Chapter 61 The foreigners exchanged the blood and sweat of the people for a pile of stones! Don’t Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao and his son know clearly?
They are very clear.
So after hearing Chen Han's summary, I temporarily dismissed the argument that I had always believed that the more silver flows in, the happier the people will be.
Because they found a conclusion that made them desperate, the Ming Dynasty did not produce silver, and the annual tax on silver was only 3 to [-] taels.
Those Western countries used stones to replace the silk, tea, and porcelain that the people of the Ming Dynasty worked so hard to produce.
What was left were piles of silver.
However, this silver did not flow into the hands of ordinary people, but was concentrated in the hands of a small number of people.
However, these people choose to hoard it out of their worship of silver and their trust in its value-preserving properties. They do not circulate it to the market and do not promote the development of business.
Ordinary people who actually produce these materials benefit very little.
Therefore, the more silver flows in, the more miserable the people's lives will be. That's because the more silver flows in, the more ordinary people will be squeezed.
Because they did not enjoy what they produced, but instead benefited the Westerners who mined the silver.
If all the products produced by the Ming Dynasty were enjoyed by the people of the Ming Dynasty themselves, and they could even use these products to exchange for different items from outside, then of course they would be very happy, but otherwise they would live a very miserable life.
After Chen Han heard Ling Han's quick reaction, he laughed, "Village Chief, I have to say that you are really a smart man and you have seen the essence.
Because the common people of the Ming Dynasty worked hard and produced the products, the common people did not enjoy them themselves, but instead benefited the foreigners overseas.
Let them wear our silk, use our porcelain, drink our tea, and still say smugly: Look, we exchanged a pile of stones for so many products. "
When Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao and his son heard this, their blood pressure soared.
Who is willing to let the people under his rule work so hard and produce such a huge amount of products, only to get back a pile of silver that cannot be eaten or drunk?
In the end, the cheapest ones are still those foreigners who dug up silver? Thinking of this, I suddenly became very angry.
I was also thinking in my heart that I must not let this happen again.
We absolutely cannot allow those red-haired and yellow-haired Japanese overseas to exchange the rich products of the Ming Dynasty for a pile of stones.
These rich products must be enjoyed by the Ming Dynasty's own people.
Chen Han continued, “This is the first harm caused by the large influx of silver from the Ming Dynasty.
The second harm is the loss of coinage rights.
A complete country, especially the Ming Dynasty with such a powerful power, was originally supposed to be at its peak, but in the end it became a country that could not even control the power of minting money. It is really a huge thing. The irony and sadness.
After losing the right to mint coins, what happened to the Ming Dynasty? "
Chen Han said in a very low voice, "From then on, the Ming Dynasty became a piece of fat for those countries that controlled the silver production areas.
When they want to cut you, they just cut you.
In addition to exchanging stones for your rich property, when they discovered that one day a large amount of silver flowed into the Ming Dynasty and they did not have enough silver on their hands, they directly restricted the inflow of silver.
As I said just now, those who can really get silver are not ordinary people at all, but , in the short period of one hundred years from Zhengde to Chongzhen, Liu Jin would have confiscated hundreds of thousands taels of gold and tens of millions of silver; Qian Ning would have confiscated millions of taels of silver; A record of 10 million taels of silver was plundered.
These records show that a large amount of silver was hoarded by these corrupt officials and gentry, so that even if a large amount of silver flows in, there is still not much silver circulating on the market.
Therefore, once those countries that control the origin of silver control the inflow of silver, the Ming court will experience a shortage of silver, deflation, the court will have no money to use, and the entire market economy will slump or even collapse, forcing the court to increase taxes, and in the end, the people will be forced to do so. rebel.
Because the output of silver is too low, and silver has been monetized, you don’t have the right to mint money, so you can only let it go. As a result, the huge Ming Dynasty was the most powerful country in the world at that time, but in the most important right to mint money, A piece of flesh, yet so weak and vulnerable to human flesh. "
When Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao and his son heard this, their blood pressure began to rise.
As an emperor and a prince, when I heard about such a humiliating history and such a humiliating incident, I not only felt ashamed, but also felt extremely sad and angry.
Just now Chen Han has been emphasizing that since the Qin Dynasty unified the world, for more than 1000 years, the Han Dynasty has been at the top of the economy, culture, territory, technology, and military.
However, since the Ming Dynasty, they have become a piece of fat for other countries that control the origin of silver.
Those countries that control the origin of silver can do whatever they want.
Whenever they feel happy, they will cut you in two.
Whenever they are unhappy, they restrict the inflow of silver, thereby artificially increasing the purchasing power of silver, and once again cut the fat of the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty was completely powerless in this regard.
Isn't this a humiliation?
Ling Han gritted his teeth when he heard this.
Then he thought: "Teacher Xiao Chen, since the Ming Dynasty does not have silver, can we look for it outside?
Those Western countries can find silver mines in the Americas you mentioned, but aren't there silver mines elsewhere?
As long as we master the silver mines and the so-called coinage rights you mentioned, can we attack the Western countries' attempts to cut our Ming Dynasty? "
Chen Han nodded, "Theoretically it is possible, but judging from the Ming Dynasty's navigation capabilities and the fact that silver is too scattered, it is difficult to control all the silver producing areas.
If you cannot control all the silver mines, that is to say, the minting power will just change from one dominant one to multiple ones.
This is equivalent to the door lock in your home. The key to open the door in the first place is completely in the hands of others, so if you have anything in your home, they can take it away when they open the door.
The situation you are talking about is that I have a key in my hand, but someone else also has a key.
You can open this door, and others can also open it.
What I want to say is, since the lock and the contents of the door belong to me, why should outsiders also have the key?
This is my thing, the key must be in my hand, right? If others want to use my goods, they must abide by my consent.
In other words, if the right to mint money is in my hands alone, my goods will be worth one tael of silver if I say it is worth one tael of silver. If I say it is worth two taels of silver, it will be worth two taels of silver. Is that right? "
Ling Han and the others are all smart people. This example given by Chen Han is very easy to understand...
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(End of this chapter)