Chapter 447: The Fourteen Articles of Ye Li

Profit tax, a 50% tax on the outflow of silver and red copper. Zhu Yijun wanted to encourage maritime merchants to go out, but he did not want them to take silver and red copper out, so the scope of the profit tax was limited to these two precious metals.

It could also be considered an ancestral law. After all, there was a very clear ban on gold and silver in the early Ming dynasty.

Once this regulation is announced, it will probably cause fierce opposition.

Because in the eyes of the widely existing maritime merchants, this is another powerful intervention by the imperial court, which will make them very uncomfortable. This is expected. The Jiangnan gentry, because of distance, have no empathy for the Northern Barbarians invading, but they are terrified of the Japanese pirates in front of them.

The Songjiang School has similar views. They believe that the imperial court is lying.

For example, this crusade against Bansheng. In the eyes of the Songjiang School, the imperial court uses the broad concept of "Han people" to make you, who have nothing to do with this matter, hate the Northern Barbarians you have never seen. Living in the south, what specific connection do you have with the Northern Barbarians?

And then you have to feel pride and emotion for achievements that have nothing to do with you. What is the use of this? Except for having a little bit of talk when drinking, it is useless. And part of the money and grain for launching the war comes from you, who have nothing to do with this matter.

The "freedom" in the eyes of the Great Duke is completely different from the "freedom" of the Songjiang School.

The freedom of the Songjiang School is a freedom that is completely unconstrained and completely centered on self-interest, while the freedom in the eyes of the Great Duke is freedom under reason, limited, and observing basic rules.

"On Public and Private" can refute similar views.

The Great Ming's crusade against Bansheng is closely related to the Great Ming. The Great Ming is the largest collective of all Great Ming people at present, the greatest "public."

If one cannot maintain the interests of this largest collective, then the "private" relative to the public, that is, the small collective, cannot guarantee its own interests. This is a truth that even the Jin Party has understood. His Majesty and Zhang Juzheng have explained it very clearly.

If Bansheng is not destroyed, the city built by the grassland people will stand on the grasslands like a pillar of shame. The left and right wings of the Tatars, the Eastern Barbarian Jianzhou and Haixi wild Jurchens, and the seven Khalkha tribes will all have doubts about the Great Ming from the bottom of their hearts, and then their hearts of insubordination will gradually arise. Eventually, they will walk together and attack the Great Ming.

The reason why Tan Lun, Qi Jiguang, and others value the Great Xianbei Mountain Pass so much is that they are afraid of the merger of the left wing led by Tuman Khan and the Eastern Barbarians.

The possibility of the Great Ming going beyond the frontier and completely defeating the enemy is very small. The Great Ming failed to defeat them one by one before the enemy completed the merger. The day the grassland tribes completed the merger and attacked the Great Ming together, even if the Great Ming was not defeated, it would become a deep, bottomless scar on the Great Ming, constantly bleeding.

By then, it would change from being invisibly related to being explicitly related, and it would really be closely related to the world. A vicious cycle would appear.

The Great Ming needs to increase its strength to reject the barbarians, increase its strength to need money and grain, and the imperial court needs to increase its exploitation of the lower levels. The meat-eaters who are good at transferring costs will let the most ordinary commoners bear the tax increase. Ordinary people cannot bear it and brew civil unrest. Civil unrest further destroys production, leading to more civil unrest. The Great Ming becomes weaker and more unable to reject the barbarians, and the weaker Great Ming will make more and more people with hearts of insubordination outside the frontier. Under this vicious cycle, eventually, the Hu barbarians will enter the pass, and the world will be plunged into misery.

Therefore, the crusade against Bansheng, or maintaining the interests of this largest collective of the Great Ming, is really closely related to everyone.

Qi Jiguang has always advocated decisive battle in the wilderness, defeating the enemy until their livers and gallbladders are torn apart, which is the only solution. But Zhang Juzheng clearly knows that it cannot be done. This is the "different paths, no conspiracy" between the literary Zhang and the martial Qi.

Zhu Yijun's proposal to Wang Guoguang to print a treasure note that is difficult to forge but cannot be cashed has an intention that could not be more obvious: seigniorage.

Seigniorage, in the Great Ming, is called "fire loss." Stamping silver coins and minting Tongbao has fire loss. This fire loss is profit. Subtracting a portion of silver and copper materials and mixing in lead and tin is seigniorage.

Currently, the Ministry of Works has more than 120 casting furnaces, 10,400 registered casting craftsmen, and mints more than 600 million coins a year. With the rapid development of the Luzon copper industry, the Ministry of Works' minting is also developing rapidly. Moreover, the Great Ming commoners generally recognize the Wanli Tongbao. As for private casting of "flying money," they are disdainful. It is really because the flying money is small in weight and contains little copper, and it is not durable and has no exchange value.

It is said: "Seeing profit and competing to rush, there is private casting every day. Although it is discussed as death, it does not stop. The money is thin and lacks copper, and it cannot be circulated when piled up."

The seigniorage from stamping silver coins and minting Tongbao is already very rich, but it is definitely not as fast as printing treasure notes!

Treasure notes are already rotten in the streets of the Great Ming, and everyone does not recognize treasure notes, so printing money and sending it overseas is a good idea.

Xu Jiugao sailed around the world and saw the chaos of colonial currency in many colonies. Stamped silver coins were cut, pearls were woven into strips and used as money, and even receipts from tobacco companies and well-shaped stones could become currency in colonies. Undoubtedly, Great Ming treasure notes that are difficult to forge will have a place of their own.

"If this treasure note cannot be cashed, is it an act of losing the country's great trust?" Zhang Xueyan first raised his own concerns. Taking too big a step is not a good thing for the Great Ming. Wang Guoguang and Zhang Xueyan are both traditional conservatives. They do not approve of issuing national debt and borrowing money from the people.

Zhu Yijun shook his head and said, "In the Great Ming, even a seven-year-old child knows that treasure notes are useless."

Wang Guoguang still shook his head and said, "But this non-cashable treasure note violates the ancestral law. In the eighth year of Hongwu at the beginning of the country, it was decided that each treasure note of one *guan* would be exchanged for one tael of silver and 1,000 copper coins, and it would be used in circulation with copper coins. Those who forge it will be beheaded, and those who report it will be rewarded with 250 taels of silver, and the criminal's property will be given. A method for exchanging notes was also established. By the 26th year of Hongwu, the method for exchanging notes was abolished."

The Great Ming treasure notes have their own complete system design, including cashing, death for private printing, heavy rewards for reporting, and even giving the property of the criminal's family, and even regular exchange of notes.

Great Ming treasure notes have a very clear system design. It was not Zhu Yuanzhang who patted his head and started printing money directly.

The Great Ming also copied the homework of the Yuan Dynasty. During the time of Kublai Khan, the Prime Minister Ye Li established the "Fourteen Articles of Ye Li," which reformed the various drawbacks of the treasure notes at the end of the Song and the beginning of the Yuan.

Exchange means using both new and old banknotes, with periodic replacement of the old; redemption means every banknote can be exchanged for the full amount of copper or silver, making it a redeemable paper currency; punishment means death for private counterfeiters and heavy rewards for whistleblowers, who may also receive the confiscated assets of the criminal; the official treasury gold and silver standard banknote method, or a reserve system for the official treasury, ensures that while guaranteeing redemption, the official treasury must also frequently use gold and silver to purchase the precious banknotes to ensure they do not depreciate; multiple denominations, from one guan to five wen, facilitate usage; regarding currency and debt, Xu Heng revealed in his "Notes on Paper Currency" the fundamental fact that paper money is national debt; creating copper coins to support the banknote method means minting copper coins and silver ingots to maintain the banknote method and prevent depreciation, and so on.

The Fourteen Articles of Ye Li can be said to be a very complete legal ordinance for the issuance of paper currency. Kublai Khan issued more than 36.18 million *guan* in total, and it was eventually abolished. Kublai Khan never managed to solve the problem of paper currency depreciation. By the eighth year of Hongwu, Great Ming treasure notes also encountered similar challenges.

The Zhiyuan Tongxing Treasure Notes and the Great Ming Treasure Notes could not solve the problem of rapid paper currency depreciation. There are two biggest problems here that the system cannot solve.

The first is private printing. Sometimes, the imperial court received reports and found that the private printers were imperial relatives, princes, and ministers. Then the Ministry of Revenue could only solve the reporter, not the problem. It could only solve the person who raised the problem. After the imperial relatives, princes, and ministers were admonished, they let the brokers and buyers hold the private seals. Should the Ministry of Revenue check or not? Laws that have no punishment and cannot be executed are equivalent to none.

The second is cashing. The gold and silver parity prepared by the Great Ming imperial court was small and corruption was extremely serious. The official treasury supervisors often exchanged gold and silver for their own cronies, or simply used public office for private gain. Imperial relatives, princes, and ministers only needed to privately print treasure notes to empty all the official treasuries, which also led to the fact that cashable currency had never been non-cashable currency, further aggravating the depreciation of treasure notes.

The problems that Kublai Khan and Zhu Yuanzhang could not solve, Zhu Yijun could not solve either.

The Great Ming promoted the note method. Empress Dowager Li's biological father, the Emperor's maternal grandfather, Marquis Wuqing Li Wei, opened it up and printed it. Should Zhu Yijun kill him or not? As an emperor, as a political creature, Zhu Yijun could ignore Empress Dowager Li's feelings and kill Li Wei to establish his authority. But he alone was impartial. In the Great Ming officialdom, officials protected each other. Could he kill them cleanly?

Wealth moves people's hearts.

Therefore, Zhu Yijun never had the idea of promoting the note method in the Great Ming, so he could only suffer the overseas barbarians.

"Ancestral law cannot be abandoned." Zhu Yijun looked at Wang Guoguang and said quite affirmatively.

Wang Guoguang understood.

Cashable currency is an ancestral law, but promising to cash it on the surface but not actually cashing it is also an ancestral law. After the 26th year of Hongwu, notes were no longer exchanged, which is the ancestral law of no longer cashing. Ancestors also "flipped pancakes," which gave later generations a very flexible political and moral bottom line for formulating policies.

Will it really be cashed? If it is cashed.

"Our Great Ming does not recognize treasure notes from top to bottom, so will the overseas barbarians recognize them?" Zhang Xueyan raised his own doubts.

The Great Ming knows that treasure notes are worthless, so will the overseas barbarians be willing to accept them? This is a problem that must be considered.

"Change the version." Zhu Yijun smiled and said, "Most of the treasure notes will not flow back to the Great Ming, which means that most of the treasure notes cannot be cashed. By the time the barbarians do not recognize the old notes, the old notes will have been used up, and we can just change the version."

"Overseas barbarians will recognize them. They will even recognize stones because they have no better general equivalent to use."

The overseas barbarians are willing to recognize and use treasure notes based on two points: first, in reality, they have to use them because there is no better currency to replace them; second, it is a beautiful dream that in a distant place, treasure notes can be exchanged for real gold and silver in the Heavenly Dynasty.

Wang Guoguang and Zhang Xueyan looked at each other, thought about it, and agreed with His Majesty's idea.

This is a very cruel method. When exchanging notes, because the depreciation of paper money is inevitable, the new notes must not be exchanged at the same face value. For example, Zhiyuan treasure notes (new notes) are exchanged with Zhongtong notes (old notes) at a ratio of 1:5, which means that Zhongtong notes depreciate, and also means that the new paper money has expanded the issuance amount.

Paper money itself is a debt based on the imperial court's reputation. Paper money is an IOU. Exchanging 1 *guan* of new notes for 5 *guan* of old notes is forming a new 4-fold debt on the commoners on the original basis, which represents cruel exploitation.

The problem of silver waste already has a program for asset appreciation, and specific policies have also begun to be piloted. Profit tax, the number of industrial and agricultural producers, the expansion of Yanxing Building, etc., are all centered on this problem.

"Your Majesty, Censor Wang is here." Feng Bao whispered in His Majesty's ear.

"Proclaim."

Wang Qian paid his respects and then obediently sat aside, quietly listening to His Majesty and the two Ministers discussing how to solve the problem of silver idling.

Bai Yin idling means that silver is controlled in the hands of a few and circulates only among them; it is two sides of the same coin as the problem of damming, and the fundamental reason for this idling is that money only flows to places where it is not lacking. Wanting money to open its doors to the common people, even if just a small window, is harder than ascending to heaven.

To solve this problem, the imperial court's investment has become a method that is not a method. Through various means such as national debt and trading houses, silver is concentrated in the hands of the imperial court to complete investment, and then returned to the owners of silver in the form of interest and dividends, hoping for a virtuous cycle.

But there is a fatal problem here. At present, the trust between the emperor's imperial court that borrows debt and the people who lend money is entirely built on His Majesty's personal reputation.

This is very dangerous. Once the emperor's personal reputation collapses, or if the emperor has an accident, all the systems built around the emperor's reputation will collapse, and the tax auditing office, trading houses, national debt, etc., will have a very far-reaching impact on the country.

"What did the teacher say?" Zhu Yijun asked about Zhang Juzheng's view on this deep binding.

Wang Guoguang said helplessly, "The Grand Secretary said, this is also quite good."

As a staunch royalist, what else could Zhang Juzheng say? Zhang Juzheng is happy to see it happen. His Majesty is supreme, but he is also a person in the physical sense and will be in danger. The more interests are bound to His Majesty, the more it can guarantee His Majesty's safety and ensure that His Majesty is widely supported.

The Great Ming's new policy and the Great Ming's innovation are all pinned on the Emperor by Zhang Juzheng.

Zhang Juzheng has a way, but he won't say it. Moreover, he doesn't have any good way.

Wang Guoguang and Zhang Xueyan reported on the compilation of the "Wanli Accounting Record" and chose to leave, and Wang Qian finally survived the relatively serious atmosphere of this small meeting.

"Everyone is discussing the major affairs of the country. I came abruptly. Please forgive me, Your Majesty." Wang Qian breathed hard a few times. The adults were talking about major affairs, and his small matter was really not on the table.

"The Yanxing Building Trading House is handed over to you to manage. Censor Wang, you are a busy person. How do you have time to come to my imperial study?" Zhu Yijun asked about Wang Qian's intention.

Wang Qian flicked his sleeves, bowed five times and kowtowed three times, and said, "I came to plead guilty for the pearl matter."

"Your father asked you to come, right?" Zhu Yijun drank some water and said with a smile, "Get up and speak."

"Yes." Wang Qian didn't quibble and chose to tell the truth. Lying actually couldn't be hidden from His Majesty.

Zhu Yijun asked, "What do you think you are guilty of?"

"I think I'm not wrong!" Wang Qian answered this question very clearly. That old man Wang Chonggu didn't understand at all. Meat-eaters also need to be eliminated through survival of the fittest. If they can't even control their own greed, that is lack of reason, not to mention the two words "Hongyi."

Zhu Yijun waved his hand and shook his head, saying, "You, you still don't understand your father's worry. The Junior Minister knows what he is saying, and you can't listen to it, so he asked you to come over."

"Grand Secretary Wang is getting on in years; he fears this and that. It is not that he is decadent or unable to accept change; he is worried about you. You are currently hoarding goods for speculation, and what you are flipping is pearls. Pearls are things only used by wealthy and noble families. You did it, so be it, but if you start flipping daily necessities like clothing, food, housing, and transportation in the future, you will surely die without a doubt."

"People's greed is magnified bit by bit in constant profit-seeking, reason disappears bit by bit, controlled by greed, and finally touches the law, regretting it too late."

Wang Qian was stunned for a moment, sat on the chair, thought for a long time, and then bowed his head and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your instruction."

Some words, Wang Chonggu, as a father, is not convenient to say clearly in front of his son. The crimes of overstepping he committed before the second year of Wanli, how could he not have realized this point? One wrong step leads to wrong steps. And Wang Chonggu telling his son about the mistakes he made in the past damages the father's dignity.

Wang Chonggu saw his past self in Wang Qian, so he carried the Seven-Star Ring-Head Sword and wanted to clean up the house.

"Your Majesty, speculation cannot be forbidden because speculation comes from human greed." Wang Qian spoke about why he didn't think he was guilty. After a large amount of silver poured into the Great Ming, speculation would become popular in the face of the powerful power of money.

Zhu Yijun thought for a while and asked, "So you are also a Confucian scholar under Xunzi, believing that human nature is evil?"

"Human nature is... evil!" Wang Qian used great courage to say this sentence. He was a traditional Confucian scholar, the kind who passed the imperial examination. Originally, the ideological steel seal of the Confucian sage's "human nature is good" was deeply rooted. But after working for a few years, he gradually discovered that the classics were not entirely correct. Of course, there is good in human nature, but there is also evil.

The Northern Barbarians and Eastern Barbarians outside the frontier, and the barbarians overseas, they have no education and are no different from wild beasts. If human nature is good, how can they be the same as wild beasts?

Zhu Yijun looked at Wang Qian and nodded, saying, "I am still very relieved to hand over the Yanxing Building Trading House to you."

Wang Qian is a playboy, the originator of speculation, and even more of a villain. The only way to control the abyss of "human nature is evil" in the trading house is to let villains grind villains, using evil to control evil.

"Be careful of private trading houses." Zhu Yijun talked about the specific content of the trading house. These private trading houses will become individual bookmakers, thereby emptying all the credibility of the trading house.

"I have done this before, Your Majesty," Wang Qian said, looking slightly embarrassed. "Actually, it is very easy to find. Speculators love to gather at someone's private residence for banquets. Completely banning speculation is not easy, but we can use many methods to monitor their speculative activities. Whether there is a risk of downward apportionment is a bottom line that requires strict defense and persistence."

"Your Majesty, in my shallow understanding, the main contradiction of the Great Ming economy at present is the chaos caused by chaotic currency. Flying money, salt certificates, acceptance bills, Wanli Tongbao, silver coins, and silver are all currency. In the shortest time, establish a unified currency supply system with good credibility, and the currency value will no longer be as fickle as before."

Wang Qian does not advocate completely forbidding speculation. In his view, this is the best way to eliminate meat-eaters. Anyone who loses reason will lose everything in the trading house. It is also the only possibility for producers to completely change their class. In Wang Qian's view, the expansion of the trading house is a window opened by money to the poor.

Shipping tickets, holding them for a long time to get dividends and then exchanging them for more tickets—this kind of ticket is also a kind of currency, a distribution method.

Wang Qian put forward his understanding of state affairs for the first time. He felt that the main contradiction of the Great Ming economy at present was that trade and economy were becoming more and more prosperous, and exchange was accelerating, but the currency acting as a medium was chaotic and could not be supplied sufficiently.

"The Grand Minister and the Junior Minister have already talked about this matter, about five years ago, when you hadn't passed the imperial examination yet." Zhu Yijun nodded. The horror of money shortage, Wang Guoguang had already explained repeatedly five years ago.

It's not that the Great Ming doesn't want to solve it. Opening the sea is for the inflow of silver. It's not that the two Ministers are incompetent. It's just that the Great Ming's volume is too large. No amount of silver coins or copper coins can fill this big hole. The Great Ming's demand for currency is shockingly terrible. Zhu Yijun even suspected that the reason why the Central Plains could never transform from a small-scale peasant economy to a commodity economy was caused by money shortage.

It's really too short of money.

The Great Ming is like a glutton, swallowing all the silver and red copper that flows into the Great Ming, and it is insatiable.

"I was abrupt." Wang Qian hurriedly bowed his head. It turned out that the Great Dukes of the imperial court already knew and had memorialized His Majesty.

"I am still very satisfied that you have this heart to share the worries of the country." Zhu Yijun encouraged, "Just manage the trading house well. With more practice, with your intelligence, you might not be able to rise to the top in the future."

"I will strictly follow Your Majesty's holy instruction." Wang Qian bid farewell to His Majesty.

Zhu Yijun never approved of Wang Chonggu's way of cultivating Wang Qian. Wang Chonggu wanted Wang Qian to be a playboy who lived and died in confusion, but Wang Qian, who was proficient in contradiction theory, arithmetic, public and private theory, and class theory, was a top meat-eater in the official selection class. He stood high enough and was very clear about the basic logic of social operation. Being such a playboy was really a waste of talent.

Zhu Yijun reminded Wang Qian not to lose reason, which was not empty talk. Yan Song's son, Yan Shifan, was such a smart person, but the result was that in the process of rising step by step, he finally lost his reason. The complete collapse of the Yan Party had a great relationship with Yan Shifan's bribery of the Prince Yu's mansion.

The Yanxing Building Trading House is preparing to issue two tickets, Suiyuan Imperial Road and Suiyuan Mining. These two tickets total 2 million copies, priced at 5 silver each, to be issued in three years, used for the construction of Suiyuan Imperial Road and the silver and money needed for Suiyuan mining. This is very risky. If the war is defeated, natural disasters occur, and domestic demand is not strong enough, the dividends will not be as stable as national debt and must be repaid. After all, doing business has both gains and losses.

But even so, those speculators and brokers who are familiar with risks began to try, seeking opportunities to make money, because these new tickets are by no means just top-down administration like Great Ming treasure notes, but also bottom-up physical roads and mineral resources.

These new tickets are safe in their eyes, and they will not fall significantly. They are issued, circulated, and appreciated in a very steady way, and the Great Ming, as the main body, is changing at a speed of a thousand miles a day, innovating the old and bringing forth the new.

No one will doubt the repayment ability of the new tickets. The wealthy households of the Great Ming also understand His Majesty's bottom line. The collapse of the silk currency was because of the downward apportionment of risks, and the cutting of the smallest transaction unit of silk currency triggered His Majesty's thunderous anger.

These people are ready, and they are willing and able to provide the silver needed for the development of a trading house.

Zhu Yijun held a memorial in his hand. A conservative faction represented by Wang Guoguang was very worried about the expansion of the Yanxing Building Trading House. The Yanxing Building Trading House has been full of controversy since the first day of its birth. The people who come to the trading house are of all kinds: speculators who dream of getting rich overnight, investors who worry about the depreciation of silver caused by silver damming, and bookmakers who maliciously manipulate the market.

Wang Guoguang tried to distinguish these people by good and evil. In the abyss of "human nature is evil," these people participating in the game, Wang Guoguang tried to find a boundary.

Zhu Yijun held the memorial in his hand and looked at Feng Bao and said, "The Grand Minister's worry is not unreasonable. The reason why Wang Qian made a fortune in the pearl case and harvested others is that he definitely knew that the court meeting would discuss this matter, and the time of the discussion was easy to confirm. He remained rational and did not sell after getting the result, but cashed out before the court meeting."

"The Grand Minister is first worried about the Great Ming Dukes, who use the power in their hands to get information that only the Dukes can get, and then trade."

"Officials and merchants colluding together is extremely harmful. Feng, what do you think?"

Feng Bao said slightly helplessly, "Your Majesty, I am just a eunuch. The Great Ming needs to mobilize sleeping silver and promote the exchange of goods. The expansion of the Yanxing Building Trading House is imperative. Your Majesty, I think that anyone who colludes should be severely punished to achieve the effect of intimidation. We can neither give up eating for fear of choking nor turn a blind eye."

"If they collude together, it will inevitably trigger panic. The imperial court should also have an official treasury to deal with this situation, and someone must be responsible for this, so as not to lose the country's great trust."

As the eunuch in charge of the Directorate of Ceremonial for many years, Feng Bao has seen a lot. He thinks that problems are not terrible. Solving one contradiction will inevitably lead to two contradictions. Problems appear, but not facing them, or not being able to face them, and no one is responsible for this, is the most terrible loss of the country's great trust.

The worries of the conservatives are not empty talk, but a test that the Great Ming must face next.

"You are right." Zhu Yijun approved Wang Guoguang's memorial and gave specific instructions. At present, the Great Ming has a very suitable person to do this, and that is Hence Hai Rui. As the number one anti-corruption person in the Great Ming, it is most appropriate to hand this matter to Hence Hai Rui.

In this abyss of "human nature is evil," looking for the boundary between good people and bad people is a long-term work. Zhu Yijun has expectations for the difficulty of this matter.

Zhu Yijun issued a decree to the Songjiang Viceroy and the Yingtian Viceroy, and issued a decree to the five major shipping offices and the three major overseas shipping offices to ask the shipping envoys about their opinions on the profit tax. Before the profit tax is officially implemented, the imperial court also needs to confirm the specific ideas of all parties on the profit tax. Only by unifying internal opinions can the government decree be officially implemented.

The two viceroys replied to the imperial court's inquiry the fastest. Shen Shixing's opinion was to completely forbid the outflow of silver and red copper. This is his practical experience. In his view, 50% is really too little. As a bridgehead for opening the sea, Shen Shixing has seen too many such people, and his opinion is quite radical. He also suggested issuing tickets for overseas development to raise sufficient funds for overseas development, and also reducing the risks of the imperial court.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 448 =====