The Prosperous Era of Longwan

It can be said that the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Household Affairs are well prepared. Everything is ready and all we need is the east wind.

Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Juzheng. He was the chief assistant and now had a close relationship with Feng Bao, a popular figure in the palace, so he was responsible for the communication in the palace.

Once upon a time, this position was his.

However, because of some things that happened, the relationship between Wei Guangde and Feng Bao gradually cooled down and was no longer what it was before.

"The palace has already said hello. I think His Majesty and the two palaces should already know about it."

Zhang Juzheng, who was sitting upright in the main seat, spoke slowly.

Just as he said this, the clerk outside the door came in and bowed: "Master, gentlemen, someone is coming from the palace."

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Hearing this, Zhang Juzheng nodded, "Let him come in."

The clerk went out, and a moment later a chamberlain came into the room. He was surprised at first. After all, there were a lot of people in the room, and they were all high-ranking officials.

Soon, the chamberlain calmed down, walked up to Zhang Juzheng, bowed and said, "The empress orally announced that the three ministers from the cabinet have entered the palace."

"Do you know why the empress has summoned you?"

Zhang Juzheng asked casually.

"I don't know."

In front of such important figures in the court, the chamberlain did not dare to be presumptuous and replied humbly.

"In that case, let's go to the palace and have a look. This should be about this matter. You go back to your respective yamen and wait for the news, and let the people below sit down and get ready. If there is a decree, we will pass the six-section review as soon as possible and send it out. , you will start work as soon as possible as planned.”

Zhang Juzheng stood up and said to Zhu Heng and others.

Zhu Heng, Wang Guoguang and others all said yes.

The group of people left the cabinet. The young chamberlain took Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde to Ciqing Palace, while the others went straight out of the palace and returned to the Yamen to continue their errands.

While walking, Wang Guoguang was still talking to Zhu Heng in a low voice.

"Da Sikong, we should give priority to minting a batch of one-tael and one-money silver coins. The Ministry of Household Affairs is waiting for this batch of silver to be distributed to the officials in the capital this month."

"It's easy to talk, the money model has been prepared, we just need to wait for the money from the household department to be in place, and we can start work immediately."

"The money has been prepared for a long time. As long as the imperial edict is issued, the Ministry of Finance can finally relax for a year."

Wang Guoguang couldn't help but sighed.

Others only see the power and glory of the Minister, but they don't know the pressure of sitting in the position of the Minister of the Ming Dynasty.

Especially the Ministry of Household Affairs of the Ming Dynasty today. Although it is not in deficit every year like the Jiajing Dynasty, it is not much better.

You know, many of the financial holes left behind have not yet been filled.

The deficit is huge, and the Ministry of Household Affairs is cutting back on food and clothing every year to streamline expenditures, so there is not much money left.

It can be said that although there are more than one million taels of silver deposited in Taicang all year round, all of them have been reserved, but the accounts department has been suppressing the withdrawal, otherwise the accounts department will be empty.

If something urgent happens during this period, we don't even have flexible money.

But things are getting better now. It looks like the finances will be much more relaxed this year. As for how much it will be, it depends on whether the Ministry of Industry can provide it.

It can be said that the more coins minted by the Ministry of Industry, the more silver the Ministry of Accounts can mobilize.

With one million taels of silver, the household department can earn at least one hundred thousand taels of silver.

You know, this is not a copper coin, but a minted silver coin.

Copper coins cost only one tael of silver if more than a thousand are minted, but if converted into silver coins, it would cost more than a thousand taels, and the household department would earn a hundred taels of silver.

The only thing is that the Ming Dynasty used money molds to mint coins. The coins were not only exquisite, but also minted quickly. Even if the Ministry of Household Affairs allocated a million taels of silver for the first time, it would not be able to withstand the overtime work of the Ministry of Industry.

If it doesn't work well, the income will be hundreds of thousands of taels of silver a year.

Moreover, tens of millions of taels of silver were piled up in the Changying Treasury of Taipu Temple of the Ministry of War.

Although the income of millions of taels cannot completely make up for the deficit in previous years, it can at least make the Ministry of Accounts breathe a sigh of relief.

The key point is that this is not a short-term gain. In the future, after the broken silver from various places is collected and handed over to the court, coins will continue to be minted.

After all, broken silver and silver ingots will not be able to enter circulation in the future.

Each household can collect some silver ingots, but they cannot use them. They can only go to the government to exchange them for silver treasures.

That picture is not too beautiful even if you think about it.

But as for the minting of coins, not only did the Ministry of Industry find a way to continuously make money, but the Ministry of Household also benefited from it and got a lot of money from it.

At this time, in front of the Ciqing Palace, Zhang Juzheng, Wei Guangde and others were already waiting here.

The little chamberlain has already gone in to reply to the order, and they still have to wait outside for the announcement from inside.

Not long after, the little chamberlain left and came back, came to the three of them and said, "The Queen Mother invites the three elders to come in and talk."

The three of them followed the chamberlain into Ciqing Palace and arrived at the main hall.

At this time, there were two empress dowagers sitting on the left and right of the main hall, Empress Dowager Chen on the left, Empress Dowager Li on the right, and the young emperor Wanli was sitting on the right side of Empress Dowager Li, and he was also sitting upright at this moment.

After the three of them entered the palace to salute, Queen Mother Chen asked: "Three pavilion elders, wasn't it inconvenient for people to use scattered silver for transactions in the past? Does the court need to re-establish the coinage?"

"Empress, the imperial court has been minting coins since ancient times. From the appearance of copper coins in the Shang Dynasty, to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it was determined that the right to mint coins was exclusive to the imperial court.

Then Qin Shihuang unified the currency system, and gold and copper coins are used in parallel today. This is just because all dynasties in the past dynasties mainly minted copper coins and gold coins, and never minted silver coins.

Even if there are silver coins minted, they are mostly made by the imperial court and used as rewards.

Since the Song Dynasty, due to the shortage of copper materials, coins could not meet the circulation needs of civilians and merchants, so gold and silver began to be traded again until today.

Because the imperial court never intended to mint gold and silver coins, it became a common practice to use broken silver in private transactions, while the imperial court and wealthy families mostly used gold and silver ingots.

The casting of these gold and silver ingots not only varied in quality, but also in weight, making them extremely inconvenient to use.

This cabinet discussion decided that the imperial court would mint large and small gold and silver coins, also to facilitate private circulation.

Especially due to the shortage of copper coins due to copper materials, the emergence of small silver treasures worth one coin can also appropriately make up for the difficulties in market circulation caused by the shortage of copper coins. "

When Zhang Juzheng finished speaking, Wei Guangde also took half a step forward and continued: "As far as I know, since the opening of Fujian Yuegang, the Yi people brought a large amount of silver to our Ming Dynasty to trade goods.

The shape of the silver coins minted by the Yi people is extremely ugly, but the quality and weight of the silver coins are surprisingly consistent. It is said that the silver coins minted by the Yi people are used in all countries in the east and west.

These silver coins, which are almost identical in quality and weight, were minted at the order of the Yi people. The king listed the minting standards and prohibited shortages.

In fact, the copper coins we cast are the same, but in the early days, because there was not so much silver, we just let it go without regard to the private use of silver for transactions.

Nowadays, a large amount of silver is pouring in from overseas, and most of it is hand-made silver coins. These silver coins are also very popular among merchants and people in the southern provinces. Therefore, I boldly suggested that the imperial court should uniformly cast Ming Dynasty silver treasures for circulation, so as to prevent the market from being filled with barbarians in the future. Silver coins made by men pass. "

"I have seen the coins minted by the Ministry of Industry. They are very good."

After listening to Wei Guangde's words, Empress Dowager Chen nodded with a smile and said: "Empress Li and the emperor also like it very much. Since the court's coinage can facilitate the circulation of the people, the cabinet has drafted an order to mint and issue the silver coins as soon as possible.

As for the cabinet's plan to redefine the imperial court's minting power and prohibit private minting of copper coins, I have no objection. "

After saying this, Queen Mother Chen glanced at Queen Li next to her and saw that she was also nodding slightly, so she continued: "Then ban it all.

The overflow of private money among the people was also caused by the lack of copper materials in the imperial court. It was a last resort. Since there were already silver coins to supplement it, it was naturally the best. "

"Follow your Majesty's decree."

After hearing what Empress Dowager Chen said, Zhang Juzheng took the lead and led Wei Guangde and Lu Tiaoyang to accept the order.

Later, Queen Mother Chen asked about the situation of the gold coins.

Although the memorial mentioned that the imperial court also wanted to mint gold coins, the Ministry of Industry was in a hurry and did not come up with samples of gold coins. This time there were only three kinds of silver coins, namely one coin, five coins and one or two silver coins. But the exquisite workmanship is far superior to Spanish silver coins.

As long as the silver coins minted by the imperial court can guarantee the weight and fineness, it is completely expected to dominate the Ming Dynasty and even flow overseas with the footprints of Ming merchants.

In the next two to three hundred years, Spanish silver coins have always served as the world's currency. Spanish silver coins can enter any country and region without any hindrance, which is closely related to the silver coin casting standards set by Spain.

However, now with the casting of Ming Dynasty silver coins, Spanish silver coins have encountered strong opponents.

Relying on the strong national power of the Ming Dynasty, Ming silver treasures will be more popular among merchants than Spanish silver coins.

"The imperial court's gold coins will not be thrown to the market, but will be kept in Changying's treasury?"

After hearing Zhang Juzheng's explanation, Queen Mother Chen and Queen Mother Li only frowned slightly, and then quickly felt relieved.

In their view, the purchasing power of silver coins is already very strong, let alone gold coins.

If you take out gold coins for trading, you may be able to directly sweep away all the products in ordinary small and medium-sized shops. It is indeed a bit reluctant for private use.

Gold was collected as a reserve for the imperial court. Only a handful of people knew the news. If it were revealed at this time, it would probably spread throughout the palace and then the entire city of Beijing.

So here, neither Zhang Juzheng nor Wei Guangde planned to tell the Queen Mother of the two palaces the truth.

As for the little emperor, Wei Guangde will teach it as a course to the little emperor in the future when the price of gold changes, so that he will know how powerful it is.

Anyway, the imperial court reserves a large amount of gold and will be in an invincible position at any time.

Of course, this matter was also hidden from Feng Bao.

For these money-grubbing eunuchs in the inner court, if they knew that the value of gold would skyrocket due to the influx of large amounts of overseas silver, the consequences would be unpredictable.

To be honest, although he was an ally with Zhang Juzheng, Zhang Juzheng's attitude on this matter was consistent with Wei Guangde's. He did not believe that Feng Bao and other cabinet eunuchs would really keep secrets and not participate in it for profit.

Now, according to the results of Jinyiwei's secret investigation, approximately 200,000 taels of gold can be exchanged at the Jinlou Silver Store in the capital.

Of course, this is not all, but the gold that the boss of the gold and silver building can exchange.

In fact, there is more or less a lot of gold and silver stored in the houses of nobles and powerful ministers in the capital.

For the dignitaries in the capital, tens of thousands of taels of gold may not be available for a while, but they can still come up with a few thousand taels.

As for silver, these people can afford more.

So once the news leaks out, I'm afraid the court will have no gold to exchange for it.

Without gold in hand, the imperial court would have lost the ability to control the silver circulating in the market, which would definitely be detrimental to the Ming Dynasty's economy.

Wei Guangde told Zhang Juzheng and Liu Shouyou about this in detail, because he planned to use the power of Jinyiwei to exchange gold on a large scale from the market.

Not only the capital, but also the wealthy prefectures such as Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou, all had to quickly catch all the gold circulating in the market after the court minted a large number of silver coins.

After the three left Ciqing Palace and returned to the cabinet, in Ciqing Palace, Empress Li was still discussing with Empress Dowager Chen how much the "profit" of coin minting would belong to the Ministry of Revenue as mentioned in the memorial.

Empress Dowager Chen didn't pay much attention at first. After all, the court had its own rules for going in and out, and it was not easy to put public things into her own pocket.

But Empress Li was not like that. After all, she came from a small family and was more concerned about money.

He hoped that his son would accept a strong dynasty, not a mess like the one taken over by Emperor Longqing.

Yes, what else was left by the Jiajing Dynasty except the huge financial hole in the Ministry of Revenue?

In the first two years of the Longqing Dynasty, the court's finances were still in deficit, but the amount was very small.

That is, after the fourth year of Longqing, the court had a small surplus every year because of the reduction in military expenditures.

Although the Datong Peace Agreement was indeed suspected of losing power and humiliating the country and requiring the Mongols to pay "annual tribute", this peace agreement did give the Ming Dynasty, which was on the verge of collapse, a sigh of relief. At least it delayed time, allowing Zhang Juzheng time to carry out internal reforms and enrich the treasury again.

But even so, the ministers still firmly opposed Emperor Longqing's use of the treasury to buy headwear and other items for the harem.

Although the two empress dowagers understood, it was impossible to say that they had no resentment in their hearts.

Empress Dowager Chen might be better. After all, she was almost sent to the cold palace at that time. It was in the last two months that Emperor Longqing regretted and recalled her again.

But Empress Dowager Li was very unhappy at that time because the inner court had no money and the outer court was unwilling to pay.

The conversation between the two naturally fell into the ears of the young emperor Zhu Yijun.

It is said that the little emperor should not care about money, because he should not have been exposed to money during his growth.

But perhaps because of his talent or Wei Guangde's education, the little emperor already had his own understanding of money, but he had never talked about it with outsiders.

At this time, he was like an ignorant child, just listening quietly to the conversation between the two mothers, and thinking about what he learned in his mind.

Wei Guangde certainly would not teach the little emperor anything like "How can a man be without power for a day", but Wei Guangde told him that most of the collapse of the dynasty was due to lack of money.

In fact, many dynasties in history fell, seemingly because the people could not bear the tyranny and rose up, but the deeper reason was that the dynasty was corrupt and caused huge expenses.

When the court's income and expenditure did not match, it could only take action on the tax law in the hope of increasing the court's income, and this often became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Tax law changes are not only aimed at civilians, but also at the middle and lower classes.

When they are dissatisfied with tyranny, it is time to change dynasties.

In the final analysis, it is still money.