The Prosperous Era of Longwan

Wei Guangde sent the people out of the house, watched them sit in their respective sedans, and Shi Shiran left.

It is impossible to say that Wei Guangde was not dissatisfied with them wanting to invest in the Northern Chamber of Commerce, but if Wei Guangde had figured it out at that time, he would not be able to make enough money.

Compared with the profits from that small amount of money, Wei Guangde still values ​​​​these nobles giving up their attachment to land and instead investing their money, or "capital" at this time, into industrial production.

Why Wei Guangde is so obsessed with this matter is naturally because he knows the development of society in later generations.

In an era of underdeveloped productive forces, land is the foundation of everything. The saying "where there is land, there is wealth" is absolutely correct.

However, when productivity develops, especially after the West takes the lead in starting the industrial revolution, the wealth effect of land is replaced by industry. Only industry is the most profitable, and can even overwhelm land in the end.

This is how "sheep eat people" in the West comes about. The prosperity of textile enterprises requires a large amount of wool, cotton and other materials to meet social demand for textile products.

As a result, the prices of these raw materials have skyrocketed.

In order to obtain better returns, landowners naturally gave up their land for growing food and switched to growing pasture, cotton and other economic activities.

British wool spinning was the main force of its textile industry, so British nobles herded sheep on the land and harvested large amounts of wool to sell to textile factories. The phenomenon of "sheep eating people" emerged.

However, what Wei Guangde thought would happen decades later is actually happening on the British Isles now, and his plan to make a fortune is destined to face huge resistance.

However, because some shares were allocated this time, it was a mistake and some risks were avoided.

Wei Guangde turned around and went back to his house. Along the way, he was still thinking about what happened when the few people were chatting about Yan Yin.

In fact, the most important financial revenue of ancient dynasties mainly came from two points, one was talent, and the other was salt tax.

Except for commercial tax, which gained importance during the Southern Song Dynasty and became the main source of finance and taxation, other dynasties did not pay enough attention to it.

It's not that officials don't pay attention to it, but that commercial taxes have become private interests, especially in the Ming Dynasty.

The industries under Wei Guangde are scattered all over the place, but they pay very little tax every year.

It's not that he doesn't pay, but that the government won't accept it at all, so he can only follow the light. He can't ask the chamber of commerce to take the initiative to send it to the government. That will be hostile to all businessmen and become a public enemy in the world.

In other words, only the chambers of commerce that do business in Yuegang will pay taxes to the local customs department, but compared to the huge overseas trade, the taxes they pay are actually not much.

However, Wei Guangde still made up his mind.

Now that Zhang Juzheng has started to take action on land tax and prepare income tax, he will also study the salt law these days to see if he can revive Ming Dynasty's salt tax revenue.

Back at the back house, Xu Jianglan had not yet fallen asleep. She was still waiting for Wei Guangde to come back and wanted to know what they had talked about before.

It wasn't a secret that couldn't be told. Wei Guangde told the three princes that they came here because they wanted to take a share in the chamber of commerce.

"They represent most of the nobles in the capital. If they are not allowed to take shares, we don't know how they will make things difficult for our caravan."

Xu Jianglan knew the money-making ability of those chambers of commerce and knew that they wanted to participate in the shares, so naturally he was not very willing.

Wei Guangde couldn't tell that his focus was not on making money, but on luring nobles to turn their attention from land to workshops, or industrial production, so he could only give a vague answer.

Even though everyone is focused on land in this era, how many people will own land in future generations?

Regardless of whether it is domestic or foreign, it is all owned by big capitalists and big landowners. It is impossible for ordinary people to have much land in their hands, except at home.

Those were all paid for by the revolutionary ancestors with their lives and blood. At the very least, rural land is still owned by farmers. Even though a collective is added, it still belongs to farmers.

The vast majority of people do not have land. It is because they lost their land and became free citizens that they were able to enter the city, work in workshops, and become the earliest workers.

Therefore, in the final analysis, although land annexation affects social stability, it is also a way to promote social development.

Let them annex the land, and as long as they guide the landless people into workshops to work in the process and solve their livelihood, the society will still be stable and no major turmoil will occur.

This is why Wei Guangde never thought of restricting land annexation. As long as industry rises and this part of the population is absorbed, the Ming Dynasty may be able to lead the West in entering the industrial revolution.

At that time, there will be no need to worry about China's door being opened by the West with powerful ships and cannons a hundred years later.

Don't think that they are all weak-minded and can't learn to operate machines. These days, whether in the East or the West, the equipment is actually very simple. All you need to do is teach the workers how to use it.

Speaking of which, most people in the East and the West are actually illiterate and know nothing. We all start from the same starting point.

"No, you, a civil servant, are still afraid of them?"

Xu Jianglan was silent for a long time, and suddenly realized that she was not marrying a small family. With the relationship between Wei Guangde and the palace, was he still afraid of the nobles in the capital?

"Haha, I'm not afraid of them, but the purpose of doing business is to make money. Being friendly makes you rich. There is no need to make the relationship stalemate over trivial matters."

Wei Guangde laughed happily and said, "Besides, the woolen business may be easier in China, that is, in the north, but there are still few people who can afford it.

Letting them participate in the investment can also share some of the risks. When have you ever seen your husband do a business that loses money?

I have calculated that in the first two years, the silver earned by the Northern Chamber of Commerce can be distributed as dividends very little, and most of it can only be used to expand the workshop.

With the participation of these nobles, their silver can be directly invested in building new workshops, and the silver we share will only be more at that time. ”

After comforting his wife, Wei Guangde asked someone to prepare hot water so that he could wash and sleep.

The next morning, Wei Guangde returned to the cabinet, and the first thing he did was to ask Lu Bu to ask someone to find the documents of the salt administration of officials in recent years.

Yes, Zhang Juzheng was already taking action on the land tax, and Wei Guangde felt that there was no need for him to get involved.

As for what he had proposed at the beginning, the miscellaneous taxes levied by the localities should also be incorporated into the One Whip Law, and the whole country should collect the tax silver according to the different grades of land set by the province.

When the tax revenue comes in, the localities will take their part from the tax silver according to the allocated silver, and the rest will be given to the court.

Wei Guangde didn't know whether he was going to do this. He had asked for an imperial decree before this time, intending to measure the land and estates of the nobles and clans together and unify the tax.

The court cannot restrict those If someone annexed the land, then the tax silver would be fixed, no matter who was the landlord, as long as the tax silver was paid.

Now, Wei Guangde had to consider the salt tax and find a way to collect the salt tax.

In this way, the court would have enough silver to enrich the treasury in a short time.

As long as there was silver, the court's affairs were no big deal.

In fact, there are two points to governing a country, and if they are done well, long-term stability can be achieved.

One is to govern officials, and the other is the economy.

Governing officials does not mean severely punishing corrupt officials. That was Gao Gong's idea, to punish one when he found one, so that the officials would be governed cleanly.

But punishing corrupt officials is not the purpose. The fundamental purpose is to let officials do their work and handle public affairs well.

Catch a corrupt official and then support another corrupt official. Is this interesting?

Scholars say "cultivate oneself, manage the family, govern the country and bring peace to the world", but that is just It's just a saying.

"Books contain golden houses and beautiful women", in fact, reading is for these two things.

The scholars of the Ming Dynasty had already become bad during the imperial examinations, and were proficient in eating, drinking, whoring and gambling, so there were very few people who could control their hands after becoming officials.

Even if they could do it at the beginning, it would be rare for them to remember their original intentions after being immersed in officialdom for several years.

Hai Rui was awesome, and he was able to prevent himself from taking money that he shouldn't have taken, but he also offended the entire officialdom because of this.

Of course, when Hai Rui governed the local area, he should not have levied miscellaneous taxes or embezzled money to fill his own pockets, but he should not have taken less "benefits" from officials.

Otherwise, just the salary set by Zhu Yuanzhang would have to be reduced, and he couldn't even support himself, how could he? To support his family.

In recent years, Wei Guangde has also noticed the problem of reduced salt tax revenue.

It's just that it's the job of the Ministry of Revenue, which has little to do with him, so Wei Guangde has never considered intervening in this matter before.

Since the Spring and Autumn Period, when Guan Zhong of Qi State listed the salt industry as a state monopoly, successive Chinese governments have regarded it as the economic lifeline and strictly controlled it, and its monopoly revenue accounts for a high proportion of fiscal revenue.

In terms of silver alone, the salt tax is obviously the first in the annual tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty.

According to the documents of the Ministry of Revenue that Lu Bu found, Wei Guangde simply calculated and roughly estimated that the annual salt tax silver exceeded one million taels.

However, not all of these salt taxes were transported to Taicang. In addition to the sea salt, the tax silver of well salt and pond salt was about 300,000 taels, which was transported to the nine borders, including Ningxia, Yansui and Xuanda.

After all, they were all in Hexi, and transportation was inconvenient, so they naturally did not need to be transported to the capital.

As for the number of salt permits issued, it was about 2.5 million permits each year.

According to the weight of salt permits at that time, the large permits were 400 jin of salt, and the small permits were 200 jin of salt. The official salt permits issued by the Ming Dynasty now amount to 1 billion jin of salt every year.

Don't think this number is large. In fact, people have a huge demand for salt.

These days, each person needs about 12 jin of salt a year. Even if a family of five saves as much as possible, they still need 50 jin of salt a year.

Moreover, one jin in the Ming and Qing dynasties was equivalent to 1.2 jin later, or 600 grams per jin.

The number of 1 billion jin is only the consumption of 30 million adults, which is not enough for the needs of the Ming Dynasty.

However, even if the court really wants to continue to increase the supply of salt permits, it will be difficult. The fundamental reason is still the salt law.

Although the annual investment is about 2.5 million permits, the Ming Dynasty salt field can't supply so much salt.

Yes, the biggest problem encountered by the Ming Dynasty's current salt law is the backlog of salt permits, and the salt field can't deliver salt.

This also led to a sharp drop in the price of salt permits in several "exchanges" in Yangzhou in the south.

The output of the salt fields in the Ming Dynasty continued to increase as the country stabilized, but the actual population increase was even greater, but it was not reflected in the "Yellow Book" of the court.

The salt in the Ming Dynasty was mainly sea salt in the east, and pond salt and well salt in the west. Sea salt was the main way to obtain salt, and there were a large number of salt fields in coastal areas for drying salt.

However, due to the uneven distribution of benefits between the salt fields and the salt farmers, the annual salt output of the Ming Dynasty could not be fully collected by the salt fields, but was secretly sold to private salt dealers by the salt farmers.

Many of these private salt dealers were also employed by salt merchants.

After all, it is too difficult to obtain official salt through formal channels, so it is better to get some official salt and mix it with private salt to sell for profit.

In later generations, some people suspected that the scale of private salt in the Ming Dynasty may be several times that of official salt, which is largely due to speculation about the population of the Ming Dynasty.

Because the annual issuance of official salt is so much, it cannot be fully supplied, but private salt is rampant among the people.

If the supply and demand are sufficient, how could there be salt merchants buying salt permits at high prices.

The fundamental purpose of salt merchants buying salt permits is actually to cover up the private salt they have purchased.

It is worth mentioning that since the corruption of the Kaizhong Law during the Hongzhi period, the court allowed direct payment of silver without the need to transport grain and grass to the border towns. Although it quickly enriched the national treasury, it also led to the abandonment of military farms in the border towns.

At this time, the salt permit became a certificate that could be traded openly.

Wei Guangde was not very interested in the salt permit, and his sights were more on the salt field.

Yes, as long as enough salt was produced, there was basically no worry about selling it.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty still followed the system of the early Ming Dynasty, where the salt farmers were responsible for the production of salt, and the salt fields were responsible for the purchase and sale.

Of course, this was only in name only.

The salt farmers had tasks, and as long as they completed the tasks of the salt fields every year, they would mostly sell the extra salt privately to pay taxes.

Wei Guangde naturally used the ideas of later generations, thinking about whether to set up a salt industry chamber of commerce to directly produce sea salt.

However, this was in conflict with the current system of salt farmers in the Ming Dynasty.

Most of the coastal mudflats were distributed to the salt farmers.

Over the years, the salt farmers began to polarize, with some salt farmers becoming wealthy and more falling into poverty.

Moreover, over the past hundred years, the salt farmers' mudflats have been severely occupied by local tyrants, and like the fields, there have also been cases where rich salt farmers have annexed the salt fields of poor salt farmers.

Household registration system

Wei Guangde knew that if his chamber of commerce really intervened in the production of salt fields, it would have to buy salt fields from those rich salt farmers and hire poor salt farmers to produce them, but there was an unavoidable restriction here, that is, household registration.

Let’s not talk about whether the court will allow the Chamber of Commerce to participate in the salt field. What identity will the Chamber of Commerce use to do this business?

Once the Chamber of Commerce participates, it will definitely find ways to increase the salt fields. At that time, a large number of workers will be hired, and it will inevitably introduce civilian households to participate, especially those who have lost their land.

Otherwise, relying solely on the stove households may not be able to meet the needs.

What Wei Guangde is considering at this time is that because the tidal flats have been occupied, the stove households have lost the place to cut firewood, so salt boiling has basically disappeared, and the coastal areas can only rely on sun-dried salt production.

If there is a place with coal mines on the coast, it is not known whether it is possible to make a profit by mining coal and boiling salt.

Even if there is private salt, as long as the salt production can be increased, there is no need to worry about selling it. Just hand it over to the salt field, and they will naturally deal with it.

The increase in salt supply will naturally affect the price of salt, and the people can also eat cheap salt.

And the court can also increase the issuance of salt permits to obtain more salt taxes. (End of this chapter)