Chastity Layman

"Teacher!"

As soon as Qin Lang entered his public room, Minister of Finance Li Jingxuan and Minister of Household Affairs Ma Zai who were chatting inside immediately stood up.

"sit."

Qin Lang was very enthusiastic towards the two of them, neither of them were outsiders.

Ma Zainai was the son of Ma Zhou, and he also worshiped Qin Lang as his teacher early on. As for Li Jingxuan, he was the son of Gu Governor Shi Li Xiaoqing. Of course, he also has an identity, that is, Qin Lang's disciple. When Qin Lang was a scholar of the Chongxian Hall, Li Jingxuan was a specially recruited student of scholars.

When I was studying in the Chongxian Hall, I read a lot of books and worked very hard. The students who came to help them, who were also not relatives of the emperor or the sons of the prime minister, were the group with the best grades at that time.

Later, when Ma Zhou took over as a bachelor of Chongxian Hall, he specially recommended Li Jingxuan, whom he admired very much, as a lecturer of Chongxian Hall and became a teaching assistant of Chongxian Hall.

After that, Li Jingxuan had Ma Zhou as a Bole, and with the help of Qin Lang as a teacher, his official career was smooth. wait.

On the other hand, Li Jingxuan, who had a successful official career, took the initiative to join the Li family of Zhaojun, making himself a member of the Li family of Zhaojun. This practice is very common in this era. For example, Du Zhenglun also proposed to join the Jingzhao Du family .

Li Yifu came from a poor family, but after he became prosperous, he also claimed to be from the Li family of Zhaojun. In order to curry favor with Li Yifu, Li Chongde immediately went out and asked his family to come forward and included Li Yifu in the Li family tree of Zhaojun.

Because the Du Lian Zong was the Li family of Zhao County, Li Jingxuan and Li Yifu also became a family.

Relying on these relationships, Li Jingxuan could not do well if he was not developed in the court. Even in the previous rounds of turmoil in the court, he was not affected in the slightest. On the contrary, he worshiped many mountains. Qin Lang, Ma Zhou, Li Yifu, Zhao Jun Li, the relationship with the Supreme Emperor Li Yin was not bad.

It is precisely because of this that Qin Lang formed a cabinet this time, and finally handed over the important job of transfer envoy to him.

As for the former transfer envoy Liu Xiangdao who was arranged by Qin Lang to be the royal doctor, Liu Xiangdao is also from Qin Lang, and his younger brother also married the head of Wenxi County who has a good relationship with the Qin family. Changing to Li Jingxuan is still because he does have good financial and economic capabilities, which is stronger than Liu Xiangdao, who was originally an official in the judicial system such as the Shaoqing of Dali Temple and the Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment.

"The two ministers from the Transshipment Department came here, could it be that there is a major financial matter?" Qin Lang asked with a smile.

"It's not a big deal. Although the third division is not affiliated with the Zhengshitang, after all, the government is a game of chess. Our third division also hopes that the grand master can listen to our reports more and communicate with us more, so that we can cooperate."

Li Jingxuan's posture was very low.

Qin Lang's disciples are all over the world, and now there are many important positions in the central government, such as Brother Laiji, Pei Xingjian, Shangguanyi, etc. Li Jingxuan is not particularly outstanding, but he is still very grateful to be entrusted with an important position.

The transshipment envoy is not attached to the political affairs hall, and the prime minister and the prime minister of the political affairs hall are considered to be on the same level, but Li Jingxuan didn't think so. Now the government is presided over by the grand master, whether it is the Privy Council or the Imperial Academy, or his transshipment department or the censor Taiwan, who dares to say that he is on an equal footing with the Grand Master?

Naturally, it must be that Wei Taishi followed suit.

Li Jingxuan handed over a report first, and Qin Lang took it and looked through it.

Interesting.

Previously, when the Supreme Emperor was still in power, private minting was banned, and the right to mint coins from the Qin Family's Lu Song Minting Supervisor was taken away, and the mining and metallurgy management system was revised, so that private mining and metallurgy could only be sold to the imperial court.

It also stipulates new regulations such as handing over banknote issuance reserve funds and deposit reserve funds. For the Luzon Qin family, these tricks are quite powerful.

And this report is something new from the Transshipment Department.

After Li Jingxuan asked the emperor to agree, he listed the Luzon plan separately, that is, many new regulations of the court may be suspended or not implemented in Luzon.

For example, Li Jingxuan, the director of money minting in Lu Song Dynasty, said that since the imperial court took control, the amount of coins minted has dropped from more than three million guan to hundreds of thousands of guan. Therefore, it is proposed that the Lusong money casting supervisor still belongs to the Qin family, and even because the emperor now implements a tax system for Lu Song, the Lusong money casting supervisor is completely owned by the Qin family, and the imperial court only sent a symbolic casting supervisor.

As long as the minted money is minted according to the imperial standard, it doesn't matter how much is minted, and it will no longer be levied according to the previous seigniorage.

On the other hand, the mining ban on the Qin family has been relaxed again. The mainland is still in accordance with the new regulations, but on the Luzon Islands, the Qin family's mining is not restricted by the new regulations. There is no limit to how much you can mine, and you are no longer required to pay mining fees, and you are not required to monopolize minerals.

Because the emperor gave the Qin family the privilege of paying taxes, one million guan in that year, all the taxes had been covered, so the Qin family could mine freely in Luzon in the future, without collecting mining taxes or monopolizing them.

The Qin family's mines in the Central Plains still have to follow the new regulations, they have to pay the mining tax, and the minerals have to be monopolized to the imperial court. But Li Jingxuan also opened a special channel for Qin Lang, that is, the Lusong Money Casting Supervisor can purchase iron and copper materials from the iron and copper warehouses of the Central Plains Transshipment Department.

The mint raw materials purchased are shipped to Luzon Qianjian, and an additional tariff is paid, and they are guaranteed to be used exclusively for coin minting.

This tariff is a tentative one-twentieth tax, which is five percent.

As for the purchase price of raw materials, it depends on the specific situation and is roughly based on the market price.

Although compared to the beginning, it is impossible for the Qin family to directly dig and smelt copper and iron from the Central Plains and transport them to Luzon. Buying copper materials from official warehouses, etc., has to pay customs duties.

There are a few more links, but after all, there are still channels to purchase the copper materials needed for minting coins, and the Luzon Mint Supervisor can start casting money again, and even no longer pay seigniorage tax.

In fact, the import tax on raw materials is now used to replace the previous private casting tax.

This is obviously a gift from Li Jingxuan to Qin Lang.

In the past, the Luzon Coin Minting Supervisor could mint more than three million guan coins a year at most, and the minting profit was hundreds of thousands of guan.

"Thanks."

Qin Lang nodded to Li Jingxuan.

"The Grand Master doesn't need to thank you, this is just considering the interests of the court, especially the amount of coinage."

Ma Zai, the envoy of the Ministry of Household Affairs, also gave Qin Lang something, but in the future, Luzon's banks, money houses, ticket numbers, etc. will also be listed separately in the future, and in principle, Luzon will manage it himself.

Including banknote issuance reserves, deposit reserves, etc., all banks and banks in Luzon only need to turn over the proportions stipulated by the imperial court to the Bank of Luzon, and no longer need to turn it over to the Kaiyuan Bank of the Ministry of Accounts.

There is no bank called Luzon Bank in Luzon now, but Qin Lang understood the meaning in no time.

As long as the Qin family establishes a Luzon bank in Luzon, it will be equivalent to the Central Bank of Luzon. In the future, local banks and banks in Luzon, including but not limited to those owned by the Qin family, will be directly supervised by this bank. It’s fine to pay everything here, and the Luzon Bank only needs to accept the regular review of the three court divisions.

As for the Qin family's bank and bank in the Central Plains, they still have to turn it over to the Kaiyuan Bank of the Ministry of Accounts according to the new regulations.

But no matter what, picking out the entire Luzon area will bring huge benefits, and it will also take great care of Qin Lang, a teacher.

Of course, all of this was approved by the emperor.

But Qin Lang also knew that if the two were not his students, who would take the initiative to protect the interests of the Qin family.

Now that the emperor has just been crowned, he needs the support and assistance of Grand Master Qin in everything. Naturally, there is no reason why he should not allow things related to the Qin family.

The emperor himself has promoted Luzon to the Luzon state, and now the Transshipment Department is treating Luzon directly as a vassal autonomy.

In the future, apart from paying a tax of one million guan to the imperial court every year, the imperial court will not interfere in other aspects, and will be completely governed by Luzon.

Looking at these two items, Qin Lang felt very heavy.

Very precious.

This is indeed what Qin Lang wants right now. Before Li Yin's New Deal, Qin Lang did not easily reject it. After all, Lu Song was an external feudal territory of the Tang Dynasty, and it was not a vassal state or a feudal territory, so he did not refuse it. reason.

Now the two items of Li Jingxuan and Ma Zai can be said to have helped Lu Song solve this trouble, and even eliminate his worries.

Luzon's shackles are gone.

"The national treasury should be sufficient now, right?" Qin Lang asked.

"Not bad." When Li Jingxuan, Ma Zai, etc. were appointed as the deputy envoys of the Transshipment Department and the Third Department, the first thing they did was to check the account books and treasury.

During the fifteen years since Kaiyuan ruled by the emperor, there have been endless wars. The Korean peninsula alone has been fought for ten years. This Western Expedition is about to begin again.

The money for raising soldiers and fighting wars is indeed a huge expense. Fortunately, the fiscal revenue of the imperial court is relatively high, and the financial situation has always been good.

"When the new emperor succeeded to the throne, there was still a surplus of 80 million yuan in the treasury. In addition, the grain, salt, cloth, silk, sugar and wine in various warehouses were also worth nearly 200 million yuan."

Li Yin has been tossing around for fifteen years, and he didn't toss out his family's wealth. It is indeed not bad to have so much savings, but judging from the imperial court's annual revenue of over 100 million yuan, this is only two years of tax revenue.

If it weren't for the imperial court's new industrial and commercial development of sea trade and large-scale mining and metallurgy, with Li Yin's tossing method, according to the state's agricultural finance before Zhenguan, I don't know how many times it would have gone bankrupt.

Only the 200,000 recruits of the Imperial Guards of the North Yam, the number of soldiers raised for a year alone exceeds tens of millions, and the soldiers of the Nan Yamen, although they don’t usually pay, but the officers of the Zhechong Mansion and the Twelve Guards Mansion can Not less.

Not to mention fighting every year, the military expenditure of this war is extremely high, and there is also the construction of cities and forts.

The Western Expedition is about to start in an all-round way. If the scale cannot be controlled and it cannot be settled quickly, with the little savings of the current court, it is estimated that the national treasury will have to be emptied after two years of fighting.

"If there is a gap in military spending, you can consider issuing one or two installments of war bonds. Remember not to impose taxes or apportionments at will, let alone attack businessmen at will. The current good environment has been managed with great difficulty for decades. Don't destroy it easily." Qin Lang suggested.

Ma Zai is young and speaks directly.

"Actually, the country is not short of money. What I just said is only the money of the treasury. This is not counting the emperor's internal money, which is a large sum. What's more, there are many yamen such as the Taifu Temple, the Shaofu Temple, and the Taipusi. Down below, there are many industries, such as the weaving bureau under Shaofu Temple, and the horse ranch under Taipu Temple."

Qin Lang also knew about this. These are considered to be government-run industries of the Tang Dynasty, which are state-owned enterprises, and there are also royal industries, which are palace enterprises. From ocean-going trade fleets, to domestic long-distance regional trade, to mining and metallurgy, handmade manufacturing, etc., they are involved in various fields, and often even occupy a large share or even a monopoly. In addition to paying taxes regularly, they themselves also There is a lot of profit left.

This money is the capital, and it is a very amazing sum when it is drawn.

Hearing this, Qin Lang felt relieved, as long as the court had money, then fighting a war would not be a big deal for Tang Jun today.

With external stability, the Central Plains will be even more stable.

"Teacher, there is one more thing about the purchase of spices."

Ma Zai took the initiative to mention the Nanyang Spice Alliance, and said that the Transshipment Department had no intention of interfering with the Nanyang Spice Alliance. However, the consumption of spices in the Central Plains is increasing day by day, so the Transshipment Department, Hubu Division, also has a plan.

In the future, it is planned that the Ministry of Accounting Department will directly place an order with the Nanyang Spice Alliance to order all kinds of Nanyang spices. The transaction method can be that the Nanyang Spice Alliance will transport the spices to Datang and send them to Zhugang, or the Department of Accounting of the Datang Dynasty will send ships to Nanyang ports. to transport.

The prices of various spices are determined by agreement between the two parties.

After Qin Lang heard this, he couldn't help but lie, they wanted to engage in an exclusive monopoly on Central Plains spice imports, and all spices imported from Southeast Asia would have to go through the Department of Household Affairs first.

The Southeast Asian countries united to form a spice alliance to control upstream output and control pricing power. Datang's response was also quick. They also controlled the purchasing power of the Central Plains, a huge spice importing region, in their hands, and then negotiated the purchase price through the market, asking for a discount.

This is the direct connection between the production area and the demand side, eliminating the need for middlemen.

In this way, the Household Department can hold more bargaining power. After all, he controls a huge market. If you don't talk to him, he won't let you in.

Another one, the Central Plains spice market is so huge, after they monopolize this import right, it means monopolizing huge profits.

Spices are imported to the ports of the Central Plains, and then distributed to the spice distributors in the Central Plains, and naturally they can make a lot of money.

Without them you have no spices.

The Department of Household Affairs can gain bargaining power over the spice alliance in the upstream production area, and it can also have pricing power over the downstream sellers.

Eat at both ends.

At that time, they will be the biggest middlemen.

I don't want to go through them, unless it is smuggled, but with the tyranny of the four major naval forces of the imperial court, who would dare to smuggle spices at sea?

Have you thought about the consequences?

"I don't think the imperial court's excessive interference in trade is not a good thing. It can be led by the Household Department to establish some spice import firms. These incense firms can be operated by the palace, government-run, or private. At that time, the imperial court will take the lead in negotiating with the Spice Alliance to purchase spices and strive for bargaining power."

There is still a difference between the imperial court monopolizing the right to import spices, and the government-private alliance forming a spice importer guild.

For example, the Qin family has always been a big chamber of commerce for importing spices, and this is also related to the interests of the Qin family. Not to mention, Qin Lang is very clear about the size of the Central Plains spice import market every year and the benefits involved.

If the imperial court swallowed it all, this matter is prone to accidents.

Qin Lang hoped that the maritime trade would continue to be stable, and he did not want any troubles to arise.

"The grand master's proposal is more secure and wise. We will discuss and revise the plan when we go back, and then send it to the grand master for revision."

Li Jingxuan readily agreed to revise the plan.