Morning next day.
Fang Zhengyi's eyes drifted to Xu Wenshu in front of him from time to time.
Although I was deceived and coerced yesterday, to be honest I didn't feel confident.
It depends on today whether you can speak for yourself.
Halfway through the court meeting, Xu Wenshu, who had not made a formal speech, suddenly moved.
Fang Zhengyi's heart was in his throat...
Xu Wenshu slowly took out a memorial from his sleeve. The cover of the memorial was the one left by Fang Zhengyi!
"Your Majesty, I have this memorial."
"speak."
"I ordered someone to reorganize the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue this month. Although the treasury revenue has increased in the past two years, some problems have been discovered."
"The situation of food shortage in the past has been greatly alleviated by the promotion of sweet potato and potato cultivation. I believe that in a few years, people all over the world will no longer have to worry about hunger."
"As a result, commercial taxes have also increased significantly, but the difficulty in material circulation has always existed. If this difficulty is not solved, it will be difficult for the national treasury to make significant progress in tax revenue when grain production reaches its peak."
"Policies need to change with the times, so I wrote the Ten Policies for Kuan Shang overnight. I think this matter is of great importance, and I would like to ask your Majesty to read it."
Xu Wenshu glanced back at Fang Zheng and saw that he was beaming at him.
I couldn't help but take a deep breath and turned my head to suppress the nausea in my heart.
Ten Strategies for Broadening Business...?
Emperor Jing was in a daze for a moment, as if he had heard it somewhere.
When the memorial was handed to him, Emperor Jing looked at Fang Zhengyi with a strange expression.
Didn't Fang Zhengyi write this stuff not long ago? However, the wording has changed a lot.
Fang Zhengyi also smiled naively at Emperor Jing, his eyes extremely clear.
Emperor Jing understood it instantly, his face returned to normal, and he said: "Guo Banban, read it."
Guo Tianyang picked up the memorial and began to read it.
Guo Tianyang's voice echoed in the hall, but Fang Zheng's expression gradually became weird as he listened.
The content he wrote... was actually changed by Xu Wenshu!
Compared with the version he wrote, the later revised wording is much easier to accept.
But the key point is that his original suggestion was to open a prefecture as a pilot project, but it was changed to a county under the jurisdiction of Hengjiang Prefecture.
But now that the matter has come to this, Fang Zhengyi can only listen patiently.
Since it was limited to one county, many people did not express strong opposition.
After all, there is only one county, so what impact will it have even if there is a falling out?
After Guo Tianyang finished speaking, Emperor Jing glanced at the ministers and said, "Xu Qing, please tell me first."
Xu Wenshu bowed and said: "Your Majesty, the reason why I strongly advise Kuan Shang is based on evidence."
"The circulation of goods in the market is nothing more than four steps. Production, distribution, circulation, and sales. There is no problem with the first and last two steps, but the distribution and circulation in the middle are closely related."
"Food has been harvested year after year. In the past, when there were no high-yielding crops such as potatoes and sweet potatoes, people could barely feed their families with their own labor and had no surplus. Now, not only can they feed the whole family, but they can even have a lot more food."
"And these grains have to be purchased by merchants and then sold on the market. People have money after selling grains, so they buy new clothes and other household items, which promotes production."
"As far as I know, there are no less than twenty handicraft workshops employing more than a hundred people built in the capital this year. This is a sight that has never been seen before. This shows that the demand for goods among the people has increased sharply."
"In this case, it is imperative to expand business! If for no other reason, we must also take into account the idle people caused by the high food production. The people must not be lazy at home and have nothing to do."
"However, the issue of widening business cannot be accomplished overnight and needs to be done step by step. Therefore, I went through all the accounts reported by Gyeonggi Province over the years and singled out Pingwan County in Hengjiang Prefecture. This county is located in an important area of Hengjiang Prefecture and connects all directions. It is the place where goods are usually shipped. It’s a place where we have a lot of business. It’s perfect to use this as a pilot project for easing business. I hope your Majesty will learn from it.”
Emperor Jing nodded gently and tapped the imperial case with one hand.
The ministers were thoughtful, and what Xu Wenshu said just now felt like they had known each other before.
Isn't this what the Banshan Daily has published continuously in recent days? It's talking about production, distribution, sales and the like.
I didn’t expect that Xu Wenshu would have such a high evaluation of the content in Banshan Daily?
There was silence in the hall for a long time before Emperor Jing said, "Dear ladies, do you have anything else to say?"
There was a low-pitched discussion below, and Fang Zhengyi kept looking around the crowd.
This matter seems to be easier to handle today, but it's a pity that this old guy Xu Wenshu replaced one government with one county.
He also understands that Pingwan County is indeed a pretty good place, and if it is run well, its influence may not be bad.
Now that he has spoken, there is no possibility of changing it.
The key now is to see who objects and then rush forward to help.
Sure enough, opponents finally appeared.
Yang Yingcai, a Hanlin scholar, stood up silently: "I have..."
"I object!" Before he could finish speaking, Fang Zheng howled loudly.
Yang Yingcai's face slowly elongated, and he stepped back helplessly.
Xu Wenshu's mind was buzzing and he was completely confused...
Emperor Jing stared at Fang Zhengyi, his expression constantly changing.
Where do you stand, kid? It’s you who wanted to expand business, and now it’s you who wants to oppose it?
Fang Zheng turned around and showed an extremely ugly smile to Yang Yingcai, with mockery in his eyes.
He turned around and said loudly: "I am opposed to lenient business! As the saying goes, if a wise man has a lot of wealth, his ambition will be harmed. If a fool has a lot of wealth, his fault will be benefited. Businessmen's pursuit of profit encourages this kind of culture. Furthermore, it is said that the rich are attracted by the crowd. Resentment means that the rise of merchants will arouse the envy of other people, which may lead to turmoil. If people's hearts are impetuous, then it is not far from the collapse of rituals and music."
Xu Wenshu roared crazily in his heart, wasn't that what the hell I said? You bitch! What do you want to do?
"There are many consequences for indulging merchants, and merchants are not engaged in production. They can only act as intermediaries to make huge profits among the people. This is tantamount to competing with the people for profits, and this is absolutely impossible."
As soon as Fang Zheng finished speaking, he began to wink at Xu Wenshu.
"Master Xu, am I right?"
The corners of Xu Wenshu's eyes twitched a few times, and he swallowed and said, "I disagree with this. If there were no intermediaries, the world would have been in chaos. This businessman is like a gear in a waterwheel, connecting producers and buyers. Without him mediating resources in it, it would be extremely difficult for both buyer and seller to be established, and the profit would be no more than his due reward.”
"The more business merchants facilitate, the more the world's wealth will increase. If merchants harm the interests of other people for profit, how can our situation get better and better year after year, and the revenue of the national treasury get higher and higher every year... ..?"
Fang Zheng praised him in his heart. The old man Xu was old-hearted and had quick reactions and a good memory.
...
