During the reign of Daoguang, why were old folk clothes more expensive than new ones?

This question is quite interesting, mainly because Emperor Daoguang was thrifty, and his own robes were patched a lot and he was reluctant to wear new ones. Therefore, he will ask his ministers to be as simple as possible and not to dress too elegantly. That's why ministers rushed to buy old clothes, which led to the price of old clothes rising.

Emperor Daoguang absorbed the experience of previous emperors, so he felt that as an emperor, he should not waste too much, but should be moderately frugal. Therefore, he asked his ministers to wear only linen clothes and not silk clothes if their grades were below six grades. If he is caught, he will be demoted lightly, and if he is heavy, he may directly take off his jobs. As a result, the ministers under Emperor Daoguang's command were all dusty and dressed in rags all day.

In order to please the emperor, those ministers went to those rural areas to buy worn-out old clothes. The more worn the clothes, the more frugal the emperor felt when he saw them, and maybe he could be promoted. The emperor also gave him an example of promotion because he saw that some people wore frugal clothes. Therefore, many officials are rushing to grab those old clothes, and officials who can't grab them will artificially dispose of them.

But to Emperor Daoguang's surprise, he wanted those ministers to be frugal, so he made them dress simply, but he didn't expect that his move made old clothes more valuable than new ones. Moreover, at that time, the high-level personnel were corrupt, and it basically took 1 taels of silver to make up a patch for the dragon robe. Theoretically speaking, 1, silver is enough to make a new dragon robe, but Emperor Daoguang doesn't know what the market is like. Therefore, Emperor Daoguang's original good move eventually made the price of old clothes higher and higher. Now it is really a joke to think about it.