Since the advent of cement made by Gao Jingshi, Ming Dynasty has gradually accepted cement as a new building material. In recent years, from the perspective of the imperial court, a large amount of cement has been used in projects such as the renovation of the Datong side wall and the renovation of the Jibei side wall. The same is true for river engineering. A large amount of cement has been purchased for several consecutive years to strengthen key river sections and newly dug river sections.
According to Wei Xuezeng and Gao Pingshi's confession, this year alone, the amount of money used by Hegong to purchase cement reached 270,000 taels, and the total court allocation for Hegong this year was only 710,000 taels. Cement expenditure accounted for as much as 38%.
This makes it easy to understand that Wei Xuezeng came to Gao Pragmatic to discuss the matter of credit. Wei Xuezeng, the Minister of Industry, and Pan Jixun, the president of He, were both promoted by Gao Gong. They may have dared to postpone the payment of other funds, but for the payment for Jinghua Cement, They certainly wouldn't dare to postpone it at will without Gao Pragmatic's consent. This would greatly affect internal unity.
However, since it is internal, relatively speaking, there is an advantage, that is, we can discuss it privately, so Wei Xuezeng's trip today was born.
Gao pragmatically knew that the cement sold by Jinghua Cement Factory was actually quite expensive. He did not lower the price in this regard just because he wanted to "support national construction." Gao's pragmatic thinking has always been to hope that the Ming court will establish an effective and feasible new financial system that can complete various national projects within the scope of normal commercial operations, rather than learning from Gao from beginning to end.
He said that he was willing to pay taxes, which was true, because in his opinion, paying taxes is a matter of course. Without a good business environment provided by the country, how can businessmen obtain good profit margins? For example, once the country is in turmoil, some people may Businessmen can make money, but more businessmen will definitely go bankrupt. This is the impact of the business environment.
But taxes must be paid, and normal business practices should not be distorted. Of course, in the Ming Dynasty, there were too many distortions, but this was not the case. For example, in the three major battles of Wanli in history, many people of later generations know that the Ministry of Finance did not invest much money in those three battles, and they were mainly supported by the internal funds of Emperor Wanli.
In fact, for this kind of war at the national level, isn’t it natural for the Ministry of Household Affairs to provide military expenditures?
There are also various tax exemptions due to disasters in the middle and late Wanli period. Internal funds help to pay for exemptions and exemptions. Wanli even had to issue an edict to warn the Ministry of Household Affairs "not to rely solely on internal funds."
This is actually a typical distortion of the fiscal system. The local government refuses to collect taxes. The Ministry of Finance has no money, so it refuses to pay. The emperor uses internal funds to subsidize the state. Internal funds have no money, so he sends middle-level officials to collect mining taxes. The local government scolds the emperor for being greedy and the emperor criticizes households. If the ministry does nothing and continues to collect mineral taxes, the more local governments are unwilling to pay the taxes.
As the cycle went on and on, the situation got worse and worse. Local officials felt that the emperor was greedy, and the emperor thought these officials were useless. As a result, the overall situation of the country became worse and worse, and the emperor became less and less interested in seeing these officials.
In the final analysis, the key is that officials believe that the world belongs to the emperor. Even if the court is short of money, the emperor will have to pay for it from his own pocket. And the emperor thinks that you just want to reduce taxes here and there. Taxes should be reduced here and there. The Ministry of Household Affairs is so poor that even a mouse will not go. Once the country has trouble, not even a big man can come up with it. I have to pay for it out of my own pocket. How can I? You can do magic and make real money out of nothing. You should just forget about collecting taxes. I will send my slaves to collect them myself.
When the eunuchs arrived at the place, in addition to completing the tasks assigned by the emperor, of course they also had to earn a "hard fee" for themselves, so it was common for them to exploit the place. At this time, coupled with the fact that the local government is watching with cold eyes and even secretly instigating it, it is not surprising that there is a local disturbance against the mine supervisor.
To put it bluntly, it is selfishness and no separation of rights and responsibilities. Selfishness mainly refers to officials, but Wanli himself and his ancestors can be blamed for the lack of separation of powers and responsibilities. After so many years in the Ming Dynasty, no emperor felt that there was something wrong with the financial system and that it needed to be reformed.
Most of the emperors before Wanli did not realize that it was very important not to raise taxes. By Wanli, he actually "progressed" a little bit and realized the importance of money to the country, because no matter what he did, Everyone has to have money. It's just that he didn't think of a solution from the system, and could only rely on "shamelessness" to make money to subsidize this financial system that is riddled with holes.
To what extent was Wanli "greedy for money" in history? Some businessmen dared to wear bright yellow clothes, and when an official reported it to Wanli, Wanli actually said that as long as they paid money.
Gao pragmatism simply doesn’t know how to evaluate it. Is this a big-hearted thing, or is he just trying to make money to subsidize the state? In Wanli’s eyes, even such a major event that could be regarded as treason in other eras is just a matter of money.
Of course, at least Wei Xuezeng has not yet discussed with him the use of free cement. He just hopes to delay the payment time, which is still negotiable.
"Wei Budang, in fact, whether it is Jinghua Cement Factory or Jinghua's other industries, we rarely ask about the specific business. But in business, business is business. It does not mean that late payment or credit is not allowed, but It is unclear whether the cement plant will be affected by the lack of funds to start construction. This is delayed for the time being, so specific matters need to be discussed in detail."
This is the proper meaning of the title. Wei Xuezeng was not a passionate young man, so he would not understand its meaning, and he would not be very pragmatic in order to support his family and his country. He nodded slightly and said, "Of course I understand what Qiu Zhen said, but I have other suggestions. I wonder if Qiu Zhen is willing to listen to it."
Gao pragmatic smiled and said, "I'd like to hear some high-level opinions."
"It's not a high-level argument." Wei Xuezeng waved his hand and said, "Originally, when the ports were opened last time, whether it was Tianjin in the north or Ningbo, Quanzhou, and Guangzhou in the south, their official ports were opened by the imperial court. Although Tianjin Port is currently open because of Qiuzhen, your large investment has now formed a situation in which the private port of Beijing is the main one and the official port of the imperial court is supplemented, but the official port always exists."
Gao Pragmatic was moved in his heart, but he didn't show it. Instead, he asked with slight surprise, "Not bad, so what?"
"Those official ports were built by the Ministry of Industry, and the property rights are also linked to the Ministry of Industry." Wei Xuezeng really said a pragmatic and exciting point, "The Ministry of Industry means that these official ports can barely maintain their capital in the hands of the Ministry of Industry, even in the south. Sangang actually still has to lose money, so it’s better to just sell it and I wonder if Qiu Zhen is willing to take over.”
Gao pragmatically knew that what Wei Xuezeng said about "the three southern ports actually still have to lose money" did not mean that the opening of the port itself was losing money. The problem was that the tax introduction and import and export taxes were not the benefits of the Ministry of Industry. What the Ministry of Industry could get was just the port. Operating income. But where will the Ministry of Industry operate what ports?
Tianjin Port has developed some economies of scale thanks to its highly pragmatic private port, so the Ministry of Industry can barely maintain its capital. However, what is popular in the south is that everyone has their own small port. I would like to add that this The opening of ports during this period was not just a huge main port like in later generations, but many private individuals could build their own docks and call it a port.
For example, when Quanzhou opened its port, there were actually dozens of private ports, and most of them only had one or two piers.
With such dispersion, it is naturally difficult to form a scale effect, and Guangang will also benefit from it.
Although he was very excited, in business, Gao Pragmatic still pretended to be embarrassed and said, "Since Wei Budang also said that the three southern ports are losing money, you still regard this as an exchange for Wan Sheng."
Unexpectedly, Wei Xuezeng shook his head and said, "It's true that I lost money in the hands of the Ministry of Industry, but in the hands of you, Qiuzhen, how can I lose money and seek truth? Although I don't know how to do business, I still have this bit of confidence in my vision. These three things The construction cost of Chuguang Port is over 250,000 taels. Including Tianjin Guangang, the total construction cost is close to 400,000 taels. Although it has been a few years now, it should be no problem to estimate 350,000 taels. Please give me a little more, I I’ll sell you the four major official ports in a package, and you’ll waive the cement payment for this year’s river workers, and then raise a hundred thousand taels for the Ministry of Works. What do you think?”
