C738 Silver Game (2/2)

In Kang Xi's year, a small courtyard worth one to two hundred silver taels was enough for him, but in the dryad year, it was between eight hundred to one thousand taels of silver for a small courtyard. In the year, a small courtyard worth two hundred silver taels was enough for a small courtyard that was in the same year, but in the dryad year, it was between eight hundred and one thousand taels of silver.

There was also a circumstantial evidence. The Red Summit Merchant Hu Xueyan's mansion in Hangzhou's Yuanbao Lane had a total cost of over 500,000 silver, and the provision for refurbishing the three halls in the initial years of Kang Xi's Imperial Court was only slightly more than 1,000,000 silver.

Could it be that Hu Xueyan's house was even more famous than the three halls of the imperial city? Obviously, this was not how it was calculated. After 200 years of trade, how much did China's net inflow of silver amount? How much is the slight inflation caused by this silver? The purchasing power of five hundred thousand silver in the year Tongzhi was born with was completely different from that of the year Kang Xi lived in.

On one hand, the imperial government did not have any money, so the central government was not able to perform its normal functions due to the severe deficit. Think about it, a imperial government that could even lower the salary of a hundred officials, what kind of deterrence force would it have?

On the other hand, the people had accumulated a lot of silver, not because China did not have money, but because the imperial government could not mobilize it. This was a dead end.

The court needed money, but without it, they would have to pay for the government officials, including a tax increase. However, if this kind of behavior was spread to the people, it would naturally lead to corrupt officials and despicable people.

The destitute citizens were the source of the unrest in the society. Thieves, robbers and even rebel soldiers started to cause trouble in the region, making the already bad local economy even worse. The local daoyin s could only spend money to purchase weapons to train their troops to suppress them.

The money that should have been transferred to the capital was spent right away at the place, and as a result, the money that was sent to Beijing became less and less.

Now that the pressure had returned to the capital, the imperial court would have even less money. They would have to think of a better way, which was to raise taxes and buy an official's pension. If they couldn't, they would have to borrow some money from the foreign bank, but they would have to repay the interest in the end.

As a result, the imperial government passed the pressure on to the citizens, making them have to resist even more bitterly. As a result, the people had to suppress the pressure even more, and this cycle of death continued to roll down, dragging the luck of the Qing Dynasty into an abyss.

Xiao Letian knew that this cycle of death was not impossible to break. It was just like a triangle-shaped debt, as long as a completely new amount of money was injected into it, he would be able to break this downward spiral.

Using debt to bundle up the taxes and then issue the credit currency was the best way to solve this predicament. Right now, the household bonds issued by the Letian Bank in Jiangnan were actually backed by the double credit of the Great Qing and the Letian Firm.

He had previously accepted the Ministry of Revenue's loan of 6 million gold, but in reality, Xiao Letian had issued a total of 10 million gold from Jiangnan, no one knew about the extra 4 million. In any case, the Ministry of Revenue didn't dare come and check the accounts, as long as Xiao Letian could guarantee that the reserves would be sufficient.

Now that the Ministry of Revenue saw that he was going to give him another 10 million silver to be sold, Xiao Letian hesitated a little. It was not that he couldn't do it, but rather, he wanted to know if it was worth it.

Xiao Letian was thinking, was it right for me to help the Qing Dynasty to survive this crisis? Let's not talk about the benefits it would have for me, what benefits it would have for this nation and this country?