Chapter 121 Feast
Just a joke.
The auction over there will be over soon.
The entire auction was not intense at all, it could even be said to be lackluster. Except for the coal mine, which was a hot topic, and the price was extremely high during the auction, the other prices were as expected, even a little low.
After all, a lot of things are communicated beforehand. Everything is prepared before the meeting. Most of the people at the auction are from the Xungui Group. Although the Xungui Group is not a whole, everyone looks up but does not look down.
They all know each other. It’s not like there was no communication beforehand.
Internal strife is less likely.
Of course, resources like coal mines are naturally subject to competition. No other things are needed.
As a result, the atmosphere is very cold. Most of the nobles did not go, but had fun on the flower boat in Nanhu Lake. The city of Beijing has not yet been built. Naturally, there are no high-standard entertainment venues. However, flower boats do not require a fixed location. It is said that a certain young master brought the flower boat from Yangzhou.
It has become a place for many noble children to have fun.
This feast was as cool as a routine.
However, the profits brought by this routine are not huge at all.
Yang Shiqi reported to He Xi: "The income from the land purchase totaled five million taels, and half of the land in Beijing was sold."
According to He Xi's plan for Beijing, the remaining half of the land was occupied by the imperial palace and official residences.
Ming Dynasty also had a government housing system, which meant renting houses to officials at very low prices. There is not even a price, but by the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the allocated official houses became privately owned. The idea behind this is to reform the official system of the Ming Dynasty.
Especially in terms of salary.
The salary set by Zhu Yuanzhang is certainly not enough. In particular, the depreciation of banknotes has led to an overall decrease in salaries. But is it enough to increase the salary?
So how high should it be raised?
It’s just that no matter how high the improvement is, the benefits derived from rent-seeking officials’ power far exceed the government’s salary, and there is even no comparison between the two.
This raises the question of how to keep officials honest.
This does not mean that any official will be corrupt. Now it is a principle of human nature, that is, do not test human nature. Perhaps some people have the brilliance of human nature, adhere to their own ideas, and can persevere no matter what the circumstances, so that they cannot waver. But most people are ordinary people.
The current regulatory capacity of the court is very low. It can even be said that there is no supervision.
This is what He Xi learned from the Liaodong nest case.
He Xi doesn't want to create an airtight system so that no one can take a step beyond the bounds. Don't reach out, otherwise you will be caught. It can't be.
The manpower and material resources required behind a strict supervision system are staggering. If He Xi wanted to supervise the system, it would cost several times as much as the entire Jinyiwei. And it’s not just a matter of manpower and material resources.
In this case, He Xi could only find a way to provide officials with high benefits and low treatment.
One of the high benefits is houses. He Xi estimates that there will be tens of thousands of houses, and almost every official in Beijing will have his own house. As long as you stay in office for one day, you will live for free. Different officials have different treatment. If they can really live in a first-class official residence, then the mansion they live in will not be worse than what the nobles planned.
The only problem is that when you retire or step down, you have to move out from here.
This is just the beginning.
He Xi just left a foreshadowing.
In addition, there are some shops in more prosperous areas. He Xi has made predictions and plans to leave them to Shuntian Mansion as one of the financial resources of Shuntian Mansion. After all, He Xi is already preparing to carry out reforms in Shuntian Mansion and eliminate the system of subordinate officials from Shuntian Mansion. He Xi can also foresee that the financial expenditure of Shuntian Mansion will be very, very high.
It’s so high that many people can’t even imagine it.
Without him, the entire Ming Dynasty only had more than 10,000 officials, but according to He Xi's plan for Shuntian Mansion, He Xi didn't even know how many officials there were now. If the lowest-level clerks are included, the number of people receiving salaries in one Shuntian Mansion would be greater than that in the entire Ming Dynasty.
Although the salaries of a large number of officials are very low. But the quantity is here.
Although Shuntian Prefecture already has so many taxes, it is absolutely impossible for Shuntian Prefecture's taxes to remain completely in Beijing. He Xi doesn't know whether the remaining taxes can support the city's expenses.
Naturally, he had to leave some backup.
This is just one of the backup options for Shuntian Mansion in the future.
Yang Shiqi continued: "A total of more than 60 factories were put up for auction, some in Beijing and some in Liaodong. The total return was more than 10,107,000 taels. Among them, the highest price was Yingkou Textile Factory, which totaled There are more than one million and a half million taels, and there is also the Mentougou coal mine, which totals more than 1.2 million taels."
The Mentougou Coal Mine is somewhat far from today's Beijing city, and there are also a large number of coal mines in the north of Beijing. Mentougou is also a bit tasteless. Everyone wanted coal mines, so He Xi took out the Mentougou coal mine.
But the Mentougou coal mine is not without profit. Not to mention that it supplements the current coal consumption in Beijing, and its proximity to Beiping City is a great benefit.
In this era, it may never be possible for Dadu City to transform into Beiping City. But that doesn’t mean that Beiping City is unimportant. Although it is said that the development ceiling of Beiping City will be very low in the future. But Beiping City is near Beijing City, and there is a foundation laid by Dadu. This is also very useful.
Not to mention anything else, just talking about military matters, the two cities of Peking and Beijing are only more than a hundred miles apart, and they can only defend the two cities. Even if the Yanshan defense line falls, it is enough to form a barrier. Of course, no one wants such an effect.
But now Beiping City is already a big city in the north. The domestic coal consumption in Beiping City alone is enough to supply Mentougou.
Not to mention the coal mines needed for industrial development. Dry coal mines must be profitable, but how much is another matter.
He Xi said: "So, there are more than fifteen million taels?"
Yang Shiqi said: "Exactly."
He Xi silently estimated that this number was less than what he wanted. But it doesn't matter anymore. He Xi said: "Two things need to be done quickly. The first is to send someone to take over. Hand over these factories cleanly to these people, and give them the ancestral trading company. By the way. Remember to warn them to pay taxes on time. . We also sent people to Liaodong to meet Liu Jing and asked him to establish an agency to collect commercial taxes. The commercial taxes in Liaodong will also be collected."
Yang Shiqi said: "Yes."
There are actually some trading companies in Liaodong, but they are much smaller than those in Beijing. He Xi didn't move. But now that Beijing has developed, Liaodong can naturally follow suit, not to mention that many factories are sold in Liaodong. Just for this aspect of taxation, He Xi estimated that Liaodong would collect more than a hundred thousand taels every year, just like for fun.
And Liu Jing must be very, very interested in this matter.
Liu Jing is not old-fashioned, and can even be said to be very realistic, but he still has some Confucian views, such as focusing on agriculture and despising business, and taxing businessmen. He has no mercy, let alone Liu Jing's personal rights alone. For one thing, he prefers to tax factories. m.
Without him, although Liu Jing is the chief envoy of Liaodong, the factory system is not under his control, which means that the profits of the factory are not in his hands and are not under his control. Even if Liu Jing promotes farming, it will take several years for the land to become mature farmland.
Only then can taxes be levied.
In other words, even if Liaodong is rich, Liu Jing, the chief envoy, is still very poor.
Now, once the factory is taxed, it will be a windfall for Liu Jing, not to mention that the current system of the Ming Dynasty has no provisions for this amount of money.
Yes, Zhu Yuanzhang's financial system was very strict with local governments. It can be said that local governments had almost no independent financial power. Zhu Yuanzhang also realized this mistake, so he gave He Xi sufficient autonomy when he reformed.
It can be said that He Xi's financial autonomy was the largest among the Ming Dynasty, even surpassing the Minister of Household Affairs. The Minister of Household Affairs can only spend money according to the rules, but He Xi can't. The money he got can be used by himself.
Some people died, but not completely...
