Emperor Zhengde

Chapter 257 Different Contents of Memorials
"The Japanese love war. They have a samurai system that emphasizes loyalty. If we don't eliminate it, I'm afraid it will cause endless harm to our Ming Dynasty. You must use the military force of your grain bureau to gradually eliminate this system. Also, Korea has been peaceful for too long and is unaware of the danger. It even claimed that Liaodong is its homeland. It should also be taught a lesson. The natives of Luzon and Java often oppress our Han people, and they should all be taught a lesson!"

"Not only that, these people who are not from our tribe are all ignorant and warlike, and they don't do anything productive. It's not good for them or for us. We have to civilize them, turn them into farmers, let them farm the land, get rid of their hostility, and make them stupid. Don't even think about becoming a prince or noble. What kind of noble is a place like this? Implement the road permit system. As long as the people are captured by your grain bureau, let them stay in the fields honestly, register them into villages, and implement the Lijia system! You can open a Confucian school!"

"In short, establishing farmlands outside the country, developing agriculture, and opening factories and promoting the study of various trades within the country are the established national policies that I have agreed upon with the cabinet. Your Grain Industry Bureau bears a huge responsibility in this national policy, and you must complete it well!"

"Of course, the main goal is to increase the grain supply to the Ming Dynasty. If you can win, you can seize people and land to grow food on your own and establish self-government. If you can't win, you can use silver to buy it. How to use it is up to you to decide!"

Li Chongsi would never have thought that the words spoken to him by the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzhao would make him one day in the future hold a gun in one hand and a hoe in the other, and ask the local natives whether they wanted to live or die. If they wanted to die, he would shoot them to death, and if they wanted to live, they would take the hoe and farm the land honestly. As a result, he transformed the barbaric and backward areas into Confucian societies based on agricultural civilization.

Zhu Houzhao's current goal is indeed to develop agricultural civilization outside the Ming Dynasty and industrial civilization within the country. He would use maritime trade to dump Ming Dynasty's industrial products abroad and import agricultural products from abroad into the country. As a result, the wealth of the people of the Ming Dynasty would be improved, and they could even get rid of the days of relying on farming for their livelihood.

of course.

It is not difficult to establish farmland outside the country and it is not difficult to let the natives farm the land, but it is still difficult to develop industry and commerce within the country.

because.

As a self-sufficient agricultural society, the Ming Dynasty had almost no commercial activities. The "One Whip System" had not yet been implemented, and even taxes were paid in kind, such as grain and cloth.

Fortunately, due to the progress of industrialization in the Ming Dynasty, especially the mechanization of the textile industry, the cloth produced by families cannot be compared with the cloth produced on a large scale in factories in terms of quality or production cost, resulting in a sharp drop in cloth prices. People generally prefer to buy cloth with their own money rather than actively produce it.

This has led to an increase in currency trading volume.

In addition, with the increase in domestic factories and engineering construction projects, farmers gradually began to become workers, and the products of their labor changed from grain and cloth to silver, which also led to an increase in currency transactions.

"People all over the world now make a living by earning money, but the power to mint silver and money cannot be controlled by the imperial court. This is very scary. Since the opening of the sea, more and more silver has entered the territory of the Ming Dynasty every year. Once all this silver becomes money, it will make everything more expensive! Therefore, the reform of the money law needs to be implemented immediately!"

Zhu Houzhao said this to officials from the cabinet, the Ministry of Revenue, the Royal Bank and others during a court meeting.

"Your Majesty is right. In the past dynasties, some used iron coins and some used copper coins. Iron coins are too heavy, but copper coins are easy to privately mint. Pure silver coins are also easy to privately mint. Baochao was issued in the early years of the country, but it has now been abandoned by the people!"

Wang Qiong said.

Zhu Houzhao nodded and said: "After the court discussion is over, I will issue an edict to stop issuing banknotes! So as not to hurt the people again."

"Your Majesty is wise!" All the ministers nodded in agreement.

Zhu Houzhao waved his hand and continued, "I went to the Ordnance Bureau to inspect a few days ago. They have been able to refine something called zinc. They used condensed air to control the temperature and finally obtained this thing. This thing can be combined with copper to form brass, and can also be combined with copper and silver to form a silver-copper-zinc alloy. I think it is best to use this alloy to cast new coins. Silver is the main component, so it is not easy to be counterfeited!"

"In this case, private individuals will no longer be able to mint coins, and the world's currency can naturally be unified!" Liu Yu also echoed.

"In that case, you will start to deal with this matter. The Baoquan Bureau will be changed to the Central Bank of Ming Dynasty. Xu Jing will be in charge of this bank. This bank will be responsible for issuing the currency of the world. Only the Central Bank of Ming Dynasty is allowed to issue currency. Any other government offices or even private issuances will be severely punished! As for the specific new currency sample and the first batch of issuance, we will discuss it in detail later!"

After Zhu Houzhao said this, Xu Jing and others hurriedly agreed, thinking to themselves that His Majesty was wise in not allowing the Royal Bank to issue new currency. This meant that this bank, which did not fully represent the court, could not make profits for itself by issuing a large number of coins.

In order to ensure the smooth implementation of the Ming Dynasty's currency reform, Xu Jing eventually resigned from his position at the World Investment Bank and began to manage the Ming Central Bank. He personally allocated craftsmen from the Military Equipment Bureau to work with craftsmen from the Baoquan Bureau to produce a batch of new currency samples.

Zhu Houzhao had only his own portrait printed on the silver dollar, and did not have Zhu Yuanzhang's portrait printed on it. This was also to avoid giving the world the impression that he was still an emperor who attached great importance to the ancestral system. By printing only his own portrait, he wanted to tell the world who the real great emperor of the Ming Dynasty was.

The Central Bank of the Ming Dynasty spent half a year producing the first batch of silver dollars.

These banks determined the quantity after inferring the currency volume based on the inflow and outflow of money from the Royal Bank and the World Investment Bank. They also reserve gold of the same price. Naturally, there is no need to worry about price fluctuations after issuing the funds.

Just after August 15 of the 12th year of the Zhengde reign, Zhu Houzhao issued an edict to the whole country, stating that starting from the 13th year of the Zhengde reign, silver was no longer allowed to be used as currency, and the newly minted silver dollar was the only legal tender. He also required the people of the country to quickly go to banks to exchange silver dollars, and required that except for the land tax, which could still be collected as grain, all other taxes should only be collected in silver dollars. Starting from August 15 of the 12th year of the Zhengde reign, the Royal Bank, which was mainly responsible for lending to industry and commerce, began to lend to merchants and dignitaries in silver coins.

The World Investment Bank, which was mainly responsible for construction investment, began to lend silver coins to the Infrastructure Bureau, local governments and even foreign vassal states.

Besides.

The salaries of officials and even the rice and silver dollars of the princes were no longer distributed by mixing together grain, cloth, pepper, and banknotes, and there was no need to distinguish between full-color and discounted-color.

The unified currency system is meaningful. It makes commercial activities in the Ming Dynasty much cheaper and is more conducive to the circulation of goods.

Of course, compared to paper money, transactions with silver dollars are still less convenient, especially for bulk commodity transactions, as you cannot carry thousands of kilograms of silver dollars.

However, the Ming Dynasty cannot issue paper money now, because since the Yuan Dynasty until the present Ming Dynasty, the imperial court has messed up paper money, causing both officials and ordinary people to be extremely distrustful of paper money, and would rather trust the bills circulated within a few commercial banks.

"Yesterday, I stayed overnight at Yuxiang Pavilion, spent three silver dollars, and got a Japanese girl to serve me. She is as tall and straight as Mount Tai rising from the plains. My old roots are almost broken by her and I am forced to become an inner servant!"

Although Zhu Houzhao now let many memorials go through the cabinet and other departments, he still allowed a group of officials from the Loyal Emperor Society to make secret reports to him and report to him on new things other than their main jobs. This also made it convenient for him to have an extra pair of eyes to observe the world carefully besides the Western Factory.

The memorial that Zhu Houzhao saw now was the one from Qin Jin, the governor of Huguang.

Qin Jin was a romantic, humorous, and even bold person. Ever since he first conveyed some dirty jokes to Zhu Houzhao in a secret report and was not reprimanded by Zhu Houzhao, he became more and more bold and reported all his romantic affairs with prostitutes to Zhu Houzhao.

Therefore, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but laugh after seeing Qin Jin's memorial, and he just picked up the pen and replied: "Next time, try it, use pure silver to meet the girl, will she be willing to squeeze your old roots?"

A few months later, the governor of Huguang, Qin Jin, reported back: "Since the silver dollar became popular throughout the country, the silver dollar has been issued in small quantities, while the silver in the market has gradually increased. Private individuals can only cast silver but not silver dollars, so the silver dollar is expensive and the silver is cheap. I am not allowed to enter the secluded places with silver in my disguise, and I am even despised. I have to show my official seal to have a meeting in Wushan!"

After seeing Qin Jin's reply, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but laugh: "It seems that Yin Yuan has been recognized by the people. It's rare that the prostitutes in the brothels also trust Yin Yuan. Remember to give more money next time you go!"

then.

A few months later, Qin Jin reported again: "I have received an order to increase the reward by three silver dollars. The courtesan is very happy!"

"Ridiculous! This guy is getting bolder and bolder!"

Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but laugh and curse. At this time, the queen who was accompanying him looked over and asked, "Who are you calling bold, Your Majesty?"

"Huguang Qinjin, I will also give you three silver dollars, my beloved concubine, are you willing?"

Zhu Houzhao showed the memorial to the empress. After reading it, the empress blushed and said angrily, "Your Majesty, you are comparing me to a prostitute!"

"Then I won't give you silver dollars, you have to do it yourself," Zhu Houzhao said.

Zhu Houzhao still managed to maintain a trace of rationality, picked up the red pen and continued to write on Qin Jin's secret report, and replied: "Now the patent law has been passed throughout the country, and I asked you to apply for a patent for the secret method of making women's veils!"

The patent bill that Zhu Houzhao mentioned has indeed begun to be implemented. In the past, craftsmen who possessed core technologies would keep their skills to themselves and would not grant them to others. Some would even only pass them down to their family. This has a lot to do with the lack of patent laws. After all, as a craftsman, one can only rely on one's core skills to support his family. Once someone steals their skills, the loss will outweigh the gain. However, with a patent law, this problem can be avoided.

Moreover, this can greatly promote the enthusiasm of the people to promote scientific creation and make people realize that there is also a way to get rich in academia.

Of course, to encourage technological innovation in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Houzhao did not just establish the patent law. Now, the first winner of the Royal Highest Science and Technology Award is about to be announced.

Thanks to book friend 20170928151418581 for the first reward of 1000 Qidian coins this week, yay!
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(End of this chapter)