The emperor has supreme power, and all the wealth in the world belongs to him. If the emperor wants any rare treasures, it is a matter of just one sentence, and the people below will ask him to do it. During the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty The next trip to the south of the Yangtze River will cost more than 20 million yuan, which is equivalent to half of the Qing Dynasty's annual fiscal revenue. Not only the emperor but also the Empress Dowager Cixi's meal had more than a hundred dishes. The ancient emperors were extremely extravagant.
Some people say that the poorest emperor in the Qing Dynasty was Xianfeng, because when Xianfeng was in office, it was the beginning of the Second Opium War and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Due to the war, the treasury only had 250,000 taels of silver to spend. What I want to talk about is that this emperor was the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Puyi. Puyi’s life can be described as miserable. He became emperor early, but he was in power during the most difficult period of the Qing Dynasty. He also served as a puppet emperor during the Japanese puppet Manchukuo period. Served as a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union.
To say that the wealth of the Qing Dynasty is countless, the Eight-Power Allied Forces stole countless treasures from us. If you find any one, it will be worth a fortune. But a down-and-out emperor who only cares about running for his life will be there. He carries treasures with him. Due to historical reasons, during the Republic of China, Puyi still lived with millions of taels of silver given to him by the country. He could temporarily live in the Forbidden City, and his life was pretty good.
But later on, the Japanese asked Puyi to go to the puppet Manchuria government and become a famous but powerless emperor. Although he had no worries about food and clothing, his freedom was restricted. In the end, Japan surrendered and Puyi was taken to the Soviet Union. After Puyi came back from the Soviet Union, he only had a suitcase, a pocket watch, and more than a dozen yuan. He didn't even have a place to live, so he had to live in his sister's house and live on the dozens of dollars given to him by the state. He was truly the poorest emperor in the history of the Qing Dynasty.
But a emaciated camel is bigger than a horse
Article 7 of the "Conditions for Preferential Treatment of the Purging Household" states that the Republic of China needs to allocate 4 million taels of silver to Puyi as living expenses every year, which is very difficult for ordinary people. It is undoubtedly an astronomical figure, but Puyi, who lives in the Forbidden City, once said that 4 million taels of silver are simply not enough. This money cannot sustain the expenses of hundreds of people in the palace. The money allocated by the National Government can be regarded as Puyi's annual salary, but Puyi His private property is far greater than this 4 million taels.
According to the "Conditions for Preferential Treatment of the Qing Dynasty", although the Qing Dynasty no longer exists, the private property of the Qing Dynasty royal family is inviolable, so the cultural relics, silver coins, jewelry, and even the entire palace in the Forbidden City belong to Puyi Among Puyi's private properties, the most valuable ones are definitely cultural relics. There are as many as 1.5 million pieces of calligraphy, painting and calligraphy collected in the Qing Dynasty palace.
In the Forbidden City and later during his escape, Puyi relied on selling cultural relics to support his life. These were the people's wealth and anointing collected from the people during the Qing Dynasty's more than two hundred years of rule. The value of these cultural relics is What cannot be measured by money are national cultural relics and priceless treasures. Unfortunately, most of them are now lost abroad.
In 1912, the richest man in the world at that time was Astor IV, but his net worth was only 1 billion U.S. dollars. Puyi’s assets were much greater than Astor IV, so he was called Puyi. It is not an exaggeration to say that he was the richest man in the world at that time