Prime Minister of Great Qin

Chapter 90 Powerful? ! (seeking subscription)

Fu Su sits on the table.

Ji Heng's words kept thinking in his mind.

But now he feels that what Ji Heng said is similar to what Shi Huang said, "The way of the king and the art of career are not determined by personal likes and dislikes".

the other side.

Hu Hai blinked and didn't understand at all.

After being quiet for a while, Hu Hai coughed lightly, breaking the tranquility around him. He said, "Isn't it talking about the salt and iron business? Why did it suddenly turn to merchants? And it's not detailed, how can I Didn't you hear that this method is better than 'Government Monopoly'?"

Ji Heng took a deep look at Hu Hai, with a strange look in his eyes.

But it didn't show up.

aside.

Fu Su followed suit and said, "Actually, I half-understand. I only understand the general idea, but I have no idea how to implement it."

"Please tell me more, sir."

Fusu kept his posture very low.

Ji Heng nodded.

What he said earlier was indeed very brief.

And he remembered temporarily that this period of time was counting days, and the government might not be able to spare manpower to study, so he decided to say more.

He took a deep breath, organized it in his mind, and said slowly: "Simply speaking, in the operation of salt and iron, the production is mainly based on the people, supplemented by the government, and the sales are mainly carried out by merchants, supplemented by the government."

"Daqin set up officials in charge, deployment, and tax collection in the central and local governments to strengthen control, manage production, prevent private casting and cooking, and completely prohibit private individuals from operating freely in the transportation and marketing of products. At the same time, it does not advocate the establishment of special agencies by the government. Instead of assigning merchants to carry out the distribution of salt and iron, they will use the existing sales capabilities of the merchants to hand over the monopoly salt and iron to the merchants for distribution.”

"The court uses this to collect high business taxes!"

"Merchants must obtain distribution rights before they can sell salt and iron. There is a certain limit on the number of merchants who can obtain distribution rights, but it will not be too small. After buying salt and iron from the government, and then collecting high taxes after selling, In the end, only a very small part of the profit can be obtained."

"also."

"The monopoly price of salt and iron must be limited by the imperial court."

"Not too high, not too low."

"Then prevent the emergence of merchants in the world who are as rich as enemies!"

"By controlling the production process and adjusting the price of salt and iron for sale, the imperial court effectively stabilized the price of salt and iron, and then realized most of the profits of salt and iron, which belonged to the state."

Hearing Ji Heng's detailed explanation, Fusu had roughly figured it out.

It's just that there are still some doubts in my heart.

He said: "Mr.'s idea is naturally excellent, but I have some doubts. Please ask Mr. to clarify my doubts."

"According to Mr.'s suggestion, it is clear that the functions of the government are divided into three parts. Some officials are responsible for supervising the people's production, some are responsible for allocation and distribution, and some are responsible for collecting taxes. These functions can be completed by one government office. One is divided into three. Is it a bit of a waste?"

"Waste?" Ji Heng said with serious eyes, "You haven't realized how profitable the salt and iron business is, it's an item related to the life and production of the vast majority of people in the world, and there's no room for error. "

"A bureau can indeed perform these functions."

"But have you ever thought about how much power the officials in charge of salt/iron have and how much interest they have when they put salt/iron under one official office?"

"Benefits touch people's hearts."

"As long as one person is motivated by selfishness, how much interest can be involved with a casual word from them?"

"They even dare to take risks for their own interests."

"At that time, they will find some excuses to seize some salt, iron and ink, and then sell them to merchants. They will make a lot of money every time they come and go."

"Even they don't need to sell to outside merchants, they can train their own merchants, and then use the hands of these merchants to make profits for themselves in an upright manner. If they follow the example, the entire government office will become a place for corruption."

"Everyone is greedy, that is, they are not greedy."

"It's just that there was an accident at the bottom, so just make up some excuses and prevaricate the top."

"I have to suffer at the bottom, and the court is impoverished."

heard.

Fusu felt his hair stand on end.

He hadn't thought about official corruption before, he just wanted to concentrate the functions of the government office.

But after Ji Heng's awakening, he suddenly reacted.

The interests involved in salt and iron are too great.

have to guard against.

It's just that he still couldn't believe it, and said in a trembling voice: "Dare the officials of Daqin to be so insane? Do they dare to be so lawless? Don't they have the law in their eyes?"

Ji Heng sneered and said, "Law?"

"How much is the law worth?"

"How much money did the salt and iron bring them?"

"And why do you think the law can govern them?"

"They are officials!"

"Daqin's current laws can't even be controlled by Xiang Liang and others, so you still want to control officials?"

"You too underestimate the allure of money."

"What's more, these people don't think that they will be found out. Even if they are found out, they will not think that they have made a mistake. They will only think that they were too careless and were caught by the court."

"That's all."

"This is also the main reason why I oppose the monopoly of salt and iron."

"Officials doing business have done too much harm to the imperial court, and today the world is still "officials are officials" and "rich is rich". Power is rich and expensive.”

"When these people have completely become powerful in the local area, do you think they will still pay attention to the imperial court?"

"How much money can the imperial court charge at that time?"

"I said before, don't test human nature."

"Human nature cannot stand the test."

"The "Shang Jun Shu" and "Han Feizi" have clearly told you that once interests are involved, let alone father and son, husband and wife, relatives and friends, these are actually untrustworthy."

"Even relatives can't be trusted, let alone officials who have nothing to do with each other?"

"The only thing that can be done is to use restraint."

"Punish with punishment!"

"Other than that, we can only disperse its functions as much as possible, so as to achieve multi-party supervision, so that people dare not easily go to corruption."

"But these are actually very difficult to really solve the problem."

"But right now it's only about prevention."

"It is not very possible to take further precautions."

"Unless." Ji Heng's eyes were slightly closed, and there was a strange look in them.

"Unless what?" Fusu asked hastily.

Ji Heng laughed lightly and said, "Unless the productivity is greatly improved, even a few liters of salt can be sold for less than a penny, and the profit will be extremely low, so low that even officials think it's not worthwhile to be corrupt."

"But it is destined to not be realized right now."

Fusu's expression darkened.

He thought there was a way to stop it, but it turned out to be an unrealistic fantasy.

But soon.

He adjusted his mind.

It is unrealistic to think about eradicating all corruption right now, and it would be good to be able to effectively prevent it.

At least he now knew what the problem was.

Avoid falling headlong into it.

He also couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "I never thought that there are so many ways to manage salt and iron. If there is no guidance from Mr. Daqin, Daqin might not escape this disaster."

"The functions of salt officials and iron officials should indeed be dispersed."

"Otherwise it's really dangerous."

Ji Heng said indifferently: "For the time being, don't worry too much. After all, the horoscope has not been written yet. When the salt and iron system under the supervision of the government is formally established, it will not be too late for you to worry."

Fusu nodded.

He continued to ask: "According to what you said, Daqin wants to hire a group of people to produce salt and iron. Can you directly recruit the people who were originally produced in the salt well and salt pond?"

Ji Heng thought for a moment, nodded, and said, "Yes."

"But only salt workers and slaves."

"Anyone who has a close relationship with merchants must be kicked out."

"Ah?" Fu Su was taken aback, wondering: "Can't we keep a few people? These people are more familiar with the salt production in Yanchi, and they are also convenient for assisting the officials to supervise, and they are also good for contacting merchants in the future."

"Just one?"

"No one will be left." Ji Heng's voice was very cold, and he said in a deep voice, "I know what you think, with these daily management people, the officials can save a lot of trouble in daily life, and the imperial court can control the salt ponds and wells in various places as soon as possible. "

"There is one thing to remember."

"Don't give merchants any chance to taint power."

"Do our best to avoid the possibility of corruption in the middle link."

"Merchants are a group of profit-seeking existence. These people are very good at climbing up. As long as they are given a chance to climb up, they will spare no effort to seize it."

"With the help of merchants, it can save a lot of trouble."

"However, once merchants collude with low-level officials, it will inevitably form a combination of officials and businessmen, and it will inevitably breed a lot of corruption in the long run. If the imperial court gives merchants the opportunity to be officials, with their understanding of the economy and their own financial resources , will be able to climb up soon.”

"Then take charge of the country's economic power."

"Businessmen seek profit."

"Eventually the corruption will just keep spreading and eventually flood the empire."

"The job of a businessman is to do business."

"The duty of officials is to supervise."

"The duty of the salt worker is to produce."

"Everyone should do their job, don't try to mix it up."

"Once they are mixed, many unexpected things will happen, and salt and iron have a lot to do with interests, which will only lead to rampant corruption in the end."

"You can't be greedy for a moment's quickness and shake the whole rule."

Ji Heng looked solemn.

He is not alarmist.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty tried to quickly appoint merchants from all over the country as salt officials, and these merchants completely corrupted the official administration of the Han Dynasty in just a dozen years. The salt and iron business was restored to private operation, resulting in "insufficient expenditure" by the imperial court.

It was also from this time that merchants began to merge with nobles.

Merchants are extremely greedy.

Once they find an opportunity, they will seek to compete for national resources in various ways and means to make huge profits, so as to realize their own wealth that rivals the country, and then threaten the centralization of power.

Now under the guidance of the Great Qin policy, the status of merchants is very low, and officials and nobles simply look down on merchants

But in a unified environment, businessmen are destined to grow up. What Ji Heng has to do is to put a pair of shackles on the businessman as much as possible, and then put him in a cage. Even if the businessman breaks free from the cage in the future, he still has to wear the shackles.

　I feel that [-] words are not enough, and I am too tired.

　　I work hard!

　　woohoo.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)