"Your Majesty, as the saying goes, there are no merchants without traitors. Merchants can't create wealth. If everyone is a merchant, who will farm?”Wang Zhi continued to persuade her.
"Minister Wang, I have a question for you. Where did the brocade robe you are wearing come from?”Long Yunfeng asked.
"He came from Chuan Country." Wang Zhi replied.
The brocade robes in the world came from Chuan Country. Only Chuan Country could make this brocade robe, and the quality was the best.
"Oh, the Chuan Country and Great Qin are far away. Who transported these brocade robes to Great Qin and made you wear them?”Long Yunfeng asked again.
" Your Majesty, it's... it's..." Wang Zhi was stunned and stammered, but he just couldn't say it.
"You can't say it, right? You are a merchant. Without a merchant, you can wear this brocade robe. Let me give you an example. In a village, every family has an orange grove. However, because there were no merchants, they could not eat these oranges themselves. They could not sell them all at the market, so they could only rot in vain.”
"But what if there are merchants who buy them in large quantities? These farmers could sell the oranges, and with the money they had, they could buy farming tools, cattle, and grow more land.”
"If that's the case, wouldn't the merchants turn the rotten oranges in the farmers 'hands into wealth? How can you say that merchants can't create wealth?”
Hearing Long Yunfeng's words, all the officials in the hall were moved and had thoughtful expressions.
"Your Majesty, I have to admit that what Your Majesty said makes sense. However, wasn't this what merchants did? Why did the imperial court still need to support commerce?”
Hmm, not bad, he had asked the right question.
" But the status of merchants is very low," Long Yunfeng continued." There are many checkpoints along the way. The cost of transporting oranges from the south to the north is too high, and the profit is too low. Not many merchants are willing to do it.”
"Without merchants to buy them, the oranges in the farmers 'hands can't be sold and can only rot in their hands. Then, these farmers might cut down the orange forest and only grow grain for a living.”
"If farmers want a good harvest, they will need cattle, farm tools, and fertilizers. And if a tailor wanted to make warm clothes, he needed cotton yarn, silk, scissors, a ruler, and a needle and thread. Building houses required wood, river sand, bricks, tiles…Could farmers, tailors, and masons produce all these items themselves? They had to be transported by merchants!”
When the ministers heard this, Wang Zhi immediately retorted,"I know that merchants have contributed to the transportation of materials, but their way of doing business is to buy cheap and sell expensive, and profit from it. However, the gentleman was righteous, while the villain was profit-seeking. Although it was not true that all merchants were profit-seeking villains, during times of famine, many merchants hoarded and hoarded food to earn money, allowing the hungry to starve to death. Therefore, the dynasties had always restricted merchants and prevented them from developing. If merchants are not restricted, they will certainly disturb the country!”
" Although the merchants are not directly engaged in production, the goods are transported from the places with surplus to the places with shortage. On the way, they work hard, and needless to say, they suffer exploitation and exorbitant taxes. They are also often robbed by thieves. The grievances and hard work they suffer are no less than those of farmers and craftsmen!”
"I know that many scholars look down on businessmen and think that businessmen pursue profit. However, benefits were the same as righteousness. Righteousness could be divided into great righteousness and small righteousness, and benefits could also be divided into great profits and small profits. Small profits were the petty profits that unscrupulous merchants earned money from, while great profits were for the benefit of the world.
I don't deny that there are some unscrupulous merchants who hoard goods and harm the people. However, there were good people in all walks of life, and there were also villains.
I believe that as long as they are legitimate merchants, they are worthy of being benevolent. What they do is the path of benevolence for the people of the world. Whether it is us generals, scholars, or the people, we should not discriminate against them!”
" By the same logic, on the basis of stable agriculture, the more developed the commerce, the more prosperous the economy, and the more prosperous the country.”
"In fact, when the business develops to a certain scale, the business tax will be much higher than the agricultural tax. At that time, it won't be a problem even if we don't collect the agricultural tax.”
The answer to this question was yes. Long Yunfeng dared to take full responsibility for this answer.
Because in modern society, agricultural taxes were abolished.
In Long Yunfeng's previous life, not only did they not have to pay agricultural taxes, but they could also receive a monthly allowance after they turned sixty.
Every mu of land planted with wheat could receive a considerable amount of wheat subsidies.
"Minister Wang, let me ask you a question. Do you know how much the national treasury's income is this year?”Long Yunfeng didn't reprimand Wang Zhi. After all, he was a descendant and understood the importance of business taxes to a country.
"I don't know." Wang Zhi was stunned for a moment, not understanding why His Majesty would ask him this question.
"Last year, the national treasury had four million taels of silver, and this was left behind by some corrupt people. Even if they weren't corrupt, I don't think they could have reached 1,000 taels of silver. Minister Wang, tell me, how much can we do with less than 10,000,000 taels of silver? Perhaps you will say that we can get it from corrupt officials, but Minister Wang, you probably don't know how much Great Qin spends every year, right? "Do you want me to read your fortune?" Long Yunfeng closed his eyes and leaned back on the dragon throne as he said tiredly.
Long Yunfeng rubbed his forehead with his right hand and said without opening his eyes,"" The Imperial Court has been delaying payment for the army every year, and it has been General Zhu who has been paying for it for the past few years. However, General Zhu's ability is limited, so Great Qin's annual salary has to be paid by the national treasury. Great Qin has one million soldiers, and if we calculate at a minimum of one tael of silver per month, that would be one million taels of silver per month, which would be close to ten million taels of silver per year. Even if we reduce our expenses, we would still need to spend around eight million taels of silver from the national treasury every year. Where do you expect Us to find this money?"
As Long Yunfeng spoke, he became more and more agitated. He even slammed his palm on the table, causing Wang Zhi to be stunned. Cold sweat trickled down his forehead. After Long Yunfeng finished speaking, he immediately knelt down and shouted," Your Majesty, I'm guilty."
"It is fine if you object to this Emperor lifting the ban on commerce. This Emperor does not object either. According to this Emperor's thoughts, the business tax can add more than 20 million taels of silver to the national treasury every year. This Emperor is short of money now. As long as you hand over 20 million taels of silver to the national treasury every year, this Emperor does not intend to lift the ban on commerce.”Long Yunfeng said.
" Your Majesty, this..." Wang Zhi stammered and did not answer.
20 million taels a year, he might as well kill them.
Long Yunfeng didn't stop there. Instead, he asked,"How many people and how much land were there at the beginning of the founding of the country? How many people and land did they have now? Our country's agricultural tax is 30% higher than that of other countries. How could the farmers not complain? Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it. Everyone understood this logic, but who would take it seriously before they arrived?”
Wang Huan stepped forward and replied," Your Majesty, when the country was first established, the land and population were less than one-third of what it is now. Now, the population has more than doubled, but the land has not changed much.”
"That's right, the First Emperor's concern is that his foundation isn't stable yet. However, that was then and that was now. He couldn't look at things in the past. Now that the land could not support such a heavy population, if they did not think about changing it, wouldn't it be suicidal? You must remember that times are changing, and the world is constantly changing. If he couldn't jump out of the cage, he would definitely be arrogant and bring about his own destruction. Come, record this sentence in my instructions: He looked at the world because the world was changing at every moment.”
Which of the ministers here had heard of words like 'epoch' or 'world'?
However, they were knowledgeable and had already understood Lu Chengqi's meaning from the context. They could not help but nod.
"I did some investigation in the market some time ago and found that there was almost no business tax in this dynasty." Managing a country was like controlling water. It was better to block it than to dredge it. It was not advisable to give up eating because of choking. Nothing in the world was absolute. There were pros and cons.
It was like a sword. If you danced well, you could become a real sharp weapon and cut everything at will. If you didn't dance well, you might even hurt yourself, let alone kill others.
In fact, it was the same for merchants. If you guided them well, they could bring you more wealth and make your city more prosperous. If the guidance was not good, just as the two gentlemen said, the treachery and greed of merchants could cause your wealth to be lost and the people to become poor.
Therefore, no matter what we do, we must make the best use of our strengths and avoid our weaknesses.
Merchants could transport the goods needed by the people back and forth, so that the people in the sea could get what they needed. The presence of merchants could bring taxes to the country and fill the treasury with money and grain. Merchants could make a city prosperous. Wasn't the reason why Luoyang was so prosperous because of the large number of merchants stationed there? Merchants could also gather popularity and increase the population of a place. Who in the world would not yearn for a prosperous place? Over time, the people would come to settle down, and the population would naturally increase.
Merchants have so many functions and advantages, why don't we take advantage of them? As for the bad habits of merchants, we can also formulate laws to restrain them. In this way, wouldn't merchants become the driving force for social development?
Therefore, I have a draft in my mind to levy commercial taxes, abolish the city tax, head tax and other complicated taxes.”
Zhou Sheng couldn't help but be shocked. Once these exorbitant taxes were abolished, could relying solely on agricultural taxes and commercial taxes really support the imperial court?
"Your Majesty, this matter cannot be rushed!" he hurriedly said.”
"I want to establish a special economic zone." Long Yunfeng knew that this matter would be difficult for the minister to accept, so he planned to set up a special economic zone to make it easier for the minister to accept it.
"Your Majesty, what is a special economic zone?" Li Zhenguo quickly asked.
Long Yunfeng didn't tell them about this.
"Special economic zones are special areas with better traffic conditions set by a country in order to concentrate and effectively utilize foreign capital and technology to carry out production, develop trade and prosper economy. The implementation of the opening-up policy and preferential system in this area is a way to absorb foreign investment and realize international economic cooperation. As the name suggests, it is different from other places. I want to reform the tax system in the capital, only within the Forbidden City and Jingzhao Prefecture. What do you think?”
" This method can be " first promoted around the Forbidden City. This way, it was still acceptable. If the tax really exceeded the agricultural tax, no minister could object to the promotion of commerce.
"If the business is developed, the tax revenue will naturally increase." Furthermore, those farmers without land could come to Jingyi County to find a livelihood. In the past, this kind of thing was looked down upon by the world. If the Imperial Court were to guide him, he would definitely change his mind. This way, they could absorb a large number of extra manpower and reduce the possibility of rebellion. I think there are many benefits to developing a business tax."
"Wang Huan!"
"I'm here."
"Zhen needs you to come up with a plan. Zhen wants to see it tomorrow and cannot neglect it.”
"I will obey your orders."
This was what Long Yunfeng and Wang Huan had discussed. As long as they could convince the ministers, they would let Wang Huan complete the plan they had written.
" Dear ministers, there's still a memorial." Long Yunfeng saw that it was getting late, so he discussed the general content of the reform today.
"We have no original memorial."
"Retreat!"
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