I

In the 24th year of the Republic of China, 4362 AD, 1665 AD, Zhao Han was 48 years old.

Qian Qianyi died of illness at home.

Song Yingxing was critically ill.

Pang Chunlai is critically ill.

Huang Shun, the commander-in-chief of the rear army stationed in Beijing, was suffering from a serious illness and requested to return to the south to recuperate. Hu Dinggui was transferred from Shenyang to Beijing to take over the entire northern military. Wan Sitong, deputy commander of the rear army, was promoted to Shenyang.

The previous year, the national annual income was 79.6 million taels (including local and provincial income).

Among them, agricultural taxes were 34.79 million taels (accounting for 43.7%), industrial and commercial taxes were 17.35 million taels (accounting for 21.8%), customs duties were 24.52 million taels (accounting for 30.8%), and overseas collection and deportation centers were 2.94 million taels (accounting for 3.7%).

Not only has the state's finances increased, but the structure of fiscal revenue has also undergone tremendous changes.

Ten years ago, agricultural tax accounted for more than 60%. Now it has dropped by more than ten percentage points, but the total agricultural tax has actually increased steadily.

The fiscal share of industrial and commercial taxes, tariffs and overseas income is increasing rapidly, and the tariff of more than 24 million taels is really scary.

The year-on-year increase in industrial and commercial taxes is due to the promotion of steam engines. In many industries such as textiles, mining, and smelting, steam engines are used more and more frequently. Of course, the continuous increase in the country's population is also one of the main reasons for the prosperity of industry and commerce.

If you produce too much, you must sell it.

International trade in Japan, Korea, the Western Regions, Nanyang, and Southeast Asia is almost monopolized by Chinese businessmen.

Even the purchase channels for spices from Nanyang and Southeast Asia are controlled by Chinese merchants. European, Persian, Arab and Indian merchants can only purchase and transship them from Chinese merchants. Zhao Han was different from European countries in that he did not force small countries to grant monopoly rights. It was purely obtained by Chinese businessmen through competition.

Chinese businessmen are too busy. They not only compete with foreign businessmen, but also compete with their own people. They constantly increase the purchase price of spices and tobacco. Those small countries make more money by selling local specialties.

As markets in India and America opened up, tariffs skyrocketed again, and more industrial products were exported, especially textiles.

Due to the Mughal emperor's excessive taxation (slaughtering Hindu merchants like pigs) and the alluvial accumulation of cheap cotton from China, India's traditional textile industry in the Ganges River Basin is essentially in a state of semi-collapse. After Aurangzeb came to the throne, religious persecution was so severe that many Hindu businessmen fled the Mughal land with their families and moved to Chinese ports to make a living.

The development of the American market has made the lives of American people better, but it has wiped out the Dutch textile industry.

Just last year, some Jiangsu maritime merchants finally couldn't hold themselves back. This trading company failed in the competition in Asia and decided to follow Li Quan to the Americas. The first fleet only had three merchant ships. As a result, after one round trip and all kinds of costs and expenses, it made a net profit of eight times.

Only eight times the net profit was due to the high wages of the crew.

Senior crew members receive five times the salary, and junior crew members receive three times the salary. They must also pay a settlement allowance in advance, otherwise no one will be willing to risk their lives in America.

The ministers can no longer understand the current financial situation.

A few years ago, they were worried about fiscal deficits, but in a blink of an eye, the court had money, and it was able to make a surplus of several million every year.

cabinet.

Wu Yingji took out the data provided by the Ministry of Finance: "In the past seven years, the average annual growth rate of industrial and commercial taxes and tariffs has exceeded 6%. Especially after Portugal acquired Chittagong, countless Indian cottons were shipped to Chittagong, which solved the problem of cotton The problem of insufficient supply. Cotton spinning factories in Jiangnan are increasing production, and more and more new cotton spinning factories are opening."

Zhu Shunshui sighed: "I don't know if it's good or bad. I went back to my hometown during the Chinese New Year. There are two textile factories in the town, with hundreds of male and female workers. Including those who run ships for transportation, more than a thousand people rely on them. The two families make a living by weaving. The chimneys of the factories are tall and big, and black smoke floats all day long, and black ash can be stained on the dining tables of nearby villagers."

Chen Maosheng said: "Anyway, people's lives are better than before."

"That's true," Zhu Shunshui nodded. "Those who work are considered to be well-off families, especially skilled female workers. Housework and children are left to the parents-in-law. Women actually become the backbone of the family. But there are fewer families without workers. An income. There are also those who spin and weave their own fabrics, and they all weave them for their own wear, but they can’t sell them at a good price at all.”

Zhu Shunshui was talking about the situation in coastal provinces. His hometown had a prosperous textile industry.

The farther inland the industry becomes, the weaker it is. Even if you search the entire province, you won't be able to find a few steam engines. Those provinces are still stuck in the past, even the small-scale peasant economy has not been destroyed, and there are still a large number of home textiles.

Wu Yingji said: "The problem now is not to save money, but how to spend it. More and more silver is pouring into the coast, and prices are rising. More money should be allocated to the Ministry of Industry to recruit people across the country to work and build buildings. More water conservancy and roads. And we can’t use the court’s money. We must absorb excess private silver along the coast and try our best to keep prices from rising too fast.”

Fei Chun said: "Build more roads in Tibet, the northeast and the southwest to connect all the mountainous areas. In the future, whether it is sending troops to fight or transporting local goods, there will be long-term benefits."

When Zhao Han went on an expedition to Mobei, he used a policy of raising interest rates and used private silver for military expenses. A war cost the old nose money.

At that time, some ministers thought it was too much to be militaristic, but now they have come to think of it and started to follow the emperor's thinking.

Isn’t it just too much money?

Who doesn’t know how to spend money?

No one has mentioned corvee for a long time. Now there is plenty of money, and people are recruited to work with silver.

Liu Ziren reminded: "Don't be too lavish. The expedition to Mobei and the recovery of Beihai cost tens of millions of taels of silver. The imperial court still owes money to the bank, and it has not been paid off yet. There is a surplus of silver along the coast. But the court is actually still short of money."

Fei Chun said: "Your Majesty's policy strategy is obvious, which is to turn the excess silver on the coast into water conservancy and roads in the inland provinces. Your Majesty has repeatedly said many times that as long as it is not built for personal enjoyment, large-scale construction is not a bad thing. .”

Yuan Yunlong suddenly said: "Should the salaries of officials in the world also be increased? Last time someone mentioned in the memorial that although His Majesty did not agree, his tone has loosened."

The cabinet ministers discussed repeatedly and came up with plans to build water conservancy and roads across the country, and mentioned in passing that they would increase wages for officials.

Domestic infrastructure construction has actually been ongoing.

However, many mountain roads are built on a village-by-village basis, with villagers contributing free efforts to build roads in their own villages. Then the government will partially allocate funds to recruit people to repair some and connect the roads in various villages. In many large mountains, roads cannot be built, and even aqueducts cannot be dug.

Now that the imperial court is allocating money, the efficiency will definitely be improved. It plans to allocate 1.5 million taels of silver every year to build official roads in key mountainous areas.

In addition, another 1.5 million taels are allocated every year for the construction of water conservancy and irrigation facilities - this is an additional allocation and does not involve the regular annual allocation of the Ministry of Industry.

Zhao Han's imperial pen Zhu Pi said: "Accurate."

Including the salary increase for officials across the country, Zhao Han also approved this time, which will be a one-level increase on the original basis.

The pressure on salaries in poor provinces is even greater. In particular, staff salaries, including teachers' expenses, are paid by local finances. This must allow them to withhold more taxes, otherwise they will all be poor. After all, the steam era has just begun, and development across the country is extremely uneven.

Not only is it unbalanced, it is also very chaotic, with many contradictions emerging one after another.

"Your Majesty, the latest census has been completed." The Ministry of Household Affairs handed over a report.

Zhao Han said: "Bring it to me and take a look."

In coastal provinces and overseas territories, many people have dual household registrations.

After the new policy was promulgated, it took several years to finally straighten it out and do some demographic statistics.

The Pingnan Military and Civilian Prefecture in Myanmar, the Protectorate Prefectures of Tibet, Qinghai, Mongolia, and Heilongjiang, as well as Guangnan Province established after the recovery of Vietnam, as well as the population of the Ryukyu Islands, and even Siberia, as long as they are registered with the government, even the indigenous people are All counted.

There are 176.92 million people over the age of 12 in the country.

Overseas territories such as Luzon Island, Palembang, Coconut City, and Malacca (excluding the King of Jin), including the naturalized indigenous people, have a total of 913,958 people - most of them were born in the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties. The descendants of Chinese immigrants, a large number of Nyonya (descendants of mixed Chinese descent) went to the Government House to register, claiming to be Chinese and seeking preferential treatment.

The population of the northern provinces has recovered to a certain extent.

Take Hebei for example. It is no longer a wilderness, but has been gradually reclaimed into farmland.

There are ten counties in the Beiping Prefecture directly under the jurisdiction, and the population has increased to more than three million. In Beijing alone, there are more than 200,000 people.

In this case, there is no need for the government to organize immigration. Natural population reproduction in the north is enough.

Zhao Han stroked his pen and said: "Order the Ministry of Rites to speed up the establishment of schools in Qinghai, Tibet, Mongolia, and Heilongjiang, and attract more foreign children to enroll in school."

The Ryukyu Islands are the easiest to deal with, as there are already thirty-six Chinese surnames there.

These Han people were thrown to various islands to breed and served as town mayors and village chiefs. Although it is inevitable that they will grow bigger, the speed of civilizing the indigenous people is very fast. The Ryukyu Islands have been completely regarded as the mainland and belong to the Ryukyu and Fangzhang counties of Taiwan Prefecture in Fujian Province.

The Satsuma Domain of Japan is close to Ryukyu. Although it was beaten up by the Datong Army and the indemnity was paid, its vitality was severely damaged. However, due to the convenience of trade, smuggling is the most rampant, the country's strength is developing rapidly, and there are a large number of rogues who are exposed to China's advanced ideology, culture and technology.

A ronin uprising is brewing in the Satsuma Domain. The poor ronin want to lead the farmers to fight against the "rich" to allocate their fields.

The Ronin rebellion will definitely fail. Even if the Shimazu family is killed, the shogunate army will be brought in to suppress the rebellion. However, the subsequent impact is difficult to estimate. It may force the shogunate to close down the country, or the failure of the shogunate may lead to a sudden drop in the prestige of the shogunate.

"Your Majesty, a delegation from Zhongyuzi has arrived in Beijing to ask for a title. They also... sent a princess from Zhongyuzi to present to Your Majesty." The minister of Honglu Temple came to report.

Zhao Han was very happy: "Kazakh took the initiative to request the title? Do you know the details?"

Xie Yuan was still in Madagascar at this time and did not bring back any relevant news, but he left an envoy to serve as a guide for the Kazakhs.

The information from Honglu Temple came from the envoy: "Your Majesty, Zhongyuzi is divided into pieces. This mission was sent by the son of the previous Khan of Zhongyuzi, requesting your majesty to canonize him as the king of the Kazakh Khanate. "

Zhao Han said with a smile: "But he is a visionary. He wants to be the king of Kazakhstan even before he can unify Zhongyuzi."

Regarding westward expansion, Zhao Han only planned to occupy the territory of the Kyrgyz people, which would later become Kyrgyzstan. Conquering it would be equivalent to regaining the homeland of the Tang Dynasty. Further west, it is difficult to manage, mainly due to terrain reasons. Only Kyrgyzstan is good for defense and can be connected with the Kashgar area.

Of course, if there is spare power, Tajikistan can also be taken, as the mountainous terrain is conducive to defense.

(Caven, only one update.)