Fusu sat on the table.
His mind kept thinking about Ji Heng's words.
But now he felt that what Ji Heng said was similar to what the First Emperor had mentioned: "The way of kings and craftsmanship should not be determined by personal likes and dislikes."
the other side.
Hu Hai blinked and didn't understand at all.
After being quiet for a while, Hu Hai coughed slightly, breaking the tranquility around him. He said, "Weren't we talking about the salt and iron business earlier? Why did it suddenly turn to merchants? And it's not detailed. How can I Didn't you hear that this method is better than 'government monopoly'?"
Ji Heng took a deep look at Hu Hai, with a strange look in his eyes.
But it was not revealed.
aside.
Fusu also followed: "I actually don't understand it, I only understand it in general, but I have no idea how to implement it."
"Please sir, please elaborate further."
Fusu's posture was very low.
Ji Heng nodded.
He did give a very rough introduction.
Moreover, he temporarily remembered that this period of time was on the first calendar day, and the government might not be able to spare manpower for research, so he decided to say more.
He took a deep breath, organized it in his mind, and said slowly: "To put it simply, in the management of salt and iron, production is mainly based on the people, supplemented by the government, while sales are mainly based on businessmen, supplemented by the government."
"The Qin Dynasty set up officials in the central and local areas to supervise, deploy, and collect taxes, strengthen control, manage production, and prevent private casting and cooking. The transportation and sales of products also did not allow private individuals to operate freely. At the same time, they did not advocate the establishment of special agencies by the government. Instead of assigning merchants to transport and sell salt and iron, we use the ready-made sales capabilities of merchants to hand over the exclusive salt and iron to merchants for distribution."
"The imperial court used this to collect high commercial taxes!"
"Businessmen must obtain distribution rights in order to sell salt and iron. There are certain restrictions on the number of merchants who can obtain distribution rights, but the limit will not be too small. Merchants purchase salt and iron from the government and then collect high taxes after the sale. The final profit can only be a very small part.”
"also."
"The exclusive price of salt and iron must be restricted by the imperial court."
"Not too high, not too low."
"To prevent the emergence of merchants who are as wealthy as the enemy in the world!"
"The imperial court effectively stabilized the price of salt and iron by controlling the production process and adjusting the price of salt and iron sold, thereby realizing that most of the profits from salt and iron will be owned by the state."
After hearing Ji Heng explain it carefully, Fusu had roughly figured it out.
I just have some doubts in my heart.
He said: "Sir's idea is naturally excellent, but I have some unclear ideas. Please help me clarify my doubts."
"According to Mr.'s suggestion, the functions of the government are clearly divided into three. Some officials are responsible for supervising people's production, some are responsible for allocation and distribution, and some are responsible for collecting taxes. These functions can be completed by one official office. They are divided into three. Is it a waste?"
"Waste?" Ji Heng looked seriously and said in a deep voice: "You haven't realized how great the benefits of the salt and iron business are. This is an item that affects the lives and production of most people in the world, and there is no room for error. "
"An official office can indeed fulfill these functions."
"But have you ever thought about how much power the officials in charge of salt/iron have and how much benefit they control if salt/iron is placed under a separate government agency?"
"The benefits move people's hearts."
"As long as one person has selfish motives and they say a casual word, how many interests can be involved?"
"They even dare to take desperate risks for the sake of profit."
"At that time, they would find some excuse to seize some salt, iron and ink, and sell it to merchants. They would make a lot of money over and over again."
"They don't even need to sell to outside merchants. They can train their own merchants, and then use the hands of these merchants to make profits for themselves openly. If they follow the example, the entire government office will become a place of corruption."
"If everyone is greedy, then no one is greedy."
"It's just that there was an accident at the bottom level of production. Then you can just make up some excuses and try to excuse it from the top."
"We have to live in poverty at the bottom and impoverish the court."
Hear the words.
Fusu felt horrified.
He had never thought about official corruption before, he just wanted to concentrate the functions of the government.
But after Ji Heng woke him up, he suddenly reacted.
The interests involved in salt and iron are too great.
Have to guard against it.
But he still couldn't believe it, and said in a trembling voice: "Da Qin officials really dare to be so crazy? Do they really dare to be so lawless? Is there no law in their eyes?"
Ji Heng sneered and said, "Law?"
“How much is the law worth?”
"How much money did salt and iron bring to them?"
"And why do you think the law can control them?"
"They are officials!"
"The current laws of Da Qin cannot even be controlled by Xiang Liang and others, so why do you still want to control the officials?"
"You underestimate the temptation of money."
"What's more, these people don't think they will be investigated. Even if they are investigated, they will not think that they have really made a mistake. They will only think that they were too careless and were caught by the court."
"That's all."
"This is also the main reason why I oppose the monopoly on salt and iron."
"The harm of officials doing business to the court is too great. Today, officials are officials and rich are rich. Once the precedent of officials doing business is set, officials will no longer be just officials, but "powerful people". These people will Power is rich and noble.”
"When these people become powerful locally, do you think they will still take the imperial court seriously?"
"How much money can the court charge then?"
"I've said before, don't test human nature."
"Human nature cannot stand the test."
"The Book of Shang Jun and Han Feizi have clearly told you that once interests are involved, let alone father and son, husband and wife, relatives and friends, none of these can be trusted."
"You can't even trust your relatives, let alone officials who have no connection with you?"
"The only thing that can be done is to use methods to contain it."
"Punishment for punishment!"
"In addition, we can only decentralize its functions as much as possible to achieve multi-party supervision so that people will not dare to engage in corruption easily."
"But these are actually difficult to really solve the problem."
“But now we can only do prevention.”
"It is no longer possible to take further precautions."
"Unless." Ji Heng closed his eyes slightly, revealing a strange color.
"Unless what?" Fusu said hurriedly.
Ji Heng chuckled lightly and said: "Unless productivity is greatly improved, even a few liters of salt will be sold for less than a penny, and profits will be suppressed to an extremely low level, so low that even officials think it is not worth engaging in corruption."
"But it is destined to be impossible to achieve at the moment."
Fusu's expression darkened.
He originally thought there was a way to prevent it, but it turned out to be an unrealistic fantasy.
But soon.
He adjusted his mind.
At present, it is unrealistic to think of eradicating all corruption. Effective prevention would be good.
At least he knew the problem now.
Avoid jumping in headfirst.
He couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "I really didn't expect that there are so many ways to manage salt and iron. If it weren't for Mr.'s guidance, Da Qin might not be able to escape this disaster."
"The functions of Salt and Iron Officers should indeed be decentralized."
"Otherwise it's really dangerous."
Ji Heng said calmly: "Don't worry too much just yet. After all, the horoscope has not been revealed yet. When the salt and iron system under the supervision of the government is officially established, it will not be too late for you to worry again."
Fusu nodded.
He continued to ask: "According to what Mr. Daqin said, Daqin wants to hire a group of people to produce salt and iron. Can we directly requisition the people who were originally working in the salt wells and salt ponds?"
Ji Heng thought for a moment, nodded, and said, "Okay."
"But only salt workers and slaves."
"Anyone who has close relations with merchants will be kicked out."
"Ah?" Fusu was stunned and asked doubtfully: "Can't we keep a few people? These people are more familiar with the salt production in the salt pond, and they can assist the officials in supervising, and they can also facilitate contact with merchants in the future."
"Just leave no one behind?"
"No one will be left behind." Ji Heng's voice was very cold, and he said solemnly: "I know what you are thinking. With these daily management people here, officials can save a lot of trouble in daily life, and the court can control the salt ponds and wells in various places as soon as possible. "
"One thing to remember."
"Don't give businessmen any chance to taint their power."
"We should try our best to avoid the possibility of corruption in the middle links."
"Businessmen are a group of profit-seeking beings. These people are very good at climbing up the ladder. As long as they are given a chance to climb up, they will spare no effort to seize it."
“Having the help of merchants can save a lot of trouble.”
"But once merchants get together with low-level officials, it will inevitably lead to a merging of officials and businessmen, and a lot of corruption will definitely breed in the long run. If the imperial court gives businessmen the opportunity to serve as officials, with their understanding of the economy and their own financial resources, , you can climb up in no time.”
"Then take charge of the country's economic power."
"Businessmen pursue profit."
"Eventually the corruption will only spread and eventually fill the entire empire."
“A businessman’s job is to do business.”
"The duty of officials is to supervise."
“The job of a salt worker is to produce.”
“Do each other’s job and don’t try to mingle.”
"Once mixed, many unexpected things will happen, and salt and iron are inherently related to a wide range of interests. In the end, it will only lead to rampant corruption."
"Don't be greedy for temporary quickness and shake the entire rules."
Ji Heng looked solemn.
He wasn't being alarmist.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he quickly appointed merchants from all over the country as salt officials and salt officials. However, it only took more than ten years for these merchants to completely destroy the officialdom of the Han Dynasty. From then on, they even used the name of being willing to help the people's sufferings. The salt and iron business was restored to private operation, resulting in "insufficient expenses" for the court.
It was also from this time that merchants began to merge with the nobles.
Merchants are extremely greedy.
Once they find an opportunity, they will seek to compete for national resources in various ways and by various means to make huge profits, thereby becoming rich enough to rival the country and thereby threatening centralization of power.
Now, under the guidance of Da Qin's policies, the status of merchants is very low, and officials and nobles simply look down on merchants.
But in a unified environment, businessmen are destined to grow up. What Ji Heng has to do is to put a pair of shackles on the businessmen as much as possible and then put them in a cage. Even if the businessmen break free from the cage in the future, they will still have to wear shackles.
I feel like 20,000 words is not enough, it’s too tiring.
I code hard!
Woohoo.
(End of chapter)
