Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 005: The Ming Dynasty is actually very poor
After a simple greeting between the grandfather and grandson, Wanli asked the eunuch in the palace to bring a small chair, put a cushion on it, and let Zhu Youdong sit next to him to play. After all, as a king, if you want to effectively control a country, you still have a lot of things to do every day.
"let's start."
"Yes, Your Majesty. Today, the number of memorials and petitions sent from the outer court is 185."
"Well , when you read it later, you don't have to read any of the requests for me to stop the mining tax."
"This... Your Majesty, I scanned these things this morning, and it seems that more than half of them are requests to stop the mining tax."
"Humph! These guys either have ulterior motives or are incredibly stupid! Um... Prince, you are the crown prince, what do you think of the memorial from the ministers requesting the suspension of the mining tax?"
Zhu Changluo, who was sitting at the bottom, was suddenly stunned by this question. However, he immediately remembered the teachings of Mr. Guo and many other lecturers, so he hesitated and said, "Father, I heard that the mine supervisors sent by the palace did not do geomancy or look for mineral veins after arriving at the local area. Instead, they recruited local scoundrels and only looked at the richest family in the area, and then insisted that there was a mine under the ancestral house of the family, and used this to blackmail and extort money, causing public resentment... Therefore, I think that mining taxes should of course be collected, but the management of mine supervisors should be strengthened. It would be best, uh, it would be best to replace the mine supervisors from the palace with ministers with moral integrity from outside."
Why did I give birth to a stupid son like you!
"Zhu Youdong!"
"ah?"
"Tell me, should mining tax be collected?"
Wanli was really anxious at this moment. He had originally asked the four-year-old Zhu Youdong to sit here just to let the child feel the atmosphere - this child was a genius, but he should not be able to participate in national affairs at the age of four.
Zhu Changluo's answer just now really disappointed him. However, the prince had been suffering from nervous breakdown and cowardice over the past decade because of the dispute over the foundation of the country. If he was scolded directly at this time, he would probably be even less confident. Therefore, Wanli asked Zhu Youdong at this time just to change the subject, and did not expect to get a good answer from a four-year-old child.
"Grandpa Emperor, before answering your question, I want to ask you, how much is the annual tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty?"
"Chen Ju, answer the Crown Prince's question."
"Yes, Your Highness, the annual revenue of our Ming Dynasty changes. Specifically, last year, which was the 31st year of the Wanli reign, the total amount of rice and wheat collected was 26,707,000 dan.
Silk and satin cloth: 3.17 million taels of silk cotton, 11,000 kilograms of raw silk, 240,000 kilograms of cotton, 1,800 kilograms of ramie, 230,000 rolls of silk, 4,500 rolls of linen , and 130,000 rolls of cotton cloth.
Military farms: 2.17 million dan of rice, 2.16 million dan of wheat, 2.6 million bundles of grass, and 93,000 taels of silver.
Horse administration: The Guanglu Temple, Imperial Stables, Taipu Temple and other places received 24 million bundles of fodder, of which 10.6 million bundles were converted into 350,000 taels of silver for transportation. 146,000 taels of silver were levied for converting grassland into arable land, and 14,000 military horses were released at a cost of 264,000 taels of silver.
Labor service: The two capitals supplied 25.19 million catties of firewood, 22 million catties of charcoal, and 310,000 taels of silver every year.
Oh, by the way, there is also the income from the imperial farm, which was worth 50,000 taels of silver last year.
In addition, there are sesame and beans from the north, tea and honey from the south, and other special tributes...
The above are agricultural taxes. Next is commercial taxes. Your Highness, the commercial taxes of our Ming Dynasty are mainly divided into salt tax, tea tax, metallurgy (metallurgy, porcelain), ship tax, etc. Last year, the salt tax was 1.37 million taels, the tea tax was 26,000 taels, the metallurgy tax was 165,000 taels, and the ship tax was 457,000 taels...
In summary, in the 31st year of the Wanli reign, the annual tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty was 5,387,000 taels of silver, 26 million dan of various grains, more than 14 million bundles of various fodders, and other miscellaneous items.
"Haha, Lord Ju, is this amount of money enough for the country to use every year?"
"I am not worthy of being called Your Highness the Grand Duke. I am not the Minister of Finance, so I don't know where these expenditures go every year. However, if the country is not in trouble, it shouldn't be a big problem if we save some money on daily expenses."
The old guy is so cunning!
This Chen Ju was a "famous supervisor" who was highly praised by many civil officials during the Wanli Dynasty. He was not famous in history, but he was also widely praised. This alone was enough to show that he could not be trusted !
What are eunuchs? They are the imperial family's domestic slaves! What are civil officials? They are the imperial family's wage earners! Domestic slaves often stand on the wage earners' side and speak for them. The wage earners say all day long that this domestic slave is very good and has noble character. What does this mean?
Of course, this does not mean that Chen Ju wanted to harm Wanli from the bottom of his heart. Rather, it means that there was something wrong with the education of the eunuchs in the royal family.
In order to allow eunuchs to participate in politics, the royal family set up an inner study hall in the palace for eunuchs to study. But who were the eunuchs' teachers? Civil officials!
The civil officials themselves did not believe in the loyalty, filial piety, chastity and righteousness in the books, but they tried their best to promote loyalty, filial piety, chastity and righteousness to the eunuchs. As a result, many eunuchs became stupid after reading so many books!
However, speaking specifically of Chen Ju, the one who could climb to the top among tens of thousands of eunuchs in the palace must not be a nerd. But if he is not a nerd and is still praised by the ministers in the outer court, it can only be said that this person thinks more about himself and less about the emperor... In short, this Chen Ju is not trustworthy.
And now Zhu Youdong has not yet built up a power that belongs entirely to him, so he cannot publicly express his position: he does not want to travel through time and die at the age of just a few.
However, he had to answer Wanli's question, and he had to guide his adoptive father. So he had to go through a big circle.
"Lord Ju, how many troops does the Ming Dynasty have now?"
"Uh... Grandson, let me check it out. Oh, there are now more than 3.1 million military households in the Ming Dynasty, and more than 800,000 regular soldiers."
"Mr. Ju, how many officials does the Ming Dynasty have now?"
"…Reporting to the Grand Prince, during the Hongwu period of our dynasty, there were more than 27,000 officials of the ninth rank and above in the country, and the number has increased year by year since then. During the Jiajing period, there was a purge, and now the number is basically maintained at more than 80,000."
"Hehe... Lord Ju, how many maids, eunuchs, and servants are there in our palace?"
"Uh..." After all, he was an old man who had been with Wanli for many years. At this time, Chen Ju already knew what Zhu Youdong was going to ask. At this time, beads of sweat kept appearing on his forehead, and he answered tremblingly: "There are about 12,000 people directly under the palace. There are more than 100,000 people in various industries under the 24 government offices."
"Hmph~ Lord Ju, let me ask again, how much silver did the Ming Dynasty spend on each of the three wars in Bozhou, Ningxia, and Korea?"
"…Reply…Your Highness, Bozhou, 2.3 million. Ning…Ningxia, 2 million…North Korea, North Korea, uh…North Korea, 7 million!"
"Let me ask you again!" Although his four-year-old body was small, when Zhu Youdong jumped off the stool, Chen Ju seemed to really feel a dragon staring at him viciously: "Now on the southwest border, the Burmese thieves have been invading Mengmi of our Ming Dynasty for twenty consecutive years. How much money does it cost every year?"
The above data on the annual income of the Ming Dynasty government is mainly from the Ming Hui Dian. Since I could not find the specific data for the 31st year of the Wanli reign, I made some minor adjustments based on the data of other recent years.
