Wang Ju looked at more than a dozen officials and said, "I went back to Gyeongju City today and deliberately stayed for a while at a common people's house called Zuyang in Niuzhuang outside Huai'an Town. ”

Then he told the story.

Some people don't think so, doing business, there are profits and losses, just like gambling money, this has to be managed, isn't it full of food, and panic?

Wang Ju looked at everyone's faces, and he was not angry, the main thing is that these people really don't understand. Although it is possible that the family members of these people are also in business, I don't know what the meaning of this business will be, and what is the difference between business and business.

He also said: "Ladies and gentlemen, you know how expensive wool products are, but the craftsmanship of Gyeongju is backward and it has never been able to sell at a high price. If the process keeps up, the price of wool products goes up, and the wool will keep up, how many people will be fed, and how much tax will it bring? ”

After the latter sentence was finished, more than a dozen officials suddenly woke up.

How expensive the wool products of the Song Dynasty were, so expensive that future generations dare not imagine.

For example, in the fifth year of Xining, the monk Cheng Xun prepared to go to the cold Hedong, "Tongshi sweaters, woolen turbans, wool bags, wool socks, and straight money is five times." ”

Did someone say that there were sweater towels in ancient China?

How to say this, the towel is similar to the towel model of later generations, but there must be a difference in the material, and the sweater is not a later sweater.

It is mainly made of hemp and silk as the main material, with a small amount of wool or camel hair made of fabric, relatively thick, the proportion of wool and camel hair is also very small, more can not be woven.

And because it can't be twisted into a real thread, it feels fluffy, so it is also called a sweater, towel and wool socks, which will also play a role in keeping warm.

Of course. This kind of sweater towel is not the kind that Wang Ju thought. That is, the sweater towel in the eyes of posterity.

That's it. Worth five.

Cheng Xun's translator also bought woolen headscarves, wool bands, and leather handbags, and the three items cost a total of 50 yuan.

It is twenty times more expensive than later generations, and it is still a substandard product.

Fengxiang Mansion's specialty tape, that is, the fluffy belt, two zhang long, three or four inches thick, worth ten dollars.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were smart people in Gyeongju. Invented the wool twisted by hand, but this was too troublesome, so simply learn the people of Fujian Road, let the children twist the unqualified wool by hand, and then weave it into cloth, and then a horse weighing only 14 taels of "woolen cloth" is worth 400 pieces of iron, at that time the ratio of iron money and copper money to huàn is between 1 to 1 to 20, that is, the value of 20 to 40 dollars, and the value of one or two wool is always half to three dollars!

It's this bulky hand-twisted yarn technique that hasn't come out yet.

A Buddha blanket or felt. If it is sold in autumn and winter, it is worth more than 30 yuan, and in spring and summer, it is "sold indiscriminately". It also costs fifteen yuan, and most of them are Shaanxi counterfeit Xixia Buddha carpets, and authentic Xixia Buddha blankets are not available to ordinary people.

A piece of felt that is the size of a piece of silk in winter can be sold for 20 yuan if it is of good quality, and nearly 10 yuan if it is poor.

So to the tax introduction, can you still not understand?

If the workshop of Zuyang is supported, even if it only produces 2,000 felt carpets a year, and only sells 10 yuan a bed, the government can collect more than 1,000 commercial taxes just for taxes and taxes. Moreover, there is also the tax when the people sell wool, and they are not taxed on Zuyang, but the people always have to pay a tax of three percent.

Moreover, Wang Ju is ready to further support Zuyang, and plans to deliberately invite skilled Xixia craftsmen from Yanzhou, if the craftsmanship keeps up and the price is reasonable, the number of beds sold in a year is not more than 2,000?

This tax alone can ignore that interest.

However, one official said worriedly: "The prince is afraid that there will be a conflict of interest when he implements the Qingmiao Law." ”

Two cents of interest will be charged in that half a year, and only one cent of interest will be charged this year, and the difference is too big. Wang Ju said: "It doesn't matter, the Qingmiao Law of Jiekui Gong is to help farmers help the poor and crack down on usury, and mine is just to support the sunrise industry." ”

"Sunrise industry?"

"It is a promising workshop, the future is bright, the industry is not illegal, and the operator himself is also a law-abiding citizen, and at the same time it is only limited to the workshop and has nothing to do with the business."

In fact, it refers to industry, and at this time, these workshops are not regarded as industry, but also as commerce.

"Ming Gong, it's just that the interest rate is too low, if it's two cents, it's good." Another official said.

No matter how Wang Ju interprets it, the emergence of this profit distribution will inevitably conflict with the Qingmiao Law of two dividends, but if it is a two-point profit, then there is no such thing as zài, and even if it makes everyone have a headache, the apportionment of the Qingmiao that will come soon will be solved immediately, and it will not be apportioned, and it will be specially lent to businessmen who need it.

"Then let me talk about the Seedlings Law, to be honest, it is a disguised tax increase to collect money, so there are many people who oppose it. In addition, it is apportioned according to the wealth and poverty of each household, and the richer the more apportionment, but the first-class households often have power, and they cannot even hand over any taxes, two taxes, commercial taxes, miscellaneous taxes, and even scientific allocations to the state. ”

Dick Si can counterattack, that is, the opponent is weak, when the opponent is strong enough, even if there are millions of tap water, it can also be easily killed.

That's the truth.

"But why should His Majesty support it? It also has its advantages. You also know a little bit about usury, because we don't care about usury owed by gambling and merchants, but many powerful people take advantage of the poor people's urgent need to issue usury, and then force the poor people to sell their land to them, and even their family members become their domestic servants. At a certain point of annexation, the country will inevitably go to extinction. Although the green seedling method is accumulating money, it can at least stop the spread of this bad trend in a certain way. Indeed, some of the people who were waiting to be fed were also saved. Therefore, Haoqiang is against it, and the government supports it. ”

"Although they are collecting money, their annual income is only more than 4 million yuan, and a family is less than 300 yuan, and the rich have a lot of apportionment, so the pressure on the poor people is not very great. But the state finances have been in difficulty, and if it were not for the financial difficulties, I would not have had the opportunity to sit here and talk to you now, but the army continued to the west. It was the financial pressure that forced me to stop. Therefore, the official family also tacitly ignored Jiefugong's accumulation of wealth. ”

When it was about to be Gyeongju's turn to issue the green seedling loan, Wang Ju had to make it clear. Otherwise, there will be chaos under your own jurisdiction.

Wang Ju said again: "When the imperial court Qingmiao came over. Let the people choose for themselves. For the rest, let's appropriate. ”

"But what do you use to lend to Zuyang?" Another Cao Guan asked.

This is also a problem, now Wang Ju has some extra money in his hands, but it can be used to reward the soldiers of the three armies, and it can also be used to comfort the families of martyrs, and even rebuild their homes and build forts.

They can all barely be justified, after all, Gyeongju is a military state.

But take it out and give it a loan. That can't be said.

"That's right, that's what I'm talking about below, I heard that you have a dispute with the merchant over the salt tax?"

In order to sell more green salt, Wang Ju sent people to secretly threaten in the state cities that once the construction of the front-line fort was completed, it would not be expected that there would be any more private salt in the Song Dynasty.

If you open a new map, it seems to be like this.

Dozens of forts were built, blocking almost all the intersections together, and even the Great Wall Ridge Road on the side of the security army was also blocked.

It's practically impossible. In the future, there will be private salt dealers coming over.

However, the front line is indeed building a large number of civil works, and this is also an opportunity to sell green salt in a bright light.

Therefore, the news of the victory at the front spread. Many merchants flocked to the market and demanded to buy green salt.

This made Wang Ju faintly regret it, did he lower the price of salt? So a salt tax was proposed.

In the past, there was no salt tax, and when I bought salt money and sold it at a designated place, was the salt merchant still willing to pay the tax? I can buy salt money, not private salt, even if I am worthy of the imperial court.

But that's money salt, and now it's green salt, the salt that was robbed! Although it is the same salt, its properties are different.

However, the salt tax is also set very low, pay a tax, and a tax, then you can sell it in the state armies of Huanqing Road. As for other places, it has nothing to do with Wang Ju.

And Wang Ju also has a saying......

This time, the volume of transactions is huge, and the distribution groups of the income are also very diverse.

Therefore, Wang Ju made adjustments, such as the officers and soldiers of Yanyan Road, some of them were Baojie and Fan soldiers of the road, and some were forbidden soldiers from the capital. Then the most scientific method is to give a part of the money to the soldiers to spend, and some of it will be turned into commodities and daily necessities and sent to the soldiers' families. In particular, the tens of thousands of Baojie troops from Zheng Baiqu and the soldiers behind the Huanqing Road, these goods and commodities were directly handed over to the county stewards, and Wang Ju asked the stewards to hand them over to the families of the soldiers, which itself saved the transportation costs of the merchants.

But it is only one aspect, some of the income from these salt profits is used to build forts and rebuild homes, so it is not money and silk, but all kinds of materials.

As for the people who participated in the transportation, they also needed all kinds of materials, and now Wang Ju is using materials to stimulate the people of Yanzhou to pick salt, so more materials are needed. And these materials are very complicated, it is impossible to get money, and then go to the rear to buy all kinds of materials back.

Therefore, a part of the trade is used in the way of bartering salt, and the proportion is not small.

In fact, it is money, and it is also troublesome, and money has jiaozi, silver, copper and iron money.

Silver Wang Ju is the most welcome, and in the future, the proportion of silver in taxes is also increasing, and now every year in the annual tax revenue of the imperial court, silver accounts for more than 10 million taels.

But how many merchants are willing to trade for silver?

However, the remaining three currencies or quasi-currencies have the same headache, even if they are copper coins, the prices of various copper coins are not equal, and the copper coins issued by Renzong are far less than the copper coins issued by Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Kuangyi.

So Wang Ju asked the merchants in Yanzhou to help, and asked them to send dozens of stewards to help.

However, the quantity is too large and miscellaneous, and the price of goods is also fluctuating.

From time to time, various salt merchants still get into loopholes, and the cost of salt purchase will be reduced in disguise.

Everyone is helpless about this, the number is too large, it can't be prevented, there is no way to stop it, and who can control prices?

Therefore, after the introduction of the salt tax, various merchants were rejected, and these officials were also unwilling, so they asked, do you really pay the price of 22 wen per catty of salt?

In short, now the rear is arguing about this matter.

Although officials are a strong group, they are embarrassed to quarrel when they encounter money. So the two sides met each other, and they met good enemies, and they were basically tied. But either the east wind overpowers the west wind, or the west wind overpowers the east wind, and the two winds are not in harmony, can it not rain?

Therefore, Wang Ju said: "Have you thought about it from a different angle, now Gyeongju itself needs a lot of materials, some of which are provided by the imperial court, and some of which are exchanged for green salt. If you change it to the government to buy, with the rigidity of the government and the huge quantity, what you buy will be expensive, and it will delay time. Merchants make money, but we also save money. ”

This is a bit esoteric, but some officials still understand it.

"As for the increase in commercial tax, you can also explain to them, in fact, it is not much, only pay a penny tax for a pound of salt, but after paying this penny tax, you can sell it with a bright and peaceful heart."

What is going on with this salt, I am afraid that all the officials of the two governments and three divisions of the capital are not clear now, and these businessmen are also not clear...... Then they will be somewhat weak-minded.

Then you can take advantage of their weak psychology and make them willing to pay the business tax.

"In addition, I will pass on one more sentence to them, just say that I know they must be unwilling, but in fact, let them trade in materials instead of money, which is equivalent to saving them this penny of tax in disguise, people should be content, at least not let me be a fool."

But this question is not the focus of Wang Ju today, he continued: "In fact, it is not strict, and the businessman himself is pursuing profits, and it is normal to quarrel and quarrel. But I'm going to say another thing. Because of the salt transportation, many people will be involved this time. This time will go on for a long time, maybe two months, it can be three months......"

In fact, it is tantamount to grabbing money.

The longer you stay, the better, but it is impossible to stay in Yanzhou all the time, and sooner or later you have to withdraw your troops and come back, it depends on how the imperial court negotiates with the three Xia envoys, or what Western Xia has in mind, so the time Wang Ju is not sure.

"So there are many people who will get a lot of money because of this, and they will not be able to pay with all the money they have, so it will not be long before they will have a lot of money in their hands. But the goods they need are mostly obtained because of the exchange of goods for freight, where will the surplus money go? There are only two places to go, and one is used up with all day drinking, which causes the price of the whole Gyeongju to rise. One is to hide it at home, or even bury it under the ground. ”

Everyone looks at each other, and it's always been like this, isn't it?

"Why can't we do a guide, such as setting up a ministry or calling it the Gyeongju Development Fund?"

The big drama is about to begin. (To be continued......)