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Chapter 961 – 957 [Inflation Expansion And Moderate Colonization]

Chapter 961 957【Inflation expansion and moderate colonization】

“Spanish silver can be seen all over Europe.” —Charles II, King of England.

This sentence refers to rampant smuggling in America.

In the first two decades of the 17th century, the amount of American silver imported into Spain reached more than 200,000 kilograms per year.

By the 1930s, it dropped sharply to an average of only 140,000 kilograms per year;

By the 1950s, only 40,000 kilograms of American silver flowed into Spain each year remained.

The “reduction” of silver production in the Americas was initially due to floods in Mexico and continuous rain that led to water accumulation and landslides in silver mines. Moreover, silver is refined with mercury, which consumes too much mercury resources, which makes it impossible to smelt silver after digging out silver mines.

This situation is actually slowly recovering.

Why does America’s silver production continue to decrease? Of course it was the intentional result of the colonial officials!

A large amount of silver is mined and refined, and it is not reported to the king at all. Instead, it was traded privately and flowed into various European countries. That’s why Charles II said, “Spain’s silver can be seen all over Europe.”

The king of Spain couldn’t figure out the situation, and stepped up restrictions on the trade of galleons to prevent excessive silver from flowing into China. In addition, the Japanese shogunate also prohibited daimyo from mining silver mines, which really caused a silver shortage in the late Ming Dynasty.

Forbidden City, Imperial Garden.

Retired Song Yingxing took out the first edition of “Economic Knowledge”, sipped tea and said, “This year, prices in coastal cities have risen sharply. The root cause is the increased inflow of silver from America and Japan.”

Zhao Han flipped through the manuscript casually, and listened to Song Yingxing’s continuation.

Song Yingxing said: “Li Quan took the fleet to the Americas for trade, and the Spanish officials on the west coast of America completely opened up smuggling. Not only did they smuggle with Li Quan, but the Spanish officials and the navy also ignored the king’s ban and filled the cabins with Goods and silver. But the power of the Japanese shogunate has fallen, and the banned silver mines have resumed work. The silver is all flowing to the coastal provinces of the Celestial Dynasty.”

“It’s annoying to have too much money.” Zhao Han smiled.

Song Yingxing also said: “I carefully checked the “Price Book” over the years, taking Jiangsu, Lianghu, and Sichuan as examples. The price rise in Jiangsu will affect the two lakes in about two to three years, and it will affect Sichuan in about five to six years. In the Southwest, the impact is more gradual.”

Zhao Han said: “We can only bear it.”

There is really no way. At this time, Chinese commodities occupy an absolute dominant position in the world, and China is a net inflow country of silver. In the new dynasty of Datong, sea trade became more and more prosperous, and this situation became more obvious, and the continuous rise of prices was unstoppable.

It is the farmers who suffer!

Businessmen have huge profits, industrial and commercial workers and citizens can increase wages, and farmers who only have grain income are the most affected (the increase in grain purchase prices is far behind the increase in prices).

Of course, China is large enough to buffer this impact.

European countries are small in size, so it is scary to encounter such a situation, and a proper term was born directly—price revolution.

Due to the influx of silver from America, there are still so many commodities produced. In Spain, in the first 50 years of the 16th century, prices nearly doubled, and prices rose by about 60% in the next 50 years. The momentum was not stopped until silver production decreased.

France was affected first, followed by Italy. The common people are already stupid, their income has not increased, but their shopping has become more and more expensive.

Charles II was very lucky. The time when he returned home to seize the throne coincided with the peak of the price increase rate in Britain. This product not only has to face financial difficulties, but also has to face soaring prices. Who made Britain’s “price revolution” come so slowly? People in Spain and France have already finished the leather.

Song Yingxing continued: “Nowadays, the imperial court has issued gold coins again, and the government lowered the price of gold and silver, and the merchants even ran to India for trade. I heard that those Indian merchants like to pay with gold and silver coins, and gold coins account for a large proportion. In the future, not only There’s a lot of silver coming in, and gold is going to come in.”

“What countermeasure does Song Qing have?” Zhao Han asked.

Song Yingxing said: “When collecting land taxes, we must be extra cautious, pay more attention to local grain prices, and avoid causing too heavy a burden on farmers.”

Since Zhang Juzheng’s reform, land tax collection in China has been changed to currency. As for the price discount of grain, it varies from place to place, and officials have a lot of room for manipulation, which has always been chaotic.

The Datong New Dynasty calculated taxes according to the number of acres and grades, and the tax rate also followed the local grain price.

Now the price of grain continues to rise, but the price of grain sold by farmers is often suppressed. Moreover, most provinces no longer collect taxes in kind, and farmers can only pay taxes with money. As the denominations of official tickets and military tickets were changed from grain units to currency units, Datong Bank also gradually reduced grain collection and turned more grain transactions into private behaviors. Such a variety, a little carelessness will bring a heavy burden to farmers.

Studying the Qing Dynasty in another time and space, the White Lotus Rebellion, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and other movements, in addition to natural disasters, wars and other factors, the outbreak time of the previous major uprisings highly coincided with the violent fluctuations in silver prices. The reason is that the collection of agricultural tax lags behind the relative price changes, and farmers can only rebel if they cannot survive.

Zhao Han nodded and said: “The cabinet must communicate with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Households, and Ministry of Commerce to formulate a more detailed system to minimize the impact of prices on land taxes.”

It can only be alleviated, but it cannot be eliminated. Even in modern society, farmers are always the most unlucky group.

Zhao Han knows nothing about economics. Although he can understand Song Yingxing’s “Economic Knowledge”, he can’t give more hints. This knowledge can only be explored slowly, supplemented and developed by more scholars.

Zhao Han said: “This book is printed in 5,000 copies, half of which are distributed to government officials, and half to private booksellers for distribution. Regardless of officials or civilians, they can write letters to add opinions and submit them to the cabinet for research and discussion. In the future, the court will , to discuss economics every two months.”

Zhao Han closed his eyes and thought, and said: “Let the Datong Bank in the coastal provinces raise interest rates, absorb more deposits from merchants and ordinary people, and reduce the silver on the market. Then use the money to purchase overseas grain and ship it to Hebei. Store it as rations for conquering Mobei!”

Song Yingxing was stunned for a moment, then clapped his hands: “Wonderful, this must be included in “Economic Knowledge”!”

In the ancient money houses, it is really not that they deposit money and charge storage fees.

Since at least the middle of the Ming Dynasty, with the prosperity of the commodity economy, banks have to pay interest on deposits. There was also a dispute. The leader of the civil society deposited the collective funds in the bank and was questioned for embezzling the deposit interest.

Based on Zhao Han’s limited knowledge of economics, he can only think of raising interest rates during inflation.

Not to mention Nanyang, with the development of Taiwan and Hainan Island, the grain output of these two places is more than sufficient, and a large amount of food is trafficked to the mainland provinces every year. Datong Bank raises interest rates, absorbs more deposits, and then lends to the imperial court. The imperial court uses them to buy grain overseas as supplies for conquering Mobei, which is equivalent to solving many problems at once.

Manchu civil and military, no one expected that Zhao Han decided to send troops to Mobei, and the direct cause was inflation.

Compared to the militaristic Mughals and the Bengal emperors, who were also expanding abroad, Zhao Han’s operation can throw the brothers eight blocks away.

Of course, the silver used by the imperial court to buy grain will definitely flow back to the coastal areas, but at least the buffer time will be lengthened. And the other silver was distributed to Hebei and Monan as military expenses, and some supplies were purchased on the spot, which was also alleviating the shortage of silver there and stimulating economic development there.

Perhaps, the recovery of Xinjiang can also be done in the future, and by the way, the standard silver dollar of the imperial court can be more strongly promoted to the Western Regions.

It doesn’t matter if there is no war, the silver absorbed by the interest rate hike is used for infrastructure construction such as roads and water conservancy, and more job opportunities can be created along the way. Doing so will definitely increase the debt of the court, and the treasury may not be able to fill up forever.

This is tantamount to changing the court’s financial thinking and developing in another direction. It is completely different from the traditional treasury that keeps saving money and uses it when doing things, and taxes if the treasury is not enough.

What really troubled Zhao Han was that there were no commercial competitors in the world (the late Qing Dynasty even had a trade surplus). In the next few decades or hundreds of years, or even longer, there will only be net inflows of silver, and prices will skyrocket if you don’t pay attention. How to make prices rise steadily is the key, which can only be left to future generations to solve.

Song Yingxing was escorted home by the palace guards in a carriage.

Zhao Han went to Yingmindian to work, read the work report of Kuang Hong, Governor of Palembang, and compared the reports of Luzon, Yecheng, Semarang, Malacca, Pattani and other overseas territories.

After thinking about it for several days, Zhao Han sorted out his future colonial thinking.

A place with a lot of familiar land, a large number of Han people, and a place with uncomplicated terrain. For example, Semarang, Palembang, and Yecheng can quickly and violently colonize, and kill them all like Zhang Xianzhong, but they have to slow down when encountering mountains and jungles.

In places like Siberia and Luzon, the terrain and climate are extremely complex, and the number of Han people is relatively small. In this case, the cost of military expansion is too high, and even if the territory is conquered, there will not be enough Han people to occupy it, so it is necessary to deter the aborigines into Han people while deterring them by force.

Luzon is easy to do along the coast, with mountains and jungles in the middle. Zhang Xianzhong can’t play with it, and he has to be kind and powerful like Zheng Guozhong.

Siberia is terribly cold, material transportation is difficult, and immigration is extremely difficult. It is fundamental to turn the aborigines into Chinese.

There are also Hamgyong-do and Pyongan-do in North Korea, which are highly civilized, intellectuals can also read Chinese characters, and the terrain is not suitable for violent rule. Then priority should be given to care and education, and education should be the first, and it is enough to turn them into Han Chinese.

Zhao Han’s thinking became clearer and clearer, and he wrote “The Governor’s Essentials”. All future officials sent abroad must study this book carefully.

Specific policy, as the case may be.

Confucianism pays attention to the mean, and the mean is not to follow the trend of the mud, it belongs to the ignorant and take the meaning out of the text.

The core idea of Zhongyong is the unity of heaven and man, emphasizing the coordination of heaven, earth and man.

The mean in the narrow sense is about the cultivation of human nature and how to be a gentleman.

The golden mean in a broad sense, talking about how to do things. To put it bluntly, I have to stick to my principles and know what my goals and bottom line are. Then, according to the environment and interpersonal relationship, make the most appropriate choice, adapting measures to time, place and person.

Zhao Han’s colonial policy is moderate, the core is pioneering, and the rest depends on the situation to decide what to do.

(end of this chapter)