MTL - I-Chapter 1025 1021 [financial abundance]
Chapter 1025 1021 [Financial abundance]
In the twenty-fourth year of the Republic of China, in 4362 AD, and in 1665 AD, Zhao Han was already 48 years old.
Qian Qianyi died of illness at home.
Song Yingxing is critically ill.
Pang Chunlai is critically ill.
Huang Shun, the military governor stationed in Beijing, asked to return to the south to recuperate because of a serious illness. Hu Dinggui was transferred from Shenyang to Beijing to take over the entire northern military, and Wan Sitong, the deputy governor of the rear army, was promoted to Shenyang.
In the previous year, the national annual income was 79.6 million taels (including local and provincial interceptions).
Among them, agricultural tax is 34.79 million taels (accounting for 43.7%), industrial and commercial tax is 17.35 million taels (accounting for 21.8%), customs duty is 24.52 million taels (accounting for 30.8%), and overseas deportation central is 2.94 million taels (accounting for 3.7%).
Not only has the national finance increased, but the structure of fiscal revenue has also undergone tremendous changes.
Ten years ago, agricultural tax accounted for more than 60%, and now it has dropped by more than ten percentage points, but the total amount of agricultural tax has actually increased steadily.
The industrial and commercial taxes, tariffs, and overseas revenues are all increasing rapidly, and the tariffs of more than 24 million taels are really scary.
The increase in industrial and commercial tax year by year is due to the promotion of steam engines. Textile, mining, smelting and many other industries use steam engines more and more frequently. Of course, the continuous increase of the national population is also one of the main reasons for the prosperity of industry and commerce.
There is a lot of production and must be sold.
Japan, North Korea, the Western Regions, Southeast Asia, and Southeast Asia, international trade is almost monopolized by Chinese businessmen.
Even the purchase channels of spices from Nanyang and Southeast Asia are controlled by Chinese merchants. European, Persian, Arab and Indian merchants can only purchase and transship them from Chinese merchants. Unlike European countries, Zhao Han did not force small countries to grant monopoly rights, and it was purely Chinese businessmen who competed for it.
Chinese merchants are too involved. They not only compete with foreign businessmen, but also compete with their own people, constantly increasing the purchase price of spices and tobacco, and those small countries earn more by selling local products.
With the expansion of Indian and American markets, tariffs have skyrocketed again, and more industrial products have been exported, especially textiles.
Due to the excessive expropriation of the Mughal emperor (the Hindu merchants were slaughtered as pigs), coupled with the alluvial accumulation of cheap cotton cloth in China, the traditional Indian textile industry in the Ganges River Basin has actually been in a semi-collapsed state. After Aurangzeb ascended the throne, religious persecution was so severe that many Hindu businessmen even fled the Mughal land with their families and moved to Chinese ports to make a living.
The development of the American market has improved the life of the American people, but it has destroyed the Dutch textile industry.
Just last year, Jiangsu Maritime Merchants finally couldn’t hold back. This trading company lost the competition in Asia and decided to go to America with Li Quan. The first fleet consisted of only three merchant ships, but they made a trip back and forth, excluding various costs and expenses, and made a full eight times the net profit.
Only eight times the net profit, this is because the crew wages are high.
The salary of the senior crew is five times, and the salary of the junior crew is three times, and a settling allowance must be given in advance, otherwise no one is willing to take risks in the Americas.
Ministers can no longer understand the current financial situation.
A few years ago, I was still worried about the fiscal deficit. In a blink of an eye, the court has money, and it can have a surplus of several million every year.
Cabinet.
Wu Yingji took out the data given by the Ministry of Finance: "In the past seven years, the average annual growth rate of industrial and commercial taxes and tariffs has exceeded 6%. Especially after Portugal married Chittagong, countless Indian cottons were shipped to Chittagong, which solved the cotton problem. The problem of insufficient supply. The cotton spinning factories in the south of the Yangtze River are increasing their production, and more and more cotton spinning factories are newly opened.”
Zhu Shunshui sighed and said, "I don't know whether it's good or bad. I went back to my hometown during the Chinese New Year. There are two textile factories in the town, and there are hundreds of male and female workers. Counting the boat transportation, more than a thousand people rely on it." The two make a living by weaving. The chimney of the factory is tall and big, and black smoke is floating all day long, and the dining tables of nearby villagers can be stained with black ash."
Chen Maosheng said: "Anyway, the life of ordinary people is better than before."
"That's true," Zhu Shunshui nodded, "All those who work are considered well-off families, especially skilled female workers. The housework and children are all handed over to the parents-in-law, and the woman has become the pillar of the family. But there are fewer families without work. An income. There are also those who spin and weave their own cloth, all of which are woven and worn by themselves, and they can’t be sold at a good price.”
Zhu Shunshui is talking about the situation in the coastal provinces. His hometown has a thriving textile industry.
The further inland the industry is, the weaker the industry is, and there are not many steam engines that can be found in the whole province. Those provinces are still stuck in the past, even the small peasant economy has not been destroyed, and there are still a large number of home weaving.
Wu Yingji said: "The problem now is not to save money, but how to spend it. More and more silver is pouring into the coast, and the price of goods is going up. More money will be allocated to the Ministry of Industry, and people will be recruited across the country to work and build More water conservancy and roads. And you can’t use the money from the imperial court, you must absorb the excess private silver along the coast, and try to keep prices from rising too fast.”
Fei Chun said: "Build more roads in Tibet, Northeast and Southwest to connect all the mountainous areas. In the future, whether it is sending troops to fight wars or local cargo transportation, it will have long-term benefits."
When Zhao Han went on an expedition to Mobei, he used a policy of raising interest rates, and used private silver for military expenses. A war cost the old nose money.
At that time, some ministers felt that they were militaristic, but now that they think about it, they have come to think of it, and they have begun to keep up with the emperor's thinking.
Isn’t it just too much silver?
Who can’t spend money.
No one has mentioned corvée for a long time. Now there is money, and people are recruited to work with silver.
Liu Ziren reminded: "Don't be too extravagant. The expedition to Mobei and the recovery of Beihai cost tens of millions of taels of silver. The court still owes the bank money, and it hasn't been paid off yet. There is a surplus of silver along the coast. But the court is still short of money.”
Fei Chun said: "Your Majesty's policy strategy is very obvious. It is to turn the excess silver along the coast into water conservancy and roads in the inland provinces. Your Majesty has repeatedly said that as long as it is not built for personal pleasure, it is not a bad thing to build .”
Yuan Yunlong suddenly said: "Should the salaries of officials in the world also be increased? Someone mentioned in the memorial last time that although His Majesty did not agree, the tone has been loosened."
The cabinet ministers repeatedly discussed and came up with a plan to build water conservancy and roads across the country, and mentioned a salary increase for officials.
In fact, domestic infrastructure construction has been going on all the time.
However, many mountain roads are carried out by village. Villagers contribute free of charge to build roads in their own villages. Then the government allocated part of the funds to recruit people to make repairs and connect the roads in various villages. And there are many continuous mountains, roads cannot be repaired, and even aqueducts cannot be excavated.
Now that the imperial court allocates funds and distributes money, the efficiency will definitely be improved. It is planned to allocate 1.5 million taels of silver every year to build official roads in more critical mountainous areas.
In addition, another 1.5 million taels will be allocated every year for the construction of water conservancy and irrigation facilities—this is an additional allocation and does not involve the annual routine allocation of the Ministry of Industry.
Zhao Han Yubi Zhu commented: Yes.
Including raising the wages of officials across the country, Zhao Han also approved this time, with a unified increase on the original basis.
The pressure on salaries in poor provinces is greater, especially the salaries of officials, including the expenses of teachers, are all paid by local finance. This has to allow them to withhold more taxes, otherwise they will all cry poorly. After all, the steam age has just started, and the development of all parts of the country is extremely uneven.
Not only unbalanced, but also very chaotic, with many contradictions emerging one after another.
"Your Majesty, the latest census has been completed." The household department handed over a report.
Zhao Han said: "Bring it to me to see."
Many coastal provinces and overseas territories have dual household registration.
After the introduction of the new policy, it took several years, and finally it was basically straightened out, and I took advantage of the trend to do some demographic statistics.
The Pingnan Military and Civilian Mansions in Burma, the Protectorate Mansions in Tibet, Qinghai, Mongolia, Heilongjiang, etc., as well as the Guangnan Province established by the recovery of Vietnam, and the population of the Ryukyu Islands, even including Siberia, as long as they are registered by the government, even the indigenous people All counted.
There are 176.92 million people over the age of 12 in the whole country.
Luzon Island, Palembang, Yecheng, Malacca and other overseas territories (excluding King Jin’s side), counting the naturalized aborigines, there are a total of 913,958 people—most of them were from China during the Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties. The descendants of immigrants, a large number of Nyonya (Chinese mixed-race descendants) went to the Governor's Office to register, claiming to be Chinese and seeking preferential treatment.
The population of the northern provinces has recovered to a certain extent.
Taking Hebei as an example, the wilderness is no longer everywhere, and it has been reclaimed into farmland one after another.
The Beiping Prefecture directly under the Central Government, a total of ten counties, has a population of more than 3 million, and there are more than 200,000 people in Beijing alone.
In this case, there is no need for the government to organize immigration, and the natural reproduction of the northern population is enough.
Zhao Han swiped his pen: "Order the Ministry of Rites to speed up the establishment of schools in Qinghai, Tibet, Mongolia, and Heilongjiang, so as to attract more children from other ethnicities to study."
The Ryukyu Islands are the easiest place to go. There are thirty-six Chinese surnames there.
These Han people were thrown to the islands to multiply, and they served as town and village chiefs one after another. Although it will inevitably make them bigger, the speed of civilizing the aborigines is very fast. The Ryukyu Islands have been completely regarded as the mainland, and they belong to the two counties of Ryukyu and Fangzhang in Taiwan Prefecture of Fujian Province.
The Satsuma clan of Japan is next to Ryukyu. Although they were beaten up by the Datong Army, they were greatly hurt by the compensation. However, due to the convenience of trade, smuggling is the most rampant, and the strength develops extremely fast, and there are a large number of wanderers who have access to China's advanced ideology, culture and technology.
The Satsuma domain is brewing a ronin riot. The poor ronin want to lead the farmers to fight the "tyrants" to divide the land.
The ronin rebellion will definitely fail. Even if the Shimadzu family is killed, the shogunate army will be recruited to suppress the rebellion. However, the follow-up impact is difficult to estimate. It may force the shogunate to close the country, or the failure of the shogunate may cause the prestige of the shogunate to plummet.
"Your Majesty, Zhongyuzi sent a mission to Beijing to ask for seals, and also... sent a princess Zhongyuzi over to present to Your Majesty." The minister of Honglu Temple came to report.
Zhao Han was very happy: "Kazakhs took the initiative to ask for the seal? Can you know the details?"
At this time, Xie Yuan was still in Madagascar and did not bring back relevant news, but he left an envoy as a guide for the Kazakhs.
The information of Honglu Temple came from the guide envoy: "Your Majesty, Zhongyuzi is torn apart. The mission this time was sent by the son of Zhongyuzi's previous Khan, asking His Majesty to canonize him as the king of the Kazakh Khanate. "
Zhao Han said with a smile: "But he has a vision. Even if Zhongyuzi is not unified, he wants to be the king of Kazakhs."
Regarding westward expansion, Zhao Han only intends to occupy the territory of the Kyrgyz people, that is, the Kyrgyzstan of later generations. Taking it there is equivalent to regaining the homeland of the Tang Dynasty. It is difficult to manage further west, mainly because of the terrain. Only Kyrgyzstan is good for defense and can be connected with the Kashgar area.
Of course, if there is spare power, Tajikistan can also be won, all of which are mountainous terrains that are conducive to defense.
(Calvin, there is only one update.)
(end of this chapter)
