Anyu felt that he could not help Shengyuan for the time being, so he muttered annoyance and ran off to supervise the work.
Well, there is a specialization in the art, so he should not make it difficult for himself.
Without Anyu's interruption, Sheng Yuan's attention returned to the work plan.
In fact, the real problems in Shou'an City were much more than what she told Anyu.
It's just that the guy couldn't bear the matter in his heart, and if he talked too much, he would worry about her, so Sheng Yuan only selected part of it to tell him.
If a normal city wants to develop, it must tap into its unique local characteristic industries, exploit its strengths and avoid weaknesses, find directions and projects that can develop in the long term, and make it bigger and stronger. Only in this way can the people live and work in peace and contentment and be wealthy.
Shou'an City naturally has its own unique advantages. The city has a vast salt lake, a natural and excellent horse farm, and a straight trade road leading to Nuerhan.
When these features are arranged, they look prosperous no matter how you look at them.
Unfortunately, these advantages are not in the hands of the government office.
As for the reason, it has to do with the geographical location of Shou'an City.
The purpose of the initial establishment of Shou'an City was to serve as an outpost for the Central Plains Dynasty to resist foreign invasion. At that time, the binding force of the Prairie Royal Court on the tribes was not as strong as it is now, and wars continued among the tribes; and Nuerhan was also at the peak of power. A period of frequent changes and constant internal strife.
The civil strife between the two barbarians did not affect them in pointing their swords and guns at the Central Plains. After all, the prosperous and rich Central Plains cities could support them in completing their internal integration.
Therefore, one can imagine the great pressure on the eight border towns.
In order to allow the newly born Fucheng to take root and develop and fully play its due role, the imperial court at that time not only authorized one-tenth of the tax revenue from the border towns, but also delegated the management rights of the Salt Lake to the Fucheng.
What the border town government had to do, in addition to paying 10% of the tax to the court, was to provide paid salt and war horses to the troops stationed in the city.
According to the assumptions of the court officials at that time, the government decrees that were beneficial to the border towns would definitely make the border towns prosperous.
In fact, Shou'an City has indeed become rich after generations of management, but the rich are gradually becoming larger and larger, with eight surnames and twelve families.
If you think about it carefully, behind the eight surnames and twelve families, there seem to be shadowy figures of city officials, garrison officials, and internal guard commanders.
I'm afraid that all the free money was paid for it, and several people worked together, hand to hand, like a relay. In the blink of an eye, government fees went into these people's pockets.
Relying on high profits, these families thrive and continue from generation to generation, only suffering the suffering of the local people.
Not only did he enjoy the grace given by the court, but he also had to tighten his belt to cope with the various tax items.
That's right, after the imperial court reduced the tax payment ratio of Shou'an City, the actual controllers of Shou'an City turned their greedy eyes on the people under their jurisdiction.
Exploiting the common people seems to have become a natural instinct for those wealthy businessmen and officials who would rather eat minced meat.
In their view, the imperial court's concession of benefits to the border towns was a concession to them and had nothing to do with the common people;
In their view, although agricultural taxes are small, mosquitoes are still meat no matter how small they are;
In their view, as long as there are enough tax items, they will have nothing to worry about.
…
As they watched, the people of Shou'an City were put on layer after layer of tax items.
Of course, the officials of the eight surnames and twelve families and the government offices did not just torment the people. Whether they were afraid that pushing the people to the end would easily lead to public anger and rebellion, or they wanted to increase tax revenue, they encouraged the people to hunt for gold and encourage the people to do business. Bringing goods, encouraging the common people to lead the way for caravans and escort them... Don't get me wrong, these incentives are not due to the surge in conscience of the upper class. These incentives they promote are all taxed.
This is how wolves raise sheep!
…
Sheng Yuan went through the history of Shou'an City's growth in his mind, but his focus was still on taxation. Well, to be more precise, her sights were set on business taxes.
