In most areas of the north, because of the implementation of the agricultural tax reduction policy, the largest tax revenue comes from commercial tax, but the northern business has just started, and the tax revenue is really limited, and it is not even as much as the profit of the Huaxia Ocean Trading Company. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Agriculture and commerce in the south are developing steadily, but development also requires investment, and the profits earned over the years, because Li Hongfei came to power to engage in infrastructure construction, have made Shi Kefa aware of the financial crisis.

The most important thing is that Li Hongfei also wants the government to take the lead and invest in the railway project, where can Shi Kefa get so much money at a time?

"In just half a year, Huaxia Ocean Trading Company went to sea three times, counting this time, a total of 5 million taels of silver were paid in tariffs, and the cumulative net profit was 20 million taels." Situ Yan took the account book and reported to the officials present.

Except for the first trip out of the customs, because it was selling arms, there was a tariff-free policy specially approved by the imperial court, Situ Yan's fleet had to pay a tariff of nearly one million taels of silver every time it entered and exited.

Due to the limitation of carrying capacity and output, the profit of the fleet at one time to sea is only about 13 million taels of silver at most, including the purchase of local minerals in Java and the balance payment of Alibaoshan Shipyard, Huaxia Ocean Trading Company earned a net profit of nearly 20 million taels of silver in half a year.

"Five million taxes in half a year, isn't it ten million a year? It's worth the total tax revenue of a coastal province! Someone sighed.

"The point is that this profit is terrible, if the imperial court leads the fleet to sea, it can offset half of the treasury's taxes a year!" Shi Kefa saw the other side.

The imperial court led the fleet to sea, naturally there was no need to go through the cumbersome matter of tariffs, and it was really not impossible to earn 50 million in half a year for business alone.

Tariffs are just a drizzle, what really makes money is still the profit of doing business, although the imperial court will not compete with the people for profit, but it depends on what circumstances, going to sea and going to the ocean, without armed escort is not at all, even if the imperial court does not do any business, just send a fleet to escort and collect "protection fees", that is also a very considerable profit.

"But don't forget, although my Daming is rich in resources, but the production capacity of tea, porcelain, silk and other materials is limited, which is enough to supply the country, how can there be so many things exported to Fanbang in a year? Moreover, Fanbang is sparsely populated, and the purchasing power is not unlimited, so the market may be better in the first two years, but it may not be able to maintain it forever! There were also objections.

His fears were correct, because the Huaxia Ocean Trading Company only purchased civilian goods twice (the first was to sell arms), which caused the prices of tea, silk, porcelain and other goods in the coastal areas to rise sharply, and even reached the point where tea was priceless.

There is also a problem of purchasing power in Fanbang, which is also a fact, when Zheng Zhilong's first batch of private goods arrived in Semarang, he almost lost it in his hands.

After all, Nanyang has been continuously plundered by Europeans over the years, and there is not much financial resources to buy high-end consumer goods of the Ming Dynasty.

At the beginning, the imperial court ordered the ban on the sea, in fact, there was also a reason why the profits were getting thinner and thinner, and it was not possible to make money by opening the sea, but to spend a lot of money to raise a huge fleet, of course, it was not cost-effective to arrive.

"I don't understand, why Westerners, who are thousands of miles away, can get silver in the South Seas, while we are all in the ruler, but we are worried about losing money?" Li Hongfei asked rhetorically.

"The Western barbarians only know how to plunder, and they fish with all their might, making the people of the South Seas miserable, how can I be a big country with a raccoon dog!" Someone retorted.

Well, it is still Confucianism, and the Westerners colonized all parts of the South Seas, and the Ming officials were not unclear, but they were unwilling to learn from the Westerners.

"Is it my Ming people who are important, or Nanyang Fanyi who is important?" Li Hongfei asked rhetorically.

"This ........."

The ministers were speechless.

If you want to open the sea to make money, it will inevitably damage the interests of the local people of the Nanyang Islands, but at the same time, it can also bring rich benefits to the people of the Ming Dynasty.

"We are now open to the sea, if we only do port trade, the shipping risk to Fanyi, will also bring benefits to the people of the Ming Dynasty, if the ocean, there are too many unknowns, one is not careful, some merchants are likely to lose their money." Shi Kefa said.

He was not opposed to opening the sea, but was worried that accidents would happen to his country's merchants when they went to sea.

In Shi Kefa's view, he would rather hand over the profits of transportation to Westerners than let the coastal people take such a big risk because the imperial court encouraged the opening of the sea.

"There is no risk where there is a return, the biggest profit of opening the sea is transportation, give this piece to the Westerners, what else do we earn? Besides, what do I do as a master of the Ming Dynasty? It is used to protect the interests of overseas expatriates! Li Hongfei said righteously.

The profits earned by Huaxia Ocean Trading Company in the past six months have even exceeded twice the total export profits of the coastal areas in the past year, and the majority of them are the huge profits brought about by undertaking ocean risks.

What's more, there is also the big cake of Nanyang mineral resources, how can Li Hongfei give up?

Not only will he not give up the South Seas, but when the Daming Navy Division recovers its former prosperity, he will send fleets into the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

Shi Kefa thought about it for a long time, and finally asked, "What does Master Li want our Congress to do?" ”

"Seize the time to pass the military budget of the Daming Naval Division, and encourage businessmen to gradually go abroad, even if the situation in Nanyang is unstable now, we can start with places like Wa and Ryukyu." Li Hongfei replied.

The separation of powers is not good, Li Dingguo has already submitted the military budget to the Congress, but because the Ming Navy Division has a large establishment and needs to add a large number of new ships, the Congress believes that this is not in line with the current national conditions of the Ming Dynasty at all, so the military expenditure of the Navy Division has been delayed again and again.

However, this can not be blamed on Shi Kefa, with the strength of the current Daming Naval Division, there is basically no problem with coastal defense, and he naturally tilts the finance towards the revitalization of the local economy, followed by the army, and the military expenditure of the naval division is able to delay and support.

It's just that Li Hongfei can't afford to delay, and naval construction is not an overnight thing, especially the navy that has entered the all-firearms era, whether it is the Dutch who are "sea coachmen" or the British who are "empires on which the sun never sets", their modern navy has experienced hundreds of years of precipitation and accumulation.

More than a hundred years ago, the Ming Dynasty sailors may be the first in the world, but in just a few decades, the Ming Dynasty has been caught up by Western European countries, and now it is not easy to surpass a loss again with steam warships, if it stagnates, or it will not be long before the West will surpass the East again.

The steam engine has been around for several years, and although the Westerners have not yet figured out the principle of the steam warship, the steam engine for mining and industrial use has been popularized in the Ming Dynasty, and it is not difficult for Europeans to figure out the principle of steam engine manufacturing.

Once the steam engine was introduced to Europe, with the craze for scientific exploration that was booming during this period, who knows what kind of chemical reaction would happen?

Since Li Hongfei took the lead in initiating the industrial revolution, then we must continue to move forward, the "monster" has been released, if it cannot be tamed, sooner or later it will be "bitten to death", just like the black powder of the year, the Chinese used to set off fireworks, but people used to make guns and cannons, so that in the late Ming Dynasty, they had to introduce more advanced artillery from abroad.

"To put it mildly, the two ocean-going fleets are all refurbished with steam warships, where does the money come from for such a large expense?" Shi Kefa didn't have a good airway.

Li Dingguo's expense statement is clearly written, and the National Assembly will allocate a full 50 million taels of silver within three years, which is equivalent to the total tax revenue of the whole country for half a year.

"I also know that you are in a difficult situation, so so you can borrow." Li Hongfei took the opportunity to throw out another topic.

He had two purposes for showing off his fortune this time, one was to get the Congress to pass the military appropriation of the Daming Naval Division as soon as possible, so that the Daming Naval Division could form combat effectiveness as soon as possible, get rid of the constraints of the coastal seas, go to the South Sea, the Indian Ocean, and even the Atlantic Ocean, and compete with the Europeans for sea supremacy.

The second purpose is to win over customers for the bank that has just been established for a short time, and this "customer" is the Ming government.

"Borrowing? Who to borrow from? "Shi Kefa was confused.

He doesn't know which one Li Hongfei is playing, who has borrowed money since the founding of the Ming Dynasty?

What's more, in the past, the emperor was rich in the world, and the entire Ming Dynasty was the emperor's, and he needed money, just increase taxes, and the worst thing was to find businessmen and wealthy households for apportionment, how could the word "borrow" be used?

And what the imperial court needs now is not one or two million small money, but 50 million taels of silver for military expenses, and even 50 million is not too little, if it can really be borrowed, Shi Kefa borrowing 100 million taels of silver is not too much.

"Naturally, it is to borrow from the newly established Huaxia International Bank (referred to as Huaxia Bank), the interest rate is not high, the annual interest rate is five percent, because it is the imperial court to borrow money, the credibility is naturally guaranteed, so the maximum loan amount given is 30 million taels of silver, for a period of five years, the imperial court can use the five-year tariffs in Shanghai and Hong Kong as collateral." Li Hongfei began to introduce himself to a group of officials...........

The bank is a project that Li Hongfei has wanted to engage in a long time ago, but it is a pity that the imperial court has been fighting all the year round in recent years, and the treasury basically has no money to spare, so it cannot support the financial giant of the bank at all.

This time, Zheng Zhilong led the fleet to the South Seas three times, earning more than 20 million taels of silver, plus a few ready-made silver mines and gold mines purchased from Java, and many businessmen whom Li Hongfei met at the beginning of the reform, and the principal of opening a bank seemed to be enough.

Subsequently, led by Li Hongfei, Situ Yan, Zheng Zhilong, Zhou Furen, Su Dinghe and other wealthy people in the business community began the work of establishing a bank.

The Zhou family used to run a money village in Suzhou, although the focus later turned to Suzhou Heavy Industry, but his money village industry was still handed over to his family to take care of, although he could not invest much cash, but the management was quite familiar.

And Situ Yan naturally needless to say, the predecessor of Huaxia Ocean Trading Company was the Cao Gang, plus a hundred steam warships belonging to the Cao Gang, on the bright side, Situ Yan accounted for eighty percent of the company's shares, and Zheng Zhilong only occupied two percent, so the money earned in this half a year, Situ Yan could get 16 million taels of silver (minerals are counted separately).

Coupled with the original family business of the Cao Gang, it is not a problem to take out 20 million taels of silver.

Zheng Zhilong is also not a fuel-efficient lamp, the Zheng family has been operating in Fujian for many years, and has long been at the level of red-top merchants, and his wealth is even richer than the treasury in the early years, although Zheng Zhilong has gathered a lot in recent years, but the hidden wealth is still quite amazing.

In the end, Zhou Furen invested in technology and invested 6 million taels of silver, occupying 20% of Huaxia Bank's shares.

Situ Yan bought shares with 18 million taels of silver, occupying 40% of Huaxia Bank's shares (among which Li Hongfei was involved).

Zheng Zhilong bought 20 million taels of silver and occupied 40% of Huaxia Bank's shares.

The remaining 20% was divided among some businessmen who were good friends with Li Hongfei..........

Headquartered in Hong Kong, Huaxia Bank has an initial capital of nearly 50 million taels of silver, and its abundant capital is not much worse than the national treasury, and it is an easy matter to lend 30 million taels of silver to the imperial court.

30 million taels of silver, according to the interest rate of 5 percent, the annual interest is 1.5 million taels of silver, Huaxia Bank made money, and the imperial court can also use this loan to relieve economic pressure and speed up the economic development of the whole country.

Li Hongfei is not afraid that the imperial court will not repay the money borrowed, he himself is the head of the cabinet, if the parliament really dares to do such a dirty thing, he has the right to demand the immediate dissolution of the parliament.

"Only borrowed 30 million?" Shi Kefa pouted.

After figuring out the role of Huaxia Bank, Shi Kefa suddenly felt that it was not impossible to borrow money from the other party, after all, the times are different now, the country is reforming everywhere, and even the emperor is no longer in power (the new "Da Ming Law" being drafted by the National Assembly has begun to make explicit provisions, most of the emperor's powers will be reduced in the future, and the emperor is only the nominal top leader of the country), why should the imperial court borrow money from private enterprises?

It's better than increasing taxes, forcing businessmen and rich gentry to apportion, and causing public resentment to boil.

The only thing that Shi Kefa is dissatisfied with now is that Huaxia Bank only borrowed 30 million, and according to his idea, he borrowed 50 million at a time, and now many problems can be solved.

"Yes, it's only 30 million, after all, Huaxia Bank has to do other lending business, and of the 30 million borrowed by the imperial court, 20 million must be taken out as the military expenses of the Daming Water Division, after all, you are borrowing on the grounds of strengthening the Daming Water Division." Li Hongfei replied.

The imperial court now wants money everywhere, and the representatives of the Congress, who come from all walks of life, all want to benefit their own industry, in case all this money is diverted for other purposes, then Li Hongfei will not cry to death.

The military expenses of 50 million sailors were paid off in three years according to the plan, so Li Hongfei did not do too much, and left 10 million for Shi Kefa, which could not only speed up the approval of the military budget by the Congress, but also allow the imperial court to pull down the "skin" and find a loan from Huaxia Bank.

"This........ What steps does it take for the court to borrow money? Is it just a pledge with tariffs? "Shi Kefa is already moved.

After all, it is the first time in history that the government is looking for private loans, and many things have to be explained by Li Hongfei.

The tariffs between Shanghai and Hong Kong are about 10 million a year (originally Shanghai was the majority, Hong Kong has only begun to grow in the last year, and there is still room for growth), even if the imperial court can't afford to pay back the money, the tariffs in the past five years are enough to repay the principal and interest of Huaxia Bank.

"In addition to tariffs, there are also loan vouchers, and the imperial court borrows money, which need to be issued with the seals of the left and right prime ministers and the emperor, and announced to the world before it can take effect!" Li Hongfei said with a cold face.

"What! And to tell the world??? Shi Kefa was a little embarrassed.