In the thirteenth year of Yongzheng (1735), Emperor Yongzheng died after a hard life, and his fourth son Hongli succeeded to the throne. Yongzheng took over the throne from the predicament of Kangxi in his later years, and after thirteen years of arduous reforms, the Qing Dynasty regained a new look.
When Kangxi died, the Qing Dynasty’s national treasury had only 8 million taels of silver. When Yongzheng died, the Qing treasury had 60 million taels of silver. This number increased again in the Qianlong Dynasty. Once refreshed. Next, let’s take a look at the state of the national treasury’s silver deposits after the Qianlong Dynasty.
The year with the highest central fiscal balance in the Qing Dynasty was the forty-second year of Qianlong (1777). According to statistics from the Yellow Book of the Bank of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the financial data for this year are: old management, 74.66 million; new management, 18.11 million; expulsions, 10.95 million; actual, 81.82 million.
The "four pillars" are combined into the four categories of old management, new recruitment, expulsion, and reality. The four-pillar inventory is a traditional accounting method of the Qing Dynasty. It was founded in the Tang Dynasty and was used until the end of the Qing Dynasty. In modern accounting terms, the four columns are equivalent to the opening balance, current income, current expenses and ending balance respectively.
After four dynasties including Shunzhi, Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, over a hundred years, he finally saved more than 80 million taels of silver and handed over a beautiful financial report. Who would have thought that in more than seventy years, the real silver in the national treasury would be less than the original fraction. Let's see how he lost his fortune.
The biggest prodigal was none other than Emperor Qianlong himself. Although he had the highest real amount of silver in his hands, by the third year of Jiaqing (1798), there were only 19 million left. Within twenty years, sixty million taels of silver were gone. Where did the money go?
Wars on the frontier, the construction of famous gardens, patrols in other provinces, and all the necessary civil and martial arts in the so-called "prosperous age" all cost money. Qianlong boldly implemented "active finance", and money was lost in this way.
After the money was gone, Emperor Qianlong was quite comfortable. He called himself "Old Man Shiquan" and thought it was unprecedented. His son, Emperor Jiaqing, was not happy at all. He could only learn lessons, manage finances prudently, and no longer pursue the glory of a prosperous age. When he died, he finally got back on his feet, leaving behind 2,700 emperors when he left office. Ten thousand taels.
Emperor Daoguang, who succeeded to the throne, inherited his father's ambition, advocated frugality instead of luxury, tightened his belt and lived a life of three years, three years of new and three years of old, and another three years of mending, once creating 3,300 Wan Liang's good performance is promising for recovery.
Reluctantly, Emperor Daoguang had a bad fortune and was destined to be undeserving of wealth. Suddenly integrating with international standards, it encountered the Opium War, which resulted in huge military expenditures and indemnities, which ultimately led to huge losses. In the 30th year of Daoguang's reign (1850), the national treasury only had 8 million taels of silver.
However, it was even worse when Xianfeng succeeded to the throne. At the beginning of his accession to the throne, he started a civil war with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In 1853, the number filled in this column was 1,696,897 taels, a record low.
However, the worst thing is that the 1.69 million is not real money, but only book data. After auditing, the inventory of real silver that year was only 118,709 taels. With such a small amount of money, it is not as good as a rich man among the people, and the difference between it and the Qianlong Dynasty at its peak is as much as 800 times. This makes people happy to be emperors. If there was an exit mechanism at that time, I would bet fifty cents that Emperor Xianfeng would really choose to resign.
Under necessity, Emperor Xianfeng melted down all the valuable heavy metals in the Forbidden City, even the large copper vats used for fire prevention, and all the proceeds were sent to the front line as military pay. This life was a real one. It's tight. Fortunately, he finally got through his life, and there was still some money left in the treasury.
By the time of Tongzhi and Guangxu, life became even tighter. Various defeats and various indemnities came one after another. The Qing Dynasty's treasury was already empty, and it was reduced to the situation of going to banks in various countries for loans. At the time of Xuantong, the emperor abdicated after only three years in office. Even the living expenses of the imperial palace and small court had to be donated by the Republic of China government. In order to supplement the family income, they secretly engaged in some activities of reselling national treasures.
The detailed accounts of the Qing treasury are, to put it bluntly, a history of the rise and fall of the dynasty, and money is the foundation of the country.