Chapter 323 The Development of the Song Dynasty and the National Debt

In November of the fifth year of Qingli, Du Qi, the transfer envoy of the two Zhejiang roads, received a reply from Zhao Jun and followed his instructions to start communicating with the landlords.

But obviously the effect was not very satisfactory, and the landowners did not accept the court's suggestion.

Du Qi was quite patient at first. He invited more than a dozen large landowners who took the lead to the Chunfeng Tower in the east of Yandingfang, Hangzhou, and had detailed discussions with them in person.

However, on the surface, these landlords were respectful to Du Qi, but when it came to the court's policies, they were squeaking and resisting. It’s just that all kinds of people say that they naturally support the imperial court, but they hope that the imperial court will slow down and talk about it later.

We talked about this matter several times, but when nothing happened, Du Qi lost his patience.

He did not continue to discuss with them, but went to the countryside himself, to various states and counties, inspected the countryside, measured the land, and strictly urged local officials to implement the court's policy of dividing land into acres.

In fact, many local officials are also resistant to this matter, mainly because this matter is inherently thankless.

Although the imperial court has been trying to weaken the influence of these big landowners in recent years, such as paying salaries to officials, providing promotion channels for officials, strictly investigating the corruption of local officials, cracking down on collusion between officials and businessmen, etc.

But Zhao Jun only cracked down on official corruption, and did not crack down on these big landowners and so many local officials across the country.

They have been operating in the local area for so many years, and their relationship is intricate. It does not mean that it can be solved overnight.

Zhu Yuanzhang killed so many corrupt officials, but corrupt officials were banned repeatedly when he was alive, and even more so after his death.

Even though Zhao Jun has still cracked down hard over the years and introduced a number of supervision measures, as the saying goes, there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. Nowadays, corrupt officials are not only more covert in their corruption methods, but even the supervision sent by the court may be corrupted.

For example, in the fifth year of Qingli, the imperial court investigated and punished as many as 86 officials and deputy officials from various supervisory units such as local censors, imperial city departments, prefectures, and road stations.

This has been found out, but I don’t know how many have not been found out.

Therefore, in many places, when faced with the new policy of the imperial court, officials from the state government to the county government officials were more or less reluctant.

However, no matter how unhappy he was, the Constitutional Yuan was watching this matter, putting pressure on the various transfer envoys, inspection envoys and other four departments.

Officials at the road level did not dare to neglect. They continued to implement policies in their own roads, forced state and county governments to fulfill their obligations, and strictly urged the following to pay autumn taxes this year.

The decree that was conveyed in this way in June was basically completed successfully by the time autumn taxes were paid in November.

By December, it is almost the end of the year and it is the busiest time of the year.

The current statistics of the imperial court require all departments to complete the data for the twelve months of last year before February of the next year.

But officials have to go home to celebrate the New Year. In addition to the Chinese New Year holiday, there is also the Lantern Festival holiday.

During the vacation that lasted for more than half a month in January, it was impossible to go to work to solve the problem.

This forces all departments to complete the statistics from January to October last year within the two months of November and December, and then wait until the next year to count November and December last year.

So recently, including the Constitutional Yuan, everyone is busy with data matters.

On December 14, the weather became colder and colder, and it started to snow in Bianliang. But the wind and snow only lasted for three days. On the fourth day, it cleared up and the snow melted away quickly.

The mountains outside the city are lush and lush. Although some bare deciduous trees ruin the scenery, the presence of evergreen trees prevents the world from being filled with loneliness.

Zhao Jun went to the Statistics Department in the morning and asked Wu Yu, the Minister of Statistics, to add some new statistics starting from next year.

In addition to the original required data on population, birth rate, mortality, economy, employment, education, health, culture, etc., new data requirements such as steel production, textile production, and total grain production will also be added.

In many cases, data governance may not be correct, but data must be an important measure in governing the country.

And the data is easy to falsify. Wu Yu has a relatively upright personality and can't get rid of the dirt in his eyes. He has been the head of the Statistics Department for several years, and he has indeed done a good job, which is reassuring.

After returning to the Constitutional Yuan, I had to check last month’s data report again.

Regular meeting of Chongzheng Hall in the afternoon.

Zhao Zhen plays computer less and less now, mainly due to computer wear and tear.

Although the laptop will not suffer too much loss as long as it does not play large-scale 3A games, CPU silicone grease is a big problem, and DaSong cannot produce silicone grease.

Therefore, for the sake of the safety of your notebook, use it as little as possible unless it is necessary.

Today, Zhao Zhen was in the study in the morning reading the papers that were handled by the Constitutional Council yesterday, and put forward some of his own opinions to prove his sense of existence. He will discuss the matter in the afternoon.

An iron table for the coal stove was also installed in the house, which was covered with cotton cloth. Everyone gathered around the big iron table, stepped on the warm pedals, and started working at close range.

"Your Majesty, this is the data report from last month. Since the implementation of the New Deal in November, agricultural taxes in the second half of the year have skyrocketed, reaching 27.43 million yuan, an increase of 40% compared to last year."

Lu Yijian touched his reading glasses. Since Zhao Zhen invented high-purity glass, and with the application of trona, the imperial court also opened a small glass factory.

It mainly produces glass products, such as magnifying glasses, glasses, telescopes, etc., which are exclusively used by the rich and powerful.

no way.

High-purity glass requires soda, but no one synthesizes soda, only natural soda is used, so it is naturally impossible to produce transparent glass on a large scale.

As for crystal, there are very few high-purity crystals without a trace of impurities in nature, and they cannot meet the demand.

So it is temporarily like this for now, and it will be popularized after the advent of synthetic alkali.

However, the appearance of a small amount of glass is naturally enough for Zhao Jun to show his skills. Using the junior high school physics knowledge, it is easy to invent these things.

It is a blessing for old men with poor eyesight such as Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng, Li Di, and Zhang Shixun.

At this moment, Lu Yijian continued to report: "If you calculate it this way, plus the summer tax in the first half of the year, this year's agricultural tax can reach nearly 40 million guan. Commercial tax, levy and foreign trade tax have not been counted yet, but according to previous years, this year's tax revenue should be more than 100 million guan."

"Grandson, this is not considered exploitation of the people."

Zhao Zhen looked at Zhao Jun.

Zhao Jun smiled and said, "It is normal for tax revenue to catch up with the improvement of productivity. This shows that we have made the pie bigger. We are no longer like before, squeezing the people's land three feet, resulting in only good fiscal revenue, but the people are in a mess."

"That's good, that's good."

Zhao Zhen was relieved and said to everyone with a smile: "I have always been worried that the new policy will harm the interests of the people. I am relieved now."

"Now everyone understands the benefits of making the pie bigger."

Zhao Jun looked around at everyone.

"But I still think it's too slow."

Zhao Zhen sighed and said, "I really hope that there will be trains, planes, ships and even high-speed trains, mobile phones and computers soon."

"Take your time."

Zhao Jun comforted.

From the third year of Jingyou to the sixth year of Qingli, it has been exactly ten years.

Ten years is undoubtedly a huge change for a country's reform process.

In the future, my country will have three decades from the 1990s to 2020, which is a world-changing difference.

But Zhao Jun was still not very satisfied with the current situation, because in addition to the improvement of productivity, industrial transformation was just a start.

If we want to achieve the great achievements of later generations, it will probably take at least ten decades, or even twenty decades.

But no matter what, from an agricultural society with nothing to an industrial society with everything, the most important thing is to lay a solid foundation.

In fact, we have such achievements in later generations, which is inseparable from the fact that the world has had several rounds of industrial revolutions, and we can cross the river and grow rapidly by following the experience of our predecessors.

But it is not possible in the Song Dynasty. He must complete the process from nothing to something step by step, which is obviously an extremely difficult road.

"In addition to this year's tax revenue, starting from June, the newly counted population of the land tax has also been reported by most regions, except for remote areas such as Guangxi, Guangzhou, and Fujian."

Lv Yijian continued: "Before the land tax was charged, the population census in the second year of Qingli showed that the population of Song Dynasty was 12.19 million households and 71,926,493 people. After the new policy, excluding the three places, 1.73 million households and 9.35 million people were added. Now the total population of Song Dynasty has exceeded 80 million."

"This is good news."

Zhao Jun said: "Looking at the situation this year, the total population statistics next year will be more than enough for more than 80 million people. After the land tax is charged, the people will feel relieved and bold to have children. It should be no problem to exceed 100 million in the next ten years. In the next ten years after the sixth year of Qingli, Song Dynasty will enter a period of rapid development, which requires a large population."

"Yeah."

Zhao Zhen nodded slightly, then asked: "Grandson, I read a novel before In the book, it is said that after industrialization, it is often necessary to dump the production area. Daiying is to develop colonies everywhere and dump them to colonies for huge profits. Even if we enter the industrial age, do we have colonies? "

Zhao Jun smiled and said: "It is easy for a small country with few people to saturate the market, so it can only expand outward. The Song Dynasty has a large population and a large territory, and the annexation of neighboring countries such as Xixia, Liao, Dali, and Annan will be on the agenda in the future. It is completely possible to carry out internal circulation first to make the people of the Song Dynasty live better. "

"What about raw materials?"

"Don't neighboring countries have them? And you can buy them from the Maritime Silk Road. What's there to be afraid of with ships?"

"That's true."

"It's still a long way to wait for our country's market to be saturated. This is too long. What we need to do now is to import a large amount of raw materials from abroad. Anyway, countries in this era probably don't understand trade barriers and tariffs. They can sell them with some benefits. "

"Then let's look at the next set of data reports."

Zhao Zhen said.

Lü Yijian continued to report.

Now the Song Dynasty is thriving. After the pie has grown bigger, it cannot guarantee that every citizen will have enough food and clothing, but at least most people are living better.

Data shows that this year, most of the data from January to October have been counted, but the GDP has exceeded last year, reaching 3.3 billion guan, an increase of 9%. There should be no problem in breaking through 12% for the whole year.

Of course.

The current annual surge in GDP is due to the large-scale promotion of high-yield crops such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn a few years ago, coupled with a significant reduction in agricultural taxes and the value of a large amount of new land reclamation, which has greatly increased the enthusiasm of the people for production.

And this growth rate is expected to continue for several years, but this is after all the explosion of agricultural productivity. If the industry is not improved, it will still not change the nature of agriculture that depends on the weather for food.

So Zhao Jun's current idea is very simple. Taking advantage of the strong momentum of agriculture, first use agriculture to subsidize industry and increase industrial productivity.

In addition to GDP, other data also vary greatly.

There have been massive military layoffs. The Song Dynasty now only maintains a standing army of more than 600,000 people. Starting this year, it is slowly training a new firearms team. According to Zhao Jun, starting next year, the standing army of more than 600,000 people will be replaced by half. Cold weapons are half firearms.

Within three years, the entire army will mainly use thermal weapons. Although cold weapons are still retained, it is enough to just wear a straight sword around the waist, so as to increase the combat effectiveness of the entire Song Dynasty army. Floors.

Economically, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce reports that more and more companies are registered. Several industrial and commercial bureaus in Guangbianliang have registered more than 30,000 people, and there are also many registered shops. Under the relatively loose business policy in the second year of Qingli, business has prospered. The degree is increasing day by day.

Other education, culture, and science and technology have also improved. For example, in science and technology, the School of Chemistry and the School of Physics are making new breakthroughs every day. Especially for the School of Chemistry, the imperial glass factory gave them priority in supplying equipment. With the equipment, various elements The extraction is also much easier.

All things considered, although the current overall situation of the Song Dynasty has not improved much and cannot be compared to the level of the first industrial revolution, it has taken solid steps and is expected to officially enter industrialization in the next ten years.

"The growth in all data is very gratifying."

Zhao Zhen was very happy after hearing the report. This year's growth is much greater than last year, and it will increase again next year. It will skyrocket every year and improve every year. The future of the Song Dynasty is just around the corner.

"Looking at the current data, it has indeed improved a lot. I have an idea."

Zhao Jun said while touching his chin.

"what idea?"

"I think it's time to issue government bonds."

"Do you want to start publishing now?"

"Well, in order to prepare for next year, but to be on the safe side, we will not issue national bonds to ordinary people, only to large landowners."

"Big landowners?"

Everyone was at a loss. Big landowners across the country are now boycotting the idea of ​​renting their own acres. Will they be willing to do so?

"This also gives them a new way of living."

Zhao Jun smiled and said: "They are unwilling to accept high taxes or sell land to invest in industry. They can invest in national bonds and give them stable interest. Although the interest is not high, it is more stable and can make up for part of the tax deficit."

"Well."

Everyone understood immediately.

This is a win-win approach, which also makes the state treasury richer.

"In addition, we have to find ways to make business more active."

Zhao Jun thought for a while and said: "In this way, we will cancel the deposit custody fee. Starting next year, you will no longer have to pay the bank to save money."

"Then how do banks make profits? Relying on lending like this to future generations? But the country currently has no plans for housing loans in the Song Dynasty. This is difficult both from a regulatory and operational perspective."

Zhao Zhen raised objections.

Zhao Jun smiled and said: "Isn't there a national debt? Let Jiaoziwu handle it. Part of the national debt purchased is used to fund Jiaoziwu's operations. As Jiaoziwu saves more and more money, the country will also lend money in the future. . Such as agricultural loans and commercial loans, which can also suppress high private interest rates.”

State lending is something that must be done, and the essence of Wang Anshi's reform is state lending.

In this way, because the country's interest rates are low, the people are naturally willing to seek loans from the court, and are no longer exploited by wealthy landlords at extremely high interest rates as before.

Therefore, although there are certain problems in both national debt and lending, such as supervision, corruption, bad debts, etc., compared with the good operation of the entire country's financial system, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

Otherwise, in the future, national banks around the world will not have lending business. This must be a progressive process.

"Um."

Seeing Zhao Jun's resolute attitude, Zhao Zhen did not object and said: "Okay, then listen to Da Sun. Anyway, Wang Anshi's reform was like this. Now that the government is well organized, there should be no mistakes like his."

"Well, we will officially continue to expand the scale of development next year. I must let everyone see the train in operation by the end of next year, or the year after that!"

Zhao Jun won a guaranteed vote, which also moved many prime ministers present.

them.

I really want to see this prosperous age that I have never seen before I die!