"I think the British public opinion is very good!"
Chongzhen sat up straight and looked at the worries in the eyes of the ministers: "I think your worries are unnecessary.
I'll ask you a few questions and you'll understand.
First, since it is a caravan, the goods are worth thousands or even ten thousand taels of silver. Can ordinary people afford this money?
Will those who can afford this money go farming?
Second, doing business requires talent and connections. Can ordinary people bear the risks of doing business?
If you are not careful, you will lose all your money, or even die in a foreign country. How can you have stable farming?
Third, don’t forget that the national policy of returning land to the people clearly stipulates that taxes should be collected based on the actual cultivated land. It must not be bought or sold, let alone abandoned. If it is abandoned, it will be punished in light sentences and taken back in severe cases.
In this case, even if someone wants to do business, they must either hire people to breed or the court will take it back. If the court takes it back and gives it to the people who need it, it will not be left in waste anyway.
Will they still go into business when they find that the money they can earn from doing business is not as good as farming?
Fourth, if the merchants make money, won’t the people increase the price of food? The merchants earn one thousand taels, and the people raise the price of grain from one tael of silver and one stone to two taels of silver. The income is directly proportional, right?
It is even said that if the common people do not sell grain, what will the merchants eat?
After returning the land to the people, all the cultivated land is in the hands of the people. If merchants want to eat food, they can only buy food from the people!
As long as the people unite, the businessmen will suffer the most. "
Speaking of this, Chongzhen suddenly thought of the property market in later generations.
Housing prices are ridiculously high, but people are still buying them one after another.
As long as the people unite and refuse to buy a house for a year, all real estate companies, regardless of private or state-owned enterprises, will go bankrupt.
But it is easier said than done.
Chongzhen shook his head gently and continued: "Fifth, caravans going to the mutual market must have a road guide, and the road guide is controlled by the imperial court, and those who want to do business must be strictly reviewed.
Questions such as whether they have enough capital and whether they can withstand the risk of failure will naturally discourage people from doing business.
Sixth, after the opening up, people can do some handicrafts during their leisure time, and merchants can purchase and transport them away and sell them, which can also increase people's income.
Finally, to develop the caravan, you need to recruit people, which can also increase people's income.
As people's income increases, they will naturally be able to buy more things, so the goods transported by caravans will be marketable. This is a cycle.
I say this, can you understand it? "
Listening to the emperor's three questions and three statements, the ministers all nodded secretly.
The cost alone dissuades 99% of people. Let alone a thousand taels, even one tael is very rare for ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty to have at their homes at any time.
Once more shops are opened and competition becomes fierce, money will no longer be made, and naturally no one will want to go into business.
Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Household Affairs, went to work again: "Your Majesty, I still have some doubts. Even if business is liberalized, the people will be richer, but it will still not be enough!"
"I have my own opinion on this matter. I will talk to Aiqing after I have figured out some issues! Let's not talk about this matter today!"
The ministers were suddenly shocked. Enriching the people is an extremely difficult task. Now His Majesty said that he already has an idea?
But before they could ask any more questions, the emperor directly changed the topic: "Do you have any different opinions on the Ningyuan mutual market proposed by the British Minister?"
"Your Majesty, please give me your instructions!"
All the ministers bowed and responded.
"Since all of you have agreed, I will assign the tasks."
"Fan Aiqing, the Ministry of Industry sent officials and craftsmen to Ningyuan to select sites and build corresponding warehouses and other basic supporting facilities. Plan them all at once.
It needs to be forward-looking and scalable, so as not to limit the space when it develops in the future.
In my opinion, it must be planned at least three to five times the scale as mentioned by the British public. "
"Chen Zun..."
Fan Jingwen, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, was about to reply that I had Zunzhi, but he suddenly stopped, with a look of shock and confusion on his face.
What did he just hear?
More than five times the size that the British public said? That is an annual output of more than 10 million in tax revenue.
The entire Ming Dynasty's annual tax was between 26 million and 30 million, and the silver in the treasury was only between 3 and 5 million.
A mutual market can produce 10 million taels?
Is the emperor crazy?
"Your Majesty, your Majesty, forgive me for being stupid, but what you just said was more than five times?"
"Yes, what's the problem?"
"have……"
"Fan Shangshu, what's the problem? His Majesty just asked you to plan for future development, and he didn't ask you to build it now. Planning is better than not planning at all."
"What Mr. Sun Ge said is absolutely true. The lower official is stupid!"
After listening to Sun Chengzong's words, Fan Jingwen cupped his hands towards Sun Chengzong, and then looked at the emperor: "I respectfully obey your Majesty's decree!"
Seeing the shocked and confused looks of the ministers, Chongzhen sighed in his heart. This is the limitation of the times or the problem of backward agricultural development.
Historically, 70% of the 70,000 people living in Zhangjiakou City at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China were merchants.
There are 7,000 shops in the entire city, and there are 1,500 just outside Dajingmen.
There are forty-two banks and bank accounts, and forty-four foreign banks have settled in the area.
What's even more exaggerated is that the shops outside Dajingmen have an annual turnover of 150 million taels and export 400,000 boxes of tea. The entire Zhangjiakou has an annual turnover of at least 400 million taels of silver.
If one is drawn in thirty, Zhangjiakou alone can draw 12 million taels of silver in commercial taxes a year.
With the continuous growth of Zhangku Avenue and the opening of Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway and Zhangku Highway, Zhangjiakou has won a series of titles such as land commercial port, dry wharf, northern tea capital, and leather capital.
You must know that Zhangjiakou only occupies the starting point of Zhangku (Ulaanbaatar) Avenue. Even though this grassland Silk Road is nearly three thousand miles long, the number of people along the way can only be said to be average.
The current Ningyuan Mutual Market is connected to the known Liaodong, North Korea, Fusang, including part of Mongolia, and is likely to be connected to Rakshasa and other countries in the future. It is likely to be more prosperous than Zhangjiakou.
If we don’t plan well now, when it develops later, adjustments will consume a lot of materials and a lot of time, but time waits for no one.
Now we are just opening up the mutual market and increasing the types of goods that can be traded. After the entire Ming Dynasty is completely opened to commerce and the sea ban is completely lifted, the mutual trade in Zhangjiakou in later generations will be just average.
But there are still two opportunities left before the complete liberalization of business.
One is to cripple Fuso and the entrenched Spanish and Dutch forces to prevent them from plundering passing merchant ships;
Next is the steam engine. Before the Northern Army left Beijing, Wang Zheng said that the steam engine was ready when he sent three-wheeled field artillery carriages. Now more than four months have passed, and I don’t know how the progress is.
Once the steam engine is completed, it will not be possible to build a railway train for a while, but it will be possible to install it on a cargo ship.
By increasing cargo volume and reducing transportation time, costs will naturally come down.
"Time will prove that my decision will definitely be the wisest decision in the future!"
