After leaving Linggu Temple, the emperor wanted to go shopping in Nanjing, which gave Wang Yuan, Zhang Yong, Jiang Bin and others a headache.
Linggu Temple can still clear the venue for performances, but you arrange tens of thousands of extras on the streets of Nanjing?
Wang Yuan did not dare to take his wife and children with him, so he asked Ling'er to live with Wang Ce in the official residence, while he and Yuan Da held swords to accompany him. If he encountered gangsters or Ning Wang's remaining party, he would immediately slash them with swords to protect them.
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However, Zhu Houzhao was not worried and went straight to the busiest Sanshan Street.
This place was an imperial street in the Southern Tang Dynasty, and developed into the most prosperous commercial street in the country during the Ming Dynasty. The stalls were set up under the corridors on both sides of the street, which could provide shelter from wind and rain. They were called "official corridors". Such stalls were taxed. If not
Operating under the porch can be regarded as illegal stall setting, and is often driven away by the "urban management" (Wucheng Military and Horse Division).
Zhu Houzhao seemed to be curious about everything he saw. The products here were much richer than those in Beijing. He walked to a stall, picked up a folding fan, opened it and tasted it: "The fan work is good, but the painting work is terrible."
Seeing that Zhu Houzhao was followed by seven or eight people, the stall owner flattered him: "This young man has really good eyesight. It's really difficult for the folding fan painter to get the Fang family's discernment." The boss said, taking out another folding fan, "Sir, this fan has a blank surface.
Write and paint according to your own wishes."
Zhu Houzhao was quite satisfied, nodded and said: "I will buy a few and let Tang Yin paint."
The stall owner was very happy and asked in conversation: "Young Master is Tang Jieyuan's friend?"
Zhu Houzhao smiled and said, "You also know Tang Yin?"
The stall owner said: "How can you not recognize him? I haven't seen Tang Jieyuan in the past few years, but I met him often in the past few years. He lived in Nanjing for a long time."
While Zhu Houzhao was chatting with his boss, Wang Yuan was also given a folding fan.
Nanjing was the folding fan production center in the Ming Dynasty, and the "Jinling Folding Fan" is famous all over the world. The folding fans sold by any roadside stall can be classified as high-quality products when brought to Beijing.
After walking around the street for a while, I saw that it was already noon.
Zhu Houzhao walked directly into a restaurant and asked: "Son, do you have Jinling roast duck here?"
The waiter smiled and said: "Young master is really good at joking. How can I open a restaurant in Nanjing and not be able to cook roast duck?"
Jinling roast duck and Jinling roast goose were famous dishes in Nanjing in the early Ming Dynasty.
After Zhu Di moved the capital, the dishes were also spread to Beijing, so "Peking Roast Duck" was born.
But during the Zhengde period, "Beijing Roast Duck" was still a palace dish, and it was still decades before the first roast duck restaurant in Beijing opened. The Beijing Roast Duck restaurant that had not yet opened was called "Bianbi Fang", and it was specially marked on the sign.
"Jinling Roast Duck" four words.
Zhu Houzhao has been eating "Beijing Roast Duck" since he was a child. He knows that "Jinling Roast Duck" is the authentic product, so he naturally wants to come here to try it.
The waiter quickly brought out several plates of roast duck, which had been sliced into thin slices. There was no dipping sauce, just a layer of marinade.
Wang Yuan picked up a piece and tasted it. It was crispy and refreshing, fat but not greasy, and full of juice. It was very different from the Beijing roast duck of later generations. To be honest, this thing was more in line with Wang Yuan's taste because he didn't like sweet noodle sauce.
Sweet is heresy, salty is the right way!
Zhu Houzhao said: "The taste is not far different from the one at home, but the authentic Jinling roast duck is still more delicious."
While Wang Yuan was eating roast duck, he was playing with the copper coins in his hand. These were good money, and they were specially used to exchange them at the bank in order to buy things with the emperor.
In the history of Ming Dynasty, the best quality copper coins mainly include gold-backed coins, fire-lacquered coins and ladle-edged coins, and all of them have been treated for anti-counterfeiting. The surface of gold-backed coins is coated with copper powder, which is as bright as a gold coin; the surface of fire-lacquered coins is smoked into Black lacquer; Lai edge coins have a special Lai pattern on the edge of the copper coin.
These three kinds of copper coins are all exquisite in craftsmanship and full of materials.
Just compare the gold-backed coin with the New China fifty-cent coin. The diameter of the golden-backed coin is more than twice that of the fifty-cent coin, and its thickness is about twice that of the fifty-cent coin. Is it a little different from the copper coins in your impression?
However, these three kinds of good money have not yet come out. Only the coins minted by Nanjing Baoquan Bureau are somewhat similar to gold-backed coins, which are called "gold-backed coins" by the people, and they are only circulated within the jurisdiction of Nanzhili.
"Why is Erlang staring at the copper coins?" Zhu Houzhao suddenly asked.
Wang Yuan smiled and replied: "This is the first time for me to make such good money. The coins in Nanjing are more exquisite than those in Beijing."
Zhu Houzhao was not interested in this and only said: "No matter how good the copper coins are, they are not as useful as gold and silver."
Wang Yuan shook his head and said: "Everyone who rises to the top depends on copper coins."
Zhu Houzhao said: "But the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Revenue collect customs duties and only accept silver. It is very inconvenient to transport copper coins to the capital."
Not only the customs duties and escorts to Beijing must be exchanged for silver, but also the official land, grain and taxes must be exchanged for silver. This kind of exchange contains the mystery of "fire consumption" and has become a means of making money for countless officials.
Zhang Yong suddenly said: "My lord, the inner government and the household department also want to use copper coins, but the money collected is not enough to supply."
"Really?" Zhu Houzhao asked confused.
Zhang Yong said with a smile: "In the third year of Zhengde, the copper coins in the key treasury and the transportation treasury were not enough. It was the old slave who suggested that the money from the treasury and the chief treasurer be used to solve the problem of military pay and salary."
Zhu Houzhao had no impression of such a big event.
The key storehouse is managed by eunuchs. The food and salary of the soldiers in the Beijing camp are allocated from the key storehouse. The financial resources come from local customs duties and the money cast by the Ministry of Industry. If there is a war, as wartime needs, the Ministry of Household Affairs will come to pay for it. For example, when Wang Yuan was training his troops, the Ministry of Household Affairs provided him with food and salary. After Liu Liu and Liu Qi were wiped out, the eunuchs paid him.
The transportation treasury is under the control of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the salaries of civil and military officials are spent from the transportation treasury. The financial resources also come from various banknotes and the mint of the Ministry of Industry.
Before the Hongzhi Dynasty, customs duties were collected in both money and cash, and military pay was mainly based on grain. Emperor Hongzhi reformed this. Customs officers escorted to Beijing must be paid in silver, and the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes were completely abandoned. The central government no longer even accepted copper coins. .
At the same time, the imperial court began to mint money, and distributed the money accumulated in the Hongwu, Yongle, and Xuande dynasties. The local tax collection was at least the old money (made by the previous dynasty), and the mint money (minted by the Ming Dynasty) was half and half. The old money that was not minted was equal to one. .Why is the coinage scarce? Because for a long time, the Ming Dynasty officials did not mint copper coins and ordered the people to use treasure banknotes.
These reforms have good intentions.
The central government only accepts silver because it is too troublesome to escort copper coins to Beijing. The reason for letting local governments collect copper coins is to completely abolish treasure banknotes and facilitate people's daily lives.
But when Zhu Houzhao became emperor, in just over ten years, this reform encountered an embarrassing situation.
Because the central government only collects money, pays salaries to officials, pays soldiers, and uses a large amount of copper coins, the inner government and the Ministry of Households do not have enough copper coins.
What to do?
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Household Affairs can only exchange copper coins among the people, which inevitably lines their own pockets and exchanges a large amount of low-quality private money. When issuing it to officials and soldiers, the private money is used to distribute according to the currency value of the coin, resulting in officials getting Salaries are less than one-third of real wages.
Of course the officials are not happy, especially the Qingshui Yamen who live on salary. Their salary is not much to begin with, and if they receive bad money, they will not have enough to eat!
Everyone refused to accept low-quality copper coins, which caused a big fuss. The yamen responsible for paying wages spread their hands and said, "There are not enough copper coins in the warehouse, and there is nothing I can do."
At that time, it was Zhang Yong who came out to settle the matter, misappropriating the money accumulated from the Tiantreasury of the Imperial Household and giving it to the Secretary's Key Treasury, which was used to pay the soldiers in the capital. He also transferred the money from the Chief Treasurer to the Transport Treasury, which was used to pay salaries to the officials. Zhang Yong also suggested that,
From now on, the central government will collect customs duties, which will be set at seven hundred Wen (money) and one tael of silver. The copper-silver exchange ratio cannot be changed at will, and private minting of copper coins is prohibited.
Although Zhang Yong was greedy, he was quite capable in politics, and his suggestions were unanimously approved by the civil servants.
At least all the civil and military officials in the capital can receive full salary thanks to Zhang Yong. Now a system has been formed whereby the monthly salary of the officials in the capital is shipped separately from the local chief minister's treasury to transport copper coins to the capital for payment.
At this moment, Zhang Yong explained, and Zhu Houzhao finally understood. He didn't care about financial issues, but asked: "Official salaries are provided by the local chief secretary with money, but what about the food and salary of the soldiers in the capital? Is the copper coin in the secretary's key treasury enough?"
"
Of course it’s not enough, but who cares?
The soldiers in the West Government Office (Beijing's frontier army) were pretty good, but the East Government Office (Beijing Camp) generally defaulted on their food and salary payments. When the Si Yao Treasury did not have copper coins to pay, they directly deducted the money, while the generals took the money and ate it.
Just buy some food and distribute it to the soldiers.
Jiang Bin said with a smile: "Although the copper coins in the Secretary's Key Treasury are not enough, we can use the silver to buy grain and distribute it, so you don't have to worry."
"That's okay." Zhu Houzhao was very concerned about the soldiers in the Beijing camp.
Wang Yuan didn't bother to expose it, because it would be useless. As long as the emperor didn't keep an eye on it personally, this kind of thing would keep happening.
Wang Yuan only cared about the national finance and said: "My lord, although Butler Zhang prohibits the private casting of copper coins, the copper coins on the market are not enough after all. We might as well cast the 'Zhengde Tongbao', firstly to alleviate the shortage of copper coins, and secondly to show the mighty emperor's favor. Casting
The money needs to be fully sourced and distinguished from private money.”
No copper coins were minted in the Zhengde Dynasty. The "Zhengde Tongbao" collected by later generations were either modern fakes or ancient private money.
Zhu Houzhao didn't care about easing the copper coin gap, he was only interested in showing the emperor's grace, and immediately said: "Then cast Zhengde Tongbao!"
Wang Yuan had already prepared and suggested: "Copper is produced in Yunnan, and coins can be minted in Guizhou. From Hangzhou, foreign copper materials are cheap, and they can be transported to Nanjing Baoquan Bureau to mint coins. In other places, coins cannot be minted, and old coins from various places should be used."
Money, Nanjing, Yunnan new money exchange.”
The chief secretaries of various places have the power to mint money.
For example, the copper coins minted in Guangdong are called "green coins" by the people because too much tin is added when the coins are minted.
There is no way to ban bad money minted by officials from various places. Fortunately, today’s official salaries in the capital require local chief secretaries to send copper coins to Beijing. If it is stipulated that only Zhengde Tongbao can be given, the chief secretaries of various places must exchange some.
It speeds up the national circulation of new money.
As for minting large amounts of coins and increasing central tax revenue?
Well, Zhu Yuanzhang thought the same way. Copper coins in the early Ming Dynasty were worth five cents, ten cents, fifty cents, one hundred cents, etc. As a result, private money was overflowing, and the coins were more exquisitely minted than official money. That thing was
Hundred times profit!
Officials of the Ming Dynasty also wanted to rectify the currency, so in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, exquisite gold-backed coins, fire-lacquered coins and ladle-edged coins appeared. But they were too exquisite and used too many materials, so they had to lose money when casting the coins.
Officials cut corners. Moreover, bad money drives out good money, exquisite official money is collected by wealthy households, and bad money circulates in the market.
Wang Yuan received a letter from the capital two days ago. The steam engine has been successfully improved. In the future, steam can be used to press coins. This thing can make coins on a large scale and is low-cost. Rich people can collect them casually. I will make as many as you collect, and I will make them in the end.
No one collects it anymore.
As long as the quantity is large and the control is sufficient, bad money will not drive out good money, and the market will automatically eliminate bad money.
Wang Yuan asked the emperor for help: "Sir, I want to work with the Ministry of Household Affairs to take care of the matter of casting money."
Zhu Houzhao smiled and said: "Then you will supervise the Nanjing Baoquan Bureau and ask calligraphers to write the four words 'Zhengde Tongbao'."