Chapter 251 Debt

Moreover, due to the limitation of productivity, winter has always been a forbidden period for agricultural production. Once agricultural production cannot be carried out in an agricultural society, the countryside will inevitably appear desolate and bleak. However, relatively speaking, in cities and villages, the slack season is suitable for holding large-scale gatherings that cannot be held on weekdays, and then carrying out corresponding political and religious activities.

A heavy snow came unexpectedly, and then quickly cleared up. Regardless of the fact that Qin Hui, Hong Ya and others on the north bank of the Yellow River were determined to fight an indomitable battle against fate for the future of themselves and their families, almost at the same time, the cities and villages in the Zhao Song territory on the south bank of the Yellow River gradually became lively.

Among them, the one who fired the first gunpowder shell of winter was none other than the official of Zhao Song... In early November, after announcing that last year's national debt had been fully repaid, this official once again started selling the so-called "winter special national debt" in the capital.

Regarding this matter, the court bulletin gave a detailed and detailed explanation... According to what was said in the court bulletin, this debt was still a legitimate national debt signed by the government, and this time the detailed household registration information of the purchaser, such as the head of household and family composition, needed to be entered into the Ministry of Household Affairs, and it was not allowed to be sold exclusively, but could only be exchanged with the Ministry of Household Affairs on a family basis.

As for the purpose of this national debt, it was clearly stated that it would be used for winter relief, annual festival activities for garrisons and city communities, Imperial College meetings, and other daily winter affairs.

The official report even stated the reason for this "special national debt" without any concealment. First, it was the impact of the Yaoshan War last year, which cost a lot of money and rewards. For this reason, the various routes of Bashu advanced one year's financial tax. Therefore, after the Yaoshan War, Bashu could only pay half of the tax within two years; second, it was the Dongting Lake Rebellion that caused a financial gap in the Jingxiang area; third, after the comprehensive reorganization of the troops, there was an additional expense for the resettlement of the laid-off troops.

Therefore, by the end of the year, there was a gap of about two million strings of cash.

After discussion among the ministers, the government promised to be more lenient and hereby issue a total of 3 million strings of cash for a period of half a year or a year, which would be regarded as a national debt with an annual interest rate of 3%.

Among them, 900,000 strings of cash were the government's own share, with the purchase and sale by the clan leader Zhao Shi?, the external relatives Pan and Wu; the remaining 2.1 million strings of cash, all in denominations of 1,000 strings and 2,000 strings, were still signed by the government in person, and then directly supervised and recorded by the Ministry of Revenue. The Ministry of Internal Affairs came forward to sell them publicly inside the leftmost gate of Xuande Building, for a period of 30 days, with a daily share of 70,000 strings of cash.

Back to the topic, to be honest, this time the national debt is still a passive and helpless move, because there is indeed a fiscal deficit again, and the size of this deficit has made Emperor Zhao and several of the gentlemen have some doubts and concerns.

This is also reflected in some details of this national debt.

For example, the name of the so-called winter special treasury bond is a bit confusing... After all, the main reasons behind the fiscal deficit are indeed those, but the ongoing Dongting Lake rebellion is definitely one of them. However, it is reasonable to say that the court used the daily winter expenses as military expenses, and then the winter daily expenses were gone.

However, subsequent facts proved that the popularity of this treasury bond market far exceeded everyone's imagination.

The 900,000 strings of cash that Zhao Jiu had taken had not yet been paid out before it was all taken away through verbal agreements by many dignitaries who had been waiting for a long time in the homes of the three powerful families.

A more intuitive scene took place downstairs of Xuande Building. After the sale started, the first day's share of 70,000 strings of cash was instantly bought up by three merchants who came from Quanzhou to deliver seafood.

For this reason, Emperor Zhao had to post a notice limiting the purchase amount of each household to 5,000 strings of cash per day.

So, starting from the second day, there appeared hangers-on who queued up on behalf of others, but this time they were immediately stopped by the imperial guards.

From the third day, scenes similar to on-the-spot price increase began to appear. Many people were willing to pay directly to ask the person in front to give up his position, with no profit at all, or even actual loss, in exchange for the opportunity to sign a pledge with the Ministry of Revenue to purchase a certain share of national bonds.

Zhao Jiu, who was already mentally prepared for this, hesitated for a moment, but immediately asked the Imperial Guard to stop this kind of thing and maintain the financial order in the safest and most basic way... In other words, people still had to queue up to buy, and it was still first come first served. For this reason, the Imperial Guard had to take over half of the Imperial Street to maintain it.

But soon, Emperor Zhao slapped himself in the face, because on the fifth day, suddenly a middle-aged man burst into tears on the Imperial Street... Yang Yizhong, who was keeping a close eye on the matter, stepped forward to inquire and found out that this man was not buying it for himself alone, but was publicly recommended to buy it on behalf of hundreds of villagers in a village near Yuetai, west of the city, using his own household registration. He only wanted a national debt of 1,000 strings of cash, but after entering the city, he failed for several days and did not want to go back to see the elders of Yuetai empty-handed, so he burst into tears in the street.

The villagers who were converted from military settlements are basically refugees from Hebei and retired soldiers, so it is impossible to ignore such a thing.

So Emperor Zhao immediately slapped himself in the face and changed the rules again. He set up a special queue for this kind of collective households inside the left second gate, with a limit of ten opportunities per day, and each household was allowed to buy a maximum of two 1,000-guan shares of national debt. Then they were specially filed and legally treated as family property and charity estates invented by Fan Zhongyan. That is to say, during the period of holding the national debt, the personal crimes of the nominal holders would not affect the actual ownership and safety of the money.

As soon as this policy was introduced, it immediately triggered a second round of purchases, because many officials and students, after realizing the truth, did not hesitate to purchase in the name of their clan... After all, clan property, a special kind of semi-collective property, was immediately widely praised and recognized after it was invented by Fan Zhongyan. It has a strong Confucian ideological propaganda effect and a further value-preserving effect.

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