Yongli Ming Dynasty

Chapter 333 Financial Use
In the warm room of the Guangzhou Palace, Zhu Lang is playing with the infant Zhu Cixuan.

The baby's face was tender. Zhu Lang poked Zhu Cixuan's cheek with his finger, and his finger immediately sunk into it. Zhu Cixuan also screamed with his teeth bared.

"You've become an emperor, but why are you still so unruly?"

Ma Yuying, who was standing by, saw Zhu Cixuan crying and glared at Zhu Lang. She immediately stepped forward to drive Zhu Lang away, and then pushed the cradle to coax Zhu Cixuan into crying.

When Zhu Lang went to war last year, his wife Wang Yue was pregnant. When he returned this year, Wang Yue had already given birth to a prince. Zhu Lang looked at Zhu Cixuan, whose little hands were waving on the bed, and felt that his connection with this world had become even closer.

After Zhu Lang returned, he originally planned to name his eldest son Zhu Cihuan, hoping that the Ming Dynasty would also be as brand new as this name. However, after asking Qu Shisi and other cabinet ministers, he found that this name had already been used by Chongzhen.

After some selection, Zhu Lang decided on the name Zhu Cixuan, hoping that the Ming Dynasty would prosper under his leadership.

Zhu Lang accompanied Wang Yue and the two concubines to tease Zhu Cixuan for a while, and then Li Guoyong pushed the door and walked in.

"Your Highness, all the ministers of the previous dynasty have entered the palace, it is time to go to court."

Zhu Lang nodded, bowed to the two concubines, and then walked out the door.
After Zhu Lang led his army back to Guangzhou, he rested for five days. The officials in the court were tactful and no one came to disturb him during these five days.
Today is the first grand meeting of the court since Zhu Lang's return.

Guangdong Provincial Palace, Hall of Supreme Harmony, Zhu Lang sitting on the upper throne

The first person on the left below is Qu Shisi, followed by civil officials such as Lü Daqi and Chen Zizhuang. The first person on the right is Jiao Lian, followed by military officials such as Ma Bao, Li Dingguo, and Li Guo.
The current imperial palace in Guangzhou was originally the office of the Guangdong Provincial Government. Although the place for court meetings was called the Hall of Supreme Harmony, it was actually the lobby of the Provincial Government Office.
Zhu Lang had a plaque made and hung above the lobby, and this place became the new Hall of Supreme Harmony of the Ming Dynasty.
Since the capital was moved to Guangzhou, there have been people in the court who have been petitioning to build a new palace for the palace. Even Qu Shisi and others did not object to this, but Zhu Lang directly rejected it.

In the eyes of the ministers, the governor's office was too crowded and did not match the size of the imperial palace. However, in Zhu Lang's view, the governor's office was already very large.
Guangzhou has always been rich. The Governor's Office is located in Guangzhou City. Naturally, it is built in a very grand manner. There are various halls and official residences in the front yard, and there are also rockery and lakes in the back yard. It is really enough.

Zhu Lang only ordered a new wall to be built outside the government office to strengthen the palace's defenses, and renovated the living quarters in the backyard. Apart from that, he did not make any other changes.
When the officials of the previous dynasty saw that Zhu Lang refused to build a new palace, they immediately submitted memorials praising him. However, Zhu Lang had long been immune to these words of praise, so after submitting these memorials, he naturally kept them in his office without any reward.
The whip in the hall rang out, and all the ministers stood in awe. Su Guansheng also stepped out immediately.
Su Guansheng was in charge of the Ministry of Revenue. The first thing Zhu Lang had to understand after his return was the money and grain affairs of the court.
Su Guansheng bowed and then said

"Last year, His Highness issued an order to abolish the three taxes. When the common people heard the news, they all celebrated with joy. The tax burden on the people dropped sharply. After a year of rest, the people have gradually become content."

"Your Highness conquered Fujian and Guangdong in one battle, and defeated the Qing invaders in Sichuan and Lake last year, forcing them to not dare to look south. Last year, the fighting in the three provinces gradually subsided, and with the favorable weather, the court had a good harvest in both summer and autumn last year."

"According to the order of His Highness, last year, in addition to the land tax, the court no longer collected silver, but instead directly collected the actual rice. As a result, the Ministry of Revenue was able to store a large amount of rice last year. Now, the government vaults in the three provinces are all well stocked."

When Zhu Lang first decided to change the tax collection from silver to grain, someone in the court suggested that the common people should be allowed to choose whether to pay silver or grain.
When Su Guansheng learned about it, he immediately submitted a petition to oppose it, demanding that the court either continue to collect silver according to the old system or collect grain according to the new system, and that the two should not be mixed.

After Su Guansheng made his speech, Zhu Lang immediately understood the reasoning. If the people were allowed to choose to collect silver or grain, then in the end, all prefectures and counties would definitely collect silver, and some people would use the new system as an excuse to collect additional rice from the people.

For the clerks and gentry, collecting grain is not as lucrative as collecting silver. If the people were allowed to pay the grain directly, once the farmers paid the tax, where would the grain companies under their names go to buy the rice at a low price?

Since the imperial court said that it is OK to collect grain and silver, then let the people below voluntarily pay silver.

Zhu Lang's original intention of changing the labor service silver into grain was to save the people from being exploited in the process of exchanging rice for silver when paying taxes.
If it is allowed to pay grain or silver, then in the end, the people may be taxed twice by the clerks.
After hearing Su Guansheng's suggestion, Zhu Lang immediately set new rules, strictly ordering the three provinces to collect rice as the tax for the previous year, and not to collect silver.
Although the Ming court now occupies six or seven provinces in the south, the Guangdong provincial center was actually able to collect taxes last year from only three provinces: Fujian, Guangxi and Guangdong. And this situation is likely to continue for quite a long time.

Although the three provinces of Hunan, Guangxi and the South have been recovered, there are large armies stationed in these places. After the money and grain from these provinces are used to supply the armies in the provinces, I am afraid that there will not be much money and grain to transport to the central government.
Last year, among the three provinces, Guangdong collected 1 million shi of land tax, Guangxi collected 370,000 shi, and Fujian collected 850,000 shi.

According to the old rules, this would be all the rice that the three provinces could collect. However, last year, the court implemented a new rule that all the labor service silver in the three provinces was also collected in the form of grain. Therefore, the actual amount of rice collected was much higher.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Revenue, there were 6 million people in Fujian, Guangxi and Guangdong provinces, and each man was levied a 30-centimeter labor service. The total labor service levied in the three provinces was 180,000 taels of silver.
The 180,000 taels of silver for the male labor service were converted into one dan of grain at the rate of one tael, so another 180,000 dan of rice were collected.
Last year, the Ministry of Revenue collected a total of 2.4 million shi of rice from the three provinces, including the land tax and the labor service after deduction of grain.

After Su Guansheng reported on last year's grain collection, he continued to report on last year's silver collection.
"Last year, the government abolished the three taxes and used silver to replace grain, so the tax silver collected by the government last year was not much."

After the land tax and labor service were no longer converted into silver, the only items that the court could collect silver from were salt tax, commercial tax, and customs duties of the Maritime Customs.
The most famous salt fields in the Ming Dynasty are of course the Lianghuai Salt Fields. Among the three provinces now occupied by the Guangdong Provincial Court, Fujian Province and Guangdong Province also have salt fields, but the scale and efficiency of the salt fields in these two places are far from being comparable to the Lianghuai Salt Fields.

Last year, Fujian collected 35,000 taels of salt tax, and Guangdong collected only 30,000 taels of salt tax, for a total of 65,000 taels of salt tax throughout the year.
The salt tax was scarce, and the commercial tax was equally pitiful. Last year, the commercial tax collected in the two provinces totaled 60,000 taels, and half of this 60,000 taels of commercial tax was collected at the Guangzhou Customs.

As for why the tax revenue of Guangzhou alone could be comparable to the total commercial tax revenue of the rest of the three provinces, no one knows.

Last year, the real silver collection item of the court was still maritime trade. Last year, the court completely lifted the maritime ban and promoted the use of maritime trade pilots. Last year alone, 115 civilian sea vessels came to buy pilots and flags.
In order to encourage private participation in maritime trade, the imperial court lowered the price of purchasing a ship's guide after referring to the Zheng family's charging standards. Private ships were divided into three categories according to their size: a large ship's guide was 1,000 taels per year, a medium ship's guide was 800, and a small ship's guide was 600. Last year, the Maritime Customs Office earned 100,000 taels of silver just from selling sea flags.
The Guangdong court's ship-port system was only implemented last year. When the people heard that the court had suddenly lifted the maritime ban, they generally waited and watched the court's moves and would never easily admit their maritime merchant status to the court.

The main reason why so many boat owners came to buy the boat guide as soon as it was launched last year was that Zheng played a role in the process.
Last year, almost all of the people who went to the Maritime Customs Office to buy ship pilots and sea flags were actually ship owners who had previously purchased sea flags from Zheng.

After Zhu Lang granted the Zheng family the status of imperial merchant, Zheng Hongkui and others finally introduced the maritime trade resources controlled by the Zheng family into the court.

In fact, for Zheng Hongkui and others, this was also a last resort. The Zheng family fell apart, some people became generals of the court, and some joined the Lu Regent.

The Zheng family had lost almost all of their power on the sea and could no longer maintain order on the sea. Rather than allowing the merchants who had previously relied on them to cause chaos, it was better to present these people to the court and gain some credit in the court.

The ship owners under Zheng's command actually had no ability to resist. Although the Zheng family lost power at sea, they were still high-ranking officials in the court.
Zheng Hongkui knew their details very well. If they dared to disobey his orders, as long as Zheng Hongkui provided the list to the court, none of them would be able to escape.
The purchase of ship guides by private ship owners not only brought considerable income to the imperial court, but also provided a large amount of tax revenue to the Maritime Customs.

After the private ship owners purchased the sea flags, these ships entered the court's sight. Under the auspices of Shen Tingyang, the Guangdong Provincial Court opened ports in Fuzhou, Yuegang, Guangzhou and other places last year and established the Maritime Customs Office.

The Maritime Customs collected customs duties at a rate of 10% of the total tax rate at various ports. Last year, the Maritime Customs collected 320,000 taels of silver in customs duties alone.
If someone buys a boat guide, then someone must be going out to sea privately. Last year, Zhou Hezhi and Huang Ting led the navy battalion to patrol the seas of Fujian and Guangdong, and seized a total of 15 flagless ships.
The Maritime Customs Office also dealt with these privately-owned ships in a very simple manner. All the goods on the fifteen ships were auctioned off, and the seized ships were auctioned off by a group of ship owners who held the ship's license.
After the sale of these fifteen private ships and their cargo, the Maritime Customs received a total of 520,000 taels of silver.

Last year, the Ministry of Revenue received a total of 1.06 million taels of silver from the three items of salt tax, commercial tax, and customs duty.

Su Guansheng reported the tax income and continued to speak.

"The revenue and expenditure of the Ministry of Revenue last year were roughly the same. After paying the salaries of all officials in the court and the military pay of the armies in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, the Ministry of Revenue now has 1 million dan of grain and 500,000 taels of silver."

Zhu Lang frowned as he looked at the memorial presented by Su Guansheng. The Ming court now controlled three provinces. After a year of hard work, such a large court only had such a small amount of money and grain left. It must be unsatisfactory.
It seemed that there was still 500,000 taels left in the court, but after deducting the windfall from the auction of the smuggled ship, the Ministry of Revenue actually had no money left.

The court just implemented a new maritime trade system this year, so some people are taking chances and want to go out to sea privately.

Last year, Shen Tingyang ignored the private pleas from the court and auctioned off all the confiscated ships under pressure. The people of the two provinces saw the court's determination, and the number of people who dared to take risks next year would surely be greatly reduced.

This year the imperial court was able to seize fifteen ships to support the Ministry of Revenue, but next year it will not be possible to have such extra income.
Based on Zhu Lang's understanding of these officials in the court, if the Ministry of Revenue is really out of money next year, these people will definitely turn their attention to the inner treasury in the palace.
Zhu Lang did not mind allocating money from the inner treasury, but he could not accept the current financial situation in the court.

Zhu Lang glanced at the salt tax figures in the Ministry of Revenue's memorial and said:

"Why was the salt tax collected last year so scarce?"

Su Guansheng heard this and immediately replied

"The salt tax in the south of the court has always been in Lianghuai. Although there are salt fields in Fujian and Guangdong, they are only a supplement to the Lianghuai salt fields."

"According to the previous year's example, the annual income of the Fujian Salt Tax Administration Office was no more than 20,000, and the annual income of the Guangdong Salt Administration Office was no more than 20,000. The salt silver of the two provinces has always been small."

But Zhu Lang was unmoved when he heard this and said directly
"If this is the case, then starting from this year, the salt tax in the two provinces cannot be so low."

Su Guansheng was also slightly surprised when he heard this. The total amount of salt and silver from the two provinces in the old dynasty was only 40,000 taels. Now the Ministry of Revenue can collect 60,000 taels, which is far more than the old dynasty. However, His Highness the Regent is obviously not satisfied at this time.

Su Guansheng looked at the calm Regent above him, and suddenly felt a chill in his heart. He replied in a deep voice:
"Yes, after I leave the court, I will immediately gather people to formulate a strategy to rectify the salt bureaus in the two provinces, and I will not let those salt-related corrupt officials embezzle the imperial tax silver again."

After the recovery of Fujian and Zhejiang, the salt from Lianghuai could no longer enter the south due to the confrontation between the two sides. The salt of the three provinces now depends on the salt fields of Fujian and Guangdong.
Sha Dingzhou rebelled, Yunnan salt production almost stopped, Zhang Xianzhong occupied Sichuan, the entire Sichuan province was basically destroyed by all parties, and Sichuan salt could not leave Sichuan.
Last year alone, not only Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, but also Huguang relied entirely on Guangdong for salt supply.

Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi have a population of 6 million, Huguang has 4 million, and the total population of the four provinces is nearly 10 million.

The Ming court's salt production had always been government-run. Last year, the two provinces were responsible for the salt needs of nearly 10 million people. No matter what, it was impossible for them to collect only 60,000 taels of salt silver.

There is only one reason why the Ming court collected so little salt silver last year, that is, there are too many people sucking blood from the salt administration. However, this is normal. After all, everyone in the world knows that salt is very profitable.
In every link of salt circulation, salt field, salt guide, and transportation department, no matter which link you can get a hand in, it is enough to make people eat with oil in their mouths.

If you want to make the people in the salt fields of the two provinces spit out the silver, it is definitely not a matter of coming up with a strategy. But it doesn't matter. Zhu Lang happens to have a large army stationed in these two provinces. If they refuse to hand it over now, just kill a group of them, and the rest will naturally hand it over.
(End of this chapter)