Every emperor hopes to know how much money he has and how much money he has in the world. It is obviously impossible to make more accurate economic measurements in this era. Fortunately, Zhu Cixuan still vaguely remembers some contents of economic history and knows where to find the data he needs - although these data may not be reliable.

Of course, in more "expert" language, this is called: a certain percentage of confidence index.

Having an 80% confidence index means having 80% trust in this data.

Zhu Cixuan now has a trust index of later historians and economic historians at 60%, but he does not even have one percent of the trust index of the data he has found.

"My son sent someone to check the old files in the palace. From the 25th to the 33rd year of Wanli, the tax on silver from the mines in the lunar calendar was nearly 3 million taels. That is, on average, more than 200,000 taels per year." Zhu Cixuan reported this data was indeed the old files in the palace, so he dared not believe it. He explained: "This is the time when the four-time mining prisons are most frequently used. Civil officials call it "Everything is open and the people are living in poverty." Therefore, the average annual income of 200,000 taels is already the highest income in Wanli until now, including the eunuchs' plunder of the people, and the non-silver deposits such as copper and iron ore. No matter what, the silver that is recovered is, let's just look at it as this silver."

Chongzhen had already been surrounded by that. He had studied history, but had not learned so much history. Moreover, as he was in his heart, he did not think that his grandfather was a good emperor. Not only did he treat his father badly, he did not fulfill his responsibilities as the emperor at all. Having said that, Emperor Taichang, as his personal father, was not very good to him.

"Suppose that the silver that I can mine every year in Ming Dynasty is 200,000 taels, of course, the fact is far from it." Zhu Cilang pointed his finger upward, meaning to remember the previous words. This valuation is seriously overflowing: "It has been exactly 40 years since the 34th year of Wanli, and the total silver mined is 8 million taels."

Chongzhen understood what Zhu Cilang meant, and knew that during the 17 years he was in power, he earned only 20,000 or 30,000 taels per year. He shook his head and said, "You are too high. The temple-sected mining supervisor is actually drinking poison to quench thirst. It is a glory for a while, but it is unprecedented. Not worthy of example."

Zhu Cixuan also had a palace data, which was the number of Yunnan silver courses in the eighth year of Wanli, less than 60,000 taels. Yunnan silver courses accounted for 60,000 taels in the country, so it can be estimated that the national silver course income was around 90,000 taels in that year. The tax rate of silver courses was one in three cents, so the large output was about 300,000 taels in that year - this was a consideration of reasonable "corruption". Because the eighth year of Wanli was the peak period of Zhang Juzheng's rule, officials were relatively honest, but they could not eliminate various bad habits in the officialdom such as embezzlement, false accounts, misappropriation, and concealment of property.

Three hundred thousand taels are obviously one-third higher than the two hundred thousand taels, but considering that the silver courses in the late Chongzhen period were shrinking, the country did not receive any silver course income from Yunnan after the national transformation. Therefore, the confidence index of using the numerical 200,000 is higher.

"Let's count it at 200,000 taels," Zhu Ciyang said, "that's only eight million taels. Can this mean that the whole country has only such a small amount of silver?"

"Of course not, what about the silver mined before Wanli?" Chongzhen was still very clear about this point.

"Three thousand nine hundred and forty-seven thousand taels." Zhu Cilang reported an extremely accurate number.

Chongzhen's eyes were wide open.

"This is the minimum number." Zhu Cilang immediately recited the silver courses and silver output from the 130th year of Hongwu to the 15th year of Zhengde [Note 1], and Chongzhen was stunned.

"These are all verifiable numbers that old men in the palace can find. The number of corruption and corruption that cannot be found, and the number of private purchases is really unestimated." Zhu Cilang said: "Even if it is doubled. The accumulated silver mined in my dynasty over the years is 88 million taels. This is not the total number of silver in the world."

"There are also the capital mining of silver before the State..."

"I don't count those things. I only count the big ones, and 88 million taels will be added to 300 million taels."

"Three hundred million taels! Is this falling from the sky?" Chongzhen shouted in dismay.

"It was obtained overseas and concentrated after the Jiajing Dynasty." Zhu Ciyang said: "Because there were people in Thailand with the national name Spain. They occupied a wild land, which produced a lot of silver. In addition, Japan discovered two large silver mountains in the Jiajing Dynasty and improved its smelting skills, so the silver production increased greatly. Of these 300 million taels, half of the silver flowing into our dynasty in Japan accounted for almost all of their output."

Chongzhen finally came back from his shock and said, "Where are those silvers? They all fall into the hands of the Shanxi merchants?"

"There are also great merchants from Hui, Huai, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong, etc.," Zhu Cixuan said: "These silver flowed into our country from the coast. The first ones were the maritime merchants from Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong provinces. They collected porcelain, raw silk, tea and other Chinese products from the mainland, and the silver flowed into the hinterland of the Central Plains. The northwest commercial used Liaodong ginseng, mink, Mongolian animal husbandry, fur and other northern goods, and took the silver into his arms. Some of them were stolen by the Eastern Captain and the Mongolian Tatars. Then they purchased iron and grain through the Shanxi merchants in Zhangjiakou. Well, Liao Town was also the same role as Shanxi merchants at that time, mainly selling grain."

Chongzhen felt dizzy when he heard this, and punched the handrail hard, gritting his teeth in secret.

"So, except for buying grain from Huguang, Japanese gangs, singing girls from Jiangnan and other luxurious daily necessities, Shanxi merchants did not use these silver too much. So they dug a cellar under their homes and hid the silver cellar. People have the same intention. Will other big merchants have exceptions when Shanxi merchants do this? So I don't know how many of the 380 million taels of silver in the Ming Dynasty were hidden in the cellar."

"No wonder I, the Ming Dynasty, had so much silver, but I had no money to use!" Chongzhen said hatefully.

"Father, the key is not the cellar, but the taxes of the Ming Dynasty." Zhu Ciyang said: "My Ming Dynasty established a country with agriculture, and the government's income depends entirely on agricultural taxes. Judging from the path of silver that the sons just described, what step is to reach the hands of the farmers?"

"Purchase food from Huguang?"

"The land in Huguang is all vassals and owned by powerful landlords. What kind of money can real farmers get? It would be good if they could pay the land tax. Not only that, I, the landlords who can afford to hire long-term workers, have no money. Their families also have to work in the fields and can only eat white rice during festivals or busy farming." Zhu Cixuan said.

When Chongzhen thought about it, he suddenly had an idea that flew into his mind, but he couldn't catch it. Finally, it seemed as if lightning had struck by, and in the darkness, Chongzhen saw four big words: "A whip method!"

"The one-whip method uses real items to pay taxes. It seems to facilitate national statistics and enrich the treasury, but farmers do not have silver!" Zhu Cilang sighed: "Therefore, some censors said that in Shanxi they had to sell their wives and children to pay taxes in a good harvest, which may not be groundless. Because the court only collects silver, farmers have to sell their harvest before they can get cash. However, before the harvest comes, the price of grain will inevitably be lowered by merchants. Therefore, the harvest is not enough to repay the green seedlings borrowed during farming."

Chongzhen was sweating profusely when he heard this, and two blushings rose on his face: "Wang Anshi used the Qingmiao method in the Song Dynasty, is it possible for my dynasty to do this?"

Zhu Cilang shook his head: "The Qingmiao method used by Wang Anshi was originally from the art of accumulating wealth in the late Tang vassal states. The facts also prove that although the idea is good, it is not easy to implement. The aggregation officials used this to release usury, which actually caused the people to suffer."

"You can't do well with the Eastern Palace officials?" Chongzhen couldn't help asking, and even lost his political sensitivity: the legal officials of the Eastern Palace officials are just personal assistants to a small group of crown princes. All local officials are court officials.

"It is easy to know and it is difficult to do it, but it is not difficult to achieve its achievements in more than ten years." Zhu Cilang said: "Father, let's not go astray. The key point is to talk about money."

"Yes, I just said that the people have no money in their hands. Think about it quickly, how can the people have money to use, and the court can collect taxes!"

——Do you think I know everything? I also have to prepare for a long time in private before I can talk and pretend to know everything in front of you!

"Father," Zhu Cilang smiled, "What we want to say is how much money Zhangjiakou has."

Chongzhen did not get the answer he wanted, but he was indeed very interested in this question.

"The cash silver I have collected now is only the first batch. 25 million taels. Because the officers and soldiers are not bandits, nor are they Donglu. It is impossible to have tyrannical activities such as massacre and confiscation of houses, or buying life by fighting rice, so Zhou Yuji also needs time to do things slowly." Zhu Cilang said: "According to the current speculation, 35 million taels of silver in the entire Zhangjiakou should be available."

Zhu Cilang only thought that the Shanxi merchants have not yet achieved the status of the imperial merchants, and they did not dominate the two large salt fields of Changlu and Hedong in the original historical time and space. They did not monopolize the mountain ginseng markets in Ussuri, Suifen and other places, so their family property may not be as rich as in the original historical time and space.

However, Zhu Cilang ignored one thing. After Qianlong crossed the river and destroyed the bridge and confiscated Zhangjiakou, the Shanxi merchants still held huge capital, so they controlled the circulation of more than 100 million taels of silver in the late Qing Dynasty. Moreover, when the Kangxi pacified the rebellion of the Junggar tribe, the Fan family was responsible for transporting grain and grass, and the price was only one-third of the official transfer of the Qing court, saving hundreds of millions of silver for the national treasury, but he suffered huge losses.

From this we can also see the confidence of Fan's family, who can actually bear the logistics transfer task of the battle to destroy the country with one's own strength.

On May 25, Zhu Cilang received the final harvest report sent by Zhou Yuji. The entire Zhangjiakou was broken into groups of cold data, but it made people excited.

"In this battle to restore Zhangjiakou, the thirty-three households of Tonglu family were captured. The main evil was to use the law. My family members all distributed the Jiafangsi and the hard labor camps to collect the stolen money..." Zhu Cixuan deliberately stopped reading this.

Chongzhen's eyes burst out with scorching eyes, as if he was about to melt his son.

"The stolen money is now available and there are thousands of taels of silver!"

Chongzhen was immediately dizzy and was so happy that he was almost fainted.

——One eighth of the world's silver is actually in Zhangjiakou!

——One-eighth of the silver in the world actually belongs to me!

——Who has seen such a large sum of money since the founding of our ancestors?

——Slowly, a group of merchants can have so much money. Whose world is this Ming Dynasty?

Chongzhen suddenly fell from the clouds into the abyss, and he was speechless and could not say a word. (To be continued...)

ps: Note: The number of silver courses in the Ming Dynasty quoted in the article is still controversial, and this is roughly the value. Please don’t be serious. Regarding the amount of silver flowing into China after the ninth year of Jiajing, 300 million taels is the lowest estimate, and the more mainstream one seems to be 350 million taels. Xiaotang uses the well-founded number of 300 million taels, which has a confidence index of 70%. Haha.
Chapter completed!