On October 25, 1894, Lin Yuan, as a special guest, accompanied Shangtai to participate in the tug-of-war conference.

The political system of the Ryukyu Kingdom was modeled after that of the Ming and Qing dynasties, with military and political power in the hands of the king alone, with the six departments of soldiers, criminals, workers, and rituals as administrative agencies, plus the Metropolitan Procuratorate and Dali Temple as supervisory and judicial institutions, and the heads of each agency were former Ryukyu ministers.

The kneeling ceremony was canceled, and Shang Tai sat around a table with all the old ministers, who were still a little unaccustomed. At the beginning of the meeting, Shang Tai said: "We have an empty treasury now, do you have any good ideas?" ”

An old minister said: "Xun Ziyun: The master of the Ming Dynasty must be careful to maintain its harmony, save its flow, and open its source." Therefore, our primary purpose is to increase revenue and reduce expenditure in order to replenish the national treasury. ”

Shang Tai said: "It is easy to throttle, but it is more difficult to open source, our country's population is only 380,000, so with such a small number of people, the market is bound to be very small, and it is even more difficult to open foreign markets." ”

The old minister said: "Our country originally gained a lot of benefits from trade in various places, due to the sea ban of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the merchants used us here as a trade transit station, they bought goods from China, and then sold them to Southeast Asia, and then brought back goods from Southeast Asia to China when they came back, but after the Japanese came, these merchants did not dare to trade, and now I don't know how Lu Dao can recall them back." ”

Everyone was silent, and these people who were born in the Four Books and the Five Classics were indeed not very good at engaging in the economy.

Lin Yuan said: "I have some opinions. ”

The crowd looked at him and said, "We have fewer people, which is a disadvantage, but in a sense, it is also an advantage. When our government has more revenue, our welfare will also be good. ”

As soon as the word "welfare" came out, everyone frowned slightly, in the 19th century, they had not heard of this word, Lin Yuan smiled slightly, and said: "Everyone may not understand this word very well, I will explain it later." ”

"The senior just said that because of our geographical location, we have a great advantage in the trade between China and Southeast Asia, and I think if we want to get them all back, there is a way, we allow them to trade freely, and we don't collect taxes."

Everyone was stunned when they heard it, if they don't collect taxes, how can they make money!

Lin Yuan continued: "We open the port for free, to attract them to use our port as a transit point for trade, our Ryukyu is surrounded by the sea, there are many places suitable for ports, of course, due to the different geographical conditions, the throughput of these ports must be different, some ports are suitable for large ships, some ports are suitable for small ships, so it can attract a lot of merchants." ”

"Even though our port doesn't collect taxes, can the merchants come without food? Can you not stop and rest? Can you not think of spending money on entertainment? Some first-time businessmen also want to buy some souvenirs to go back. Where do they eat, rest, and buy things, and not yet in our port, so that money is not earned? ”

Shang Tai thought for a moment and said, "You mean, we are going to build some restaurants, inns, and leisure places on the port?" ”

Lin Yuan said: "To build is to build, but we only build houses, what these houses are used for has to be handed over to the locals, they come to rent our houses to operate, if the state comes to open these restaurants, hotels or something, then there is no competition, and the people who run these places do not want to do a good job." ”

Shang Tai thought for a while and said: "This is good, but in this way, the money earned is the people's, and the state finance is still not large. ”

Lin Yuan said: "What do our merchants need to trade with Southeast Asian countries? All countries need gold and silver, and copper coins are used as currency to trade, and these things are heavy in themselves, and if you are a merchant, do you want to have more goods and less gold and silver on your ship? ”

The displacement of the ship is certain, and in order to obtain greater benefits, the merchant naturally hopes to put more goods, and everyone thinks about this truth and nods their heads.

Lin Yuan continued: "Our solution is: China Construction Bank! Let the merchants put the gold, silver, and copper coins in our bank, and we will issue bills for them, and they can freely exchange gold and silver with this bill, and we can collect a certain amount of management fees from them, which is only a small part of the money, and they deposit the gold and silver in our bank, and it is impossible for everyone to exchange all the gold and silver at the same time, so that we have a part of the gold and silver to borrow, and the interest we get is the bulk of the money we earn. ”

Shang Tai thought for a moment and said, "What you say is very reasonable, but there is a problem, how can we make them feel at ease to put the gold and silver with us?" ”

Lin Yuan said: "Well, the modern economy is a credit economy in the final analysis, you have to give them confidence!" Let them believe that the political situation in the Ryukyus is stable, that the government will not collapse overnight, and that their gold and silver are safe in our banks. ”

Shang Tai thought for a moment and said, "Then what should we do?" ”

Lin Yuan said: "First of all, we drove out the Japanese, which will undoubtedly gain the favor of many overseas Chinese in Nanyang, and secondly, we declared independence, what does independence mean, that is, we are no longer a subject country of the Qing court, those overseas Chinese are all Han Chinese, they regard the Manchu nobles as aliens, so we will also gain the favor of these overseas Chinese, in this way, there will definitely be people who come to us to trade, what we have to do is to hold all kinds of activities to control their hearts, through these to let them see, The country is promising. ”

Lin Yuan saw that everyone nodded yes, and then said: "The bank is a way, and there is another way. Let's think about it, there is an old saying in China: don't bully the mountains and waters, sailing in this sea, the danger is great, the slightest carelessness will capsize the ship, a ship's goods are often a businessman staked all his belongings to buy, they are most afraid of the risk of sailing, if we say: you give me a certain amount of money, if something happens to your ship, we will give you a large amount of compensation, you say, is he willing to pay this money? ”

"The reality is that there are always a handful of ships that go out at risk, so most of the money goes into our pockets."

Shang Tai asked again: "These methods of yours are very good, but these methods have only enriched the common people near the port. ”

Lin Yuan said: "The people of the port are rich, and they have to buy things after they get rich, and the things that they couldn't afford to eat before can now be eaten, and the clothes they couldn't afford to wear before can now be bought, so that they can drive people away from the port, and we can provide the people with advanced production technology, so that the output of grain will go up, and then the breeding industry and the textile industry will naturally go up." ”

"In doing so, it seems that the peasants have been harmed, so the question of 'welfare' is raised, and the fewer people we have, the more money the state can distribute to the people. When the port is built, there will definitely be people who want to do the service industry, and some people who are unwilling to leave the countryside and continue to engage in agriculture, so we will subsidize those who are engaged in agriculture, so that they feel that growing food is also a very profitable job, and there are few people in our country, and the per capita land occupation is more, plus we can provide agricultural automation technology, one person can cultivate a lot of land, so that people who are engaged in both service and agriculture will make money, and the gap between the rich and the poor will not be too big. ”

In these words, there are many words that the people here have never heard of, and they are very impressed by Lin Yuan.

Shang Tai also said: "The Japanese will not give up, and when they have recovered their strength, they will definitely come to us for trouble, so we must build a strong army!" ”

Lin Yuan smiled: "You don't have to worry about this, we have it." ”