The money manager cleared his throat, "The official purchase of the line needs to be taken apart, let's talk about the official purchase first, and then talk about the line." ”

The so-called official purchase, as the name suggests, is not only the government to purchase materials, similar to the later government agencies designated procurement, the government will list the items needed in advance, and then set the local merchants who supply these goods, and in the future for a period of time (generally one year), the required items are purchased from these merchants.

Sounds beautiful, right? Became an official buy, their own things do not need to run around to be marketable, at most is to help the government deliver delivery, in order to fight for this kind of quota in later generations, but to fight the head of the blood, the upper to bid, the lower to bid for bid-rigging, all kinds of means, just to be able to become one of them, make money is guaranteed.

But in Daming, it is not the same at all, the official buys the official buy, if you expect the official government to really pay for it, then the too young, too simple Tucson is broken.

Not only will no one take money to buy merchants from the government, but the merchants also have to pay out of their own pockets and take out the money to bribe the people in the government, otherwise, your goods are either defective, or they are not enough, and then they are caught and taken to the yatang to eat the board.

By the way, in addition to supplying goods, there are also some special labor needs to be served, such as transportation, and if there are no carriages and horses at home, they naturally have to hire another carriage and horse, and the required expenses are all paid out of their own pockets.

This kind of inhumane, forced buying and selling, forced service policy, originated in the Ming Dynasty Chengzu Zhu Di, Zhu Di once issued a holy decree, to the effect that in the future, the imperial court will have compradors, and all those who have opened a shop, regardless of the military and civilians, will be provided by him, and if there is disobedience, they will not be spared.

In the more than 200 years of the Ming Dynasty after Zhu Di, most of them did this, only the nobles, the great eunuchs, and the gentry could be exempted, which seriously destroyed the industry and commerce of the Ming Dynasty, and countless merchants went bankrupt at every turn, and there were many unjust souls on the mass graves.

This evil policy, until the middle of Chongzhen, because of the non-stop strike of merchants, the imperial court issued an edict, the local government is no longer allowed to forcibly requisition merchant materials, need to be purchased with cash, the Southern Ming Dynasty Longwu Emperor period, only then made up his mind to reform this malpractice, but at that time the Ming Dynasty was not far from the fall.

The implementation of this policy has brought two serious consequences to Daming.

One is the separation of businessmen and the imperial Ming regime, a merchant, no matter how big he is, how hard the background is, in addition to money, has little loyalty to the Ming court, for the woe of the southeast, in essence, it is the behavior of maritime merchants chasing interests, and later became the eight major grain merchants of Zhangjiakou who became the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, also for money, completely ignoring their behavior to damage the interests of the Ming Dynasty.

Although the behavior of these people is hateful, in the final analysis, there is a reason, that is, the Ming Dynasty did not really treat the merchants with their hearts except as fat sheep to be slaughtered.

Second, in order to protect their own interests, businessmen open the way with money, not only to win over officials at all levels, but also to train the children of their relatives to study and enter the office, the Ming Dynasty is not healthy in the officialdom, even more miasma, the first consideration of officials is their own interests, the interests of relatives, the interests of the township party, rarely think of the interests of the Ming Dynasty and the interests of the Han people, the scourge of party disputes, in the final analysis, is just the struggle for the interests of the merchants behind it.

Speaking of the Ming Dynasty's nominal tax is very low, of course, in the later period, in order to levy the Liao Kou levy of the Liao Salary is basically borne by the common people, the burden is greatly increased, especially in the north, but the ordinary people are forced to the brink of bankruptcy, but the commercial tax has always been very low, and even many industries are not taxed, here are both the result of the game between the big merchants and their spokespersons and the imperial court, and it is also the manifestation of the Ming Dynasty's lack of attention to business.

Even so, the businessmen have never been of the same heart and mind as the Ming court, and the bad government bought by the officials is indeed a big factor.

"Goo-duh..."Steward Qian swallowed a big mouthful of tea and moistened his smoking voice, "What Guan Mai said is almost, do you understand?" Seeing that everyone nodded, "Okay, let's move on." ”

A business was ordered to buy by the government, it is extremely difficult to get ahead, some people have rich assets, gritted their teeth, sold their assets, and finally can resist this matter, even if it hurts at the time, but as long as they can survive, there is still a little hope.

But once it is set as the head of the line again, there is no possibility of turning over, and you can only wait for death.

The head of the line is the official purchase of the official service recorded by the government, and it is necessary to send people to "assist" the yamen to ensure that the official buys all the goods that should be offered by the merchants, and the service should be completed after the service.

Don't think that there is an opportunity to get up and down, you can make some oil and water, the comprador quota of each family, basically have to go bankrupt to make up, if the government maliciously retaliates, it is to sell children and daughters, and it can't plug the hole, as a leader, you must pay out of your own pocket to make up for the shortfall, otherwise the government will ask you.

After the money steward finished speaking, he slapped the tea bowl heavily, "So, once you become an official and buy a business, the best way is to abandon your family and run away, the sooner the better, and how many can escape." The tone was unusually low.

Zhiwen looked around, no one spoke, obviously everyone was still immersed in what he had just said, and the money manager was sitting in place with a depressed face, he had lived outside the city for a long time, but he was so familiar with this official buying bank, and his current mood was obviously not good, maybe this money manager had been a victim of the official buying business.

"Mr. Qian, in this way, our Zhuolu Trading Company has been designated by the government as the head of the official buying business?" Although Zhiwen was the first to come back to his senses, he did not speak, and the first to speak was Song Caijie.

Steward Qian shook his head violently, recovered from his contemplation, and nodded, "Exactly, when I came, the officers and soldiers, the servants, and the helpers were all in place. ”

"Mr. Qian, who usually determines the merchant who buys the head of this official business?" Song Xiance asked.

"The chief official of a state and a county, specifically to Baoan Prefecture, because there is a vacancy in the prefecture, the one who is in charge is Tongzhi, surnamed You." Steward Qian replied that although he had not been down the mountain for a long time, he still felt these doorways very clearly.

"Then it'll be fine!" Li Dingguo smiled, and was about to continue, when he looked at Zhiwen and saw that he nodded slightly, he continued, "We have already connected with the future Lord Zhizhou, and his name card will be sent over soon, and Lord Zhizhou still needs us to help him." ”

"Really?" Steward Qian was overjoyed and stood up suddenly, "If that's the case, then we can escape." ”