There have always been many theories about the specific amount of Hezhen Greedy Ink, and there are two mainstream ones, one is equivalent to 280 million silver, and the other is equivalent to more than 800 million silver. At that time, the annual revenue of the Qing Dynasty's state finance was in the floating range of 30-50 million taels of silver, so there were rumors that the amount of corruption in Hezhen was several times or more than ten times the annual income of the Qing Dynasty. Although this is a vague estimate, it is also very close to the truth of the facts.
"He Yan fell, Jiaqing was full", although the confiscation of silver made Jiaqing smile and smile, but in the middle and late qianlong period, he was extremely poor and extravagant, so that the official field was chaotic and the people were in turmoil. Jiaqing was holding a pile of seemingly huge and boundless silver, but in fact, it did not take two or three years, and it was stretched.
Five economic charges of Hezhen
He Yan was indeed hated by Jiaqing. Five days after Qianlong's death, on the eighth day of the first lunar month, Jiaqing moved his hands on him - "dismissing and investigating, confiscating family property." This was followed by 20 cases of guilt. Below, the author lists the sums relating to economic crimes.
The treasures in the house, the string of pearls in the hand, there are more than two hundred strings, which are several times more than the great inner ones, and there are large beads, which are especially larger than the crown of the royal family, and their major sins are fifteen.
And the top of the gem is not something that Yi should wear, there are more than dozens of real gems hidden, and there are countless large gems in the whole, and there are those who do not have them in the inner government, and their great sins are sixteen.
The silver and clothes in the house are more than 10 million, and their major sins are seventeen.
And there are more than 26,000 gold hidden in the wall, more than 6,000 gold in the private treasury, and more than 2 million buried silver in the cellar, which is a major crime of eighteen.
Nearby Tongzhou and Jizhou, there are pawnshops and money shops, counting capital, and no less than 100,000, with the first auxiliary minister, fighting with the small people for profits, and its major crime is nineteen.
The above five are the economic crimes involved in Hezhen, which are arranged in order of crimes from largest to smallest, and heyan commits the main crime in the political aspect, and the economic crime is only subordinate crime, ranking quite low.
List of raiders
The list of raiders is not equal to the amount of greed, because part of it is his inherent property, part of it is the royal gift accumulated over the years, and part of it is the team he leads to manage the money. The list of raiders is composed of four aspects: gold and silver, real estate, cultural relics and jewelry, and rare utensils.
During the Jiaqing period, the Qing Dynasty was still very concerned about the dignity of the royal family, so things such as real estate, cultural relics, luxury goods, etc., would not be immediately realized. The general treatment is to stay and stay for play or reward. At that time, jiaqing could only be used for spending, and the only thing was gold and silver. Below, the gold and silver items in the raider's list are listed.
There are 100 red gold yuanbao (each weighing 1,020,000 yuan, estimated silver 1.5 million taels), 100 silver yuanbao (each weighing 1,000 taels), shengjin sand more than 20,000 (estimated silver 160,000 taels), red gold 5,800,000 taels (estimated silver 87 million taels), yuanbao silver 9,400,000 taels, silver 5,830,000 taels, su yuan silver 354,600 yuan more than two. Foreign money is 58,000 yuan (estimated silver is 46,000 taels), and 1,500 strings of money (1,500 taels of silver). ——" Jiaqing Fourth Year Of the First Month of Ding Di Copy Inspection and List of Items of the Yan Xiang Mansion"
The author has roughly calculated that a total of gold and silver ingots are equivalent to about 107 million taels of silver.
Jiaqing's four- and five-year fiscal expenditures
Let's clarify one concept first: state revenue and national treasury silver are two completely different concepts. The part of the state revenue that is subtracted and extra is included in the national treasury silver. At the end of the Kangxi Dynasty, the national treasury silver was 7 million taels; at the end of the Yongzheng Dynasty, the national treasury silver was 50 million taels. That is to say, Yongzheng reigned for 13 years, and the annual surplus of the treasury silver was about 4 million taels. As for the end of the Qianlong Dynasty, there is no clear amount of silver in the national treasury, and according to the scale of the Qianlong Dynasty's military use and his luxurious living habits, it is speculated that the national treasury silver at the end of the Qianlong Dynasty will not be higher than that of the Yongzheng Dynasty, about 50 million taels. That is to say, the average annual income and expenditure of the Qianlong Dynasty was only in a balanced state, and when Jiaqing took over this stall, if there was no open source income, his imperial court income was only used for expenditure.
In fact, in the four and five years of Jiaqing, the Qing Dynasty did not find a way to open source, and the normal external expenditure was very large. The unplanned expenditures listed below by the author are based on the records of the Draft History of the Qing Dynasty.
The first piece is to exempt the world from accumulating years of endowment
Qianlong was greedy for power, and after the expiration of his sixty-year reign, under the guise of a Zen position, Quan Zuo had an explanation to the people of the world. In fact, after being the emperor of real power for more than three years, presumably Jiaqing dared to be angry and did not dare to speak out. Finally, as he freed up his seat, the mountain that pressed against Jiaqing's head was removed. According to the custom, the new emperor wanted to exempt the world's money and grain when he ascended the throne, but at that time, the population base was large, and the country had actual difficulties, and Jiaqing only exempted the accumulated years of gifts.
Affluence refers to unpaid taxes, which are equivalent to the company's accounts receivable. The formation of the endowment is mainly due to the arrears formed by the difficult households who cannot afford to pay taxes and are helpless. In general, this kind of population accounts for only three percent of the total, and if you count the endowments of the calendar year, it is about fifty percent of the national income of that year, that is, 20 million taels of silver.
The second is to exempt the old and new amounts after the enlisted areas
The areas where the soldiers were recruited refer to the areas where the imperial court used troops on a large scale after the civil unrest occurred. In order to restore production in the areas where the soldiers were enlisted, the quota for the current year or the next three or five years would be exempted.
According to records, jiaqing for four years, exempted Henan, Hubei, and directly subordinate provinces a total of 67 prefectures and counties from the old and new quotas; jiaqing five years, exempted from the sinking quota of 70 of the five provinces of Shuntian, Yunnan, Gansu, Sichuan, and Jiangsu.
At that time, there were about 1400 prefectures and counties in the Qing Dynasty, and a total of 137 prefectures and counties were exempted from the old and new amounts, accounting for about 10% of the state's revenue, and about 4 million taels of silver were exempted from the tax exemption.
The third block is to suppress the white lotus sect's military funds
The suppression of the White Lotus Sect began in the first year of Jiaqing and finally reached the level in the ninth year of Jiaqing, which lasted for nine years, with 200 million taels of silver. The average annual use of silver is 22 million taels, and Jiaqing's four and five years, with a total of about 44 million taels of silver, is a huge expense.
Fourth, in addition to suppressing the use of bandits and soldiers, Jiaqing also carried out a campaign against the Qingmiao rebellion in the fifth year.
At that time, Lang Jue was appointed as the governor of Guizhou, responsible for the suppression of Yang Wentai, a Miao man from Guangshun and other villages, and within the year, Lang Jiu was promoted to the governor of Yungui because of this merit. There is no clear record of the cost of this conquest, but the use of patrols and the recording of the war in the "Qing History Draft" should not be a trivial matter. Moreover, in the border area of Guizhou, the military supply costs a lot, presumably more than 5 million taels of silver.
As above, a rough count shows that during the four and five years of Jiaqing, the state spent about 73 million taels of silver outside the plan, and two-thirds of the money of the Hezhen family was used. Moreover, at that time, it seemed that the end of the use of troops by the bandits was still far away, which made Jiaqing make bad expectations for the future of the country's financial situation.
Therefore, although it is a bit exaggerated, it is not too much, because the gold and silver ingots obtained by the Hequan family are equivalent to 107 million taels of silver, which is only enough for Jiaqing to pay for three years of unplanned expenditure. The embarrassment faced by Jiaqing was traced to the root of the collapse of Qianlong's ruling power in the middle and late period.