There is a Saying in China that there is a broken ship and a three-point nail, which means that even if a wealthy group falls down, it will be much richer than the poor, and in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the richest group is the Qing Dynasty.
The place with the most wealth in China was the treasury of the Qing Dynasty, but at the time of the fall of the Qing Dynasty, only ten silver dollars were found in the treasury of the Qing Dynasty, so how much money was in the treasury of the Qing Dynasty? Where does this money end up?
During the Qing Dynasty, the richest of the national treasury was the Yongzheng period, when Yongzheng came to power and began to deal with corrupt officials on a large scale, as long as the corrupt officials were eventually punished by the Yongzheng Emperor, and all the money that was embezzled was rushed back to the national treasury.
As a result, during the Yongzheng period, the treasury of the Qing Dynasty reached its fullest state, from the original 6 million to 80 million, which is the largest number of treasuries in chinese history. The Yongzheng Emperor did not like luxury in his life, and was diligent and thrifty, and the amount of money in the treasury during the Yongzheng period only increased, and the biggest beneficiary was the Qianlong Emperor, the son of Yongzheng.
After the Qianlong Emperor ascended the throne, because the treasury was full, he went down to Jiangnan many times, and the cost of going to Jiangnan each time was very high, and even Qianlong forbade his children to go down to Jiangnan after his death. Although Qianlong went to Jiangnan many times and did not shake the foundation of the country, the Qing Dynasty was still a world power, which showed the fullness of the national treasury.
In addition, He Yan was the first corrupt official of the Qing Dynasty, and there is a folk saying that the wealth in the hands of He Yan was rich enough to rival the country, but although Qianlong did not dispose of He Yan in the early stage, in the end Qianlong's son, the Jiaqing Emperor, brought He Yan to justice.
And all the wealth of Hezhen was replenished into the treasury, which was also very abundant at that time. However, the Eight-Power Alliance invaded China and found only ten silver dollars after entering the treasury of the Qing Dynasty, where did the money in the treasury go during this period? You don't believe it.
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial family liked luxury, the officials were corrupt and incompetent, but they were extremely fond of squandering, and the royal family alone spent a lot of money to build the Yuanmingyuan, while the head of the Qing government, mainly Empress Dowager Cixi, did not understand politics and only knew how to enjoy.
Cixi alone held a birthday party to spend one-third of the treasury's money, and officials were corrupt, and the taxes that should have entered the treasury would eventually be severely withheld by officials, so in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the treasury's money was in a state of insufficient income.
In addition to the reasons for the imperial family of the Qing Dynasty, domestic riots and foreign invaders were also one of the important reasons for the reduction of the amount of money in the national treasury. British opium sales in China led to a massive outflow of silver.
Lin Zexu Humen sold cigarettes caused dissatisfaction with the British, so he went to war with the British, after which the foreign invaders saw that the government was good at bullying, and repeatedly went to war with the Qing government, and the Qing government spent a lot of military expenses, and these expenses came from the national treasury.
In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, it fought wars with foreign invaders, repeatedly lost battles, and after the defeat of the war, various land-cutting indemnities were carried out, and a large amount of silver in the national treasury once again flowed out. Due to the encroachment of the great powers on the need to pay compensation for the cession of land, the pressure on the national treasury was enormous.
Therefore, the officials of the Qing government levied harsh taxes on the people, and the excessive taxation caused the domestic people to be unhappy, so in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, several peasant uprisings broke out in the country, and the Qing government also turned to foreign troops for help when suppressing the peasant uprisings, which was another huge expense.
In the long run, the Qing government treasury was in a state of insufficient income for a long time, a large number of national moths were still squandering in the case of the Qing government's fiscal deficit, and by the time the Qing government collapsed, the treasury had long been empty, and it was not easy to find ten silver dollars.
Although the silver dollars of the national treasury are empty, it does not mean that there is no money, but those people did not find it at that time, and there are still a large number of rare treasures in the treasury, such as the descendants of the Manchu nobles, the current big stars, the grandparents of those people were once the important members of the Qing Dynasty, it is reported that they took away a lot of antique treasures, and made a fortune with it, becoming rich.