In the Song Dynasty, where people are lawless, Chapter 274 of the main text discusses exchanging interests with generals. Zhao Jun has a bold idea.
He actually didn't expect that this trip to the sea would yield such great results.
In addition to so many crops that increased productivity, they also brought back gold and silver worth more than three million taels.
There was very little silver in the Song Dynasty, far from the Ming and Qing dynasties, which had reserves of more than 10 billion tonnes of silver.
So although the official quota is 1 guan equals 1 tael of silver, since the official 1 guan is 770 wen, it often takes more than 1,000 wen to exchange for one tael of silver, so the actual ratio is higher.
In other words, if these more than three million taels of silver were converted into Song Dynasty copper coins, they would be worth about five million strings of cash, which is equivalent to one-fifteenth of the Song Dynasty's fiscal revenue last year.
It doesn't seem like much, and it cost more than one million strings of cash, and it took five years to earn more than five million strings of cash, which is equivalent to an annual profit of 800,000 strings of cash.
However, a customs office in Guangzhou worked hard all year round and only collected more than 1.5 million strings of cash in taxes.
The nobles from the military families are probably currently eating up the empty salaries of more than 200,000 soldiers. Since the salaries of privates and privates are different, averaging 30 strings of cash per person per year, they have embezzled 6 million strings of cash in a year.
The problem is that these 6 million strings of cash were not meant for one family, but for the descendants of dozens of founding generals of the Song Dynasty. It would be good if each family could get tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of strings of cash.
But the profits from the ocean are much greater than this.
Zhao Jun had never thought that the ocean could bring such huge profits. From the perspective of the imperial court, he felt that crops such as sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes would be more useful.
But from the perspective of the people and others, the white silver and the golden gold are what attract the eyes.
If we trick these people into going out to sea, wouldn’t the problem be solved?
Therefore, Zhao Jun suddenly felt enlightened. The return of Chen Haizhong's ocean-going fleet opened up a new idea for him.
really.
In the new era of the future, with the world saturated, the upward channel is blocked. Even if you work as a screwdriver in a factory, no matter how hard you work, you can at most be at the same level as your parents. Ordinary people have no channels for promotion at all.
But in this era where the whole world is a blue ocean, there are many opportunities to make a fortune in Europe, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, North America, South America, Australia, and Africa.
Inside Chongzheng Hall.
It was completely dark outside.
Everyone has been listening to Chen Haizhong talk about overseas affairs since noon today, and only now has he started talking about government affairs.
Zhao Jun looked around at everyone and told them that he had a new idea.
Yan Shu asked curiously, "Hanlong, what do you think?"
"Actually, I haven't told you about this."
Zhao Jun looked at everyone and said, "Originally, I wanted to officially start solving the three redundancies problem, but I was afraid you might object, so I put it on hold. I didn't expect that I might be able to solve this problem at the same time."
"You tell me."
Lu Yijian rolled his eyes in anxiety. The court officials did not want to solve the three redundancies problem, otherwise no one would have brought it up and found a solution.
But they all know that the interest groups offended by this are too large, so it has always been a thorny issue that is difficult to deal with.
If it can be solved, that would be the best.
Everyone looked at him curiously, but Zhao Jun said calmly, "It's like this. I originally planned to forcefully reduce the military, eliminate officials, check the number of troops, and simplify the official ranks, but these problems are all fraught with difficulties."
"As you all know, the Three Redundancies problem has been a cancer rooted in the history of the Northern and Southern Song dynasties for over 300 years. It has deeply affected the lifeblood of both dynasties, severely dragging down the court's finances, and has become three heavy chains that have been locked on the heads of the Song court and the people."
"If this problem is not resolved, then in this era when it's not so easy to expand the pie, it will only continue to burden the court. Even though the pie has been expanded a little now, if the three redundancies are not resolved soon, it will slow down the progress."
"For example, the court's annual revenue is 70 million guan (approximately 10 million strings of cash), of which 50 million strings are used to pay for a 1.2 million-man army, including salaries, horses, weapons and equipment, etc., leaving the court with less than 20 million strings of cash, which still has to be used to cover unnecessary expenses and redundant officials."
"If that's the case, the government won't be able to repair canals or build schools this year, society won't develop, and we'll be stuck. Even if I expand the pie and fiscal revenue reaches 100 million next year, how much money can I spend? How many canals can I repair and how many schools can I build?"
"So, you should understand this issue. Only by solving the "three redundancies" problem and reducing military spending and official expenses can we have money left over for other things, such as increasing investment in education, the economy, construction, scientific research, and so on, and only then can our country become a better place."
"I believe you agree with me on this point."
At the end, Zhao Jun looked at everyone and asked.
This is obviously a cliché. No matter whether anyone agrees with it or not, this is the truth and there is no way to refute it.
So Lü Yijian, Wang Zeng, Yan Shu, Fan Zhongyan and others also said, "Yes, that's right."
"Of course we agree with you, but the problem is here, what can we do?"
"Tell me what you think first."
Everyone said.
"Then let me first talk about disarmament and what difficulties will be encountered."
Zhao Jun said: "The primary difficulty is naturally that as vested interests, they will certainly not give up these interests easily."
"If these military nobles broke the law, it would be easy to deal with. If we have someone to play the villain, like Lao Fan, we can directly find a crime and punish them, and naturally solve the problem."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
