bookrandom Chapter 140 Spending Money Rolls Like Running Water
Chapter 140 Spending Money Rolls Like Running Water
Chapter 140 Spending Money Rolls Like Running Water
Wait for Zhu Daohua to sit down.
Luo Fangbo began to vomit bitterness, counting with his fingers how much money the Ming court can spend now.
indeed.
Compared with the Qing Dynasty.
Although the fiscal revenue of the Great Ming Dynasty was much higher, the expenditure was also much higher than that of the Great Qing Dynasty.
The bulk of this year's expenditure is mainly in several aspects.
The first is military spending.
In the battle of Jiangxi with the Qing Dynasty, the 10,000+ army consumed a lot of people eating horse chews.
At the same time, there are subsidies for wounded soldiers and pensions for fallen soldiers.
In addition to the consumption of firearms, artillery, and ammunition for war, as well as transportation costs, the employment of hundreds of thousands of migrant workers and auxiliary troops was also pulled from the plate of military expenditures.
Coupled with the completion of the large-scale military expansion last year, the army expanded from 3 to 20 in one breath.
In addition, there are still many green battalion soldiers who have surrendered.
In addition, the Ming Dynasty Navy will also carry out the reform of iron armor.
It is estimated that 20 Wei-class ironclad ships will be built in the early stage.
This counts.
The Ming Dynasty's military budget of 600 million Ming Yuan last year was about to bottom out, and for this reason, it also issued 300 million ten-year special national bonds for war.
Last year, the military alone spent almost 1000 million yuan, 600 million yuan from the finance department, and 300 million yuan from the issuance of bonds.
Then there is local reconstruction.
Jiangxi was basically smashed to pieces. Within two or three years, the entire province of Jiangxi would have to provide financial subsidies from the Ming court, and it was unlikely that they would be able to collect taxes.
Besides.
Within this year, the five and a half provinces of northern Fujian, Zhejiang, Hubei, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan will be conquered.
Northern Fujian and Zhejiang are fine.
The damage is not too big, the regiment training in these two places has shrunk, and the Fujian regiment has shrunk to the city of Fuzhou, headed by the Jinghai Hou Shi family of the Qing Dynasty, with a total number of more than 6 people.
The Zhejiang regiment practiced shrunk to Hangzhou, headed by Sun Shiyi, the governor of Zhejiang in the Qing Dynasty, with a total number of more than [-] people.
Now the two cities are mainly besieged rather than fought, and the political offensive is the main focus.
However, the possibility of using force cannot be ruled out.
The two places in Yunnan and Guizhou are already poor, so we can't expect to get any profit from these two provinces.
Hubei and Sichuan were originally rich and prosperous.
But it was destroyed by the White Lotus Sect, and there was also the Sichuan regiment training of the Qing Dynasty in Chengdu, which had to be solved.
To win and stabilize these provinces will cost at least two or three million Ming Yuan.
If it is necessary to pay for military expenses, local consolidation and reconstruction expenses.
That other expense made many senior officials of the Ming Dynasty feel that it was unnecessary.
These are the two policies currently being tried by the Ming court.
One is the policy of "nourishing honesty" and the other is the policy of "brilliant officials".
The so-called policy of maintaining integrity means that the Ming court greatly increased the salaries of officials, at least much higher than that of the Qing Dynasty.
It is said that officials in the Qing Dynasty were corrupt, but objectively speaking, based on the salaries of officials in the Qing Dynasty, if an official was not corrupt, his basic life would be a problem.
However, the Qing Dynasty was originally a system in which the Eight Banners and the Han gentry lay on the blood of the ordinary Han people, and everyone happily shared the accounts together, so naturally it didn't matter whether there was corruption or not.
Moreover, officials have so many ambiguous issues, which is also conducive to the court to make decisions.
But the current Ming court can't be like this, because Zhu Daohua wants to develop industries, and the businessman is most afraid of bureaucrats.
The magistrate who ransacked the house, and the county magistrate who exterminated the family.
The merchants in the Qing Dynasty were all parasites clinging to the bureaucracy and imperial power. Therefore, even though the commodity economy in the Qing Dynasty was prosperous, it failed to develop capitalism.
Therefore, Zhu Daohua must maintain the integrity of the bureaucracy—of course it is impossible to completely eradicate it, but at least the greed of the bureaucracy must be suppressed.
The method is also to learn from the modern ones, that is, to establish a supervision system, to support honesty with high salaries, and to establish retirement pensions for honesty.
The supervision system includes supervision in office and accountability after leaving office.
The pension is that after the official retires, if there is no problem of corruption, he can receive a monthly sum and [-]% of the salary he received in his last official position as the "cleanliness fund".
Through the system to suppress corruption as much as possible.
Corruption cannot be eradicated, of course, human nature is greedy.
Luo Fangbo and others agree with high salaries and cleanliness of corruption.
What makes them quite difficult to accept is the policy of "scholars become officials".
That is to say, as long as you pass the provincial examination and get the title of scholar, you can get an official.
It is to go to the township and township level to become a small local official to replace the previous clan and gentry rule over the county level.
This policy was first tried out in Guangzhou Prefecture.
The effect is not bad.
Corruption, oppression of civilians and the like cannot be said to be non-existent.
But it is always better than using officials to govern the people before.
The situation in this regard.
Zhu Daohua can get it through the secret agents of Jinyiwei, the investigation of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and even the interviews and reports of reporters from "Ta Kung Pao" and "Sun Moon Daily".
And this kind of official system is relatively clean.
Zhu Daohua also expected it.
Because those who can be admitted as scholars in the Guangzhou government are all the sons of local landlords and businessmen in Guangzhou. They have just become officials, and they still have some confidence in their future. They all expect to be promoted in high school in three years.
If at this time, because of greed for a small amount of money, the case would be lost for the rest of his life.
In general.
Only when the future is bleak and there is no hope of promotion.
These officials will be cruel and start to make a lot of money.
For example, explain the officials of the Qing Dynasty.
These officials are actually part of the bureaucratic system, but they are always at the bottom of the bureaucracy, and there will never be room for advancement.
Therefore, the means of making money that these officials invented to exploit the people are really varied.
So Zhu Ming's talented officials just got official, on the one hand they didn't learn how to make money, on the other hand they cherished feathers more and didn't dare to make money.
In addition, Zhu Ming's system is also a multi-pronged supervision bureaucracy.
There is the Metropolitan Procuratorate inside, and there are newspapers and other public opinion supervision outside.
At the same time, there are two newly established institutions in the local area, the "Commercial and Taxation Bureau" and the "Yili Conference".
The former is an organization organized by the Ming court to discuss business taxes with merchants from all over the country. With this organization, merchants have more or less contacts with the Ming court, and local officials and officials will have a little bit of hesitation if they want to bully and exploit merchants casually.
The latter is a non-governmental deliberative structure set up at the central and local levels after Zhu Daohua decided to establish rituals.
The main members are local influential scholars, powerful families, and some Ming soldiers who retired due to injuries (these noble families usually have a lowest-level gentry).
This is actually the embryonic form of the central and local councils of the Ming Dynasty.
And now the agency is more of an opinion-gathering agency.
The ceremony of the Ming Dynasty is to extensively solicit suggestions and opinions from all walks of life in society.
In the end, it was gathered to Zhu Daohua, and after Zhu Daohua discussed with his Ritual Making Association, it was stamped with the seal of King Ming.
Now this organization has begun to operate in various parts of Guangdong.
In addition to discussing rituals, it is also open to spectators. This is also a channel that allows the people at the bottom to speak directly to the Heavenly Listening.
Unconsciously.
This is the Zhu Ming Dynasty.
There is even the danger of embarking on the evil path of "parliamentary constitutionalism"!
Under the superposition of these several reasons.
Although the vast majority of bureaucrats in the new Ming Dynasty came from intellectuals in the Manchu and Qing era, the overall bureaucracy is not bad.
I don't know how many times clearer it is than Manqing.
Much better than European countries.
But the only downside is that it's too expensive.
High salaries require money to maintain integrity, and scholars require money to be officials.
This looks like he is about to follow in the footsteps of Zhao Song's redundant officials.
The whole province of Guangdong spends so much money. Wouldn't it be even more unbearable to promote this scholar as an official in Hunan in the next step?
"Military expenses require money, and raising officials requires money. Now the court's budget for this year is basically going to be spent. Next, it will cost money to stabilize Jiangxi, collect northern Fujian, Zhejiang and other provinces, and Hunan will also implement the policy of scholar-officials. , it costs money even more, and there are places where money is spent everywhere."
Luo Fangbo said with a sigh, then looked at Zhu Daohua. ,
"Your Majesty, you are the richest man in Ming Dynasty, why don't you give some money to the court to fill this hole?"
Zhu Daohua immediately waved his hands and said: "It is necessary, although the lonely king has money, but the money is my personal, and I must strictly distinguish between public and private, how can I learn from the Qing Dynasty and blackmail merchants' money at every turn?"
"This head cannot be opened. The money of the Ming court can only come from legal and compliant channels."
Luo Fangbo couldn't help smiling wryly when he heard this.
It's really interesting that you said that this is King Zhu Daming.
Are you an ordinary businessman?
You are King Ming!
The entire Ming court is yours, so what if you pay for it?
Zhu Daohua seemed to see what Luo Fangbo was thinking.
He stood up and said, "Master Zuo, you must think that the Ming Dynasty belongs to the lonely king, so it's only natural for me to contribute some money, right?"
Luo Fangbo and Ye Dodge looked at each other and blinked.
Is not it?
"This is absurd. The world is the world of the people in the world. It is said that the world is the public. The solitary king establishes rituals, clears the rules of rituals, and establishes order. Everyone must respect the rituals and act according to the rituals, so that the world can be orderly. The emperor What belongs to the emperor, what belongs to the imperial court belongs to the imperial court, what belongs to the common people belongs to the common people, and the solitary king makes rituals. The most important aspect is to clarify public and private property rights and property rights.”
Seeing Luo Fangbo and Ye Daoqi still looked puzzled.
Zhu Daohua sighed inwardly.
"I understand, Your Majesty, what you mean is that your internal money and the imperial treasury are not the same thing and should not be confused." Ye Daoqi said.
"Yes, that's about it."
"That's great. The imperial court can issue special national bonds. If you pay for the purchase, you will be given seventy-eight million yuan first, which will be repaid in 800 years."
Zhu Daohua squinted at Ye Daoqi.
The boy is truly a genius.
This is taking the lonely king as a sheep.
"The lonely king does not do business that obviously cannot return the capital." Zhu Daohua said, "However, it is not impossible to issue bonds."
Zhu Daohua paced back and forth a few steps.
"In this way, the cabinet will first issue 600 million Ming Yuan ten-year national debts in the name of the court, the lonely king will claim 300 million, and the other 300 million will be distributed to the Guangdong market. If the lonely king buys it, other businessmen will definitely follow suit."
This is true, now everyone on the ground in Guangdong does not know that King Ming is the God of Wealth of the big guys.
Those who do business with King Ming make a lot of money.
"In addition. To reduce the issuance of Ming Yuan silver coins and increase the issuance of Ming Yuan bonds, the Gu Wang Council will authorize a "Bank Law", and the imperial court will authorize the Royal Bank of Ming Dynasty to have the right to issue Ming Yuan bonds."
"How is the authorization fee calculated?"
Luo Fangbo said immediately.
"Calculated according to the amount of banknotes issued, the imperial court collects tax on banknotes issued in proportion. The amount of banknotes issued must be linked to the amount of reserves absorbed."
Zhu Daohua said.
(End of this chapter)