After contacting the Ministry of Revenue, Dahua's financial situation was gradually revealed to Xia Shang.
The treasury managed by Xia and Shang Dynasties is only a microcosm of the financial situation of Dahua as a whole.
On the carriage, Jia Shangjie, the Minister of Household Affairs, told Xia Shang about the economic situation of the entire Dahua.
The financial problems faced by Dahua now are very serious, and the root of all problems can be traced back to when Li Xin took control of Kyoto.
The current emperor has always paid little attention to government affairs, so he gave Li Xin a lot of room for manipulation.
Everyone knows that Li Xin controls the country's military power, and Li Xin's position in the army was achieved through a personal relationship between the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of War, using a large amount of military expenditures.
When Li Xin came to power, the military expenditure allocated by the imperial court had seriously exceeded the standard, and this large amount of excess expenditure was evenly shared on top of other expenditures of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Jia Shangjie was originally from Li Xin's faction, so he naturally supported the prince's decision within his ability.
However, as Li Xin's demands became more and more excessive, Jia Shangjie began to feel the pressure, because he had already felt that there were many holes in the Ministry of Revenue and the National Treasury in order to meet Li Xin's demands.
Jia Shangjie is a fearful person. He has no choice but to turn a blind eye and try his best to meet Li Xin's requirements.
The former head of the treasury took advantage of this opportunity to show his loyalty to Li Xin, and Li Xin obtained a lot of benefits through the accounts of the treasury.
Because of this, the hole in the national treasury is getting bigger and bigger. As the Minister of Household Affairs, Jia Shangjie did not dare to say anything even if he knew about it. He could only pretend not to know, and secretly used his own rights to help fill the hole in the treasury. Over time,
, the hole that emerged from the treasury spread to the entire household department, and then began a vicious cycle of demolishing the east wall to repair the west wall.
In the entire operation process, the Ministry of Revenue is no longer the only organization involved. The entire court is involved. Officials of these courts will more or less use the power at hand to seek some benefits. More than 80% of the officials are not clean.
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Therefore, if the counterfeit money incident in the national treasury is exposed, all officials in the capital will be implicated. At that time, it will not only cost the lives of one or two people, but the face of the entire court.
The attitude of the imperial court is also very clear now. On the one hand, it does not want to expose the family scandal, and on the other hand, it hopes to find a way to earn more money.
Silver, as for whether those officials who were secretly involved should be punished, that is a matter for later.
Jia Shangjie knew very well that no matter what the reason was, Xia Shang was assigned to be the director of the national treasury. This was an opportunity given by God.
Now Xia Shang's identity is no longer a secret. Everyone in the capital knows that Xia Shang is not only the head of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, but the Xia family also runs the best winery in the world and is the inventor of Wuliangye.
Xia Shang was a businessman. Tracing the history of the Xia family, we can find that Xia Shang had a very business acumen.
To put it simply, he is very good at making money.
In the past, most of the officials who came to the Ministry of Household Affairs were recruited from the reserve talents of the Hanlin Academy through the imperial examination.
Most of the reserved talents in the Hanlin Academy were born as scholars.
The idea that literati despised business was still very strong in this era, so literati rarely got involved in business before becoming officials.
Naturally, most of the officials in the Ministry of Household Affairs only started dealing with money after joining the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Xia Shang was an anomaly. Before he joined the Household Department, his identity was complex and his family had business experience. Jia Shangjie felt that if he wanted to fill the loopholes left by the Household Department and earn more money for the court, he would have to rely on other people in the Household Department.
Xia Shang is reliable.
Jia Shangjie even felt that the imperial court arranged for Xia Shang to come here specifically to solve the household issues.
Jia Shangjie curried favor with Xia Shang. On the one hand, he was very optimistic about the young man's potential and was more afraid of his relationship. On the other hand, he hoped to use Xia Shang to solve the dilemma faced by the Ministry of Revenue and him, the minister.
Jia Shangjie talked all the way in the car, and when he was about to arrive at Lord Shangshu's house, Jia Shangjie motioned to the driver to go slower, and then looked at Xia Shang humbly: "Master Xia's family has been doing business for generations, and I think he knows the way of doing business very well.
Seeing that the financial pressure on the imperial court is increasing, we don’t know when it will collapse. If it really comes to that point, and the official’s head is taken away from the government, and the country’s foundation is shaken, then it will be hard to escape the blame.”
Xia Shang frowned. He had never thought that Dahua's economic situation was so bad. Judging from the description just now, the national treasury alone should owe more than 20 million taels of silver, including the entire household department and the entire royal treasury.
If there is a vacancy, there will be a deficit of at least 50 million.
In the past, the imperial court demolished the east wall to repair the west wall, and the loopholes have been getting bigger. Although there are no problems now, one day they will
It will be impossible to make up for it.
This problem is really serious, but Xia Shang is not sure. It involves the entire country, and cannot be solved with an account book or an abacus.
"Master Xia, you really need to think of a solution to this matter. If there is no progress, if there are people in the court who have evil intentions towards you and use this matter to embarrass you, as long as someone investigates, the whole crime will be huge.
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"I know it without you having to tell me..." Xia Shang was a little impatient, feeling that this matter was a bit blackmailed by the imperial court.
If you don't make money for the court, the court will ruin your reputation.
Xia Shang thought about it briefly, and what came to his mind was the gameplay in his previous life.
"Since the imperial court has no money, let's issue national bonds."
"Issuing national bonds..." Jia Shangjie was stunned.
Xia Shang looked at his expression and knew that the Minister of Revenue had never heard of the word "national debt".
"Um..." Xia Shang paused and began to organize his words, "It means to lend money to the people all over the world in the name of the imperial court, issue IOUs to the people, and give them some interest."
"Your Majesty, what you mean is to lend money to the people? This... I'm afraid this is not easy to handle, and the court owes a lot of money. Your Majesty's method is nothing more than using another channel to make up for the West, which is treating the symptoms rather than the root cause.
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"The main problem now is that the court does not have enough working capital. Without working capital, all plans are just talks on paper. If the court wants to make money, it must first invest. Through money lending, it can quickly accumulate some funds for the court, and use this batch of funds to invest.
Creating value that exceeds the interest within the period specified by the national debt will make the court profitable. If the court never has money, it will never be able to stimulate the market economy, and the people will hide their own money, and there will be no value assets.
Come out. This is an endless cycle, and we must break this cycle first."
Jia Shangjie listened in confusion, Xia Shang also knew that he did not understand at all, and Xia Shang also knew that his explanation was not clear.
However, Xia and Shang were very aware of the court's current predicament. The court's economic source mainly relied on taxation, which was obviously not enough.
Relying on the subjective policy advantages of the court, there are many ways for the court to make money.
Opening up national debt is only the first step, and the subsequent manipulation of the exchange rate of copper coins and broken silver will also be a considerable profit point.