Gao Gong thought for a moment, and asked more deeply: "This management fee or commercial tax, there must be a standard for charging, right?" How is this criterion determined? ”

Gao pragmatic said: "On this issue, the nephew has two considerations, and is about to ask the third uncle to help consider: the first is to tax according to the construction area or business area, for example, your store covers an area of one acre, then I will first set a tax standard, for example, one or two silver a month, if it is just a small stall, then the business area may be far less than one acre, in this case, I may only charge you ten cents a month - of course, this figure is just a nephew's casual remarks, just an analogy." Oh, by the way, if it's an acre, but the store actually has two floors, then it's two acres. ”

Mr. Xiao Gao, you are really a great talent who can break two pennies for one penny.

Gao Gong thought for a moment and replied: "I think this idea is not bad, but one acre of land is too big, and the storefront with a radius of five zhang is already very large, and there is no problem at all to collect one or two taels of silver a month." ”

Well, it seems that Gao Ge Lao is not delicate......

Gao pragmatic just smiled and bowed. In fact, in addition to military households and farmers, the wealth of the Ming people is quite amazing, and these "citizen" class, especially the merchant class inside, is not short of money at all! If they are short of money, what do they do with so much silver? Set up a feast, what do you do with hundreds of sheep for a piece of mutton?

To put it bluntly, there is no place for private wealth to invest in, and there is no place to consume, and life and life have been turned into dead money, or it has been wasted. At the beginning, Chongzhen was so poor that his yellow robe was patched, and he pulled down the face of the Son of Heaven to borrow money from the princes and ministers, how many did he borrow? As a result, after Li broke into Beijing, he ate tens of millions of taels just by eating large households, and then later the Tatars entered the customs and occupied North China, and the taxes collected were even more than the whole country combined in the Ming Dynasty, where did the money come from?

Various scholars in later generations have written countless monographs and articles, although they have disputes about some figures, but the point that is almost controversial is also clear: the Ming Dynasty is actually not short of money, and the real shortage of money is only the imperial court! And the tax rate of the Ming Dynasty is even more magical, not to mention that the commercial tax is so low that the people of later generations are shocked, even the agricultural tax is actually quite low.

Then why was there still a surging peasant uprising in the end? It's not because there is a problem with the subject of tax payment! Those who have little land are tightening their belts to pay taxes, while those who really occupy a lot of land pay very little or no taxes at all. If it was during the Chengping period, it might still be barely able to survive, but it happened to run into the Xiaoice River period, and the entire northern natural disasters continued, with the financial strength of the Ming court, which was so poor that it was only a pants, naturally there was no disaster relief ability, can it not boil but Yingtian? Coincidentally, the Tunguska boar skin outside the gate also rebelled......

Therefore, Daming's problem belongs to the interrelated serial syndrome, or complications, not just to solve everything will be fine, there are too many things to solve. However, although there are many problems, Gao Pragmatic, a person who has been in politics in later generations, knows very well that the solution of most of the world's problems must fall on the word money in the final analysis: as long as there is money, these things can be handled; There is no money, everyone is waiting for the ancestral grave of the old Zhu family Fengyang to be dug up, and it is estimated that there will be no running for the next ten days in Yangzhou, the three massacres in Jiading, etc.

As for letting Mr. Xiao Gao incarnate as a military god, he will fight in all directions and sweep the world...... What are you kidding, he was originally a law student, and he studied economics in the party school, so he gave up his strengths and went to lead the troops to fight? He didn't graduate of the Army Command College!

In the military, Gao Pragmatic himself estimates that the great thing is to reform some military systems, guide the research and development of firearms, supervise the quality of the military industry, and then improve the treatment of the army.

At this time, Gao Gong remembered one more thing and said: "Also, just now I only talked about some measures to use the canal, and you haven't said the reason for building a wharf at Dagukou." ”

Gao pragmatically said: There are too many aspects involved in this matter, and I don't know if the third uncle will support it?

Gao Gong saw that Gao Pragmatic was a little hesitant, thinking that he had received so many unexpected surprises today, although it was just some ideas, in fact, there were still many problems, and he would definitely have to be cautious if he really wanted to do it, but at least it could be seen that his nephew was really talented in managing politics, maybe he could also give himself some inspiration for the idea of building a port?

smiled immediately: "It's just gossip at home, what to say but to be blunt." ”

Gao pragmatic thought about it and asked tentatively: "I heard that in July last year, the Yellow River burst, and the flood spread from Kaocheng, Yucheng, Caoxian, Shanxian, Fengxian, and Peixian all the way to Xuzhou. Due to the flow of the river, all the canals around Xuzhou were silted, and the water level of the river south of Xuzhou was reduced, which eventually led to more than 2,000 grain ships being blocked in Pizhou and unable to move forward? ”

Gao Gong reacted extremely quickly this time: "Hmm...... Why, do you also think that we should change from water transportation to sea transportation? ”

"It's a tricky question." Gao pragmatic thought for a while and said, "But in general, I do agree with the replacement of water transportation by sea, this matter...... Better a finger off than always aching. ”

"Long pain is better than short pain?" Gao arched his eyebrows and shook his head: "I'm afraid this matter is not as simple as you think, do you know how much the short pain you are talking about can hurt?" ”

Gao pragmatic said: All I know are some of the arguments of later generations, and I don't know if it is comprehensive or not, so it is better to listen to what the third uncle said and then make plans.

So he said respectfully: "My nephew is also afraid that he will not know well and be inconsiderate, so he will ask the third uncle for advice." ”

Gao Gong saw that he had a good attitude, nodded, sighed, and said faintly: "The sea began in the Yuan Dynasty of the previous dynasty, and after Taizu drove out the Tartars and restored China, because of some relationships, it was repeatedly stopped, and the last time it was completely banned was in the forty-fifth year of Jiajing. ”

Gao Pragmatic was surprised: It turned out that the Ming Dynasty's "South-to-North Grain Transfer" was carried out by sea, and it was "repeatedly stopped", and it was not completely banned until a few years ago? But why?

"In fact, this time the complete suspension of shipping is not without controversy, and there are different views on this inside and outside the court. In general, whenever the light transportation is blocked, the call for the resumption of sea transportation is getting louder. The reason is also that the Cao River frequently bursts, the Cao transportation has been repeatedly blocked, and a large amount of Cao boats and grain have been lost, which in turn has led to the emptiness of Taicang, and the officials and people of Beijing are panicked. After the succession to the throne, the flooding of the Yellow River has not improved, and it still happens from time to time, and this time the Cao River is silted up in Xiapi again...... Alas, our country looks up to the southeast rice millet, no less than a few million years old, once it is silted, then the Beijing division can only sit in the trap. ”