Wang Pudao: "There are two main aspects of supervision, one is that your production and business activities must be supervised by the imperial court, for example, the porcelain kiln of a certain Longyou family can fire 10,000 pieces of porcelain a year, but the output reported to the government is only 5,000 pieces, this is fraud, for such a black-hearted businessman, the government will resolutely crack down!" ”

Huang Quan said: "What else? ”

Wang Pudao: "There is also a product sold overseas must pass the customs inspection, for example, a Zhejiang tea merchant secretly contacted foreign businessmen, privately smuggled tea to the sea with a small boat to sell to Xiyi merchants, this is illegal, once the government is seized, all the tea will be confiscated, and the tea merchant will also be banned from business." ”

Shen has always been busy saying: "What about taxes? ”

Wang Pudao: "There are two kinds of taxes, one is the source tax, the so-called source tax is to tax from the source of production, such as porcelain kilns, the annual output of 10,000 pieces of tax of 10,000 pieces, the annual output of 5,000 pieces of tax of 5,000 pieces, such as silk, the annual output of 200,000 horses will be levied on the tax of 200,000 horses, and the tax will be levied, and the products produced by merchants can be circulated in the market. ”

Taxation at source is a more effective method and facilitates supervision.

For example, in the salt transportation industry, the government only needs to control the salt works at the source, levy taxes on the amount of salt produced, and the rest of the circulation links will be liberalized, the salt supervision will be abolished, the tax card will be revoked, and the salt transportation departments and yamen of the provinces and governments will also be abolished, so as to maximize the freedom of salt trade.

In view of the controversy between national and local taxation in later generations, the taxation departments of the provinces and provinces were directly managed by the Department of Household and Commerce, and all the taxes collected were handed over to the state treasury.

Qian Kan, a salt merchant in Yangzhou, asked: "Dare to ask Lord Hou, after the source tax is levied, will the Yamen of the Salt Supervision Department and the Yamen of the Salt Transportation Division still collect taxes?" ”

"No more smoking." Wang Pudao, "After the establishment of the new tax department, the salt supervision yamen and the salt transportation department yamen will be abolished together, and the private checkpoints of each government will also be abolished, in a word, after the source tax is levied, your trade activities within the borders of the Ming Dynasty will no longer be subject to any restrictions, and you will no longer have to pay any taxes." ”

The five merchant representatives were all excited when they heard this, and if the internal supervisors, official supervisors and official cards were removed together, it would undoubtedly be great news for the merchants.

However, Wang Pu then said: "However, you are not allowed to raise prices, the Department of Commerce of the Ministry of Household Affairs will set a benchmark price for goods in various industries every year according to the actual situation, and the final sales price cannot exceed 50% of the benchmark price, but taking into account the factor of freight, the benchmark price of different commodities in different provinces will also be adjusted accordingly." ”

Qian Kan said: "What if the local government sets up a checkpoint privately? ”

Wang Pu said: "It's easy to do, you can file a complaint with the provincial governors or directly with the Department of Commerce of the Ministry of Households, and the governor's yamen or the Department of Commerce will severely punish the local officials who violate the rules." ”

Shen Yi said: "Dare to ask Master Hou, is there another kind of tax?" ”

Wang Pu said: "Another kind of tax is called tariff, if the goods of the merchants are only circulated within the borders of the Ming Dynasty, there is no need to pay tariffs, only when your goods are sold abroad, you need to pay tariffs!" The tax at source is 20%, and the tariff is 2 times more! ”

Shen Yi said: "Can Master Hou explain." ”

Wang Pudao: "For example, the benchmark price of a silk horse in Zhejiang Province is six taels, then the source tax is one tael or two coins, which are directly deducted from the profits of merchants, and merchants are not allowed to increase the price of silk to make up for their profit losses." ”

"The tariff is twice as much, that is to say, the price of six taels of silk needs to be tariff taels, but the additional tariff will be passed on to foreign businessmen, and the final price of a silk is eighteen taels of silver! Of course, half of the twelve taels of customs revenue will be returned to the merchant. ”

Wang Pu knew that the 17th century was a century of power, trade protectionism was commonplace, and the tariff rate of 200 percent was nothing at all, not to mention that the silk, tea, porcelain and other goods of the Ming Dynasty were rare luxury goods for the Western world at that time, and even if tariffs were imposed ten times, there was still a market.

Slaughtering Western merchants, Wang Pu will never hesitate.

As for Wang Pu's decision to return half of the tariff to domestic merchants, there is a deeper consideration, that is, overseas expansion in the future!

In the near future, the Ming Dynasty will be controlled by merchants or capitalists, only when overseas trade is profitable, these capitalists will promote the expansion of the state apparatus, using giant ships and cannons to knock down trade barriers one country after another, and dump the goods produced by the Ming Dynasty in a steady stream.

At that time, the overseas expansion of the Ming Dynasty will be closely combined with the big capitalists at home to form a guarantee of interests, so that the old path of expansion and then contraction of the previous dynasties will not be repeated, and the expansion of the empire will continue for at least a few centuries driven by interests!

Wang Pu is even already fantasizing that after a few centuries, the whole world will be colonies of the Ming Empire, and the goods of the Ming Dynasty will be sold to colonies all over the world, and billions of colonial aborigines will feed the huge Ming Empire with their people's fat and people's ointment, and every citizen of the Ming Empire will live a rich life, and even the homeless people on the street can travel abroad for vacation with the relief money of the political axe......

The eyes of Shen Yiyi and other merchants also lit up, not only because overseas trade was more profitable, but also because they had discovered huge smuggling opportunities!

How could Wang Pu not know what these shrewd merchants were thinking, so he reminded at the time: "But Ben Hou has to solemnly remind you, don't think about smuggling, bypass the customs and sell goods directly to foreign merchants, the consequences of doing so will be very serious, once you are caught by the detective team, just wait for the bankruptcy!" ”

Several merchants were touched by Wang Pu, and their expressions suddenly became very embarrassed.

Wang Pu said to Wang Beech again: "Big brother, the matter of the auction of official assets will be mentioned here first, now you take a few big families to the Wonderland for a meal, and the specific details will be discussed in the afternoon." ”

When Wang Beech left with Qian Kan and other merchants, Lu Daqi said worriedly: "Master Hou, do you really plan to remove the internal supervisors and official supervisors of the provinces and provinces and return the cards?" If these are really removed, the Imperial Palace Ouchi and the local government will no longer have any source of tax revenue, can they agree? ”

Qian Qianyi also said worriedly: "Yes, Master Hou, if you really want to force the place in a hurry, I'm afraid that they will rebel." ”

Wang Pu nodded and said: "The worries of the two pavilion elders are not unreasonable, so this matter must be done step by step, not in a hurry, I mean that it will be tried in the three provinces of Nanzhi, Zhejiang, and Huguang first, and then the central army will recover the five northern provinces, and then implement it in the five northern provinces, and finally go back and rectify the provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou." ”

Sun Chuanting said: "This is the best. ”

Lu Daqi said: "Master Hou, there is a sentence that the subordinates don't know whether to talk about it or not?" ”

Wang Pu said: "Lu Ge has something to say. ”

Lu Daqi said: "In addition to the collection of source taxes and customs duties, the imperial court will loosen all restrictions on all walks of life, has the Hou Ye ever thought that the power of merchants would get out of control?" What if one day these merchants control a large amount of wealth, and then someone rebels, and these merchants spend all their money to finance the rebel, what will the court do? ”

Wang Pu nodded secretly, thinking that Lu Daqi still had some vision on this issue.

But what Lu Daqi was worried about was exactly what Wang Pu wanted, and what Wang Pu had to do now was to spare no effort to support the industrial and commercial forces, first tie these industrial and commercial forces together with his central army, and convene a parliament when the time was ripe to raise the industrial and commercial forces to a dominant position.

Only when these industrial and commercial forces are strong enough can they withstand the counterattack of the feudal royalist forces.

As for the old bureaucratic forces such as Lu Daqi and Qian Qianyi, after the industrial and commercial forces grow in the future, Wang Pu can only give them two ways to go, one is to merge with the nascent industrial and commercial forces, and the other is to die! There is no third way to choose from these two paths.

However, of course, Wang Pu would not say these words to Lu Daqi and Qian Qianyi, let alone say them now.

Wang Pu patted Lu Daqi's shoulder affectionately, and said with a smile: "Lu Ge is too worried, as long as my Central Army is here, what kind of storm can these merchants set off?" I can wipe them out with my little fingers! ”

"Yes, yes, yes." Qian Qianyi hurriedly slapped his fart, "Hou Ye is right, Hou Ye is our Ming Dynasty's Dinghai Divine Needle, as long as Hou Ye and the central army are there, the Ming Empire will not be chaotic." ”

Lu Daqi said: "Since this is the case, then there is nothing to say about the subordinates." ”

"Lu Ge Lao." Wang Pu suddenly said, "I don't know if you want to hear a proposal from the junior?" ”

Lu Daqi hurriedly said: "Master Hou, please speak." ”

Wang Pudao: "The government assets that will be auctioned this time involve Nanjing, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Songjiang, and Hangzhou, and the amount is huge, and the rough steps are estimated to be more than 20 million taels. ”

"The form of fundraising?"

Lu Daqi looked at Wang Pu blankly, not knowing Wang Pu's intention in saying these words at all.

Wang Pudao: "The so-called fund-raising is jointly funded by a number of merchants, and then according to the amount of funds to distribute profits, according to the younger generation, many relatives in Nanjing City plan to contribute, and merchants jointly auction the government's workshop, and then run by the merchants, they only eat dividends. ”

Qian Qianyi had already said something, and said happily: "What does Master Hou mean is that court officials can also buy shares?" ”

"Absolutely!" Wang Pudao, "The court officials are in the shares, and the younger generations are in favor of it. ”

It is true that if the court officials also become shareholders, it will not be long before they become capitalists, although the officials' shareholding may lead to the collusion between officials and businessmen to give birth to [***], but Wang Pu does not care about these now, and the most important thing now is to support the industrial and commercial forces as soon as possible and give birth to a group of big capitalists with official backgrounds!

Lu Daqi said gloomily: "The old man's family has no spare funds, even if he wants to buy shares, it is impossible." ”

Wang Pu said: "If Elder Lu Ge wants the principal, the younger generation can borrow you, if there is more, you can still get 500,000 taels." ”

……

(To be continued)