The most critical factor in judging whether a regime can last is the financial situation. During the Chongzhen period, the government's finances had collapsed, and the regime naturally could not be sustained. Read and read, read, watch, update us first speed)

There are many reasons why finance collapses, and it can even be traced back to Taizu. This book cannot be described in detail one by one, but only focuses on land policies and financial policies.

In this book, Lin Chunhong will focus on solving land and financial problems.

Regarding the land issue, Yu Xin excerpted a passage: "...The area of ​​arable land in the Ming Dynasty was about 800 million mu (8 million hectares), and the total area was quite large (the area of ​​arable land in my country in 2010 was 1.8 billion mu, which is the red line of arable land protection mentioned by the central government). According to the tax rate of two dou per mu set in the early days of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, 30 billion jin (about 160 million jin) of land rent can be collected every year. According to the five cents of silver per stone, the country's land tax revenue should be about 80 million taels of silver. However, in fact, the fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty (i.e. the Taicang warehouse of the Ministry of Revenue) was only about 30 million taels per year. With the emperor's private money (the treasury) of 20 to 30 million taels per year, it is only about 7 million taels per year, less than 10% of 80 million taels. Why is the difference so big? It's very simple, because more than 90% of the land does not require food..."

In this book, the biggest landlord Lin Chunhong faced was King Hui of Jingzhou. His repeated struggles with King Hui were nothing more than trying to solve the land problem. In the end, Lin Chunhong chose the measure of separation of land ownership and management rights, and drew on the policy of farmers paying food in the 1990s of my country: that is, farmers sell a certain amount of grain to the government at a low price.

Later, land policies may change for different objects, regions, and land policies. Yuxin is most inclined to Taiwan’s land reform in the 1950s, and is still considering whether it is suitable for the Ming Dynasty at that time.

Regarding financial policy, here is an excerpt: "...The currency of the Ming Dynasty was silver. Although China is vast and rich in resources, it is not the main producer of silver. Silver relies heavily on imports. Wei Feide wrote in his book that in the first 30 years of the 17th century, the total amount of silver flowing into China every year reached about 250,000-265,000 kilograms. Aivis, an American scholar who has been engaged in the research on the issue of "silver flowing into China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties", believes that the average annual output of Japanese silver from 1560 to 1600 was between 33,750 and 48,750 kilograms, and most of them were finally

When we arrived in China.{Please remember ours} South American silver flowing into China through the Philippines through the late 16th century to the early 17th century reached 57,500-86,250 kilograms. Moreover, Manila is not the only gateway for South American silver to enter China, and some of them entered China from Macau, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Ives estimated that the average silver transported from Acapulco to Manila was 143 tons per year, and in 1597 alone, there were 345 tons. A country that was not rich in Tibetan silver actually chose silver as its currency, which is a ridiculous thing that entrusts the lifeblood of finance to others.

How much impact did the sudden reduction of silver have on the economy of the Ming Dynasty? In the "Yueshi Chapter: Food and Goods 1" written by Ye Mengzhu at the end of the Ming Dynasty record that in the fifth year of Renshen in Chongzhen (1632), "a bucket of white rice was 120 cents and a qian of direct silver, and the people thought it was expensive." In the eleventh year, "a bucket of rice was 300 cents, and a silver was 7 and a 8 cents, and those who knew it were worried about it." In the spring of the fifteenth year, "the money was worth the sunset, and every thousand was worth only four cents. White rice was 5 taels of silver per stone, and a 12,000 cents of silver was 12,000 cents of silver." In the third year of Shunzhi (1646), "a bucket of rice was 10,000 cents" and "a 1,000 cents of rice" in four years.

Shiwen silver has three taels, "six years of "ripening", the price of glutinous rice per stone is only one or two taels, pearl rice per stone is nine cents, white rice per stone is one liang." In other words, if it is based on copper coins, the rice price rose 10 times in the 10 years of Chongzhen period, and the silver price rose 5 times. Given that grain prices are the basic index of China's prices, even if war and famine factors are added, it is more serious than the three to four times that of European prices at the same time, especially the change in the ratio of silver to copper coins. The ratio of silver to copper coins has such a large fluctuation in just a few years, which cannot be related to the sudden drop in imported silver at that time.

Wei Feide wrote in "Hongye - History of the Founding of the Qing Dynasty" that the deteriorating inflation in the late Ming Dynasty may be one of the serious consequences of the long-term shortage of silver imports. In densely populated areas such as the Yangtze River Delta, inflation caused a surge in the valley prices, which brought great disaster to local urban residents. During the sharp decline in silver imports from 1635 to 1640, due to the shrinking of international silk trade, silk production areas such as Huzhou in northern Zhejiang declined rapidly. At the same time, rare natural disasters swept across China, and famines followed by locust plagues and smallpox, resulting in large-scale deaths of the population. After this catastrophe, the total population in the late Ming Dynasty dropped sharply. The serious decline in China's population occurred at the same time as the global economic recession. This alone is enough to convince historians that China was also involved in the general crisis that plagued the Mediterranean world in the 17th century.

The Three Wus have always been the center of the export trade zone and the focus of national taxes. At this moment, they have no time to take care of themselves due to the obstacles in foreign trade and frequent famines. The benefits obtained by the inflow of silver have also been greatly reduced. Since the Song and Ming dynasties, the traditional practice of "taking from the southeast and using it in the northwest" of the country's wealth has also been challenged. Since the "east wall" has been poor, how can we supplement the "western wall"? Therefore, Chongzhen was trapped in the deep palace and was worried about the silver all day long. Although the sudden decrease in silver imports caused a major blow to the Ming Dynasty's economy and further deteriorated the Ming Dynasty's finances. However, the sudden decrease in silver imports was only the fuse of the Ming Dynasty's economic collapse and could not collapse the Ming Dynasty's huge empire. After all, the peasant uprising that overthrew the Ming Dynasty in the northwest rather than the southeast. So, what is the relationship between the outbreak of the peasant uprising in the northwest and silver?

There are many reasons for the outbreak of peasant uprisings, such as natural disasters, officials forcing the people to rebel, ecological environment, etc., but people often ignore the serious harm of silver to the northwest. During the Ming Dynasty, the main body of silver flowed from the south into the capital, from the capital to the northeast border defense, and then returned to the south from the northeast. As a traditional millet crop area, the northwest lacked raw cotton and raw silk, and China exchanged silk and porcelain for foreign silver. In this way, the northwest, which is on the edge of the market, the Shandong Peninsula and other places became wilderness areas that could not be irrigated by silver. After the implementation of the "One Whip" law, national tax revenue was converted into silver.

Coming to collect, this put the peasants in a passive situation where they were slaughtered. Even if the car was harvested, it was inevitable that they would be in danger. "In order to collect grain, they had to buy silver." "The people who sell their wives in the prosperous years were unprecedented in the Tang and Song dynasties. Now, from west Hubei to Qixia, there were many grains, and the people sold their wives in succession... Why? There was grain but no silver, and what they got was not what they wanted was not what they wanted" ("Collected Works of Gu Yanwu Tinglin") In the prosperous years, they had to sell their wives and children, and they could not survive in a famine. In this way, it was not accidental that the peasant uprising broke out in the northwest in the late Ming Dynasty.

Silver also led to an unprecedented grain crisis in the late Ming Dynasty. The pursuit of silver and the outward-oriented economy greatly promoted the development of economic and production activities in the Ming Dynasty towards specialization, commercialization, transnational and cross-regional directions, especially in the Jiangnan region, such as Songjiang region. With the increase in demand for cotton cloth at home and abroad, more and more people changed to full-time textile and cotton cloth trade. This was a good thing, but it had a significant impact on the country's grain production. The Jiangnan grain production, known as "Suzhou and Hangzhou, are well-fed", became a problem. In the 1740s, even in the bumper years, people in Nanzhili and Zhejiang had to buy grain by selling raw silk, raw cotton, cotton yarn and cotton cloth.

After the implementation of the "One Whip" Law, silver must be used to pay taxes and land rents and repay loans. In an era when transportation methods are relatively backward, the regionalization and marketization of grain production can easily cause food crisis. In this way, the problem of food shortage caused by natural disasters has been greatly amplified by the marketization of grain. Those rich areas with the most thorough marketization cannot resist the food crisis at all, because these areas do not produce grain, and grain has to be bought across regions. Therefore, the wealthy Jiangnan area suffered the most severe blow. Around 1640, the price of rice per kilogram in Suzhou rose to 100 copper coins, a large number of people starved to death, and many luxury houses were sold at low prices without anyone caring about it...

However, Yu Xin often reads some stories and novels from the Ming Dynasty, and has his own thoughts on financial issues, about circulating currency:

The most important problem is of course the shortage of silver, which not only hurts farmers, but also leads to various problems in the circulation of goods;

Secondly, it is not convenient to use silver in the terminal retail market, and it requires a lot of energy and time;

Furthermore, because the Ming Dynasty rarely minted copper coins, physical transactions in the terminal market were prevalent, which to a certain extent hindered the development of the commercial economy.

In this book, three measures will be adopted, and bills will be used to solve the problem of silver shortage. Bills are actually equivalent to a more stringent banknote.

In addition, in order to facilitate transactions, Lin Chunhong would also mint a large number of gold and silver coins, which not only could obtain a large amount of profits, but also drive the prosperity of the market. After the Opium War in the Qing Dynasty, Europe exchanged a large amount of silver coins in China for exchanges of silver coins. This is a clear evidence.

Finally, Lin Chunhong would mint copper coins, and of course, he chose the unique secret of the Ming Dynasty: brass, which was mainly to solve the difficulties faced by ordinary people in their daily lives.

Of course, financial issues are not just currency issues, but the normal operation of banks and money banks is also very important. This book will consider them one by one, so please pay attention.
Chapter completed!