New Shun 1730

"It is definitely profitable. I have been in Japan these days, and I am not clear about some things in the court. The question is what price the court is going to set for the purchase fee of Ezo? How much is it a year?"

Duke Qi and Duke Yi have been paying attention to this matter these days. When Liu Yu asked, they knew everything.

"Two years of exemption. The purchase fee is once every sixty years. From the third year, the money will be collected, five thousand taels per year for the first ten years. After ten years, the annual quota will be 40,000 taels."

This price is really not very high. There is a lot of land that can be developed in the huge Ezo area. In addition, most of it is volcanic ash land, which is very fertile. Although the latitude is similar to Vladivostok, the climate is warm and the accumulated temperature is similar to Liaodong because of the warm current.

Liu Yu calculated in his mind that after ten years, the annual quota of 40,000 taels would be considered a relatively standard income for a large county in Dashun.

Before going to Japan for negotiations, an incident happened in the court, which left a deep impression on Liu Yu.

At that time, the system of paying taxes on land in Wendeng Prefecture was being promoted. The local magistrate of a county called Huolu in Zhili was very active and submitted a statistical report to cater to the reform.

As a result, the flattery hit the horse's hoof and was used as a negative example by the emperor, who ridiculed him in the court meeting.

In fact, he did a good job, but the report was too nonsense.

That report not only gave Liu Yu a rough idea of ​​the agricultural tax revenue of each county, but also opened Liu Yu's eyes to many magical units of measurement.

His report said: The three grades of land in this county, upper, middle and lower, totaled 138,889 mu, 2 fen, 1 li, 3 hao, 2 si, and 8 wei. After converting the land tax into silver per mu, the total tax collected per mu was 22,366 taels, 5 qian, 8 fen, 8 li, 3 hao, 4 si, 1 hu, 2 wei, 9 zhi, 6 sha, 2 chen, 2 gu, 7 mia, 2 mo, 9 xu, 1 cheng, 4 qing, 6 jing...

Accurate to 17 decimal places!

The original intention of the county magistrate was to show that he was serious about his work, precise and meticulous, in order to seek praise from the higher authorities.

But at that time, the emperor was rectifying the problem of "doing nothing but doing nothing". At the court meeting, the emperor read out this "merit" memorial in public, and almost cursed.

He immediately asked someone to draft an imperial decree, saying that he didn't ask you to weigh the weight of "one clear four clear six quiet", as long as you can weigh the silk, hu, micro, weaving, sand, etc. after the centimeter, and make such a measurement, he will be rewarded with a sixth-rank official of Chengzhilang.

If you have time to calculate the tax silver to 17 decimal places, can you do something practical? But after all, the actual performance is not bad, so he just reprimanded it and didn't get rid of it.

Liu Yu was very impressed by this incident, so the annual per mu tax plus the head tax in a county in Zhili was actually only about 20,000 taels.

The imperial court regarded the tax collection target of Ezo as the tax package standard of one directly-affiliated state and two counties.

In the eyes of the imperial court, the imperial court made a lot of money. Without spending a penny, the wild land was actually comparable to the two counties of Zhili, and the purpose of immigration to the border in the future could also be achieved.

In Liu Yu's view, the contracted reclamation company made a lot of money. An area equivalent to Yunnan Province, with extremely rich fishery resources and one of the world's largest fishing grounds, the annual contract fee was only 40,000 taels of silver...

Of course, the premise of this profit is that Dashun has a navy that can force Japan to open the door and force Japan to open the grain market.

Otherwise, the imperial court may not only fail to collect money, but also have to spend money to reward reclamation.

The same land has different values ​​in each era.

In the eyes of the French government, the huge Canada and the Great Lakes region are not as valuable as Haiti at this time.

In the eyes of the British government, the value of the thirteen states in North America is not as valuable as a few small islands in the Caribbean at this time.

And now, in the eyes of the imperial court, Ezo, which has great strategic value and arable land area, is completely inferior to a county in Henan.

Collecting 40,000 taels after ten years was enough to give Ezo face, and it also indirectly reflected the court's expectations for the purchase system.

However, the development experience of Ezo seems to be inappropriate for other places. To rely on private capital, there needs to be a huge market. Liu Yu often used the metaphor of carving a boat to find a sword. The method that Ezo can use cannot be used in the Western Regions.

However, it is a relatively good start after all, and Dashun also began to try to colonize quickly in its own way.

40,000 taels is indeed not much.

"Father, father-in-law, if it is this price, it will definitely be profitable. I will not lie, the profit here is huge. But I think I should make it clear to His Majesty again. The court must make one thing clear, that is, this reclamation company must be treated as a whole, as a virtual person."

"Since everything has been contracted out, all activities in Ezo are regarded as being done by this virtual person. If this virtual person makes a mistake, the court must investigate according to the law."

"But this virtual person cannot be the same as those who invest money and are real people."

"If the shareholders inside commit a crime, the company cannot be implicated. Especially when the nobles take the lead in investing, if this matter is not made clear, it will become a bad thing for the nobles to take the lead."

Some things don't need to be said too bluntly. In this era of nine clans being implicated, the nobles stand high, and once they fall, they fall hard.

Dashun did not massacre meritorious officials on a large scale after the founding of the country just because of some special founding factors. But afterwards, many nobles fell.

If too many people are involved and the nobles who committed the crime are shareholders of the company, I am afraid that the court will directly confiscate the company.

This is what Liu Yu has always wanted to say. Before, Songjiang was granted by the emperor, and Liu Yu used his personal reputation as a guarantee. Moreover, the business atmosphere there is stronger.

In addition, the trading company only involves foreign trade, but the development of Ezo involves the lifeblood of the Dashun Dynasty: land.

Since the emperor wants the nobles to take the lead, or wants to throw the nobles' money to the border, then this is an opportunity to make it clear, and it is best to introduce laws.

Even if the king's words are the law, the law is bullshit, and the emperor can violate it at any time. But it is better to have it than not.

With the defeat of Japan, the upcoming trip to Southeast Asia, and the negotiations on trade with Sweden, Dashun is about to usher in a wave of rapid development of industry and commerce.

If the foundation is not solid, it is impossible to develop continuously. Merchants and wealthy households still have doubts about "joint stock trading".

This matter should not be considered a big deal for the court.

Duke Qi understood the key point as soon as he heard it, and said with a smile: "This is how it should be. In other words, if this matter is resolved, Ezo will make a lot of money, right?"

Liu Yu nodded and said: "Don't worry, even those fish, shrimp, and sea goods will be earned back. The Japanese can fish, so why can't we? We can learn to make treasures. I think as long as the court can set up a rule of not implicating others in business, there will be no shortage of people who invest money, and there will be no shortage of future profits."

This sentence is a reassurance, and the two old men are relieved.

They are all their own flesh and blood. Those who are capable can earn their own titles, and those who are lucky enough to be born are destined to inherit the title. But those who don't have the ability to earn titles and can't inherit titles are still their own flesh and blood. Many nobles in the capital are thinking about leaving an extra way, which can be regarded as spreading out.

In the later period, the nobles of the previous dynasty mainly focused on getting some land here and cultivating some fields there. Dashun was not much worse, but the emperor wanted to rectify it now, so he couldn't go against the wind and commit crimes. In addition, the return rate of investment in trade or glass companies in recent years was still good.

Although it was not as high as usury, it was more stable. Even if they didn't understand the operating mechanism of business, they knew that with the increase in foreign exchanges, the money from trade might not be less than that from hoarding land.

The two families discussed it and decided to each contribute 20,000 taels. In the future, most of it would be distributed to children who could not inherit the title. Although poetry and books were passed down from generation to generation, the Liu and Tian families saw another possibility of passing down the family because of Liu Yu's relationship.

…………

More than ten days later.

Near the Catholic church near Dongjiang Mixiang in the capital, the carriages of wealthy merchants and rich families who heard the news and rushed to participate in the development of Ezo had blocked the road.

It was not gratifying that the court won against Japan. On the contrary, many people felt that they would be shocked if they couldn't win. Wouldn't it be a sure thing to win against Fuso?

The enthusiasm for paying homage to the emperor faded in a few days. At most, the radical young people in the literati wrote some poems with the flavor of the Han and Tang dynasties.

But the enthusiasm for developing Ezo was getting hotter day by day.

After the Dashun banned religion, in view of the fact that there were still many missionaries working in the palace, not all churches in the capital were closed. There was only one Catholic church left, which was the Xuanwumen Church built by Matteo Ricci.

Dongjiang Rice Lane was built by Li Lisi, an Italian missionary who followed Zhang Xianzhong, and was banned.

Now it has become a bill exchange in the capital. In recent years, the trade in Songjiang has developed, and the grain from Suzhou and other places has also been transported by sea, which has a huge impact on the capital.

On the one hand, in addition to buying land or burying it in the ground, there are other places for money to go.

On the other hand, the grain can carry one-tenth of duty-free goods when it is transported by sea, which seriously suppresses the trade of the canal grain system. The cost of shipping is low, the speed is fast, the capital in Songjiang is strong, and the joint-stock system has basically defeated the southern goods sent to the capital through the canal in a few years.

The prototype of futures has long appeared. Now, with the development of shipping southern goods, similar activities have also taken place in the capital. With official acquiescence, as commercial activities increased, the court simply made use of waste after banning religion and turned this church in Mixiang, Dongjiang into a bill exchange.

Today is the day to sell the shares of Ezo Development. The court took a part of it for internal consumption. Today, the silver of each family was also transported here to show that the price was clearly marked and there would be no secret operation. In the future, the shares would be converted and the money would be divided.

In order to reassure everyone, the court also specially asked "Marquis of Jinghai" to host the reception activities for merchants. After all, he was the one who was in the limelight in recent years, and in the minds of merchants, he was also a relatively more trustworthy person in the court.

Many wealthy businessmen stood on the roadside and looked forward to the arrival of the carriage and ceremonial guard of the Marquis of Jinghai Mansion.

The merchants were actually very conflicted at this time.

On the one hand, the merchants hoped that the court would "rule by inaction" and not care about anything.

On the other hand, the merchants needed the ceremonial guards and authority of the court officials to make sure that the deal was approved and supported by the court. The higher the ceremonial guards and the greater the authority of the court, the easier it was to believe and think that the deal was reliable.