A few days later, organized by the Political Affairs Hall, headed by Wen Yanbo, gathered officials such as the Three Divisions, the Imperial Historical Observatory, and the Imperial Yuan to discuss the reform of Ye County in Dutai. This matter is the emperor's imperial decree, and most of the ministers in the court participated, and it was very lively.

Because of poor health, Wu Yu, who was sentenced to Shangshudu Province, organized early and arranged for soldiers and officials to serve the officials. Du Zhongxiao and Guo Shenxi, the imperial historian, arrived in Dutai early.

Hanlin scholars Ouyang Xiu, Wang Zhu and Wang Qi have already arrived here and paid their respects to Du Zhongxiao.

Everyone sat down, and Ouyang Xiu said: "The matter of Ye County, it is that Zhongcheng went there to check more than ten days later, and then wrote to the imperial court, thinking that it should be changed. Although Ye County has developed into a large settlement over the years, most of the officials have only passed by and do not know what is going on there. Zhongcheng, take advantage of this free time, why not talk about it? ”

Du Zhongxiao arched his hand: "Neihan invites you, dare not obey your fate!" Ten years ago, Yexian was just an ordinary small county in the Central Plains, but eight years ago, when I went to Yingtian on Jingxi Road, I found iron ore seedlings near there, and there was a coal mine nearby, so I decided to open an iron prison. After the establishment of the iron prison, it was originally used to make railway machines for the imperial court. Because of the population gathering, Yexian County is the closest, and there are no benefits. The iron supervisor became bigger and bigger, and many of the key parts, in addition to supplying the supervisor, had spare production capacity, so they were sold. Coupled with the railway, from this time on, the railway supervisor became the most suitable place in the world to open a factory. What is difficult to produce in a small factory is supplied by an iron supervisor, and the factory can do it as long as there are skilled hands. ”

Wang Zhu said: "In the final analysis, it's because of the iron prison. If the iron supervisor did not sell parts, there would be no such things. ”

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "Neihan, the establishment of the iron prison is to do things for the court and for the benefit of the people." Their machines are idle, they make some parts and sell them, they make money for themselves, and the people get benefits, which is a double benefit. ”

Ouyang Xiu said: "Ye County is easy to open a factory, why does it cause a lot of trouble?" It can't even be managed like a normal state and county. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "In the final analysis, it is still on the factory. Before the iron prison was opened, there were factories in the world, but they were not large-scale and had no great impact on the world. Ye County is different, a large number of factories are gathered there, attracting the population and forming large towns. When the population is large, it is naturally difficult to manage. The factories opened are different from the people's farming and the shops in the city, and the local people actually don't know how to manage them. ”

Several people were silent for a while, and Ouyang Xiu said, "Zhongcheng, is the factory very profitable?" ”

Du Zhongxiao said with a smile: "Now it seems that there are not many things in the world that are more profitable than opening factories." And now that the market is just opening, the supply of goods exceeds demand, and this is even more so. A factory is opened there, and only skilled hands watch it, and they make money every day. ”

Several Hanlin Scholars nodded together, thinking in their hearts. However, they still have no specific idea of what the factory looks like, what it produces, and how it operates. Du Zhongxiao said that it is different from the store, how different it is.

While a few people were discussing, Fan Zhen and Gong Dingchen of the Zhiyuan came in and sat down separately.

Fan Zhen is an official whom Du Zhongxiao has known since he was in the first place, and he is kind to himself and is extremely polite. The status of the Imperial Court has risen in recent years, and there are all officials in the Imperial Yuan, and their status is not much lower than that of Du Zhongxiao.

Ouyang Xiu said: "Just now we asked Du Zhongcheng for advice, where is Ye County special. Zhongcheng said that Yexian County is close to the railway prison and the railway, and many factories have been opened. There are many people there, and there are factories to make money, which is difficult to manage. Do you know the factory? ”

Fan Zhen said: "Neihan, factories are not a strange thing, aren't there many houses in Kaifeng City?" In the past, when I was free, I went to the factory in Kaifeng City to see it, and it was indeed different from before. ”

Ouyang Xiu listened and nodded: "I haven't been in the capital for a long time, and I don't know that Kaifeng also has it." ”

Fan Zhen said: "The east and west capitals, plus Ye County, the railway is connected into a triangle. Along the way, there are people who open factories. However, the most dense place is still Ye County. There is a railway close to the iron prison, and there is a railway, next to Fangcheng Mountain, the water source is abundant, the most suitable. ”

Ouyang Xiu, these Hanlin scholars, are all noble positions, and they don't know much about local affairs. After listening to Fan Zhen's words, he hurriedly said: "We are worried that we don't know how the factory is, so we will talk to us about it?" ”

Fan Zhen said: "The most different thing about the factory from the previous field work is that it is mainly machine-based, and people are equipped for machines. Without machines, even if they produce the same thing, they are not enough to be called a factory. ”

Du Zhongxiao was very surprised when he heard this, but he didn't expect the officials to make such a definition of the factory. If you think about it carefully, the factory will naturally have a definition in the later generations, but I don't know it, and this era may not be more suitable than what Fan Zhen said.

Was the previous handicraft workshop considered a factory? According to Fanzhen, of course not. The bureaucracy has its own understanding of these nascent affairs. In their eyes, the biggest difference is that the newly opened factories use a lot of machines. The most basic ones, such as hydraulic machinery, have been standardized with the participation of the iron superintendent. Some factories even started using steam power. And in the past two years, the use of steam power has become a trend.

Several Hanlin scholars were extremely surprised when they heard what Fan Zhen said. They don't have much contact with society, and they didn't expect this kind of place to appear in a short period of time. They have heard of machines, but they have never seen anything to produce things with machines.

Fan Zhendao: "So Du Zhongcheng said that the factory is different from the previous field shop, and the imperial court must take care of it, and it must change greatly." Factories are machine-based, and as long as they can operate the machines, they can be replaced at any time. Therefore, the imperial court should be dominated by machines. ”

"Machine-oriented?" Ouyang Xiu's brows furrowed. "How to be machine-oriented?"

Fan Zhen said: "If you don't focus on machines, you can't manage the factory." If the government wants to manage a factory, it must know what machines it has, what goods it can produce, and how much it is worth to sell. Only by knowing this can we manage and collect taxes conveniently. ”

Du Zhongxiao actually never thought about this problem, he didn't think of managing it from the machine. What machines are in the factory, which cares about it, as long as you know what to produce, how much to produce in a year, and how much it can sell. However, after listening to Fan Zhen's words, he felt that it made sense. Wouldn't it be a step further if you could count the machines in the factory clearly? From this, the output is calculated, the factory income is counted, and the tax is more clear.

To manage a place, the most important thing is to collect taxes. As long as the taxes come up, there are people in the government who have money, and they are afraid that they will not understand? The problem of Ye County, first of all, is how to collect taxes on factories. What Du Zhongxiao originally thought was the method of the previous life, the multiplication tax and consumption tax, but it was difficult to collect. Fan Zhen and others were the officials of the Song Dynasty and started straight to fixed assets. It doesn't matter what is produced first, the tax will be raised first for fixed assets, and then the rest will be said.

The Song Dynasty followed the Tang Dynasty's two-tax law, with the agricultural tax on land and the urban households on assets, and the actual collection of asset tax. When confronted with factories, the first thing the bureaucrats thought of was to collect taxes with reference to households. And the standard for evaluating households is the machine inside.

Compared with the current weak market supervision system, such tax collection also makes sense. If it is a multiplication tax or a business tax, the government cannot actually regulate the flow of goods, so it is difficult to do so. However, there are many problems with the collection of machinery tax, which is easy to hit the production of machinery.

Du Zhongxiao said: "Factories use machines, in the final analysis, to produce products to sell. If only the machinery is taxed, it is inevitable that those factories whose business is not good for a while will not be cost-effective. They are not necessarily doing poorly, or encountering difficulties, or just opening a factory. Factories should be taxed mainly on what they produce, supplemented by the rest. ”

Fan Zhen said: "If it is a tax on products, it is difficult to prevent factories from secretly selling, or setting up a market to sell, which is a bit troublesome. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "The imperial court can collect tea tax, and the products produced by these factories can be more difficult to collect than tea tax?" As long as you find a way, you can always get the tax up. As long as the government has money in its hands, everything is easy to say. ”

Ouyang Xiu said: "What Zhongcheng said makes sense. When a factory is opened, it produces goods, and of course taxes are levied on the goods. ”

Fan Zhen said: "The fields are used to produce grain, and we collect taxes, and we also collect how much we collect per acre of land a year, regardless of the year. ”

Du Zhongxiao finished for a while. The field tax is indeed like this, no matter what your year is, and no matter how well you plant, anyway, you will collect so much grain per acre of land. When you put it into a factory, you have so many machines, and no matter how many goods you produce, you will collect so many taxes. If you do well, the factory owner will earn more, and if you do badly, you will naturally make less money. When the factory first opened, it was just a period of discount.

This is to simplify the tax collection method as much as possible, which is more suitable for the current practice. Although the multiplication tax and consumption tax in my memory are good, I am afraid that they are not suitable for this era. In particular, with the addition of tax deductions and the like, it is practically impossible to operate at all. Du Zhongxiao did not expect that the bureaucrats of this era really had people studying the characteristics of factories and thinking of ways.

While a few people were discussing, Yantie envoy Li Shen, Duzhi envoy Zhou Zhan, and household envoy Zhang Luo came in and said, "It turns out that you have arrived, haven't you come yet?" The matter of discussion is important, so it is better to start early. ”

Ouyang Xiu said: "No." If we don't have people, how can we get in? They have a lot of opportunities every day, and they can't afford to delay a little time. ”

When they heard this, they laughed. Ouyang Xiu's words were a little sarcastic, and he had to wait for all the other officials to arrive before he would show up.

The meeting was mainly held in the political affairs hall, with the participation of Jia Changchao and Cheng Huan of the Privy Council. The capital hall is located between the government hall and the privy council, and the deacons must have sent someone to watch here, and they were only willing to show up when they arrived. If not, how can you show the status of the ruler.

A meeting of this scale must be a major policy of the imperial court. It was presided over by Prime Minister Wen Yanbo, which showed the importance of the imperial court. In recent years, factories have blossomed everywhere, and before Du Zhongxiao raised the issue of Ye County, the imperial court had already recognized the importance.