Chapter 962 1051 Money
The Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Revenue are ready, and everything is ready except for the east wind.
Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Juzheng. He was the Prime Minister, and now he had a close relationship with Feng Bao, a big celebrity in the palace, so he was the one who communicated in the palace.
Once, this position belonged to him.
But because of some things that happened, the relationship between Wei Guangde and Feng Bao gradually cooled down, and it was no longer the same as before.
"The palace has already informed you, and I think your majesty and the two palaces should have known about it."
Zhang Juzheng, who was sitting on the main seat, spoke slowly.
Just as he said this, the clerk outside the door came in and bowed, saying, "My lord, everyone, someone is coming from the palace."
Hearing this, Zhang Juzheng nodded, "Let him in."
The clerk went out, and a eunuch came in a moment later. He was surprised at first, after all, there were a lot of people in the room, and they were all senior officials in the court.
Soon, the eunuch calmed down and walked to Zhang Juzheng, bowed and said: "The queen has ordered that the three cabinet elders enter the palace."
"Do you know why the queen summoned you?"
Zhang Juzheng asked casually.
"I don't know."
In front of so many important figures in the court, the eunuch did not dare to be presumptuous and answered humbly.
"Then let's go to the palace first. It should be about this matter. You go back to your respective yamen and wait for news. Let the people below sit down and prepare. If there is an order, we will review it through the six departments as soon as possible and issue the order. You will start the work as soon as possible according to the plan."
Zhang Juzheng stood up and said to Zhu Heng and others.
Zhu Heng, Wang Guoguang and others said yes.
The group left the cabinet, and the young eunuch took Zhang Juzheng, Wei Guangde and the other two to Ciqing Palace, while the others went straight out of the palace and returned to the yamen to continue their work.
While walking, Wang Guoguang was still talking to Zhu Heng in a low voice.
"Grand Minister, we should give priority to casting a batch of one-liang and one-qian silver coins. The Ministry of Revenue is waiting for this batch of silver to be distributed for the salaries of the Beijing officials this month."
"Okay, okay, the coin molds are ready. We can start work immediately after the silver from the Ministry of Revenue arrives."
"The silver has been prepared long ago. As long as the imperial edict is issued, the Ministry of Revenue can finally relax for a year."
Wang Guoguang couldn't help but sigh.
Others only see the power and glory of the Shangshu, but they don't know the pressure of sitting in the position of Shangshu in the Ming Dynasty.
Especially the current Ministry of Revenue in the Ming Dynasty, although it is not in deficit every year as in the Jiajing Dynasty, it is not much better.
You know, many of the financial holes left behind at the beginning have not been filled yet.
The deficit is huge, and the Ministry of Revenue is thrifty and streamlined every year, and there is not much money left.
It can be said that although Taicang has more than one million taels of silver deposited all year round, they have actually been reserved, but the Ministry of Revenue has been holding back and not allowing them to be withdrawn, otherwise the Ministry of Revenue will be empty.
If something urgent happens during this period, there will be no flexible silver.
But now it is good, this year's finances seem to be much more flexible, as for how much, it depends on whether the Ministry of Works can give it a boost.
It can be said that the more coins the Ministry of Works mints, the more silver the Ministry of Revenue can flexibly use.
For one million taels of silver, the Ministry of Revenue can at least have 100,000 taels of silver in its account.
You must know that this is not a copper coin, but a minted silver coin.
For copper coins, it takes more than a thousand pieces to make one tael of silver, and if it is converted into silver coins, it is more than a thousand taels, and the Ministry of Revenue will earn a hundred taels of silver.
If only, the Ming Dynasty minted coins using coin molds, and the coins minted were not only exquisite, but also minted quickly. Even if the Ministry of Revenue allocated one million taels of silver for the first time, it could not withstand the overtime minting of the Ministry of Works.
If things go well, the income will be hundreds of thousands of taels of silver a year.
Moreover, there are tens of millions of taels of silver piled up in the Changying Treasury of the Ministry of War.
Although the income of millions of taels of silver cannot completely make up for the deficit in previous years, it can at least make the Ministry of Revenue breathe a sigh of relief.
The key is that this is not a short-term gain. After the collection of broken silver from various places, it will be handed over to the court, and coins will continue to be minted.
After all, broken silver and silver ingots cannot enter the circulation field in the future.
Each household can collect some silver ingots, but they cannot use them. They can only exchange them for silver treasures at the government.
That picture is too beautiful to think about.
But just the coinage not only found a way for the Ministry of Works to make money continuously, but also the Ministry of Revenue can get a lot of money from it.
At this time, Zhang Juzheng, Wei Guangde and others were waiting in front of the gate of Ciqing Palace.
The little eunuch had gone in to report the order, and they had to wait outside for the notification inside.
Soon, the young eunuch returned and came to the three people and said, "The Queen Mother invites the three ministers to come in and talk."
The three followed the eunuch into the Ciqing Palace and came to the main hall.
At this time, the two Queen Mothers were sitting on the left and right of the hall, Queen Mother Chen on the left and Queen Mother Li on the right, and the young Emperor Wanli was sitting on the right of Queen Mother Li, and he was sitting upright at this moment.
After the three entered the hall and saluted, Queen Mother Chen asked, "Three ministers, wasn't it inconvenient for the people to use loose silver for transactions in the past? Does the court need to re-determine the currency system for minting coins?"
"Your Majesty, the court has been minting coins since ancient times. Since the appearance of copper coins in the Shang Dynasty, by the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it has been determined that the right to mint coins is exclusive to the court.
Then Qin Shihuang unified the currency system, and gold and copper coins coexisted. Now, it is only because the dynasties have mainly minted copper and gold coins, and have never minted silver coins.
Even if silver coins are minted, they are mostly made by the inner court for rewards.
Since the Song Dynasty, due to the shortage of copper materials, coins could not meet the circulation needs of ordinary people and merchants, so gold and silver began to be traded again until today.
Because the imperial court never intended to mint gold and silver coins, it became a common practice to use broken silver in private transactions, while the imperial court and wealthy families mostly used gold and silver ingots.
The casting of these gold and silver ingots not only varied in quality, but also in weight, making them extremely inconvenient to use.
This cabinet discussion decided that the imperial court would mint large and small gold and silver coins, also to facilitate private circulation.
Especially due to the shortage of copper coins due to copper materials, the emergence of small silver treasures worth one coin can also appropriately make up for the difficulties in market circulation caused by the shortage of copper coins. "
When Zhang Juzheng finished speaking, Wei Guangde also took half a step forward and continued: "As far as I know, since the opening of Fujian Yuegang, the Yi people brought a large amount of silver to our Ming Dynasty to trade goods.
The shape of the silver coins minted by the Yi people is extremely ugly, but the quality and weight of the silver coins are surprisingly consistent. It is said that the silver coins minted by the Yi people are used in all countries in the east and west.
These silver coins, which are almost the same in quality and weight, were all minted on the orders of the Yi people. The king listed the minting standards and prohibited shortages.
In fact, the copper coins we cast are the same, but in the early days, because there was not so much silver, the private use of silver for transactions was ignored.
Nowadays, a large amount of silver is pouring in from overseas, and most of them are hand-made silver coins. These silver coins are also very popular among merchants and people in the southern provinces. Therefore, I boldly suggested that the imperial court should unified the casting of Ming Dynasty silver treasures for circulation, so as to prevent the market from being filled with barbarians in the future. Silver coins made by men pass. "
"I have seen the coins minted by the Ministry of Industry. They are very good."
After listening to Wei Guangde's words, Empress Dowager Chen nodded with a smile and said: "Empress Li and the emperor also like it very much. Since the court's coinage can facilitate the circulation of the people, the cabinet has drafted an order to mint and issue the silver coins as soon as possible.
As for the cabinet's plan to redefine the imperial court's minting power and prohibit private minting of copper coins, I have no objection. "
After saying this, Queen Mother Chen glanced at Queen Li next to her and saw that she was also nodding slightly, so she continued: "Then ban it all.
The overflow of private money among the people was also caused by the lack of copper materials in the imperial court. It was a last resort. Since there were already silver coins to supplement it, it was naturally the best. "
"Follow your Majesty's decree."
After hearing what Empress Dowager Chen said, Zhang Juzheng took the lead and led Wei Guangde and Lu Tiaoyang to accept the order.
Later, Queen Mother Chen asked about the situation of the gold coins.
Although the memorial mentioned that the imperial court also wanted to mint gold coins, the Ministry of Industry was in a hurry and did not come up with samples of gold coins. This time there were only three kinds of silver coins, namely one coin, five coins and one or two silver coins. But the exquisite workmanship is far superior to Spanish silver coins.
As long as the silver coins minted by the imperial court can guarantee the weight and fineness, it is completely expected to dominate the Ming Dynasty and even flow overseas with the footprints of Ming merchants.
In the next two to three hundred years, Spanish silver coins have always served as the world's currency. Spanish silver coins can enter any country and region without any hindrance, which is closely related to the silver coin casting standards set by Spain.
However, now with the casting of Ming Dynasty silver coins, Spanish silver coins have encountered strong opponents.
Thanks to the strong national power of the Ming Dynasty, Ming silver treasures will be more popular among merchants than Spanish silver coins.
"The imperial court's gold coins will not be thrown into the market, but will remain in Changying's treasury?"
After hearing Zhang Juzheng's explanation, Queen Mother Chen and Queen Mother Li only frowned slightly, and then quickly felt relieved.
In their view, the purchasing power of silver coins is already very strong, let alone gold coins.
If you take out gold coins for trading, you may be able to directly sweep away all the goods in ordinary small and medium-sized shops. It is indeed a bit reluctant for private use.
Gold was being collected as a reserve for the imperial court. Only a handful of people knew the news. If it were revealed at this time, it would probably spread throughout the palace and then the entire city of Beijing.
So here, neither Zhang Juzheng nor Wei Guangde planned to tell the Queen Mother of the two palaces the truth.
As for the little emperor, Wei Guangde will teach it as a course to the little emperor in the future when the price of gold changes, so that he can know how powerful it is.
Anyway, the imperial court reserves a large amount of gold and will be in an invincible position at any time.
Of course, this matter was also hidden from Feng Bao.
For these money-grubbing eunuchs in the inner court, if they knew that the value of gold would skyrocket due to the influx of large amounts of overseas silver, the consequences would be unpredictable.
To be honest, although he was an ally with Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Juzheng's attitude on this matter was consistent with Wei Guangde's. He did not believe that Feng Bao and other cabinet eunuchs would really keep secrets and not participate in it for profit.
Now, according to the results of Jinyiwei's secret investigation, approximately 200,000 taels of gold can be exchanged at the Jinlou Silver Store in the capital.
Of course, this is not all, but the gold that the boss of the gold and silver building can exchange.
In fact, there is more or less a lot of gold and silver stored in the houses of nobles and powerful ministers in the capital.
For the dignitaries in the capital, tens of thousands of taels of gold may not be available for a while, but they can still come up with a few thousand taels.
As for silver, these people can afford more.
So once the news leaks out, I'm afraid the court will have no gold to exchange for it.
Without gold in hand, the imperial court would have lost the ability to control the silver circulating in the market, which would definitely be detrimental to the Ming Dynasty's economy.
Wei Guangde told Zhang Juzheng and Liu Shouyou about this in detail, because he planned to use the power of Jinyiwei to exchange gold on a large scale from the market.
Not only the capital, but also Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou and other wealthy prefectures, must quickly catch all the gold circulating in the market after the court launched a large number of silver coins.
After the three left Ciqing Palace and returned to the cabinet, in Ciqing Palace, Empress Li was still discussing with Empress Dowager Chen that the profit of coinage would go to the Ministry of Revenue as mentioned in the memorial. How much is this "profit".
Empress Dowager Chen didn't pay much attention at first. After all, the court had its own rules for going in and out, and it was not easy to put public things into her own pocket.
But Empress Li was not like that. After all, she was from a small family and was more concerned about money.
He hoped that his son would accept a strong dynasty, not a mess like the one taken over by Emperor Longqing.
Yes, what else was left by the Jiajing Dynasty except the huge financial hole in the Ministry of Revenue?
In the first two years of the Longqing Dynasty, the court's finances were still in deficit, but the amount was very small.
That is, after the fourth year of Longqing, the court had a small surplus every year because of the reduction in military expenditures.
Although the Datong Peace Agreement was indeed suspected of losing power and humiliating the country and requiring the Mongols to pay "annual tribute", this peace agreement did give the Ming Dynasty, which was on the verge of collapse, a sigh of relief. At least it delayed time, allowing Zhang Juzheng time to carry out internal reforms and enrich the treasury again.
But even so, the ministers still firmly opposed Emperor Longqing's use of the treasury to buy headwear and other items for the harem.
Although the two empress dowagers understood, it was impossible to say that they had no resentment in their hearts.
Empress Dowager Chen might be better. After all, she was almost sent to the cold palace at that time. It was in the last two months that Emperor Longqing regretted and recalled her again.
But Empress Dowager Li was very unhappy at that time because the inner court had no money and the outer court was unwilling to pay.
The conversation between the two naturally fell into the ears of the young emperor Zhu Yijun.
Ordinarily, the young emperor should not care about money, because he should not be exposed to money during his growth.
But perhaps because of his talent, or because of Wei Guangde's education, the young emperor already had his own understanding of money at this time, but he had never talked about it with outsiders.
At this time, he was like an ignorant child, just quietly listening to the conversation between the two mothers, and thinking about what he learned in his mind.
Wei Guangde certainly would not teach the young emperor anything like "How can a man be without power for a day", but Wei Guangde told him that most of the collapse of the dynasty was due to lack of money.
In fact, many dynasties in history collapsed, seemingly because the people could not bear the tyranny and rose up, but the deeper reason was that the dynasty was corrupt and caused huge expenses.
When the court's income and expenditure did not match, it could only act on the tax law in the hope of increasing the court's income, and this often became the last straw that broke the camel's back.
The tax law changes were not only aimed at civilians, but also at the middle and lower classes.
When they are dissatisfied with tyranny, it is time to change the dynasty.
In the end, it is all about money.