With a sum of money extorted from the emperor, Shen Shangshu walked out of the Wenhua Palace with satisfaction.
The so-called black hands and cruel heart revealed the emperor's intentions in order to enrich the treasury, and Shen Shangshu became bolder.
As a result, the normal double silver supplement originally promised by the Emperor was doubled to four times.
This price is almost close to Shen Shangshu's estimate of the final successful transaction price in the mutual market.
Of course, the additional condition is that salt and tea will no longer be subject to repeated commercial taxes, and the eight-to-one tax items will be reduced from four items to two items.
Qiehuangdian can withdraw salt and tea in advance, sell them first, and then settle the accounts uniformly with the Ministry of Accounts on a year-round basis in June of each year.
But even so, the household department is still making a lot of money.
Because at this price, the salt and tea items in the mutual market, although sold by the imperial store, are almost the same as those directly sold by the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Almost 95% of the profits fell into the hands of the Ministry of Accounts. Not only would the Huangdian not make much, but they might even have to put in a small amount of money.
Shen Shangshu was frightened when he mentioned it, but he never thought that the emperor did not even bother to pay back the asking price, but agreed directly. This really surprised Shen Shangshu.
After Chen Yi left, Zhu Qiyu closed his eyes slightly and rested his mind.
After a long while, Shu Liang, who had been waiting by the side, finally couldn't stand the looks of the other servants. He boldly took advantage of the opportunity to change the tea and asked cautiously.
"Your Majesty, this Minister Shen is a little too pushy. You have raised the tax rate in the mutual market so high, and he actually doubled the prices of salt and tea..."
The original price of 30,000 salt taels and 10,000 tea taels was more than 200,000 taels, but now it has quadrupled. With these two items alone, the revenue of the Ministry of Household Affairs can approach one million.
Even though there are many nobles in the grassland tribe, there is a limit to transactions. Even if the annual transaction amount is higher, it is calculated as four million taels.
Then the human and material costs invested by Huangdian were calculated to be about 1.5 million taels.
From salt and tea alone, the Ministry of Household Affairs steadily took away nearly one million taels. Adding in the commercial tax revenue from other goods, it was still three to four hundred thousand taels.
It's equivalent to the Ministry of Household Affairs getting about 1.4 million taels without doing anything.
On the contrary, in the imperial store, he was busy with work and could only get a little over one million taels, and most of it was taken away by the Ministry of Revenue.
Zhu Qiyu opened his eyes and did not look at Shu Liang, but his eyes fell on Wang Cheng who had his head lowered.
This question seemed to be asked by Shu Liang, but in fact, the only person who was really dissatisfied was Wang Cheng, the person in charge of the imperial store.
Although these eunuchs were slaves of the emperor, it did not mean that they did not have their own thoughts in their hearts.
He gave a large part of the royal store's income to the Ministry of Revenue. Although they did not dare to object, they were sure to have complaints in their hearts.
With this resentment in their hearts, they would not really dare to hinder anything, but when they really cooperate with the Ministry of Finance, some friction is inevitable.
Therefore, after pondering for a moment, Zhu Qiyu said leisurely.
"Shu Liang, Wang Cheng, do you think that when I faced the Ministry of Revenue, I gave in too much? It was obviously the Huangdian who contributed all the efforts, but in the end, the Ministry of Revenue took away the majority of the profits. You think it's unfair. ?”
The two of them knelt down immediately. Shu Liang was a little calm, but Wang Cheng said with a look of fear.
"I dare not question the emperor's decision. The treasury is currently empty. The emperor cares about all the people. The purpose of opening the mutual market is to enrich the treasury. I am loved by the emperor. Taking charge of the imperial store on my behalf can be considered as a small contribution to the country. How dare I Have some complaints."
Zhu Qiyu smiled, what he said was high-sounding, but look at it from the other side.
Wang Cheng just felt that the Ministry of Revenue should not take so much, but the emperor deliberately let it go for the sake of the country and the country.
Although the truth is indeed such a truth, they cannot be allowed to think that way.
Wang Cheng and Shu Liang are both his confidants.
One of them is in charge of the East Factory and the other is in charge of the Imperial Store. They are both well-known figures among the eunuchs. It would be a troublesome matter if there was a rift with the Household Department.
What needs special attention is that the establishment of Dongchang was not within the imperial system.
Strictly speaking, the East Factory, including the West Factory later established by Zhu Qiyu's eldest nephew, were all branches of the inner court.
Therefore, Dongchang's source of funding is different from that of Jinyiwei.
Jinyiwei is a branch of the army, and its salary and salary funds come from the Jingwei Command and Envoy Department.
Dongchang is different. Like other yamen in the inner court, all expenditures are allocated directly from the inner treasury.
Therefore, the income of the inner treasury is closely related to Shu Liang, the admiral of the East Factory.
After pondering for a moment, Zhu Qiyu waved his hand, motioning for the two of them to stand up, and asked.
"What do you think is the most difficult and most expensive part of the mutual market?"
Shu Liang and Wang Cheng didn't speak, they just looked up at the emperor in confusion.
Zhu Qiyu didn't point to them and gave the answer directly.
"Public businessmen all know that to do a business, the biggest cost is not the cost of purchasing goods, nor the manpower and material resources for selling and transporting them."
"The biggest cost of doing business is actually the exploitation by various government agencies and the risk of bandits and robberies along the transportation routes."
Wang Cheng was the first to react and spoke boldly.
"The emperor means that the reason why you gave Hu Bu so much money is because he wanted Hu Bu to charge into battle and protect the emperor's shop?"
Zhu Qiyu nodded, looking a little more satisfied, and said.
"Yes, in the past, the mutual trade was open to the public, and many ministers and noble families secretly participated in it. But this time, I have handed over all trade matters to the imperial store. How can they be satisfied?"
"It is absolutely necessary to talk nonsense about the court meeting. Without the strong support of the Ministry of Revenue, I am afraid that the mutual market will not even be able to pass the court meeting, so how can we talk about making a profit?"
As the saying goes, we don't worry about scarcity but inequality. When the mutual market is completely closed, everyone has no money to make and everyone is honest.
But now that they want to open a mutual market, they can't get any benefits. There must be a lot of people who are unhappy. Since they can't get it, they can just break up and no one can make any profit.
In this situation, either Zhu Qiyu is willing to give in and open it up to private businessmen, or he can only have a head-on confrontation with them.
The former is definitely not possible. Even if Zhu Qiyu did this, they would not be grateful at all, and would even encourage smuggling.
Therefore, we can only find a way to pass the court meeting if they prevent it.
The Ministry of Revenue is the yamen that has the most say in the mutual market. As a senior Situ, Shen Yi, it is difficult to be in charge.
But in fact, after he took over, when the foundation of the national treasury was so thin, he supported the defense purge of the capital, the restructuring of the capital camp, and coordinated with the Ministry of War to support the logistics transfer of the front line.
Then there were the post-war rewards, including the repair of the border walls, the promotion of peppermint wood salary discounts, and the allocation of silver to support the restructuring of craftsmen households.
Although there was a lot of back and forth, everything was done properly and nothing was missed.
His ability and official reputation are highly praised in the court, especially among the middle and high-ranking officials who are aware of the situation in the court.
Therefore, turning him into a community of interests in the mutual market has won the most powerful force for this matter to pass the court discussion.
After hearing what the emperor said, Shu Liang also reacted and said.
"The emperor means that only if the Ministry of Revenue can benefit from this matter, will they be willing to fully support it, and only if the Ministry of Revenue can gain enough benefits, will they try their best to ensure normal transactions in the mutual market. Who dares to cause trouble? Just work against His Majesty and Hu Bu, and Hu Bu will tear their mouths apart without the Emperor taking action."
Zhu Qiyu nodded and said: "Yes, as Shen Yi said, mutual trading involves many yamen, ranging from the taxation of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the deployment of troops by the Ministry of War for protection, the construction of the market by the Ministry of Industry, and the cooperation of local officials and yamen."
"If you go through the joints one by one by yourself, I don't know how much effort it will take. But if the Ministry of Revenue is the biggest beneficiary of this matter, then they will take care of these official relations."
"In fact, if necessary, the Ministry of Revenue will even discuss with the Ministry of War to send troops to protect you while you are transporting goods."
"Without these constraints, Huangdian only needs to do business with peace of mind. Since the mutual market is a monopoly transaction, it is a guaranteed profit without loss."
"What Huangdian has to do is just buy in bulk and then transport it to the border to sell, which consumes some manpower and material resources. From this perspective, the Ministry of Revenue is actually the one who suffers."
After hearing this explanation, Shu Liang and Wang Cheng truly let go of the slightest bit of dissatisfaction in their hearts and said sincerely.
"Your Majesty is wise. Based on this calculation, in fact, if the Ministry of Revenue directly operates the mutual market, it will benefit the most. However, since these bosses can't let go of their dignity, they can only let the Emperor's shop benefit."
Wang Cheng felt a little strange and asked.
"Since you have long planned to share profits with the household, at the beginning, your Majesty, you deliberately concealed the matter of mutual trading because..."
Zhu Qiyu smiled and said.
"You will always cherish the things you get little by little and try your best to protect them, right?"
The two of them suddenly understood.
Zhu Qiyu gave a few more instructions and asked them to retreat.
The mutual trading thing will have to wait until after the year before it can be officially launched.
With the income of more than one million taels as bait to promote the court discussion, Shen Yi would naturally think of a way, and Zhu Qiyu could also put it aside temporarily.
So next, it’s these clans in Beijing...
