My life skills in Daming Liver

Southeast, Suzhou Prefecture.

"Master Prefect."

He Xinyin rubbed his eyes, took his mind off the pile of files on the desk, and looked at the clerk outside the door.

"Master Prefect, Master Alfonso has arrived."

He Xinyin then remembered that he had an appointment with someone. He stood up quickly, but felt dizzy for a while.

The clerk quickly came over to support him, took out a piece of brown sugar from his pocket and stuffed it into He Xinyin's mouth and said:

"Master Prefect, Doctor Li said last time that you have a weak spleen and a weak Qi. You must not stay up late in the future. If something happens to you, the Governor will definitely blame me."

He Xinyin waved his hand and said: "The Governor always deals with matters as they arise. I am not in good health, so how can I blame you and others?"

"Speak to Mr. Alfonso for a while and ask him to wait in the living room."

After some of the brown sugar in his mouth was digested, He Xinyin's feeling of weakness finally disappeared.

He stood up slowly, and then He Xinyin got up and walked to the living room.

Alfonso has now stayed in the southeast. Su Ze originally left him a position as a consultant in the Municipal Shipping Department, but Alfonso couldn't bear his temper and resigned from his official position to continue to be a captain and started running. coastal trade.

Hearing that Alfonso's fleet had arrived at Taicang Port, He Xinyin sent someone to invite him over.

Alfonso had met He Xinyin in the Governor's Mansion, and he knew that the middle-aged man in front of him controlled the prosperous and prosperous floating city of Suzhou Mansion.

The population and economy of Suzhou Prefecture far exceeded that of Venice, and He Xinyin's power was even greater than that of the Governor of Venice.

Captain Alfonso sat on the chair a little stiffly.

He heard that He Xinyin was not only a skilled ruler, but also a knowledgeable scholar.

Captain Alfonso had gone to navigation school and always had respect for great scholars.

He Xinyin has also come into contact with many Westerners. He knows that these barbarians do not understand etiquette, but He Xinyin himself is a person who opposes patriarchal etiquette.

He said straight to the point: "I heard that shipping insurance has appeared in the West very early?"

Captain Alfonso recalled it, nodded and said: "The earliest insurance appeared in Venice. Venetian merchants would insure when going to sea. As early as two hundred years ago, there were bankers who specialized in insurance."

He Xinyin was a little surprised. Sure enough, these Westerners were not completely backward. Their development in shipping was indeed much better than that of the Ming Dynasty in the past two hundred years.

He Xinyin put away his contempt and continued to ask:

“How does insurance work in Venice?”

Captain Alfonso said: "Actually, it is similar to our insurance in the southeast. At the beginning, ten ships were gathered together to sail together, and each ship paid one-tenth of the cargo as insurance premium. Once a ship suffered a loss, it would be compensated."

"Later on, every time it was too troublesome to put together a ship to go to sea, there were policies sold separately to ship owners."

"Before setting sail, the merchants would sign a contract with the banker who sold the insurance under the witness of the priest, promising that in the event of danger, the ship owner or the ship owner's family would receive compensation."

"Later, bankers discovered the profits, and the first insurance company appeared in Genoa. Now almost all ships sailing in the Mediterranean buy insurance."

He Xinyin listened very seriously. After listening, he asked:

"How do your authorities, nay, your kings and lords, regulate insurance?"

"Supervision?"

Captain Alfonso shook his head and said: "These are private commercial activities, there is no supervision, and the king and lords do not tax them, so why should they care about these things."

He Xinyin also understood that this was a huge difference in concepts between the East and the West.

In loose city-states like Portugal and Italy, the king and lords collect taxes and rarely manage the specific affairs of the territory. Many disputes must be mediated and handled through the church or local gentry.

In China, a country that has been unified for a long time, people are accustomed to seeking help from the government for everything.

Take this case of Yuan Wencai's escape. If such a thing happened in Venice, in addition to filing a lawsuit in court, the shipowner who suffered the loss would have to accept the bitter consequences.

When businessmen in the southeast encounter such a thing, they will go to the government office and ask the government to make the decision for them.

He Xinyin doesn't think there is any distinction between East and West. He can only say that it is due to the difference in government power and the difference in obligations.

In other words, this set of things in the West has appeared on this continent before.

For example, in the early Han Dynasty under Huang Lao's thought of governing the country, the policy of light corvee and low tax from Empress Lu to the Wenjing Dynasty was also the idea of ​​governing by doing nothing.

However, governing by doing nothing does not mean that we can protect the interests of ordinary people.

Although the country was recuperating during the Wenjing period, powerful families began to expand.

This is also easy to understand. In a less regulated society, naturally powerful individuals will accumulate more advantages, while disadvantaged individuals will be oppressed.

Naturally, big government offices are not all good.

A large government with unlimited power naturally also has unlimited obligations.

But it is easy to enjoy power, but difficult to assume obligations.

The equality of rights and obligations is also the basic principle that He Xinyin adheres to when making legislation.

It seems that Western experience no longer applies. He Xinyin has no reference experience for financial and insurance issues.

The issue of insurance reserves raised by the Governor is indeed a financial solution to the insurance thunderstorm problem.

But if we need a department to supervise the insurance industry, we need more personnel and more funds.

How to restrict the power of these officials is a headache.

Another question that comes to He Xinyin's mind is who should bear these personnel and funds?

Ordinary people have nothing to do with insurance, but the taxes collected by the government have to support the personnel of these departments.

Moreover, any money-related industry such as insurance must be very professional and complex, which also places extremely high demands on officials.

Maybe others won't consider this issue, but He Xinyin is more concerned about the issues of power and obligation.

All the taxes paid by ordinary people have to go to these insurance people?

When He Xinyin was thinking about these questions, Alfonso suddenly said:

"Master He, there is one thing I want to ask you this time."

He Xinyin raised his head and Alfonso said:

"Those of us ship owners who do coastal business often need to hire crew members. However, there are too few red deeds from Suzhou Prefecture. Can you please ask the government to print more?"

The red deed is a formal contract stamped by the government.

Originally, red deeds were used in land sales in the Ming Dynasty. After private land sales were transferred, a stamped deed was required from the government and stored in the buyer's home and in the government's treasury as a proof of future taxation.

Originally, red deeds were only used in land transactions, but with the increase in commercial activities in the southeast, more merchants began to use such red deeds in other transactions.

The reason is naturally very simple. A contract stamped by the government is equivalent to official certification. When going to court in the future, it will be more effective than a private contract.

In order to facilitate business transactions in Suzhou, He Xinyin also printed red deeds stamped with the official seal in common economic activities such as employment, buying and selling, and lending. This kind of contract is considered an officially certified standard contract.

As the commercial activities in Suzhou Prefecture became more and more prosperous, the red deed was naturally not enough.

Captain Alfonso complained: "The red deeds at the dock are not enough, but the red deeds on the underground black market require extra money."

He Xinyin raised his head and asked: "You mean, someone took the red deeds issued for free by the government and sold them on the underground black market?"

Captain Alfonso nodded and said: "Yes, a red deed costs one hundred silver, which is more expensive than a newspaper. Those red deeds for the sale of bulk goods even cost one or two silver!"

He Xinyin showed a chill. Needless to say, it was natural that officials related to the red deed colluded to deliberately reduce the distribution of free red deeds and sell the red deeds that should have been free on the black market.

"Mr. Alfonso, I already know about this. Thank you for your visit."

He Xinyin suddenly thought of something and hurriedly started to see off the guests.

Three days later, the Suzhou government began a campaign to crack down on the reselling of government red deeds. Some officials responsible for printing and distributing red deeds colluded with printing houses to deliberately reduce the number of free red deeds and send them to the black market for sale.

But another decree made those businessmen unhappy.

Suzhou Prefecture has reported to the Metropolitan Governor's Office, and the Metropolitan Governor's Office has approved the trial implementation of stamp tax in Suzhou Prefecture.

From now on, red deeds from the government will no longer be issued free of charge, but stamp duty will be charged based on the contract amount.

Industries related to lending and insurance will charge a higher proportion of stamp duty.

In addition, a new department called the Financial Department will be established in Suzhou Prefecture, which will be responsible for managing insurance and lending businesses.

In the future, all merchants and individuals operating insurance and lending businesses must register with the Department of Finance and pledge and freeze a certain proportion of reserves.

In addition, the Financial Department will regularly and randomly inspect these merchants and individuals operating insurance to ensure that their funds have not been transferred and to ensure their ability to pay compensation.

At the same time, practices such as collecting savings at high interest rates and loan sharking will also be cracked down on.

In addition to the Financial Services Department, a new department will be established in Suzhou Prefecture called the Economic Court.

The function of this department is to handle economic and contract-related disputes, all of which are handed over to the Economic Court.

The stamp duty collected previously will be used for personnel expenses and departmental funds of the Financial Services Agency and the Economic Court.

The collection of stamp duty is temporarily left to the Financial Services Agency.

After the introduction of this policy, the entire Suzhou government officials were shocked.

In particular, Lin Xianyang, the magistrate of Taicang County, rushed to the magistrate's Yamen overnight.

He Xinyin knew that Lin Xianyang was Su Ze's brother. Lin Xianyang entered the officialdom from being a household secretary in Nanping and had rich grassroots experience.

Later, he graduated from the official training class of Nanjing Imperial College and became a veteran who followed Su Ze.

Arranging Lin Xianyang to be the county magistrate in Taicang, the first county in southern Jiangsu, is enough to show that Su Ze attaches great importance to him.

During this period, Lin Xianyang worked steadily. He implemented the Suzhou government's policies to the letter and never messed around. Taicang County became more prosperous.

Lin Xianyang came to the door, but He Xinyin received him anyway.

Lin Xianyang came to the door and said: "Your Excellency, can you not pilot stamp tax in Suzhou?"

Lin Xianyang immediately realized that he had made a mistake and said quickly: "If stamp tax is tried out, the businessmen will go to other places to do business!"

He Xinyin said indifferently: "Zhixian Lin, you are worrying too much. If you ask me, there will be more transactions in Taicang County in the future, and businessmen from other places will come to Taicang specifically to do business."

Lin Xianyang said in disbelief: "How is that possible!"

He Xinyin said: "President Lin, please go back first. The Financial Department is still under preparation. The stamp duty has to be levied by your household department in Taicang County for the time being. You should go back and prepare."

Although Lin Xianyang didn't believe it, he didn't dare to offend He Xinyin, the prefect, so he had no choice but to return to Taicang.

To Lin Xianyang's expectation, two days later, the number of businessmen pouring into Taicang increased significantly.

Some businessmen from Songjiang Prefecture will come to Taicang to sign contracts and pay stamp duty obediently.

The entire household department in Taicang County was extremely busy. Lin Xianyang mobilized a large number of scribes who knew arithmetic to help, and only then could this wave of businessmen be dealt with.

Lin Xianyang quickly contacted Suzhou Mansion again. This time he asked He Xinyin for help. If this continues, the entire Taicang County officials will be busy!

"Master Prefect, when will this financial hall be built? My subordinates can't hold it anymore!"

Lin Xianyang said to He Xinyin.

He Xinyin smiled and said: "Why, aren't you unwilling to trial stamp tax in Suzhou? Why are you complaining about being too busy now?"

Although the stamp tax money will not be used by Taicang County, now in the counties in southern Zhili, this tax income will also be counted in Taicang County's examination results.

Although after the reforms of the Metropolitan Governor's Office, tax collection did not determine the fate of officials as before.

However, the magistrates in Southern Zhili, Zhejiang, and Fujian are all competing, hoping to stand out in this examination.

Lin Xianyang smiled quickly, and Chen praised: "The prefect is still clever, but his subordinates are stupid. Why are the businessmen willing to come to Suzhou to sign the contract and pay the tax honestly after collecting stamp duty?"

He Xinyin said:

"This is not simple. Why do businessmen want red deeds and even buy red deeds on the underground black market?"

"Because the red deed is guaranteed by the government's credit, with the red deed, it will be more effective as evidence in court in the future."

"Businessmen are not stupid, they spend money to buy a guarantee."

"It's just like shipowners who buy insurance. For businessmen, stamp duty is just more money to buy insurance."

Lin Xianyang was still confused and said: "But why do you have to come to Suzhou to make friends?"

He Xinyin said:

"Because of the rule of law."

"Our Suzhou Prefecture now has the most complete laws regarding business. In the future, we will set up an economic tribunal to deal with economic disputes. Businessmen will naturally be willing to come here to pay taxes."

Lin Xianyang was even more convinced when he thought that He Xinyin was immersed in revising the law in Suzhou Prefecture, and it turned out to have such profound meaning.

Alas, writing a book is difficult to agree with.

Double at the end of the month, please give me a monthly pass.