Zhu Pingan is an official. Can officials do business in the Ming Dynasty?
The answer is yes.
"The Ming Code" clearly stipulates that officials above the fourth rank are prohibited from doing business, but Zhu Pingan is now from the fifth rank, which is not prohibited by the Ming Code. Therefore, if Zhu Pingan is doing business now, there will be no disciplinary problems at all, and there is no need to worry about being punished. people report.
Moreover, this kind of legal and discipline constraints are increasingly ineffective. In the Ming Dynasty, there are many officials above the fourth rank doing business, but they are just doing business through backdoors, with subordinates coming forward to run the business.
Especially when Emperor Jiajing's predecessor, his cousin Zhu Houzhao, became emperor, this restriction prohibiting officials from doing business was even more ineffective.
Zhu Houzhao, Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty, had three well-known hobbies. The first hobby was fighting. He liked to designate himself as various princes, mighty generals, governors, etc., and often went on military expeditions. The second hobby was teasing women. Zhu Houzhao often liked to visit privately incognito, and went to the street to tease women from good families. Once, he was even sent to the government by a righteous man for teasing women from good families. You can imagine how shocked and disgusted his parents were when they saw that the prisoner in the hall was the emperor. The third hobby is doing business. When Zhu Houzhao got interested, he would set up various shops in the palace, making the palace look like a market, selling meat, juggling, candied haws, clothes, and even There were also brothels and restaurants where palace maids and eunuchs acted as merchants and customers in the market.
Therefore, after Zhu Houzhao's troubles, the ban on officials above the fourth rank from doing business was greatly reduced and was in vain.
Another advantage of doing business in the Ming Dynasty was the low commercial taxes.
Commercial taxes in the Ming Dynasty were pitifully low. At the beginning of Hongwu's reign, it was stipulated that "all commercial taxes should be one in thirty, and those who exceed the tax will be considered as violating the order." From then on, it was only reduced but not increased.
Of course, Zhu Pingan is also facing many problems now.
The first thing to bear the brunt is the store problem. To enter the fast food industry, the first problem that must be solved is the store. There is no store for catering. In ancient times, there were no Meituan or Ele.me. You can cook and deliver food at home.
Zhu Ping'an walked around and found no signs of cashing out in that store.
Zhu Ping'an also asked several stores, some of which had tepid business, and some of which had bleak business, but the store owners had no intention of taking action.
Forget it, asking like this is not an option.
Zhu Ping'an walked out under the strange glare of the owner of the house, turned around and walked out, preparing to find a real estate agent.
If you want to rent a house, find an agent. This sentence was also effective in the Ming Dynasty.
The real estate agency in the Ming Dynasty was called "Fangya", which evolved from the word "yashang". The reason why it was called "yashang" was because the original tooth merchants were engaged in livestock market intermediaries, bringing together livestock sellers and livestock buyers to make deals. , these tooth dealers are experts at identifying the age and health of animals. Just by looking at the teeth of an animal, you can tell how old the animal is and whether it is healthy or not. Over time, people have dubbed them "tooth dealers".
Renting a house in the Ming Dynasty is different from modern times. In modern times, you can rent a house without going through an intermediary. The landlord and tenant can directly sign a contract or make a verbal agreement, but this was not possible in the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, if you wanted to rent a house, you had to go through an intermediary, that is, Fang Ya.
The Ming Dynasty had very strict management of real estate transactions and did not allow private sales and leases. The buyer and seller of a house must sign a house sale and lease contract with an official version of the contract, with Fang Ya guaranteeing the signature. The buyer and seller paid the deed tax, and after registration and filing at the Yamen, the transaction before it takes effect. Anyone who fails to follow this procedure is illegal and may be fined in the lighter case or imprisoned in the worst case.
Therefore, finding an agent to rent a house was not only an advertisement in the Ming Dynasty, but also a system. It is precisely because of this that Fang Ya has the most accurate and complete housing information in Ming Dynasty.
Like modern intermediaries, Fang Ya also has to charge intermediary fees. They are also different from modern intermediaries in that they need to urge and supervise both parties to the transaction to go to the Yamen to pay taxes in accordance with regulations. If there is tax evasion in a transaction, then Fang Ya, who is responsible, will be held responsible and will be jailed and convicted.
In the Ming Dynasty, there were official fangs and private fangs. Official fangs, as the name suggests, were official real estate agents.
It was this kind of official teeth that Zhu Pingan was looking for.
It's a bit similar to the Housing Authority.
The official office in charge of the Qihua Gate area was nearby, and Zhu Ping'an arrived in less than ten minutes' walk.
This is a busy city in a busy city. The office feels a bit like a government office, but it is not as strict.
On the contrary, it was lively.
Many people come to Guanya to seek services.
From the official institutions, we can see that capitalism in the Ming Dynasty sprouted, and business in the Ming Dynasty was quite prosperous.
There were five Guan Ya working in Guan Ya. When Zhu Pingan arrived, there were already about ten people in the room surrounding Guan Ya.
The five officials in the room were all busy and had nowhere to go. No official could spare their hands to entertain Zhu Ping'an.
There are still five or six people waiting in the room, chatting in twos and threes. Some of them are here to register for renting or selling real estate, and some are waiting to rent or buy real estate. If both parties can reach an agreement, they can go directly to Guanya to go through the procedures. That's ok, efficiency can be improved much faster.
Fortunately, Guan Ya was still very efficient. After Zhu Ping'an waited for a while, one of Guan Ya came free.
While Guan Ya understood Zhu Pingan's needs, he took out a registration book and asked Zhu Pingan to register.
"Wait, you are Mr. Zhu Ping'an and Mr. Zhu?! Please take a seat."
After Guan Ya saw Zhu Ping'an's registered name, he looked like he was eating a lot, as if he had met an idol. His surprise attracted other Guan Ya nearby.
What made Zhu Pingan even more upset was that after hearing this, the other officials actually put down the person they were holding, stood up and gathered around to greet Zhu Pingan.
Uh, am I that famous?
Zhu Ping'an was stunned for a moment and couldn't react.
"Come here, pour some tea for Mr. Zhu."
“Pour the tea”
The enthusiasm of these five officials was outrageous, which made Zhu Ping'an completely confused.
How is this going?
After a while, Zhu Ping'an realized that it was because of his own treasury inspection that the Taicang bank case broke out, which then led to a large number of officials having their homes confiscated or being sold off.
This has injected a lot of vitality into Beijing, which is facing tight housing supply.
This has also benefited Fang Ya from Xinghuamen a lot. Originally, they didn’t have many houses, but now they are good. The Xinghuamen area they are responsible for suddenly has more than a hundred houses, and everyone has a share. And there are ten or twenty houses.
Make bricks without straw.
Fang Ya is a clever woman, and the house is a stepping stone. The house means income to Fang Ya.
That's why they were so excited when they heard Zhu Pingan's name, and they felt a strong sense of gratitude to Zhu Pingan.
