The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Wei Guangde also suggested making silver treasures of the Ming Dynasty, and stipulated the regulations of copper coins of the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, he also established a system for making money circulated in the Ming Dynasty, and prohibited the private use of privately minted coins, ingots and other items.

"Uncle, in fact, the gold collected by the imperial court does not have to be stored in the form of gold ingots. It can also be made into gold treasures of the Ming Dynasty according to the method of making money. The imperial court will also increase its profits by more than 10%.

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However, the exchange price of gold and silver is uncertain, so gold can be temporarily not included in money making, and can only be used for storage in the court and palace, or can be distributed as rewards. "

Wei Guangde continued.

Zhang Juzheng thought for a long time and then said worriedly: "Shandai, I understand what you mean.

Indeed, this can redefine the monetary system of the Ming Dynasty and rectify the local illegal gentry's private coinage.

If Ming Dynasty silver treasures can be made and enforced through the government, I am afraid there will be great resistance from below. "

When Zhang Juzheng heard Wei Guangde's suggestion for the first time, he was delighted, but upon further reflection, there were many problems.

It’s not that the idea is bad, but that in the actual promotion process, local and private resistance will be very strong.

Local opposition is because making money will seriously affect the government's income.

You must know that the finances of the Ming Dynasty were financed by local governments at all levels, and they were not financed by the imperial court as a whole.

This resulted in local governments having to levy miscellaneous taxes in addition to the taxes paid to the court every year to maintain the operation of the government.

Except for the salaries of higher-level officials, the salaries of other government personnel are expense items of miscellaneous taxes.

After a year's revenue and expenditure is summarized, if there is a deficit, I will usually increase miscellaneous taxes in the next year to fill the hole. If there is a surplus, it will fall into the officials' pockets through clever design.

This is the financial system of the Ming Dynasty.

It was originally designed in this way to minimize the burden on the people as long as the officials are dedicated to their duties and have an honest and honest work attitude.

The government designs miscellaneous taxes based on the approximate annual expenditure and distributes them to acres or people.

When a local area encounters a big project that needs to be implemented, the government will convene the gentry and village elders, and everyone will raise funds together to raise funds for good causes such as paving roads and building bridges.

When it comes to projects such as water conservancy projects, the government uses corvees to carry out the projects, and funds are also raised.

However, when the moral limits of Ming officials continued to decline, the huge loophole of miscellaneous taxes became a means for officials to make money.

It is inevitable to find ways to expand the government budget and increase the assessment of miscellaneous taxes.

After three years of clearing the prefecture, one hundred thousand snowflakes of silver were earned. This is a true portrayal of how officials in this era made money.

Among them, the burning cost of taxation has actually existed for a long time, and it did not appear after the whipping method.

After all, no local government would deposit millions of copper coins to pay taxes to the Ministry of Household Affairs in the capital. They would all convert them into silver and hand them over according to the system.

Among them, the fineness of silver is another place where officials have their hands set.

One hundred thousand taels of silver can be of high or low quality.

Although the imperial court has a system for this, you can still get a lot of benefits if you just ignore it.

The court stipulates that the silver must be 80% of the silver. Well, give the warehouse ambassador a bribe, and he will turn a blind eye and enter the warehouse with 70% of the silver.

If it's 10,000 taels of tax money, and I can earn hundreds of taels of silver from this alone, and also establish a good relationship with the warehouse ambassador, why not do it.

Of course Zhang Juzheng knew the tricks of the people below, but he was also helpless.

The law does not punish everyone, everyone is like this, even their close followers and disciples, how to punish them.

He could only turn a blind eye. As long as he did not go too far, the court would not impose punishment, and people were born with unspoken rules.

Wei Guangde proposed making money, which would not only break folk payment habits, but also break some unspoken rules in officialdom.

It is difficult for them to make profit from it.

You know, making money privately is not a small crime.

If the silver is not of sufficient quality, the warehouse ambassador can say that he is cheating and has been deceived by a mermaid, but the authenticity of the money is not a matter of cheating.

Officials who paid taxes were also charged with the same crime, which could easily lead to a serious case of confiscation of homes and extermination of families.

Because among the people, ingots and broken silver have always been used as payment methods.

Therefore, Zhang Juzheng was deeply worried about Wei Guangde's suggestion that Ming Dynasty money should be used as the only currency in circulation. It would be difficult for local officials and people to accept it.

"hehe."

Wei Guangde actually understood Zhang Juzheng's concerns, but he felt that he could not stop doing this because of this.

"Brother, you should know what the current situation of silver coins in circulation in our Ming Dynasty is like. How does it compare with the Yiren silver coins in your hand?"

Wei Guangde just chuckled and said, "I think I will go to the country tomorrow and all the nations will come to the court, but when envoys from foreign vassals buy and sell goods in the Ming market, all they see is broken silver that has been bitten by their teeth. What will they think?"

What Wei Guangde said was not nonsense.

In ancient China, only copper coins were generally made, and gold and silver coins were rarely made. They were usually only made in the palace. For rewards, the people only used broken silver.

In later generations, the gold and silver items we saw in gold shops were all sparkling and dazzling.

But whether it was in the Ming Dynasty, the previous dynasty, or the later Qing Dynasty, except for the ingots collected in the homes of wealthy families, most of them were dark.

Gold ingots are better. No matter how you refine them, silver ingots will turn into a pitch-black mess after being stored for a long time because they will oxidize.

Moreover, the ingots are only made to look good when stored in the cellar, and there are few opportunities to actually use them.

The purchasing power of gold and silver was amazing in ancient times. There were few opportunities to use ingots directly. Even if there were, they could not be used up, so they had to use special scissors to cut off a part.

Many ingots that have been passed down to later generations have pits and bumps on the edges, which means that a part was cut off to pay the bill.

Gold, due to its color characteristics, is more recognizable, but the appearance of silver may surprise people.

In later film and television dramas, the silver of the ancients was bright and shiny, and it was valuable at first glance, but it was just a prop, it was fake.

In reality, the silver circulated in the Ming Dynasty was dirty and black, with teeth marks all over it. It was not necessarily possible to recognize whether it was stone or silver when it fell on the ground.

In the pre-Qin period, with the emergence of copper, people made bronze ware and cast copper coins.

Before Qin Shihuang unified the currency, the shapes of coins in various countries were different, including knife coins, round square hole coins, shovel coins, and so on.

After the Qin Dynasty unified the Central Plains, the Qin knife coins became the universal currency.

During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the court concentrated on making coins, and the five-zhu coins were in circulation at that time.

However, until the Tang Dynasty, the nature and weight of the currency were not unified. The Kaiyuan Tongbao invented by the Tang Dynasty was a copper coin with a unified weight by the court.

During the Yuan Dynasty, the common people used silver as currency. When Kublai Khan, the founding emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, was in power, he vigorously promoted the use of silver ingots.

Why is it said that silver in ancient times was all black?

Because of the composition of silver itself, it is easy to oxidize and turn black when exposed to the air or in contact with people, which formed the black silver we see later.

In fact, even in later generations, silver jewelry also has this problem, and it will change color after being exposed to the outside for a long time.

In ancient times, silver making technology was not developed, silver was not refined pure, and the method of making silver was not standardized. Silver had all kinds of shapes, and in order to facilitate circulation, silver was often cut into small pieces of broken silver for daily consumption.

In life, there are few large ingots of silver ingots, and it is not convenient to change them when they are taken out for use.

These tiny pieces of silver, in the repeated circulation in the market, are constantly oxidized and worn, and gradually become a pile of black stone.

The scene of the ancients taking a bite of the silver in later film and television works is not fake, because silver is soft and oxidized to black.

So in order to distinguish the true from the false, the simplest method of the ancients is to take a bite, and the one that can leave a tooth mark indicates that it is indeed silver, not stone.

Over time, various pits and bumps are left on the surface of the silver, which is dirty and ugly.

Even the broken silver in Wei Guangde's pocket is actually like this.

He believes that Zhang Juzheng should have the same "stone" on him.

Not to mention that he has servants around him, does he not need to carry money himself?

Neither Wei Guangde nor Zhang Juzheng were born rich. They worked hard and slowly worked hard to get to their current positions. The habit of carrying money is not easy to get rid of.

In fact, there are also good-looking silver, that is official silver. The silver sent from the local area to the capital is the processed "snowflake silver".

The official silver has high manufacturing technology, high refining purity, and is produced with a unified mold, so the appearance is indeed beautiful, similar to the "snowflake" luster.

If these silvers are polished again, they will be exclusive to the royal family and will not easily flow into the folk.

The color of silver is related to its purity. The higher the purity, the higher the brightness and the whiter the color.

The silver dollar that Wei Guangde showed to Zhang Juzheng had a high degree of purity. Although the color was black, it was indeed more attractive than the silver taels circulating in the Ming Dynasty.

Sure enough, after being reminded by Wei Guangde, Zhang Juzheng reached out and took out a purse from his arms and took out a few pieces of silver.

In one hand was the small silver currently in circulation in the Ming Dynasty, and in the other hand was the Spanish silver dollar. He nodded slightly and said, "If it is put into the folks, everyone should like to use this."

"Yes, there should be no problem with the circulation among the folks. It is mainly the local government that can use pressure to promote it, but the matter must be settled first, and the Ministry of Works must come up with a coin-making plan as soon as possible to convert the silver in the Changying Treasury into silver treasures for circulation.

In addition to small copper coins, large coins must also be set standards, and so must silver treasures. To make a silver treasure of the size of a flat coin, there must also be a silver treasure of one tael of silver.

In this way, there is no need to use scissors to cut silver into pieces in market transactions."

Wei Guangde said.

"This matter is of great importance. I think we should go to He Qing tonight to settle the matter.

The important matter of the court tomorrow is to reward the meritorious soldiers in Liaodong, and it cannot be delayed."

According to convention, this matter will be discussed secretly in the cabinet tomorrow, and after it is settled, it will be written into a memorial and submitted to the palace.

Once the palace approves it, it will be implemented in conjunction with the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works.

Of course, if the silver in Changying Treasury is used, the Ministry of War cannot be bypassed, after all, the Ministry of War is in charge of Taifu Temple and Changying Treasury.

Seeing Wei Guangde nod, Zhang Juzheng said to Liu Shouyou on the side: "Shouyou, this matter is of great importance and must not be leaked."

"Yes."

Liu Shouyou hurriedly stood up and clasped his fists and said.

"The Jinyiwei must make preparations for this matter. There must be no mistakes in collecting gold."

Wei Guangde added, "Find out the situation of gold and silver shops in various places as soon as possible. Once confirmed, exchange it as soon as possible."

"Yes."

Liu Shouyou turned around again and clasped his fists to Wei Guangde.

"You Qi."

Zhang Juzheng shouted to the outside of the door.

"Master."

You Qi at the door came in and bowed in front of Zhang Juzheng to listen to his orders.

"Go and tell them to prepare the sedan chair. I'm going to Prime Minister Lu's residence."

Zhang Juzheng ordered.

"Master, it's getting late."

You Qi couldn't help but say something when he heard that Zhang Juzheng was going out so late.

However, Zhang Juzheng ignored him and went straight to chat with Wei Guangde again.

Seeing this, You Qi had to go out to make arrangements.

Not long after, a long line of sedan chairs and carriages were set out outside Zhang's residence, heading all the way to Xiaoshi Yongfang.

Soon, they arrived at the gate of Nanxunfang, but at this time the gate of the market had already been closed, and 50% of the soldiers of the Bingmasi patrol were guarding it.

"Who are you? Night curfew, no passage allowed."

The guards looked at the lanterns coming from a distance and shouted loudly.

Without the need for Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde in the sedan chair behind to speak, Liu Shouyou had already ridden over and threw his waist badge to the other party.

The night duty officer on the opposite side felt something unusual when he took it. He had mostly come into contact with wooden or copper waist badges used by middle and lower-level officials, which were either light or heavy.

But the one in his hand today was obviously made of different materials.

He took it in front of him and carefully examined the patterns. He instantly recognized that it was an ivory waist badge. Then he looked at the patterns on it.

A circle of patterns surrounded the seven characters engraved, "Jinyiwei Commander, Liu".

"Liu Commander"

The officer stuttered, but was interrupted by Liu Shouyou as soon as he spoke.

"Hurry up, open the door quickly."

Liu Shouyou said to the soldier unhappily.

"Yes, yes."

He quickly agreed, and the officer immediately turned around and ordered his men behind him: "Open the door, open the door quickly."

After giving the order, he immediately held the waist badge in both hands and sent it to Liu Shouyou.

Liu Shouyou reached out to take it and hung it on his waist again.

At this time, the gate of the market had been opened, and he called the sedan chair behind to continue moving forward.

When the sedan passed the gate, the officer was still smiling, but when he saw the words on the lanterns hanging in front and behind the sedan behind him, he was shocked again.

On the four corners of the lanterns, some were written with the words of a certain palace minister, a certain ministry minister, and the words of Zhang Mansion and Wei Mansion. Even a fool would know who he had stopped just now.

In Nanxunfang, these two big Buddhas live.

Seeing them go out of the west gate and go to the palace, the first thing the officer thought of was that something big had happened. The commander of the Jinyiwei led the way. Going to the palace so late, it must be something big.

After everyone left, the officer panicked and asked his men to take care of the gate of the market.

"Be alert, don't take a nap, be careful tonight."

After saying that, the officer's right hand was already on the handle of the sword behind him.

Wei Guangde took a car to Zhang Juzheng's mansion, and then the two of them left the mansion and left Nanxunfang. The news soon spread to every household in the market.

Those who can live here are not ordinary people, but dignitaries in the court.

Although they don't know what happened, they are all alert.

If they knew that the person who led them was Liu Shouyou, the commander of the Jinyiwei, they might have the same idea as the soldier of the military department.

However, to the west of Nanxunfang, there is not only the palace, but also Xiaoshiyongfang.