The Tang Dynasty was not the Ming Dynasty. It was not a world of gentry and big businessmen from the south of the Yangtze River. It was a world of rebels with mud-legged backgrounds. Although the Tang Dynasty is currently adopting various policies to ease its relationship with the landlords and gentry, it is still
It's just relaxing.
In fact, during the continuous expansion of the Tang Dynasty, many wealthy landlords were confiscated and exterminated by the Tang Dynasty. Otherwise, how do you think the Tang Dynasty could support the huge consumption of a hundred thousand troops?
A considerable part of the military expenditure comes from the families of rich landlords who have had their homes confiscated and exterminated!
Under the strict salt monopoly system, the original salt merchants either resisted and continued to sell illegal salt and were confiscated and exterminated, or they began to transform. These salt merchants were very rich and could not do the salt business. They
You can also do other things. For example, the Tang Dynasty now encourages industry and commerce, maritime trade, especially industry, so many smart salt merchants have started to do other businesses, and they can still live a very prosperous life.
This ensures that the salt tax of the Tang Dynasty is fully guaranteed. Although there is still a large number of private salt sales, the salt tax has increased significantly compared with the Ming Dynasty. It is estimated that the salt tax in the three years of Xuanping
The income can reach about 1.5 million taels, more than 1 million taels a year, which is just the beginning!
Under the salt tax, there is the customs duty, and then there is the tea tax and other bits and pieces of taxes!
A total of Tang Dynasty's fiscal revenue for the three years of Xuanping: 9 million!
This number is almost two or three times the central fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty. You must know that the central fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty is notoriously small. It is only a few million taels of silver a year. In many years, it is only three to four million taels.
It's just silver, and the amount of silver standing in the treasury is only a few million taels of silver.
Therefore, it is actually very easy to be as rich as the country these days. Many businessmen can do it. Even some high-ranking officials have net worths much higher than the country's annual income.
However, although the fiscal revenue of the Tang Dynasty was already very high, it was far from enough compared to the huge financial expenditure of the Tang Dynasty.
In the third year of Xuanping, the military budget expenditure alone exceeded the mark of tens of millions of taels of silver!
Then, in addition to military expenses, a dynasty's financial expenditures also include other expenses, such as administrative expenses, which are only a few million. The Tang Dynasty cannot be the same as the Ming Dynasty. This gives officials a year's salary.
A few dozen taels of silver, and then let the officials be greedy for money. The treatment of the officials in the Tang Dynasty was not very generous, but it still allowed the officials to live a decent life.
Secondly, water conservancy construction, urban construction, industrial and commercial development, etc. in various places all require money. The budget of the cabinet is that even if there are further savings in the three years of Xuanping, administrative expenses will still cost more than three million taels.
After all, the current Tang Dynasty is no longer a mountain king. At any rate, it is a local government with three provinces and an army of 100,000. For the Tang Dynasty, which has already embarked on a regular basis, to maintain its rule, a lot of expenditures are
Unavoidable.
Although the current main expenditures of the Tang Dynasty are only military expenditures and administrative expenses, the two together amount to 13 million. In other words, in the Tang Dynasty's fiscal budget for the three years of Xuanping, there are as many as four
A gap of one million taels of silver!
Seeing such a huge number, Li Xuan felt a headache!
Such a gap is difficult to solve, even if there will be subsequent inspections of the official property of the Ming Dynasty, the property of the vassal princes and the floating income of the Ming Dynasty officials' family property, but fat pigs like King Jingjiang are rare!
The huge financial deficit also made Li Xuan immediately choose to give up his plan to continue to expand the army!
He even had plans to suspend the offensive on some fronts to save war expenses.
For example, there are no Mao in Yunnan, and there is nothing good to be gained after defeating it, but it requires a lot of troops and a lot of military expenditures. However, although the resistance of the local chieftains and the Ming army was not fierce,
However, they always persisted in resisting, and all kinds of enemy troops simply appeared one after another.
Although the financial gap is huge, the war is still continuing, and the war in some directions cannot be stopped, especially the war in Huguang, which has entered the most critical moment. It is necessary to maintain control of the army in the direction of Huguang.
Only with sufficient supplies can we seize the southern part of Huguang and get out of the odd place of Guangdong and Guangxi.
The financial gap of up to four million taels of silver has been weighing on Li Xuan's appreciation, so much so that when the Spring Festival comes, Li Xuan is always frowning!
The Spring Festival is here, which means that it has entered the third year of Xuanping. Although strictly speaking, it has only been three years and two months since the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, but from a chronological perspective, it can be said that it has entered the third year of Xuanping.
It’s the fifth year.
On New Year's Eve, Li Xuan followed the practice of the previous two years and began to entertain the ministers in the palace. Naturally, the banquet required the ministers to maintain a royal style, so there were all kinds of delicacies from the mountains and seas.
However, the money spent is not money from the treasury, but money from the royal family's own inner treasury. It cannot even be said to be royal funds allocated from the treasury, because most of the money was invested by Li Xuan into the Guards.
, it can be regarded as part of the military expenditure.
Even the royal treasury, that is, the emperor's personal private money, except for a small amount used to continue building the palace, most of the rest was invested in the Guards.
The royal family’s internal treasury is so empty that mice can run away, so how will the royal family’s living expenses be solved?
That's because most of the royal family's expenses now come from Queen Mother Bai's private money!
If you count the royal family and even officials of the entire Tang Dynasty, Empress Dowager Bai is definitely the richest. Starting from the Xingquan Mansion era, the treasury and internal treasury of the Tang Dynasty have been clearly separated, and Empress Dowager Bai's private house
Money has nothing to do with the royal treasury.
The inner treasury of the royal family is Li Xuan's private money, or the property of the entire royal family. It mainly comes from several parts. One part is the royal funds allocated from fiscal revenue, and the other part comes from the imperial estates. These imperial estates
Most of the land was confiscated from the official land of the Ming Dynasty, and some of the vassal land was used to distribute to soldiers, while the other part was controlled by the royal family and became part of the imperial village.
Part of it comes from the commercial profits of some industries and commerce invested by Li Xuan. Li Xuan set up an Imperial Obstetrics Department under the Hanlin Academy to invest and manage royal assets. He also invested in and established many factories in the name of the Imperial Obstetrics Department.
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For example, there are soap factories, paper factories, and glass factories. Among them, the glass factory is still in the construction and research and development stage. Why, because until now, the Tang Dynasty has not figured out how to make transparent glass.
There are also several factories that specifically support arsenals affiliated to the Ministry of Industry, such as lumber factories, machinery factories, iron smelting plants, etc.
Although the scale of these royal factories is relatively small and far from being comparable to the large factories of the Ministry of Industry, the profits are actually not low.
In addition, the assets in the royal family's treasury also include treasures, paintings, calligraphy, etc. that are confiscated and difficult to realize in a short time, or are of great significance. However, these things are used as palace furnishings or as gifts to courtiers, and there are not many of them.
Liquidity value can be ignored.
Although the royal treasury has a lot of assets, it is actually a pauper in order to maintain the expenses of the Guards.
But Empress Dowager Bai had a lot of money on hand. Empress Dowager Bai had a lot of private money on hand. Later, she followed Li Xuan and appointed her confidants to invest in factories. She also followed Li Xuan's advice to invest in the textile industry.
Quite abundant.
Of course, although these assets of Queen Mother Bai are nominally owned by the royal family, it is naturally difficult for Li Xuan, a son, to take advantage of Queen Mother Bai's private money, so this has resulted in the current situation.
Fortunately, Queen Mother Bai is rich, otherwise, the royal family, with its empty treasury, may not even have the money to hold the Spring Festival state banquet.
After the Spring Festival state banquet was over, Li Xuan also returned to the harem for another family banquet. On New Year's Eve, he had to eat two meals. During the day, he had to have a state banquet with his ministers, and in the evening he had to have a family banquet with his family.
feast.
The next day, Li Xuan had a rare day off. Instead of going out to work, he stayed in the harem to accompany Empress Dowager Taibai and a group of concubines. He also watched several operas with Empress Dowager Bai, which made Li Xuan dizzy.
Swell!
For a dance connoisseur who is used to seeing rows of long legs twisting and turning on the stage, to be honest, he really has no interest in the tight-fitting and babbling operas in front of him.
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If he had to watch an opera or a dance drama, yes, he would rather watch the dances performed by the dancers in the palace in private occasions in the harem. Why he likes to watch it is four words: gauze and thin wings!
However, Empress Dowager Bai and the others were very interested in watching the Kunqu Opera. Even Empress Dong, who was pregnant, was also watching with great interest. From time to time, she would even talk to the female members of the Dong family who came to the palace to pay New Year's greetings and see her.
Nowadays, the Dong family has long been trapped in the Tang Dynasty and cannot extricate itself. Not only the direct daughter of the Dong family has become the empress of the Tang Dynasty, but also the direct descendants of the Dong family have now entered the Tang Dynasty to join the army or work for the Tang Dynasty.
Dong's father, who was originally an official in Jiangnan, was rescued by a special envoy sent early. Originally, Dong's father wanted to commit suicide to show his loyalty to the Ming Dynasty, but for some reason he figured it out and is now an honest man.
He actually served as an official in the Tang Dynasty and now serves in the Ministry of Rites.
After a day's rest, the next day, which was the second day of the Lunar New Year, Li Xuan had already started working normally. The army was still fighting fiercely with the Ming army in Huguang. They could not spend a happy Spring Festival. Many government affairs still had to be carried out.
Waiting for him to deal with it, in this case, neither he nor the middle and high-level officials in the Tang Dynasty could rest for too long.
However, when Li Xuan started to read the first memorial, he frowned for a moment, then pressed the bell, and said to a lecturer who pushed in the door: "Convene a cabinet meeting immediately!"