Gong Shouqian Tsing Yi tied his hair, walked down with his head held high, and his spirit was full of spirit. He discussed state affairs in the Yixian Pavilion for not a day or two, but also a few years, and after honing for so many years, this kind of occasion is also commonplace.

The four of them came to the center of the hall one after the other, and the three elders sat down first, bowed to the three elders and bowed deeply, and then walked onto the platform.

At this time, the scene was silent, and everyone's eyes fell on this young man who was only twenty-two years old.

Some people are envious, envy Gong Shouqian was appreciated by the prime minister at a young age, and some people are jealous, jealous of why it is smooth sailing at a young age, and he still has nothing to achieve in his own year. Many young people in their thirties and forties have lived in this hall for three and a half years, and in order to have a good future, many people are trying their best to show off their talents.

Gong Shou stood on the platform and bowed deeply to everyone to show his respect.

"Ladies and gentlemen, what I am talking about today is the stakes of my Wang's new policy "Promoting Business Tax", and I hope you will give me advice on the shortcomings, and I will be courteous here."

Gong Shouqian saluted again, but at some point, two huge manuscripts were hung on the screen of "The World Public Instrument", the content of which was "Pushing Business Tax".

The manuscript is written in a very large font on straw linen paper, so you can see it clearly even if you stand fifteen feet away. Bai Liyan sat in the corner, far away from Gong Shouqian's platform, but the two giant manuscripts could be seen clearly.

At this time, Gong Shou humbly calmed down and said:

"As you must have heard, in order to reform the tax system and eliminate the drawbacks, our king promulgated the 21st article of the "Promoting Business Tax" today, which will be implemented in three days. As we all know, the current trend of profiteers in power is declining, and hoarding and making ill-gotten wealth has become a common practice, so that the people are in deep trouble, and the people are in a fence, and their livelihood is miserable.

Since the beginning of the world, businessmen have all been mercenary, disregarding the livelihood of the people, putting the country in danger.

The first battle of Jin Xian was due to the hoarding of rice by merchants, which caused the people to be hungry and the army could not continue, so that our army was defeated by the Jin State and cut the land for thousands of miles. Such a great shame and humiliation are all the work of profiteers, and if there are no profiteers to do it, how can they be defeated. ”

Gong Shouqian's incendiary rhetoric blamed the defeat of the Xian army three years earlier on the lack of grain and grass, and the reason for the lack of grain and grass was the hoarding of profiteers.

Of course, what he said was not wrong, even if there was a great drought four years ago, the grain depot of Xianguo should have been sufficient, but in order to promote the "Nongsang Order" and improve the enthusiasm of the common people to farm, Gongsun Yue proposed at that time that the warehouse should be opened to help the people, so that the displaced people can have enough stomach to farm.

Compared with the "Grain Field Order", which has been implemented for more than 600 years, the biggest improvement of the "Nongsang Order" is to encourage farmers to open up land and give preferential treatment and exemption of taxes, but it has not fundamentally changed the ownership attributes of land, and the common people are still unable to obtain lifelong and long-term property rights of land, only the grain tax has been reduced.

In order to encourage the reclamation of wasteland, Gongsun Yue opened a warehouse to help the displaced people on the one hand, and on the other hand, encouraged the peasants to go to the barren areas to open up the wasteland by subsidizing the cash grain. As a result, the Taicang Grain Depot, which was not sufficient, had a large outflow of grain.

Since then, the peasants have successfully opened up the land, and gradually kept a large amount of grain in their hands. In order to supplement the grain of Taicang, Gongsun Yue began to mint a large amount of money in order to legally purchase the grain retained by the common people, and the grain in the hands of the common people was re-entered into the treasury by purchasing at a high price.

When the people have money in their hands, they can't keep it all at home, and most of them have to buy daily necessities, such as cloth, leather, lamp oil, candles, needlework, kitchen knives, meat, etc., all the daily necessities that the state cannot monopolize.

As soon as there is more money, inflation will follow, the current productive forces are limited, the total amount of commodities within the local scope is relatively constant, and the increase in grain and money will not increase the supply of other commodities in a short period of time. When money increases dramatically, merchants have to increase their prices.

At the same time, people with active minds found that although the price of grain is dead, most of them cannot be purchased without authorization in non-good years. However, if the price of daily necessities is raised first by bartering, more grain can be purchased.

In order to ensure the basic livelihood of the people, the official price of grain is low when the wind and rain are good, and there are only four ways to trade grain nowadays.

First, buy a limited amount of food at official prices per person per day.

Second, they bought grain sold by princes, nobles, scholars, and doctors, but the price was correspondingly higher than the official price of grain.

Third, large-scale purchases can be made through the cities in the city or through the separately established markets to purchase grain that is far higher than the official price.

Fourth, after the treasury was full, merchants and princes, nobles, and scholars were allowed to purchase grain from the peasants at a price higher than the official price. At the same time, merchants are allowed to sell this grain, and this is precisely the problem.

Due to the increase in grain compared to previous years, shortly after the implementation of the Nongsang Order, Gongsun Yue issued a decree for merchants to collect grain to enrich local and private grain depots, and the aristocracy also participated in the grain purchase.

In order to cope with the increase in grain and the shortage of copper coins, Gongsun Yue began to mint money, which led to an increase in prices, which coincided with the free collection of grain.

Brain-wielding businessmen found that the official purchase price was dead and had the function of preserving value, but the price of daily necessities was floating, and in order to avoid the risk of currency depreciation, the price of daily necessities would inevitably rise.

In order to hoard more grain, some merchants came up with the method of bartering, using high-priced daily necessities to collect the grain in the hands of the common people into their own hands, and then hoarding it.

There is nothing wrong with this logic, and proper coinage can indeed stimulate economic growth, at least in the first two years of the implementation of the "Nongsang Order", which was not a big problem, but in the third year, the problem of inflation suddenly became serious.

Gongsun Yue minted a large amount of money, resulting in a backlog of copper coins in the hands of merchants, while the total amount of goods remained the same on the whole, and when there was a slight increase, the prices of almost all materials except grain were virtually pushed up. Bartering began in a very small area, and then proliferated in all areas of goods.

In order to ensure their own interests, businessmen used these copper coins smashed in their hands to buy grain at official prices through various channels. In order to stabilize people's minds, the price of the so-called official-priced grain often fluctuates relatively little, and is even adjusted only once every few years. While the prices of other commodities are rising, the price of food is not fluctuating very much.

According to the law, the official price of grain is fixed per person per day for purchase, and excessive purchases are subject to a high purchase tax.

In order to circumvent the threshold of limited purchases, merchants mobilized relatives and friends, and even paid people to buy grain at official prices. Over time, little things add up. If one person does this, 10,000 people do this, even the mountains can be emptied.

At the same time that a large amount of grain flowed out of the treasury, the social productive forces and the quantity of commodities were far less than the expansion rate of the amount of money, which led to the depreciation of the money after the self-retained grain in the hands of the people was sold to the state, and the same funds could not buy as many daily necessities as before, which in turn hit the enthusiasm of the common people.

The common people could not get the benefits, which naturally also hit the enthusiasm of land reclamation, and finally in the fourth, fifth, and sixth years after the promulgation of the "Mulberry Field Order", the wasteland that had been cultivated before was barren again.

At the same time, the merchants wantonly bought grain at a low official price through the grain market, thus emptying the grain stock in Taicang, and what was even more unfortunate was that four years ago it coincided with a great drought in a hundred years, and the country was short of grain.

In order to earn the materials of the Xianguo country, Zhiguo transported a large amount of grain to the Xianguo country through merchants to sell it at a high price, and bought the materials needed by the Zhiguo on the spot and shipped them back to the Zhiguo, which increased the price of materials in the Xianguo.

When the currency began to inflate and this marketing model was broken, Zhiguo began to buy back large quantities of grain from merchants from Xianguo and ship it back to China. Later, it coincided with a major drought, and Gongsun Yue's "Nongsang Order" was aborted

Gong Shouqian's blame for the lack of grain and grass on the hoarding of profiteers is not without basis, but he does not mention the major drawbacks and loopholes of Gongsun Yue's new policy, and it is also unreasonable to pour dirty water on the businessmen's backs.

Most of the people who listened to the political discourse of the Yixian Hall were scholars from the Xianguo country, and even poor literati who wanted to show their ambitions, and the shame and self-esteem brought about by the defeat and cession of the land, under the instigation of Gong Shouqian, stirred up the sensitive nerves of every nationalist.

At this time, Bai Liyan couldn't help but wonder, the time he came to Chenling was not short, except for more than half a year after the defeat, it was rare to hear Gong Shouqian's fierce rhetoric in the Yixian Pavilion, indirectly criticizing the Jin Kingdom.

Gong Shouqian is the guest of Prime Minister Gongsun Yue, without Gongsun Yue's instructions, Gong Shouqian is categorically impossible to expose Xianguo's own scars in public. At the same time, Xihuan's subordinates were full of ears and eyes, didn't she know that Gongsun Yue took the opportunity to stir up public opinion that was unfavorable to the Jin Kingdom?

Unless it is profitable for the Jin Kingdom, Xihuan is happy to see this happening, if it is profitable, then what benefits can Xihuan and the Jin Kingdom get? Is it revenge for the matter of the political envoy?

Gong Shouqian's redundant words and sentences are long, and there are few people present and there are few people at the station who have refuted them, and there is no shortage of echoes, and there are no comments from the "three sons" of Uncle Guang, Mingyangzi, and Changlingzi behind him, or these three do not understand economics and regard businessmen as traitors in the world.

Bai Liyan sounded boring, looking at Gao Xun, the tense expression on his face was floating with disdain and disdain, Bai Liyan asked quietly:

"Senior brother, what do you think of the resignation of Gong Shouqian."

Gao Xun leaned in and whispered:

"It's just nonsense, if it weren't for the flaws in the "Nongsang Order", how could it make the businessmen move."

"But Gong Shouqian is a guest of Xiangguo, and it is the permission of Gongsun Yue of Xiangguo to discuss politics here, I think it is better for you and me to be mixed in this matter."

"Alas...... What can I do about it......" Gao Xun sighed, and a look of frustration appeared on his face.

Gao Xun still held on to a glimmer of hope that Gong Shouqian would be able to point out the various drawbacks of the "Push for Business Tax", and now it seems that Gong Shouqian will not openly go against the will of his lord, and is purely pretending to be a whitewash of the peace. If you come out rashly at this time, you will inevitably become the target of public criticism.