Chapter 26 Bank
Xu Jing has been waiting here. After all, Zhu Houzhao promised to give him an official position, so there was no reason for him to leave directly.
When Zhu Houzhao asked, Xu Jing hurriedly walked up like a fat ball, holding up his tightly stretched robe, and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, the humble minister Xu Jing is here."
"From now on, you, the director of the Attendance Office, will manage the inner treasury for me. This means that the eunuchs and officials in charge of the inner treasury will all be responsible to you in the future. Do you understand?"
After Zhu Houzhao finished speaking, he asked Xu Jing.
Xu Jing was born into a wealthy businessman. He had been exposed to business since he was a child. He also knew that managing the emperor's inner treasury was a fat job, so he hurriedly bowed his head and said: "I understand, Your Majesty, please rest assured. I will definitely manage the internal affairs of your Majesty." .”
Zhu Houzhao nodded and said nothing more. Instead, he stood up and looked at the chief minister of the cabinet Liu Jian and others:
"You all go back. I am also going back to the Leopard Room. Xu Jing is coming with me. Now he is in charge of the inner treasury, so he naturally needs an official position. I have decided to establish a new director of the attendant room and an attendant officer. No rank is required. Too high, from level seven to level eight That's fine. It's mainly responsible for managing my internal affairs. It will be under the name of the Hanlin Academy, and it will be awarded the official title of Hanlin Academy Review and Hanlin Academy. The official position is not high and will not affect the imperial palace. Your cabinet and the Ministry of Civil Affairs will handle it. "< br>
Ma Wensheng, the Secretary of the Ministry of Personnel, said "I obey the decree!" He naturally had no objection to adding a new official position. After all, he was still waiting for Emperor Zhu Houzhao to let him be the chief assistant, so there was no need for him to make Emperor Zhu Houzhao unhappy.
The Ministry of Personnel is in charge of officials all over the world, and it can directly appoint minor officials of the seventh and eighth grades. Now with the support of Ma Wensheng, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, it will be easy for Zhu Houzhao to give Xu Jing a minor official of the seventh grade.
However, Liu Jian, the chief minister of the cabinet, and others still took a second look at Xu Jing. They had the feeling that the eight eunuchs around His Majesty had not yet left and there was another jester.
Zhu Houzhao returned to the Leopard Room, and the cabinet quickly drafted an order to be approved by the Chief of Ceremonies. From then on, the inner treasury was released from the household department and was directly managed by His Majesty the Emperor Zhu Houzhao.
At the same time, the Ministry of Civil Affairs also issued a document establishing the Attendant's Office and appointing Xu Jing as the director of the Attendant's Office and reviewer of the Hanlin Academy. Zhu Houzhao took advantage of the situation and directly ordered the inner treasury to be renamed the Royal Taxation Administration, with Xu Jing serving as the general manager of the Royal Taxation Administration.
Zhu Houzhao had long thought about taking the inner treasury out of the household department and letting him directly appoint officials to manage it. He even wanted to turn the inner treasury directly into the Royal Taxation Administration, which was equivalent to setting up a special tax department to collect commercial taxes and customs duties.
The incident of Zhu Houzhao's Royal Exposition intensified the conflicts between Ma Wensheng and Liu Jian within the civil service, and gave Zhu Houzhao this opportunity. Zhu Houzhao also decisively seized this opportunity and took the inner treasury into his hands, which was equivalent to collecting the world's commercial taxes. With the power of tariffs in their own hands.
Although in this era, because the Ming Dynasty was still a small-scale peasant economy, and the proportion of commercial taxes was small and most of the benefits of commercial trade were in the hands of the tax-exempt privileged class such as the gentry and powerful, commercial taxes and customs duties were not the main source of tax revenue for the court.
However, Zhu Houzhao believed that commercial taxes and customs duties would become the main financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty in the future. If they were in his own hands, he would control the future wealth of the Ming Dynasty.
However, Zhu Houzhao knows that even if he controls the internal treasury now, it does not mean that he can levy commercial taxes and customs arbitrarily, because it does not mean that the civil servants will obey unconditionally when he increases commercial taxes. That is naturally impossible. Zhu Houzhao feels that I have to change the way I operate my inner library.
Because of this, Zhu Houzhao turned the inner treasury into the Royal Taxation Bureau, which specifically collected commercial taxes, customs duties, and mining taxes related to royal interests. The higher the income of the Royal Taxation Bureau means that the emperor can obtain more wealth, and he can also have more funds, and even sustainably generate funds.
Of course, starting from his own interests, Zhu Houzhao also knew that he would have to increase commercial taxes in the future. Otherwise, even if he allowed Daming's business to develop, the income of his Royal Taxation Bureau would not increase.
In this way, I also have the foundation for running a bank. However, Zhu Houzhao did not plan to use the money to start a bank by himself. He had to let other people participate in the establishment of a royal bank with him. Only in this way could the interests of some people be tied to himself, the emperor, and he could have the so-called like-minded people. people.
The Royal Bank is the private treasury of the emperor, but for the Royal Bank, Zhu Houzhao wants to turn it into a commercial company, but at the same time it is a financial institution through which he can control the macro economy, and it is also a financial institution that he controls and binds. Vested interest group approach.
Zhu Houzhao wants to turn the Royal Bank into a central bank, at least for now, he wants to do so, and he also wants to implement a joint-stock system in the Royal Bank. As the emperor, he will definitely take the majority, and letting other people participate in the establishment of the bank is to control them in terms of economic interests. , but also to give them some feedback, so that they will realize that it is beneficial to follow their emperor in the future.
Only in this way can more people be willing to follow us in raising commercial taxes and find a balance between collecting commercial taxes and encouraging the development of industry and commerce.
Because the Royal Bank is a company, it requires the managers of the Royal Bank to be good at running business. Zhu Houzhao still decided to choose Xu Jing as the general manager of the Royal Bank because Xu Jing was born a wealthy businessman.
Of course, there were many people from wealthy business backgrounds, but Xu Jing had the experience of being suppressed by the powerful, and he happened to meet Zhu Houzhao, so Zhu Houzhao naturally promoted him.
Zhu Houzhao did not let one of the Eight Tigers eunuchs manage the Royal Bank, not because he really wanted to take care of the feelings of the civil servants, but because the Eight Tigers were now each responsible for other affairs of their own emperor, and it was impossible for Zhu Houzhao to take care of his finances again. Entrusting one of them to take care of it would break the balance among the Eight Tigers.
Xu Jing followed Zhu Houzhao to the Leopard Room and listened in detail to Zhu Houzhao's idea of establishing the Royal Bank. He, who was already smart, understood what Zhu Houzhao meant and just asked: "Your Majesty, will we be included in the tax revenue of the Royal Bank in the future?" Everyone who participates in the stock has a share?”
"Yes, I will take the majority, and a small part will be used for Royal Bank's operating expenses. The rest can be shared by you and everyone in the world. Whoever invests more money will have a larger share. It is cost-effective for you to invest as much money as you want. ”
"Your Majesty, can ministers still participate in shares?" Liu Jin and other "Eight Tigers" eunuchs asked.
"Of course it is possible. Anyone in the world can participate in the company, and you will not be excluded. However, I will appoint the manager myself, and the management method will be the responsibility of the manager," Zhu Houzhao said.
(End of chapter)