Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1163: Tempting Benefits
In fact, the set of gold and silver coins in front of Zhu Shenzui is the third version and also the final version.

After looking at these currencies carefully, Zhu Shenzui was quite satisfied. He picked up a silver dollar with a face value of one yuan and played with it. Suddenly, an idea moved his mind. He twisted it with two fingers, held it upright and blew it hard, then put it to his ear to listen. As the clear and melodious buzzing sound rang out, Zhu Shenzui couldn't help but smile.

His action aroused everyone's curiosity. Seeing this, Zhu Shenzhui smiled and handed the silver dollar in his hand to Hong Chengchou, nodding for him to try it too.

Hong Chengchou imitated what the emperor had just done and blew on the silver coin. When the crisp sound was heard, he was surprised and couldn't help laughing.

"This is interesting. Could this be a unique way to identify the authenticity of silver coins? How did Your Majesty know this?"

"I discovered it by accident. I found this method when I was playing with the previous two versions of silver dollars. What do you think?" Zhu Shenzhui asked with a smile.

"If we can use this to distinguish the authenticity, it would be simple, but I don't know if we can tell the counterfeit coins apart." Hong Chengchou said after a moment of hesitation.

"You are asking the wrong person, Prime Minister." Zhu Shenzhui said with a smile.

Hong Chengchou was also happy when he realized what was happening. He cast his eyes on Kang Youfu who was sitting below him. Kang Youfu stood up and said, "This is the first time I've seen this method. Please allow me to try it when I get back to see if it works."

"Yes!" Zhu Shenzhui nodded. In fact, both real and fake silver dollars can be blown, but the sound of real silver dollars is long and clear, while the sound of fake ones appears sharp and harsh or short and without aftertaste due to different silver content. Zhu Shenzhui knows this method, but others do not. After trying a few times, they will be able to figure out the difference.

Hong Chengchou agreed with this and then asked Kang Youfu: "With the current capacity of the Mint, how many of these gold and silver coins can be made in a month?"

Kang Youfu replied: "Silver coins of varying denominations are minted about 100,000 pieces per month, and gold coins are minted about 8,000 pieces. These numbers are mainly due to the limitations of the minting machine, and also due to the demand for gold and silver raw materials. Silver coins are slightly better, and the current silver reserves can still meet the demand, but the gold reserves are not much."

Following Kang Youfu's answer, everyone couldn't help but calculate in their minds. According to the monthly supply of 100,000 silver coins, if half of them were silver coins of one yuan, then the amount would be about 60,000. If the two denominations of gold coins were equal, then the amount would be 6,000.

In one month, the silver content of silver coins was 90%, and the profit of minting was 10 cents for every one-yuan silver coin minted. The profit of 60,000 silver coins was 6,000 taels. The profit of gold coins was similar, about 600 taels. In this way, the profit of minting in just one year was 72,000 taels of silver and 7,200 taels of gold.

After such calculation, everyone couldn't help holding their breath, their eyes were burning. This is not a small number! At present, the gold-silver exchange rate in the Ming Dynasty is 10 to 1. If all is calculated based on silver, the annual profit of the Mint Department alone from coin minting is as high as 144,000 taels. Of course, this number is just an estimate. There must be a certain amount of loss and other raw material consumption in coin minting. But even if these are removed, based on the current number of coins minted by the Mint Department, the profit of the Mint Department from this item is at least 120,000 taels or even more every year. Moreover, this is not a one-time deal, but a long-term deal. As long as the Mint Department keeps minting coins, the profit will continue. How can this still be a Mint Department! It is clearly a treasure pot.

And this is the current number of coins. If the problem of the coin-making machine is solved, the annual profit will be as high as 240,000 taels if it is doubled. What if it doubles again? Thinking of this, everyone's breathing became heavy. This is a huge fortune! You have to know how much the current national fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty is? Although Zhu Shenzhui has carried out many rectifications on the Ming Dynasty's finances since he took control of the government, especially vigorously developing domestic and foreign trade, he has made huge profits from it.

However, although the Ming Dynasty's finances have reversed the bankruptcy and difficulties it faced during Chongzhen's reign, and have increased dramatically from only 2 million taels at that time to nearly 19 million taels at present, more than nine times the previous amount, the Ming Dynasty's fiscal expenditure is also huge.

Previously, because of the internal bandits, the external Jiannu, and natural disasters, the Ming Dynasty could be said to be riddled with holes. Zhu Shenzhui began to deal with these situations after he became the regent. Years of war, including the restoration of local production, required the country to invest a lot of financial and material resources, and this money did not fall from the sky. If Zhu Shenzhui had not decisively launched border trade and opened the sea in Shandong to make profits through foreign trade to fill the gap, the Ming Dynasty’s finances at the time would not have been able to support it. At present, these situations have greatly improved, but the damage was too severe before. Although the production in the northwest and Central Plains has gradually recovered, it is temporarily unable to feed back to the court. Not long ago, the army was used in Liaodong. Although the Ming Dynasty happily killed the Jiannu, who was a confidant of the enemy, who knew how much Zhu Shenzhui paid to support this war? Not to mention other things, the expenditure on money and food alone almost consumed the accumulation of the previous few years, and now there is not much money in the treasury.

In addition, the amount of tax revenue collected from local areas each year is not that much. The largest source of income for the court is still commercial taxes from Jiangnan and domestic and foreign trade. Especially in recent years, foreign trade has developed extremely rapidly, which has barely filled the fiscal gap and caused the amount of fiscal revenue to continue to increase.

Even so, the current fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty is still not as high as the highest amount in the 2295.3th year of Emperor Shenzong's reign, which was million taels. However, it is not far from this number, and don't forget that the potential of the Ming Dynasty has not yet been tapped. Some provinces have not fully recovered and still rely on the support of the court. The increase in local revenue will feed back to the court only when the situation in these provinces has improved. The situation is naturally different.

In addition, the commercial tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty is increasing, and Zhang Xijun's Zongli Yamen will soon complete the establishment of the five major trading ports and customs. By that time, the financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty will increase significantly, and the financial problems that have been plaguing the Ming Dynasty will be completely solved.

But even so, it was still not enough for Zhu Shenzhui. Zhu Shenzhui knew better than anyone how great the potential of the Ming Dynasty was. You should know that the fiscal revenue of the Qing Dynasty in the middle period was about 80 million taels per year, which was four times that of the Ming Dynasty. At its peak, it even exceeded 90 million taels. This number was really amazing.

Even the backward Qing Dynasty could collect so much tax, so why couldn't the Ming Dynasty, which was more advanced than the Qing Dynasty in terms of ideology and technology? Moreover, Zhu Shenzhu had been adjusting the court's policies over the years, constantly suppressing the local aristocratic families in Jiangnan, including supporting and dividing the merchants. Based on his understanding of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue should increase to 30 to 35 million taels per year in a few years. This is far from the maximum amount. If the current situation continues to develop, it is certain that it will eventually reach or even exceed the amount of the historical Qing Dynasty. As for the upper limit, it is unknown.

In terms of current fiscal revenue, the Ming Dynasty was short of money everywhere, and there were too many places to spend money. So when everyone realized that the Mint could earn at least hundreds of thousands of taels a year, and hundreds of thousands or even nearly a million taels in the future, they all became jealous.

"Your Majesty, I think the income from the Mint should belong to the Ministry of Revenue. Right now, expenditures in all aspects are huge, especially the establishment of five trading ports by the Zongli Yamen some time ago. The Ministry of Revenue has spent a huge amount of three million taels. As a cabinet minister and the Minister of Revenue, I should make overall plans for the court. I ask Your Majesty to use the income from the Mint to fill the needs of the Ministry of Revenue." Yang Sichang was the first one who could not sit still. He stood up and saluted the emperor.

Although Yang Sichang has entered the cabinet, he still holds the post of Minister of Revenue. The Ministry of Revenue is in charge of finances, and all expenses of the court, including those of local governments, are paid by the Ministry of Revenue. To be honest, it has not been easy for him to do this job as Minister of Revenue over the years. Although the Ming Dynasty's finances have been improving under Zhu Shenzhui's leadership, there are too many places where money needs to be spent. Yang Sichang has been robbing Peter to pay Paul over the years and has managed to maintain a balance by moving funds around. However, a battle in Liaodong not long ago emptied the money and grain accumulated in the treasury for several years. Yang Sichang is in a dilemma. Now that he knows about the income from the Mint, how can he let it go?

"Your Majesty, I think the Mint is no longer under the control of the Ministry of Revenue, so there is naturally no need to hand over the profits to the Ministry of Revenue." As soon as Yang Sichang finished speaking, Qian Qianyi jumped out.

Originally Qian Qianyi was very proud of himself for joining the cabinet. In his opinion, after Wen Tihen came to office, the cabinet added new members, and the emperor did not choose anyone else but specially appointed him to the cabinet. Qian Qianyi then became the cabinet elder, and was very proud of himself.

Being a cabinet minister has been Qian Qianyi's long-cherished wish. As early as more than ten years ago, during the reign of Chongzhen, Qian Qianyi had an opportunity to join the cabinet. Unfortunately, he lost this opportunity because of Yang Sichang. Not only did he fail to join the cabinet, but he was disliked by Chongzhen and was directly sent to Nanjing to retire.

Qian Qianyi has always been upset about this matter. In his opinion, it was Yang Sichang who caused him to lose his position as a cabinet minister. However, Qian Qianyi did not expect that it was also because of him that Yang Sichang was also unable to join the cabinet. The fight between the two ended up hurting both sides, and no one gained any benefit.

No matter what, Qian Qianyi had never dealt with Yang Sichang, his enemy, so he was relieved to be in the cabinet first. He felt that the emperor valued him more, otherwise why did he only allow him to join the cabinet as an additional member? He became a cabinet elder, but Yang Sichang remained the Minister of Revenue, and the status of the two people changed completely.

Unexpectedly, Qian Qianyi's pride did not last long. After the cabinet was adjusted, Yang Sichang was also included in the cabinet. Qian Qianyi could not accept this result. Although Qian Qianyi did not openly oppose Yang Sichang, after all, Zhu Shenzhu had specially reminded the two of them to put aside their past grudges and work together for the country in the cabinet, how could Qian Qianyi bear this in private? It was fine when there was nothing wrong, but once there was something wrong, Qian Qianyi would naturally make some trouble for Yang Sichang, even if he did not benefit from it. As long as he saw Yang Sichang being humiliated, Qian Qianyi would be happy.

(End of this chapter)