Chapter 389 Real prosperity, create an imperial career!
Then, Zhang Gui couldn't hide his excited look at Tian Qi, and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, it seems that the wealth of the rich and powerful bureaucrats in the capital is really incalculable."
Tian Qi nodded: "Besides, under normal circumstances, it is difficult for them to take out so much money! This guy named Zhao She and his father Zhao Shichun actually made a great contribution by doing so!"
"What your Majesty said is that the Ming Dynasty has been in peace for more than two hundred years, and most of the world's gifts and wealth are probably in the hands of these powerful bureaucrats."
"Now it can be returned to the imperial court in this way, and then the imperial court can redistribute the wealth donated by the world over the past two hundred years of the Great Ming Dynasty, which will undoubtedly make the world more prosperous. And it will take hundreds of years for this large amount of wealth to be transferred to the hands of the powerful and bureaucrats in the world."
Zhang Gui echoed.
Tianqi looked at Zhang Gui after hearing this and asked: "You mean, if the money is redistributed properly, Daming can at least last for hundreds of years?"
Zhang Gui nodded, and said: "But if the distribution is not proper, it may intensify the internal conflicts in Ming Dynasty! After all, hundreds of millions of taels of silver are not hundreds of millions of shi grains, so they cannot be eaten directly. If they are squandered directly, it will only lead to a sharp rise in prices." , but increased the burden of food and clothing for the common people.”
Although Tian Qi has never studied financial knowledge, he is not stupid. He quickly understood the problem and continued to ask Zhang Gui: "You said just now that the wealth of the world must be distributed to those engaged in production as much as possible so that it can be used. The country is prosperous, but what does that mean?"
Zhang Gui continued to nod his head: "Yes! The people who produce are mainly the people of the world. The imperial court has to use the method of substituting labor to let wealth flow into the hands of the people. Or make the prices of food, meat, vegetables, and cloth necessary for the people lower. , so as to avoid new problems after the money is spent.”
"Please explain in more detail."
Tianqi seems to have realized that how to deal with the hundreds of millions of taels of silver is a big problem, so he just said one more thing.
"Follow the order!"
After Zhang Gui responded, he said: "First, the imperial court organizes large-scale basic improvement projects that are beneficial to people's livelihood, such as building more bridges, more roads, more canals, and more dams; Life is more convenient and work is better, farming is less affected by natural disasters, and income is also increased!"
"When the world's wealth is concentrated in the hands of powerful gentry, most of these things are done by some powerful gentry, but they will only carry out various basic projects for their own fields and industries. Naturally, it will only make the poor poorer and the rich poorer. The richer the richer; now that the wealth of the world is concentrated in the hands of the imperial court, it is natural for the imperial court to do it, and try to benefit all the people in the world."
"Second, intensify efforts to buy and stockpile food, salt, iron and other things that are necessary for the people of the world and the imperial court from overseas, especially food. into something more useful. You can’t let Daming only have silver.”
Tianqi laughed after hearing this: "In this case, the large number of Han people is not a problem, but a good thing."
Zhang Gui nodded: "It's natural. If you don't have money, a lot of people is a problem, but if you have money and a lot of money, it will be easier to do things with more people. Maybe in the future, you will still feel that there are not enough Han people, and you will be worried because of this, instead of Fertility is discouraged."
Tian Qi said: "I hope there will be such a day."
Then, Tian Qi looked at Zhang Gui, unable to suppress his excitement, and said, "I have something to tell you. What I want to tell you is that Song Yingxing and the others have successfully operated the steam pump!"
Zhang Gui was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and then smiled and said, "So, the hundreds of millions of taels of silver is more appropriate right now! And it also adds a third place where you can spend the silver wantonly."
"Where?"
Zhang Gui replied: "After the steam engine and water pump come out, it is natural to continue to spend money to reduce the cost of the steam engine and water pump, which will really benefit the world's farming, irrigation and mining. At the same time, it is also necessary to make steam engines for other purposes, such as steam-powered ships. A steam-powered car; in short, all equipment in the world should be steamed. Let the silver flow to these areas, and then achieve a substantial increase in the wealth of the world, so that the increased silver will not be spent in vain.”
Tian Qi pondered for a while after hearing this.
He could realize that if all the cars and boats in the world were steamed instead of manpower and animal power, it would undoubtedly mean that it would be more difficult for people to be regarded as cattle and horses, and more cattle and horses would only be used for food, which would further make the world Really great changes can also make the world really rich. Maybe Da Ming can really form a larger army and open up more territories!
"This Zhao house must be closely guarded, and no news should be leaked. The 100 million taels of silver plus the stolen silver will all belong to the national treasury and will no longer be returned to the internal funds. It is up to you, Han Yu and Yuan Keli to find a way , How can this sum of money be used exclusively for the three purposes you just mentioned! And let the money flow into the hands of laborers."
Tianqi also suddenly ordered.
"yes!"
So, next, the Policy Department formally asked for the establishment of a Huimin treasury, which was specially used to store money for benefiting the people and benefiting the people. In fact, it was used to store this silver. To benefit the wealth of the people's treasury, and to plan the affairs of the world to benefit the people.
It is worth mentioning that there used to be a Ministry of Civil Affairs in history.
In history, the Ministry of Ministries was the Ministry of Households. It was only in the Tang Dynasty that the Ministry of Civil Affairs was changed to the Ministry of Households in order to avoid Li Shimin’s taboo, so it was used to be called the Ministry of Households.
But the newly established Ministry of Civil Affairs in Ming Dynasty is naturally not the Ministry of Household Affairs. Its function is more like formulating development plans and engineering plans, and then drawing money from a special treasury to work with the Ministry of Finance.
Those who didn’t know just thought that the imperial court was just spending money from the state treasury to benefit the people in order to practice the reform concept of “benefiting the people”.
In fact, it is only because the imperial court now has a huge amount of property, which needs to be specially used to distribute it to the people of the world.
This is Zhang Gui deliberately asking Tianqi to do this.
Based on what he has learned in later generations, Zhang Gui knows that if the national economy wants to develop in a good direction, the most important thing is that the increased wealth of the society requires more popular producers.
Only in this way can the economy of a society develop benignly.
Otherwise, if the social wealth increased by the national economy is more popular than the producers, the producers must be a small number of dignitaries and bureaucrats.
In this case, the national economy of a society will not develop in a healthy way. Even if the economy is prosperous, it is also a deformed prosperity, that is, the prosperity of vested interests.
Just like the original middle and late Ming Dynasty in history, it seems that the commodity economy society is becoming more and more prosperous, and various prosperous towns emerge in endlessly, especially in the south of the Yangtze River, there are groups of wealthy servants, but in fact it is a kind of deformed prosperity.
This kind of prosperity did not make the country strong and the people rich. Instead, Daming was quickly defeated by Li Zicheng in a short period of time, and then was stolen by a small number of Manchus.
Therefore, Zhang Guicai took advantage of the opportunity of the large amount of wealth in the hands of the rich and powerful bureaucrats of Ming Dynasty to be controlled by Tianqi, and suggested that Tianqi distribute more of this wealth to the people of the world.
The reason why Tianqi agreed was naturally because as an emperor, he also wanted to make Daming prosperous. In addition, he already had too much money to spend, so the money he kept for himself was just a pile of silver. To use this money in exchange for something he wants more, that is to have a real imperial career!
(end of this chapter)