Chapter 93 Slogan: Make money!
The emperor is just farting.

But no one present dared to speak, and could only agree with each other.

After a long while of praising the Ming Dynasty for its clean administration, harmonious relationship between the emperor and his subjects, and unity between the people.

Jiajing then coughed lightly, ending the flattery.

He waved to Lu Fang who was standing beside him.

Lu Fang understood and took two memorials from the table beside him and presented them to Yan Song and Xu Jie.

Jiajing said, "I summoned you to Yuxi Palace today because you are worried about the world and want to discuss state affairs.

I have looked at these two matters carefully, and you have all put a lot of thought into them. I think these two matters are good things that benefit the country and the people, but according to the rules, the cabinet still has to discuss them. "

At this time, the memorial brought by Lu Fang was also distributed to Yan Song and Xu Jie.

Yan Song just took a look and saw that it was a memorial written by Xu Jie. He flipped through it and glanced at it before handing it to Yan Shaoting.

Yan Shaoting took over the memorial from Old Xu, glanced at it, and immediately understood Old Xu's purpose.

He glanced sideways at Old Xu who was reviewing the memorial submitted by the Yan family, and couldn't help but want to laugh.

No wonder the Taoist priest is so happy today.

No wonder, why the Minister of Revenue Gao Yao was brought here when the cabinet was supposed to discuss matters in front of the emperor.

Today's slogan is surprisingly consistent with each other.

Make money!

Lu Fang, on behalf of Jiajing, explained to Gao Gong, Yuan Wei and Gao Yao, who did not receive the memorial.

"These two matters were proposed by Elder Yan and Elder Xu respectively. As the master said, they are both matters that benefit the country and the people."

"One was sent to Yuxi Palace by Lord Yan yesterday. Lord Yan felt that the national treasury was still empty recently, and the plan to increase silk production and sell it overseas to increase revenue for the court at the beginning of the year would have to wait until next year.

Therefore, according to Lord Yan's idea, we can send people to the southeast right now, and take advantage of the time when the government is in a good state to investigate the salt business in Nanzhili, and settle all the arrears in the past, so that we can get some silver so that we can continue to live this year."

Salt inspection.

Yan Maoqing was sent to the southeast to inspect the salt industry.

This is what Yan Shaoting brought up that day in Yan Mansion in front of Yan Song and Yan Shifan.

And Yan Maoqing was also the person he and Yan Shifan wanted.

However, only half of this memorial was written, and the other half was reserved for the cabinet to discuss the matter in front of the emperor. If Lao Xu, Lao Gao and others objected, it would be used at that time.

After Lu Fang explained clearly the memorial brought by the Yan family, Gao Gong and Yuan Wei both looked strange.

Gao Yao, the Minister of Revenue, fell into deep thought.

He was really thinking about whether the salt inspection was feasible and how much money and grain it could bring to the court.

Lu Fang continued, "As for Lord Xu's memorial, it is a request for the court to follow the example proposed by Attendant Yan at the beginning of the year, and to have the court officially manage the silk sold overseas.

The imperial court and government took the lead in gathering private merchants to raise the prices of cotton cloth, tea, porcelain and other products from the southeast and sell them to foreign merchants, all of which were collected through commercial taxes to increase the amount of money for the imperial court.

Holding Old Xu's memorial in his hand, Yan Shaoting naturally knew the source and idea of ​​Old Xu's method.

He couldn't help but look at Xu Jie next to him again.

Old Xu is indeed a wonderful person. When he does take action, it's fine. But when he does, he can come up with a proposal that no one can find fault with.

The idea of ​​monopoly was proposed by himself at the beginning of the year. It is natural and reasonable for Lao Xu to follow suit now.

but……

Yan Shaoting couldn't help but laugh twice in his heart.

Old Xu probably never thought that his proposal today would actually help him in the future.

And the infamy of that incident...

Of course it was Lord Xu who had to bear the brunt of it!
Seeing that everyone had roughly understood the current situation, Jiajing said, "It's all for the court. Whether these two things are feasible, what are the pros and cons, now that we have agreed on them, we can hand them over."

A sound of footsteps.

Gao Gong was the first to go into battle. He looked solemn, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, what Elder Yan and Elder Xu reported today, as Your Majesty said, are all for the country and people of the Ming Dynasty.

However, I think that at present, the southeast is just talking about the establishment of a stable civil service system, but there is also a national policy of increasing silk production being implemented. If the court issues too many administrative orders, the local governments will inevitably be in a state of confusion and have no time to take care of other things, thus making it difficult to deal with both issues.

Moreover, this matter is also exclusively marketed overseas by the court. If we implement the strategy proposed by Lord Xu, we can do two things at once. Now that the court has foreign trading companies, we can hand them over to Zhang Juzheng to manage directly in Nanzhili. The silk business is exclusively marketed by the court, while cotton cloth, tea, porcelain, etc. will be led by trading companies and local merchants, who will negotiate prices with foreign merchants.

In this way, manpower and material resources can be saved, the situation in the southeast will not be disrupted, and the court can collect commercial taxes to increase its financial resources. "

As soon as Lao Gao opened his mouth, he not only agreed to the salt inspection proposed by the Yan family.

By the way, he quietly assigned the task of dealing with foreign trading companies to Zhang Juzheng.

And the reasons he gave sounded reasonable.

As expected, Jiajing frowned slightly, obviously thinking about Gao Gong's proposal.

Yan Shaoting also frowned.

Lao Gao is really shameless.

This move is clearly about picking peaches.

He couldn't help but turn his head and glance at Gao Gong.

It was at this glance that Yan Shaoting happened to see Yuan Wei, who was standing next to Gao Gong, and his eyes met his.

Yuan Wei quickly retracted his gaze, bowed and took a step forward.

He actually had something to say.

Yan Shaoting had doubts in his heart.

At this time, the newly promoted cabinet minister, who was famous for his eloquent words, had also spoken.

Yuan Wei said: "Your Majesty, I think what Lord Yan requested is also feasible."

This statement came out.

Gao Gong looked displeased and glanced at Yuan Wei sideways.

They were somewhat dissatisfied with Yuan Wei, a colleague who entered the cabinet with the help of Qing Ci.

Normally, Yuan Wei was only concerned with delivering poems to Xiyuan, and they didn't care. But today, he suddenly talked about government policies.

This certainly would not satisfy Gao Gong.

But Yuan Wei continued, "The court's salt tax has been in arrears for many years. When the country first implemented the Kaizhong system, the salt tax was several million yuan each year. In the following hundred years, the court's salt tax method changed a lot, but the salt tax dropped sharply to less than one million yuan each year. There are countless reasons for this, but I think it is imperative to inspect the salt now!"

Who could have expected it.

A man who got into the cabinet by writing poems actually knew so much about the salt tax.

Not only do we know how much salt tax revenue there was in the country at the beginning of the country, but we also know how much salt tax accounts for in the current fiscal revenue of the imperial court.

And after Yuan Wei said this.

Even Xu Jie, who had remained silent and expressionless, had a slightly changed expression.

Millions at the beginning of the country.

Now there are less than a hundred.

It’s easy to guess that the emperor would be dissatisfied again.

There was a cold gleam in Jiajing's eyes, and his eyes were shining with brilliance.

Although he was also surprised that Yuan Wei knew so much about salt taxes, he was more concerned about the comparison between the two data.

Jiajing spoke softly, glancing at everyone present.

"I... the imperial salt tax has dropped so suddenly?"

"One hundred and twenty years, millions every year, where does the tax money go?"

(End of this chapter)