New Shun 1730

This kind of "despicable" business thinking that emerged from the subconscious made the emperor feel a little embarrassed. He felt that he was the son of heaven, so how could he have such a mean person's thinking?

When this thought faded, the emperor still had to consider the problem of money.

Lack of money.

The household government can pay a part, but it is definitely not enough.

There is not much surplus in the treasury this year. A lot of money has to be invested in the Nanyang trade as equity. In addition, a batch of cinnamon betel nut gems were purchased before, but they have not been shipped yet and are deposited in the warehouse.

In addition, the investment in the official kiln porcelain workshop and the investment in the Western trade, if you don't want to exhaust the pond and kill the chicken to get the eggs, you have to wait for the money to slowly generate interest.

It can't be withdrawn at this time.

The war against Nanyang used the money of the treasury. This money must have been earned, but it is definitely impossible to finish the war in Nanyang this year and get the principal and interest back next year.

Liu Yu quoted Emperor Taizong's words, saying that no one knows when a person's life will be gone. In Dashun's memory, Emperor Taizong did die before the country was settled, and he did not live for many years after the Battle of Jingxiang. No one can say for sure.

So the emperor thought that if he was going to do it, it would be better to do it early than late.

Since Liu Yu said that he could borrow money, it was not impossible to borrow some money if it was not possible. It was better to turn around for a while than to increase the "Huai salary" and cause chaos in the country.

If the Huai River was really to be regulated, the canal transportation would have to be stopped next year.

The money for regulating the Huai River must be paid in winter.

The money for the resettlement of the canal workers must also be paid.

All in all, it is not as simple as 30 million taels.

If you don't borrow money, you have to save it bit by bit. When will you save it? After 10 years of saving, assuming that everything is good and the money is enough, what if you suddenly lose it?

If you can really collect taxes by attacking India, you can indeed make money.

But Liu Yu firmly opposed taking risks in India. At this time, going all out to enter India would be to be enemies with Britain and France.

This thing still needs to be divided and disintegrated, and now fighting India means trade stagnation, and the trade situation that Dashun has finally opened up in Europe will be completely destroyed.

The joint efforts of Britain and France can prevent Dashun's cargo ships from even passing Africa.

What about increasing taxes or internal reforms?

Increasing taxes is not considered. Increasing taxes means trouble.

For internal reforms, the emperor is not unaware of the benefits of Songjiang Prefecture's suggestion to try out the eleventh tax.

But first, this is difficult to do.

Second, this requires a large number of new students to enter the official system to fight against local gentry. This will cause great resentment among Confucian scholars, and they will think that this is the court using trivial learning to fight against the disciples of saints.

Third, this is to dig out the roots of gentry in the world.

Gentry relies on exemption from military service and exemption from levy, not tax exemption.

So for gentry, the lower the tax rate, the better, because they pay taxes legally and theoretically do not cheat the country a penny.

But with such a low tax rate, whether the country is enough and whether the grassroots should levy levies is another matter.

Anyway, forced labor and levies have nothing to do with them, and they are not "legal" taxes in the first place, so they are in the right.

Local officials arbitrarily increase taxes, which is of course a harsh government worse than a tiger. "Fishing and Killing the Family" knows that the collection of taxes must be based on the documents of the household government.

For all these reasons, borrowing money is also a consideration.

Although it is said that asking merchants to borrow money in all dynasties can be traced back to the Han Dynasty.

But now it is very different, and it is not impossible to borrow money at the beginning of all dynasties.

But since it is borrowing money, it must be repaid.

Liu Yu also said that the difference between salt merchants and other industrial and commercial and overseas trade is that for donations, they look for salt merchants with special status; and other than salt merchants, they can only borrow, not donate.

Borrowing, but it must be repaid.

Just as he was thinking about it, Liao Hanhui said, "I think that if the Huai River can be cured, the poor fields will become good fields, and the landowners will benefit. If this poor field was originally worth two taels of silver, and now it has become irrigated land, its value will increase to four taels."

"From two taels to four taels, can the court collect half of the increase in value of two taels?"

"If it is added within a year, it may not be paid, so the half of the increase in value will be collected in five years."

"Secondly, if Your Majesty abolishes the canal and changes to the sea, the labor of the people will be reduced, and the burden of drift and loss will also be reduced. Can taxes be increased?"

"Since we want to cure the Huai River, water conservancy, and irrigation, we need to check the land area. After determining the number of acres, if we can really guarantee a tax of one in ten, , or 80% tax and 1% tax, the burden on the people is lighter than 30% tax.

"In this way, within 20 to 30 years, the cost of Huai River control should be recovered."

"I think that Huai River control needs 30 to 50 million taels, which is the annual income. The court manages such a large country, so it is impossible to invest all the money in Huai River."

"Today, we can make up for the Huai River, and tomorrow we can increase the tax on Huai River and make up for other places. It is not impossible."

"As long as the Huai River is repaired and then increased, the people will not have any complaints. Moreover, if the grain transport can be cancelled, even if the tax is increased, the burden on the people will be reduced."

Liao Hanhui has been in the Huanghuai area for many years, and he really understands the emperor's statement that "the court is an ostrich".

Is the burden on the people a national tax?

Liao Hanhui knows it clearly.

He thinks that this method is learned from the stamp tax tried in Songjiang Prefecture. Since you are doing business, when you enter the stock bill transaction, you pay taxes according to the transaction price.

Then, the increase in land from poor quality farmland to irrigated land, in addition to the increase in the original per mu tax, can be regarded as a return on the court's investment.

It seems reasonable to give part of the added value of the land from inferior land to good land to the national treasury.

In any case, the money for the Huai River control was collected by various provinces. The national treasury cannot be without money. In the future, if there is a disaster in other places, the money from the national treasury will also be used for relief. It is not a bad idea to let the Huai River people repay part of the money collected by various provinces for the Huai River control.

This is different from later generations. This 30 million is the official fiscal revenue of Dashun in one year. Whether it is the control of the Huai River or the Yellow River in later generations, I have never heard of an investment that requires a year's total fiscal revenue.

Liao Hanhui also knew that this amount was really too much for Dashun. Even if Dashun still has income from overseas trade and industry and commerce, if it really controls the Huai River, it will probably leave a huge fiscal hole.

His idea is only from the perspective of one place and one government.

The emperor did not comment on this, and did not reprimand or praise him. Instead, he asked Liu Yu, "Duke Xingguo does not know how to control water. He has always been tight on money."

"If I really want to abolish the canal and control the Huai River, do you have any strategy?"

Liu Yu had been thinking about abolishing the canal and using sea transportation for many years, so how could he not make preparations in advance?

Now the emperor did not ask him whether he should do this, but asked him how to do it well?

This can be answered openly.

So he presented his considerations on canal transportation, sea transportation, canal workers and other issues over the years.

To sum up, it is nothing more than two sentences.

The canal workers form a wing army.

The canal rice is bought and contracted.

The strategy summarized by these two sentences made the emperor fall into deep thought.

It is simple to say, and it sounds like it is not impossible.

To sum up, it is nothing more than the old method before, new wine in old bottles.

Since the Huai River is to be controlled, people have to be found to do the work anyway.

Looking for people to work, but don't want to conscript them for labor.

Then you have to pay them.

If you are going to pay them, why not give the money to those whose livelihoods are affected by the abandonment of the canal?

Incorporate them into the Xiang army.

No armor, no muskets, no bright uniforms, and a set of equipment doesn't cost much.

According to the salary of two taels of silver per month, and guarantee that they can have enough food, let them work specifically.

Incorporate 200,000 or 300,000 Xiang troops to specialize in engineering.

These people are mainly used to dig the river.

Find the engineer officers trained by Jinghai Palace to be officers.

Of course, if you are in a hurry, you can recruit local people to work on the levee during the slack season. Just pay them, anyway, it's 30 million taels.

Originally, hiring people to dig artificial rivers and canals is a sum of money.

Dismissing and resettling those who have lost their livelihoods due to the abandonment of the canal is another sum of money.

If you organize the Xiang army, you can use one sum of money to solve two problems.

In addition, even if the Huaihe River is cured, will there be a need for maintenance in the future? After the Huaihe River is cured, can we try to manage the Haihe River, Liaohe River, etc.? We dare not touch the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, so can't we just pick the weak ones?

For future maintenance and water control, this batch of Xiangjun soldiers who have become skilled workers can be directly used.

In other words, buying rice for the grain transport is a way to solve two problems at a cost, provided that there is no problem with sea transportation, the navy can control Nanyang, and if something really goes wrong, the rice from the south of the Yangtze River can be transported to Nanyang.

In the Jiangnan region, there is enough silver, which can fully support the complete monetization of silver.

Then, the grain transport that was originally required to pay rent in kind can be directly converted into silver for tax payment, right?

The court gave the silver converted from the grain transport to the merchants.

According to the price, it was contracted to the merchants.

Then, the court introduced some encouraging policies, such as ten-year tax exemption for newly reclaimed land in Taiwan and Nanyang, etc. - anyway, there was no tax in these places originally.

Therefore, with policy guidance, these wealthy merchants were allowed to go to Southeast Asia and Taiwan to set up rice plantations.

And setting up rice plantations requires a large amount of labor.

Because the economic downturn on both sides of the canal caused by the abandonment of the canal, and the subsequent economic downturn caused poor farmers, plus floods and other disasters that occurred every year, a large number of people who needed relief from the court went to Southeast Asia.

Working as coolies and slaves in rice plantations.

First, the manpower of Dashun was cheap, about the same as the Tamil slaves used by the Dutch.

Second, most of these people in Dashun knew how to farm.

Anyway, it was definitely better than the Dutch promoting the planting of indigo in Java, and the locals didn't know how to plant it at all.

In this way, the grain transport, which originally brought a lot of burden to the people every year, could bear three responsibilities.

First: to ensure the supply of grain.

Second: to replace part of the court's disaster relief.

Third: enrich the population of Nanyang, such as the development of Jiangnan that began in the Jin, Sui and Tang dynasties. In time, there will be a large number of Chinese in Nanyang, which can also become the basic base of the Celestial Empire.

Fourth: promote the development of Nanyang, with a large number of plantations, small business prosperity, increased consumption of consumer goods, reduced settlement costs, etc., which can also ensure the stability of the small peasant economy that Dashun ideally wants in the Celestial Empire in the long run and ease the contradiction between people and land.

Moreover, Java has fertile land and can harvest many crops a year, so the grain output is definitely much higher than that in the Huaihe River area.

At the same time, because of the migration of population to Nanyang, the construction of Huaihe River water conservancy facilities, the increase in rice production in Nanyang, and the fact that there is no need to pay rice rent in kind but monetary taxes, the trend of planting cash crops such as cotton in the canal area will also increase.

And the increased cotton can just provide the raw materials needed for foreign trade. Especially under the condition that the first step of the Dutch negotiations was completed smoothly and Nanyang was acquired by Dashun, the textile industry will definitely develop greatly, which can bring more taxes to the court.

The grain transport, which was originally harmful to the people, led to the collapse of Lianghuai and the hatred of the two sides of the canal. If this method is adopted, it can not only alleviate the suffering of the people in the canal, but also be used as a means for the court to provide relief to the victims in Nanyang.

These points alone are better than continuing to use the canal.

The court did not spend a penny more, because the grain transport was originally needed.

As for the consideration of contracting plantations, it takes time, that is not a problem.

As long as there is silver, Dashun has a navy and enough cargo ships, millions of stones of rice can be bought in Nanyang.

From Java to Siam, and then to Ceylon and India, as long as the navy can dominate Nanyang, there is no situation where it cannot be bought.

At worst, there are still grains in Liaodong and Japan? Since Japan has set up rice futures trading, the warships can continue to circle there after the money is in place. The feudal lords of Japan are eager for Dashun to buy rice - Japanese people pay taxes in kind, not silver. These rice must be exchanged for money to buy the large amount of goods that Dashun brought after the port was opened.

Therefore, Liu Yu felt that the time had come to completely abandon the outdated canal transportation and abandon the most economically developed Jiangnan and the tax in kind.

It is understandable to say that in the north, rent in kind is still collected. There was indeed a shortage of silver in the north before.

But it is unreasonable to collect rent in kind in Jiangnan, where the silver reserves are the largest, instead of in the north.

While ensuring the safety of sea transportation by attacking Japan, going to Southeast Asia, and expelling Western forces, it actually ensured the food security of Dashun. At least, it is the food security of the capital.

Considering the overall situation, Liu Yu did not think about the issue of tax increase or land appreciation after the Huai River was controlled. He thought it was a detail.

The reason why he supported the Songjiang prefectural governor to implement the eleventh tax was not to collect more taxes from the court, but to reduce the burden on the people, reduce the land purchase income of Songjiang prefecture, and thus reduce the interest on industrial and commercial loans in Songjiang prefecture.

If the Dashun really exploded with reforms, Li Gan would be crazy and carry out radical reforms, and he could really collect tens of millions of taels of land tax a year. Liu Yu would be depressed. How big would the emerging class have to grow before this behemoth could be overthrown?

If Liu Yu implemented equal land distribution in Huaihe River, Liu Yu would support it to increase domestic purchasing power.

But without changing the most basic ownership issue, doing this kind of patchwork, except that the household government can collect more money, has little significance for the development of industry and commerce.

His purpose is to make the emperor spend money and feel very happy after spending money.

And this money must be earned from industry and commerce.

Liu Yu felt that if he really borrowed money, the interest of 500,000 or 600,000 a year would not be a big deal, and he did not think about squeezing out on the land at all.

The war in Europe is about to end, and the interest on national debt is stabilizing. For the time being, there is no good investment direction. They will not rush to get back the principal, but will prefer to collect interest every year.

This money is equivalent to taking it for free.

If Dashun really expands abroad for a long time and refuses to pay 10 million taels, there is no need to pay it back. Come to Dagukou to collect the debt armed.

If it can be stable for ten years without causing a run, it proves that Dashun has established a firm foothold in Europe. What is the principal of 10 million taels that is still missing?