The governor of Liangguang is relieved, and the people who are far away from the mainland are also comfortable, after all, half of the local foreign trade is now from the Ming Dynasty.

If Shen Youlong really made any bans or stumbles, it is really hard to say, dealing with an upright gentleman like him, once Australia uses force to solve the problem, it will definitely backfire, which can be seen from the history books of later generations.

With the 100 rifles presented by Zhao Shijie, the conversation between the two involved a wider and wider range, from the non-governmental business exchanges between the two countries to the impact of new weapons on ice freezers.

"Minister Zhao, although there is some truth in the wealth of the country you said, if the whole world is like a businessman, this country may not be a country."

Shen Youlong still has a certain rejection of this kind of statement that emphasizes business, after all, he is a sage who has studied hard for ten years to achieve today's achievements, and he will naturally look down on those businessmen and craftsmen.

This kind of thinking is not only him, that is, almost all the scholars of the Ming Dynasty have this kind of thinking, and even the merchant class at the bottom has never thought about why their status has always been so low, and they are not as good as a farmer, perhaps this is due to the culture that has been propagated for generations.

Zhao Shijie's theory of national wealth, if a country wants to be rich and strong, it is not enough to rely on agricultural development alone, but also to attach importance to the development of commerce, from the perspective of the number one major country in the world in later generations, there is no country that does not attach importance to commercial development, and countries that do not attach importance to commercial development will eventually become a declining country.

The small-scale peasant economy is self-sufficient, and in good years, it is true that the people in the world can live and work in peace and contentment, but in the face of a catastrophe, they almost lose the role of resistance.

Daming is a good example, at present, the crop production during the Xiaoice River period was reduced, and many parts of the country fell into famine, and civil unrest inevitably occurred.

"Does Lord Shen look down on businessmen, businessmen chase profits, no profits and can't afford to be early, the evaluation of businessmen over the past dynasties is almost bad, but I passed to the former Song Dynasty in Australia, there was a Song Dynasty, because of the importance of commercial development, even if only half of the south of the Yangtze River was promoted later, it can ensure that the people are not chaotic, which is the benefit of commercial development."

The Song Dynasty is indeed the country that attaches the most importance to commercial development in history, but at the same time, because the throne obtained by the founding monarch is to come by dishonorable means, so it is extremely harsh on the military generals, which eventually led to the demise of the Song Dynasty.

Take the current Shen Youlong as an example, he supervised the army and Liangguang, but he was born as a civilian official, and if strictly calculated, this position should be held by a military general.

"Australia attaches great importance to business, so that today's achievements have been achieved, dominating the South Seas and then the Hongyi people dare not underestimate, because they attach importance to manual workers and have powerful firearms, don't these adults think that they should think about it?" Zhao Shijie asked, completely ignoring the identity of the other party's Liangguang governor.

Shen Youlong listened, and fell into contemplation, and couldn't help but start thinking, is the national politics of the Ming Dynasty really wrong, and the reason why the dynasties of the past dynasties have fallen is really because they don't pay attention to commerce and manual work.

For generations, only agricultural taxes were collected and no commercial taxes were emphasized, but they did not know that the profits earned by merchants were several times or dozens of times that of peasants.

This is a problem left over from history for nearly 1,000 years, and the key lies in whether the ruling class and the people at the bottom have this kind of consciousness, but it can be seen from the course of history that there is almost no such consciousness, and there is almost no other change in the successive dynasties except for the new distribution of farmland.

Zhao Shijie didn't think that his remarks would change Shen Youlong too much, but he just hoped that his words could leave such a seed in his heart, and then this seed took root and grew up.

What Australia's Wealth of Nations advocates is to vigorously develop commercial trade, so as to reduce the increase in the tax burden on agriculture, improve the living standards of the peasants who really occupy the majority, and thus liberate some people to become the labor force for industrial development.

Daming has abundant human resources, if the upper and lower levels can block all in-depth reforms, it will not perish, but the internal struggle is too strong, and the resistance to a large-scale reform is very huge.

What Traversal can do is to cultivate or indirectly cultivate a group of pro-Australian intellectuals for the country, so that they can change.

"Although I don't fully agree with Minister Zhao's words, but there is a certain amount of truth, the changes in Xiangdao and the commercial changes in Liangguang are also in my eyes, if it is really beneficial to the Ming Dynasty and harmless, the old man is willing to play the imperial court to follow the example of Australia, and the commercial tax will reduce the agricultural tax."

"It's very good that Lord Shen can have such an idea, but if you want to increase business taxes, I'm afraid it will be difficult for Daming to do it, after all, there is no local gentry behind many big businessmen, if you want to make these gentry class give up their interests, it is undoubtedly a dog's mouth to grab meat buns, the difficulty is like a flood of water, and it is not possible without strong means."

What Zhao Shijie said is not false at all, if you want these interest strata to take out the cake and distribute it, it is more painful than cutting their flesh, and a large part of the reason for the collapse of the country at the end of the Ming Dynasty is that it was collapsed by these people, and the support for the Manchu Qing outside the Guanxi is indispensable to the support of the local gentry class.

They thought that they could influence their decision-making by supporting a Manchu Qing, but they didn't want to enter the customs, so the Manchus purged them very profitably, and even directly confiscated their property.

There is no doubt that the gentry class has an unshirkable responsibility for the demise of the Ming Dynasty, these control a large amount of land and class layers, and their shadows can almost be seen in the successive dynasties of the dynasty.

The only way to completely change this class is to slowly guide it, and at the same time establish the rise of another class, and become a confrontational relationship with them, and achieve a balance.

If the merchants paid taxes directly to the state and received the protection of the state, there would be no need to hang many of their industries in the name of the gentry, which could virtually cut off a large part of their strength, and the resistance to the reform of the Ming Dynasty would be much less, and at the same time, it could also gain the support of the merchant class who were recognized by the rulers of the country as holding wealth.

This is too important for Daming, if you can collect commercial taxes, you can definitely change the current unbearable financial revenue, but the road ahead is bleak, the greater the hope for it, Zhao Shijie knows that the more disappointed it will be, everything can only be slow. (To be continued.) )