The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Wei Guangde naturally knew about the Shandong incident and the Yellow and White Books that Zhang Juzheng mentioned.

When the Shandong incident was handled, Wei Guangde was still in the Ministry of Rites and had no say, but someone came to him to talk about it.

He also expressed his opposition in the cabinet through Chen Yiqin.

That was the first year of Longqing. Ge Shouli, who was still the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, opposed the implementation of the One Whip Law in the north on the grounds that "the land in Zhili and Shandong and other places is barren and the people are poor, and the number of migrants is increasing day by day, and the officials are making reforms in a disorderly manner, imposing too heavy taxes, and levying taxes unevenly. The new law does not consider the level of households, but only the amount of land, causing the people to abandon their land to avoid labor service.

South of the Yellow River and east and west of Taihang Mountain, the land is barren and people are already unable to pay the regular taxes, so how can they be subject to heavy labor service?"

In particular, Ge Shouli saw some flaws in the Single Whip Law and proposed that "craftsmen are exempted from service because they have no land. Although wealthy merchants have a lot of wealth, they are exempted from service because they have no land. As a result, farmers who are poorly clothed and work hard all year round are the only ones who suffer from this."

In addition, Ge Shouli was very dissatisfied with the different ways in which local officials handled affairs. In his memorial, he bluntly stated that "regardless of the warehouse, the number of stones, only the amount of silver per mu, causing the clerks to collude with each other, increase or decrease the amount of money, and a myriad of problems."

Because of the Single Whip Law The various drawbacks of the law, so Ge ​​Shouli stood on the side of maintaining the old law, pointing out that "at the beginning of the country, the Ministry of Revenue set the names of warehouses and the value of the number of stones, and the common people paid according to the warehouses, and the amount of debt was clear, and the law was very convenient."

69𝔰𝔥𝔲𝔵.𝔫𝔢𝔱】

Wei Guangde was of course aware of this matter. Although after he entered the cabinet, the cabinet approved the trial implementation of the One Whip Law in Jiangxi at the request of Jiangxi local authorities, he also saw the drawbacks.

In essence, if commercial taxes could be levied in addition to the One Whip Law, the tax law of the Ming Dynasty would be perfect.

Unfortunately, these two items were predetermined by Zhu Yuanzhang. Although they were not set in stone, Zhu Yuanzhang also left a loophole to allow future emperors to consider the situation and act at their convenience.

However, the latter words were selectively ignored by the civil service group, who believed that what Zhu Yuanzhang had decided was the ancestral system and could not be changed.

As for the Yellow Book and White Book reported by Chen Tang, the Nanjing Huguang Dao Examination Supervisor, Wei Guangde certainly knew about the open secrets of the officialdom.

The imperial court collected taxes according to the Yellow Book, and the local government did not follow the Yellow Book from time to time. Because the trick was on them, they also compiled the White Book privately.

When collecting money and grain and compiling corvée, officials all paid more attention to the White Book.

Chen Tang just stated the facts to the court, but he did not dare to say that the White Book would replace the Yellow Book.

When this memorial was submitted, Wei Guangde had not returned to the court, but after he came back, he also heard about it and found the memorial to read it.

"Brother Shu, do you want to take this opportunity to recompile the Yellow Book?"

Wei Guangde asked tentatively.

"It has been passed down until now, with corrupt officials everywhere, powerful people making insinuations, and countless problems.

The Yellow Book is in the hands of the village officials, who are allowed to increase or decrease it. The arrears of money and grain, the severity of the corvée, and the increase and decrease of the population are all inconsistent with the facts.

If the court relies on the existing Yellow Book to arrange things, mistakes are inevitable.

Now that the performance evaluation system has been implemented, I want to re-compile the Yellow Book and survey the land in the world.

During the Hongwu Dynasty, there were more than 8 million acres of land in the world that paid taxes. Why are there only more than 4 million and less than 5 million acres left today?

The deficit of the court was taken away by the clerks below. It's shocking to think about it."

Zhang Juzheng did not hide it. Wei Guangde dared to propose a general money law. In the cabinet, wouldn't he dare to say the various malpractices that exist in the current Ming Dynasty court?

Wei Guangde did not respond, but looked at Lu Diaoyang, who was shocked.

Zhang Juzheng also noticed Wei Guangde's gaze and looked over.

Lü Diaoyang couldn't help feeling uncomfortable under the gaze of the two.

The major events of the court are basically discussed and implemented by you two. Do you want me to be the first to take action?

Lü Diaoyang felt wronged. He was just a symbolic existence in the cabinet, doing the most work and holding the least power. Damn, these two people still wanted to use him.

Lü Diaoyang pretended to think and didn't say anything.

Wei Guangde didn't respond to Zhang Juzheng's words because the matter involved a little bit of a big deal. It's not an exaggeration to say that it concerns the whole world.

Seeing that Wei Guangde and Lü Diaoyang did not respond, Zhang Juzheng had to continue: "I remember that when Ge Yushi proposed the "One Whip Law" in the north, it was very insightful.

If the court wants to implement it nationwide, it has to grasp the real amount, and the land and population in the north are of great importance.

If we follow the current yellow book, I am afraid that there will be a big chaos."

"The north focuses on population, and the south focuses on land. Let's take advantage of the incident in She County, Nanzhili, to check the taxes and labor service in the Huidian."

This time Wei Guangde took the call. If he didn't take it again, it would become Zhang Juzheng's one-man show. Lü Diaoyang clearly didn't want to get involved in this matter.

"Let the Ministry of Revenue ask?"

Zhang Juzheng said.

"Ask and see if there is a follow-up."

At this point, Wei Guangde was stunned. There was no follow-up to this matter, which meant that it had actually been left unresolved.

In addition, the Ming Dynasty was originally a floating official, and it was unclear whether the officials in the past few years were still in office.

"The Ministry of Revenue issued a notice to ask for an investigation, and asked Minister Yin to keep an eye on it.

I feel that the people below have ulterior motives, and want to use this incident to insinuate Minister Yin and prevent the trial of the Single Whip Law in Nanzhili.

Since they have already taken action, and they are still dragging the matter down, after so many years, it is time to get an understanding."

Wei Guangde said.

"Should we send a note directly to the Ministry of Revenue or..."

Zhang Juzheng said.

Wei Guangde knew that the meat show was coming, and Zhang Juzheng wanted him or Lu Tiaoyang to come forward, but Lu Tiaoyang didn't want to get involved, and neither did he.

After thinking for a while, he said: "Let me ask the Ministry of Revenue to self-examine the documents that have been delayed over the years. Let the Ministry of Revenue write and submit the documents themselves."

Since the application has been filed in Nanjing, the Ministry of Household Affairs has kept a file, and no results have been reported after following further inquiries. According to the examination method, it must be settled as soon as possible.

Letting them investigate themselves would be a good way to reopen the matter.

The report will naturally be sent to the palace with memorials. When the time comes, it will be more binding and the Huizhou government will have no way to continue delaying the matter.

Hearing Wei Guangde give such an idea, Zhang Juzheng only thought for a moment and nodded, which was regarded as approval of the matter.

As for whether to send the note or find someone to take the message, Wei Guangde didn't care. Zhang Juzheng had many ways to spread the news to Wang Guangguang's ears.

In the following days, the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Industry were intensively preparing the policy items of the new money law, and the memorial drafted by Wei Guangde on "Reforming the Money Law" has been sent to the hands of the empress dowagers of the two palaces and the young emperor Zhu Yijun.

In Ciqing Palace, after reading the memorial, Empress Dowager Li asked Feng Bao who had sent it: "It is actually very convenient for the people to weigh silver. Why does the cabinet want to mint silver coins?"

The purpose of minting coins is to make money. Of course, this cannot be said publicly. It can only be understood in private.

However, this is naturally a bit obscure for Empress Dowager Chen and Empress Dowager Li who do not have much political acumen.

Feng Bao glanced at the two empress dowagers above, and then whispered: "I heard that Wei Guangde got the silver coins used by the Yi people from Yuegang. One silver coin weighs about one or two. It is also said that there are smaller silver coins in the West, which are used Very convenient.

Mr. Wei Ge feels that the silver ingots currently in circulation in our Ming Dynasty are of different fineness and color, especially the broken silver that is the most circulated. In order to identify the authenticity, merchants have to bite it with their teeth, which is really degrading to politeness.

Since the Yi people can think of coining coins, I, the Ming Dynasty, can also mint something more exquisite than the Yi people's silver coins.

So Mr. Wei Ge discussed the matter with Zhang Shoufu and others, and also asked the Ministers of the Ministry of Husbandry, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War to study the matter.

Finally, it was decided to mint one tael of silver coins, as well as two small silver coins of one coin and five coins. One side was engraved with the words Wanli Tongbao, and the other side was the weight of the silver coin.

At the same time, due to the proliferation of private money among the people, especially since the 34th year of Jiajing, people have openly minted copper coins privately, leading to the collapse of money law.

This time the cabinet plans to take this opportunity to take back the right of the private sector to mint private money. From now on, the coins in circulation in the Ming Dynasty can only be minted by the Baoyuan Bureau of the Ministry of Industry, and private minting of gold, silver and copper coins is prohibited.

From now on, all official money was used for circulation among the people. One silver coin was exchanged for seventy copper coins, and both silver and copper coins were collected for paying taxes and labor.

It seems that because of this matter, there was still controversy in the cabinet a few days ago. "

"That's fine too. Why are they still arguing?"

Unlike Empress Dowager Li's background, Chen came from a scholarly family, so she had seen broken silver among the people since she was a child and knew that it was ugly.

Playing with the silver coins handmade by the Ministry of Industry in my hand, I felt that this thing was very convenient.

For more than seventy cents, you can use silver coins to trade. For less than seventy cents, there are two kinds of large coins available: flat coins and five coins and ten coins. You won't always have a lot of copper coins.

However, she was still a little curious. The rules set by the cabinet seemed to be good, so there was nothing controversial about them.

"I heard that it is because of private money among the people. According to the system, one civil official's money is worth sixty cents of private money. The common people have become accustomed to having private money under ordinary money. Some small businesses do not use ordinary money, so they are considering Should new copper coins be minted under Xiaoping coins?

However, the Ministry of Industry seemed to think that this was unnecessary. After all, the cost of minting coins was not low, and the court was already losing money when casting Xiaoping coins. The reason why Master Jiajing started privately minting copper coins among the people was because the Ministry of Industry was unwilling to mint more coins. "

Feng Bao replied.

"Is there any result from the cabinet?"

This time Wei Guangde's memorial did not involve whether coins should be minted below Xiaoping coins, so Queen Mother Chen asked about it.

"Someone once suggested casting iron coins after the Song Dynasty, but iron coins are easy to rust, so they are not suitable. Later Wei Guangde said that according to the old folk practice, ten coins of treasure banknotes can be converted into one penny. However, Wang Shangshu of the Ministry of Revenue disagreed, and it seems that it has not been done yet. The results."

Feng Bao told the Empress Dowagers of the two palaces the news he heard in Ciqing Palace, and the cabinet once again convened the Ministers of the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War, and even the commander of the Jinyi Guards Liu Shouyou to discuss the next step of promoting the new money law A step of.

At first, the matter was kept confidential. As the number of officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Industry increased, the news leaked out for unknown reasons, forcing Wei Guangde to speed up the process.

The biggest impact of this law on the people is the prohibition of private money.

From top to bottom in the imperial court, there were probably not many families who had not been involved in this matter. For this reason, the government and the public were discussing it, and there were endless voices of opposition.

If this matter cannot be implemented as soon as possible, if it takes a long time, local governments may not respond. After the money law is unified, the pockets of local officials may be affected.

After all, private taxes were mainly collected in copper coins, and the payment to the Ministry of Household Affairs in the capital was in silver, which would be lost after exchange losses. The miscellaneous taxes previously levied based on this lost their basis and could only be cancelled.

There are many officials in the capital who are in charge of local affairs, such as the heads of the six ministries. Many of them are talented county magistrates selected from various counties. They are naturally very familiar with the business of making money below.

Although they did not expect it in the first two days, as the details came to light, especially after Wei Guangde asked the Ministry of Industry to mint silver coins and determined that one silver coin was equal to seventy copper coins, many sensitive officials had noticed this change.

If the news was only circulated among Beijing officials in the past few days, since yesterday the news has spread to the private sector.

"The Baoyuan Bureau is ready. As soon as the decree comes down, we can start minting coins immediately, giving priority to the minting of silver treasures to facilitate the imperial government's financial payment."

In the duty room of the Chief Assistant of the Cabinet, Zhu Heng briefly talked about the preparations of the Ministry of Industry.

The Ministry of Industry and Commerce decided on the sample coin two days ago. It was handed over to the cabinet for some modifications, and then the coins were minted a second time. Now they have been sent to the palace to wait for news. It can be said that the Ministry of Industry is fine, and they are just waiting for the Ministry of Accounts to release the silver.

Yes, the silver in the Ministry of Industry's warehouse cannot be the first batch to be minted, because it has to wait for the imperial decree.

Official coins will have the year number on them, so whether they are copper coins or silver coins, they will have the words Wanli Tongbao. Without the imperial decree from the palace, the Ministry of Industry would not dare to cast them in advance.

"One million taels of silver have been prepared and are just waiting for the decree to be handed over to the Baoyuan Bureau for casting."

Wang Guoguang, the Minister of Household Affairs, said.

As for calling Tan Lun, it was not only a matter of coin transportation safety, but also the reason why the Ministry of War controlled the largest treasury in the imperial court.

Tan Lun did not answer the call at this time, because it was not yet time for the Ministry of War to take action.

The money in Changying's treasury is originally immovable. Now we need to solve the problem of allocating money from the Department of Accounts first.

"Have you checked?"

Wei Guangde did not comment on what the two said, and looked at Liu Shouyou and asked.

"We found out that it was a supervisor from the Ministry of Industry who told the truth while drunk."

Liu Shouyou immediately stood up and replied.

Wei Guangde pressed his hand and motioned for him to sit down and talk.

"Because the news was leaked, we had no choice but to speed up the process. The court wanted to mint silver coins as soon as possible and distribute them to the people."

Wei Guangde said after Liu Shouyou sat down, "Yesterday it started to spread in the market, and last night I heard the housekeeper say that people are very panic now, worried that the imperial court's coinage is not of sufficient quality and will harm the merchants.

To be honest with you, many noble people have come to my house these days, asking about silver coins, haha."

Speaking of this, Wei Guangde couldn't help but smile bitterly.

The money of the Ming Dynasty is really fucked.

It used to be a treasure banknote, which could be regarded as making a lot of money for the people, especially those merchants who suffered the most heavy losses.

As for copper coins, the copper coins cast by the imperial court were good, but they were rarely made and could not satisfy the needs of circulation at all.

They are naturally concerned about the new money that the court will mint this time, especially silver coins.

If the imperial court had no silver and only cast a small amount, and then banned the use of broken silver and private money by the people, the consequences would be unimaginable.

It is definitely unrealistic to issue a list to calm the people at this time. After all, the court did not set a system, but instead confirmed the matter. I am afraid that the people will be even more panicked.

The only thing the imperial court could do was to promote silver coins to the public as soon as possible, so that the people could see that the fineness of the silver coins minted by the imperial officials was much better than the broken silver of varying fineness among the people.

After laughing, Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Juzheng, as if asking whether the communication between him and the person in the palace was in place.