The collapse of the state began with finance.

The prosperity of the world comes from the army.

In the Xuanzheng Palace, the emperor proposed to all the ministers that from next year, the price of salt should be reduced. "At the beginning of the founding of our dynasty, the price of salt increased by 100 yuan per bucket, and then increased to 300 yuan, plus the cost of salt production by salt people, and the cost profit of salt merchants, the last bucket of salt was nearly 400 yuan. The common people were extremely dissatisfied with the salt policy of the imperial court, and sold a million profits from the sale of private salt, which induced countless people to take risks. From the next year, the imperial court will collect salt from the salt people, ten yuan per bucket, and the price will be increased by one hundred and five, and the salt merchants will sell it, and finally when the people buy it, the price of salt shall not exceed two hundred yuan per bucket. ”

This is almost half of the price of salt, for the imperial court, each bucket of salt was originally charged three hundred yuan, but now it is only one hundred and five, which is a real drop of half.

Immediately, the prime minister complained.

"Your Majesty, the imperial court has just issued 50 million bonds, and it will be exchanged and repaid in the next five years, with a total of 54,500 million yuan in principal and interest, all counting on the salt tax, which will be reduced by half, then the annual salt tax may be less than 20 million yuan in the future, how to fill this huge hole?" It was the Ministry of Civil Affairs Shangshu and Pingzhang Shi Cui Junsu who complained.

"The imperial court tax can not rely entirely on salt, a year to collect tens of millions of salt taxes, the Ministry of Civil Affairs officials naturally smiled, but the people are more and more dissatisfied, when the emperor opened, a bucket of salt was only ten yuan, but now it is nearly four hundred yuan, nearly forty times."

"But under the rent adjustment tax system at the time of the emperor's opening, the taxes borne by the people were actually much higher than the current two taxes." Cui Junsu argued.

But the people didn't think that way, and they only saw that the price of salt had increased fortyfold. I also think that it is indeed higher, salt is not a rare thing, even worse than grain and fields and farmers, coastal places can be dried salt, even boiling the sea is not needed, and even in the Central Plains and even the interior of the frontier, there are salt lakes and mineral salt, etc., the biggest cost of salt is not salt production, but transportation, through the imperial court's canals, official roads, plus salt warehouses set up in various places, the imperial court can coordinate and dispatch, and then distribute to merchants for sale, which can greatly reduce the cost of transportation on the road. ”

"But what about the finances? Your Majesty has often told us that the collapse of a country must begin with a financial collapse. If the salt tax of 20 million is missing, where will the imperial court make up for this hole? Cui Junsu said worriedly.

"There is always a way, I recently checked the archives, and found that the tax on tea and wine has increased greatly in the past two years, and the tax on vehicles, ships, cattle and horses has also increased a lot, tea and wine are not necessary for people's livelihood, and the tax is not harmful at a high point, and tea and wine have been exported in large quantities in recent years, and the output has expanded, and the tax has increased a lot."

Of course, Luo Cheng suddenly wanted to reduce the salt tax, and the greatest self-confidence came from the fact that foreign trade has now been opened, and after defeating the Western Surprise Khan, several Silk Roads in the Western Regions have been opened, and at the same time, the vassals of Tubo and Zhangxiong have also opened up new trade routes for the imperial court.

Not to mention, the Maritime Silk Road is now being built under the leadership of the Royal Maritime Fleet.

Jiaozhi Port City, Nanhai Port City, Jiangdu Port City, Penglai Port City, Tianjin Port City, Lushun Port City, Pyongyang Port City, these are the seven seaport city ships established by the imperial court, through these city customs, Daqin's commercial goods are continuously transported to Guanwai, Haidong, South China Sea, Tianzhu, Persia and other places.

And in the inland frontiers, there are also border cities.

The imperial court is very high for these foreign trade taxes, ordinary goods are one out of ten, and some goods that do not involve people's livelihood are often two out of ten, if it is some pure luxury, such as pearls, agate, spices and the like, it is three points of tax.

Thirty percent tax.

Even some scarce and urgently sold goods, if they enter the customs, they may also be directly bobo, that is, the government first buys a certain share, and the imperial court takes it for sale.

On the other hand, the prosperity of foreign trade not only increased the tariff of the city, but also promoted the prosperity of handicraft workshops, and the industrial and commercial tax of the imperial court also increased greatly.

"I have calculated the accounts, and through the city customs and border markets, plus the new industrial and commercial tax, I can completely fill the gap of 20 million yuan. Moreover, the situation of foreign trade is very good now, the land and sea Silk Road is unimpeded, our silk, porcelain, paper, tea, wine, pottery, musical instruments, etc. are very popular, and even gold and silverware, bronze, ironware, and even our armor and weapons are very popular. ”

All kinds of high-grade silk fabrics, that is the most sought-after, this is only produced in the Central Plains of the treasure, especially the silk woven into a variety of gorgeous brocade satin silk and so on, foreigners simply can't imagine how this gorgeous thing came from, so now the imperial court also has a policy control over the export of silk, reducing the export quantity of raw silk and silk, and greatly increasing the export volume of silk weaving products.

Compared with raw silk and silk, silk weaving products have greatly increased the added value, promoted the development of weaving mills, embroidery and spinning workshops, and can not only attract many young women and girls to work and make money, but also increase taxes for the imperial court.

Even the original weapon armor was originally forbidden to be exported, but now the imperial court has begun to relax some conditions and began to sell high-grade weapons and armor, from Mingguang armor to horizontal knives are exported, these armor weapons are not the Qin military system, the form and materials are completely foreign trade styles, not worse, but more elaborate, more gorgeous and more expensive.

Some ministers had opposed the export of these armor weapons, but Luo Cheng believed that the imperial court had spent a huge amount of money on the research and production of weapons and armor, and this had always been a pit that only invested but did not make profits.

But in order to ensure the country's military strength, this is a must.

But Luo Cheng also thinks that in fact, it is actually possible to change the way of thinking, let the ordnance department of the imperial court produce some foreign trade equipment for sale, and even establish some civilian workshops for sale.

As for saying that Daqin's weapons and armor are in the hands of the enemy, they will be the enemy, but there is no need to worry.

After all, there are so many goals for foreign trade, and only high-end ones are sold, such as those gorgeous Mingguang armor, at least they are also at the general level, and any set is very expensive, even if the feudal people can't buy it to equip the low-level soldiers.

And a weapon, if it can't be equipped on a large scale, actually doesn't make much sense.

As for imitation and the like, don't be afraid, if you really want to imitate, there are ways to get samples, but the technology in it is not something that can be imitated if you want to, and there must be a problem of cost and production scale, if they can't solve these, just imitate a small number of Qin army equipment at a high price, then what's the point.

Therefore, it is better to change the way of thinking, develop military foreign trade, and greatly increase export prices and make a lot of money through the performance advantages of the Qin army's equipment, so that the military industry department of the imperial court can have a return on investment, and may even achieve profitability.

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