First Prince of Ming Dynasty

"The Chen residence closed its doors to thank guests, and no one will be accepted except the embroiderers."

A middle-aged man wearing a fifth-rank official uniform patted the table angrily: ""Hmph, a woman's humble opinion, without our help, how could the Chen family be relied on by the crown prince alone? Let's see how the Chen family will be alone in the future! "

"That is, together we can represent the Jiangnan family. The dignity of her son and granddaughter is also due to our efforts to make it what it is today."

"Okay, what's the use of talking about it, the embroiderer envoy has already taken my two useless sons away, and the disaster of ransacking the family and destroying the family will fall soon!"

A young boy was holding a string of silver-coated gold loofah beads in his hand, and couldn't help but said: "Then pay the business tax, people like us, maybe it's because of a little Did Duwu go through such humiliating things as ransacking his house?"

The head of the other family flicked his sleeves: "I don't feel pain in my heart, you are the only one who can get away from the so-called A Duwu?"

"Chengyan is right. Being greedy for profit is a big taboo. No amount of money can compare to power. The imperial court issued a decree and there are hawks and dogs attacking. Let's cut the meat and protect yourself for now."

"Uncle's words are justified, and I also think that we should avoid his edge, and then try to find a way, such as this Zhao Yan, the cruel officials' methods, should be punished by the Ming Dynasty."

"Then let's do it like this. Everyone hurry up and make preparations. Don't delay or hide some small profits. Now that the matter has reached this point, it should be done beautifully, so that the court, the emperor, and the highness will know how good we are." Faithful!"

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The attitude of the Jiangnan family changed suddenly, which made the embroidered garments, which were already in a hurry, more aggressive. The scope of checking commercial taxes also spread from the coast to the inland.

This made countless local wealthy merchants weep for it. Some fixed markets were broken. Keep in mind the tragic consequences of evading business taxes.

During half a year's time for the embroidered clothes to go south, north, west, and west, the treasury has been enriched to an unprecedented degree. Yes, now as long as you are pleasing to the eye, I will give it to you.

The Ministry of Industry specially sent a servant and several doctors to squat in the yamen of the household department every day, serving the gods of wealth, big and small, with all their heart.

Fortunately, Zhao Wenjing, Shangshu of the Ministry of Household Affairs, was still sober. He knew that floating wealth should not be relied on, let alone develop the habit of being extravagant, so he severely reprimanded his subordinates, and then went to several government offices in person, regardless of the dignity of his own officials and court officials. Some of the money was recovered.

In the Wenhua Palace, Zhu Biao smiled to appease the several ministers who came to his side and said: "The head of the family has its own difficulties, and the ministers should also be considerate of Zhao Aiqing. Although the household department has some family background, it is used by the court after all. If you live a long life, you still need to be more careful and careful.”

Several ministers with gray beards showed aggrieved and pitiful expressions at the same time, and began to whisper about their own difficulties, especially the two ministers from the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War.

The Ministry of Industry said that the registration of craftsmen is almost released, and now you can only hire craftsmen if you want to start construction. Construction Division…

The Ministry of War said that in some places, the food and payment of the guards were in arrears for more than a year. The soldiers barely survived by relying on self-sufficiency. , otherwise it would be impossible to open up wasteland to grow food, and suppress bandits...

After hearing this, Zhu Biao also felt that the money and food might not be saved, so he had to look at the Minister of the Household Department: "Zhao Aiqing..."

Zhao Wenjing bowed and saluted with a cold face: "Your Highness, the Qian Liangchens from the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of War have not recovered all of them, and the remaining ones are completely enough for them to do what they said. Now they are still unwilling to let go, and they clearly want to get more money out of it." , I will impeach them tomorrow morning!"

The Minister of the Ministry of War immediately jumped up: "Well, you Zhao Wenjing, you dare to talk nonsense in front of His Highness, what proof do you have to slander this old man, the old man's sleeves are clean, even if the embroidered clothes come to the old man's house, you will have to Admire the honesty of this old man!"

The minister of the Ministry of Industry raised his beard and said: "You said that we are trying to get ink from it, but I look like someone who wants to do the thing of guarding and stealing."

The officials of Zhongshu Sheng and several other ministries did not think it was a big deal to watch the excitement, and they also felt that the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs was a little too stingy, so they also started to make trouble.

Zhu Biao knew Zhao Wenjing well, so he naturally knew that he was not such a person, but in front of so many veterans, he shouldn't be too partial.

"Does Zhao Qing have any plans?"

Zhao Wenjing originally didn't want to pay attention to their intentions, but he couldn't respond to the Crown Prince's question: "His Royal Highness, the household department is suddenly rich, and the bulk is actually obtained from house raids. The business tax for several years is only part of it."

"It is impossible for the imperial court to send out embroidered clothes every year to ransack the house. It will definitely cause an uproar in the court and the wild, and it will not be conducive to trade and commerce.

"Ahem!" Zhu Biao covered his sleeves and coughed, which is not easy to say outright.

"Many of the proceeds from ransacking are local dyeing and weaving shops, and there are also many male and female workers who have signed annual contracts. In addition to the original Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln, can it be integrated and opened to reduce the price of goods purchased in ocean trade? , to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.”

Is it a state-owned enterprise? Sure enough, there is nothing new in the world, and what happened has been repeated many times in history.

Zhu Biao is very clear about the advantages and disadvantages of state-owned enterprises. They can integrate resources to the greatest extent, but it is also easy to attack the existing business ecology, and it is easier to form monopoly.

The Minister of the Ministry of Officials frowned and said, "It's not the court's job to compete with the people for profit."

Zhao Wenjing immediately shot back: "The operation of the imperial court requires a huge amount of money and food. The agricultural tax alone is not enough, and the commercial tax is also insufficient. If you don't want to find ways to increase revenue and reduce expenditure, how can you maintain order?"

"There are barbarian countries overseas, Tatar Wara in the north, and Luchuan's military disaster in the southwest. There are disasters in the sky and disasters in the earth. If they happen one after another, but the treasury is empty, how should we deal with it?"

Facing the direction of the Jinshen Hall, he cupped his hands: "When the Holy Son of Heaven is here, there are no ministers. The Holy Prince sits in the East Palace and returns to the world. The place is like a finger. But if there is no hero in the future, the court will not form an overwhelming influence on the local finances. advantage, the local forces swelled up and rebelled, how to suppress it?"

Several Shangshu were speechless, Zhao Wenjing said to Zhu Biao: "Sang Hongyang's political actions in the Western Han Dynasty, there are several policies such as the policy of equalization and equalization of people's land, immigration, reclamation, and equalization, all of which can be slightly changed to apply to the present. , so that the people don’t benefit from gifts and the world uses them.”

False people's common land refers to the public land of the imperial court or the royal farm, the land of officials who commit crimes and merchants, and rent it to the poor and refugees for free, so that they can support themselves.

Nowadays, the people of Ming Dynasty don’t need these, because the land is vast and sparsely populated, but those refugees who migrated from Yunnan, Guizhou, Liaodong and Mongolia can be resettled in this way first, and finally they can reward the land with rewards to win the hearts of the people.

The meaning of equal loss means that the items paid by the local government to the imperial court are converted into local special products according to the local market price and handed over to the imperial court. For example, Jingdezhen and other places that do not use farming and mulberry can be used to offset taxes and corvees.

The policy of leveling is complementary to the policy of equalization. The imperial court collects a large amount of materials by equalization. When the price of a certain commodity rises too much, it sells it to the market at a par price to make its price drop; on the contrary, if the price of a certain commodity is too low , to buy in large quantities, prompting prices to rise.

This is a policy that has been implemented, and the disadvantages caused by it are also clear to everyone present, and they all looked at the frowning Crown Prince in unison, thinking that there is one thing in their hearts.

At least when these two are around, these things can be controlled. If they can be carried out as expected, even if it is only 50 or 60 years, it will be enough to accumulate great wealth. The country is rich and the people are rich.

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