For the new emperor, how much "legacy" the previous emperor left in the treasury was crucial. After all, with money, it is easy to do things, and if there is less money in the treasury, not only will it be difficult for the new emperor to do it, but the country's finances will also have major problems. So, how much silver did the Three Emperors of the Qing Dynasty, Kang Yongqian, leave behind when he died?
The Qing Dynasty had the saying that Kangqian was prosperous, but in fact, this prosperity should be attributed to Yongzheng to a large extent. In the middle of the Kangxi dynasty, the economy of the Qing Dynasty was relatively good, and the national treasury was relatively abundant. However, in the later years of the Kangxi Emperor, because he promoted benevolent government and flaunted his image as a benevolent monarch, he often turned a blind eye to the illegal acts of the DPRK and the CCP, resulting in many officials in the DPRK and the CPC beginning to take advantage of the opportunity to amass wealth, and the corruption became more and more serious.
According to official statistics of the Qing Dynasty, by the time Kangxi died and Yongzheng ascended the throne, there were still 27.16 million taels of silver left in the national treasury. That's not too small, but it's not much either. By the time Yongzheng took over, the corruption problem in the Qing Dynasty was already very serious. The roof leaked during the overnight rain, and during Yongzheng's reign, disasters occurred in many places, and they urgently needed the imperial court to allocate funds for disaster relief.
Yongzheng had no choice but to exert himself to govern the country, reform the tax system, implement the gentry's payment of grain as a whole, and open a knife to the gentry class and the readers, which solved the urgent need. Although many people say that Yongzheng is not in the right position, Yongzheng's diligence is undeniable, and his day and night handling of government affairs has eliminated many ills of the Qing Dynasty.
By the time the Yongzheng Emperor died and the Qianlong Emperor ascended the throne, there were 34.53 million taels of silver left in the treasury. Compared with Kangxi, this number is not much more, but for Qianlong, Yongzheng has laid a solid foundation for him, and the financial pressure he faces is far less than that of Yongzheng.
In the early days of Qianlong's reign, he inherited yongzheng's various systems and continued to improve them. Qianlong exempted the world from money and grain five times, and exempted eight provinces from grain three times, which made the economy of the Qing Dynasty develop rapidly and the qing Dynasty's treasury increasingly abundant. Moreover, by the Qianlong period, high-yield crops such as potatoes had been promoted on a large scale, the population size had expanded rapidly, and the prosperity of Kangqian had reached its peak.
After the national treasury was filled, Qianlong continued to use troops abroad, won a series of victories, and also laid the map of modern China. However, the great achievements also made Qianlong feel proud and complacent, he called himself the "Ten Perfection Emperors", and began a life of luxury. In his later years, Qianlong went down to Jiangnan six times, and on the pretext of touring south, he went to Jiangnan to play in the mountains and rivers, which added a lot of burdens to the local people, and the silver in the Treasury of the Qing Dynasty was also consumed.
What is even more fatal is that Qianlong also favored corrupt officials such as Xin and Yan, which led to the rampant use of corrupt officials in the imperial court, and they wantonly plundered the people's fat and people's ointment, and the corruption was so serious that it could not be repeated.
Therefore, by the time the Qianlong Emperor died and the Jiaqing Emperor was officially pro-government, there was not much silver in the Qing Dynasty treasury. However, the Qianlong Emperor left Jiaqing a large amount of wealth, and the custodian of this wealth was Hezhen. As soon as Qianlong died, the Jiaqing Emperor sent He Yan to prison to raid his home. A total of more than 800 million taels of silver were copied from the Hezhen family, which was equivalent to the income of the Qing government for more than ten years at that time. It is the saying that "Hezhen falls, Jiaqing eats enough".
However, in fact, Jiaqing did not "eat enough", although there were more than 800 million silver, but at that time, the corruption of the Qing government was pervasive, and there were almost no officials in the DPRK and China. When the imperial court was corrupt to such a point, even if the Jiaqing Emperor had more silver and two silver, it would be difficult to save the Qing Dynasty, which was difficult to return.