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“The silver of Spain can be seen all over Europe.” - King Charles II of England.

This sentence is talking about the rampant smuggling in America.

In the first two decades of the 17th century, the amount of American silver imported into Spain reached more than 200,000 kilograms every year.

By the 1930s, it had dropped sharply to an average of only 140,000 kilograms per year;

By the 1950s, only 40,000 kilograms of American silver were flowing into Spain each year.

The "reduced" silver production in the Americas was initially caused by flooding in Mexico and continuous rain that caused water accumulation and landslides in silver mines. Moreover, mercury is used to refine silver, which consumes too much mercury resources, making it impossible to dig out silver mines to refine silver.

This situation is actually slowly recovering.

Why does American silver production continue to decrease? Of course it was the colonial officials who deliberately caused this!

Large amounts of silver were mined and refined without being reported to the king at all. Instead, it was traded privately and flowed into various European countries. That's why Charles II had that weird saying: Spanish silver can be seen all over Europe.

The King of Spain was confused about the situation and tightened restrictions on the galleons trade to prevent too much silver from flowing into China. In addition, the Japanese shogunate also banned daimyo from mining silver mines, which really caused a silver shortage in the late Ming Dynasty.

Forbidden City, Imperial Garden.

Song Yingxing, who has retired, took out the first edition of "Economic Knowledge", sipped tea and said: "This year, prices in coastal cities have risen sharply. The root cause is the increased inflow of silver from the Americas and Japan."

Zhao Han flipped through the manuscript and listened to Song Yingxing continue.

Song Yingxing said: "Li Quan took the fleet to trade in the Americas, which opened up Spanish officials on the west coast of the Americas to smuggling. Not only did they smuggle with Li Quan, but Spanish officials and the navy themselves also ignored the king's ban and filled the cabins. Goods and silver. However, the power of the Japanese shogunate fell, and the banned silver mines resumed operations one after another. All this silver is flowing to the coastal provinces of China."

"Having too much money is also annoying." Zhao Han smiled.

Song Yingxing added: "I have carefully reviewed the "Price Essays" over the years, taking Jiangsu, the two lakes, and Sichuan as examples. The rise in prices in Jiangsu will affect the two lakes in about two to three years, and will affect Sichuan in about five to six years. Northwest, In the southwest, the impact is more delayed."

Zhao Han said: "We can only carry it through forcefully."

There is really no way. At this time, Chinese products account for the absolute dominance in the world, and China is a net inflow of silver. In the new Datong Dynasty, sea trade became increasingly prosperous, and this situation became more obvious. The continued rise in prices was unstoppable.

The farmers are the ones suffering!

Businessmen have huge profits, and industrial and commercial workers and citizens can increase their wages. Farmers who only have grain income are the most severely affected (the increase in grain purchase prices has not kept up with the increase in commodity prices).

Of course, China is large enough to buffer this impact.

European countries are small, so it is scary to encounter this kind of situation, and a proper term was born directly - price revolution.

Due to the large inflow of American silver, there were still so many goods produced. In Spain, prices nearly doubled in the first 50 years of the 16th century. In the next 50 years, prices increased by about 60%. It was not until silver production was cut that the momentum was stopped.

France was the first to be affected, followed closely by Italy. The common people have become stupid. Their incomes have not increased, but the things they buy are getting more and more expensive.

Charles II was very lucky. The time when he returned to seize the throne coincided with the peak of British price growth. Not only does this country have to face financial difficulties, but it also has to face skyrocketing prices. Who made Britain's "price revolution" come so slowly? Spain and France have already completed their reforms.

Song Yingxing continued: "Now that the imperial court has issued gold coins again, the official price of gold and silver has been lowered, and merchants have even gone to India to trade. I heard that those Indian merchants like to pay with gold and silver coins, and gold coins account for a large proportion. In the future, not only Silver is coming in, gold is going to come in."

"What countermeasures does Song Qing have?" Zhao Han asked.

Song Yingxing said: "When collecting land taxes, we must be extremely cautious and pay more attention to local grain prices to avoid placing too heavy a burden on farmers."

Since Zhang Juzheng's reforms, China's land tax collection has been changed to currency. As for grain discounts, they vary from place to place, and officials have a lot of room for manipulation, which is always full of chaos.

The Datong New Dynasty calculated taxes based on the number and grade of fields, and the tax rate also followed the local grain prices.

Nowadays, food prices continue to rise, but farmers are often priced down when selling food. In addition, most provinces no longer collect taxes in kind, and farmers can only pay taxes with money. As the denominations of official and military tickets were changed from grain units to currency units, Datong Bank also gradually reduced its grain collection and turned grain transactions more into private activities. All of these, if not careful, will bring a heavy burden to farmers.

Studying the Qing Dynasty in another time and space, the White Lotus Uprising, the Taiping Rebellion and other movements, in addition to factors such as natural disasters and wars, the outbreak times of previous major uprisings highly coincided with the violent fluctuations in silver prices. The reason is that the collection of agricultural taxes seriously lags behind changes in prices, and farmers can only rebel if they cannot survive.

Zhao Han nodded and said, "The cabinet must communicate with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Household Affairs, and Ministry of Commerce to formulate a more detailed system to minimize the impact of prices on land tax."

It can only be alleviated but cannot be eliminated. Even in modern society, the same is true. Farmers are always the most unlucky group.

Zhao Han knew nothing about economics. Although he could understand Song Yingxing's "Economic Knowledge", he could not give any more tips. This knowledge can only be explored slowly and supplemented and developed by more scholars.

Zhao Han said: "This book is printed in 5,000 copies, half of which are distributed to various government officials, and the other half are given to private booksellers for distribution. Officials and civilians can write letters to add their opinions and submit them to the cabinet for study and discussion. In the future, the court will , discussing economics every two months.”

Zhao Han closed his eyes and thought, and then said: "Let the Datong Bank in the coastal provinces raise interest rates to absorb more deposits from merchants and people, so that there will be less silver on the market. Then use this money to purchase overseas grain and ship it to Hebei." Store it as military rations for the conquest of Mobei!"

Song Yingxing was stunned for a moment, then clapped his hands: "Wonderful, this should be included in "Economic Tips"!"

In ancient times, banks really didn’t charge storage fees for depositing money.

At least since the mid-Ming Dynasty, with the prosperity of the commodity economy, banks have to pay interest when absorbing deposits. There have also been disputes. The leader of a civil society deposited collective funds into a bank and was accused of pocketing the interest on the deposit.

With Zhao Han's limited economic knowledge, he can only think of raising interest rates when inflation occurs.

Not to mention Nanyang, with the development of Taiwan and Hainan Island, the grain output of these two places is more than sufficient, and large quantities are trafficked to mainland provinces every year. Datong Bank raised interest rates to absorb more deposits, and then lent them to the imperial court. The imperial court used them to buy grain overseas as supplies for the conquest of Mobei, which was equivalent to solving many problems at once.

No one in the civil and military circles of the Manchu Dynasty expected that the direct cause of Zhao Han's decision to send troops to Mobei was inflation.

Compared to the militaristic Mughals and the Bengal emperors, who were also expanding externally, Zhao Han's operation could throw the two brothers out of the way.

Of course, the silver used by the imperial court to buy grain will definitely flow back to the coastal areas, but at least the buffer time will be lengthened. Some of the other silver was used as military expenditures to be used in Hebei and Monan to purchase some supplies locally, which also alleviated the shortage of silver there and stimulated economic development there.

Perhaps, we can do this when we regain Xinjiang in the future, and by the way, we can also promote the imperial court's standard silver coins to the Western Regions more powerfully.

It’s okay not to go to war. The silver absorbed by interest rate hikes can be used for infrastructure construction such as roads and water conservancy, and by the way, it can also create more job opportunities. Doing so will definitely increase the court's debt, and the national treasury may never be full.

This is tantamount to changing the court's financial thinking and developing in another direction. It is completely different from the traditional treasury that always saves money and uses it when doing things. If the treasury is not enough, it will collect taxes.

What really gave Zhao Han a headache was that there were no commercial competitors in the world (the late Qing Dynasty even had a trade surplus). In the next few decades to hundreds of years, or even longer, there will only be a net inflow of silver, and if you are not careful, prices will skyrocket. How to make prices rise steadily is the key, and this can only be left to future generations to solve.

Song Yingxing sat in a carriage and was escorted home by the palace guards.

Zhao Han then went to the Yingmin Palace to work and read the work report of Kuang Hong, Governor of Palembang, and compared it with the reports of overseas territories such as Luzon, Coconut City, Semarang, Malacca, and Pattani.

After thinking about it for several days, Zhao Han sorted out his future colonial ideas.

A place with more cultivated land, a larger number of Han people, and an uncomplicated terrain. For example, Semarang, Palembang and Coconut City can be colonized quickly and violently, killing them to the end like Zhang Xianzhong, but they have to slow down when encountering mountains and jungles.

In places like Siberia and Luzon, the terrain and climate are extremely complex, and the number of Han people is relatively small. In this case, the cost of military expansion is too high. Even if the territory is conquered, there are not enough Han people to occupy it, so the indigenous people must be converted into Han people while using force to deter them.

Luzon is easy to deal with just along the coast, and there are mountains and jungles in the middle. Zhang Xianzhong cannot play with it, and he has to use both kindness and power like Zheng Guozhong.

Siberia is extremely cold, transportation of materials is difficult, and immigration is extremely difficult. Turning indigenous people into Chinese people is fundamental.

There are also Hamgyong Province and Pyongan Province in North Korea, which are highly civilized, with intellectuals who can also read Chinese characters, and the terrain is not suitable for violent rule. Then focus on giving priority to care, put education first, and just turn them all into Han people.

Zhao Han's thinking became clearer and clearer, and he wrote "Essentials of the Governor". All future overseas officials must study this book carefully.

Specific policies will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Confucianism pays attention to the mean. The mean is not to follow the crowd, but it belongs to the ignorant and makes sense based on words.

The core idea of ​​Zhongyong is the unity of heaven and man, and emphasizes the coordination of heaven, earth and man.

Doctrine in the narrow sense talks about the cultivation of human nature and how to be a gentleman.

The golden mean in a broad sense tells how to do things. To put it bluntly, you must stick to your principles and know what your goals and bottom line are. Then make the most appropriate decision based on the environment and interpersonal relationships, adapting measures to the times, local conditions, and people.

Zhao Han's colonial policy is moderate, with the core being development, and the rest depends on the situation.