Chapter 69 The emperor's financial master

One of the most important reasons why Qianlong favored Heshen was that Heshen was good at collecting money.He always used various methods to gather wealth for Qianlong for his squandering and ostentation, especially the grand festivals of the royal family, the cost was always astonishingly high.Therefore, Qianlong could not leave Heshen who searched for him wealth. During the reign of Qianlong, the society of the Qing Dynasty showed a thriving scene, social productivity was also greatly improved, people's living standards improved, and the state treasury was no longer stretched.Therefore, Qianlong was a little complacent, very satisfied with his martial arts and martial arts, and liked to listen to the praises of ministers from time to time.What's more, Qianlong, who was used to living a rich life, found it difficult to change his life all at once, so he urgently needed someone who was good at financial management and able to open up avenues of wealth.He Shen happened to be such a person, as soon as he appeared, he immediately became Qianlong's confidant, and was regarded by Qianlong as the pillar of the country.

He Shen's creed is that he is only responsible to the emperor, as long as he can make the emperor happy, he will rush to do it, regardless of whether he is right or not, and whether it is beneficial to the people. In order to satisfy Qianlong's need for extravagant ostentation, his wide-ranging sources of wealth were actually a clever trick to use power to order officials and businessmen to pay tribute to Qianlong and him.However, in order to ensure that the emperor would not be blamed for indiscriminate fees, the money collected must be justified, so that Qianlong could use it with peace of mind.For this reason, under the banner of the emperor's grace, he asked officials from all over the country to voluntarily pay tribute in the name of thanking the emperor to show their loyalty.His reason is sufficient and unassailable, who dare not listen to the following officials?If you don't contribute property, wouldn't it mean that the emperor's favor has not benefited you, and you can't express your loyalty to the emperor?Therefore, as soon as this banner was erected, both the officials in the court and local officials from all over the country rushed to spare no effort to collect the people's fat and anoint to contribute to the court and let the emperor know his loyalty.Qianlong saw officials from all over the country expressing their loyalty to him and being grateful for the emperor's kindness, the pride in his heart inflated, and he obeyed Heshen even more.

Heshen also used officials who committed crimes such as corruption to carry out ransacking and confiscating their homes, or using silver as a substitute for crimes, so that officials who had not committed serious crimes paid thousands of taels to tens of thousands of taels of silver to the inner court as a manifestation of atonement.85% of the confiscated money was turned over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for use by the emperor and his inner court, and only a small amount was turned over to the Ministry of Household Affairs or used for national finance, which provided the emperor with a justifiable source of income.

The second is to strengthen tax administration.In order to get the silver, Heshen vigorously cleared up the tax arrears in various salt areas and strengthened the taxation of various customs. Although his purpose was to see the money quickly, after all, he did good things for the government. When the emperor was doing business, he did good things for the people by the way.He also held the power of the Chongwenmen supervisor of the Jingshi Taxation Bureau for a long time, personally grasped the capital's tax revenue, and tried every means to search for money. He even charged Chongwenmen according to the level of officials entering Beijing. Thanks to the protection of Emperor Qianlong, Otherwise, you will almost be sued.

In addition, He Shen also carefully calculated the project expenses and tried to save as much as possible.Most of the projects in the middle and late Qianlong period were financed by Heshen. Heshen carefully calculated the use of project funds and often tried his best to reduce costs. Most of the projects he handled cost much less than the budget, such as Qingshi Road on the central axis of Beijing. , He Shen suggested to Qianlong to use old materials as much as possible, saving a lot of money.Therefore, Qianlong praised him for his willingness to think about the country, and assigned most of the remaining silver to his own Ministry of Internal Affairs, and rewarded a small part to Heshen. Therefore, Heshen was valued by Qianlong even more, and all maintenance and reconstruction matters were handed over to Heshen.

In addition to handling state affairs, the emperor also had private affairs to deal with.Therefore, some of his actions are official affairs, such as building bridges and roads, and some are private affairs, such as personal outings, royal family birthday banquets, etc.Official affairs are paid by the Ministry of Household Affairs, while private affairs are paid by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.The emperor's personal expenses had to be raised by the Ministry of Internal Affairs itself, and the financial resources of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were really limited, and Qianlong liked to make private affairs grand, so that the Ministry of Internal Affairs gradually couldn't make ends meet.The Ministry of Internal Affairs did not have enough money to spend, so they had to borrow some from the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs. Although the Ministry of Household Affairs had to agree, but the number of times was too many, and the emperor would not look good.

It was precisely because of Heshen's talent and good financial management that Qianlong's House of Internal Affairs turned losses into profits. Therefore, Heshen received the abnormal trust of Emperor Qianlong, and later simply handed over the military and political power to Heshen's management with confidence.This also reflects from one aspect that Heshen's financial management skills were recognized by Emperor Qianlong and Emperor Jiaqing, and he became an irreplaceable financial management expert in the Qing Dynasty.