Daming: I asked you to supervise the country, Daming is all crazy?

Chapter 128 Tolls and Service Areas
"Establish relevant laws and regulations for merchants?"

Zhu Gaochi nodded upon hearing this.

There are many laws and regulations on merchants in Ming Dynasty, and there are even clear regulations on what merchants should wear, so Zhu Gaochi is no stranger to this set.

However, he understood it, but he still asked with some hesitation in his heart: "Although that is the case, how to build this cement road? I am afraid that the Ministry of Household Affairs will not agree to such a large expense."

"After all, your grandfather doesn't know when the Northern Expedition will be overthrown. It's okay to talk about money. There is no shortage of households, but it will take several years to build a cement road like this. Among them, the recruited civilians spend a lot of money every day." Grain and grass is a big expense. In order to make up for the grain and grass for the Northern Expedition, the household department has already increased the price of purchased grain a lot. If it is added to the construction of cement roads, I am afraid that Xia Yuanji will not agree, and High food prices are not a good thing for the common people!"

Zhu Gaochi was still hesitant to build a cement road from Yingtian to Shuntian, although he brought up this matter.

But after hearing Zhu Zhanji's words, he also understood that the matter of the cement road was not as simple as he thought.

In this way, the money spent is actually second.

After all, the current household department is not considered poor, so the money to build such a cement road is naturally no problem.

But money is money, and sometimes money may not be able to be spent, especially for food, which is related to people's livelihood.

If it takes too long to build the cement road from Yingtian to Shuntian, the food that will be consumed every day will not be a small amount.

Coupled with the Northern Expedition, the court purchased a large amount of grain, and the result would inevitably lead to a sharp increase in grain prices, just as Zhu Zhanji said.

In this way, it is okay for those who have food at home, but if the people do not have food, then it will be a disaster.

This is also the main reason why Zhu Gaochi hesitated.

Although there are many benefits in building the cement road from Yingtian to Shuntian, if it will harm the people, this is something he will not do.

"It's easy!"

Zhu Zhanji smiled and said, "You should know Daming First Construction Company, right?"

Zhu Gaochi nodded: "You mean the one you asked Zhou Chen to add under the household department?"

Seeing Zhu Zhanji nodding, Zhu Gaochi glanced at Zhou Chen not far away, and said:
"You did a good job on this matter. Although the name of this construction company is a bit weird, it has to be said that it also makes many things clearer. For example, in terms of money allocation, there is no such thing as the previous situation of shirking each other."

"Of course!"

Zhu Zhanji raised his chin proudly. He worked hard to add a construction company to the Ministry of Industry. If there is no benefit, he will naturally not do it.

Of course, Zhu Gaochi only knows some superficial things. If this stupid father knows, this so-called construction company just built this cement road with a cost of only 300 taels of silver, and earned almost 3000 taels from the Ministry of Households. Two silver coins, nearly ten times the profit, and most of it belongs to him, the investor, his jaw probably dropped in shock.

And now it's just that the construction company has just been established. When the scale becomes larger in the future, the speed of making money will naturally increase immediately.

But Zhu Zhanji naturally wouldn't explain this to his stupid father. After all, the money was earned by the household department. For their family, it was almost like putting money from the left pocket into the right pocket generally.

Complacent, Zhu Zhanji did not forget the purpose, and said: "My idea is actually like this construction company. If the cement road is built at that time, we only need to hand over this matter to the construction company, and the construction company This side will measure and plan this cement road, and then call some businessmen to divide it into different projects according to different road sections, pay these businessmen a certain amount of money, and let the businessmen build this cement road!"

"Let the merchant build it?"

Zhu Gaochi showed doubts on his face. He thought that his son mentioned the construction company because the construction company had a way to build cement roads.

But when Zhu Zhanji asked the businessman to build the cement road, he frowned instinctively, and said in a puzzled way: "Why should the businessman build it? If so, what should we do if there is a problem with the cement road?"

"If there is a problem with the cement road, the businessman who built the cement road will naturally be responsible."

Zhu Zhanji said without thinking: "Just like the construction company, the cement road built by the construction company must be tested by the Ministry of Industry. Only the cement road that passes the test will be issued by the Ministry of Households. The household department will refuse to release the final payment, and the construction company will need to rebuild."

"Can this be done?"

Zhu Gaochi couldn't help asking.

"Naturally it will work!"

Zhu Zhanji affirmed: "Businessmen seek profit, as long as there is something beneficial, they will do it, and building cement roads is naturally beneficial. In this way, the imperial court does not need to spend a lot of money to buy grain and grass. Naturally, they will find ways to get cheap food to hire peasants, and the imperial court will not cause public resentment because of large-scale construction."

"And we don't build the cement road in vain. As long as it is built, we can also set some charges. For example, if we want to transport goods on the cement road, how much toll will we charge for the passage of goods, and there will be horse-drawn carriages. There can be some regulations on how much money is charged for the carriage, so that the cost of building the cement road will be paid back immediately within a few years."

"We can even negotiate with the merchants, and hand over the right to charge cement roads to the merchants who build the cement roads in the form of offsetting the cost of constructing the cement roads within a certain period of time, while the imperial court can pay nothing. If you go out, you can get a cement road.”

It is not uncommon in this era to set up road checkpoints to collect money, so Zhu Gaochi quickly understood the so-called tolls in Zhu Zhanji's mouth after hearing it.

Therefore, I couldn't help but my eyes lit up:
"The cement road is handed over to the businessman to be responsible for the construction, and the Ministry of Industry will inspect it. If the inspection passes, the Ministry of Households will issue the final payment. In this way, if the businessman wants to get the final payment, there will be no problems in the construction of the cement road."

"And after the cement road is built, we can set up checkpoints to collect fees, or even directly use the right to charge fees to offset, which means that we can get a cement road without paying any money!"

Zhu Zhanji couldn't help being a little funny when he saw his stupid father talking about things that didn't cost a penny.

It's not bad to use this kind of thing to fool people, but if it is really implemented, the problem is still very big.

The first thing that is needed is a question of trust.

If the imperial court did not trust the merchants, they would not entrust the construction of cement roads to the merchants.

However, businessmen do not trust the court, so they are skeptical about the so-called settlement of the final payment after acceptance.

Fortunately for the former, although the imperial court has always distrusted businessmen, it is actually not afraid of businessmen making troubles.

However, for the latter, in this era, it is basically a joke to want those businessmen to have trust in the court.

Just like what happened with the new salt last time, if it wasn't for the huge profits of the new salt, there wouldn't be so many merchants who came to answer the sky, and even so, there were still a large number of merchants who did not come.

Of course these are just one aspect.

But to use these to fool people, to some extent, there is actually no problem.

After all, the concrete road will have to be built sooner or later. Now that I have convinced my stupid father, there will be fewer obstacles in building other cement roads.

Thinking of this, Zhu Zhanji felt that he should add fire to his stupid father, and said:
"And the cement road is not the only way to make money. It is about 2000 miles from Yingtian to Shuntian. If a horse-drawn cart is full of goods, it will take at least ten days to arrive. Such a long time, the journey must be We need some places to rest and supply, so we can even build a service area at intervals..."

"Service area?"

Hearing that it is another thing that can earn back the cost of building cement roads, and it is a word that has never been heard before, Zhu Gaochi obviously became more interested, and asked, "What is a service area?"

"The service area is naturally a place to serve others!"

Zhu Zhanji smiled and continued to explain: "It's similar to a post station, but it's more comfortable and comprehensive. For example, business travelers need accommodation at night, horses need fodder, people also need food, and even some turnover things, so we can travel every once in a while. In terms of distance, an area is specially planned to concentrate restaurants, inns, restaurants, and other functions, dedicated to serving business travelers in the past and providing them with convenience."

"In contrast, the service area provides convenience, and solves the hardships and various troubles of the long-term journey for the passing business travelers. The passing business travelers will naturally pay corresponding rewards. Even if there are not many people, as long as the passing business travelers The number is too large, and a journey of two thousand miles will take about ten days, even if only twenty service areas are set up."

"A business trip from Yingtian to Shuntian, a service area, even if you only buy some simple food, stay for a night's rest, and feed some simple fodder for the horses, it will cost at least two to three hundred yuan per night, and Ten days is five or six taels of silver, and this is only one person. If there are 100 people passing by, it is five or six hundred taels of silver, and 600 people are five or six thousand taels of silver. The more people there are, the more they earn. Even if there are millions of taels of silver, the cost of a concrete road will not exceed several million taels, so naturally the money can be easily earned back.”

"This………"

Zhu Gaochi couldn't help opening his mouth when he heard Zhu Zhanji's words.

If according to his son's calculation, if the entire Ming Dynasty was filled with concrete roads, wouldn't the income from this be more than the imperial court's taxes?
There are so many business travelers traveling from south to north every year, not to mention the toll, just the benefits brought by this service area is not a small sum.

If it wasn't his own son who said this, Zhu Gaochi would definitely regard this person as a lunatic.

It is extremely difficult for the imperial court to collect some taxes every year, but now this is just a concrete road from Yingtian to Shuntian, which can easily benefit millions of taels of silver, which suddenly made him feel inexplicably ignorant.

I feel that this majestic prince of myself seems to be unable to keep up with his son's thoughts for a while.

Zhu Zhanji didn't know what Zhu Gaochi was thinking.

In fact, these ideas of his are basically derived from the profit model of highways in later generations.

There is no need to mention the tolls. In later generations, this mountain was built by me, and this tree was the bandit model I planted.

It's just that the current situation of Daming is definitely not realistic, not to mention the various forks in the road, the cement road cannot meet the requirement of being closed.

And even if these roads are closed, the carriage is not like a car, it can only go on the highway. The carriage is light, only a few hundred catties, and a few adult men can easily lift it over the guardrails on both sides of the road, unless it is 24 hours a day. Arrange for someone to go on patrol.

The service area is just the opposite. The speed of a horse-drawn carriage is far slower than that of a car when traveling long distances. Even if it does not stop for a day, pulling a full-loaded horse-drawn carriage can run hundreds of miles at most.

In this way, a service area is basically needed every few tens of miles, which naturally increases the revenue of the service area.

As for the profit model of the service area, although it is voluntary, no one will force consumption, and even many things are free services.

But those who have been there naturally understand that all kinds of snacks, drinks, and water will not be mentioned. After a long journey, they are already hungry and thirsty. Coupled with the temptation of various local special snacks, basically few people can resist the temptation. .

More or less, almost all of them will do some consumption.

And the present is not the future, as long as the body can bear it, you can still go on the road at night.

At night in this era, not to mention horses, I can't stand it, how many roads I can drive in one night, and all kinds of wild beasts that come out to forage at night in the wilderness are not something ordinary people can deal with.

So naturally at night, if it is not particularly urgent, I will choose to rest.

In this way, the inns in the service area will definitely come in handy.

It can be said that Zhu Zhanji is actually more optimistic about this voluntary consumption model than the mandatory tolls.

Not only will it make more money, but there will be no escape from the checkpoint.

Moreover, the operation of places like the service area can even be leased out directly through contracting, so that you don't even have to be responsible for the operation.

Of course, the most important thing is to fool the stupid father who lives in his own house. We can't let the stupid father rush to repair the road immediately, and we can't let him retreat easily.

So seeing that the fire was almost ready, Zhu Zhanji added: "Of course, we can't rush the matter of the cement road, because there are still some big problems on the cement road, and there will be no major problems in the short distance. Whether it is the choice of routes, the construction of concrete bridges, or even the opening of mountain roads, it will take a period of research."

(End of this chapter)