I served as an admonisher in the Song Dynasty

Chapter 309 Wang Anshi grinds ink, Sima Guang spreads paper, three envoys pour tea, and Su Liang writes a good plan!

Reform Department, in the meeting hall.

Wang Anshi took out a document from the side and said: "This is a document submitted by Xue Xiang, the supervisor of cargo affairs, at the end of last year on the shortcomings of the cross-citation method and the strategy of reintroducing the money-seeking method. Please take a look at it."

Immediately, Su Liang and Wang Yaochen quickly started reading.

The so-called cross-citation method.

It is also known as the Qianhuo Shanyang system, or the Chinese method.

Mainly aimed at the tea industry, but also involving a small amount of salt industry.

In the Song Dynasty, tea and salt were equally important, and people could not live without tea every day.

The tea-producing areas of the Song Dynasty were mainly distributed in the Qinling Mountains and south of the Huaihe River.

The imperial court established six major cargo services in these places to carry out tea monopoly.

Since there are more troops on the northwest and Hebei borders, a large amount of food and grass is needed.

The imperial court encouraged merchants to transport grain and grass to various border areas, and then the border officials issued payment vouchers to the merchants based on the local market price and the merchant's transportation distance, which was called cross-examination.

Merchants can go to designated areas to receive tea or salt with the help of a liaison.

This method was implemented mainly to save the court the cost of purchasing and transporting materials.

In order to increase the enthusiasm of merchants, the court would also overestimate the market price and give merchants a discounted price.

For example, if one should have been given one hundred guans, he would have been directly given 120 guans.

This "twenty dollars" includes a series of costs such as travel expenses, damage, and manpower.

Businessmen also want to be profitable.

But as time went by, government officials and businessmen began to collude to drive up prices uncontrollably, resulting in false valuations.

The value of one hundred strings can give one hundred and eighty strings of cross-reference.

seriously harmed the interests of the imperial court.

A large number of salt merchants and tea merchants came to the scene, and they were all wealthy and wealthy.

simply speaking--

The current cross-citation law has serious drawbacks and has formed a black chain of interests in which businessmen and officials collude.

Local officials and profiteers made a lot of money, while the imperial court suffered serious losses.

……

And see the money method.

This means that official tea no longer needs to be paid in exchange for payment, and merchants can buy tea with cash.

The imperial court spent more manpower, material and financial resources to simplify intermediate links, effectively eliminating the phenomenon of false estimates and inflated prices.

simply speaking--

The advantage of this method is that the court makes money on both sides and acts as a big businessman with privileges.

This method was implemented several years ago and has achieved certain results.

But it seriously damaged the interests of some local officials and wealthy businessmen.

They tried every means to undermine this policy.

For example: downgrading farmers' good tea to medium tea; selling good tea privately and selling bad tea to the government, etc.

There were even smuggled tea sellers who armed themselves against local officials.

In the end, the court had to compromise and abolished the money-seeking law.

……

When Wang Anshi saw that Su Liang and Wang Yaochen had finished reading the document, he immediately said: "I think that the cross-citation method can be abandoned now and the money-seeing method can be revived to increase the court's tea profits!"

“Of course, there is a prerequisite for this method.

"Severely crack down on the speculative behavior of big businessmen, severely punish and severely punish, and use strict methods to restore good order in the market. This method can be a good strategy!"

Wang Anshi looked confident.

His reform strategy has always been to seize the benefits of giant businessmen.

But often when giant businessmen are harmed, they will target small businessmen and ordinary people.

After hearing this, Su Liang and Wang Yaochen fully understood what Wang Anshi meant, and then turned to look at Sima Guang.

Sima Guang straightened up.

"I am completely opposite to Jie Fu. I believe that if merchants cannot make a profit, they will no longer want to transport grain and grass to the border, and can no longer compete with giant merchants for profits. The entire Song Dynasty should implement the same trade laws as those of Sichuan and Shu. Only in this way, Only then can the tea industry flourish..."

The so-called trade law.

That is, the court does not interfere with the transactions between merchants and tenants, and merchants only need to pay taxes and housing and sales taxes.

The Sichuan-Sichuan trade law was implemented because it involved transactions with ethnic minorities and horse trading. Tea could be used as currency, and the entire Sichuan and Shuchuan could be self-sufficient.

At this moment, Su Liang and Wang Yaochen both understood. The Cross-Citation Law prohibits transactions between tenants and merchants, and excessive circulation procedures make low-level officials serious about corruption and false estimates, which seriously damages the interests of the court, so it should be abolished.

Wang Anshi's improved money-seeking method allowed farmers to trade with merchants on the premise of severely punishing speculative businessmen. The court strongly intervened and both parties made money.

And Sima Guang's Trade Law.

The purpose is to reduce the court's intervention, make full use of the market adjustment mechanism, and increase the revenue of the court's tea industry with the purpose of increasing commercial taxes.

After the two of them finished speaking, they both looked at Su Liang and Wang Yaochen.

Wang Yaochen thought for a moment and said, "You two, to be honest, I don't think it's possible."

"Seeing that the money laws are too strict, the court will make it unprofitable for merchants and low-level officials, the tea industry will easily wither, and the costs paid by the court are too high, and there will be no one to transport grain and grass in the north, no way!"

"The trade laws are too loose, and those businessmen have too many ways to evade taxes. If they manipulate the market, not only will the court not get money, but the lower-level tea farmers will become the biggest victims."

Wang Anshi frowned slightly.

"Prime Minister Ji, are all evil businessmen in the world? I don't believe that no businessman is willing to serve the court with small profits!"

Hearing this, Su Liang also shook his head slightly.

In fact, it is not all about merchants making huge profits, but various accidents are prone to occur during transactions, such as thieves, bad weather, market changes, etc.

The risk is too high.

If you are not careful, the merchants will lose everything.

Therefore, no one wants to do this kind of business without heavy profits.

At this time, Su Liang spoke.

"I think these two methods can be combined."

"Huh? Combine?" The three of them were a little confused.

These two methods are almost completely opposite. One is tea taxation, which relies on the forced intervention of the court; the other is tea taxation, which relies on market regulation in the tea industry.

Su Liang continued: "We can take the court intervention of the Qian Law and the market regulation of the Commercial Law."

"The specific method is to shill the tea merchants to pay the tea tax to obtain tea imports, and then let them go to the farmers to purchase tea by themselves. A new contract department can be established to inspect all tea goods and then transport them to designated locations for sale. In addition, the tea imports It can be set as long-term quotation or short-term quotation. The long-term quotation is valid for one year and can be sold outside; the short-term quotation is one season and can only be sold locally..."

"In addition, in terms of supervision, we should adopt the form of business management and supervision in turns, just like the Market and Trade Department, to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of businessmen..."

"I name this method: Tea Introduction Method."

"However, when this law is implemented, there is also a prerequisite: 90% of the tea service officials will be abolished, and all tea service officials will be abolished, leaving no one behind. If there are coolies to work, just use private labor."

Suddenly, Wang Anshi and Sima Guang both laughed.

Su Liang stood on their shoulders and saw not only higher, but also farther.

However, there were tens of thousands of officials involved in tea services throughout the Song Dynasty. All of them were abolished, which was equivalent to destroying the iron rice bowls of tens of thousands of people who were eating from the imperial court. It was not easy to implement.

Seeing that Wang Yaochen was about to speak, Su Liang immediately said: "The collapse of the tea service is not caused by officials and merchants, but by the officials. If the officials are not eliminated, the tea service will not flourish!"

Hearing this, Wang Yaochen nodded heavily.

This is the fact.

It is the officials who really take advantage of the situation and constantly increase prices. Eliminating these officials is equivalent to eliminating the hands of officials for accepting bribes and the hands of businessmen for paying bribes.

At this time, Wang Anshi brought pen, ink, paper and inkstone from the side and placed them in front of Su Liang.

"Brother Jingming, I'm afraid we have to stay up all night tonight!"

Sima Guang on the side also echoed: "For the sake of the Song Dynasty, so what if Brother Jing Ming stayed up all night?"

"You underestimate Jing Ming. Jing Ming can write it in an hour!" Wang Yaochen also said with a smile.

Su Liang wanted to cry but had no tears.

He originally wanted to look at the lanterns and go to the night market, and then write tomorrow!

Being so excited by the three people, he became angry and said: "It's just an article, why is it so difficult!"

"Jiefu, grind the ink! Junshi, spread the paper! Ji Xiang, please pour me a cup of tea!" Su Liang raised his chin and said.

"Okay, Mr. Su!" the three of them said, imitating the voices of the waiters at Fan Lou shop.

After a while.

Outside the Reform Department, the sound of firecrackers and the hustle and bustle continued.

Su Liang carefully wrote a strategy for introducing tea.

From time to time, I discussed with Wang Yaochen, Wang Anshi and Sima Guang, and it was late at night before I knew it.

This article covers a lot of content and is not easy to write.

It wasn't until the fourth watch that the four of them worked together to finish it, and then they fell asleep leaning on a chair nearby.

The officials guarding them did not dare to disturb the four people, so they had to cover each of them with a quilt to prevent them from catching cold.

　Note: The tea methods of the Song Dynasty include the cross-quotation method, the money-seeking method, the trade method, etc. The later tea introduction methods were still used until the Qing Dynasty, so they naturally have their own merits. The difference between this article and Cha Yin's method is that it uses the method of managing business to eliminate the evil officials at the bottom.

　　In addition, I would like to ask for monthly tickets. Just collect enough to get 1,000 tickets. Please help me!

　　

　

(End of this chapter)