Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 457 Population Census and Financial Statements (6K)

The end of the second year of Kaitai passed quickly.

Just after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, heavy snow began to fall in the capital city again.

Li Yi stood under the eaves, gazing at the vast snow scene in the distance with a sad look in his eyes.

The palace walls and golden tiles are covered with white snow, which is extremely beautiful.

"The snow is getting heavier!"

Li Yi pulled his white fox fur cloak closer, his expression somewhat solemn.

Wang Zhong on the side also spoke in agreement.

"Yes, Your Majesty, when we got up this morning and swept the snow, the snow in the palace was almost a foot thick."

Li Yi nodded and said.

"Send someone to the capital to check and see what the snow situation is like there."

"Then we will arrange for people to clear the snow from the streets of the capital and distribute porridge. It's New Year's Day now, and we don't want people to freeze to death or starve to death."

Upon hearing this, Wang Zhong immediately responded.

"Your Majesty is wise."

"I thank your majesty for his grace on behalf of the people of the capital!"

Hearing this, Li Yi just laughed.

"Grace what!"

"It's just ordering people to distribute porridge. This is what I, as an emperor, should do."

After saying this, Li Yi turned around and went back into the hall.

After returning indoors, the temperature immediately rose.

After Li Yi ascended the throne, although he did not build a palace for himself on a large scale, he did carry out some renovations to the Old Summer Palace after moving in.

For example, installing floor heating, installing water supply and drainage systems, installing flush toilets, installing circuit systems, etc.

Li Yi tried his best to make the Old Summer Palace more livable so that he could live more comfortably.

Li Yi doesn't like luxury, but he also doesn't like suffering.

After entering the room, Li Yi casually took off the cloak he was wearing and threw it to Wang Zhong who was serving beside him. Then he walked to the desk and began to deal with the official business that had been piled up during the New Year holidays.

The first thing placed in front of him was the current census report of the Tang Dynasty.

After Li Yi ascended the throne, he ordered people to start a census and count the population under the rule of the Tang Dynasty.

Now, there is finally a result!

Li Yi flipped through it casually.

[Report on the results of the first population census in the Tang Dynasty]

[As of the second year of the Kaitai reign of the Tang Dynasty, the total population under the rule of the Tang Dynasty was over 375.21 million.]

[Among them, the number of males is 51.2 million, accounting for % of the total population. ]

[The number of women is 48.8 million, accounting for about % of the total population. ]

[The number of young men and women between the ages of 20 and 40 accounts for 62% of the total population. ]

In general, although the current gender ratio in the Tang Dynasty is somewhat unbalanced, the overall population structure is still very healthy.

There is no such thing as an aging problem!

The main reason why there is not much imbalance is that the war has just ended.

From the Jintian Uprising to the Tang Dynasty's conquest of the world, the Tang Dynasty, the Heavenly Kingdom, the Qing Dynasty, various rebel armies, and various forces fought and killed each other in the Central Plains for five or six years.

It has greatly consumed the number of adult males!

Otherwise, the gender imbalance in the Tang Dynasty would only be more serious than it is now.

It is easier to understand why aging has not occurred.

Nowadays, the average life expectancy of ordinary people is only 50 or 60 years old. People die before they reach the age of aging, so how can the problem of aging arise?

I don't have that condition!
However, although the current population structure of the Tang Dynasty is very healthy, Li Yi does not feel happy.

Because, too many people will cause worries!
He has to find a way to create jobs, stimulate employment, and support so many talents.

Otherwise, these high-quality labor forces will become factors of social instability.

Well, this is also the reason why Li Yi is determined to develop industry and actively promote outward immigration.

To put it bluntly, it is to feed more people.

Under the current productivity conditions, the population carrying capacity of China has almost reached its limit.

If we don't move some people out, or create more jobs, the situation will really explode.

In addition to this census report, there is also a land survey report.

Currently, the total cultivated land area in Datang is about 17 billion mu.

Among them, the cultivated land area of ​​the traditional 14 Han provinces within the Great Wall is about billion mu.

Of the remaining 300 million mu, a small portion was land reclaimed by the Tang Dynasty in Liaodong outside the Great Wall.

The other part is the arable land obtained by the Tang Dynasty after it took over Guangnan, Luzon, Borneo and other places.

Especially the Red River Delta in Guangnan.

This place is basically cultivated land.

A great place for three crops a year!
The same goes for Luzon and Borneo, which had long been cultivated by Spanish and Dutch colonists.

The Tang Dynasty is now occupying land, which is actually just picking up a ready-made advantage.

Apart from anything else, just for these fertile lands, the war between the Tang Dynasty and the Netherlands and Spain was worthwhile.

Nowadays, industry is important, but food is equally important.

How did you say that?

A country cannot be stable without food, cannot be strong without industry, and cannot be rich without commerce.

Among these three, food ranks first!

Because, people can have nothing, but they cannot be without food!

Looking at these cultivated land data, Li Yi's mood, which had been heavy because of the exaggerated population size of the Tang Dynasty, became much more relaxed.

Because these 17 billion mu are just the current data.

As the Tang Dynasty continued to open up land outside Liaodong and Southeast Asia, the amount of arable land in the Tang Dynasty would inevitably continue to increase.

The increase in the amount of arable land, coupled with industrial development and the jobs provided by large-scale infrastructure construction, has taken a multi-pronged approach. Although there are still social contradictions in the Tang Dynasty, they are no longer as serious as they were during the Xianfeng period, and there are some signs of prosperity.

How did the so-called Tongzhi Restoration in history come about?

To put it bluntly, the Taiping Rebellion greatly consumed the population in the south, and the Hungarian Rebellion in Gansu and Shaanxi consumed the population in the north. With the increase in population consumption, and the development of the areas outside the Great Wall, weren't social contradictions alleviated?

If social contradictions are eased, won’t ZTE come?
Li Yi closed the report in his hand, and a smile appeared on his face involuntarily.

Then he turned to the next report.

This report was submitted by the Ministry of Finance of the Tang Dynasty on the financial revenue and expenditure of the Tang Dynasty last year.

The main source of the Tang Dynasty's fiscal revenue last year was taxation. In addition to taxes, there were also income from military trade, war spoils, etc.

As for the profits submitted by the subsidiaries of royal trading companies such as the Tang Royal Bank, they are directly included in the internal treasury.

The Tang Dynasty’s internal treasury and national treasury were two systems.

The national treasury is the money of the imperial court and the government. If the emperor wants to use it, he needs to go through the procedures in the court.

The treasury is the emperor's secret fund that can be used at any time.

The two naturally cannot be confused.

Among them, tax revenue was about 17 million. Compared with the previous year, Datang's total tax revenue increased by about % last year.

Among them, the main taxes are agricultural tax, commercial tax, customs duty, stamp duty, salt tax, tea tax, land tax, personal income tax and other different types of taxes.

Among them, agricultural tax, commercial tax, customs tax and land tax are the largest.

Especially with the opening of the Tang Dynasty to the sea and the development of industry and commerce, the total tax amount of commercial taxes and customs duties continued to rise.

Today, the two together account for almost 46% of the total tax revenue of the Tang Dynasty.

Of the rest, agricultural taxes accounted for 24 percent, land taxes related to real estate accounted for about 12 percent, and other taxes totaled about 18 percent.

To put it bluntly, the current tax growth in the Tang Dynasty mainly depends on tariffs, commercial taxes and local taxes.

The main growth lies in these three!

Although agricultural taxes and other taxes have also increased, they are insignificant compared to the increase in commercial taxes and customs duties.

What Li Yi is currently doing is to reduce taxes and levies to ease the burden on farmers, so it is naturally impossible for him to increase agricultural taxes.

Apart from taxes, there are also incomes from war spoils and arms trade.

The total of the two is about 52 million!
Of this, about 34 million were captured in the war.

Whether it was Manila, Batavia, or the British Straits Settlements, they were all very wealthy.

The Tang Dynasty will gain something by defeating them!
The only thing was that the Northern Expedition to Beihai was a bit of a loss.

The spoils of war were far less than the cost of sending troops.

There is nothing we can do about it; Siberia is simply too poor.

If it weren't for ensuring the security of the northern border, Li Yi really had no interest in the Siberian wilderness.

In his opinion, instead of expanding into Siberia, the Tang Dynasty should focus on the New World!
The land of the New World is much more valuable than the wasteland of Siberia.

Most of the remaining 18 million came from the arms trade.

The Tang Dynasty's military trade was not only with Britain, France and Russia, but also with India, North Korea, Japan, Myanmar, Thailand, and even with the United States in the New World.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Tang Dynasty is currently the largest arms dealer on the planet.

Although the civil war in the United States had not officially started yet, both sides knew that war was inevitable, coupled with the Kansas Civil War.

Through the arms trade, the Tang Dynasty has earned a lot of gold coins from the United States!
Make quite a lot of money!

Well, it’s impossible not to make money by selling arms to both ends.

Apart from these, plus some miscellaneous income, the treasury revenue of the Tang Dynasty last year was about 400 million.

In addition to the revenue from the national treasury, the revenue from the imperial treasury was also considerable.

The total number is about 30 million!

It mainly comes from the profits turned over by the Tang Royal Trading Company.

For example, the Tang Royal Bank and the Sihai Hotel in Beijing are all businesses of the Tang Royal Commercial Bank.

In addition to these, the Tang Royal Trading Company is also involved in related industries such as machinery manufacturing, chemical industry, steel smelting, industrial equipment research and development, luxury goods trading, entertainment and newspapers.

Among these are industries with huge profits such as finance, real estate, and luxury goods.

But more are heavy industries such as machinery manufacturing, chemical industry, and steel smelting, which require huge initial investment and are difficult to recover.

Since the common people are unwilling to engage in such an industry, it can only be handed over to the court or the royal family.

Of the annual treasury income of 30 million, 99% was invested by Li Yi to support the development of heavy industry under the Royal Chamber of Commerce.

Only a small portion of the remaining funds were used to maintain the daily expenses of the royal family.

However, it is enough. There are only about ten people in the Tang Dynasty royal family now. Even if they eat delicacies from land and sea every day, how much money can it spend?

Besides, Li Yi is not a person who likes extravagance.

As for expenditure, it is mainly divided into six parts.

The first is administrative expenditure, which includes salaries and wages paid to officials and various administrative expenses, accounting for about 27% of the total financial expenditure of the court.

The second is military expenditure, referred to as military expenditure, which accounts for about 24% of the total fiscal expenditure of the court.

The third is infrastructure expenditure, including the construction of railways, water conservancy projects, official roads, canal dredging, industrial parks, etc., accounting for about 19% of total fiscal expenditure.

Fourth is education expenditure, including financial allocations to major universities, support funds for local schools, and expenses for building school buildings and classrooms, as well as subsidies for books, food and accommodation, which account for about 12% of total fiscal expenditure.

The fifth is social welfare expenditure, including disaster relief in various places, expenses for distributing porridge, allocations to poorhouses, etc., accounting for about 8% of fiscal expenditure.

The remaining 10% is a special fund provided by the Tang Dynasty to immigrants and to support the development of various industries.

For example, shipbuilding, steel smelting, fertilizer production, machinery manufacturing and other industries. Let's put it this way, although the annual fiscal revenue of Datang is increasing.

But spending remains tight.

Especially for large expenditures such as building railways, businessmen are required to pay for it, or even raise funds by issuing bonds.

To put it bluntly, at the national level, there will never be enough money to spend!
But even so, Li Yi still had a smile on his face.

Because he knows that difficulties are only temporary!
With the development of the Industrial Revolution and the massive explosion of industry and commerce, the financial revenue of the Tang Dynasty will only increase year by year.

To put it bluntly, the current national situation of the Tang Dynasty is completely stable and improving.

The future must be bright!
In Li Yi's opinion, the biggest problem restricting Datang's development today is lack of funds.

If there is sufficient capital injection, Datang's industrial development progress will definitely be much faster than it is now.

The lack of funds means that there are not enough resources of various kinds.

The second is that there is not enough money in a literal sense.

The monetary system currently adopted by the Tang Dynasty is the gold and silver standard.

But the amount of gold and silver is limited.

Even if it is developed every year, the growth of gold and silver cannot keep up with the progress of economic development.

This will bring about two very serious problems.

First, deflation caused by economic development and insufficient money.

At present, Datang is showing this trend.

Second, insufficient money will seriously hinder the progress of economic development.

As we all know, sufficient capital injection is needed to drive economic development.

Many times, it is the massive injection of money that drives economic growth.

Li Yi has two solutions to this problem.

The first is to promote the development of the financial industry and raise funds through the financial industry.

The second is to issue paper money!
By issuing paper money, the control of the amount of precious metals over the amount of currency can be eliminated, thereby promoting economic development.

First, treat the symptoms; second, treat the root cause.

However, what makes Li Yi feel a little conflicted is that it is really difficult to issue paper money in China at this time!

Damn, it's all the Zhu family's fault for messing around with the Baochao, which has completely ruined the reputation of paper money in China.

Otherwise, Li Yi wouldn't have to worry so much...

……

Guangzhou!

Xinning County!
Zhaojiazhuang, in a large mansion with two entrances.

Zhao Zhi was lying on the bed and snoring.

Next to his bed, there was a table with piles of snacks and a jar of rice wine on it.

The whole room was filled with the stench of alcohol after a hangover.

The whole room was in a mess, with dirty clothes piled everywhere, and there were several socks and underwear on the bed and between the bedding.

It looks like it hasn’t been cleaned for a long time!

At this moment, accompanied by a loud bang, Zhao Zhi's door was kicked open.

A middle-aged woman came in from outside, cursing.

"It's already late, the sun is shining on your butt, why don't you get up?"

"Why, are you going to rot in your bed?"

Zhao Zhi's mother, Zhao Yang, raised the broom in her hand and slapped her son hard on the butt.

A sharp pain came over him, Zhao Zhi was awakened, and he covered his butt with his hands, grimacing.

But when he saw it was his mother, he didn't dare to get angry. He just quietly got dressed and stood up.

His hair was messy, and it was obvious that he hadn't combed it for a long time. There was messy stubble on his face, and his eyes were full of red bloodshot.

The whole person looked very depressed and miserable.

When Zhao Yang saw Zhao Zhi wake up, she helped her son clean up the room while scolding him.

"Little bastard, I've told you before, don't take the lead when something happens, don't take the lead when something happens."

"That's great. You have solved a big case and even brought down a marquis and three earls. You are now famous for a while."

"But what's the use of that? Didn't someone still hold a grudge against you and trick you into losing your military position?"

"Have you learned your lesson now? Will you stand up again in the future?"

After Zhao Zhi uncovered the opium smuggling case of Sun Xiang and others, he indeed enjoyed a period of glory.

But this also offends people!
During the Chinese New Year this year, he was on duty in the camp. He was careless for a moment and was forced to drink.

Then his superiors caught this mistake and directly dismissed him from his military post.

Zhao Zhi has been unemployed at home for more than a month now.

I just drink every day and feel very decadent.

Pingle Hou and others were indeed defeated, and some even lost their lives, but they had many old friends in the army.

These old friends did not dare to hold a grudge against the emperor, so they held a grudge against Zhao Zhi, the spark that ignited the powder keg.

A scheme was specially designed to dismiss him from his military post, as a way of venting the anger of Pingle Hou and others.

After that, no one knows how many hardships are waiting for him!

Zhao Zhi was still indignant when he heard this, and just muttered.

"I didn't do anything wrong."

"His Majesty the Emperor said that an official must live up to his conscience. I live up to my conscience and am worthy of the saber the Emperor bestowed upon me."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Yang came forward, poked her son's head with her finger, and spoke.

"Emperor, emperor, you only know emperor in one day. I think you must have read too much and become stupid."

"The emperor is so high up in the sky, how can he know what's going on down there?"

"We still have to find a way to live our own lives well!"

"Listen to my advice. Don't stand up for things like this anymore. It's a thankless task and no one will appreciate your kindness."

"If you don't listen to my advice, don't come home anymore and go with your broken knife!"

Zhao Zhi opened his mouth with some grievance and muttered something, but in the end, he said nothing.

He knew that his mother's words were not pleasant to the ears.

But it’s really for your own good!
Seeing this, Zhao Yang also softened her heart.

He said in a sudden change of tone.

"I contacted your uncle."

"Your uncle is doing well in Nanyang now. He is already the manager of a business."

"You have offended someone. You can no longer stay in Guangzhou. Go back to Nanyang and seek refuge with your uncle."

"Your uncle will never lack a bite of food for you!"

Zhao Zhi nodded, his expression still dejected.

I felt very aggrieved and felt that I had no way to realize my ambitions.

But he really couldn't say anything.

Drinking while on duty in the army is indeed a taboo. Zhao Zhi drank the wine himself, so he was caught with the mistake and could not blame others.

But, he was still upset!

Just at this moment, someone knocked on the Zhao family's gate.

Boom boom boom!
Accompanied by a knock on the door, Zhao Yang shouted angrily.

"Who is it? Who is knocking on my door?"

As she spoke, Zhao Yang opened the door of her own courtyard.

Outside the gate, there were several men in black.

These people were dressed in black and had stern expressions. Just standing there, they gave people a great sense of oppression.

Zhao Yang was about to curse again, but seeing the might of the people in front of her, she was instantly blocked.

Fortunately, the person in front of him did not argue with him and just asked with a smile.

"Auntie, is Zhao Zhi at home?"

When Zhao Yang heard this, her heart skipped a beat, thinking that someone was here to cause trouble.

He said immediately.

"Zhao Zhi? Don't you know him?"

"Did you find the wrong person?"

Upon hearing this, Ma Tian held his forehead helplessly.

"Auntie, don't be so nervous. We are not here to cause trouble."

"Please go and hand over Zhao Zhi. We have something to say to him!"

Zhao Yangshi still looked alert when she heard this.

"really?"

Martin shrugged.

"Of course, there's no need for us to lie to you, auntie, right?"

At this moment, Zhao Zhi also walked out of the room holding the sword bestowed by the emperor.

The blade was unsheathed, reflecting a cold light under the sunlight.

When he heard what his mother said, he thought someone was coming to cause trouble.

As a son, Zhao Zhi would naturally not hide behind his mother when encountering problems.

Seeing Zhao Zhi coming out aggressively, Ma Tian asked with a smile.

"It's Brother Zhao Zhi, right?"

Zhao Zhi nodded and asked with a wooden face.

"it's me!"

"Whatever you want to do, come at me, don't hurt my mother!"

Martin smiled and waved his hand.

"Brother Zhao, you misunderstood. We are not here to cause trouble!"

"I'm here to help you!"

"Put the knife away first!!"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Zhi looked at Ma Tian in front of him doubtfully, but finally put away his sword.

Martin straightened his collar and spoke.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Martin."

"I am the director of the First Investigation Division of the Guangzhou Branch of the Tang Dynasty Supervision Department. I came here today to ask a question."

"Brother Zhao, are you interested in working in our Supervision Department?"

"It is our mission to monitor all officials, clean up the bureaucracy, assist Your Majesty in spurring the world, and return a bright and peaceful world to the people of the world!"

When Zhao Zhi heard this, a look of surprise appeared on his face.

As a former military officer, he naturally knew what kind of unit the Supervisory Department was.

He could not have imagined that one day when he was in trouble, it was the royal lackey whom he had despised before who came to save him...

(End of this chapter)