"Lord Song, you have to be careful when you speak, it's not a good habit to talk about the government in vain." Fei Hong said coldly.

Song Nan said with a smile: "Scholar Fei, don't scare me, no matter what the government wants me and other subjects to do?" Compared with the early years of the founding of the Ming Dynasty and today's policies, the changes are not small, which shows that the world has changed over time, and the policies are not immutable. ”

Fei Hong snorted and didn't speak, Yang Tinghe frowned and said, "Lord Song, tell me, why does the imperial court's household registration policy make people reluctant to do business?" I didn't figure it out. ”

Song Nan said: "My Ming Dynasty nationality belongs to the locality, and the system of Tianjia stipulates that the people are not allowed to leave the land, otherwise they will become displaced people and flee. Such restrictions will certainly make it impossible for merchants to freely shuttle around the Ming Dynasty to do business; As you all know, my Ming merchants are confined to the local area, and the Jin merchants, Hui merchants, and Zhejiang merchants are all operating locally, although the scale is huge, but in addition to the local, it has not benefited all places, the reason is that they cannot buy property in other places, that is, because of the restrictions of household registration. ”

"Nonsense, how can there be this reason, the imperial court made the yellow book and set up Tianjia to prevent the people from wandering around, the people are lazy, many people are not satisfied with the local barrenness, and would rather the fields be abandoned than go to the rich land to eat the food, if according to your Lord Song, we should ignore them and let them run around? Without the restriction of household registration, how can the tax of the imperial court be apportioned and collected? Can't the whole world look for them? Yang Tinghe was a little annoyed, and he didn't speak politely.

Song Nan was not moved, and said with a smile: "Yang Shoufu is not impatient, I don't want the imperial court to abolish the household registration Tianjia system, but to make some changes in this, encourage capable merchants to spend their silver on business construction, reduce restrictions on them, and let the silver they hide at home be circulated in the city, instead of being placed in their secret rooms to generate dust; If there is circulation, there will be taxes to collect, and there will be prosperous markets, so why not? ”

Yang Tinghe said: "In your opinion, how to be flexible?" ”

Song Nan said: "Some changes have been made to the restrictions on the household registration of merchants, such as allowing merchants to buy property in other places, and those who have been doing business in other places for three years and have their own property can be allowed to naturalize in the local area, etc., so that mobile merchants can be brought under the jurisdiction of the government, and their enthusiasm can be improved." Wouldn't it be harmful that this was limited to those who could afford to do business and buy real estate, but not to the people who farmed? ”

The ministers were dumbfounded, these people had never thought of Song Nan's bold idea, and there was some truth when they thought about it carefully, but the problem was not small, and soon some people raised questions.

"According to Lord Song's assumption, a place like the capital that everyone yearns for, wouldn't it be overcrowded? As long as you have the money to buy the property, you can be naturalized in the capital after three years, isn't it that the cows, ghosts, snakes and gods all have to run to the capital? ”

Song Nan smiled and said: "This adult's worry is also somewhat reasonable, but this is impossible, although the capital is good, not everyone is willing to live here; It is difficult to leave the homeland, and I am willing to leave my hometown to come to a different place. After all, the settlement is in the minority; Moreover, this policy is limited to businessmen who can afford to buy real estate, but I don't believe that many people can afford to buy real estate in Beijing. This policy only allows businessmen to do business with peace of mind, and there are not so many shops and properties in the capital for them to buy, so there is no need to worry about this problem at all. ”

The ministers buzzed about Song Nan's construction, some expressed appreciation, some expressed skepticism, and there was no unanimous opinion for a while.

In the midst of the chaos, someone suddenly burst out laughing, and everyone followed the voice, and the laughter came from among the nobles at the bottom of the stairs.

Zhengde frowned and asked, "Qian Taichang, why are you laughing?" ”

Qian Taichang, the commander of the Yangwei Battalion, strode forward and bowed, and said with a smile on his face after getting up: "Your Majesty, the minister really can't help laughing, Lord Song talks eloquently and looks like he is worried about the country, in fact, you have all been deceived by him, Lord Song is for his own benefit." ”

The ministers calmed down in surprise, and hundreds of eyes fell on Qian Taichang's body.

"What do you mean by that?" Zhengde asked in a deep voice.

"The emperor didn't know that, according to what the ministers heard, Lord Song had recently invited a group of merchants to come to the capital in order to sell the shops and houses he had built in the White Paper Mill; The merchants were reluctant to buy his shops and houses, because of the restrictions of the household registration system that had been implemented since the time of Taizu, seeing that the shops could not be sold and the houses were not cared for, Lord Song concocted this so-called workaround in the hall today, which seemed to be to give advice to the imperial court, but in fact it was just for him to make money for himself. The minister couldn't help listening to it, so he lost his temper and asked the emperor for forgiveness. ”

The ministers let out a loud sound, it turned out that Song Nan suddenly jumped out today and said that this matter was for this purpose, this person is really bold, using state affairs for his own personal interests, and he is extremely shameless.

Zhengde's face was a little ugly, he looked at Song Nan and asked, "Song Nan, is what he said the truth?" ”

Song Nan said expressionlessly: "Your Majesty, what he said is right. ”

The ministers blew up and boiled, and they actually admitted it directly, but they wanted to see what the emperor did with him.

"You're so bold." Anger rose visibly on Zhengde's face, Song Nan was really unreasonable.

The emperor was angry. Listen to the minister's explanation. ”

"What is there to explain, you want to buy the idle land of the white paper mill, and say that you want to renovate the mess of the white paper mill, and I am also approved, but I didn't expect that you were for personal gain from beginning to end, and I was very disappointed in you."

"Your Majesty, what's wrong with the ministers seeking profit? The minister is not cheating, cheating, and stealing, to put it bluntly, the minister is just doing business. When the original minister borrowed millions of debts to buy the abandoned land of the white paper mill, why didn't these marquis come out to speak? Because they don't see the value in it. Now that the ministers have worked hard to transform it, they are greedy. Yes, I built a shop to sell it for a profit, is there anything wrong with that? First, I have transformed the foul-smelling land of the white paper mill into a shop market, and secondly, I can use it to increase the tax revenue of the imperial court. ”

"Lord Song, we don't care if you make money in business, but you can't fake it for public and private purposes." Yang Tinghe said coldly.

Song Nan said in a deep voice: "I don't want to refer to the methods designated by the cabinet to blindly reclaim land and increase the people's farmland taxes; Don't think that I don't know what the household department has done in order to increase taxes, but most of the news that comes from all over the country every day from my Jinyi Guard Yamen is about the incidents caused by tax increases. How much of the increase in income of 6 million taels last year was really increased by land reclamation, you know in your own heart. The reason why I want to risk being accused of developing the land of the White Paper Mill is to prove to the emperor and your lords that the best way to increase tax revenue is not to dig up mountains and cultivate fields, but to speed up circulation and develop commerce. ”

Yang Tinghe's face was pale, if Song Nan was talking nonsense, it would be fine, but Yang Tinghe understood that he had used some means under financial pressure this year, otherwise where would the increase of six million taels of silver come from, he actually had no way, and he was exposed by Song Nan at this moment, and he was speechless for a while.

"You say that I am pretending to be a public servant, or that I am seeking benefits for myself, what I know is that if the white paper workshop can be fully developed this year and let foreign businessmen settle in, it will bring nearly 500,000 taels of tax revenue to the imperial court, which is the result of my conservative estimate."

"Huh? So much? ”

"Just kidding, just a white paper shop? Half a million a year? ”

Everyone was shocked, this guy bragged a little too much, the white paper shop only accounted for one-tenth of the neighborhoods in the capital, and the taxes of the entire capital last year were less than three million taels, how could there be 500,000 taels of taxes?

"Song Nan, don't talk about it, where did you get so much tax money." Zhengde also does not believe.

"The emperor listens to me to settle accounts for you, taking the South 1st District, where the development of my white paper workshop is nearly completed, for example, there are more than 180 shops and more than 60 residences, if all of them are sold, the total price should be about two million taels, and according to the tax rate of one out of thirty, my Song family will have to pay nearly 60,000 taels of tax silver, which is a lot of real one or two. After the shops are sold, the merchants still have to pay taxes, and the 180 shops will pay at least 20,000 taels of silver a year, which means that the southern district alone can pay 90,000 taels a year. There are still six areas that are developed according to the South 1 District, and 500,000 taels is still a conservative estimate. After all the merchants settle in, the annual fixed tax will be more than 100,000 taels, isn't this a cornucopia for the imperial court to attract wealth and treasure? ”

“……”

“……”

Zhengde and the civil and military officials stared wide-eyed, this account was clearly calculated, but it was not an exaggeration at all, according to Song Nan's temperament, maybe there was a lot to say, if a small white paper workshop could contribute so much tax silver, if according to Song Nan, if the businessmen from all over the Ming Dynasty were willing to buy property and houses in various places, wouldn't it be a big increase in finance and taxes?

"Your Majesty, you probably understand that most of the tax money comes from the purchase of industrial shops, but whenever you trade real estate, you have to pay taxes according to the total price, which is the tax brought by circulation. The reason why I proposed this workaround was to ask the merchants to come up with money for consumption and circulation, and at the same time to prosper commerce, it could also bring a large amount of tax revenue to the imperial court. As for some people saying that I am pretending to be a public servant, I don't bother to explain anything. A gentleman loves money and takes it in the right way, if I get some benefits from it, then I also deserve it, don't you marquis and earls and adults have business at home? You don't have to scold others for being greedy for money, think about whether you can really be a 'gentleman and be poor' before you speak. Song Nan said with a smile to the wood-like officials.