The Qing Dynasty experienced a prosperous era - the "prosperous era of Kangqian", that is, the period from Kangxi to Qianlong. During this period, the Qing Dynasty embarked on a very prosperous path, but after Jiaqing took the throne, the Qing Dynasty quickly went into decline.
Therefore, many people have pointed the spearhead of the decline of the Qing Dynasty at Jiaqing, is this really the case? After the end of the "Kangqian Dynasty", how much money was left in the treasury of the Qing Dynasty?
First of all, let's talk about Kangxi, who took the throne at the age of eight and made many contributions in this life. Kangxi Sheng captured Aobai and pacified San Francisco. When Kangxi ascended the throne, he was too young to force himself to grow up quickly. Under the administration of Kangxi, he created a prosperous world, solved many political and people's livelihood problems, and not only that, he also built water conservancy to seek the well-being of the people.
Kangxi ruled for a total of sixty-one years, and during these sixty years, the treasury totaled more than thirty million taels of silver. But in the last year, due to various things, the treasury spent a total of more than five million taels, and even so, there were still more than twenty-seven million silver left in the treasury, and it can be said that the money in the treasury was still relatively abundant.
After the death of Kangxi, Yongzheng succeeded to the throne, perhaps because his father did a good exemplary role, so during his reign, he was very much advocating economy. During his reign, Yongzheng vigorously developed agriculture, the productive forces were enhanced, and the national economy also developed. In addition to developing the economy, Yongzheng was also an extremely frugal emperor, he stayed in the palace all day, basically did not leave the palace, he put all his efforts on the development and construction of the country.
Yongzheng also personally went to the battlefield, recovered Xinjiang, and once again completed the great unification of China. During this period, China's population reached its peak and its land area expanded greatly. Through Yongzheng's efforts, the national treasury at this time already had more than 34 million taels of silver, which can be said to have reached its peak.
After Yongzheng's death, Qianlong ascended to the throne. In fact, since Qianlong was born, Yongzheng has held him in high esteem, and even when he was only a few years old, he made him crown prince. In the early days of Qianlong's reign, the country's development was still very good, but in the later period, he did many things that were criticized.
Qianlong first launched the "literal prison" to persecute domestic intellectuals and hinder the development of culture and education. Later, Qianlong was completely uninterested in government affairs and thought about eating, drinking and having fun all day. During this period, Qianlong spent a huge amount of money to build the Yuanmingyuan, and also collected various rare treasures to put in the garden. Subsequently, Qianlong made many southern tours, and although he said that he was going to Jiangnan to inspect the people's feelings, in fact, he was for fun.
Qianlong went to Jiangnan seven times in total, and each time, he would basically spend a month or two on a parade. During this period, Qianlong squandered heavily, spending a total of about 20 million taels of silver. In addition, at that time, Qianlong's side also had a corrupt official, He Yan, according to statistics, He Yan had embezzled a total of more than 20 million taels of silver, which caused an emptiness in the national treasury.
Some people will say that since Qianlong spent so much money, wouldn't he make money? Indeed, Qianlong introduced a policy of closing the country to the outside world at that time, blocking economic trade at home and abroad, which was also the main reason for the stagnation of the domestic economy. Therefore, the Qing government could only rely on taxes to replenish the national treasury every year, but the people's lives were not rich, so the national treasury soon had a deficit.
Although Qianlong did many wrong things in his later years, we cannot deny his achievements in the early stages. In the early days of his reign, Qianlong, like his father Yongzheng, attached great importance to the development of agriculture, but not only that, he also encouraged the development of handicrafts and commerce. Under the encouragement of Qianlong, the economic development of the coastal areas was very prosperous, and money banks and commercial houses could be seen everywhere at that time.
It is said that Qianlong earned a total of 70 million taels of silver, plus the silver left by Yongzheng, and there were more than 100 million silver in the Treasury of the Qing Dynasty. However, in his later years, Qianlong coveted pleasure, and under his unscrupulous splurge, the silver was basically spent by him. When Jiaqing ascended the throne, there was no money in the treasury.
It is no wonder that as soon as Qianlong died, Jiaqing was anxious to raid Hezhen's home and include all the money he had embezzled into the national treasury. However, this little money did not take long, the repair cost of the Yuanmingyuan alone cost a large amount, plus various necessary expenses, Jiaqing was very short of money.
summary:
Many people have such a misunderstanding, that is, they think that the influence of the "Kangqian prosperous era" is very far-reaching, but they did not expect that during the reign of Qianlong, the Qing Dynasty had already experienced internal decline. After Jiaqing took the throne, not only could he not sit back and relax, but he also had to clean up the mess left by his father.
Perhaps Jiaqing really did not have any ability, he really could not cope with these things, so the Qing Dynasty would decline so quickly, but the main responsibility for this result was still on Qianlong's body.