Chang'an City, the imperial study

When Qin Zheng and the others returned to Chang'an, it was already afternoon, because everyone didn't have time to eat at noon, so Qin Zheng asked people to prepare snacks.

So the courtiers enjoyed the first afternoon tea of Great Qin with Qin Zheng, although there was no tea......

Qin Zheng took a sip of the syrup water in his cup and said as if unintentionally: "Have you been to the market recently?" ”

Everyone was still enjoying Qin Zheng's newly developed "palace pastries" As soon as they heard him speak, they couldn't help but guess wildly: What does Your Majesty mean?

Qin Zheng saw that everyone did not speak, and he was not annoyed, and glanced at Zheng Ling, who hurriedly handed over a stack of documents.

Qin Zheng opened a glance and skimmed for a while, then handed it to Yingyi on the left hand side and said, "This is just the recent price fluctuations written by Bai Pu, the commercial officer. You can take a look and think about what is wrong with it. ”

Yingyi hurriedly took the document and read it carefully, and after a while, he thoughtfully passed it to Zhao Gao next to him, and Zhao Gao read it and passed it on to the next one.

Finally, several members of the cabinet of the Great Qin Heavy Ministers present had finished reading it, and Qin Zheng said, "How do you see what?" ”

Although Yingyi's ability is mediocre, after all, he is the prime minister, so he was the first to speak: "Your Majesty, except for the increase in the price of grain and firewood in winter, the price of other items is decreasing. ”

What Ying Yi said was that the phenomenon was more accurate, but he didn't have any ideas of his own, but Qin Zheng also used him as a mascot, and he didn't mean to embarrass him.

So Qin Zheng nodded, and his gaze turned to Zhao Gao behind Yingyi. I saw Zhao Gao calmly open his mouth and said: "The supply of grain charcoal is not abundant, but it is enough, and there is a surplus of other products."

Chen remembered that the market was very depressed in the previous period, and the reason was that many people felt that the future situation was uncertain and were unwilling to consume more, but this situation has changed a lot after the introduction of new technology products. ”

Qin Zheng nodded and said, "Then what do you think of the current situation?" ”

Zhao Gao thought for a while and said: "Guanzhong has always been the best in the world, with a large population and stronger production capacity. Originally, many places in the surrounding area were in Yongguan for middle-class goods.

But now that my Great Qin is gone, Kandong is gone, Jingxiang is gone, and even Bashu is gone, and the population is only more than 3 million left.

However, the industry in Guanzhong has recovered well, and with the use of some new technologies, the output of goods has not decreased, so if you want to sell it, you can only reduce the price. ”

Qin Zheng bowed his head slightly in agreement, and couldn't help but think of the original price policy of the Qin Dynasty, which was basically the price of a good at the place of origin, and how much it would be added at a certain distance, and the farther it went, the higher the price.

In fact, although such a policy is very simple, it is simple and effective, which is very suitable for Qin, which has just established a small-scale peasant economy, and protects the lives of male farmers and female weavers.

However, what Qin politicians wanted to build was a future country with great abundance of living materials, and it was impossible to continue to hold this simple and crude system, so that the commodity economy could not develop.

Without a commodity economy, there would be no big market, without a big market, there would be no demand, and without demand, there would be no point in expanding reproduction.

So Qin Zheng continued to ask Zhao Gao, "I don't know if Aiqing has an idea?" ”

Zhao Gao was a little puzzled when he heard it, isn't it bad that prices are low? But he had always been shrewd, and suddenly remembered Qin Zheng's conversation with the presumptuous old woman.

Zhao Gao pondered: "The grain is cheap and the merchant is cheap, and the things are cheap...... Business! Your Majesty wants to help the merchants? ”

In fact, Qin Zheng was indeed afraid that the merchants would be suppressed too much, but he had seen the fate of over-emphasizing agriculture and suppressing merchants in the future, and he also knew the story of Huaxia almost being destroyed by the capital powers.

Therefore, what Qin Zheng has to do is to stabilize prices and support industry and commerce, whether it is high or low, it is not good, it is necessary to make the people comfortable to use, and the businessmen are profitable.

Zhao Gao didn't think so deeply, but Qin Zheng wanted to raise a group of businessmen, and kept them to slaughter and eat meat in the future, so as to make money.

Therefore, Zhao Gao, who did not have much business acumen, simply suggested from the political aspect: "Your Majesty, you can once again officially come forward to set prices, give merchants higher profits, and also raise business taxes."

Suppressing merchants with status and taxes, and stabilizing the commoners with state pricing, would increase the income of the courtiers by increasing their income, enough to arm them with 10,000 full-time soldiers. ”

Zhao Gao's idea was the "craft" passed down from generation to generation in later generations, and the basic policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce not only dealt a blow to the possibility of businessmen becoming bigger, but also stabilized the country's real economic foundation - homesteaders.

After hearing this, Qin Zheng naturally disagreed, and directly shook his head and said: "I want everyone in Great Qin to be rich, but I don't want to damage one of them to make up for it."

I even encourage merchants to invest in model workshops and enrich the needs of the masses through the production of the workshops, and I don't care how much they make from it, as long as they pay their taxes on time. ”

Zi Lian frowned and interjected: "But those technologies are so advanced, we tell the merchants, what if the merchants rebel and sell them?" ”

Zilian is engaged in technology, people are relatively straight, just saw such a "high-end" technology, for fear that these will be stolen by others, and finally flow into the hands of the enemy, that is a big bad thing!

Qin Zheng was more open than he thought, the diffusion of these technologies was certain, at most it was only a matter of time.

Moreover, if the world is full of forces similar to Great Qin, they may not be able to study the remaining classics of the past dynasties, and it will not be too difficult to possess advanced technology.

The only thing Qin Zheng could do was to use modern thinking to avoid some detours that would seem obvious to later generations.

And now Qin Zheng has found the problem in the situation of the workshops and the market, that is, the status of the industry and commerce, and their relationship with the Shinong.

There are still strong remnants of the aristocracy in Daqin, and the bureaucrats are all from aristocratic backgrounds, so it is unlikely that they will have a relationship with the three.

If it is really to pull the nobles off the horse, the opposition is too strong, and Qin Zheng only plans to continue to mix sand with military industry and Qin-style imperial examinations for the time being.

But agriculture and industry are different, they can sleep on them is the foundation of the whole society, even if Qin is definitely a complete agricultural country now, but in the future, it will definitely make great strides towards industry and commerce, and when there is a problem, it will hurt a lot.

The history of Shinong industry and commerce was first proposed by the Guan Zhong school, and the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, so that Fan Li, a great hero of the Yue Kingdom, still wears white and black shoes to express "humility".

And in the Qin State at the time of Yingzheng, because Lü Buwei was also a businessman, Yingzheng was quite dissatisfied with the dictatorship when he was prime minister, and his harshness towards businessmen after he came to power was also obvious to all.

The Qin and early Han dynasties also continued to use the mausoleum relocation policy to get these people together and form cities, so as to consume their power in their hometowns.

As for the workers, they have always been the existence of the bottom in Daqin and the next two thousand years, and there are also special craftsmen, who cannot be surpassed for generations.

The handicraft factories were also mainly run by the government, which greatly discouraged their enthusiasm and creativity, and many historians felt that this was an important reason for the ossification and stagnation of science and technology in the late Chinese period.

Therefore, Qin Zheng is only slightly revealing that he wants to improve the status of industry and commerce, and the people below have already expressed their puzzlement, even Zilian, who was born in a peasant family, does not think this is a good idea.

After all, the foundation of the peasant family is to maintain agricultural production and improve agricultural efficiency, and in terms of political demand, they mainly want to reduce the exploitation of feudal lords at all levels, and there is no idea of letting the peasants turn over and become masters.

Qin Zheng couldn't help but get angry when he saw such an embarrassing scene, and complained a little that the class attributes of the officials under his command were limited and he couldn't see the future trend clearly.

But Qin Zheng couldn't talk to them too much about the peasant uprising, the development of capital, the workers' movement, and so on, and it is estimated that they would not understand it.

So Qin Zheng said simply: "The four people of Guan Zi are also to maintain the development of Qi State, Qi Country has a lot of saline-alkali land, and can only focus on business, if you give merchants a higher status, then they will make trouble sooner or later."

But Great Qin is different, Qin is also mainly agricultural, and I will not allow merchants to be above farmers.

And the most important thing in Daqin is always military merit, businessmen have no military merits, no titles, and they have to salute when they see old farmers with titles.

So it really means that there is no longer a distinction between ranks by the type of work, only the title is emphasized, and the four people are equal when the title is the same!

As for the nobles, most of them have hereditary titles, which are somewhat higher than the other three peoples, so don't worry too much about it for the time being.

Of course, this can also be used to motivate those children, if they can't keep the glory of their ancestors, they will have to bow to the merchants in the future. ”

"This ......" Yingyi frowned and wanted to stop talking, the clan is a representative of the aristocracy, and he can still be a prime minister like this, will it be difficult for the future children to help the businessman?

And although Zhao Gao still has some objections, he doesn't want to disobey Qin Zheng, especially Zhao Gao, in his opinion, his life is the most important, and he really doesn't care so much about his children and descendants.

Therefore, Qin Zheng's proposal did not get any refutation when everyone was not satisfied, and Qin Zheng himself was a little confused.

I can't help but wonder if we should wait for the development of industry and commerce before bringing it up, but after thinking about it, let's set the tone first, and there will really be no other changes at that time? No one can say well.

"Let's do this for now, I still want to talk to you about expanding the production of the workshop." Qin Zheng diverted the topic.

At this moment, Zilian was the first to step forward and said, "Does Your Majesty have a plan?" ”

Qin Zheng nodded: "I plan to build more than thirty weapon workshops in Guanzhong Hanzhong first, each of which should be no less than the production capacity of the experimental workshop. ”

Zi Lian's face turned slightly pale when he heard this, he still remembered the words of the old craftsmen at that time, the output of each experimental workshop was quite good, if it could be expanded thirty times, it would be too rich to deal with only a few tens of thousands of soldiers today.

Qin Zheng also seemed to see his thoughts, and immediately said: "The reason why we want to build so many at one time is to supply the northern front before spring ploughing, and by the beginning of summer, we must reequip all the troops."

In this way, the second-line troops will be recruited to use the replaced weapons and equipment, and the defense system of Daqin will be roughly completed, and it will be possible to advance or retreat, attack or defend in the future! ”

Zhao Gao seemed to agree with Qin Zheng's idea, and he was in charge of conscription training, and he also said: "If it is based on such considerations, I am afraid that thirty places is not too much, such as gunpowder arrows and thunder, which can be reserved as much as possible."

In case of a national mobilization, we will need 300,000 pieces of equipment, and that will be a drop in the bucket at that time. ”

However, Zilian still had concerns, and immediately calculated the economic account for Qin Zheng and the others: "Although the old minister doesn't know how much money His Majesty has invested in the model workshop.

But counting the new machinery, skilled workers, the site, the best materials, etc., the price of a workshop is more than three times that of a craftsman of the same size.

If thirty places are built at the same time, it means that there are one more hundred craftsmen and workshops with 100 people, and you must know that there are no 2,500 craftsmen in the entire craftsmanship, which is a gap of four or five times, Taiwei Zhao, have you calculated how much it will cost? ”

Although Zilian was asking Zhao Gao, he was actually expressing his dissatisfaction with Qin Zheng, complaining that he had launched too many projects at one time and did not consider the funds.

Zhao Gao also understood here, and hurriedly carried forward his ability to "lead the little padded jacket", and apologized for Qin Zheng: "It's still the thoughtfulness of the imperial doctor, and if there is a mistake in the next, please forgive the doctor." ”

Saying that Zhao Gao saluted, Zilian also hurriedly returned a salute, Qin Zheng looked a little irritable, today his proposal was questioned by the cabinet, is it possible to speak in vain? When will it take to expand productivity?

"Workers have low status, low income, and no enthusiasm, and businessmen are discriminated against, insulted, and have no enthusiasm. I don't have enthusiasm, the price is high, and I can't afford to build a workshop, it's really uncomfortable..."Qin Zheng thought bitterly in his heart, is there no way to get the best of both worlds?

Suddenly, Qin Zheng had a flash of inspiration and said, "What if we contract the workshop to a merchant? Contractors and workers give them royal titles in exchange for their favors! ”

"Huh?" Everyone didn't react for a while, contracting? A royal title? What does that mean? Can I still exchange it for a discount?

Qin Zheng quickly explained: "I also said that the low status of the merchant workers discouraged their enthusiasm, and I intended to treat the workshop as a royal project rather than a national project, allowing merchants to bid for monastic work and artisans to bid for trial production products.

In this way, merchants and workers who were successful in the bidding would be given the title of royal crown by me during the period of investment in the construction of the workshop, and the status of corporal would be on par with me.

The merchant was only responsible for selling the products to the army, or by bidding, and paid his own profits and losses, but there was no need to not only pay heavy taxes but also insult when dealing with other goods during the imperial period.

After the completion of the project, the royal craftsman can choose to leave the craftsman's status, called a free craftsman, continue to participate in other production, or even bid for the queen again. ”

Qin Zheng's idea was to separate some merchants and craftsmen from the inferior situation, and use the name of the emperor to improve their status, and at the same time get preferential treatment.

Of course, Qin Zheng also received investment and distribution experience from businessmen, and the efforts of craftsmen to improve their skills and at the same time subtly improve the status of the two in society, which can be regarded as giving the public an adaptation period.

Save money, improve quality, and don't have to kill three birds with one stone without equalizing rights to everyone, now all the ministers are not good at objecting, and they have said: "Your Majesty is wise!" ”