Legend has it that the earliest merchants were the remnants of the Yin merchants who were defeated by King Wu of Zhou, and King Wu of Zhou was not at ease with these people so he restricted a lot of their freedom, so they traded goods to make a living, and over time people called the traders merchants. Merchants are like earthworms that love loose soil, and at the same time, they can dredge the circulation channels of goods while obtaining their own needs, and it is precisely because of merchants that ordinary people can use products from all over the country without having to travel far, and in general, merchants are indispensable in a country. The latest free chapters of the book can be found here.

There are differences in the variety of things and hobbies that everyone likes, and only by letting them choose their own will there be fewer complaints, and letting the people choose their own items is the best form of distribution. It is impossible for anyone in any dynasty to force the distribution of goods to every common person and satisfy them, except for the self-righteous rulers, of course.

Since it is a thankless task to distribute goods artificially, what the imperial court should do is to let the common people obtain money through labor on the one hand, and on the other hand, convert the items that the common people need into commodities for them to buy according to their needs and hobbies, and the transportation, sales, and organization of goods are inseparable from merchants. A normal process of good business behavior must be for the imperial court to restrain and guide the merchants, so that the merchants and the people can get their own place, so that there will be no businessmen doing things that harm the interests of the people for the sake of profit.

When the imperial court was not well supervised, the treacherous nature of the merchants was immediately exposed. It is a good businessman to increase the price casually, and shoddy can only say that this person is not bad, and the real bad seed with sores on the head and pus under the feet, they will dare to put poison in food and medicine in order to reduce costs and troubles. Of course, they also have all kinds of excuses, if the poison is not strong, it is okay to eat less, they have the courage to say it, if necessary, they will say that they do it to increase the people's ability to resist drugs.

Although such a businessman is very bad, if anyone wants to put an end to fakes by improving the self-cultivation and social responsibility of businessmen, it can only be said that this person's head has been kicked by a donkey, and the key to stopping the proliferation of counterfeit and shoddy goods lies in supervision. Regulators who shirk their responsibilities and blame businessmen for all problems are either ignorant or shameless.

There are also two kinds of businessmen, one is people who want to do business for a long time, they have some scruples about doing bad things for their own reputation, and they are afraid of accidentally smashing their own signboards, and the other is people who just want to get a handful and withdraw, they don't care about their reputation at all, in their words, there are tens of thousands of people in the Ming Dynasty, and each person is deceived by them once, and they can't eat it all in three lifetimes. That is to say, at the beginning of such a person's business, he never thought that anyone would take care of his business for the second time, and many people hated such people, but they could only be limited to hating them, including some businessmen with a conscience.

According to Zhang Chunying and Feng Siqin, their families are businessmen, and they have a lot of complaints about many people who have temporarily changed careers, thinking that it is such people who have ruined the reputation of businessmen. When Apocalypse asked them how they could reduce the businessman's expanding ambitions, Feng Siqin said something that surprised Apocalypse.

Tianqi first told them that the big households in the Qianjin tabloid incident were willing to exchange their shares for freedom, and then asked Feng Siqin: "Many ministers said that they can take this opportunity to get back the shares in the hands of the big households, anyway, now that the court has silver, there is no need and no longer want to let them participate in it, and they will share a part of the profits, I think what they said has a certain amount of truth but I feel that doing so is discredited, you have always been smart to tell me whether you need to be trustworthy to businessmen?" ”

Feng Siqin smiled and said: "Your Majesty, the current businessman cannot be regarded as a businessman in the real sense, and the concubine remembers what her grandfather once said. He said that a real businessman must do two things, the first is to be honest, where there is a promise to go bankrupt must also fulfill the promise, and a businessman who does not value his trust is not worthy of being a real businessman. ”

Apocalypse said, "According to what you mean, I should be honest with real businessmen, and I don't need to be polite to fake businessmen who are not honest?" ”

Feng Siqin shook his head and said: "The emperor can't do this, you say that others are not honest and then break the agreement, even if what you say is true, it will make others feel cold, because in this way, the emperor's own credit will be ruined in the first place." Why did the ministers of the court, the big people, and the old concubine Zheng in the palace believe the emperor's words? Because the emperor's words have been counted for many years, even if his own interests have been lost, he has not changed his words. If you ruin your credit for some silver taels, it will be worth the loss. ”

Seeing that Tianqi was looking down and thinking about Chunying, Chunying asked at this time: "Siqin, you said that your grandfather told you two sentences, and keeping promises is the first sentence, so what is the second sentence?" ”

Siqin smiled and said, "The second sentence is to never make any promises to anyone unless you have to. After saying that, he laughed.

Chunying was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly realized: "It turns out that your grandfather is not so honest, but he is very hidden." ”

Apocalypse said at this time: "I understand, in fact, there are only two kinds of people who do business, one is the person who looks cunning, and the other is the person who seems to be honest and cunning. ”

Siqin said: "Yes, businessmen are people who think about how to pursue the greatest profits, to curb their expanding ambitions, the emperor just insists on the system of capping 20% profits, and cannot let go under any circumstances." Once it is found that someone challenges the emperor's authority in order to obtain more profits, the emperor will strike without hesitation and mercilessly, so that he has no room to turn over, and at the same time, other people who are watching will completely die. ”

Chunying said at this time: "Your Majesty, the concubines think it's not good to be hard, that will make people hate you, and you have to make others like you, it's best to tie them to the emperor." ”

Apocalypse asked curiously, "How do you tie them together?" Let them come to the DPRK and China as officials? Wouldn't it be more handy for them to do bad things when they have the power? ”

Chunying said: "No, the concubine remembers that when the family opened a restaurant, they bought all the small dishes of the neighbors around them, one is to know the roots and cleanliness of the vegetables grown by the neighbors, and the other is to let the neighbors also get some benefits from it." ”

Siqin said at this time: "Chunying's words are very reasonable, everyone's good is really good." The emperor should give the merchants some benefits while limiting their profits, so that they will not only complain but also have some gratitude. ”

After listening to Chunying and Siqin's words, Tianqi suddenly remembered the comprehensive governance theory that Liu Zongzhou of the Holy Academy said, if you snatch a piece of candy from others, you have to hand someone a fruit, and in doing so, you will encounter less resistance. It seems that the principles of the correct things are the same, no wonder so many people like to study philosophy, one law can be used in all ways.

Tianqi thought for a while and asked Siqin: "You said that the limit of 20% profit cap will not waver, and after a long time, businessmen will have losses and resentment." How do you say you can give them benefits so that they don't have resentment? Or do you want to make their resentment less intense? ”

Siqin thought for a while and said: "First, fairness, as long as everyone is capped at 20% of profits, everyone will not gossip if they are the same, and it is the nature of people not to suffer from poverty but to suffer from inequality." If it is found that someone is not subject to this restriction, and the emperor does not punish the violators in time, everyone will complain. The second is status, now there are chambers of commerce in the north and south, but the imperial court has not yet confirmed the identity of the merchants, is this a very abnormal or funny thing? ”

Tianqi thought for a while and said: "Yes, there are various divisions such as military households, civilian households, and artisan households in the Ming Dynasty, but there are no merchants, and I immediately issued an order for the Government Council to discuss the establishment of merchants, and then allow large-scale operations and tax collection according to specific merchants." But will the merchants like to pay their taxes normally in the future? ”

Siqin said: "They pay a lot now, but not in the name of commercial taxes, they will definitely be willing to have a normal identity." ”

Tianqi nodded and said in his heart: "This is a reason why women like to find someone to marry, rather than casually seducing men in private." ”