After Liu Bowen's persuasion, Zhu Yuanzhang planned to establish the Ministry of Commerce, but before that, he had to ask hundreds of officials for advice.

On the second day, on the Fengtian Palace, the court meeting had just begun.

Zhu Yuanzhang sat on the dragon chair and said directly to the civil and military officials:

"The country is stable now, but business is withering, we plan to build a new department in the imperial court to specialize in commercial affairs, what do you think?"

Hearing this, Liu Bowen and Li Shanchang glanced at each other, with a vague look in their eyes, they both hung their heads and did not speak.

For Zhu Yuanzhang's novel idea, the rest of the ministers were very surprised.

How low is the status of businessmen, and whose reason is this?

To put it bluntly, since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang can be said to have suppressed businessmen many times, looking down on them, not to mention, and when he was short of money, he directly exterminated the businessmen, and turned his face ruthlessly and used them thoroughly.

If you want to say that you will be a good person and leave a line in the future, but Zhu Yuanzhang is different from other emperors, he has a natural dislike for businessmen since he was a child, businessmen are as hateful as corrupt officials in his heart, and he will naturally not be soft on businessmen Zhu Yuanzhang.

But now Zhu Yuanzhang's attitude has actually taken a 180-degree turn, which suddenly made the courtiers feel extremely confused.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang occasionally has peculiar behaviors, but the new department is still an exclusive department for businessmen, this idea was thrown out, and the ministers who were directly smashed were a little at a loss.

Lu Chang, the head of the household in the hall, was even more surprised, and took the lead in asking:

"Does the emperor want to develop business?"

Without waiting for Zhu Yuanzhang to answer, Lu Chang said to himself:

"Since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor has implemented the national policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business, and now the emperor wants to prosper commerce, which is probably not a good thing for today's Ming Dynasty."

"Although the people of Daming are stable now, because our Daming has only been established for six years, and the people are still very poor."

"At this time, the development of commerce, not to mention the loss of labor and money, the price of commodities will continue to rise, which is also a burden to the people."

"Please also ask the emperor to think twice."

After hearing this, the other ministers couldn't help but nod their heads again and again.

It is true that we practiced heavy agriculture and suppressed business, but that was before, and now Daming is no longer as good as before after Li Jin's dog thing.

Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang touched his chin and explained loudly:

"We're not talking about the need to prosper commerce, but because commerce has always been too free and unconstrained, and after a long time, it will be easy to go wrong."

"The establishment of the Ministry of Commerce and the inclusion of commerce in the management of the Ming Dynasty, just like agriculture, will prevent any misconduct by merchants."

As soon as Zhu Yuanzhang's words fell, Zhao Xingquan, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites on the side, stepped forward and admonished:

"Since ancient times, the imperial court has not competed with the people for profit."

"The house of Shoulu is just a matter of eating, and it does not compete with the people, and then the profits can be evenly distributed, and the people can have enough families."

"If the imperial court compulsorily manages commerce, I am afraid that many officials will make profits from it, and even cause the people to have no livelihood, and ask the emperor to take back his order."

Zhao Xingquan is a big family of the Zhao family in the south of the Yangtze River, and their family has been dealing in porcelain for generations, so it can be said that they have a lot of money.

The reason why he opposed Zhu Yuanzhang's establishment of the Ministry of Commerce was very simple, competing with the people for profit.

It's just that this is competing with the people, not with the people, but with them, the big families, competing for interests.

After all, he Zhao Xingquan didn't care about the life or death of Shengdou Xiaomin, he was just worried that Zhu Yuanzhang would establish the Ministry of Commerce in the future and really integrate commerce, so their porcelain business might become the imperial court.

Once it becomes the management of the imperial court, the interests involved in the future are probably not what Zhao Xingquan does not want to see, how can Zhao Xingquan agree with things that harm his own interests?

Unexpectedly, his proposals were rejected one after another, Zhu Yuanzhang's anger rose in his heart, he looked at the group of ministers in front of him with a faint gaze, and said in a cold voice:

"The role of the Ministry of Commerce is only to make decisions for the people, not to let these people do business, and it is not to use it to blackmail the people."

Speaking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang swept his cold eyes towards Zhao Xingquan, his tone was cold, and he asked sharply:

"Let's look at Lord Zhao, you don't agree, are you afraid that we will rob your family's ancestral porcelain business?"

Zhu Yuanzhang established the Jinyi Guard, and he knew most of the situation of the three grades and above in the DPRK and China.

Zhao Xingquan is a waiter in the Ministry of Rites, how could Zhu Yuanzhang not understand.

Zhu Yuanzhang's question, stunned Zhao Xingquan into a cold sweat, and hurriedly defended:

"Your Majesty, Minister... The minister didn't mean that, the minister just..."

Zhu Yuanzhang directly interrupted:

"That's because we misunderstood Zhao Aiqing."

"Could it be that Zhao Aiqing is willing to dedicate his family's business to the imperial court?"

Hearing this, Zhao Xingquan suddenly felt a cool breath, and rushed straight to the Tianling Gai from the soles of his feet, and he was stunned and didn't dare to speak.

The rest of the ministers also hung their heads, looking at their noses and noses, for fear of being noticed by Zhu Yuanzhang, after all, which of these officials has no family property behind them?

With the Ming Dynasty's Yulu, they would have starved to death on the streets long ago.

Seeing Zhao Xingquan's reluctant appearance, the smile on Zhu Yuanzhang's face disappeared directly, and then he snorted coldly, no longer looked at him, but asked others:

"What do you think of my proposal?"

With Zhao Xingquan as an example, no one in the palace dared to speak again, and finally the Ministry of Commerce was established in the court, and Zhu Yuanzhang announced that Liu Bowen would serve as the acting secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Commerce would be established from now on to manage the world's commerce.

...

After the establishment of the Ministry of Commerce, businessmen from all over the Ming Dynasty celebrated each other, and then more and more chambers of commerce began to be established in various parts of the Ming Dynasty.

With the call of the imperial court, those merchants with extremely low status heard the news and enthusiastically joined the imperial chamber of commerce.

After all, for merchants, they have always been a part of the group disliked by the imperial court, and now the imperial court is suddenly Kane and ready to accept them, which makes a large number of merchants unable to resist attracting them, and they are all coming.

With the participation of merchants, more and more silver was also invested in the construction of various places in the Ming Dynasty.

The operation of the Chamber of Commerce has also begun to play a corresponding role, and businessmen buy and sell in groups, and this active business atmosphere greatly reduces the cost of finding goods for businessmen.

After the cost comes down, the price will naturally go down, after all, the imperial court is not allowed to raise the price of goods, otherwise it will affect the normal commodity economy, and the imperial court will impose heavy penalties on these merchants.

However, there is no need to raise prices, and the cost of merchants is greatly reduced, and the profits of merchants are increased instead of falling.

As a result of Li Jin's reminder, Zhu Biao emphasized the importance of grain prices in his recital, and Zhu Yuanzhang clearly pointed out that grain prices should not be lowered or increased.

The interests of the peasants were guaranteed, but the prices of commodities were getting lower and lower, and the savings of the people of the Ming Dynasty were also slowly increasing.

Of course, it was the imperial court that ultimately benefited.

The attitude of the imperial court towards merchants became more and more enlightened, and they were subject to the management of the imperial court, which also made the merchants no longer tied up in business.

Merchants earn a lot of silver, so the tax revenue of the imperial court has also skyrocketed, and the income of the household treasury is increasing, Zhu Yuanzhang is very surprised by this.

In just three months, the commercial tax revenue is one percent more than in previous years, although Zhu Yuanzhang now looks down on these silvers, but the meaning is indescribable.

Zhu Yuanzhang listened to Liu Bowen's report in a daze, and Li Jin's figure couldn't help but appear in his mind:

Ruling the world, Wang Zuozhicai!