Since Zhang Fan built the first cement, stone and brick structure of the Eastern Han Dynasty Huiji New Town, all those who have been here have been shocked by the grandeur and delicacy of this Jiangdong Xiongcheng, and everyone who has seen it is amazed by it, and it is said to be a "masterpiece of magic work".

As all of Jiangdong's top wealthy families moved in en masse, they brought a huge population and massive capital injection to add vitality to it, making it more prosperous, and more and more merchants have recently chosen to settle and do business here - when the city of Luoyang was burned down by Dong Zhuo and the city of Chang'an was in flames, the stable and livable environment made it more and more prosperous. Under the deliberate guidance and support of the government, it has replaced Luoyang Chang'an and become the largest import and export market and economic center in contemporary times, which is a veritable "trading city".

Xuzhou Guild Hall is a semi-official business hall approved by the government and then invested and built by local Xuzhou businessmen. It is mainly convenient for businessmen from Xuzhou to rest and communicate and carry out business activities. Of course, Zhang Fan's largest spy agency, the "Tea Division", also listened to the news and development details by the way, but basically no one knew about this......

The current president of Xuzhou Hall is Mi Zhu, who is the head of the Elk family, rich and benevolent, with the demeanor of both business and Confucianism. He is also generous and of good character, but as a wealthy businessman, he is not stingy and can help others. The plot about him walking with beautiful women without squinting and always sitting upright is talked about, making him famous.

The elk family lives in Donghaiqu County, and the ordinary nouveau riche is different, the elk family has been in business for generations, and the family background of the Elk Zhu generation is already very solid, and everyone says that it is "ten thousand servants, and hundreds of millions of dollars", which can be described as a rich party.

In addition, unlike ordinary merchant families, the children of the elk family are good at archery and horseback shooting, and have their own personal armament. Due to the warlords and thieves in the late Han Dynasty, the purpose of the elk family's training in cavalry archery was mainly to protect their property and personal safety.

It is precisely because of this reputation that after the establishment of the Xuzhou Association, Mi Zhu was naturally elected as the first president of the Xuzhou Chamber of Commerce with a high support rate, and he has worked hard since taking office, so that the development of the Xuzhou Association is thriving, and his prestige has also risen.

Hearing the news that Zhang Fan planned to raise funds to run the school, Mi Fang hurriedly came to the eldest brother Mi Zhu to discuss:

"Big brother, now there is a lot of buzz outside, I heard that the champion Hou plans to raise funds to run a school, and it is said that he is mainly coming to us, you see...... What should we do? ”

Mi Zhu put down the brush in his hand and said slowly:

"What else can I do...... Donate, of course! What else could you do? ”

Mi Fang sighed and said worriedly: "Hey, I originally thought that the prince would be different from others, but I didn't expect him to still treat us merchants so harshly. I'm afraid that he tasted the sweetness, and he will always come out like this one after another in the future, so how can it be good? ”

In fact, except for the Jiangdong region under Zhang Fan's rule, it may be better, but in other places the status of merchants is low, and the political environment is extremely bad.

The so-called Shinong industry and commerce, Shang ranked last. Of course, this is also related to the fact that the governments of various dynasties in our country have been implementing the policy of "emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business", after all, grain is the foundation of the country, but in fact, the reason why this kind of thinking is becoming more and more serious in the end is inseparable from the two emperors of the ages, these two emperors are Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

During the reign of Qin Shi Huang, merchants were not allowed to wear silk clothes, even if they were very wealthy. "Send all the people who have tasted the dead, sons-in-law, and Jia people as soldiers, take the land and Liang land of South Vietnam, and place Guilin, Nanhai, and Xiang County." In other words, during the period of Qin Shi Huang, the status of merchants and fugitives was similar, and in "Han Feizi", which Qin Shi Huang greatly admired, merchants were regarded as one of the "five beetles" and should be eliminated, which shows how much Qin Shi Huang disliked merchants.

The famous Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty once engaged in "reckoning", that is, taxation, but Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty implemented the "sue Xuan", that is, those who reported that the merchants reported their property falsely, and those who sued could get half of their property, which led to the bankruptcy of most of the merchants above the middle level, which greatly damaged the normal economic operation, it can be seen that in the eyes of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, merchants are fish and meat, and their status is very low.

Why did the two emperors tirelessly suppress the merchants?

This is certainly not because of personal preference. In fact, in the Qin and Han dynasties, land rent, household endowment, including adult forced labor (conscription, military service) were very well implemented, but merchants did not have a very good way to collect taxes:

First of all, a merchant does not specify the exact amount of tax based on the field, as a farmer would. Another example is conscription, because most of the merchants are from different places, it is impossible to accurately manage their household registration, so it is difficult to recruit them for labor and military service.

Since these people hold a large amount of property in the country but do not contribute to the country, the ruler naturally can't look at it, and for the two emperors, the merchant is the mobile wallet, both of them are very able to spend money, Qin Shi Huang swept the six countries to bribe up and down, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty conquered the Quartet The military expenditure is quite high, and the treasury is out of money, so it is natural to find the richest group to collect money, so the merchant was unfortunately sacrificed.

So why did Zhang Fan, who aspires to become the "Qin Emperor and Han Wu", go against them?

In fact, just for one word - money, to put it bluntly, is a business tax.

Businessmen themselves play an extremely important role in society, and the so-called "no farming, no stability, no work, no wealth, no business, no life". Blindly suppressing it will not work, and the simple and straightforward exploitation method of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty is too LO in Zhang Fan's opinion.

Could it be that Zhang Fan doesn't exploit businessmen? Big mistake, it's just that he wants to be more technical and decent, so that their rebound is smaller, and not to engage in bloody ruining reputations, such as levying commercial taxes.

The reason why the Qin and Han dynasties were unable to tax merchants well was because of the system and not advanced enough! However, Zhang Fan has more than 1,000 years of experience from later generations, is it difficult to design a complete commercial tax collection system?

If you want to collect more taxes, you must first create a good environment for them to develop. Just like if you want to eat meat, you have to spend some effort to raise pigs for nothing, and it is not advisable to blindly only know that killing chickens and taking eggs......

In ancient China, it was a natural economy, and the vast majority of them were men and women weaving, producing and consuming by themselves. The demand for trading is inherently low, so the role of merchants is not conspicuous.

However, Zhang Fan was very dissatisfied with this backward economic situation, which could not put his advanced technology and knowledge from later generations into use. So he was determined to reform, and businessmen would play an important role in it......