The Ming Dynasty: A Modern Return, Building an Overseas Empire

Chapter 118 A pioneer who overturned the systems of past dynasties!

Inside the palace, Zhu Gaoxu looked at the secret letter sent back by Wei Da.

After looking at it, he then looked at the box that the guards had brought in and went straight up to it.

"Niu Cheng, open the box."

As the box was opened, Zhu Gaoxu stared intently at it. The silver ingots were all silvery-white, top-quality silver.

High-quality silver is generally a soft silvery-white color. If it is darker or yellowish, it means there was a problem in the refining process, resulting in impurities and an impure color.

This applies to new silver. As silver is used over time, it will gradually change from silvery-white to light yellow, brownish-yellow, bluish-gray, and grayish-black.

This is caused by silver reacting when it is exposed to air for a long time, forming silver sulfide.

Zhu Gaoxu picked up the silver and examined it in his hand, his eyes burning with desire.

Silver is a rare commodity in the Ming Dynasty these days, especially high-quality silver.

"How much silver can be extracted from the silver ore there?"

Zhu Gaoxu played with it for a moment, then put it down.

Now he is more concerned about the quality of the silver mine at Iwami Ginzan, since, according to modern understanding, the quality is extremely high.

Zhu Huan chuckled from the side, "Your Highness, according to the news from over there, 100 catties of ore can be refined into 800 taels of silver, and at most over 900 taels of silver, of extremely high quality."

What is being mined now is only the outer perimeter; what has been detected so far is far from the core.

This silver mine is enormous; even in the Ming Dynasty, it was unheard of and unseen!

As Zhu Huan spoke, he couldn't help but become excited.

Since the discovery of this silver mine, and as the scale of exploration increased, Zhu Huan's admiration and respect for Zhu Gaoxu grew even stronger.

Even the Japanese themselves had not discovered such a great fortune.

Zhu Huan no longer wanted to ask Zhu Gaoxu how he knew; in his heart, Zhu Gaoxu was a god.

Look at what's being done now; it doesn't seem like something that could exist or be possessed today, but Zhu Gaochi managed to create it.

In terms of vision and insight, it seems that no emperor throughout history could compare with Zhu Gaochi.

They know almost everything about the good things in those places, especially outside.

I won't go into details here, but Zhu Gaochi had never been to Luzon before. On his first visit, he knew exactly which mines were in Luzon, which was simply amazing.

There were just too many reasons, and no matter how Zhu Huan thought about it or tried to explain it to himself, he found that none of them made sense.

What else could Zhu Gaoxu be besides being a deity descended from heaven?

Only a wise ruler like Zhu Gaochi would know these things.

Zhu Gaoxu breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Zhu Huan's words.

The quality of Iwami Ginzan is indeed truly excellent.

Zhu Gaoxu knew very well that in the heart of this silver mountain, there was a Fushi deposit where the quality of silver was even higher, with a grade of 150 to 350 grams per ton.

In the Ming Dynasty at that time, Zhu Gaochi was very clear that the silver mines that had been explored were basically ordinary and poor mines.

A hundred kilograms of ordinary ore can only yield a few taels of silver, while a hundred kilograms of poor ore can only yield about one tael of silver.

As for high-quality ore, it is extremely rare.

As for rich mines, what the Ming Dynasty has discovered so far is even more precious than rare treasures.

A hundred catties of ore can only yield about 700 taels of silver.

The ore quality of Iwami Ginzan is generally very high; it is a rich mine among rich mines.

The quality of the core Fushi deposit is incomparable to what it is today.

"How much silver has been refined so far?"

Zhu Gaoxu nodded. Now he was very concerned about whether the refining speed could keep up with this quality.

"Your Highness, we currently have 18,000 taels of silver in storage. This is the first batch refined and cast."

I plan to send more people to the Iwami Silver Mine, not only the artisans who refine the silver, but especially the slaves who mine it.

Now, with the ash-blowing refining method provided by the prince, the refining speed is much faster than before, and the mining progress is already lagging behind the refining speed.

"Alright, send more slaves there. If conditions permit, have them mine day and night."

You must tell the people who are surveying and directing the mining that this silver mine is very large and contains ore of even better quality than what we have now.

They should not be too hasty, and they must make a good plan on how to continuously mine deeper.

At the same time, production must be further increased. With only ten days left until the official opening of trade, more silver must be refined as quickly as possible to purchase the necessary food and supplies.

In Zhu Gaochi's eyes, the purpose of this sum of money was to address the shortage of food and supplies in the vassal states, especially...

food.

Clearing land and cultivating it takes time, and generally, one shouldn't expect much of a harvest in the first year after clearing the land.

With a large population and insufficient arable land, the problem of food shortages arises, and the only solution is to buy food to alleviate the shortage.

Zhu Gaoxu estimated that it would take at least ten years for the food supply here to keep up.

Ten years from now, it won't be that we'll be self-sufficient, but the pressure will be much less.

After the land was reclaimed, the arable land increased, but over time, the population also continued to increase.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu looked at Zhu Huan.

"Has the established tax system been fully prepared? These new tax systems must be fully communicated to everyone within five days, so that everyone must be aware of them."

Zhu Gaochi looked solemn. This was a policy he had implemented specifically, breaking with rules completely different from those of ancient times.

When this question was raised, Zhu Huan looked serious and bowed respectfully to Zhu Gaoxu.

"Your Highness, I have made full preparations and organized the personnel. Five days from now, all cities, as well as the villages outside the cities..."

The resettlement sites in the townships will be subject to unified and comprehensive publicity.

At that time, all the people will be gathered together, and after the publicity is carried out, they will be dispersed.

On behalf of all the people, I also express my gratitude to Your Highness. Your Highness's benevolence is unparalleled throughout history, in my opinion.

Zhu Huan kept praising Zhu Gaoxu. This wasn't flattery; he genuinely admired Zhu Gaoxu's courage, benevolence, and concern for the people.

Throughout history, how many emperors have talked about the people, but how much have they actually done?

Zhu Gaochi was the only one who didn't say it aloud, but his policies were very concrete.

The new tax system implemented by Zhu Gaochi was to completely abolish the collection of taxes from all Han Chinese who were registered in the government's household register, and to abolish the poll tax that has been in use until now.

Even for tax grain, Zhu Gaochi levied 20% based on the actual yield.

This 20% may sound like a lot, but it's based on the actual harvest, not on an estimated value per acre.

In the past, taxes were paid on a fixed amount per mu (unit of land area). Even in the event of a disaster, as long as the imperial court did not exempt taxes, the taxes had to be paid according to the prescribed amount.

Nowadays, if a mu (unit of land area) yields 100 jin (unit of weight), then 20 jin must be handed over to the state.

If the harvest is twenty catties, then two catties shall be handed over.

The only change is that once all the land has been allocated, it must not be left uncultivated.

At the same time, buying and selling transactions are strictly prohibited. All land deeds and land contracts must be combined into one certificate to ensure that they belong to the same person.

Any exchange or transaction discovered will be confiscated immediately, and the offender will be subject to a heavy fine and detention.

For transactions or exchanges requiring specific procedures, registration with the local agricultural bureau by the Household Department's Agricultural Section is necessary. The process requires a meeting between the government, all three parties, and notarization by the local official and the Inspectorate.

All transaction records and information about all participants will be archived and sealed. In the event of any problems, all participants will be held accountable.

Zhu Gaochi did this in order to prevent land annexation as much as possible.

With the involvement of various parties, things have become a bit more complicated, but it's not so easy for anyone with ulterior motives to try and get their hands on the land.

Although the role of farmland may not be as important after the development of commerce, Zhu Gaoxu was clear that as long as it was still an agricultural era, land would be the highest priority.

Despite the increasing abandonment of land in modern rural areas, which is being rented out to outsiders for fruit cultivation or converted back to forest, the importance of land in rural areas is diminishing with the development of the times, and the labor force is mainly concentrated in cities.

However, even now, before technology and the economy are fully developed, land has always been of paramount importance.

Until the food problem is solved, land is irreplaceable.

Especially in this day and age, whether they are high-ranking officials or ordinary people, they are obsessed with the importance of land.

Those high-ranking officials and wealthy people will always try every means to acquire more land.

Zhu Gaochi also introduced various policies to make it as difficult as possible for those with ulterior motives to obtain [the goods].

At the same time, severe penalties will be imposed to deter others.

Returning to the policies implemented by Zhu Gaochi today, this is no longer the "equalization of land tax and poll tax," but a further step of directly exempting taxes and greatly reducing them.

To put it bluntly, it's not much different from being tax-free.

The amount of grain that tenant farmers produce and hand over is far more than this.

Even if all the land in the country is expropriated, and no one is exempt from taxation, it is not much different from tax exemption.

If taxes can still be explained, then exemption from taxes and levies makes tax payment transparent.

In other words, nowadays ordinary people only need to pay one type of tax, which is 20% of the actual harvest.

In addition, Zhu Gaochi abolished the corvée system and vigorously promoted the employment system.

This refers to the employment system, which requires recruiting people with wages and signing contracts. It also marks the beginning of the full-scale application and promotion of the contract system.

To ensure these, Zhu Gaochi established numerous government offices and departments for management.

All of this is done in order to further develop the economy and consolidate the emerging economic entities. New policies are being implemented continuously, and changes are being made from the ground up.

Having witnessed and learned so much in modern times, Zhu Gaoxu clearly understands that progress is never a change in a single point, but rather a comprehensive transformation of the entire system in order to jointly promote progress and development.

Without institutional changes, technological and economic advancements will ultimately be short-lived.

Zhu Gaoxu was somewhat looking forward to seeing how Zhu Di would react when the Ming Dynasty learned of the systems he had established here.

Will the Ming Dynasty also change along with him?