"Lord, do you want to reinstate the order?" Mi Zhu looked at Wang Yu in disbelief, with a trilling voice in his words.

Hua Xia Ming has always tended to be introverted, rather than expanding, not for no reason.

Since Qin Shi Huang swept and dominated the world, a huge empire unprecedented in the world was born. As a result, the question of how to make this empire stable for a long time also surfaced.

A conclusion can be drawn from the experience of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, that is, it is often more difficult to govern the world than to fight the world. The rise and fall of the Qin State also seems to verify this law.

In terms of the disposal of merchants alone, whether it was Shang Ying, who changed the law to seek strength, or the majestic Qin Emperor and Han Wu, they failed to solve this problem well.

The method of the Shang Dynasty was to emphasize agriculture and suppress businessmen, desperately weaken the status of businessmen, and humiliate their personalities, such as not allowing businessmen to be officials, and not allowing businessmen to ride chariots and horses, wear silk, or buy land, so as to crack down on commerce.

Ying Zhengji was a faithful believer in Shang Ying, and after unifying the world, he extended Shang Ying's anti-business policy to the whole country. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was even more ruthless than the two predecessors, and he directly launched the edict.

It is an extension of the calculation, and from the point of view of later generations, it is regarded as a kind of property tax. To put it simply, the government counts and calculates the property of merchants, and then compiles a register as the basis for taxation.

The property mentioned here includes the family's money, goods, vehicles, ships, transportation, and so on. Anyway, as long as you are a merchant and there are no officials, three elders, or Rongbian sergeants in your family, you have to pay heavy taxes for all valuable things in your family.

Because the tax rate was very high, the merchants did everything possible to hide their property to avoid taxes, and Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty responded by encouraging denunciation. He ordered Yang Ke to take charge of the matter, and ordered the people to take half of the complainant, that is, the defendant will be subject to the confiscation of property, and the whistleblower will receive half of the account.

This decree is a freak produced by the extreme development of the anti-business policy. Fundamentals and money grabbing are a number of roads. As a business family, the Mi family naturally hates this kind of freak, but I didn't expect Wang Yu, who has always advocated equal emphasis on agriculture and industry, to suddenly put forward this.

"Order? What is that? "Wang Yu is a novice in history, of course he doesn't know anything about such an esoteric thing.

Seeing that he didn't seem to be a fake, Mi Zhu put down his mind and briefly explained the decree.

"I see." Wang Yu had to sigh that the ancients were not stupid at all. Later generations always felt that the ancients emphasized agriculture and suppressed business, which was purely a matter of concept, but in fact it was not. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was very powerful, but the country was too big, and he really couldn't find a way to make the country benefit from commerce. It can also be a long-term taxation method.

"Of course it doesn't work." Wang Yu shook his head and relieved Mi Zhu's heart.

The final result of this decree was to beat the private merchants to death with a stick, causing the merchants to merge with the landlords and bureaucrats, giving rise to a large number of officials and businessmen, and finally becoming useless. Neither the state nor the people can benefit from commercial activities. The government's finances are becoming more and more embarrassed, and the gap between the rich and the poor among the people is widening and widening.

Putting aside the romantic or thrilling colors of the Age of Discovery, it is actually like a competition among European countries. A full-scale commercial expansion unfolded. Wang Yu's Qingzhou New Deal was formulated with this as the blue, and if he wanted to use it to dominate the pattern of China in the next few hundred years, or even thousands of years, how could he be so eager for quick success?

Business is the only way to get wealth out of circulation. And wealth is like water, it will flow more and more. A pool of stagnant water will only gradually die.

"As long as you set a reasonable tax rate, it's not so difficult to accept, right?" Of course, Wang Yu couldn't solve the problem that the previous heroes of China couldn't solve, so he could only try to come up with a reasonable way.

"However, if a merchant seeks profits, if no one denounces him and does not strictly supervise it, even if he registers it, the registered values may not be reliable. The tax rate is low, and if there is tax evasion and evasion, the taxes collected by the yamen laborers in various places may outweigh the losses. ”

Guo Yuan is a very standard Chinese scholar, and his understanding of business is not much higher than that of Shang Ying. He always felt that encouraging commerce was not a proper business, and although he could enjoy some convenience during wartime, when the war ended, commerce would eventually have to retreat to a secondary position, and guide the national policy back to the right track of heavy agriculture.

In his opinion, Wang Yu's previous decree should have been prepared for this.

Wang Yu distinguished between businessmen and bureaucrats, strictly ordered officials and their families not to do business, and owed a large amount of debts to the Mi family during the war, undoubtedly planning to use the official position to repay the debts of the Mi family in the future.

Therefore, Guoyuan has never paid much attention to the commercial law change, but today, it seems that the lord is seriously discussing the feasibility of establishing a commercial law, so he has to cheer up and pour a few basins of cold water on the lord.

"What Zini said is very true." Wang Xiu echoed: "The profit of a businessman does not lie in keeping a business at home, but in running outside. If he wants to avoid taxes, he can stay away all the year round and never return, so how can he count his business income in the place where his hometown is located? Make it tax-paid? ”

Among Qingzhou's staff, in terms of internal affairs, except for Tian Feng, Guoyuan and Wang Xiu are the oldest, and as soon as these two people opened their mouths, they said a long-established opinion, and the atmosphere suddenly changed. Except for Tian Feng, everyone else was nodding, and there were not a few people who were eager to speak.

Mi Zhu saw that the momentum was not right, and hurriedly retorted: "Even Gaozu said: Wealth and nobility do not return to their hometowns, such as brocade clothes walking at night." The businessman eats and sleeps in the open, and he is afraid to run around and work hard, isn't it for Xuanhe's family? Is there any reason not to go home in order to avoid taxes? ”

"Besides, except for my Qingzhou, all other regions pursue the traditional policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business, and the lord's kindness to businessmen is like reconstruction, even if businessmen value profit and ignore righteousness, it is impossible to be untouched, right? Merchants are also human beings, and there may be some forces, but they are by no means all wolf-hearted people! ”

Wang Yu's time in Qingzhou is not long, and the time to work internal affairs is even shorter, and at present, in the shogunate, except for the Mi brothers, only Guan Ning is a merchant, and the others are traditional scholars.

The latter was a newcomer as an architect and contractor. These days, I almost even sleep on the construction site, and I have no time and no qualifications to participate in politics. And Mi Zhu knew that his brother's bad things were far stronger than the positive effects, and he didn't bring him to show his eyes, so that at this moment he seemed quite weak.

"Mr. Zizhong argues that human nature is good, and there are problems in his body; Looking forward to others with gratitude and hope is even more suspicious of seeking fish from wood, which is not the basis of legislation. ”

As a minister, he has always been very conscious of judging and rarely speaks when discussing politics. Just listen with ears, but he's not a thoughtless person after all. The previous few times, Ji was talking to Wang Yu, just digesting the novel ideas he heard. It's enough to be busy with the trial, and today Wang Yu is obviously more inclined to let everyone express their opinions, and the trial is naturally not stingy to speak.

His speaking angle is different from that of Guoyuan and others. Because he is a believer in Legalism, he advocates the evil of human nature, and the main refutation is also the argument of Mi Zhu's sophistication in human feelings.

"If you don't go home, you can save more money, and naturally more people will want to leave home. If the tax is paid for gratitude. Then, the merchants will presumably put a price tag on the favor, and when the repayment is over, they will evade taxes. There's nothing to worry about. ”

Mi Zhu stagnation. Guoyuan and others put forward their opinions from the perspective of valuing agriculture and suppressing business, and he naturally had to fight on the basis of reason, even if he did not hesitate to put credit and qualifications; From the perspective of legislative implementation, there are many implications. Where did he think clearly for a while?

"That'...... So what do you think should be done about this matter? ”

The judge said with a glance: "There is no other way but to strengthen the connection between various places." The Commercial Division, which was proposed by the Lord, was separated from the local government and cooperated with the local government, but was not fully subject to it, and was dedicated to the management of merchants in various places, collecting taxes and punishing profiteers. ”

"But in this way, the human achievement is too great." Guo Yuan and Wang Xiu both frowned: "Personnel exchanges, the consumption is not small, according to what Zhengnan said, there is still a lot of information in various places, and in the Department of Commerce, there are also a large number of officials who are good at calculating and planning. ”

The object of their questioning is the trial, but it is Wang Yu who is looking at it.

"In addition," Tian Feng, who had been quiet, also spoke: "If the Commercial Department is really to be established, the criminal law must also follow up, otherwise, even if the Commercial Department is operating normally, it will not be able to prevent a small number of profiteers from bribing officials and causing the latter to damage the public and private interests." ”

There are many people, and these people present are all highly intelligent people, although they hold different views and ideas, but you and I have said everything related to commercial tax.

Let Wang Yu recall for himself, he really can't figure it out for a while, and now that he is being discussed by everyone, his thinking is gradually becoming clearer.

When everyone said that they couldn't put forward new opinions, Wang Yu raised a finger and said meaningfully: "If you want to make a profit, you must invest, so the establishment of the Commercial Department is imperative." Although the worries of the Zini are justified, you have ignored one thing, that is, the standard for judging the scale of commercial tax is the past, the past when the anti-business policy was implemented, not the future of all-round development of commerce! ”

Guo Yuan's eyes revealed a hint of confusion. He couldn't imagine what the great business development would look like, because there were no examples to learn from in history.

Taking the Mi family as an example, yes, the Mi family in the East China Sea is a well-known wealthy man in the world, and it played a vital role in the logistics supply of the Hebei War. But who knows that the Mi family's family business is created by the efforts of several generations?

The answer is five generations!

Generally speaking, twenty or thirty years can be regarded as an era, and the development of the Mi family can be traced back to the Guangwu Zhongxing period of the Eastern Han Dynasty. From an ordinary Haoqiang, he obtained the position of a local official, and then worked hard to operate, after more than 100 years, this has the current scale of the Mi family.

This is the usual development mode of Huaxia's Haoqiang.

What seems like a huge amount of wealth is actually nothing if it is spread over more than a hundred years. The Mi family's support for Qingzhou is very powerful as a kind of political investment, but if it is exchanged for the transaction tax advocated by Wang Yu, the wealth that the general's government can get from the Mi family is not considerable.

The Mi family is still like this, although the Central Plains is large, how many Mi families are there?

Therefore, Guoyuan is not very optimistic about Wang Yu's plan to mobilize the people, he believes that unless he makes a lot of money like Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, this so-called commercial department will only create a group of redundant members.

Now, when Wang Yu was suddenly asked such a question, he naturally couldn't answer it.

Seeing that Guoyuan couldn't answer, Wang Yu turned to Mi Zhu: "Zizhong, what do you think?" ”

Mi Zhu replied loudly, his expression and tone were full of confidence: "If there is no previous suppression, with the current situation of my Qingzhou, it is enough to create a Mi family!" If the wealth overseas is really as the lord said, why is it difficult to create a Mi family in ten years? When the world is peaceful in the future, where the Han Dynasty is headed, even overnight, it is not impossible for such a huge wealth as the Mi family to appear! ”

There was a commotion at the scene.

The staff were all frightened by Mi Zhu's words.

They pay little attention to business and therefore don't have a very clear concept. But everyone has a very deep understanding of Mi Zhu's personality, including the trial of the initial descent.

This person has a good eye, full of courage, and is quite elegant, and he does not see in him the philistine of an ordinary businessman. He speaks, and he is reliable. What he said in such an affirmative tone, if not completely, would not be far behind.

If there really is such a huge amount of wealth in circulation, then the tax rate set by the Lord is not only not low, but very considerable.

ps: Note, three elders: "Hanshu Gao Di Ji I" cloud: "The people are more than 50 years old, have practice, can be handsome and good, and think that they are three elders and one person in the township; One of the three elders of the township is the three elders of the county. ”