Is the emperor really not short of money?

Although the imperial court has money, most of it is put in the national treasury as the backing of national development. Some emperors live in luxury, but some emperors are very frugal. As the last dynasty in China, the Qing Dynasty had many good emperors. For example, Daoguang is famous for its frugality. And its frugality can be described as very harsh. When he is not an emperor, he seldom has a chance to eat meat. At that time, he was a prince, if not an emperor. At least the family is not short of money. However, Daoguang bound himself and his family with almost harsh standards. Even when I buy sesame cakes, I eat them with my wife. Such a day is hard for people today to imagine. Now that living conditions are good, even ordinary people may not treat themselves so badly.

When he became emperor, his frugality began to spread. Before he became emperor, it only spread from home. Now that he is an emperor, he has spread the frugality to all China. The first thing to bear is your own harem. Only by advocating harem thrift and setting an example, then the whole country will not be difficult. He made an imperial edict that the annual expenditure of the harem should not exceed 202,000 silver. At that time, I couldn't stand the concubines who used to spend money in the harem, because that meant I couldn't buy new clothes and jewelry. You can't eat too good food. According to records, the clothes worn by the queen at that time were patched, which shows that frugality was very popular during the Daoguang period.

After the harem set an example, Daoguang wanted to transfer frugality to the court. I often teach my subordinates by example. Almost every time he goes to court, he will popularize frugality for ministers. He can be said to be a pyramid scheme leader, but his popularity is frugal. He often said that he should save money and use it in the right place, and use it on land that is useful to the national economy and people's livelihood. The civil servants in the Qing Dynasty followed the example of the emperor, and the court wore rags and dared not wear new ones. Because of this phenomenon, shops specializing in making old clothes have appeared in Beijing. It's amazing. It can be seen that people at that time could still find a way out of starting a business. However, the price of making old suits is higher than that of making new suits, which may be in short supply. Some ministers who have no money have no choice but to mend new clothes, get greasy and deliberately get old. Daoguang didn't know, so he was very happy.

After so many years in power, Daoguang only celebrated his wife's birthday once. It was when his wife was forty years old. Anyway, it was a special day. On such a special day, Daoguang only asked the kitchen to kill two pigs. This is the birthday standard, and now our generation should be ashamed. Other concubines in the harem have no such treatment.

Daoguang's frugality can be said to be almost harsh, but his frugality is recorded in both official history and unofficial history. Although he is frugal, he goes up and doesn't work. Most of the people below are putting on a show, but they don't really practice thrift. But he did practice and was a good emperor.