Gao Pragmatic worked very hard to explain terms such as "Gross National Product", "Productivity", "Production Efficiency", "Production Loss Rate", "Exchange Rate" and so on. He felt as if he had returned to the time when he took the economics course at the Party School. To the era of exams. Fortunately, Gao Gong is indeed a practical scholar and a capable person. He has worked hard in the CCP for many years, and he does have extraordinary skills in financial management. Although most of them are outdated ideas, he is really not willing to accept new ideas. Slowly, I finally understood a bunch of terms put forward by Gao pragmatically.
Then Gao Wuzhen changed his mind and brought out the biggest difference in the fiscal systems of the Song and Ming dynasties: "So, third uncle, you see, the gap between the industrial and commercial taxation in the Song Dynasty and the industrial and commercial taxation in the Ming Dynasty is so huge! In the 10th year of Xining in the Northern Song Dynasty, The total tax revenue is 70.7 million guan, of which 21.62 million guan from agricultural taxes, accounting for about 30%, and 49.11 million guan from industrial and commercial taxes, accounting for about 70% . Even if we don’t calculate the difference in the currency exchange rate between the two dynasties, nor the difference in productivity between the two dynasties, we can see a big problem from this ratio alone. How much industrial and commercial tax did the Ming Dynasty collect every year? In comparison, it is simply It makes me feel chills all over! Third uncle, you are a master of practical knowledge, and many of the data are much clearer than my nephew. My nephew will not ask anything else, but just one question: The actual amount of money collected by the Ming Dynasty and entered into the treasury of the Ministry of Household Affairs every year. How many times less were the taxes on salt and tea than in the Tang and Song Dynasties?"
Gao Gong had a sullen face and said nothing, but his breathing became heavier and heavier. After a while, he suddenly stood up and paced back and forth quickly, his annoyance palpable.
Gao Pragmatic didn't press any questions or say anything, he just drank tea in silence. During this time, the housekeeper poked his head around the door of the study. Gao pragmatically glanced at the tea tray in his hand, shook his head slightly, and waved his hand gently towards him. The steward was a tall old man. He glanced at his master and knew that he would be scolded if he went in now. He nodded gratefully to Gao Qingpang and retreated quietly.
I don’t know how long it took, but Gao Pragmatic had already finished drinking his tea, and then I heard Gao Gong suddenly say: “You’ve been thinking about these things for a long time, right?”
Gao Jingshi found that his third uncle's voice suddenly became much hoarse. Looking up, he realized that Gao Gong's brows were deeply furrowed and his expression was so solemn that it seemed as if water could drip out at any time.
Gao pragmatic sighed, the same solemn expression as Gao Gong was very inconsistent with his childish face: "Do you remember? Ever since you returned to Xinzheng last time to supervise your nephew's studies, your nephew has often pestered you to ask some financial questions. Among the questions and data, you once mentioned that in a certain year, the Ministry of Household Treasury actually received 3,124,467 taels of silver. However, did you know that before this, my nephew had heard My mother once accidentally mentioned that the Zhang family in Puzhou, combined, has a gross profit income of about four million taels of silver every year..."
"boom!"
Gao Gong punched his desk and said bitterly: "These salt dogs...salt merchants! They harm the public and enrich their private interests, all the time!" Gao Gong originally wanted to scold the "salt dogs", but thought of Gao Pragmatic's relatives My mother is from the Zhang family in Puzhou, a big salt merchant family, and she swallowed back the word "dog" halfway out of her mouth.
"Third uncle, my nephew is not speaking for my uncle's family, but my nephew still has to say... you are scolding the wrong person."
"Huh?" Gao Gong suddenly turned around and stared at Gao Pangshi: "Am I still scolding the wrong person? You just said it yourself, I am the Ming Dynasty court official who is responsible for the world's money and food, and my annual income is only three million taels. A mere salt merchant earns more than the imperial court in a year! How ridiculous this is!"
Facing Gao Gong, who was on the verge of rage, even the important ministers in the court had to retreat, but Gao Pragmatic was different. He still calmly looked into Sanbo's eyes that were slightly red due to anger, and said without being humble or arrogant: "The gross profit of salt merchants is naturally high. But my nephew has a few questions he has to ask.”
Gao Gong gritted his teeth and said one word coldly from between his teeth: "Speak!"
"The first question is: the salt merchants themselves do not hold any official position. Even my uncle Fengpan Gong (Zhang Siwei's nickname: Fengpan) has never managed the customary items of the salt field since he was elected, but left it to others. My younger brother took care of it, and from the time he passed the imperial examination until he was promoted by you, none of the official positions he held had anything to do with the affairs of the salt farm. The same is true for other salt merchant families, or even no one in the family was an official at all. There are many people, and if this is the case, how can we talk about harming the public and enriching private interests?"
Gao Gong didn't answer.
"Second question: Where did the salt tax system come from? San Bo, you know a hundred times better than your nephew. Could it be that the salt merchants set it themselves? In the end, the salt merchants were just forced to accept it. What's great about them is that The practitioners under the Guochao salt tax system are not the makers of the system. Even if the profit distribution is unreasonable, does the responsibility still fall on them? To put it bluntly, they just have a good vision in their ancestors and discovered the Guochao salt tax. Business opportunities under the system, that’s all.”
Gao Qiao's breathing became heavier, but he still didn't answer a word.
Gao Pragmatic didn't care. Instead, he stretched out three fingers and continued: "Third, you only see that the gross profit of the salt merchants is quite high, but you don't know how much investment the salt merchants have."
Before the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty's regulations for salt merchants were that salt merchants would transport grain to the border, exchange for salt at the border, and then come back to exchange for salt for sale. Salt is a consumable product, and salt merchants have to invest huge amounts of money to ensure the purchase and transportation of food. Therefore, although the business of salt merchants was highly profitable, the risks were also huge. In addition, no matter who it was, they could get salt as long as they transported grain to the border, so the pressure of competition was also great.
However, during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of the Ming Dynasty, a salt guide reform was carried out. From then on, salt guide was no longer a one-time consumption, but became hereditary. As long as you take the hereditary salt guide, you can receive salt, and you no longer have to work hard to raise food. Border. The impact of doing this on the country is naturally that "border reserves will deteriorate day by day". After the middle of Ming Dynasty, the combat effectiveness of the frontier army declined, which was one of the reasons.
"Huh? Invest?" Sure enough, Gao Gong's face was full of sarcasm, and he said with a sneer: "I only heard that a wealthy salt merchant spent extravagantly. I once heard that a wealthy salt merchant invited guests to dinner. The first-class banquet was only one dish. For mutton, five hundred sheep are used, for medium-level banquets, three hundred, and for low-level banquets, one hundred. Why so many? It’s not because thousands of people are invited to eat, but when they eat, only Cut off a small piece of meat from the mouth of each sheep and throw away all the rest. The reason is that 'the beauty of the sheep is all here, and the rest is fishy and useless.' Is this what you mean by investment?"
Gao Pragmatic had previously sent Gao Xiaozhuang to investigate prices, and he happened to know the price of mutton and mutton oil. He knew that if Gao Gong's words were taken seriously, it would certainly be an amazing luxury, but his expression remained unchanged: "My nephew doesn't know if this is true. But even if this is true... Third Uncle, with your wisdom, can't you see why they behave like this? Do they behave like this all the time? "
Naturally, this is not the case all the time. It is nothing more than showing off one's financial resources in front of certain officials, and then promising to "serve with all my heart" to ensure that one can long-term possession of salt and have a long-term monopoly on this lucrative business.
Gao Gong was of course easy to understand, but given his status, when he thought about this, what he was most concerned about was no longer the extravagance of the salt merchants, but the chronic collusion between officials and businessmen. And Gao Pragmatic’s so-called “investment” by salt merchants is naturally self-evident.
Gao Ge Lao's complexion immediately became three points worse.
