Chapter 1313 Startling at every step
At the beginning of Zhenguan, there were two or three coins for fighting rice. This kind of thing does not mean that the imperial court is too big, but that there is a problem with the imperial court's governance management. The common people work hard to farm the land, and a bucket of grain costs only two or three dollars, and an acre of grain can only sell for tens of dollars, but the prices of other handmade goods are not comparable, so farmers are cut off by the handicraft industry.
After a year of hard work, the income from dozens of acres of land is only a few dollars, but the cost of buying hoes, pots, bowls, needles and threads is not cheap.
So people of insight also sent advice to Li Shimin, who was complacent, that cheap grain hurts farmers.
It is a good thing for the imperial court to rectify the financial market and standardize bills, but it is actually very bad for the imperial court to be both a manager and an operator.
Nowadays, the imperial court mints more than 5 million coins every year, but the currency circulation still cannot keep up with the economic development of the imperial court, and there are indeed great restrictions on the economy, but if you print money directly, it is by no means a good solution.
Tens of millions of banknotes appeared out of thin air. If you add the permission to issue banknotes to major private companies, the actual release of water may have to be doubled or even more.
So much money without capital is too harmful.
Zhang Chao also went on to talk about a lot of new policies of the Imperial Transit Department, such as the introduction of new regulations. In the future, merchants and people will pay taxes and pay them in silver, and there will be no tax in kind.
When Qin Lang presided over the implementation of the reform of the two tax laws, some people proposed to directly collect money instead of tax in kind, which would be more convenient, but Qin Lang firmly opposed it. In the famine, all taxes are only levied on money, which will inevitably lead to more insufficient currency circulation, especially for ordinary people, when it is time to pay taxes, they will definitely be slaughtered by businessmen.
In all dynasties in history, such problems inevitably occurred. For example, when it was time to pay taxes, farmers generally did not have any extra cash on hand to pay taxes. At this time, they had to discount their agricultural products first and then pay taxes. It will take the opportunity to suppress the prices of agricultural products such as grain prices.
Farmers have to pay taxes, but they have no choice but to sell agricultural products at low prices and then pay taxes. After the tax is over, the merchants will restore the price, or even increase the price, and harvest the people at both ends.
Even in the Ming Dynasty when silver was levied, merchants would suppress the price of agricultural products while raising the price of silver, so that the actual tax paid by the people was much higher than originally planned.
That's why Qin Lang insisted at the beginning that the people should be allowed to pay taxes in cash, and the court should set a reasonable discount rate, but at the same time, the people must be allowed to freely choose whether to pay in cash or in kind.
Even money, silk, silver, gold, etc. can be exchanged.
But now the imperial court finds it troublesome and wants to convert all money, even silver, because copper coins are too heavy, and silver coins are so convenient. Anyway, silver coins also have several denominations, which are light and easy to collect.
Through these new financial systems implemented by the current minister of the imperial court, Qin Lang knew that the successive years of war must have consumed too much of the imperial court's income, so now the imperial court has also started to make money everywhere.
Further strengthen the management of mining and metallurgy such as salt and iron, withdraw coinage rights, withdraw mining and metallurgy monopoly rights, etc., and also attack the financial industry, and issue banknotes, and even convert taxes into silver.
Qin Lu, who was the first director of the coin factory, is now a bachelor of Xige of Xuanhui Academy.
He immediately expressed his opposition to these overstretched hands of the court.
"Your Majesty, I think that I can never agree to these new regulations of the imperial court. We operate our own bank bank notes, so why do we have to hand over the deposit reserve and banknote issuance reserve to the Kaiyuan Bank run by the Ministry of Accounts? We also hand over 30% , but the interest rate is pitifully low, it is obvious that the imperial court wants to rob, use our reserves to issue imperial banknotes, and even use them for lending."
"This is a white wolf with empty gloves. We handed over the gold and silver for real money, but we didn't get anything in exchange. Why?"
Thirty percent of the deposit reserve and banknote issuance reserve, for the Qin family and Lu Song who have extremely strong financial businesses, once the money is paid, it means that the lifeblood of these financial businesses of the Qin family will be handed over to the imperial court caught.
Whatever the imperial court wants to do in the future, the Qin family and Lu Song can only do what they want, and there is no room for resistance.
After all, the real money is in their hands.
Zhang Chao also has this attitude.
The financial industry is a very profitable business in Luzon today. Over the years, Luzon has continuously used troops against the Luzon Islands, and even established thirteen colonial ports on the sea route connecting Yi and Yi, with a population of several thousand. , a small population of hundreds, these are very expensive.
Although each colonial stronghold costs the most money in the early stage, after it stabilizes, it will continue to generate income and become stronger and stronger, but the investment and maintenance in the early stage can cost a lot.
The Qin family has operated a total of seven free ports in the Wa Concession, the Linyi Concession, the Chenla Concession, the Pan Country Concession, the Gantuoli Concession, the Shandi Concession, and the Lion Country Concession. Thirteen colonial strongholds were established along the Mediterranean Sea.
There are Luzon armed merchant ships sailing the sea all the year round. In order to develop and maintain these strongholds, they often fight the natives. In the early stage, they spent a lot of real money.
It is because of the gold and silver in his hands that the Qin family's Luzon was able to reach such a scale in the past twenty years, conquering the entire Luzon Islands, conquering millions of natives, and even conquering Borneo. He had just signed a treaty of friendship for trade and port opening, ceded the concession to allow the Qin family to establish a free port, and was even forced to cede the Sandakan Port in the northeast and a large piece of surrounding land to Luzon.
In recent years, the Luzon fleet has fought from Luzon to Borneo, from the South China Sea to the Indian Ocean, from the Spice Islands to the Persian Gulf, from Egypt to Syria, large and small colonies, and even some smaller commercial stations. Having this record is a generous reward for these pioneering warriors.
is the continuous high investment in the military.
"The Supervisor of Casting Money cannot pay!"
"The reserve cannot be given!"
"Our mining and metallurgy cannot be left to the court's toss."
Whether it is a cabinet bachelor or a Xuanhui academician, or a member of the Knight Academy or a member of the Liucao army, they are all very dissatisfied with these new policies of the court.
Qin Lang was also very upset.
But now the imperial court has not directly ordered Lu Song to obey, but communicated with Lu Song through the private channel of Jianzhu Yin Anguo, which shows that the imperial court is still relatively cautious in its actions, and there is still room for it.
However, Qin Lang did not dare to be careless.
Today's Li Yin has been in power for fourteen years. This is a country that has destroyed Baekje, Silla, and Goguryeo successively, annexed Tamra and Gaya, and defeated Xi, Qi, and Mohe successively. the emperor.
The emperor is very popular in the military.
Li Yin treats the military group very preferentially, and he is willing to spend money on the army, so although the army has been fighting for more than ten years, it is still high-spirited and morale is very strong.
Because of the rich rewards, the promotion channels for the soldiers are also smooth.
Even for ordinary soldiers, the pay is generous, and the rewards for military exploits can be cashed in time. There are many rewards for the New Year, and after the imperial court conquered Liaodong, North Korea and other places, Li Yin increased the entrustment several times. The land was rewarded to the meritorious soldiers.
For some high-ranking generals, they can even obtain titles and fiefdoms based on merit.
Li Yin reorganized the system of the twelve ranks of honorary officers and the system of titles that had been abused in the late Zhenguan period. The honorary officers had twelve ranks, and each additional rank was upgraded to a rank.
And after reaching the twelfth level and transferring to Shangzhu Kingdom, if you get the honor again, you will be named a knight. Going up the Zhu Kingdom, you will be awarded a first-level nobility every two. In theory, as long as your meritorious deeds are sufficient, you can directly become the Duke of Shifeng.
Awarded honors and titles, rewarded with land and soil.
Even during the years when Li Yin was in power, the number of Ten Beiya Army in Datang increased from the original tens of thousands to the current 200,000, known as the 200,000 Beiya Forbidden Army.
These are all standing troops.
Not to mention, Li Yin has single-handedly created a powerful group of lords and lords over the years. Those who have meritorious lords and obtained territories are all elite fighters. The imperial court prepared its own weapons, and even provided a corresponding number of retinue cavalry, armored infantry, and civilian auxiliary soldiers according to the size of the territory.
After more than ten years, this army of lords and lords has become the third largest armed force in the Tang Dynasty after the Beiya Forbidden Army and the Nanya Mansion Army, even far surpassing the prefectural and county regiment training rural soldiers.
After all, Li Yin is also Qin Lang's direct disciple, and he has also studied hard for many years under the guidance of Li Shimin and Changsun Wuji. Therefore, during his reign, he has always attached great importance to and cared about the army, and has always firmly controlled the armed forces of the Tang Dynasty. , Even under his rule, Datang's military power was even stronger than that of Li Shimin.
With such a powerful military force in the hands of the emperor, Qin Lang must carefully consider the emperor's proposal and cannot refuse it easily.
He didn't want to end up like his grandson Wuji.
Although the emperor's current proposal is a bit excessive and his hand is too long, but from the perspective of the court, these are not completely unreasonable.
From the perspective of Luzon, this is of course inappropriate, but from the perspective of the imperial court, it is no problem.
Conflict of interests, how to choose?
Qin Lang looked at the turbulent retainers, and didn't show much dissatisfaction with the court. Lu Song's current strength is indeed not bad. Anyway, he is almost invincible at sea, but he will not be arrogant because of this.
Compared to Datang, Lu Song is just a younger brother.
When necessary, the grandson should pretend to be pretending.
"Since Yin Jianzhu conveyed the wishes of the sage and the court, then I, Lu Song, are also the territory of the Tang Dynasty, and we are also the courtiers of the Tang Dynasty, so naturally we have to follow the order."
"Your Majesty?" Qin Lu was anxious.
Qin Lang interrupted him, "Let me first listen to the widow. The will of the saint cannot be violated. As long as the imperial court makes a formal decision to take back the right to mint coins, then we should obey."
"But,"
(end of this chapter)