Ming Dynasty: Teaching The Prince Dragon-Slaying Skills At The Beginning

Chapter 174: Chaos Between The Emperor’S Inner Treasury And The National Treasury [Please Subscribe,

Hearing Yan Changqing's reasons for not distinguishing between public and private state finances, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but feel speechless again.

In the dynasties before the Ming Dynasty, such as the Song Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, Han Dynasty, etc., these national treasuries were separated from the inner treasury of the emperor's royal court.

The fiscal revenue of the national treasury will allocate a part of the fixed fiscal revenue to the emperor's royal court treasury every year to provide for the expenses of the emperor's royal court. As for other fiscal revenue of the national treasury, it will be used for various national finances. expenditure.

Of course, sometimes after the emperor's royal court ran out of internal treasury, he would still ask the Ministry of Revenue for more money.

But generally speaking, under normal circumstances, the revenue and expenditure of the emperor's royal court and the country's revenue and expenditure are separate and independent.

However, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there was no such thing as the emperor's royal palace treasury. The treasury was the emperor's royal palace treasury, and the emperor's royal palace treasury was the treasury. "The two are used interchangeably."

This is mainly because Zhu Yuanzhang believes that the emperor is rich all over the world, and the wealth of the world is the emperor's wealth, and the emperor's wealth is also the wealth of the world.

In this case, why is there any need to divide the inner treasury of the emperor's royal court?!!

As long as the emperor is a public servant and prudent and thrifty, then even if the national treasury bears the expenses of the emperor's royal court, it will not have any impact on the country.

After all, even if the inner treasury of the emperor's royal court is not divided, a part of the national fiscal revenue share in the national treasury originally belongs to the emperor's royal court.

When the emperor's royal court spent money, it was actually this part that was spent, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not specifically divide it.

Zhu Yuanzhang's idea cannot be said to be wrong from his own perspective.

Because he thought so himself, and he did so.

In the Hongwu Dynasty, among the 623 fiscal expenditures of the national treasury, the expenses of the emperor's royal court did not account for a large proportion.

At least compared to the monarchs of past dynasties, Zhu Yuanzhang is definitely a frugal person.

But Zhu Yuanzhang overestimated the character of his descendants as emperors!!!

Zhu Yuanzhang was able to serve the public whole and prudently save money.

But it does not mean that all the descendants of the old Zhu family can do this.

Since Zhu Yuanzhang, among the fiscal expenditures of the national treasury, the proportion of expenses incurred by the emperor's royal court has gradually increased.

For example, in the original history, after Zhu Di succeeded to the throne after the Jingnan Revolution, in order to regain the military power of each vassal king, the salary and welfare benefits of the vassal kings' relatives were greatly increased.

This has led to a significant increase in national financial expenditures, which originally belonged to the emperor's royal family.

For the most part, the emperor of tomorrow was not a diligent and frugal emperor.

At least in terms of food and clothing, he will definitely not treat himself as badly as Zhu Yuanzhang did. The emperor's dignity, luxury and ostentation basically have to be arranged.

Therefore, since the period of Zhu Qizhen, the "God of War of the Ming Dynasty", the finances of the national treasury, that is, the inner treasury, have begun to obviously lean towards the emperor's royal family and the royal court.

In addition, Zhu Qizhen also embedded some matters originally under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue into the inner palace of the emperor's royal court, which directly caused the eunuchs of the emperor's royal court to participate in the process of storing materials in the national treasury.

The officials of the Ministry of Revenue gradually reduced their management rights over the national treasury, that is, the internal treasury, and even lost their management rights.

After all, the national treasury and the inner treasury of the emperor's royal court are mixed into one queen (bhaf), so when the emperor and the Ministry of Revenue want to access the money, grain and materials from the national treasury at the same time, the final result will definitely be that the Ministry of Revenue will give in.

So in the face of this situation, the Ministry of Revenue couldn't bear it anymore and decided to start over again. Instead of using the national fiscal revenue with the emperor's royal court treasury!!!

So the Ministry of Revenue "secretly" established a Taicang warehouse in the seventh year of Zhengtong (1442) that was independent of the original national treasury and directly under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue.

As for the original national treasury, also known as the inner treasury, it was reserved exclusively for the emperor to use as the inner treasury of the emperor's royal palace.

After that, the inner treasury became more tilted towards the royal finances, and the annual income items of Taicang also gradually increased. In this process, ten parts of the original income of the inner treasury were owned by Taicang.

However, even if the Ministry of Revenue has established its own warehouse, or a warehouse dedicated to national finance.

But it was still unavoidable that the emperor would reach into the treasury to touch the silver, or even move the silver from the treasury to the inner treasury of the emperor's royal court.

In the end, the emperor and the Ministry of Household Affairs went back and forth and fought with each other for decades.

It was not until the Jiajing period that the two sides reached a certain compromise and basically had an unwritten proportion.

But even so, sometimes the dividing line between the emperor's inner treasury and the national government's military warehouse is still unclear.

For example, in the 22nd year of Jiajing, the military situation in Bianzhen was critical and military pay was urgently needed. Ministers from the Ministry of Household Affairs and the imperial court petitioned the emperor to temporarily lend the money, grain and finance in the emperor's inner treasury to Bianzhen.

Because it was borrowed, this part of the income cannot be counted as Taicang's normal income.

But once there is one, there are two. Once the money, grain and materials in the state treasury are insufficient again, the ministers of the Ministry of Revenue will use this reason to "borrow" from the emperor's inner treasury again to relieve the warehouse.

Of course, many times the Ministry of Accounts borrows money and does not pay it back.

Once the emperor asked the Ministry of Revenue to pay back the money, the Ministry of Revenue would often find reasons to shirk it again and again, or there would be no reason at all.

Faced with the answer from the Ministry of Finance, how could the emperor be satisfied, so he once again found a reason to go to the warehouse of the Ministry of Finance to touch money.

So in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, one of the things that the emperor and the Ministry of Revenue often did was that the emperor found reasons to touch the money in the Hubu's warehouse, and the Ministry of Husbandry found excuses to borrow the money in the emperor's inner treasury.

After going back and forth like this, the boundaries between the emperor's inner treasury and the treasury's treasury were once again blurred.

The final result is that sometimes the national treasury looks like the inner treasury, and sometimes the inner treasury looks like the national treasury.

This kind of lack of distinction between public and private state fiscal revenue and expenditure made Yan Changqing's blood pressure rise.

In such a country where public and private finances are unclear, if you want to make a budget plan for fiscal revenue and expenditure, Yan Changqing just wants to say, be a hammer!!!

Even if the fiscal revenue and expenditure budget planning is really completed, such fiscal revenue and expenditure budget planning has no reference or enforceability.

As long as the Ministry of Revenue finds more excuses to borrow the money in the emperor's inner treasury, or the emperor finds more reasons to touch the money in the warehouse of the Ministry of Revenue.

Then the fiscal revenue and expenditure budget planning originally produced will basically be abandoned.

"So, if you want the Ministry of Revenue to truly assume the role of budget planning for a country's fiscal revenue and expenditure.

"Then the Ministry of Revenue must truly unify national fiscal revenue and expenditure, and separate public and private matters within the emperor's treasury and the national treasury!!"

"And to achieve these two points, it means that the small treasury that the other five ministries of the imperial court have usurped the financial authority of the Ministry of Households must be handed over, and the authority to distribute the income of all money, grain and material matters in the country will truly be transferred to Tobe’s hands.”

"Similarly, even the fiscal revenue and expenditure of the emperor's royal court must be separated from the national treasury of the Ministry of Revenue.

"The latter is easier to say. As long as His Majesty can figure it out, he can distinguish them."

"But the former is equivalent to depriving the other five departments of the imperial court of their authority at the same time to strengthen the authority of the Household Department."

"Although this part of the financial authority of the five ministries of the imperial court itself has invaded the Ministry of Household Affairs, but since this part of the financial authority has been usurped by the other five ministries, it will be even more difficult for them to spit it out."

"At least except for the Ministry of Household Affairs, the other five ministries in the DPRK will definitely oppose it strongly!!!"

"And their opposition is not unreasonable. At least the reasons they gave must be public-minded and conducive to the work of their respective ministries."

"If you cannot convince them, then even if His Majesty uses his authority to force the resolution to pass."

"I'm afraid that in the future the other five ministries will also find ways to prove that all the country's fiscal revenue is concentrated in the hands of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

"In the face of the 'trouble' encountered by the five ministries of the imperial court, or actively created, if the Ministry of Revenue cannot solve it. "

"Then I'm afraid that even with His Majesty's support, in the end the Ministry of Revenue will probably have to re-vomit that part of the financial power and put it under the control of the other five ministries of the imperial court again.

"But if the Ministry of Revenue cannot truly unify national fiscal revenue and expenditure, and if the emperor's inner treasury and the national treasury can distinguish public and private matters, then it will not be able to truly assume the role of budget planning for a country's fiscal revenue and expenditure."

"Then the Ministry of Revenue will not be able to make a reasonable planning expenditure budget for the expenditures required for various affairs in the coming year based on these national fiscal revenue budgets!"

"If the Ministry of Revenue does not know the overall budget revenue and budget expenditure of a country, then it will not know how many Ming Dynasty currency notes the court should issue that year, so as not to cause indiscriminate issuance or over-issuance of Ming Dynasty currency notes, and ultimately cause Bad inflation!”

"If inflation cannot be controlled, sooner or later the Ming Dynasty will collapse in national credibility due to the depreciation of the Ming Dynasty's banknotes, which represent the country's credibility, and will most likely embark on the path to the destruction of the Yuan Dynasty."

"These are all linked together, affecting the whole body."

Yan Changqing's eyes fell on Zhu Yuanzhang, and he told Zhu Yuanzhang the difficulties in a calm and serious tone.

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