Immediately after the Lantern Festival, the first State Council meeting of the Ming Empire in the seventh year of its apocalypse was held.

"Your Majesty, colleagues." Wang Shaozheng, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, spoke first: "After the intense work of the Ministry of Revenue during the Spring Festival, the income and expenditure for the six years of Tianqi have basically come out."

As usual, at the first state meeting after the Spring Festival, the first thing the emperor and the attending officials will listen to is the revenue and expenditure report of the Ministry of Household Affairs. However, the Ming Dynasty is so big that it is really necessary to completely calculate the revenue and expenditure from January to December every year. , the result is simply impossible to come out in mid-January of the next year. Therefore, after everyone negotiated, it was changed to: the income and expenditure from December of the previous year to November of last year shall be regarded as the income and expenditure of last year.

"In the sixth year of the Apocalypse, the imperial court's cumulative income was 183.56 million silver dollars."

"Ouch~!" After the number was announced, everyone was a little surprised, and then started to applaud desperately.

"Everyone." The smiling Wang Shaozheng waited for the applause to stop and he cupped his hands: "I would like to remind you that this number is much higher than last year's 130 million, but you must know that since last year, At the beginning, the imperial court implemented a policy of fully converting land tax into silver. Therefore, the income of the court will be money from now on, and there will be no real objects such as grain, rice and noodles. According to me, collecting land tax before the Ming Dynasty can generally store 20 million shi of food in kind, and two Calculating the ratio of how much stone grain can be exchanged for one silver dollar, in fact this number is at least 10 million less."

"Da Situ, you are already very good. Even if you lose 10 million, it will still be 40 million more than last year. This increase is incredible. The household department has done a good job under your leadership!"

"Haha, Otsuka Zai Muzan, I dare not take credit. This increase mainly comes from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the Royal Bank. The former collects more taxes, and the latter lends more, so naturally more of the interest is converted into profits. "

"Hahaha, I understand, Director Li and President Cao have also worked hard. So, Da Situ, what about this expenditure?"

"In terms of expenditure, the total expenditure is 156 million, and the imperial court had an overall surplus of more than 23 million last year."

"Oh, this is such a blessing!"

"Yes, the country's annual income has increased sharply since the second year of Tianqi, but the expenditure has also remained high. As a result, it is either a slight deficit or barely the same every year. Now we finally see a larger surplus. Well, Da Situ , where is this expenditure mainly spent?”

"There are five main items. The salaries and office expenses of officials across the country account for about 20%, military expenditures also account for almost 20%, and infrastructure 30%. Because the country no longer directly collects grain, and in order to prepare for disasters, it must ensure that each grain The total inventory of the warehouse is more than 30 million stone. Therefore, last year, the Ministry of Revenue spent a total of 12 million to purchase grain, which accounted for 7.6%.

The last major item is education and medical care. According to the emperor's request, since the sixth year of Tianqi, the country has completely followed the previous Fangshan model, carrying out the construction of one prefecture, one middle school, and one county and one primary school. Last year, the Ministry of Rites built a total of thirty There are two middle schools and one hundred and twenty-five primary schools. Everyone, it actually doesn’t cost much to build the school. The main thing is to maintain the school after it is built. The teacher’s salary is in accordance with the emperor’s requirements. The primary school teacher should not be lower than the ninth grade, not higher. In the seventh grade. Middle school teachers should be no lower than the eighth grade and no higher than the sixth grade. This salary alone is incredible. Moreover, after this student enters the school, in addition to book fees and tuition fees, the school also provides lunch... ..The Ministry of Revenue allocated more than 8 million to the Ministry of Rites for this purpose, accounting for a little more than 5%.

As for medical care, according to the emperor's wishes, each prefecture must build a comprehensive hospital. In addition to daily treatment of patients, it must also be responsible for the prevention and control of infectious diseases in the prefecture... Last year, the Ministry of Revenue allocated more than 600 yuan to Taiyuan Hospital.

Ten thousand, thirty-five prefectural hospitals have been built, accounting for a little more than 3%. The rest is various miscellaneous items."

"Okay, okay, the country is strong and culture and education are flourishing. This is exactly what this cabinet should do."

Looking at the ministers holding hands and celebrating below, Zhu Youdong smiled slightly: What is this surplus? After all, the Ming Dynasty has not fought a war for several years. After cutting off all the guard posts and military towns, the standing army was maintained at three.

A low level like 100,000. This expenditure has been reduced so much, but the income has soared rapidly due to the popularization of steam engines and the full opening of the Greater East Asia market. It is abnormal not to have a surplus, right?

Speaking of which, this surplus is far from enough. If we really fight a national war in the future, I will have to at least expand the standing army to five million. How can I support this small amount of income and surplus?

However, the Ming Dynasty now has a great strategic advantage, and there is really no need to rush into a new war. It is better to cultivate and recuperate for a while: for a hard-working and tenacious nation like the Han nation, as long as the people in power do not mess around, they can give the people a period of time.

When they develop steadily, they can create any miracles in the world.

After the ministers calmed down, Zhu Youdong spoke: "Thank you for your hard work, Master Situ. I have one more request."

"I would like to ask your Majesty to give me your instructions."

"To be useful to the country, people must first have a healthy body, and secondly, rich knowledge. The former depends on doctors, and the latter depends on teachers. Therefore, in the seventh year of the Apocalypse, the country's investment in education and medical care must continue to increase. I will follow

You have said many times that money must be used to be valuable, otherwise it will just be junk that takes up space. For the sake of national security, it is right for the Ministry of Household Affairs to guarantee a certain surplus. But this surplus is too much, which is actually harmful to the country.

No. The specific theory has been explained very clearly in Fang Shan’s finance course, and you should also understand it.”

"Yes, I accept the decree. It's just that Your Majesty, it's easy to build schools and hospitals, but the talent pool is really not enough. Last year, the Ministry of Revenue took the initiative to ask the Ministry of Rites and Tai Hospital if they needed more funds. In the end, they both said they didn't have enough.

Talent cannot build more schools and hospitals. If they receive too much money but fail to get things done, the Metropolitan Procuratorate will cause trouble for them. So..."

"Hahaha, that's it. It seems that I am in a hurry. Okay, I won't put too much pressure on you in this matter, and please do it calmly."

"I obey your orders."

"Okay, that's it for the money. Next, let's go to the staff department."

"Your Majesty." Sun Chengzong, the Minister of Civil Affairs, stood up: "Last year, the Ministry of Civil Affairs completed the sorting and grading of officials across the country. After inspection, in the sixth year of Tianqi in the Ming Dynasty, there were a total of 37,560 civilian officials and one military attache.

Thirty-six hundred people. There are 357,600 officials at all levels. According to the emperor's decree, our Ming Dynasty abolished the corvee for the people in the fifth year of Tianqi and replaced it with a corvee tax. Therefore, our Ming Dynasty started from the sixth year of Tianqi.

, there is no longer a term for servants. In the past, the work of servants would be borne by officials. The problem now is that the ratio of officials to officials is too disparity, and the future of officials is extremely limited, so the work enthusiasm and sense of responsibility of officials are very poor. Recently,

Over the past year, a very small proportion of the people investigated and dealt with by the Metropolitan Procuratorate were officials, and the vast majority of those investigated and dealt with were officials."

"It is indeed as Otsuka Zai said." Zhao Yan, the imperial censor of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, stood up: "Your Majesty, the Metropolitan Procuratorate investigated and punished 1,986 officials across the country last year, of which there were only 75 officials, and the rest were all civil servants.

Although these petty officials have no rank, because they are the ones who really manage the people, they have a lot of power. If these people want to do bad things, they will cause great harm. I have a personal official in my hands.

In this case, a small official at the State Administration for Industry and Commerce who was in charge of accounting took bribes from merchants and turned a blind eye to his false accounts. Over the past three years, he collected more than 300,000 silver dollars in stolen money, causing a loss of nearly 5 million in the country's tax revenue."

"Well..." After listening to Sun Chengzong and Zhao Yan's explanation, Zhu Youdong knocked on the table again habitually.

Before the Ming Dynasty, there were probably more than 80,000 officials, including more than 20,000 civilian officials and more than 50,000 military attachés. However, after Zhu Youdong's military reform, the guards and military towns were all disbanded, and the number of military attaches naturally dropped.

At the same time, due to the drastic changes in society, the country's management agencies have also increased correspondingly, so the number of civil servants has increased dramatically in recent years.

But now it seems that the increase is still not enough.

Officials were selected through the imperial examination, while officials used to be appointed by the officials themselves (more important positions required scholar status and reporting to the Ministry of Civil Affairs). Now they are filled by a large number of former guards and military soldiers. You want to

It is said that the barrier between officials and officials should be opened now, so that officials can have a smooth promotion channel. Not to mention that scholars and officials do not agree, even the common people do not agree.

However, denying officials a path to promotion will inevitably lead to hereditary and shameless officialdom. As a result, no matter how hard the Metropolitan Procuratorate tries, it will not be able to completely reverse the administration of officials.
Chapter completed!