In the spring of the third year of Hongxi, after three years of arduous reforms by Emperor Hongxi and his ministers, the Ming Dynasty finally passed through its most difficult years. Various reform policies have achieved results, and the people who have been in poverty for a long time have been relieved. People in various places have starved to death.
The phenomenon has become very rare. Although the debt of the national treasury has not been paid off, the finance is still stretched. But everyone can see that this extremely heavy carriage of the Ming Dynasty has struggled to leave the edge of the cliff and is on the track of recovery.
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It’s just that this recovery is much more difficult than expected, especially in big cities. The lives of citizens are even worse than those in the Yongle period. Although there is no need to worry about starving to death, there is a shortage of supplies in the market. Department stores in Yongle Dynasty are crowded with dazzling products.
The scene no longer exists, and even the number of shops has been reduced by more than half. Because people have almost no money in their pockets and cannot afford consumer goods other than firewood, rice, oil and salt. Merchants cannot make money and can only reduce operations or even close down.
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The Ming Dynasty solved the hyper-inflation during the Yongle period by abolishing treasure banknotes, but fell into the dilemma of deflation. This truth did not even need to be reminded by Wang Xian, Xia Yuanji, a once-in-a-millennium financial expert, was already telling
This book explains to the emperor that in recent years, there have been continuous bumper harvests and the people's famine has basically been resolved. However, the reason why the imperial government's finances have not improved is because the industry and commerce have shrunk significantly.
The reason why industry and commerce shrank was firstly because the imperial court implemented strict frugality and stopped all purchases, which made it impossible for the industrial and commercial people who relied on them to make a living. The more important reason was that the abolition of treasure banknotes was hasty. When Emperor Hongwu issued treasure banknotes, there was a very important reason.
The important reason is that the Ming Dynasty was extremely short of precious metals, resulting in a serious shortage of currency in the market, so banknotes were used to supplement it. Today, the situation of severe shortage of gold, silver and copper has not changed, but if treasure banknotes are abolished, serious consequences will naturally occur.
deflation.
Xia Yuanji told the emperor that it is true that agriculture is the foundation of the country, but it can only ensure that the people do not go hungry. But if you want to make the country rich and strong, you must develop industry and commerce, and if you want to develop industry and commerce, you must solve the deflation crisis!
Although Xia Yuanji's memorial was regarded by many civil servants as a criticism of the New Deal and an attempt to revive the old government of the previous dynasty, Yang Shiqi was not blinded by narrow scholastic views. He knew very well that what Yuanji said was true knowledge and insight, and he would use it to improve people who were already serving as officials at home.
The old man please go back to the capital and ask him for advice on how to solve deflation.
Xia Yuanji gave three strategies: the upper, middle and lower strategies. The best strategy was to issue new treasure banknotes with reserves as in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty; the middle strategy was to resume the Western voyages and exchange silk, porcelain and tea from the Celestial Dynasty for overseas gold and silver to make up for the loss.
The domestic currency is insufficient; the next strategy is to vigorously mine gold, silver and copper mines across the country, prohibit private hoarding of silver and copper, and mint as many coins as possible.
It is a pity that Yang Shiqi finally adopted the last resort after deliberation with the emperor. Both Zhu Gaochi and Yang Shiqi thought that it was so easy to get rid of the treasure banknotes, and they could not open this hole again, otherwise they would sooner or later return to the old habit of indiscriminate issuing of banknotes.
On the way, sailing to the Western Seas is a waste of people and money, and the effort and reward are far out of proportion. Don't restart it if you stop it.
As a result, the emperor only ordered the mining of gold, silver and copper mines nationwide, banned private hoarding of silver and copper, and ordered mints in various places to mint as many copper coins as possible to solve the deflation crisis.
Xia Yuanji was very disappointed with this. He did not expect that Emperor Hongxi and Yang Shiqi would be so conservative! If only how much gold and silver could be mined from the mines in various places, the finances in the last years of Yongle would not be so tight!
The frustrated Xia Yuanji declined the emperor's and Yang Shiqi's attempts to stay, and resolutely embarked on the road to return home.
When he heard that Xia Yuanji had left, Yang Shiqi, who was busy in the cabinet, just sighed and continued to work...
Compared with the rush of the emperor's summons and the long journey day and night, Xia Yuanji's return journey was much more leisurely. No one urged him to hurry up, and no one set a time limit for him to arrive home. The old gentleman simply drove slowly and enjoyed the mountains and rivers along the way.
, visiting friends and reminiscing about old times, returning south unhurriedly.
It took more than a month for Xia Yuanji to arrive in Dezhou. As soon as he entered the city, he felt very different. He found that this place was much more prosperous and lively than the previous stop, Cangzhou. The old gentleman visited a few shops and found that
The materials inside are very rich, and the trade is also very active.
After just standing in the store for a while, Xia Yuanji saw several transactions completed. What surprised him even more was that the buyers and sellers did not use gold, silver or copper coins, but something like banknotes!
This aroused great interest in Xia Yuanji. When the business in the store was over and the shopkeeper was free, he went over to say hello and asked: "Shopkeeper, I am a passing traveler. I am very curious about something. Please
Don’t hesitate to teach me.”
"You're too polite, sir, just ask." Seeing Xia Yuanji's extraordinary appearance and magnanimity, the shopkeeper knew that the old man had an extraordinary background, so he stood up and clasped his fists politely.
"I just saw that you were using banknotes for transactions, right?" Xia Yuanji asked: "Didn't the banknotes become completely invalid starting from the beginning of the year? Why are you still accepting them here?"
"Haha, old sir, look carefully. Is this a treasure note?" The shopkeeper chuckled, took out a "banknote" from the drawer, and placed it in front of Xia Yuanji.
Xia Yuanji took a closer look and saw that they were indeed not treasure banknotes. Although they were paper banknotes, the paper quality, color, and characters were all new to him. He saw two large italic characters 'Banknote' printed on the top of the head, and 'Banknote' on the bottom.
There is a line of words written on it, "Twenty-two cents of Guan Ping Yin with the receipt". On the right side, it says "Tianzi No. XX", on the left side it says "Jinan Guangsheng Bill No." on a certain month of the second year of Hongxi.
' seal, as well as a series of monograms and saddle seals.
"What's the origin of this Guangsheng banknote?" Xia Yuanji is a good judge of goods. One look at the banknote and he knew that it was some kind of banknote issued by a private person and could be used as a substitute for money.
"Have you never heard of Guangsheng Hao?" the shopkeeper said with an incredulous look on his face: "It was established by the Zhenguo Gong, the Chief Envoy of Shandong, various government offices in Shandong, and dozens of wealthy people.
Big banks! They have branches all over the province, and you can cash out cash from them with this banknote!"
"Are there many people like you who use banknotes to do business?" Xia Yuanji looked at the shopkeeper, his heart pounding. He didn't expect that there was someone in Shandong who thought of it together with him, and it had already been promoted.
"Of course, I don't know about other places, but we in Shandong all recognize this thing!" the shopkeeper said, trying to take back the banknote, but Xia Yuanji held him down.
The shopkeeper thought he was going to steal the money, so his expression suddenly changed, but when he saw Xia Yuanji slapped a gold ingot in front of him, he said in a deep voice: "I bought this silver note!".
After coming out of that shop, Xia Yuanji had no intention of traveling around. He visited the Dezhou city and visited the Dezhou branch of Guangsheng Bank on Fuqian Street. He also walked around the streets to investigate the operating conditions of large and small shops.
We even went to people's homes to see how they were living.
The result surprised and delighted Xia Yuanji. The business boom in Dezhou could even catch up with Wuxi Jiaxing and other places in the south of the Yangtze River. It was more prosperous than his hometown in Changsha, and the living standards of the people were comparable to those in the south of the Yangtze River. This was simply a miracle.
Miracle!
The only thing he didn't expect was that his actions actually attracted the Jin Yiwei, and Xia Yuanji had to reveal his identity to avoid being arrested as an enemy agent.
Not wanting to socialize with the local officials, Xia Yuanji left Dezhou without stopping on the way and rushed directly to Jinan.
When he arrived at Jinan City, Xia Yuanji was even more shocked. He could only see the sight of business travelers gathering and forests of shops in Suzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing, the central cities in the south of the Yangtze River. It was unique in the entire north of the Yellow River!
An ordinary person, seeing such a scene, might just sigh, "Jinan is indeed the most beautiful city in the world, and it really deserves its reputation!" But Xia Yuanji has been a steward of the Ming Dynasty for more than 20 years, how could he not know the original appearance of Jinan?
?Only five years ago, Jinan was still in the lower reaches of the country's provincial capitals, only slightly better than those in the southwest and northwest. Let alone Hangzhou, Suzhou and Nanjing, it could not compare with cities like Taiyuan, Xi'an and Changsha.
Xia Yuanji knew better that there were many problems in Jinan and Shandong, such as heavy labor, excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes, long drought and no rain, corrupt officials, rampant cults, and rampant gentry... It can be said that Shandong has problems in every province in the world, and there are still many troubles.
Unique to Shandong, Xia Yuanji once even despaired that Shandong was destined to be the heaviest burden for the Ming Dynasty and would drag the empire into the abyss.
Zhu Di's decision to use shock therapy in Shandong to break all the abscesses was largely based on Xia Yuanji's judgment. However, in less than five years, Jinan and Shandong have emerged from the quagmire and developed into this kind of situation.
How could Xia Yuanji be kept from blushing and feeling ashamed?
Xia Yuanji planned to take a stroll in Jinan City, but was caught by Chu Yan.
"Oh, Mr. Xia Guo! I found you old!" Chu Yan smiled and saluted Xia Yuanji: "I heard from the governor of Dezhou that you came to Jinan, so I asked someone to wait at the gate of the city. Who knew these idiots
, I actually missed you!"
In the past, when Chu Yan was serving as a foreign minister in the Ministry of Household Affairs, Xia Yuanji was his court official, and he could be regarded as Chu Yan's old boss. However, Xia Yuanji did not act like an old boss, and returned the courtesy to Chu Yan with a smile: "I have been here for a long time.
How can a commoner, just wandering around to kill time, alert the government?"
"Hey, what you are saying is out of context. You are said to be the boss of a lower official. But our father-in-law has already told you that when you pass by Jinan, you must be well entertained and try to make you happy.
Stay a while so we can learn more from you."
"What Duke Zhen Guo said is not ironic, right?" Xia Yuanji heard this and smiled bitterly: "I should be asking you for advice."