After all, it is still the thinking of the Middle Ages, and after all, it is still the idea of ​​growing up by Confucianism. The Qing Dynasty, including Zaichun, knew the benefits of money, and knew that it would be absolutely impossible for the court to have no money.

But their thoughts remain on old objects and gold and silver. Silk is wealth, porcelain is wealth, and tea, jewelry and spices are of course wealth.

Fields, pastures, mountains, forests, lakes, rivers...even cattle and sheep, and population are all considered the wealth of the court. However, no one who has a debt in the Qing Dynasty would think that this is also wealth.

This idea is not unique to the Qing Dynasty. The entire Asia is basically still at the most primitive level of accounting. The so-called Ministry of Revenue in the Qing Dynasty is just a calculation of addition and subtraction.

In the past year, the commercial tax, agricultural tax, and customs tax in each province will be calculated as a total, and then it depends on how much owed by each province and the actual amount of deportation to Beijing.

After calculating the income, you have to calculate the expenses. The salaries of the officials, the salaries of the army, and the silver from the Hegong industry cannot be separated. The compensation to the great powers must be calculated clearly... one after another, the final total number is a deficit.

Unfortunately, I can't say the word "Yingyu", because the Qing Dynasty hasn't seen Yiyu for decades. According to the records of the Ministry of Revenue, it seems that there were several revenue balances in the early years of Daoguang. As for the future, Wang Xiaoer will be worse every year during the Chinese New Year.

The debt problem has actually started to bother the court since the Daoguang period. Daoguang, Xianfeng, Tongzhi, Guangxu, and Xuantong have never heard of another year without being troubled by debt.

The court was poor, and it required money to fight, and it required money to raise the ancestors of the Eight Banners, and the foreigners' compensations even more... But another confusing phenomenon is that throughout the late Qing Dynasty, China's silver was actually inflowing in net.

You heard it right. Don’t look at the compensation that cost hundreds of millions of taels of silver, but in fact, there is not much physical silver flowing out of the country. The core reason is that silver is not considered a currency in Europe at all, and only Asians recognize silver as money.

Silver is just a relatively expensive ore in Europe. Especially in the 19th century, silver mines in North America and Mexico entered a high-yield stage, and the global supply balance was broken, and oversupply was a long-term phenomenon.

At this time, Europeans had already seen business opportunities in the proportion of gold and silver exchange in different countries. They used the silver produced in North American mines to China to exchange gold and various precious goods, and then transported it back to Europe. This not only allowed them to make normal commercial profits, but also the difference profits in gold and silver exchange.

To give a simple example, this year the Ministry of Revenue should compensate the UK for a treaty compensation of 1 million taels of silver, so the British government will never foolishly use a ship to pull this million taels of silver back to China.

They would spend the million taels of silver in the Qing Dynasty, and some of them could be exchanged for gold, while more would be used to buy silk, tea, porcelain, even bristles, leather, etc. and other special products.

The silver was left in the Qing Dynasty, but the goods were taken back to London. After these goods were sold in London, the government and contractors received a gold standard pound.

This was the main model of East-West trade in the 19th century. It was also because of this that the silver market in the entire late Qing Dynasty was increasing. When measuring prices based on the silver standard, you will find that things on the market are becoming more and more expensive.

During the Kangxi period, a small courtyard in Sijiucheng was enough to cost 1200 taels of silver, but by the Qianlong period, the same courtyard would cost 800 to 1000 taels of silver. However, in the Tongzhi period, the Qing Dynasty, which was obviously damaged by war, prices were even higher. Such courtyards would definitely not be able to get a 30000 taels of silver without 3000 taels of silver.

There is also a circumstance evidence that the total construction cost of the mansion of the red-topped businessman Hu Xueyan in Yuanbao Lane, Hangzhou cost more than 500,000 taels of silver, and the government's allocation for renovation of the three halls in the early years of Kangxi was only more than 1 million taels.

Is Hu Xueyan's house more expensive than the three halls of the Imperial City? Obviously, this is not calculated like this. How much is the net inflow of silver in China for more than two hundred years? What is the slight inflation caused by these silver? The purchasing power of 500,000 taels during the Tongzhi period is completely different from that during the Kangxi period.

Xiao Letian clearly saw the core of the problem. On the one hand, the court had no money anymore, and the serious deficit made the center unable to play a normal role. Just imagine what deterrent power can a court that even the salary of hundreds of officials be reduced.

On the other hand, a large amount of silver accumulated among the people is not that China has no money, but that the court cannot mobilize it. This is a vicious cycle.

The court needs money, but if there is no money, it can only buy official positions and titles, including taxes. However, this behavior will naturally cause corrupt officials to be rampant and suffer in the people.

The extremely poor people are the source of social unrest. Thieves, robbers and even rebels began to mess with the local area, making the already bad local economy even worse. Local governors can only spend money to purchase weapons and train the army to suppress.

This is great. The money and food that should have been deported to Beijing were spent locally, and the money and food sent to Beijing were less and less.

Look, the pressure has returned to the capital, and the court has no money, so they have to find a way even more. What good can they do? They can't just increase taxes and buy official positions. If they really can't, go to foreign banks to borrow a little, but in the end they still have to pay the interest.

As a result, the court passed on the pressure to the people, which made the people even more miserable and had to resist. As a result, the local governments had to suppress it. This vicious cycle went down one after another, and finally dragged the national destiny of the Qing Dynasty to the abyss.

Xiao Letian knew that in fact, this vicious cycle is not unbreakable. It is like a triangle debt. As long as a new amount of funds is injected into it, the downward spiral can be cut off at once.

Using debt to bundle taxes and then issuing credit currency is the best way to solve this dilemma. The Ministry of Revenue bonds issued by Lotte Bank in Jiangnan are actually guaranteed by the dual credit of the Qing Dynasty and Lotte Foreign Bank. The risk resistance is not comparable to ordinary paper money.

He had accepted the Ministry of Revenue for 6 million taels, but in fact, Xiao Letian issued a total of 10 million taels of bonds from Jiangnan. No one knew the extra four million taels. Anyway, the Ministry of Revenue did not dare to check the accounts, as long as Xiao Letian could ensure sufficient reserves.

Now that the Ministry of Revenue has seen the sweetness, he has to give himself another 10 million taels of debt to be underwritten. Xiao Letian is a little hesitant, not that he can't do it, but that he is worth doing these things.

Xiao Letian was thinking, is it right for me to help the Qing Dynasty through this crisis? Don’t talk about the benefits it will be for me, and what benefits it will be for this nation and country.

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