Chongzhen Wiretapping System

Chapter 103 One of the Reasons for the Death of the Ming Dynasty
In this era, because of Zhang Juzheng's whip law reform, all the taxes collected by the court were converted into silver, including labor services, which could be converted into silver to measure.Thus, silver became the common currency.However, in the specific daily transactions of ordinary people, copper coins are mostly used.

However, there are many types of copper coins, some are minted by the government, some are secretly minted by private individuals, some are minted by emperors in different periods, and so on.These copper coins, even if they are cast by the government, have different fineness, that is, different copper content, thus forming a complex variety of copper coins on the market.Different types of copper coins have different purchasing power.This is very inconvenient for ordinary people's daily business.

As for silver, it is generally used in taxation and large transactions in commercial transactions.Moreover, silver, like physical currency, has inevitable fineness problems. It is also inconvenient to use like copper coins, and even worse, special scissors and scales are needed to measure the weight to determine its value.

In addition, Emperor Chongzhen remembered that from a paper summarized by later generations, it was not unreasonable to say that the Ming Dynasty died of Baiyin and Zhang Juzheng's whip.

Generally speaking, with the progress of society and the abundance of materials, the corresponding currency must increase.For example, if the goods are increased by ten copies, then the currency must be increased to ten yuan, so that one piece of goods can be bought for one currency, and the normal exchange relationship can be maintained.

But if the currency does not increase accordingly, that piece of currency is equivalent to buying ten goods (this purchase can also be understood as a corresponding relationship), which means that the value of the currency has actually increased tenfold. This is problematic, that is, currency appreciation.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was such a problem of currency appreciation!
Because Daming's silver mines, even copper mines, are scarce, and after more than 200 years of development, Daming has actually been quite prosperous, and the total amount of goods in society has increased many times compared to the beginning of the founding of the country.

Originally, through foreign trade, Daming exported goods to European countries and Japan and other countries, in exchange for a lot of silver.It can be said that at that time, silver from all over the world was flowing into Daming, so that the currency of Daming could barely keep up with the increase in goods, and there was no serious imbalance between goods and currency.

But at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Wa Kingdom began to close the country and prohibit transactions with outsiders, which reduced the outflow of silver.In Europe, the 30-year war began, and countries began to fight each other to the death, and military spending surged, so the outflow of silver was restricted.

Under these two reasons, the silver flowing into Daming decreased sharply, which immediately caused an imbalance in the ratio between Daming goods and silver.

In addition, there is a traditional reason, that is, the officials and gentry of the Ming Dynasty, including ordinary people, like to hide all the silver they earn in the cellar, and do not circulate it in the market.Therefore, the imbalance in the ratio of goods to silver was exacerbated.As for the imbalance in the amount of silver between regions, for example, there is more silver in the south of the Yangtze River and less silver in the northwest.

In this way, a serious problem arises.

For example, the imperial court stipulated that one mu of land should be taxed one tael of silver.In the past, when farmers sold half of their grain, they could exchange it for one or two taels of silver, and after paying taxes, they could keep half of the grain for themselves.But now, because the ratio of goods to silver is seriously out of balance, farmers can't exchange half of their grain for a tael of silver at all, so they can only continue to sell grain to make up enough silver for tax payment.

So, it was a tragedy.

Where the imbalance between goods and silver is greater, that is, where silver is scarcer, farmers may sell all their grain for a tael of silver that is not enough to pay taxes.Then, either sell other things to make up for it, and then you are still hungry, or you don’t farm and run away from your hometown to avoid the field tax.Either way, it will cause social unrest.

In this situation, everything is going smoothly, assuming that there is no decrease in grain yield per acre, and there are no corrupt officials making things difficult.Just because of changes in the economic relationship between currency and land can cause social unrest.

If you add the Little Ice Age at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the rotten bureaucracy problem at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the burden on the peasants will be aggravated, and they will not be able to survive at all. The chaos at the end of the Ming Dynasty will inevitably start from the northwest up.

Of course, in this era, no one has realized that just the relationship between currency has seriously affected the social stability of Ming Dynasty.Compared with this consequence, the inconvenience of using physical currency is secondary.

Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen felt that banks must be established and banknotes must be issued. This is one of the most important means of Zhongxing Daming.

Now, taking advantage of the opportunity of laying off manpower in the palace, he feels that the bank can be built up slowly. It doesn't need to be done in one step, but just start to do it slowly.

As an emperor, you have great advantages, and you can use a lot of resources.

First, there is a need to print banknotes that are difficult to counterfeit.The paper presented as tribute to the palace is one of the best papers, and it can be used to print banknotes.

Second, the raids on the Imperial Horse Guards and the Imperial Guards yielded a lot of shops and properties, which can be used to open banks.Or it may be stipulated that all transactions in shops must use banknotes issued by the royal family.

Thirdly, the salaries issued by the palace, including maids and servants, as well as royal family members and nobles, as well as the military pay of the troops under the Yumajian, etc., can all use this kind of banknotes.After sending it, if you feel uneasy, you can go to the bank to exchange it for physical currency, such as silver and copper coins.

Anyway, at the beginning, it was just to establish the credibility of the banknotes issued by the palace, and to print as many banknotes as the salary needed to be issued, all of which were in a one-to-one relationship, and exchange was not allowed.Let everyone in the capital have an impression.It doesn't matter if you get the banknotes, you can exchange them for physical currency at any time, so as to generate trust in the banknotes.

As long as there is confidence in the paper money, it will start to circulate, and this has the most basic prototype of establishing a central bank.

Everything is difficult at the beginning, especially in the Ming Dynasty, the credibility of the banknotes ruined by the Ming Dynasty is even more difficult, but Emperor Chongzhen believes that as long as it is done step by step, the credibility of the banknotes can be restored in the end.

Thinking about these things, Emperor Chongzhen felt that this matter must be done immediately.In the future, all money will be issued in this way, which can speed up the establishment of banknote reputation.

But the first step now is to find banknotes that can be printed that are difficult to imitate.At this time, the power of the emperor was manifested again.With one decree, let the outer court and factory guards look for talents in this field.Of course, he did not explicitly say that he wanted to print banknotes, but that he wanted to print something unique and difficult for others to imitate.

While Emperor Chongzhen was busy with this matter excitedly, the commander of the Manchu Qing army, General Fengtian Dorgon was depressed.

　Thanks for chatting 15 for the reward!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)