I'm a big dick

Chapter 373 The Emperor's Family Owns a Mine
For money, I sold popsicles.Really, I'm afraid I'm the first emperor in history who didn't even want face for money, right?

Ice making with saltpeter appeared in the Tang Dynasty, but it has not been popular among the people.The reason is simple, the cost of making ice with saltpeter is relatively high and cumbersome.

Therefore, the royal family or the wealthy family still adopts the method of collecting winter ice and storing it in an ice cellar, which is low in cost and large in scale.The common people use well water to cool the town, and it is also refreshing to drink.

However, the large-scale use of saltpeter to make ice is just like industrial production, and the cost will naturally come down.

For the royal family, it is not difficult to obtain a large amount of strategic material saltpeter.What's more, after saltpeter is melted into water to make ice, it can be evaporated and crystallized for reuse, and there is no suspicion of waste.

With such a method, the ice stored in the royal ice cellar can also be sold to the outside world to supplement the palace expenses.

In order to maximize profits, the emperor also sold the method of cooling drinks to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, not only paid for a batch of saltpeter imported from Ryukyu, but also allowed them to use the brand of royal secrets and palace secret recipes.

This is really not a strong buy and sell. If the price is moderate, the profits for the whole summer are still considerable.Because the Chinese Chamber of Commerce has many shops in the north, even Pidao and southern Liaoning, they have their business.

The Chinese Chamber of Commerce also sees the potential of the military as a consumer group. Tobacco and alcohol are the most popular, followed by sugar and tea.

The imperial court does not owe food and salaries, and military members are also given preferential treatment. Soldiers have money in their hands, so in order to ease the pressure of the battle, they are not too stingy.

Coupled with the monopoly of border trade in the north, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce earned not 01:30 points.Since the emperor gave so much convenience, even if cold drinks don't make money, buying them to make the emperor happy is a good deal.

But the emperor had to make money, and this year's gold flowers and silver were wasted again.Even the inner treasury does not need to be entered, so it is allocated to the southwest and Liaodong.Without money to subsidize, you let the emperor's family drink the northwest wind?
Although Grandpa Wanli still had a lot of internal money left behind, Zhu Youxiao was a miser, and continued to save it based on the principle of using it as much as possible.

More than 100 million!Thinking of the gold flower and silver that had been spent without even looking at it, Zhu Youxiao couldn't help feeling a burst of heartache.Eating fruit shaved ice, the feeling of pulling out the cold, can be regarded as a little relief for the heart.

For next year's winter and spring counterattack, military production will be expanded again, which will also cost money, which is not a small amount.

Zhu Youxiao caressed his forehead. There was a gap in the court's finances, and the emperor had to find a way to solve it.You said, is there any emperor who treats himself like this?
Other emperors spend their days and nights drinking and drinking, and do their best to cause harm, but there are courtiers who can make money!Like that one, He Kun, it's very good!

"Your Highness—" Wang Tiqian entered the hall, bowed and played: "The newly promoted Eunuch Fang Zhenghua, the Eunuch of Bingbi, is here to give your majesty's speech."

"Xuan him in." Zhu Youxiao put down the shaved ice, took the silk handkerchief Fan Xiaohui handed over, wiped his mouth, and reached for the documents on the table.

Fang Zhenghua entered the hall, knelt down and saluted.Although Shandong people are eunuchs, they are tall and big. If they have beards, they are also a Tibetan man.

Zhu Youxiao handed over the documents to the palace servants, passed them on to Fang Zhenghua, and said, "This time you are sent to Linglong to supervise gold mining, not only because you are from Shandong, but also because you were impartial and impartial when you were in charge of the supervisory bureaus."

"The purpose of mining gold is to solve the difficulties of the court, and it is also to seek livelihood and increase income for the people. If you do these two things well, you will live up to my expectations."

Zhaoyuan belongs to Qidi, and the rich ore veins on the surface of Linglong and other mines have developed since the Tang Dynasty.

According to the "Old Tang Book·Records of Officials": "Every state that produces copper in the world is the state capital. It listens to private mining, and the government collects its taxes." Unprecedented prosperity in mining and metallurgy.

The poet Liu Yuxi once wrote: "Rizhao Chengzhou River Mists, Gold Digging Girls are all over the river", vividly depicting the prosperity of the folk gold mining industry at that time.

In the fourth year of Jingde (AD 1007), Song Zhenzong sent Minister Pan Mei to supervise the Linglong Gold Mine. "Song History Shihuo Zhi" contains: "Tianshengzhong (1023-1031 A.D.) Denglai's gold mining benefited thousands of taels."

At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, "Yuan History·Shizu Benji" recorded: In the fifth year of Zhiyuan (1268 A.D.), "Ling Yidu missed [-] households, and panned for gold in Qixia County, Dengzhou, and each household lost four coins per year."

At that time, the highest annual output of gold was around 3 taels, which was twice as high as that in the Huangyou reign of the Song Dynasty when gold production was at its peak.

During the Ming Dynasty, Shenzong sent a large number of eunuchs to supervise the development of gold mines.The eunuch sent to Shandong was Chen Zeng, and gold mining in Zhaoyuan was also at its peak.

The highest national golden age class is Yongle 21 years, with a total income of more than [-] taels, but only equivalent to one-sixth of the highest income in the Yuan Dynasty.

In the Wanli period, eunuchs were sent to collect mining taxes.From then on, mine supervisors ran rampant all over the world, levying taxes when there was no market, and exporting silver when there was no mine.

But this does not mean that it is wrong to exploit minerals and levy mining taxes, but there are problems in the methods and methods.Wanli's use of eunuchs as mine supervisors is also inseparable from the constraints of civil officials.

Civil officials do not advocate tax collection, under the guise of "not competing with the people for profit".But in fact, the imperial court got neither, and the people were not rich, and all flowed into the pockets of the powerful and bureaucrats.

This time, Zhu Youxiao sent eunuchs to supervise the collection again, which was different from Wanli.Officials who obstructed the collection of commercial and mining taxes have been purged. Although it cannot be said to be a complete victory, much resistance has been reduced.

The other is the mining regulations, which are subdivided into official supervision (government-run) and "buy by the people" (private-run, in fact, it is bought by Dabaotou from the government, and those who claim the title will contract mining by households); There is another kind, which is to set up supervision and collect taxes on gold diggers.

Such as Zhaoyuan Linglong Gold Mine, Suichang Gold Mine, Yunnan Central Silver Mine, etc., are government-run.Because this is a well-known rich mining area in China, and future generations are still mining it, so it should be monopolized by the state.

Most of the mines purchased by the private sector are newly opened mines. I don’t know whether the reserves are rich or poor.

As for the scattered gold diggers, they are handed over to the local government to manage and collect taxes, and the tax amount is four out of ten.

Of course, there is no perfect system, and it is impossible to have one. It is just as perfect as possible and adjusted in due course.

Whoever is rich in later generations will use "your family has a mine" to describe it.The emperor is rich all over the world, and the whole world belongs to him. How can mining be abandoned as a means of increasing income?
Even so, Zhu Youxiao was very cautious about the eunuchs he sent, and finally selected after many investigations.

Although Fang Zhenghua, Li Fengxiang, Chu Xianzhang, etc. were not perfect, they were still much better than those sanctimonious civil servants.

Moreover, the employer may be wrong, but the supervision can make up for it.These mining supervisors not only have their powers greatly reduced, but the inspectorate and local government can also impeach them for their lawlessness and cruelty.

Fang Zhenghua took the document with both hands, knelt on the ground and read it.This is the emperor's warning, and it also explains the main points of his work.He was also assigned personnel from the Ministry of Industry to guide him in mining technology.

"Your maidservant will do her best to repay the favor of the Lord." Fang Zhenghua kowtowed.

Zhu Youxiao nodded and said, "What's the matter? If you can't make a decision, you can tell me. Well, if there is no other way, you can step back!"

"Long live, take care of the dragon's body. The servants are going now." Fang Zhenghua kowtowed and left the hall with a bow.

No matter how carefully I choose, someone will always scold me, just like sending a mine supervisor to Grandpa Wanli.Eunuchs, eunuchs, and the emperor who reused them are all foolish emperors.

But now, Zhu Youxiao doesn't care what other people think or say.Whether you are a faint king or a wise king, once you close your eyes, who cares?
The key is that I want to live a long life, and I can accept it in my [-]s and [-]s.But the world is not peaceful, how can he live in peace for so long?
There is also a sense of responsibility. I can't bear to see the hellish scene in the late Ming Dynasty, and I don't want to build slaves to steal the Central Plains.

But in the final analysis, Zhu Youxiao felt that he was a stable emperor, that the common people could be saved from the suffering of war, and that the Little Ice Age would not sink China.

In fact, this idea is also correct.If Zhu Youxiao, as a time traveler, can't be an emperor well and won't live long, then no one will be better than him.

For example, the gold mines in Zhaoyuan have proper policies, and every mining is profitable.However, the output is low and the development cannot be consolidated. Apart from the constraints of the civil official group, the decay of Ming Dynasty is the most critical.

Zhu Youxiao has been promoting advantages and eliminating disadvantages, and has been cleaning and purge, for this purpose.Moreover, this will be a long-term and persistent policy.

For hundreds of years of feudal dynasty, decay is inevitable.Either revolution, to overthrow and start over, that is, change the dynasty; or reform, to put an end to the chaos and reinvigorate, which can also be called "ZTE".

Zhu Youxiao is the emperor, so he naturally ruled out the first item without hesitation.That made it simple, there was only one way in front of him.Don't think too much, hesitate and hesitate, just do it.

Fang Zhenghua stepped back, the emperor thought for a moment, reached out to take the memorabilia, and flipped through it.

To make the emperor feel comfortable, even if the words are slightly inappropriate, they will not be held accountable; if they are obscure and long-winded, the emperor will be overwhelmed, even if they are truth, they will not be appreciated.

All the courtiers now know the emperor's temperament, and even the most stubborn courtiers wisely add punctuation to the text or use blank spaces to break sentences.

In particular, the chamber of commerce, which the emperor specially granted the right to write, wrote more plainly and clearly, so that the emperor didn't have to worry about it.

For example, this letter from Tang Mo of the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce made Zhu Youxiao see the accelerator of industrial and commercial development again, that is, the Yangtze River Shipping.

When it comes to shipping on the Yangtze River, we must first talk about the merchant gangs that appeared in the Ming Dynasty.

It is also a feudal dynasty with particularly developed industry and commerce, and the Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty are often used for comparison.In people's inherent impression, the Song Dynasty was the most commercial, while the Ming Dynasty was much inferior.

However, due to the economic development of the Song Dynasty, there were no merchant gangs.In the Ming Dynasty, merchant gangs continued to emerge instead.Shanxi merchants, Huizhou merchants, Zhejiang merchants and other merchant groups all sprang up in the Ming Dynasty.

The reason is that the Song Dynasty did not have a relatively stable social environment. Because the army was not strong, the threat from the surrounding countries was great. It was difficult for a weak Song Dynasty to form strategic suppression, and wars on the border continued.

The crux of the matter is very simple, that is, the Youyun Sixteen Prefectures can never be controlled by the Song Dynasty, which is the biggest flaw in the Song Dynasty's security.

The second reason is also related to the continuous war.In order to ensure that the country has no wars and less wars, the weak Song Dynasty has the habit of paying tribute to other surrounding countries' year-old coins.

Where do these old coins come from? Naturally, they are the common people in the country, including businessmen.It can be seen from the data that the commercial tax in the Song Dynasty was much higher than that in the Ming Dynasty, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it was exploitative.

Coupled with the well-known redundant expenses, redundant officials, and redundant soldiers of the Song Dynasty, the government's financial expenditure was huge, and it did not restrain land annexation, so it could only search in various ways to ensure the normal operation of the country.

On the other hand, in the Ming Dynasty, the business tax was "all [-] and [-] tax, and no more should be collected", which was simply insignificant for merchants.Emphasis on agriculture and suppression of business, heavy burdens on farmers, and tax reduction on businessmen, this practice of the Ming Dynasty is really dumbfounding.

Inheriting the scientific and technological achievements left by the Song Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty made great progress on this basis.This undoubtedly accelerated social production efficiency, and the folk handicraft industry developed rapidly.

Taking the handicraft industry represented by the Jiangnan region as an example, there were [-] looms in the Songjiang Lu'an Mansion in its heyday;

Nanjing, Linqing and other cities "are more than [-] miles around, and in one city, there are nearly one million gentlemen, merchants and people regardless of the wealth and goods from the north and the south."

The ceramic factory in Nanjing alone can produce millions of pieces of porcelain every year.

Combining the above reasons is also an important reason for the emergence of chambers of commerce in the Ming Dynasty.

It is precisely because of the above reasons that the chamber of commerce was able to appear in the Ming Dynasty.At that time, it was not called the Chamber of Commerce, but the Chamber of Commerce, or the Chamber of Commerce, and it was usually divided according to the place of origin.

For example, the Huizhou Merchant Gang, the Shanxi-Shaanxi Merchants Gang, the Fujian Merchants Gang, the Jiangxi Merchants Gang, the Yangtze River Water Gang, and so on.These business gangs use the "guild hall" as a contact place to support each other and grow bigger and bigger.

Among them, the Yangtze River Water Gang, because of the Yangtze River, the main water transport artery that traverses the east and west of our country, thrives because of the "golden waterway", and its strength is also very strong.

From the perspective of time, the real rise of the Yangtze River Water Gang was during the Zhengde period.Because Hankou was designated as the grain exchange port, and later it was ordered that all the grain grains from Zhunheng, Yong, Jing, Yue and Changsha should be exchanged in Hankou, and Hankou became the center of Huguang grain storage and transshipment.

Hankou has the convenience of water transportation, taking this opportunity, business and entrepot trade are increasingly prosperous.

By the Wanli period, Hankou Town (commercial center), Jingdezhen (porcelain), Foshan Town (handicraft industry), and Zhuxian Town (printmaking) were known as the four famous towns in the country.

In Guangyang Miscellaneous Notes, there is also a saying that "the world gathers everywhere".The north is the capital, the south is Foshan, the east is Suzhou, and the west is Hankou.The standard is divided by commercial centers, and Hankou is also one of them.

At that time, Hankou was a mountain of goods, densely populated, and merchants converged. It became a national water and land transportation hub and the largest port in China's inland rivers. It was also the distribution center for rice and salt in the Ming Dynasty.

For this reason, there is a saying in commerce and trade that "goods arrive in Hankou to live", and there is a saying "ten miles of sails and masts are built in the city, and thousands of houses are lit all night" to describe its magnificent scenery, and it also enjoys the reputation of "the most prosperous place in central Chu".

Relying on Hankou, a thoroughfare of nine provinces and a city where merchants gather, the Yangtze River Water Gang transports and sells goods from Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan, Henan, Jiangxi, Shanxi, Guangxi and other provinces. It is also known as the Yangtze River Merchants Gang. .

(End of this chapter)