Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1010 Another Expression

Not long ago, the Sichuan merchant who scolded Shaanxi merchants for being treacherous and treacherous for lending like a gangrene, after drinking tea, praised: "It is said that the Qin people are wealthy merchants, and there is no need for such a statement. You are really worthy of this Guan who is enshrined in the Western Qin Guild Hall." Second Lord!"

A few years ago, a certain person in Pingwu was forced to sell his wife, forced a dozen families to commit suicide by drinking brine, and was finally driven out of Mianzhou. The Shaanxi businessman who vowed not to intermarry with Sichuanese for generations also said at this time: "Everyone is a Sichuanese. People, Sichuan people are loyal, we have always heard. In the future, we will live here to make a living, we may still be businessmen doing business together, we have each other's right and wrong in the past, let's let it go now."

Both sides admitted a mistake to each other, and then they got down to business.

Sichuan merchants seldom go to the south of the Yangtze River. Generally, they run to the west of Sichuan and go to Tibet to buy tea, horses and salt.

Although I have also heard of the joint-stock system model emerging in Songjiang Mansion, I don't know what it is.

Feudal society didn't like this kind of partnership system very much.

For example, if other shareholders commit a crime and get implicated, they may also be unlucky.

Moreover, how is the company's assets calculated?

If the company really loses everything, what will happen to the money?How to calculate the company's debt?
Is it only to compensate all the assets of the company?
Or does it mean that each company that invests in shares must contribute its own family background?
Or, if offended officials, or treason or something like that, was implicated, would the company also be confiscated?

Shaanxi merchants were the losers in the Huaihe River commercial war, and they were driven back to Shaanxi by Huizhou merchants against the huge advantage that Dashun had not completely solved the northern frontier crisis.

But they are also quite familiar with the south of the Yangtze River. In the past, Yangzhou was known as half the city of Jinshan and half of the city emblem. Although it is no longer the same as before, they have close exchanges and know some new situations.

Immediately, the Shaanxi businessman talked about how to operate and many rules.

The direction of businessmen's attention is similar.

After listening to these rules, these Sichuan businessmen nodded and said, "It should be. If we do this, there will be no competition between everyone, just work together to make money."

"Looking at the meaning of the imperial court now, it really wants to support us. As long as the land rent issue here is resolved, even if the imperial court wants to engage in official transportation and commercial sales, and then lower the price, we will also make money."

The root of this matter is that the imperial court and these merchants are colluding together. Although the goals are not the same, they are still fellow travelers at this time.

These businessmen are not stupid, and they can easily understand the meaning of the court's actions.

It is nothing more than the imperial court wanting a salt tax.

Don't say let the common people eat cheap salt. That is not something that a feudal dynasty should consider, nor is it an obligation that should be imposed on the emperor and the court. Feudal rulers have no such obligation.

It's just that the official salt is too expensive, and the common people eat private salt, so that they can't collect money.

Therefore, the salt industry in southern Sichuan must be reformed.

The salt that ordinary people eat is not conjured out of thin air, after all, it is produced in salt wells.

In the past, there were many salt wells and it was difficult to suppress smuggling, which made many people eat quite fat.

What the imperial court did was nothing more than to learn from the reform experience of the Songjiang Mansion, to build a large company that is convenient for control and audit, and to squeeze the living space of private salt as much as possible.

The issue of land rent, based on the logic of the imperial court, is that land rent makes official salt expensive, and official salt makes people eat private salt, which makes it impossible to collect taxes. Failure to collect taxes leads to the central government's power to retreat again and again.

The production of salt from salt wells is easy to gradually develop into a monopoly.Drilling a well requires a high amount of capital investment. Now such a change is not counterproductive, but it is equivalent to pushing ahead what must be done.

Shaanxi businessmen and Sichuan businessmen are well aware of this, and they still take advantage of the loss. Only the fact that the court banned land rent gave them a big advantage.

The news released in advance is to let enough capital pour in.

While the two sides were talking, a servant ran in and said, "Master, the lord of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce is here."

This is today's protagonist, and the main seat has always been vacant.

The businessmen from both sides of Qin and Shu hurriedly got up to greet them. After the twenty-year-old people from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce walked in, they naturally took the main seat without much courtesy.

When it comes to speaking, it is also straight to the point, and has a personality for its own identity.

"We, to put it simply, are actually the court who installed a father-in-law for you. Let you do it yourself. Everyone is as clear as a mirror."

"It's like the official name of the Sixth Government, but in fact everyone still calls it the Sixth Ministry in private. Although we are called the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, some people call us 'Shaofu Supervisor' in private."

"Since Emperor Wu handed over the salt benefits of the Shaofu to the government, our 'Shaofu Supervisor' actually doesn't care about the salt government. Of course, we don't care about it now."

"The affairs of the industry and commerce belong to the industry and commerce, and the affairs of the salt administration belong to the salt administration."

"The Salt Administration is in charge of tax collection, and we are in charge of investment and construction. The matter of land rent is in the charge of the prefect, and we have nothing to do with it."

"First of all, let's make it clear that each of them is in charge of a pool. If we should take care of it, we will take care of it. If we shouldn't take care of it, don't ask us."

Whether to call it the Sixth Government or the Sixth Ministry is not a matter of political principle similar to "Chuang Thief" or "Chuangwang", but the difference between the official name and the private name.

And people from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce bluntly said that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce is actually the "Shaofu Supervisor", which means that the emperor is finally going to formalize this matter.

The emperor said before that many things now depend on Liu Yu's "shogunate".In order to avoid the death of the government, it is better to come up with a charter.

Now that the charter has been worked out, then this group of people are officials, but they are not under the control of the Six Governments. Then what is this, it is self-evident.

The young official was even more outspoken, clearly stating that these people were the "father-in-law" placed for them by the imperial court.

This sentence has two meanings.

First, when something happens, especially when there is a conflict with the outside world, the parents-in-law must take care of their daughter-in-law.

Second, after things settle down in the future, there is a saying that a daughter-in-law who has been married for many years will become a mother-in-law.If you have the ability, you will send your parents-in-law back to the west; if you have no ability, you will be supervised.

As for sending their parents-in-law back to the west, these salt merchants dare not even think about it.

If they really want to send their parents-in-law back to the west and become their own mothers-in-law, they can't stop the counterattack of the landlord forces.

Since you don't have the ability to be your own parents-in-law and the ruling class, you should be obedient and be a vassal of the existing ruling class.

After the call was over, the businessmen had never seen this kind of speech style, and they all claimed it was true, thinking that it was important to find an in-law to cover them up, otherwise they would not even be able to fight the local landlords.

Now thinking about the supervision of my parents-in-law in the future, it is like worrying about eating steamed buns to death before eating steamed buns.

After the young official set the tone, he asked someone to unfold a picture and said, "Now that you want to start a salt company and raise capital, you have to talk about how to use this capital."

"The imperial court took the salt well here into the government's possession and entrusted you to manage it, not to let you continue to use the old method."

"The imperial court wants production. It must be able to guarantee the salt needs of Guizhou, Tibet, Sichuan and other places. It must also ensure that if something happens downstream in the future, it can also be supported by Sichuan salt."

"Using our internal words, we need to increase productivity, otherwise there is no need to do this."

"The so-called increase in productivity means installing steam engines, installing large-scale natural gas wells, concentrating salt cooking, and laying brine pipelines."

"This all requires centralized planning. Instead of just handing over the management rights to you, let you continue to use the old methods. In that case, you will change the soup without changing the medicine."

In this remark, except for the steam engine, many of these people are not familiar with it.

The rest, whether it is a large natural gas well or a brine pipeline, they are familiar with.

In the past few years, those who have the real financial resources are indeed doing this, gathering the brine from the scattered salt wells to the fire well to cook salt.

However, because it has just emerged, it is not yet very large-scale.

The meaning of the young officials is nothing more than that from the very beginning, this large salt-producing area was planned according to this scale.

In this, it is equivalent to the imperial court depriving the landlords of their profits and using these profits as bait to make capital willing to make high-value investments.

Just like these businessmen complained before, many wells in the past were "clients come to build high-rise buildings, and clients go to the owner to collect them." Unless they completely obtained the ownership of the land by some means such as some wealthy commercial marriages, they would not engage in that kind of large-scale construction.

Otherwise, wouldn't it be making wedding clothes for others?Who is willing to pay a lot of money for construction and leave it all to the landlords in the future?
The initial investment is definitely not small, but once it is in operation, the daily profits will be considerable if the steam engine that runs all day long replaces the "three pumping and one resting" bulls.

The drawings shown are only a rough plan, and the first phase of the project is mainly to transform the existing salt wells.

Looking at the planning of the people on the court side, these businessmen who are about to invest are more at ease.Because whether salt can make money does not depend on whether the machine is advanced, but on who the court is willing to support.

If you are willing to support, isn't the Huainan area, where one person, one cooker has the lowest-tech salt cooking industry, alive and well?
And the imperial court's display of such a plan is actually the last reassurance for these businessmen who are planning to invest: the imperial court will not be idle to engage in such a big battle, since it is done, it is really going to support you, official businessmen Under the sales policy, the main force must buy your salt.

The more tossing and supervision, the more reassuring these businessmen are, because salt is really different from other things.Just as those Shaanxi businessmen said in the capital before: I wish this Yan government office could be built in Chengdu.

After taking this reassurance, the young official said again: "If there are no problems, then the stock offering will be set on the first day of next month. Mr. Fu Yin reckons that the land issue can be resolved for us before the end of the month."

"The proportion of Shaanxi and Sichuan has been set, how to divide internally, you can discuss it yourself."

"If you have spare money, don't be in a hurry. There are still several projects here, such as repairing coal roads and coal mines in Jianrong County."

"The imperial court doesn't like to hire too many workers, because hired workers are the most difficult to control and form gangs. However, salt must be eaten and coal must be burned."

"Our principle is very simple: the higher the unit productivity of each person, then the court will support; the lower the unit productivity of each person, that is the court will eliminate."

"So, why did the imperial court support you and get on the steam engine? Why did the imperial court acquiesce in allowing you to crush those small producers who are self-sufficient? This is the intention."

"It takes 1 workers to do what previously required 3 people. This is the true meaning of His Majesty's understanding."

"To vigorously develop the productive forces is to share worries for the country and His Majesty!"

This young official learned the essence of Liu Yu's speech skills, he opened his mouth about the court, and kept his mouth shut about His Majesty, and said something about the improvement of productivity, which was so in line with the political correctness of the feudal dynasty of Dashun.

The purpose of studying railways is to train a group of rebels who are quite professional railway workers?No, it is for His Majesty's country, to build a Grand Canal that does not need water.

The purpose of developing steam engines is to dig a hole to bury Dashun for the hundreds of thousands of millions of new classes who will work in sweltering factories in the future?No, it is for His Majesty's Jiangshan Sheji, so that places like Xishan Coal Mine, which are a headache for the court but have to exist, can do enough work with the least number of people.

Although magical, this is Dashun's political correctness at this time.

The imperial court was afraid that Wang Zicheng and Zhao Xianzhong would lose their jobs due to small farmers, so they wanted to do everything in their power to maintain the small farmers' economy.

However, he wished that there would be fewer and fewer workers, and the productivity of the workers’ units would be extremely high, because Guo Zinu, Liu Xinyu, Li Dayong, Jiang Changzi, Zeng Jienu, etc., who were the best fighters in Hunan and other places at the same time, heard this name. This slave and that slave know that they are basically all mining coal in black mines.

(End of this chapter)