver dollars (maybe even close to 1600 million), can be called huge sums of money, much more than the total number of gold and silver bars brought back by the Spaniards from the New World in a year .It is no wonder that the Kingdom of Spain has never been able to pay off the dowry in history, which made the French use this as an excuse to demand the Spanish throne decades later, and then the Spanish succession war that swept across Europe broke out. The amount of money is too large, the Kingdom of Spain is profligate, and the finances are like a big funnel. It has never been able to make up the dowry. It is quite tragic to think about it-but this is all in the future. The thing to worry about is getting through the current financial difficulties, especially when the Joint Chiefs of Staff is about to move and send troops to Brazil.

"Forget it, forget it, at this time, it's meaningless to talk about these old sesame seeds and rotten millet." After drinking tea for a long time, Zhou Shenwo said with no interest: "The bastards in the army are working so hard to build roads in the north. It is said that central government support is not required, but how can we not pay a penny for this matter? At worst, we have to send them to the National Grain Reserve Depot, Dafeng Food Factory, Nanhai Fishery Company, canned food factory and other places. Pay back the bad debts that the state-run meat joint factory owes on credit, otherwise people won’t let people poke their backs and say weird things, it’s really boring.”

"How about this, Director Hai, you will go to Dingjun Mountain this month, and show me how the situation there is, and don't let the army bastards fool you." Zhou Shenwo took it out of the drawer. Zhang Zhang signed a few sums in a hurry, and then handed it to Hai Dafu, saying: "I and you also know how difficult the process of raising 250 million yuan from the domestic bond market this time is. Credibility is doing the endorsement, so it can’t be overdrawn indefinitely. Well, after reading the evaluation report submitted to me below, I initially plan to use 50 yuan of the funds as the preparatory expenses for the war, such as the collection and purchase of materials Expenses, personnel transfer and resettlement costs, railway construction costs (most of the costs have been absorbed by the State Administration of Railways and the Ministry of the Army), etc. This is already the best we can do. The remaining 200 million funds, see It seems like a lot, but once it is put into the war, it may be spent on you in less than a year. Besides, this money cannot be spent indiscriminately, and it has to be paid to domestic enterprises to produce according to the order. To repay part of the railway repurchase fund of the **** people, maybe the money is not enough in the end, and I have to find a way to add part, alas, there are holes everywhere, this home is really not good... "

It is said that since the military action against Brazil was decided, the Ministry of War and the National Railway Administration, which was deeply influenced by it, really spent their efforts. Transporting slaves on the railway construction site—they were really used as slaves, rather than the "gentle" labor labor used in the past. Not only did they not get a penny of wages, but the working hours and work intensity were greatly enhanced, so that a large number of klan Di, Guarani, and Sakarava died on the construction site, and even Polish and Lithuanian indentured slaves died a lot. The only ones who were better off were probably the hired workers from Italy and Russia. Get limited.

It is not that these slaves have not resisted, but the supervisors of the three regiments formed by the former Qing army captives were also ordered to die. Each of them was fully armed and looked at these poor slave workers with wide eyes. Step forward to suppress without mercy to ensure the completion of the construction period.Their actions naturally caused a lot of consumption of railway construction workers, but the superiors did not use this to evaluate them. Instead, they only wanted to know how fast the railway construction progress was, so what is there to be afraid of?

After spending so much effort, the current progress of the Northern Railway is really surprising. As of this month (March), the 3-kilometer distance of the Liuding Line has been completed two or three months ahead of schedule. Start to move to Dingsha line (about 65 kilometers), Shasheng line (about 34 kilometers) and other places.The foundations of these two places have been leveled out quite a bit, and some sections of the road are ready for the laying of railway tracks. It can be said that the progress is quite fast. If the Ministry of the Army and the National Railway Administration are both short of funds and cannot purchase enough railway equipment for the time being—— A rather embarrassing thing-it is estimated that the laying of railroad tracks has already begun on these sections.And this will once the financial system allocates some funds to write off the accounts owed to the western forging plant, then this section of the railway can immediately enter a full-speed construction state, and the benefits to future wars are self-evident.

"Okay, Minister Zhou, I will spare time as soon as possible, try to go to the north in these two days, and report the actual situation." Hai Dafu nodded immediately when he heard the words, and after a pause, he remembered another One thing, so he opened his mouth again: "That's right, Minister Zhou. Two days ago, someone from below told me that the amount of movable property tax and real property tax owed by the counties is huge. Over the years, it has accumulated more than 200 million yuan. There are quite a lot of complaints about the two taxes, and I think there are many disadvantages, and they need to be canceled. Of course, I know that these two taxes are the main taxes of the national finance, and they must never be cancelled, but it is not the way to delay the matter. I thought about it I thought, can we ask the Ministry of the Army to think of a way, they are in the private sector - especially in the countryside - but they can do a lot of things that our government can't do, they can do it indirectly through grassroots influence, this levy Most of the tax arrears can be settled, don't you see..."

"Okay, Hai Dafu, your idea is worth a try." After hearing this, Zhou Shenwo also felt that this method is good, so he immediately agreed: "You can go to Director Dong of the tax bureau in a while and let him Go with you to coordinate with the Ministry of the Army. There are more than 200 million tax arrears, and we don’t want overdue fees, interest, etc. We will be grateful for the principal of this tax. The Ministry of the Army has a high prestige at the grassroots level, and it usually takes good care of feathers Very well, this will make them a villain too. Hehe, the common people who collect tax arrears are the most annoying. Even if there is any trouble, their army will naturally want to hold on to this situation. Well, don’t let them Contribute in vain, Hai Dafu, just tell them clearly, and get back the arrears of taxes and give them back 100 million, as our financial system’s strong support for the army’s actions to expand the country’s territory.”

In fact, the collection of movable property tax and real property tax is already a chronic problem at the grassroots level. It is collected every year and there are a large number of arrears every year.The main reason is that the amount of these taxes is not easy to estimate, and the top can only apportion them layer by layer. Once apportioned to the rural areas, village cadres and tax collectors may often collude with each other and assign taxes not according to the actual situation. Many people feel that it is unfair, and then cause disputes and even refuse to pay taxes.This happens especially in villages and towns where old and new citizens live together. The old citizens tend to form a tacit understanding and try to pass the tax burden on to the new citizens as much as possible. ***, but was soon suppressed), which in turn affected the collection of movable and immovable property taxes.

Zhou Shenwo and Hai Dafu are not sure whether it is reliable for the United Army to do this, but now they can only be dead horses as a living horse doctor, and every penny that can be recovered is a penny. Being so poor, they could only give it a try, although most of them didn't have particularly high expectations.

I originally wanted to do two changes today, but I went to the hospital to hang water, and there were still a lot of things at home, so I couldn't finish it.

But this is a big chapter of [-] words, and the double update is only [-] words, so let's make do with it. . . . . .

(End of this chapter)