Since the advent of cement in high pragmatism, Daming has gradually accepted cement as a new building material, in recent years, from the perspective of the imperial court, Datong side wall renovation, thistle north wall renovation and other projects have used a large number of cement. The same is true for river engineering, which has purchased large quantities of cement for several years in a row to reinforce key sections of the river and to newly dug sections.

According to Wei Xuezeng and Gao Shishi's confession, this year alone, the money used by Hegong to purchase cement has reached 270,000 taels, and the total allocation of the imperial court for Hegong this year is only 710,000 taels, and the cost of purchasing cement has reached 38.

This is very understandable Wei Xuezeng came to Gao Pragmatic to discuss the matter of credit for this reason Wei Xuezeng, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, and Pan Jitao, the general manager of He, were both promoted by Gao Gong, they may dare to postpone the payment of other funds, but for the payment of Jinghua Cement, without Gao Pragmatic's consent, they will definitely not dare to postpone it at will, which affects the internal unity too much.

However, since it is internal, relatively speaking, there is also an advantage, that is, it can be discussed privately, so there is Wei Xuezeng's trip today.

Gao Pragmatic knew that the cement of the Jinghua Cement Plant was actually quite expensive, and he did not lower the price in this regard because he wanted to "support national construction". Gao's pragmatic thinking has always been to hope that the Ming court will establish an effective and feasible new financial system, which can complete the country's various projects within the scope of normal business operations, rather than learning from beginning to end.

He said that he was willing to pay taxes, which is in his heart, because in his opinion, paying taxes is a matter of course, without a good business environment given by the state, how can businessmen achieve a good profit rate is like once the country is in turmoil, maybe some businessmen can make money, but more businessmen can only go bankrupt, this is the impact of the business environment.

But paying taxes and paying taxes, normal business practices should not be distorted, of course, in Daming, there are too many distorted things, but this piece is not bad. For example, in the history of the three major expeditions of the Wan Li, many later generations know that the three battles did not invest much money in the household department at all, mainly relying on the support of the Wan Li Emperor's internal funds.

In fact, in this kind of war at the national level, it is not a matter of course for the household to pay for the military

There are also various tax exemptions due to disasters in the middle and late stages of the Wan calendar, and the exemption is also the help of the internal funds, and the Wan Li even had to issue an edict to warn the household department to "not rely on the internal funds alone".

In fact, this is a typical distortion of the financial system, the local government refuses to collect taxes, the household department has no money, so it refuses to pay, the emperor uses internal money to subsidize the state, and there is no money for internal use, so the local government widely sends officials to collect mining taxes, and the local government scolds the emperor for being greedy for money, and the emperor criticizes the household department for inaction and continues to collect mining taxes, and the more the local government is unwilling to pay taxes.

The local officials felt that the emperor was greedy, and the emperor also thought that these officials were useless, so the overall situation of the whole country became worse and worse, and the emperor became more and more unkind to see these officials.

In the final analysis, the key is that the officials feel that the world is the emperor's world, even if the court is short of money, and if it is not enough, you have to pay for it out of the emperor's pocket. And the emperor thinks that you just know that you want to reduce taxes here, reduce taxes there, subtract and subtract the household department is so poor that the rats refuse to go, once the country has something, a big son can't take it out, I have to pay out of my own pocket, I can do magic, I can get real money out of nothing, you just don't care about the tax collection, I send my own slaves to collect it

When the eunuchs arrived at the place, in addition to completing the tasks assigned by the emperor, of course, they also had to earn a "hard fee" by themselves, so it was common to squeeze the place. At this time, coupled with the cold bystanders and even secretly instigated by the local government, it is not surprising that there is a chaos in the local area against the mine supervisor

To put it bluntly, it is eight words of selfishness, and there is no division of power and responsibility. Selfishness mainly refers to officials, and if there is no division of power and responsibility, it is possible to blame Wan Li and his ancestors. For so many years in the Ming Dynasty, there was no emperor who felt that there was a problem with this financial system and that it should be reformed

Most of the emperors before the Wan Calendar did not realize that it was a very fatal thing to not be able to collect taxes, but when it came to the Wan Calendar, he actually made a little "progress" and realized the importance of money to the country, because no matter what you do, you have to have money. It's just that he didn't think of a way from the system, so he could only rely on "shamelessness" to make money to subsidize this flawed financial system.

To what extent in history Wan Li was "greedy for money" Some businessmen dared to wear bright yellow clothes, and when an official reported to Wan Li, Wan Li actually said that as long as they paid money, it would be fine.

Gao Pragmatism doesn't know how to evaluate it, is this a big heart, or is it sad to die in order to make money to subsidize the country, even this can be regarded as a major event of rebellion in other eras, in the eyes of Wan Li, it is only a matter of money

Of course, at least Wei Xuezeng has not discussed with him about using cement for free, but only hopes to delay the payment time, which is still negotiable.

"Wei Butang, in fact, whether it is Jinghua Cement Factory or other industries in Jinghua, it is rare to ask about specific business in the later years. However, in business, business belongs to business, and delaying payment or credit does not mean that it must not be, but whether the cement plant will affect the start of construction because the payment is not in place, this is not clear for the time being, so the specific matter should be discussed in detail. ”

This is the proper meaning of the question, Wei Xuezeng is not a hot-blooded teenager, he will not understand the meaning, and he will not ask Gao pragmatic to break the family and serve the country. He nodded lightly and said, "I naturally understand what the truth says, but I have other suggestions, I don't know if I want to listen to it."

Gao pragmatically smiled: "I would like to hear Gao's theory." ”

"It's not a big deal." Wei Xuezeng waved his hand and said, "Originally, the previous opening of the port, whether it was Tianjin in the north, or Ningbo, Quanzhou, and Guangzhou in the south, its official port was opened by the imperial court. Although at present, Tianjin Port has formed a situation where Jinghua private port is the mainstay, supplemented by the imperial court and the official port, because of the large investment in seeking truth, but the official port has always existed. ”

Gao Shishi's heart moved, but he didn't show it, but asked with a little surprise, "Yes, so what"

"Those official ports were built by the Ministry of Industry, and the property rights were also hung in the Ministry of Industry." Wei Xuezeng really said that he was highly pragmatic, "The Ministry of Industry means that these official ports can only barely keep their capital in the hands of the Ministry of Industry, and even the three southern ports actually have to lose money, so it is better to sell them simply, I don't know if they are willing to take over."

Gao Pragmatic knew that what Wei Xuezeng said about "the three southern ports actually have to lose money" does not mean that the opening of the port itself loses money, the problem is that the tax introduction and import and export tax are not the income of the Ministry of Industry, and what the Ministry of Industry can get is only a simple port operation income. But where will the Ministry of Industry operate what port

Tianjin Port relies on the high pragmatic private port driven, forming some scale effects, so the Ministry of Industry can still mix a barely guaranteed capital, and the popular in the south is that everyone has their own small port, here to add that the opening of the port in this period is not to the later generations basically only a huge main port, but many private individuals can build their own wharf called a port.

For example, when Quanzhou opened the port, there were dozens of private ports, and most of them only had one or two wharves.

is so scattered, it is naturally difficult to form a scale effect, so that the official port will also be wiped out.

Although he was excited, in business, Gao Pragmatic still said in embarrassment, "Since Wei Butang also said that the three southern ports are losing money, you still take this as an exchange for the late students"

Who knew that Wei Xuezeng shook his head and said, "It's true to lose money in the hands of the Ministry of Industry, but in your hands, how can you lose money and seek truth, although I don't know how to do business, but this bit of self-confidence is still there, the construction cost of these three official ports is more than 250,000 taels, plus Tianjin official port, the total construction cost is close to 400,000 taels." Now, although it has been a few years, it should be no problem to estimate 350,000 yuan, you spare me a little more, I will package and sell the four official ports to you, you will waive the cement payment for this year's river work, and then make up 100,000 taels for the Ministry of Industry, you see how it is"