Chapter 378 Currency and Tax (2)

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Qin Mu glanced at the ministers sitting and asked, "Do you have anything else to add?" ”

Yang Chao, the right attendant of the household department, immediately stood up and said eloquently: "Since the Hongzhi Dynasty, the annual income of the Ming court has actually been less than 100,000 taels.

On the other hand, after silver was used as the main currency, people paid more attention to the value of silver, so that a large amount of silver was concentrated and stored as private wealth by bureaucrats and merchants, reducing the amount of silver in circulation.

At the same time, the people's huge demand for silver turnover, coupled with the increasing corruption of the Ming court and the sharp increase in salaries, caused a situation in which the demand for silver exceeded the supply, resulting in a serious silver shortage in the market.

This shows that the domestic silver mining alone has been unable to meet the huge demand for silver in the country and the city, forced by the pressure of the silver shortage, the Ming court since Longqing opened the sea ban, a large amount of silver from the West flowed in, to Longqing five years of silver shortage has been greatly improved.

However, the minister believes that this is only a symptom but not a root cause, and cannot completely solve the problem of currency.

Since the beginning of Chongzhen, the world has frequent wars, natural disasters have continued, production has been seriously damaged, there is a shortage of materials, and there has been a serious depreciation of silver.

On the other hand, the number of displaced people is everywhere, the people's livelihood is poor, and the price of hired labor is low, which cannot be denominated in silver, but only in copper coins, and the demand for copper coins has increased, which has further led to the increasingly serious situation of cheap and expensive silver.

Merchants sell department stores, all of which are denominated in silver. The income is silver, which has to be exchanged for money to hire workers, and if silver is cheap and expensive, the cost will become higher, which is extremely detrimental to the already depressed economy.

On the contrary, if the silver is expensive and the money is cheap, the government is advantageous, the businessmen are rich, and it is not good for the common people. According to the law of the market, silver is used for most of the numbers. Decimal money. Ordinary people's income is mostly a small number, so they use more money, while businessmen and rich gentry use more silver, and silver is expensive. Money is cheap. The rich get richer. The poor get poorer;

When the imperial court collected taxes, they counted them in silver and then converted them into money to collect them from the common people. The amount of money converted into silver increases, and it is also extremely detrimental to the people.

However, it is difficult to adjust the price of money, so the minister believes that the fundamental solution is to unify the currency. Only by unifying the currency can we truly solve this chaotic phenomenon, stabilize the currency, and protect the interests of ordinary people. ”

After listening to Yang Chao's discussion, the ministers sitting there couldn't help but exchange their heads and ears, what Qin is now implementing is Zhang Juzheng's whip law, taxation is based on the amount of silver per mu, looking at the deeper level, to solve the problem of taxation, it is necessary to solve the monetary problem first;

The monetary problem is most likely caused by the imbalance between supply and demand, where there will be a shortage of money if there is less money, and inflation will occur if there is more money. Then there is the internal chaos caused by the inconsistency of the currency.

With the improvement of productivity, the total volume of commodity transactions is becoming more and more huge, it is difficult to maintain the stability of the currency value by relying on metal currency, especially in such a large country, once the society is stabilized, after the productivity is released, a large amount of currency is needed to trade, but China's silver and copper are not rich, and a single currency can not meet the demand, so it can only be used in silver and copper, which leads to the confusion of currency, and then causes a lot of problems.

Qin Mu said slowly: "If you want to unify the currency, you can only issue paper money. But the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties have issued paper money, especially in the Ming Dynasty, from the seventh year of Hongwu, the Ming court issued the Ming treasure banknote, and set it as the only legal currency, prohibiting the circulation of silver money, but the Ming treasure banknote soon depreciated and was resisted by the people. Ministers, what are your thoughts on this? ”

Xu Yingjie was fully prepared, and immediately replied: "Qi Qin Wang, paper money originated from Jiaozi in Sichuan in the Northern Song Dynasty, and it was first issued by the people, which is enough to show that the people have a demand for paper copying." The Daming treasure banknotes issued by the Hongwu Dynasty were boycotted by the people, which can only show that the banknote law is improper and poorly issued, rather than the problem of the banknotes themselves.

The minister summed it up, taking the Daming treasure copy as an example, its main problem is poor legislation. First, the treasure banknotes issued have no banknote and no limit, and the treasure banknotes are circulated and distributed more and less are recycled;

The imperial court used treasure banknotes to pay official salaries and purchase private products, but only a small amount of treasure banknotes were taxed, and they were unwilling to collect faint banknotes in time, coupled with poor printing and easy counterfeiting, so the number of treasure banknotes in the market was too large, which greatly exceeded the actual demand in the market.

Second, the legal system is self-defeating. For example, at the beginning of Hongwu's implementation of the banknote law, the private trade in gold and silver was prohibited, and in the second year, it was ordered that tax grain could be imported in silver;

In the ninth year of Hongwu, it was stipulated that the banknote was always folded into one stone, and in the eighteenth year, it was changed to one stone and two hundred yuan; Twenty-seven years of banning money, special banknotes, changing money and implementing the old law, after the ban on money has not been lifted, it has repeatedly minted copper coins. In this way, he backtracked and broke his trust with the people, so the money law was bad.

It is because the minister thinks that as long as our dynasty formulates a more perfect banknote law in view of the problems existing in the Ming Dynasty banknotes, it can avoid repeating the mistakes of the previous Ming Dynasty and promulgating our Daqin banknotes. ”

For Daming treasure banknotes, Xu Yingjie can analyze so many problems, which is commendable.

"Xu Shilang said it very well." Qin Mu praised this, and then continued: "As the saying goes, it is easier to know than to do, it is not enough to be able to see the problem, but also to have a way to explain the problem. Ministers, is there a solution to these problems? ”

First of all, Huang Zhenlin, who mentioned the issue of currency and taxation in the above table, came out and replied: "King Qin, the first thing is the credibility of paper money, and if the credibility problem is solved, all other problems will be solved." Throughout the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, the main reason for the depreciation of paper money is also because of the uncontrolled issuance of banknotes, therefore, the minister thinks that controlling the amount of banknotes is the key. ”

Qin Mu asked with a smile: "I believe that all the ministers know that if there is less issuance, there will be a shortage of money, and if there is too much issuance, it will lead to the depreciation of banknotes." What this king wants to ask is, how to ensure that the amount of banknotes issued is not too much and not too little, just right? ”

Qin Mu's question made the ministers present silent for a while, and generals like Liu Meng were even more half-narrowed, making a fugue too vain.

Huang Zhenlin, a member of the Ministry of Labor, replied: "Back to the Qin Dynasty, the demand for money is determined by the total value of commodities traded in the market, so in order to determine the issuance of currency, it is necessary to calculate the total value of commodities traded in the market. ”

"So how do you calculate it? The country is so big, can Huang Qing count how many things have been traded in the market one by one? ”

"This"

Under Qin Mu's repeated questioning, everyone fell into contemplation again.

Qin Mu said lightly: "Let's think about this problem thoroughly first. ”

Huang Zhenlin thought for a while and said: "Qi Qin Wang, the tax supervisors in various places can count the total amount of goods separately, from county to state, from state to government, layer by layer, and summarize, you should be able to get a rough data;

Then use this data to issue paper money, even if it is not very accurate, but it will not cause a serious shortage of money or depreciation, and the imperial court issues paper money, there is always a gradual circulation process, first issue a small amount, and then slowly replace silver money with paper money after the reputation is established;

This process will take a few years, more than 10 years, during this period, the local tax supervision will be counted every year, and the total amount of goods on the market and the annual increase and decrease rate should have an objective amount, and then calculate the amount of banknotes issued by this amount, so as not to have too much difference. ”

"That's not a bad way to go." Qin Mu nodded and asked Sima An and the others, "What do the ministers think?" ”

According to the convention, every emperor ascends the throne, in addition to having his own era name, there is one point that cannot be ignored, that is, he must have his own coin, usually in the first year after determining his own era name, he will issue and mint his own "Tongbao".

Qin Mu is only called the king now, not the emperor, so the year name is the first year of Qin, which is the same as the first year of Wu when Zhu Yuanzhang called King Wu. Therefore, there is no need to rush to mint coins.

However, the determination of the currency system is related to the regulation of market trade and the recovery of people's livelihood, and it is necessary to agree in advance.

Judging from Qin Mu's attitude, he was inclined to issue banknotes, Sima An thought for a while and said: "The minister thinks that the issuance of banknotes should be cautious, and the imperial court can first set up a banknote lifting department, and then formulate a banknote law with the three law divisions, and then issue a small amount to see the reaction of the people." When the credibility of the banknotes has been established, it is not too late to make further plans. ”

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PS: It's the 30th, it's not open today, and it's been brutalized a few times, and the ranking has been falling, it's been falling, woohoo! Continue to ask for a monthly pass, ask for a chrysanthemum!

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(To be continued......)