A group of officials under Li Hongfei gave Li Hongfei a dismissal on the first day of Li Hongfei's tenure, and Li Hongfei was also eager to repay him, knowing that most of these invited businessmen had connections with Suzhou officialdom, but they did not let those officials enter the prefect's yamen. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

This is done in order to beat those subordinates who do not give face, and the other is to let everyone in Suzhou know that he Li Hongfei is the boss of Suzhou.

"Mr. Zhou, I can't speak, but I personally followed the Holy Lord and killed from the thousands of troops in the north, and I have a deep understanding of the situation over there. Needless to say, this Li Zicheng is a bandit, to put it nicely, it is to kill the rich and help the poor, in fact, the poor have nothing to fish, but our Suzhou is different, the poorest may be me, the prefect Yamen, you are the richest man in Suzhou, do you think he Li Zicheng If he invades Suzhou, will he come to my prefect's yamen, or go to your house? Li Hongfei said slowly while holding the teacup.

Although Li Hongfei was talking to Zhou Furen, he was also reminding the bosses around him that except for Li Hongfei, the rest of the people here are rich.

"Don't expect Chengpo to surrender, those ordinary people who surrendered in Beijing, which one has not been harmed by the thieves? Those with high status, those with rich families, the generals under Li Zicheng personally came to the door, and those with low status did not have much oil and water at home, and the soldiers under them would not let go. ”

"As for the Manchu Tartars........ Keep your head without hair, keep your hair without your head, treat us Han people as slaves, meet their princes or something, we have to call ourselves slaves, this is in the Ming Dynasty, even if we see His Majesty the Emperor, no one calls themselves slaves! ”

"The north has been cleaned up by Li Zicheng's disaster, the Manchu Tartars may not have any oil and water to fish, and they will not go on a killing spree, but this is different in the south, do you think that if the Manchu Tartars go south, will you continue to have the current wealth?"

Li Hongfei said a lot in one breath, but he didn't mention the matter of asking for money, but just said how brutal Li Zicheng and the Manchu Qing were, especially for those rich people, Li Hongfei almost said the sentence of killing everything and destroying the family.

"Master Li, we all know what you said, but the old man is only a businessman, and he has no power to go into battle to kill the enemy! If the saint needs to expand the army with money, the old man will definitely support it fully, and in other aspects, the old man can't do anything. Zhou Furen said.

Li Hongfei said so much, how could Zhou Furen not understand, didn't he just ask for money...........

"Yes, yes, how much money do you say you want to donate, as long as it's not too much, we can find a way to make it up." Someone chimed in.

"In terms of money, let's discuss it again, but now all parts of the south have entered a state of combat readiness, in order to ensure the smooth supply of military supplies, I asked the Holy Lord before, and opened a new government yamen in our Suzhou, called the Ministry of Commerce."

"The function of the Ministry of Commerce is to ensure that all walks of life can operate normally in times of war, and will not close their doors due to war."

"And since it's the Ministry of Commerce, the officials in it must know how to do business, but most of the officials in the court are nerds and can't do it at all!" Li Hongfei threw a bait again.

"Oh? So where should the officials of this department be recruited? Zhou Furen's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly asked.

"Naturally, it was recruited from among the merchants who knew how to do business." Li Hongfei replied with a smile.

"What! Can a businessman also be an official? ”

As soon as Li Hongfei's words came out, the businessmen below were not calm.

Although the merchants of the Ming Dynasty were very rich, their status was very low, and the simplest embodiment was that merchants could not be officials.

In this way, although the merchant was rich, he did not have the slightest status at all, which was also the biggest regret in the hearts of the entire Ming Dynasty merchants at that time.

Originally, such a regulation was intended to protect the entire group of businessmen, rather than inhibit commerce.

Industry and commerce are different from agriculture in that agriculture depends on the land for food, and if there is a piece of land, there will be a harvest, unless the land is plundered.

In the event that industry and commerce survive in market competition, and the industrial and commercial capitalists, who take advantage of bureaucratic privileges to gain a monopoly position in the market and exclude other competitors, will not only become the spokesman of the bourgeoisie, but will become the enemy of the entire bourgeoisie.

Under a pure bureaucratic system, if the industrialists and businessmen have bureaucratic privileges, they will monopolize the market and become rich, while those without bureaucratic privileges will be excluded and bankrupt.

The stakes are so great that any moral preaching will be hollow.

Therefore, "businessmen cannot be officials" is actually a protection for the entire group of businessmen, rather than a suppression of commerce.

In connection with the stipulation that "merchants cannot be officials", the Ming government took the initiative to reduce the industrial and commercial tax rates, simplify the types of taxes, and strictly prohibit bureaucrats from setting up private checkpoints.

In the middle and later periods, the landless population was exempted from poll tax and servitude, so that industrial and commercial workers actually paid a lower tax rate than agricultural workers, constituting a set of mercantilist national policies in the Ming Dynasty.

The original intention of this is good, but the Chinese people are good at exploiting loopholes, since the Ming Law only stipulates that businessmen cannot be officials, and does not stipulate that the sons of businessmen, or relatives, cannot be officials!

So in the later period, the businessmen tried to make their sons officials, or relatives to be officials, and then the officials protected the businessmen, the businessmen bribed the officials, and the officials and businessmen colluded, and evaded taxes, so that the commercial tax, which was not high in the first place, was almost zero.

Rather than letting these businessmen fill their pockets with local officials for the sake of profit, it is better to let them be officials with little real power, at least they can use their status as court officials to suppress these businessmen and prevent them from doing illegal tax evasion.

"Our newly established Ministry of Commerce not only regulates the market and ensures the normal operation of all walks of life, but also intends to operate all kinds of government-run businesses, including the military industry, the textile industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the mining industry, the smelting industry, the grain industry, the salt industry, and so on."

"These enterprises, although operated by the government, but the government only accounts for forty percent of the share, the shopkeeper will be selected from the businessmen, according to the scale of the enterprise, the official rank is nine to six products, and in terms of operation, the government will not interfere, at most send a bookkeeper to help manage the accounts."

"The purpose of this is not to compete with the people for profit, but to prevent the coming of war, those unscrupulous businessmen take the opportunity to raise prices, with the emergence of government-run enterprises, the common people have the right to choose, and it is naturally difficult for unscrupulous businessmen to make huge profits from it." Li Hongfei pointed out.

He took out the macroeconomic regulation and control policy and the plan for state-owned enterprises.

"When will these businesses be able to get started? What are the requirements for going inside to be a shopkeeper? Cao Hong, the owner of the cloth village, asked.

Cao Hong is obsessed with being an official, although his family has a lot of money, he can't return to his hometown, and now he has an opportunity to be an official, of course he wants to fight for it.

"With so many businesses opened at once, does the government have enough money? You must know that there are constant wars in the north, and the current military expenses of the imperial court are very tense! Zhou Furen wondered.

He felt that things were not so simple, and hoped that the other party would finish the conversation at one time.

"Didn't I say that? The imperial court only accounts for forty percent of the share, this business matter, of course, can not be funded by the imperial court, who wants to be an official, who wants to run a government-run enterprise, pay for it! As a businessman, does this trivial matter still have to trouble the imperial court? Li Hongfei took a sip of tea and continued.

"Remember, there can only be one government-run enterprise in each industry in Suzhou, and if anyone wants to be an official, we will conduct an asset appraisal and assess the value of the enterprise according to the amount of capital contribution, so as to arrange the official rank."

"Humph! After doing it for a long time, it's just buying and selling officials, I thought there would be some new tricks! Su Dinghe, the owner of the rice shop, pouted.

"The imperial court is going to do a business without capital! Destroying our family business at once is a bandit act! Bosses in other industries also chimed in.

When it comes to this, how can the big guy not understand that the government is a white wolf with empty gloves, and with an official title that has no real power, they will be divided into forty percent of their family business.