The work of disaster relief belongs to the Ministry of Industry, the work of disaster relief belongs to the Ministry of Households, and the work of overthrowing Zuo Liangyu's regime belongs to Nanchang. These agencies are working intensively. People in the capital and even the entire Jiangnan have also spontaneously organized to donate food and donations to the disaster area.
Donate money and materials, and when floods occur in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, the people in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River feel the same. After all, they are compatriots who drink from the same river.
The Ministry of Household Affairs allocated two million taels of silver for disaster relief, the emperor also took out one million taels from the internal funds, and the ministers collectively donated a year's salary. With these examples, private fundraising activities are also in full swing. Many shops
They took the initiative to donate materials such as fabrics, ready-made clothes, shoes, umbrellas, oilcloths, etc. Many businessmen came to the official uniform with their banknotes to donate. Even the flower boats on the Qinhuai River donated money to help Huguang.
Banners for family members, these are spontaneous private donations, not large in scale, and the most eye-catching one is the upcoming fundraising meeting in Beijing.
The fund-raising meeting was held in the most prosperous Confucius Temple in the capital. The specific work was presided over by the Huguang Division of the Ministry of Revenue. Yingtianfu and the Wucheng Military and Horse Division were responsible for maintaining order at the scene. The heavy rain had stopped, but the sky was still gloomy. This time in the capital
It was also hit by floods. Many houses that had been in disrepair for a long time were collapsed by heavy rains. The water level of Xuanwu Lake was much higher than before. Representatives of large merchants and factories from all over the country were present in the capital. These luxuriously dressed people were guarded by bodyguards.
Next, they were sitting peacefully in the awning, chatting about nothing. Behind everyone was a money box, which contained the banknotes they were going to raise today.
Nowadays, Nanming's economy is developed and capitalism has entered its infancy. All factories, mines and workshops have an intricate relationship with the imperial court. Even if the political situation changes greatly, nothing will happen. The relatively stable environment has allowed them to create a lot of wealth. From the Japanese country,
In the Song Dynasty, the silver imported from South America made the supply of circulating currency sufficient, the refugees in the north provided a large amount of cheap labor, and China's abundant coal reserves provided stable energy. With these supports, industrial and mining enterprises developed extremely rapidly, and the rich people in Jiangnan
All of them are extremely rich, and some of them have a family fortune of no less than tens of millions.
Silver is the official currency of the Ming Dynasty. The basic unit is taels. There are small ingots of one tael or one tael, and large silver ingots of 10 taels or 50 taels. There are also Spanish eagles from overseas, each worth seven cents and three cents.
A five-cent silver dollar from the Song Dynasty can be exchanged for about a thousand copper coins per tael, which is a sling of money. The uncertainty often depends on the quality of the silver. Brand-new Kuping silver and good-quality silver coins can be used in full.
In exchange, those of poor quality could only be exchanged for copper coins ranging from 600 to 900. At the market price at that time, a meal of two meat and two vegetables, wine and soup was only five coins of silver. A middle-income shop
The monthly salary of a senior clerk is only between 10 taels and 30 taels, the annual salary of a first-class official is around 10,000 taels, and the annual gross production value of a large semi-monopoly enterprise such as Liguo Iron Works is one million taels.
Or so. Generally speaking, one tael of silver feels about the same to people of this era as more than one hundred yuan in the 21st century. But you can’t completely correspond to this value, because China’s total GDP in the 21st century is extremely
There are many people with a net worth of tens of billions, but the GDP of Nanming is only over one billion taels of silver. Those who are worth one million taels are already top-notch rich people.
Donating more or less is an expression of one's heart. There are no hard and fast rules for the fund-raising meeting, but these wealthy people come with the mentality of being richer. The good people of the Celestial Dynasty are just a face. If they don't show up,
The money that corresponds to your identity will no longer be able to get away with it.
Liu Ziguang was also standing among the crowd watching the excitement. Today was a special day. He accompanied his pregnant wife Zeng Cheng into the city for the first time. The water level of Xuanwu Lake rose, threatening the safe living of the small fishing village, so Liu Ziguang brought Zeng Cheng there.
In the city, they were both wearing coarse clothes and carrying umbrellas. Their bags contained all their family savings, a total of thirty-five taels of silver and three to four hundred copper coins. Liu
Ziguang said that he was afraid that the island would be flooded and wanted to rent a house in the city. Zeng Cheng had always been a husband-wife follower and obeyed Liu Ziguang's words. He quickly packed his luggage and followed. Of course, other people in the village also followed.
City, their luggage was all put on the hired donkey cart. Naturally, the house had been arranged in advance. It was located in the prosperous area in the south of the city, and the fund-raising meeting happened to be passed by on the road.
There were indeed several talented people among the organizers of the fund-raising meeting, and the publicity work was very good. They used big-character posters to publicize the tragic situation of the Huguang flood. The literate scholars read the notices with their heads shaking, and the common people gasped in shock while listening.
, people in flood-stricken areas
The tragic life was vividly reflected through the brilliant writings of the propagandists and the compulsory speeches of the scholars. Everyone was sad to hear it, and all the listeners shed tears. Zeng Cheng stood far away, with crystal tears in his eyes, and said to Liu Ziguang:
"Let's donate some too."
Liu Ziguang readily agreed. The two of them walked into the depths of the crowd and came to a place where they could see the stage of the fund-raising meeting. They saw that big families were collecting donations from above. After the representatives of each family put large cashier's checks into the donation box, the supervisors asked
The gongs and drums were beaten fiercely, and the specific amount of silver was loudly announced. Then it was written on the water sign and hung high for people to see.
The money donated by most wealthy people is consistent with their status. For example, the water sign says 100,000 taels for Liguo Iron Works, 50,000 taels for Huainan Coal Mine, 80,000 taels for Songjiang Weaving Factory, and 100,000 taels for Jiangnan Shipyard.
Wanliang, there are two private companies of Liu Ziguang here alone, for
For disaster relief, he took out all the working capital of the company. As the amount of money from each company was revealed, the bustling people in the audience burst into applause. Those who made donations usually said a few polite words in a high-sounding manner.
The biggest donation was made by the representative of Rishengchang.
At that time, everyone knew that this bank account was the richest in the world, and the amount of their donation was a mystery that everyone had speculated about for a long time. With a burst of gongs and drums, the host announced the number: Rishengchang Silver Account, ninety-nine nine thousand nine hundred
Two, this is a very appropriate number, because he cannot compare with what the emperor donated
More than 990,000 taels is already an astonishing astronomical figure. The people in the audience were all surprised and applauded in unison. Shopkeeper Hu naturally would not show up to participate in such an event. She only appointed one deputy.
I said a few words on stage, and they were all high-sounding words.
Next up was a middle-aged wealthy businessman, about fifty years old, named Wang Jiu, who had passed the imperial examination. He had a large and highly skilled construction team under his command, ranging from the repair of private houses to the construction of restaurants and shops.
He has been extensively involved in the design of royal gardens and the construction of city walls. He has a very good relationship with the Ministry of Industry. Half of the projects in Qingdao City of Liu Ziguang were contracted to him. The contract amount was as high as hundreds of thousands of taels, and the profits were also very objective.
, Wang family
Wang Jiu is one of the leading figures in this industry in the Southern Ming Dynasty. He has a fortune of tens of millions, and it is said that he has at least three million taels. Wang Jiu also has a high level of literary accomplishment, is good at drawing, designing, and can also recite poems and write poems. These are full of copper.
He was an outlier among the smelly businessmen. Moreover, he often visited temples to burn incense and make wishes. He was a Buddhist layman. He visited almost all the 480 temples in the Southern Dynasties and spent tens of thousands of taels of sesame oil every year.
Wang Jiu took out a stack of banknotes and handed them to the official at the Ministry of Revenue. The official counted them, as if he didn't believe his eyes, and then counted them several times. Finally, he put down the banknotes helplessly, and there was a sound of gongs and drums.
Afterwards, the host shouted: "Exceptor Wang Jiu, eight hundred taels of silver."
The audience was in an uproar, and the people were whispering to each other, obviously not believing that this stingy figure was made by the layman Wang Jiu, who was known as Wang Shanren. At this moment, Wang Jiu began to speak:
"My dear Wang Jiu, I believe everyone knows me. Today I donated 800 taels of silver. You may think it is a little, but in fact it is not much at all. In the past few years, there have been droughts and wars. Life has been difficult for all walks of life. We
The Wang family has thousands of craftsmen, and they all need to eat. If I follow the example of others and spend one hundred and eighty thousand silver, it will definitely affect our family's business and the people who rely on me, Wang Jiu, for a living.
I, the King, have been doing good deeds for many years, and I never say anything in vain. What I want is for the common people to live a life without worries about food and clothing. My associates are also common people, and the first thing I want to take care of is them. And I think donations cannot be compared.
As long as your heart comes to you, I have made a rule for our Wang family's guys that each person cannot raise more than ten copper coins. It is enough to show your heart. Don't let the donations affect your normal life."
Wang Jiu's words only received a burst of boos from the people in the audience, but he was used to being independent and didn't care what everyone thought. He lightly cupped his fists and Shi Shiran walked under the water sign with eight hundred taels of silver written on it.
Passed and stepped down.
Wang Jiu was the last person in the big family. The originally expected grand finale was a failure, but the subsequent free fund-raising by the common people once again put on a good show. The common people walked past the donation table one by one, took out silver or copper coins and handed them to the officials.
And leaving their names in the merit book, the common people are naturally not as good as the rich and wealthy, but the sweaty banknotes in their hands represent the most sincere love, ten taels, twenty taels, fifty taels.
Two, almost
They donated their living expenses for several months without hesitation. The most touching thing was an old beggar with a broken leg. This man often begged in the area of Confucius Temple. Everyone knew him. At this moment, he actually gave out a tael of silver.
,and
And it was a brand new thin silk spindle. It seemed that it had just been redeemed from the ticket number. The old man said: This is my income from begging for half a month. I will donate it to the people in the disaster area to buy pancakes to eat. They are not as good as they are.
Here's me, an old beggar.
Liu Ziguang suddenly felt his arm being shaken, and Zeng Cheng's gentle voice sounded in his ears: "Mr. sir, let's donate too."
"Okay, how much do you plan to donate?" Liu Ziguang asked.
"We have a total of thirty-five, two, three hundred and twenty-eight cents, leaving twenty-eight cents to buy rice, and the rest will be donated. At worst, we won't rent a house anymore, and we will go back to the lake to live. We can live there
No matter how big the water is on the boat, you are not afraid." Zeng Cheng said cautiously, fearing that Liu Ziguang would get angry and call her a prodigal wife.
Of course Liu Ziguang would not get angry. He nodded solemnly: "It's up to you."
Zeng Cheng smiled happily, lined up happily and walked to the donation table, took out thirty-five taels of silver and three hundred copper coins and handed them to the official in charge of registration.
The official was very surprised to see this beautiful and somewhat shocking young woman. Seeing that she was not from a wealthy family, she actually took out so much money. She must have drained her pockets. The official asked with admiration: "Sister-in-law, please do me a favor."
Leave your name in the book."
Zeng Cheng said: "Female women don't leave names anymore. If you want to leave them, just leave the name of my husband-in-law." Then he picked up a pen and wrote down a few words and left happily.
The official watched her beautiful figure leave and looked back at the merit book. The name on it scared him so much that he almost fainted. It was three beautiful small characters "Liu Ziguang".