"Wei Ge Ning Ling will probably send people to us soon to submit to us. Now is the time to stop hesitating. I have decided to send troops."
Zhao Jun said calmly, "If we can wipe out the Western Xia in one fell swoop, there's no need for any political power in the northwest. It's been Han territory since ancient times. The Dangxiang tribe has only two outcomes: either become Han citizens or be exterminated."
"only."
Everyone looked at each other, and even Xia Song, who had always supported Zhao Jun, was quite hesitant.
"What's wrong?"
Zhao Jun looked at everyone's expressions, then after a moment's thought, he tentatively asked, "Is the court out of money?"
"It's not just that we don't have money, we're so poor that the national treasury is empty."
Xia Song spread his hands and said, "You wouldn't know if you weren't in charge of the Ministry of Finance, but the domestic construction costs now exceed 100 million guan per year. Although the annual revenue is about the same, the proportion of foreign trade income has declined significantly in recent years. The court sometimes has to borrow money to survive."
The idea of government bonds was proposed by Zhao Jun a long time ago, but it was not officially issued until last year and sold by the Jiaozi Office.
However, this incident did not cause much stir among the people.
Even in later generations, things like national debt are very distant things for ordinary people, let alone in ancient times.
Those who can do business with Jiaozi are often big bosses. Buying government bonds for investment is a normal thing. Even if ordinary people have some spare money, they have few information channels or willingness to invest.
There are many wealthy people in the Song Dynasty now, and almost all the national debt issued every year is bought up, allowing the Song Dynasty to maintain a certain fiscal deficit every year.
This phenomenon is also an important part of stimulating economic growth in economics.
"Hanlong, I think we're taking too big a step. We've solved the three redundancies and reduced military spending by half, but building roads costs money, building schools costs money, and investing in infrastructure costs money."
Yan Shu asked tentatively, "The annual expenditure is enormous. Often, as soon as the taxes are paid, they have to be allocated again. I'm afraid this won't last long."
Zhao Jun pondered for a moment, then looked at Xia Song and said, "Prime Minister Xia just said that foreign trade revenue is declining. Is it because of the Liao Kingdom and Western Xia?"
"yes."
Xia Song sighed, "In the past, Liao and Xixia would import large quantities of our products every year. For example, they could import hundreds of thousands of kilograms of sulfur a year. The rest of the goods, such as tea, silk, ironware, clothing, etc., were countless. But now..."
Now, with the defeat of the Liao Dynasty and the disintegration of Western Xia, the prosperous trade between Song and Xia, and between Song and Liao has long disappeared.
Although there are still many border herdsmen who trade with the Song State, the trade volume naturally drops significantly without the main imports from the state and the official large-scale purchase of strategic materials.
This led to the fact that although the Song Dynasty currently had abundant strategic reserve resources such as sulfur, steel, and bronze, it could not find buyers, which was indeed an incredible thing.
After all, these things were banned from export in the past.
"Alas, my industrial revolution has just begun, and I'm already losing market share."
When Zhao Jun heard this, he also held his forehead.
The importance of the market to capital is self-evident. If there is no market, it would obviously not be a good thing for the Song Dynasty.
"In my opinion, why not put some major infrastructure projects on hold and save the money for war?"
Song Shou said.
"No, these projects have been finalized. How can we change them overnight?"
Zhao Jun shook his head.
Then he frowned again.
The problem now is simple and clear: we are spending more than we earn.
There were three reasons for the financial health of the Song Dynasty in the past. The first was to solve the three redundancies, especially the problem of redundant soldiers, and save a lot of financial expenditure.
The second is to reform taxes. It will no longer be the kind of taxation that was carried out in the past, but will ensure a stable and continuous source of tax revenue.
The third and most important point is to actively explore foreign trade and develop industries with neighboring countries, the Middle East and even the West.
Especially the last point. The foreign trade volume of the Song Dynasty has grown from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of strings of cash. Based on the tax rate, it brings about 30 to 40 million strings of cash in fiscal revenue to the Song Dynasty every year.
It can be said that foreign trade has become one of the most important sources of fiscal revenue for the Song Dynasty.
Among them, trade with the Liao Kingdom and Western Xia was very important. The annual trade volume was about 100 million guan, which continuously brought more than 10 million guan of income to the Song Dynasty. It was a very large market.
But as the Liao Kingdom and Western Xia have become what they are today and the market has collapsed, it will naturally affect the foreign trade volume of the Song Dynasty.
"When it comes to financial security, there are only two ways: increase revenue and reduce expenditure."
Zhao Jun pondered, "Some unnecessary fiscal expenditures have already been cut. Further austerity is unnecessary and won't save anything. So if we want to raise money, we have to increase our revenue."
"In the industrial age, there are only two ways to open up new sources of income. One is to expand through overseas colonization and plunder the wealth of the colonies."
He continued, "The second is to use agriculture to subsidize industry, and then, when industrial capacity is increased, produce goods and dump them abroad, thereby rapidly accumulating wealth."
"The latter is definitely not an option. People's livelihoods have just improved, and they've just started to have enough food and clothing. If we immediately raise taxes and exploit them, they will definitely curse us to death."
"But now we're short of money for the war. What a shame! Our domestic market isn't even saturated yet; it's only just starting out. As long as paper money and silver dollars are released, the domestic market and trade volume will surely take off, and tax revenue will skyrocket."
"Although we've already defeated them in Japan, in this era of wooden ships, transportation has a ceiling, unless we can quickly upgrade and make steamships universal."
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