Beijing, Shen Family Courtyard.
In the lotus pond, a pond of red and white lotus flowers bloomed. There were fish leaping up, bending over to take a bite of the lotus flowers and taste them.
Shen Yiyuan sat in the pavilion, with no expression on his weathered face, only feeling unnervingly calm.
Run Niang picked up the teapot, poured a cup of tea and handed it to Shen Yiyuan, saying softly: "The doctor said, you have injured your liver this time, you can't drink anymore, drink more tea."
Shen Yiyuan shook his head bitterly: "I used to drink, and I didn't know how to get drunk after one or two bottles of wine, but now my body can't bear it with less than a kilogram of wine. The wine is getting stronger and stronger."
Runniang sighed: "The wine used to be very light, but since the imperial court's method of distilling wine many times was spread to the people, the wine has become stronger and stronger."
Shen Yiyuan knew that distilled liquor was not an invention of the royal family, but there was no doubt that it was promoted by the royal family. This high-strength distilled wine is delicious, and it feels good when you drink it, but the problem is that you will inevitably have a headache the next day.
Now, after drinking from the imperial court for many years, I started to have headaches.
Shen Yiyuan picked up the tea cup and drank it in one gulp: "Mother Run, you must have heard that the imperial court adjusted the tax on luxury goods from five taxes and one to four taxes and one. The year before last, it was still eight taxes and one. If there was some movement among the merchants, the court would It was adjusted to five taxes and one tax. This time the merchants took action again, and the court actually changed the tax to four taxes and one tax!"
Runniang was worried: "Of course I heard about such a big thing. The imperial court's adjustment of the luxury tax this time is not more like an adjustment after an in-depth investigation, but a punitive measure."
Shen Yiyuan took a deep look at Run Niang and nodded: "Yes, you are right, the court is punishing, punishing businessmen, and punishing officials who collude with businessmen! Just wait and see, Emperor Jianwen With his temperament, none of the officials who are close to the merchants will stay in the court for a year."
Runniang couldn't help but frown: "It stands to reason that merchants have contributed a lot of business taxes. The court should know that only by lowering business taxes can merchants be more active and business more prosperous. But why did the court do this? Could it be that they Aren’t you worried about business collapse and merchants no longer doing business? Doesn’t the emperor know that too much is too little?”
Shen Yiyuan walked out of the pavilion, looked at the lotus, and said softly: "Business collapse? No, you are talking about the collapse of luxury goods trading, right? The court is very smart. They lowered taxes on daily necessities such as food and cloth. This also meant that some small businessmen The pressure has been relieved, but the big businessmen who sell luxury goods are really suffering.”
"Besides, as more and more talents come out of the Imperial College, some people from business schools are eager to enter the business field, but they just suffer from the fact that there are not many opportunities now. Once a big businessman cannot bear it and wants to close down, believe it or not, they will Dare to go to the bank to borrow money to open a shop. Today is different from the past, and it is not easy for merchants to get along."
Runniang remained silent.
In fact, the imperial court has not interfered much with business in recent years. Apart from prohibiting officials from accepting businessmen's invitations and suppressing luxury, it has not done much.
Well, I forgot one, and that’s inheritance tax!
In order to avoid the huge inheritance tax, Shen Yiyuan split up the family in advance and divided the family property into four parts. Two shares were given to his three sons Shen Xiude, Shen Xiuzhi and Shen Xiuxian, who had just learned to speak, and he kept one share for himself.
This also means that Shen's family business was suddenly divided into two parts. After all, Shen Xiuxian's part is still managed by Shen Yiyuan.
But as a result, Shen's family property is no longer so rich, at least not as good as Chang Baiye among the Shanxi merchants, and maybe even not as good as other giant merchants.
The imperial court even openly used a conspiracy to write "protection of the property rights of descendants" into the Ming Code.
The emergence of this law means that if the division of the family is unfair, for example, the eldest son gets 80% and the second son only gets 20%, if the second son has no serious fault and has not been in prison for crimes, the court will It strives for a reasonable share of property.
When a large family divides the family property, it needs to be relatively fair. No matter how much you love a certain son or like a grandson, you cannot damage the property rights of other sons.
Many eldest sons of the family are very opposed to this kind of regulation, but the second and third sons are very supportive. This move is so ruthless that the court does not care about the quality of its descendants.
Whether the family property should be inherited reasonably? As long as it is one's own seed, a reasonable inheritance should be given. This is similar to the order of favor. It is an unbreakable conspiracy and it is also the knife used by the imperial court to divide large families.
Runniang and Shen Yiyuan have already seen this result. Shen Xiude is okay. He has studied in a business school and is a talented person. However, this son Shen Xiuzhi does not care about the shopping mall and wants to enter the court. He does not care about business matters. If the family business is handed over to the eldest son, the Shen family can continue to grow bigger and stronger in the next thirty years, but if it is handed over to Shen Xiuzhi, he can only destroy the family business in his hands...
Failure to manage well is tantamount to ruining the fortune.
And this ruined family property will enter into various transactions and turn into the wealth of the court. In three generations, it is very likely that the wealthy businessmen will be hard to find...
"The prosperous age of the Ming Dynasty is about to come, and merchants have more troubles. In the end, they are still reluctant to give up profits."
Shen Yiyuan put his hands behind his back and sighed.
Runniang nodded: "Unless the court changes its laws and policies, the merchants will have hard times ahead. By the way, I heard someone in Jinling sent a message saying that the court transported a large amount of cloth and silk on the fleet that transported food overseas. , the number is no less than one million pieces. How did the imperial court come up with so much cloth and silk? You must know that last winter, when it was extremely cold in the north, the imperial court allocated 800,000 pieces of cotton cloth from Jinling to distribute to the frontline soldiers."
Shen Yiyuan was also very curious: "Over the years, the imperial court has been very generous. Do you still remember the Shanxi immigrants' trip home to visit their relatives? In order to reward these people who did not forget their roots, the imperial court rewarded them with 500,000 pieces of cotton in one go. There were as many as five pieces down! All of a sudden, the cloth merchants near the capital were in mourning and had to sell at a reduced price..."
Runniang was very puzzled: "Think carefully, in the past five years, the imperial court has rewarded at least two million pieces of cotton to the Beijing army, guard sergeants and immigrant people. Although the imperial court purchases a large amount of cotton every year, we all know this. , but I don’t see the imperial court recruiting too many workers. Whether it’s cotton or silk, who produced it?”
Shen Yiyuan thought for a long time, and finally shook his head: "It can't be explained, unless they find a way to produce a large amount of cotton and silk with very few people. If this is the case, the end of the cloth merchants is not far away."
Runniang was silent for a moment and asked uneasily: "Is it possible that the end of the cloth merchants has come, but the court has put away the butcher knife..."
