Chapter 36 Economic Issues
Chapter 36 Economic Issues
"Father-in-law, please take care. Come over often when you have time."
Liu Yishou stood at the intersection of Liulichang and shouted enthusiastically to Meng Chong who was carrying the box back.
Meng Chong held the small wooden box, his heart bleeding; it was really too expensive.
Under normal circumstances, Meng Chong would not have thought it was too expensive, but after Zhu Zaigui gave Li Shizhen a thousand taels of silver without any idea, Meng Chong, the palace's chief steward, instantly felt the pressure of being the head of the household.
There were more than a hundred people in the mansion, and with the monthly wages for the servants, the money in the palace flowed out like water.
Moreover, Zhu Zaigui was not a prince of a foreign vassal state, and had no corresponding income from his fiefdom, so he lived on the grants from the palace and the Ministry of Revenue.
To be honest, every penny was calculated according to someone's wishes, but suddenly there was such a big gap. Meng Chong finally understood the difficulties of the housekeeper's wife.
"Be steady and careful. Don't be so reckless, okay?"
Meng Chong came out holding the box, put it on the carriage, and then carefully instructed the driver.
It can be seen how much Meng Chong cares about these ten glass bottles.
When the coachman heard Meng Chong's words, he immediately obeyed and kept silent for two days. Then he carefully drove the carriage and took Meng Chong back to the palace.
After arriving at the palace, Meng Chong carefully carried the box containing the ten glass bottles down. He was so careful along the way that he did not dare to ask for help from others.
Zhu Zaigui looked at Meng Chong who came back with the box, and stopped and put down the "Gao Gong Notes" in his hand.
Zhu Zaiqi asked, "Is it done?"
Meng Chong carefully placed the box on the stone table in front of Zhu Zaigui and said carefully, "Yes, Your Majesty."
Zhu Zaigui couldn't wait to open the box. Meng Chong saw Zhu Zaigui's excited movements and was afraid that Zhu Zaigui would accidentally knock over the box, so he quickly said, "Your Highness, be careful. Let me do it."
But how could Zhu Zaigui give Meng Chong a chance?
The feeling of unpacking a package was so exciting that Meng Chong couldn't understand it.
Zhu Zaiqi said directly: "Get out of the way, can't I even open a box?"
Zhu Zaigui scolded Meng Chong to the side with just one sentence, and then he pried open the wooden buckle on the wooden box himself.
At the moment he opened the wooden buckle, Zhu Zaigui felt an extremely happy mood.
He took off the lid of the wooden box, and then peeled off the shock-proof straw covering the glass bottle. Looking at the exquisite and beautiful glass bottles inside, Zhu Zaigui took one out and played with it in his hands.
Looking at the elegant patterns on the glass bottle and the ingenious floral patterns on the wooden cork, Zhu Zai grinned and said, "Not bad, not bad. You did a good job on this mission."
Hearing Zhu Zaigui's praise, Meng Chong's mood instantly brightened.
Meng Chong said, "Your Majesty, 750 coins each."
Zhu Zaigui now has a preliminary understanding of the value of silver and money in the Ming Dynasty. The value of 750 wen, converted into the current salary of an ordinary laborer in the capital, may take about ten days to earn 750 wen.
So if we convert it to the average monthly salary of 3,000 yuan in later times, these 750 coins are roughly equivalent to about 1,000 yuan in later times.
When I think of this, I don’t know whether I should lament the low labor value of the people in the Ming Dynasty, or lament the happiness of later generations. Maybe this is life.
Whether you like it or not, the money you can earn is almost just enough to make ends meet.
If you want to earn more, you either need luck, courage, or you don’t need to regard yourself as a human being. Otherwise, no matter which era, it is difficult for ordinary people to break through the average income line.
However, Zhu Zaigui did not do these things to make money from these poor people, he wanted to earn money from the rich and powerful.
These nobles were not short of money. Many of them had dug up countless underground vaults, and some of the silver and copper coins inside had probably not seen the light of day for a hundred or two hundred years.
Such a huge amount of wealth lying dormant in the cellar, unable to generate any economic value, would be a serious damage to the current economy.
You have to know that wealth needs to flow like water to make the entire economy active.
If too much wealth is deposited, it will lead to a shortage of silver and money in the market, and the court will be forced to invest more real gold and silver into the market in order to maintain the operation of the economy. However, before this money can be used, it will be taken away by these wealthy people and stored in their own cellars.
In the long run, the common people who have been paying taxes to the court will not get any return from the court, and will have to bear more taxes. It would be strange if this economic model did not collapse.
Therefore, if we want to invigorate the economy and liberate more labor, we have to find a way to move the silver stored in the cellars of these big households out and circulate it in the market.
This will not only stabilize and stimulate economic recovery, but also greatly mobilize the people's enthusiasm for production. By then, all kinds of handicrafts and art forms will emerge like mushrooms after a rain.
At the same time, ordinary people can also obtain more production value through their own active labor, so whether they are farming or working, they will have great enthusiasm.
This is a healthy market.
So in order to make the future of the Ming Dynasty more brilliant, Zhu Zaigui decided to develop assembly-line and branded luxury goods to pry out all their money!
It can be said that at this moment, Zhu Zaigui, who was trying to make money, felt that a holy light was about to appear on him.
"Go and clean these glass bottles carefully, and then put our treasures in them. Whether our palace will have a good life in the future or not will all depend on them."
Zhu Zaigui was in a good mood and put the glass bottle back into the wooden box, and said this to Meng Chong.
After hearing what Zhu Zaigui said, Meng Chong also hurriedly took action, carrying the box and going to the small courtyard in the back house, not allowing anyone to approach and follow him.
After all, not everyone in the palace is loyal, and no one can be sure whether many people's hearts are black or red.
So you still have to be careful when you need to be careful.
Otherwise there would be no secrets in the palace.
Meng Chong happily went to pack the sugar according to Zhu Zaigui's instructions.
Zhu Zaigui also happily picked up "Gao Gong's Notes" and started reading. Gao Gong's notes were so detailed that just reading them made people learn a lot. It can be seen that Gao Gong was not only a highly knowledgeable person, but also had first-class insight, otherwise his notes would not have been so readable.
"I'll have to ask Mr. Gao to tell me about the current political situation and the 'international situation' some other day, but right now the most important thing is to have food. Oh, I didn't expect that even though I'm a prince, I still worry about money. I really don't know how the Ming Dynasty's finances work."
Zhu Zaigui stroked his chin and thought about the future. If he remembered correctly, in the near future, a shocking change would occur that would almost overthrow the Ming Dynasty!
(End of this chapter)