"What should I do if I make money? Of course, it will improve my life."
"Such as buying better firewood, rice, oil and salt, wearing better clothes, and eating fresh food, this will promote the development of shops and goods, and the court will also receive business taxes in the whole process."
"What should we do if there are too many commercial taxes? Of course we should repair bridges and roads, repair water conservancy, county schools, etc. to improve the living environment of the people."
"From this the whole process becomes a cycle, so only the development of commerce will drive all walks of life, make the people rich, and make the Ming Dynasty rich and strong."
Having said this, Xi Duanfan paused and looked at everyone, as if to see if everyone understood his explanation.
Everyone's brows were furrowed and their eyes were filled with thoughts. Although they didn't think through it thoroughly, their intuition told them that Xi Duanfan's remarks were right.
But at this time, someone sang the opposite and loudly said: "Mr. Xi, are you wrong? Your premise is that the yield per mu will increase or the efficiency of cultivated land will increase, freeing up more people to develop handicrafts, and then drive business.
But there is currently no big breakthrough between the two, so your assumption is not valid. "
"Why……"
After hearing the question, Xi Duanfan sighed.
This group of people are really old-fashioned and have no ability to draw inferences from one example to another.
After thinking about it, Xi Duanfan continued: "The one just now is a normal trend, but this kind of thing is normally impossible to achieve.
Because all dynasties have emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce. Although various departments of agriculture such as the Department of Agriculture and Agriculture have been set up, think about the nature of this department.
It is to control, supervise, and encourage, so it is also called admonishing farmers and mulberry trees. It is of a management nature, not a research nature of the Agricultural Research Institute.
In this case, how can you improve agricultural technology? Not to mention suppressed industry and commerce.
But among the past dynasties, the Song Dynasty was an exception. Although it also focused on agriculture and suppressed business, it was much better than other dynasties, and business developed greatly.
First of all, the development of commerce will promote economic growth. Commercial activities and industrial activities are interdependent and will increase the production, sales and exchange of goods.
This will then provide more job opportunities and drive the development of all walks of life.
Secondly, the introduction and innovation of technology. In order to meet the growing market demand, businessmen need to introduce more advanced technology and management experience to improve production efficiency and quality.
The production efficiency here requires a variety of tools, such as various instruments researched in the China Merchants Industrial Research Institute. No matter how big the Industrial Research Institute is, it is only one institute with hundreds or thousands of people.
But if the people see the benefits of this, they will develop their own research and development, and various devices will spring up like mushrooms after a rain.
It is then further developed by the Industrial Research Institute, saving the research time of the Industrial Research Institute.
Therefore, historians also commented that the economy, culture, and technology of the Song Dynasty were the best in history! "
"What I'm saying is this, do you understand?"
"I understand, I understand, but there is a problem. It is okay for the imperial court to open up business, but the people have no money to buy.
Just relying on the little wages from the handicraft industry and the income from selling food can only meet the needs of food and clothing, and there will be no large-scale consumption at all.
If you don’t even buy it, how can you promote business? "
Listening to this question, everyone turned their attention to the emperor on the dragon throne. Some time ago, the emperor said that he could make money in the hands of the people.
"As I said before, when the time comes, I will announce it!"
"As early as three months, as late as one year, I will do what I say."
Seeing the ministers looking at him, Chongzhen said: "Let's not talk about this today. Let's continue talking about business affairs."
"I obey the order!"
After hearing what the emperor said, all the ministers bowed and no longer struggled with this issue.
A trace of surprise flashed in Xi Duanfan's eyes. Enriching the people has been the most difficult thing in all dynasties. I didn't expect that this young emperor had a way. Judging from the reaction of the ministers, it was the emperor who came up with it alone.
After this thought flashed through, Xi Duanfan continued: "We talked about how business benefits and enriches the people, so let's talk about how to benefit and enrich the country."
"Rich Country, to put it bluntly, there is money in the national treasury, but where does the money come from? Of course it comes from commercial taxes."
"Due to various reasons since the founding of the Ming Dynasty by Taizu, the commercial tax has not been high, with an average of about three hundred to four million taels of silver. But don't think that the commercial tax is only this little. On the contrary, it far exceeds this amount. .
Before estimating the commercial taxes of the Ming Dynasty, let me calculate for you how much the commercial taxes were in the Song Dynasty when commerce was extremely developed. "
Having said this, Xi Duanfan turned around and waved to the entrance of the Huangji Palace. Two guards in golden clothes entered the Huangji Palace carrying a table with pen, ink, paper, inkstones and basic books on it.
Xi Duanfan took out a book, turned to one of the pages, and said loudly: "This book is "Yi Jing Fei Zha Zi" written by Zeng Gong. In the book, it is mentioned that 'Huangyou and Zhiping are both over 100 million, and their age is over 100 million. The fee is more than 100 million."
Then he took out another book and turned to the folded page: "This book is "History of the Song Dynasty". There is a record in it: "In the second year of Zhiping, there were 116,138,450 foreign and domestic investments. Guan',
The unit of measurement here is Guan, and the conversion ratio between Liang and Shi mentioned by this court is not yet clear. Even at a 30% discount, it would be between 70 million and 85 million Liang. "
"This is the "Yuanyou Accounting Records" compiled by Su Shi when he was the Minister of Household Affairs in the early years of Yuanyou. The "Income and Expenditure Narrative" and "Min Fu Narrative" clearly record its taxes and prices.
Based on the comparison between its records and the price of this dynasty, the final calculation is about 75 million taels, which is not too different from the estimates recorded in the previous two books. "
With that said, Xi Duanfan handed the three books to the ministers next to him.
Everyone looked at the paragraphs and words drawn with the pen, and it turned out to be exactly what Xi Duanfan said.
Hiss... The ministers took a deep breath, their eyes filled with shock. They were really shocked by the tax of 75 million taels of silver.
Then thinking about the business tax of four million taels a year in the Ming Dynasty, I suddenly became furious and my eyes turned red.
Although the commercial prosperity and tax rates of the Ming Dynasty were not as high as those of the Song Dynasty, there was always 20%, which was fifteen million taels of silver.
Where did the remaining eleven million taels of silver go? Naturally, it is businessmen and corrupt officials.
If there were an extra eleven million taels of silver every year, the Jiannu slaves might have been wiped out long ago. How could they still be able to survive for so many years?
Looking at the angry ministers, Xi Duanfan chuckled.
He decided to add more fire to everyone, making the flames burn even bigger, and then continued: "Do you think this is all the income? Obviously not."
