How many yuan is one tael of silver equal to?

This is a very unsolvable question.

If the lowest grain price in the Ming Dynasty is used, one tael of silver can be sold for four shi of grain, and one shi of grain is 92 kilograms, which is 368 kilograms.

Twenty-five kilograms of flour on Taobao cost about 100 yuan. I erased the fraction and rounded it up, and it was only 1,500 yuan.

Even if we ignore refined grains and coarse grains, the price of grains in the Ming Dynasty did not remain at the level of two hundred and fifty coins per stone for a long time. This estimate is also quite unreliable.

Among other things, in many records of the Ming Dynasty, a servant was only worth a few taels of silver. Many common people only needed two or three taels of silver to marry a wife. The courtyard houses in Beijing only cost a few dozen taels of silver. Some people have complained that housing prices

It's not easy to stay in the air.

Therefore, the value of silver is still very high, especially before there is a large inflow of overseas silver. The value was even higher. It did not depreciate all the way until the end of the Ming Dynasty.

The so-called wealth of ten thousand taels, calculated in copper coins, is only ten thousand taels if converted into silver, or even less than that.

Many of the extremely poor people in the Ming Dynasty had never seen silver. As for hanging up a thousand silver coins, no matter how rich they were, they would not do it.

Zhou Chen looked like he suddenly realized something and said, "Your Majesty is no more wise than you. I will change it now."

Zhu Qizhen said: "In this case, if the silver from the two Huaihe rivers is sent to the capital, the Ministry of Household Affairs will be responsible for casting it into silver coins. From now on, all Ming Dynasty will use silver coins. For the time being, we can use silver. We will talk about it in the future."

Zhou Chen said: "Yes."

Zhu Qizhen said: "From now on, the imperial court will no longer issue treasure banknotes. The treasure banknotes that are converted to hundreds of officials will all be placed in silver coins. This is custom-made."

Zhou Chen said: "On behalf of all the officials in the capital, I would like to thank Your Majesty."

Zhu Qizhen said: "The officials have suffered a lot in these years. I also know this. It's just that the imperial court is in financial difficulty. It's only because of this windfall that we dare to do this. We must let the officials know the imperial court's difficulties."

Yang Pu thought to himself: "In this way, anyone in the whole court who dares to say a good word to the salt merchants will be attacked by a group of people. Your majesty has chosen the severity appropriately."

The meager salary of the Ming Dynasty seems to have been passed down as a truth. But generally speaking, Emperor Taizu was not the kind of emperor who would starve all his officials to death.

He is very pragmatic.

The youngest official among the hundred officials is a ninth-rank official, even if he is not a high-ranking official, under his arrangement, he can actually support his family. Of course, it is a fact that he is not high-ranking.

But the salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty gradually reached the point where it was absolutely insufficient.

First of all, it is treasure money.

Just like the imperial court used treasure notes that were too hard to wipe your buttocks to buy salt from kitchen households, the imperial court also used this thing to replace part of the official's salary. It is said that for a while it replaced all of it, but later the treasure notes became worthless and became part of it.

Treasure notes, and the rest of the money and food.

During the Zhengtong years, this was the situation.

However, the treasure banknotes are the legal tender of the Ming Dynasty. Even if the whole world knows that the treasure banknotes can no longer be used, the treasure banknotes are still money in the court's decision-making. Even if one or two hundred folk banknotes can only be exchanged for a few hundred copper coins, in the court's calculations

In China, a consistent treasure banknote is one thousand copper coins.

Under this circumstance, the originally low salary of Ming officials was abruptly reduced.

As for later, the official ostentation became more and more grand, expenses increased greatly, silver poured in in large quantities, even silver was worthless, and prices soared. It was strange that the specifications set during the Hongwu period could be adapted.

Therefore, Zhu Qizhen’s order was, on the one hand, to let the treasure banknotes be treated coldly and the court would not scrap them. However, from now on, the court would no longer use them, and within a few years, these treasure banknotes would be out of circulation.

In fact, almost all of them have quit now.

On the other hand, it is also a general salary increase for officials, especially Beijing officials.

When Emperor Xuanzong was here, he realized that the salaries of officials, especially officials in the capital, were too low. After all, local officials had some extra money, but officials in the capital did not.

Emperor Xuanzong also thought about raising wages at that time. But in the end he did not dare to change the ancestral system easily. However, Emperor Xuanzong's approach was not to increase wages but to increase bonuses.

Therefore, when the court celebrates festivals, the court pays out bonuses, when battles are won, the court pays out bonuses, and when a prince is born, the court pays out bonuses.

Sometimes, with the stroke of a pen, these officials in the capital could earn a year's salary.

After the death of Xuanzong, the Empress Dowager became quite stingy. The days of happily giving out bonuses were gone.

But the problem still exists.

Regarding the ancestral system, Zhu Qizhen did not dare to take action easily, so he just imitated Emperor Xuanzong and just made patches. The treasure notes were exchanged for silver, which only restored it to the level of the Hongwu period.

Generally speaking, from the Hongwu to the Zhengtong years, the Ming Dynasty recovered step by step, and the prices of various basic commodities continued to decline. Therefore, Zhu Qizhen estimated that if all the treasure notes were converted into silver, the purchasing power of the Ming Dynasty officials should be higher than that of the Hongwu Dynasty.

Be more generous during the year.

After this adjustment, Zhu Qizhen will not be ready to move for a long time to come.

Yang Pu said: "Your Majesty intends to mint money, but there is one thing that needs to be dealt with. If all the money minting is given to the Ministry of Revenue, what should the Baoquan Bureau of the Ministry of Industry do?"

When Zhu Qizhen heard this, he remembered that there were two minting agencies in the Ming Dynasty, one was the Baoquan Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and the other was the Baoyuan Bureau of the Ministry of Household Affairs. In fact, the two yamen were responsible for the same thing, which was to mint money.

Zhu Qizhen said: "From now on, the Ministry of Industry will be responsible for copper coins, and the Ministry of Household will be responsible for silver coins. They should not interfere with each other. There are also chief assistants, but private money matters must be handled well."

To be honest, Zhu Qizhen's eyes turned red when faced with more than 10 million taels of silver from the salt merchant. He made a profound self-examination, that is, although the Ming court had no silver.

But it does not mean that there is no money among the people.

As long as the imperial court strengthens its control over the people, this steady stream of money will come.

In essence, this salt law reform is an advance of the country and a retreat of the people.

Since Zhu Qizhen was concerned about minting money, he naturally asked Jin Yiwei to do some research. As a result, Jin Yiwei presented them all in one go. He didn't know how many versions of orthodox Tongbao there were.

Zhu Qizhen immediately took a different look at this kind of person who dared to make private money. Naturally, he wanted to kill him.

Yang Pu said: "Your Majesty, the imperial court has always ignored the issue of making private money, and making private money is not as good as private salt. For private salt, you only need to hold the salt field, and you can capture it from beginning to end, and capture it in one fell swoop.

But private money is spread all over the world and hidden in the mountains, making it really difficult to catch."

"Moreover, major cases are happening all over the world. How do people in the world view Your Majesty?"

After hearing this, Zhu Qizhen said: "I understand what you mean, sir, but today I am issuing an edict to reiterate the prohibition on minting private money, which will lead to death."

Yang Pu is actually talking about two things. One is administrative costs.

The reason why the Lianghuai Salt Case was so easy this time is because it is impossible for people to sell illegal salt without colluding with the government. Otherwise, where would their illegal salt come from?

But making money is different.

Whether it's mining privately or using copper to make money, it's never high-tech. If they do it privately, who can know?

If there is an investigation all over the world, not to mention how many people are dispatched, even after dispatching people, we can find out clearly. You must know that those who dare to mint private money everywhere are first-rate local tigers.

Even in the 21st century, there are still people who dare to mess with CCTV reporters. But where the emperor is far away, even the Jin Yiwei and the old ones

If he was directly killed and buried deep in the mountains, who would know?

Even if the court tracks them down, they may not dare to take over the mountain and become kings and become bandits.

You must know that many of the bandits that were exterminated by this dynasty were passed down for hundreds of years, so it is not impossible that this bandit nest has been passed down for longer than the emperor.

Even if the Ming Dynasty was strong during the Zhengtong period, it was impossible to ban bandits.

The second is Zhu Qizhen's reputation among the people.

After all, whether the common people or the scholars, they all like a benevolent leader. Have you not seen how badly Song Renzong fought in Xixia, but even now everyone still likes Song Renzong. Even now, everyone likes a benevolent leader.

, rather than being iron-fisted.

If one big case after another comes in Zhu Qizhen, it would not be the behavior of a benevolent king.
Chapter completed!