Chapter One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty News!
The court wants to borrow money from the Royal Bank to repair the railway tracks!
This was unheard of news for thousands of years. Once it came out, it immediately aroused many people's comments.
"It's just to build a railway track, but you still need to borrow money from the Royal Bank? Is the imperial court so poor?" A scholar sat in a restaurant and roared loudly while he was drunk.
"That is, such a large imperial court is so poor that it has to borrow money from the Royal Bank. It can be seen that all the princes in the court are just people who have nothing to do with their bodies."
"You two don't seem to have any fame yet, right? You dare to mock the princes of the dynasty. They are really newborn calves not afraid of tigers." A man dressed as a businessman next to him heard this and couldn't help but interjected.
After hearing the merchant's words, the scholar became more energetic and said loudly, "The rulers are dishonest, and we, the scholars, should criticize them! What does this have to do with whether we have fame or not?"
The expected cheers of "hahaha" did not come, but instead caused a roar of laughter.
The scholar's face was a little uneasy, and he blushed for a while. He pointed at everyone angrily and said, "Everyone, what a shame!"
The common people don't care, and it doesn't matter if they are scolded by scholars, so no one stands up to argue with the scholars.
Although the merchants had some displeasure on their faces, they had an instinctive respect for scholars, so no one refuted the scholars.
But there are more than just ordinary people and merchants in this restaurant!
"I asked where the dog came here and barked. It turned out to be from the Imperial College!" A college student in a green shirt held a wine glass and looked at the scholar with a sneer.
"People from the academy" the scholar suddenly turned around and recognized the student in green shirt at a glance. His eyes instantly turned red, revealing hatred in his eyes.
Enemies are extremely jealous when they meet!
Maybe the two of them had nothing to do with each other in the past, or even didn't know each other at all. But that didn't stop them from becoming life-or-death enemies the moment they met.
From the academy's point of view, it was the Imperial College that shamelessly went to the emperor and took away the Jinshi spot from them.
Stealing someone's future, this hatred is greater than the sworn hatred!
"How dare you talk nonsense even if you don't have any fame!" The academy student looked the scholar up and down and said loudly, "It seems that the Imperial College is not only incompetent in teaching, but also has a serious lack of moral character!"
After hearing this, several scholars glared at the academy students with righteous indignation. The other students directly scolded the Imperial College, which made them feel more uncomfortable than scolding themselves.
"Is there something wrong with what I said?"
"No! Of course not." The academy student shook his head and slowly teased the scholar, "Do you know how much it costs to build a railway track? Do you know how much money the Ministry of Revenue's treasury has now? If you know everything, you will understand why.
The court will report to the Royal Bank
Borrow money."
"It's just a railway track, how much can it cost?" The scholar was dissatisfied.
"How much can it cost?" The voice of the academy student raised an octave, with ridicule towards the scholars, "Do you know how much the railway track from Beijing to Shanghai County costs?"
As he spoke, the academy student drew four fingers and sneered, "More than four million yuan! This is what you said, how much can you spend?"
The "Four" scholar wanted to object for the sake of objecting, but faced with such a huge number, his words still choked on his throat.
What a huge wealth more than four million yuan is, this exceeds the scholar's imagination.
"Spending so much money just to build a railway track is really a luxury." The scholar lacked confidence and could only whisper in a low voice.
But the reactions of people in the restaurant were different, and the people all exclaimed in surprise. More than four million guan, how much is this? Stacked together, I am afraid it can pile up a mountain of money, right?
But now so much money is used to spread it on the ground. It is luxurious. It is so luxurious!
However, the reaction of the merchants was completely different from that of the common people. It was only more than 4 million yuan? This price was much lower than they expected!
These businessmen have already calculated countless times how profitable the railway track from Beijing to Shanghai County is. After investigation and calculation, everyone agreed that this railway track will bring about 1.5 million railway tracks every year.
income.
However, the construction cost was only over 4 million yuan. Doesn’t this mean that the capital can be recovered in just three years? It will be earned for countless years in the future!
This profit is so amazing, it deserves to be the arm of Han Du, the good boy with wealth.
I think many of the merchants here were not optimistic about Han Du's construction of railway tracks. They did not expect that in just a few years, Han Du would have already started to make money, and he was making a lot of money!
"A summer insect cannot speak of ice, how can a frog at the bottom of a well know how vast the world is!" The academy student sneered at the scholar coldly.
Being ridiculed in this way, the scholar became angry. Although he was not reasonable, he still wanted to come up with some absurd reasons.
Staring back at the academy students, the scholar retorted, "The Zhenguo government built the railway track from Beijing to Shanghai County on its own. Now the court is unable to build it and has to borrow money from the Royal Bank? What does this mean? Doesn't it mean that the Zhenguo government
The palace is as rich as the country, is it richer than the entire Ming Dynasty?"
The academy students instantly understood the scholar's sinister intentions. He wanted to point the finger at
Opposite the Zhenguo Government. Want to borrow a knife to kill someone? You are worthy of it?
"Who here doesn't know that the Duke of Zhen Guo is rich?" The academy student spread his hands and laughed loudly, "The Duke of Zhen Guo has a reputation for philanthropy. What if he only wants to make money? Not to mention he is rich enough to rival the country.
Even an extremely wealthy country can make money back!"
"Hahaha, the young master is right." A businessman immediately echoed, "What does it mean to be rich enough to rival a country? If Duke Zhen Guo wants to make money, he can make ten riches from overseas alone."
"Exactly, among us and other maritime merchants, who wouldn't remember the kindness of Lord Zhen Guo?"
"If it weren't for the Duke of Zhen to open up the waterway for me and other maritime merchants, I'm afraid I would still be just a small merchant now! Hahaha"
Over the years, maritime trade has changed tremendously. From the beginning, trading at sea was regarded as an extremely dangerous move. The sea was unpredictable. At the beginning, the ship was overturned by the wind and waves, and everyone was swept into the sea by the wind and waves.
The situation of fish is actually quite good. What’s more, there are still Japanese pirates overseas who are watching with eager eyes.
As Handu annihilated Japanese pirates and gradually found safe waterways, and the safety of sea voyages was guaranteed, maritime trade truly began to flourish.
Nowadays, the meaning represented by maritime merchants has long been different. Now maritime merchants mean wealth and a strong family background!
Therefore, as soon as these maritime merchants opened their mouths, they immediately attracted everyone's attention.
The common people and other merchants toasted to several people to show their friendship.
When the academy students saw someone helping, they slightly cupped their hands and said with a smile, "Thank you all for speaking up and letting the villain's conspiracy collapse!"
"Young Master, you're welcome." The merchant who just stood up to speak quickly returned the greeting and said sternly, "I am only today thanks to the grace of the Duke of Zhenguo. Naturally, I cannot tolerate anyone's speculation and slander!"
The scholar was still unconvinced and suddenly said loudly, "In the Ming Dynasty, even the imperial court couldn't afford to build a building, but the Zhenguogong Palace built one on its own. Doesn't this mean that the Zhenguogong Palace is richer than the imperial treasury?"
"
"You are so ignorant and stupid. You haven't even carefully investigated the specific situation. You are just making nonsense here to mislead the people. It is simply deplorable!" The academy student couldn't bear it anymore. He suddenly stood up and pointed at the scholar.
scold.
"The imperial treasury is not without money. Several million guan can still be obtained. But part of the money is the salary of officials this year, and part is money used to build water conservancy projects and provide disaster relief. There are also hundreds of thousands of guan.
There is a surplus, but these are kept just in case.”
"Tell me, any of this money can be easily touched?"
After hearing this explanation, the people not only did not think there was anything wrong with borrowing money from the Royal Bank even though they had money, but they felt that the imperial court would rather be embarrassed and borrow money than use the money prepared for disaster relief, and they suddenly felt much more at ease.
The scholar was so beaten that he lost his temper and lowered his head like a lost dog.
When everyone saw him like this, they felt very relieved.
However, not everyone thinks it is a good thing for the court to borrow money from the Royal Bank.
Some people objected, even saying, "The Emperor's Bank originally belongs to the Emperor, so this is equivalent to the imperial court borrowing money from the emperor. Moreover, the imperial court also needs to pay interest to the emperor."
"Instead of doing this, it's better to ask the emperor for money directly. In this way, not only do you not have to pay back the interest, but you don't even have to pay back the principal!"
There are quite a few people who have this idea.
However, everyone knows that as early as the Xiaokang period, the late emperor built county schools so that children all over the world could study in schools. For this reason, the royal family had to throw down mountains of gold and silver every year.
At first, the imperial court was afraid of being burdened by such huge expenses, so it strongly advocated the complete separation of the national treasury and the inner treasury. From then on, the inner treasury had nothing to do with the national treasury.
Even if the treasury is starved to death, there is no reason to take a penny from the inner treasury to fill it.
And no one dares to bring it up. Once anyone brings it up, it means taking food from the mouths of all the children in the world. How can the parents of these children agree?
Therefore, even if someone is dissatisfied, they dare not raise it openly and can only cover up their complaints. However, these rare complaints are quickly submerged in the tide and cannot make any waves.
The scandal that the imperial court borrowed money from the Royal Bank continued to spread, and another even more shocking news spread.
"What? It's not enough for the court to borrow money from banks, but it also needs to borrow money from merchants?"
All the merchants who heard the news looked panicked and worried!
From ancient times to the present, the imperial court has borrowed money from merchants quite a lot, but it was almost always Liu Bei who borrowed money from Jingzhou and never paid it back!
Not only that, the court would just refuse to pay back the money, but it would also intensify the accusations against the merchants, which would directly destroy their families!
There are countless such tragic examples. Who among the merchants who heard the news was not frightened?
There are those who are so timid that they even gave up their family property and fled the capital overnight, just to save their lives!
And under such circumstances, which merchant would dare to take the initiative to lend money to the court?