"Yes, it is precisely because each stone pond is as high as 300 taels of silver, so it cannot be accomplished by relying on the strength of an individual or a single place, and the commercial tax levied by the imperial court should be set for this purpose."

Zhu Youzhen stopped the other businessmen from saying that it was impossible to complete the speech of Hanhai Shitang, and he continued to add when the businessmen fell silent.

"2 percent of the commercial tax levied in Zhejiang will be reserved for the use of the local government, 4 percent will be earmarked for the construction of Hanhai Stone Pond, and the entire Qiantang River will be repaired according to the degree of damage caused by the river tide. The remaining 4 percent will be handed over to the imperial court. ”

Sun Chunyang looked at the expressions of his fellow villagers on the left and right, and then tentatively proposed to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, the area affected by the river tide in the Qiantang River is about hundreds of miles, and Your Majesty is going to repair all the Hanhai Stone Ponds in a long time." ”

Sun Chunyang's problem attracted the attention of all the merchants' representatives, and the construction of the Hanhai Stone Pond was a good thing, but if the imperial court was overjoyed and thought that it would complete this feat within a few years, then it would be a disaster for the people of Zhejiang.

These Zhejiang businessmen would rather endure the dilemma of bursting the embankment and building the earthen pond every year than support the emperor's idea.

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and replied cautiously: "Although the tide of the Qiantang River poses a threat to the people on both sides of the river, the threat on the north bank is greater than that on the south bank, and the danger in some parts of the north bank is greater than that of other sections.

Therefore, the imperial court will establish a unified Qiantang River governance committee to evaluate the banks of each section of the Qiantang River, and then carry out construction according to the degree of importance.

This committee should not only have water officials appointed by the imperial court, local gentry, and water conservancy experts, but also a place for representatives of merchants.

The committee not only has the right to decide the order of the construction of the Hanhai stone pond, but also has the right to decide the various raw materials used in the construction of the stone pond and the use of supervision funds.

The stone ponds on both sides of the Qiantang River are a century-old plan, and naturally they will not be limited to a few years to complete. I believe that after careful investigation, we should work out a construction schedule that is in line with common sense and complete it within a reasonable number of years. ”

The emperor's explanation dispelled the doubts in the hearts of these merchant representatives, but the imperial court wanted to take 40% of the increased commercial tax, which made these merchants feel painful.

In particular, the merchant representatives in the vicinity of Ningbo, whose homes were less threatened by the tide of the Qiantang River, felt that they had suffered a loss by the plan to build the Hanhai Stone Pond.

However, in Zhejiang Province, the status and power of merchants in Ningbo are far inferior to those on the Hangjiahu Plain in Jiangbei. Therefore, they could not openly stand up against this plan, and could only use the reason that the proportion of commercial tax extracted by the imperial court was too high, as a means of passively resisting the collection of commercial tax.

Zhu Youzhen did not agree to these merchant representatives to reduce the proportion of commercial taxes collected by the imperial court. Instead, he confidently threw out another bait and established the idea of Zhoushan Free City as a foreign trade port.

To be honest, the temptation to set up a foreign trade port was not very attractive to the representatives of these merchants. Even without this public name, the gentry and wealthy merchants of Ningbo were also engaged in smuggling trade.

But the city of Zhoushan, which gave businessmen administrative power, finally caught the interest of these Zhejiang businessmen. With the exception of justice and coastal defense, the power of other administrations was made public by the representatives of the merchants, which clearly touched the power in the hearts of the representatives of the merchants**.

Sun Chunyang always felt that the words he heard were not true, and he couldn't help but ask Chongzhen for confirmation: "What does Your Majesty mean that the imperial court will not interfere in all other affairs except for the justice, coastal defense and taxation of this Zhoushan City?" ”

Zhu Youzhen thought about it carefully before he said cautiously: "Roughly so, of course, the mayor of Zhoushan Free City elected by the representatives of businessmen must be appointed by the imperial court, and I will not allow a non-Ming person, or a criminal, to serve as the mayor of Zhoushan Free City." ”

"What Your Majesty said is very true, this is naturally a matter of course." Sun Chunyang and other merchant representatives immediately echoed the emperor.

A merchant representative asked Chongzhen with some excitement: "Dare to ask Your Majesty, how many grades is this mayor, can he enjoy the treatment of a formal official of the imperial court?" ”

Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this, he glanced at the merchant representatives below, and found that these merchant representatives were all waiting for his answer with a look of anticipation.

He thought about it for a long time, and then he felt that what he thought was the most important thing was that under the power of Zhoushan Free City, in the eyes of the representatives of these merchants, it had become a shortcut to the end of the country.

Zhu Youzhen thought about it and said: "Of course it is impossible now, the imperial court still has reservations about the idea of the free city of Zhoushan, and only when the way of the free city is proved to be feasible, can we consider other ideas..."

After some difficult talks, the 20 representatives of Zhejiang merchants promised the emperor that they would support the emperor's plan for the reform of commercial taxation proposed by the emperor at the merchants' congress.

Walking out of the venue of Zhejiang businessmen's representatives, Zhu Youzhen already had half of the confidence about whether the entire businessmen's congress could be successfully held.

But he also knows that this is just the first step in a long march. He could influence the merchants' congress to pass a commercial tax reform program that would benefit the imperial court.

However, it is another matter to really implement the commercial tax reform plan adopted by the congress and collect commercial tax in accordance with regulations.

The Ming Dynasty was a clan society, and the rise of natural merchant power was also developed according to the region.

Merchants around Dongting Lake and Taihu Lake, cloth merchants in Susong area, etc., but there are only two merchant forces that can really affect the commercial activities of all parts of the Ming Dynasty.

One is represented by the Shanyou merchants, the Shanxi merchants. They mainly relied on the grain and salt business on the border, and for a time controlled the commerce of the northwest region.

With the decline of the Kaizhong Law and the imperial court's crackdown and control of border trade, these merchants gradually shifted their financial resources to the Lianghuai salt industry. Huaiyang salt merchants were once synonymous with Jin merchants.

Of course, with the ** of the Ming Dynasty, the prestige of the center continued to decline. Border trade in the northwest is once again active, but it is mainly based on smuggling trade carried out by border troops and merchants in collusion.

And what can compete with the Shanyou merchant is the Xin'an merchant in the south. These Huizhou merchants, who only began to develop in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, made their fortunes by selling grain, timber and pawn shops, and had extensive influence south of the Yangtze River.

In some inland areas south of the Yangtze River, there is even a saying that there is no city without a emblem. By the time Chongzhen ascended the throne, the financial resources of Huizhou merchants began to gradually gather in the two industries.

One is the pawnbroking industry, where the good relationship between Huizhou merchants and officials, as well as the spirit of mutual assistance among fellow villagers, allows them to raise a large amount of capital and reduce the risk of not being able to recover their debts.

The other is the salt industry that the merchants of the Ming Dynasty are all hot about. The annual salt tax received by the imperial court was less than one-tenth of the normal amount, while the price of salt remained high in various places. It is conceivable whose pockets the windfall profits of the salt industry have fallen.

A penniless businessman, after finding a way to enter the salt industry, can accumulate more than a dozen or hundreds of thousands of taels of assets after more than ten years, and this kind of business myth can only happen among salt merchants.

Capital is profit-oriented, and it is precisely because of this windfall profit in the salt industry that the wealth of the Ming Dynasty continues to concentrate in the salt industry, and cannot be distributed to other handicraft industries. This also makes the economy of Jiangnan, although there is a budding capitalist employment relationship, but it has never been able to cross the final threshold.

If Zhu Youzhen wants to implement these measures as soon as possible after the plan for levying commercial tax is passed by the merchants' congress, it is obviously impossible to accomplish this task by virtue of the current inefficient Ming tax system.

Zhu Youzhen believes that the most suitable thing to monitor the economic activities of these merchants and assist in tax collection work is the pawnbroking industry in the hands of Jin merchants and Hui merchants.

Win one side and strike the other. It is undoubtedly the only way to fight politically, and it also applies to business activities.

Although Huizhou merchants escorted their business activities through good relations with officials, they achieved rapid development.

But starting too late and having an unstable foundation is ultimately a weakness that they can't avoid. Although Huizhou merchants entered the Lianghuai salt industry, the old salt merchants still maintained their special status and suppressed Huizhou merchants to expand their share in the salt industry.

For example, salt merchants from other places in Huaiyang can leave a household registration in Yangzhou, which is called a business registration. With this merchant status, the children of the salt merchants were able to obtain a special quota for children, which in fact was equivalent to opening the door to these salt merchant families to enter the official career.

Not all merchants could obtain merchant status, and the Huaiyang salt merchants, who were born in Shanxi, strongly opposed the settlement of Huizhou merchants in Yangzhou, and this was the biggest contradiction between the Jin merchants and the Huizhou merchants.

Among the representatives of Hui businessmen who went to Beijing this time, Lin Tang Fan was not ill, Xiuning Wang Fengyuan, and Cheng Dewei were the leaders. Fan Wuzhi runs the rice business, Wang Fengyuan runs the pawnbroking business, and Cheng Dewei is a wood merchant.

Although there were no salt merchants among the representatives of the Hui merchants, most of the merchants representing Jiangsu were mainly salt merchants, including the Jin merchants and the salt merchants from the Hui merchants.

These days, the emperor's collection of information on Jin merchants and Hui merchants is also in the eyes of Wang Chengen and other eunuchs in the palace.

As far as their position is concerned, they are naturally inclined to Jin Shang. After all, Shanxi is in the north, and the Jin merchants have made a fortune for a long time, and they still have a lot of influence in the capital.

Before the Changlu Salt Farm was annexed by the Four Seas Commercial Bank, the salt produced by the Changlu Salt Farm was basically purchased by the Jin merchants.

Therefore, when Chongzhen left the branch venue of the Zhejiang merchant representatives, he continued to study the materials of the Jin merchants and the Hui merchants in a room vacated in the Huitong Hall.

Wang Chengen couldn't help but cautiously said to Chongzhen: "Your Majesty, after these Huizhou merchants entered Beijing, they ran around, trying to win over the court officials to advocate to the court for them, and all the children of Yangzhou salt merchants can go to school on the spot. The minister thought that these Huizhou businessmen were not good people because of their interests. ”