: Supporting Industry and Commerce

Wang Pu said: "There are two main aspects of supervision. One is that your production and operation activities must be supervised by the court. For example, a porcelain kiln in a large Longyou household can fire 10,000 pieces of porcelain a year, but the output reported to the government is only 5,000 pieces. This is fraud. The government will firmly crack down on such a bad businessman!"

Huang Quan said: "What else?"

Wang Pu said: "There is that the product must be inspected when sold overseas. For example, a Zhejiang tea merchant secretly contacted foreign businessmen and secretly used a small boat to smuggle tea to sea for sale to Western merchants. This is illegal. Once seized by the government, all the tea leaves will be confiscated and the tea merchant will be banned from operating qualifications."

Chen Yiguan hurriedly said, "What about taxes?"

Wang Pu said: "Taxes are divided into two types. One is the source tax. The so-called source tax means taxing from the source of production. For example, if the porcelain kiln is levied on a tax of 10,000 pieces per year, if the annual output is 10,000 pieces, if the annual output is 5,000 pieces, if the annual output is 5,000 pieces, if the annual output is 5,000 pieces, if the annual output is 200,000 pieces, the annual output is 200,000 pieces. Only after the tax is levied, the products produced by merchants can be circulated in the market."

Taxation from the source is a relatively effective method and is convenient for supervision.

For example, in the salt transportation industry, the government only needs to control the salt farm at the source and impose taxes as much as the salt production. The remaining circulation links will be liberalized. The salt supervision will be revoked, the tax cards will be revoked, and the salt transportation departments and governments of all provinces and governments will be revoked, which will maximize the freedom of salt trade.

As for taxes, the newly established tax department will be taxed uniformly. Considering the disputes between national and local taxes in later generations, the tax departments of each province and government are directly managed by the Commercial Department of the Ministry of Revenue, and all taxes collected will be paid to the state treasury. One tael of silver in the local government is not allowed to be intercepted. As for the silver required for local government operations, the imperial court will be allocated uniformly.

Qian Kan, a salt merchant in Yangzhou, asked: "Dare you dare to ask the Marquis, after collecting the source tax, will the Salt Supervision Office and the Salt Transport Office still charge taxes?"

"No more." Wang Pu said, "After the establishment of the new tax department, the Salt Supervision Department and the Salt Transport Department will be removed together, and all the private checkpoints set up by each government will be revoked. In short, after the source tax is levied, your trade activities within the Ming Dynasty will no longer be subject to any restrictions, and you will no longer have to pay any taxes."

The five merchant representatives all looked excited when they heard this. If the internal supervisor, the official supervisor and the official card were removed together, this would undoubtedly be a great news for the merchant.

However, Wang Pu continued: "However, you must not raise prices. The Ministry of Revenue Business Department will set a benchmark price for commodities in various industries based on actual conditions every year. The final sales price cannot exceed 50% of the benchmark price. However, considering the freight factor, the benchmark prices of different commodities in different provinces will also be adjusted accordingly."

Qian Kan said: "What if the local government sets up private checkpoints?"

Wang Pu said: "It's easy to deal with. You can file a complaint with the Governors of each province or directly with the Commercial Department of the Ministry of Revenue. The Governor's Office or the Commercial Department will severely punish local officials who violate the rules."

Chen Yiguan said: "Dare you dare to ask the marquis, there is still a kind of tax?"

Wang Pu said: "The other tax is called customs duty. If the goods of merchants are only circulated within the borders of the Ming Dynasty, there is no need to pay tariffs. Only when your goods are sold abroad will you need to pay tariffs! The source tax is 20%, and the tariff is twice the additional tariff!"

Chen Yiguan said: "Can the Marquis explain?"

Wang Pu said: "For example, the benchmark price of a piece of silk in Zhejiang and Zhejiang provinces is six taels, so the source tax is one taels and two qians. This taels and two qians are directly deducted from the merchant's profits. Merchants are not allowed to increase the price of silk separately to make up for their own profit losses."

"The tariff is twice the additional price, which means that six taels of silk sold at a price of 12 taels will require additional tariffs, but the additional tariff will be transferred to foreign merchants. The final price of a piece of silk is 18 taels of silver! Of course, half of the 12 taels of tariffs obtained by the customs will be returned to the merchant."

Wang Pu knew that the 17th century was a powerful century, and trade protectionism was common, and the tariff rate of 200% was nothing, not to mention that the silk, tea, porcelain and other commodities of the Ming Dynasty were rare luxury goods for the Western world at that time. Even if the tariff was levied ten times, there would still be a market.

Wang Pu would never hesitate to kill Western businessmen.

As for Wang Pu's decision to return half of the tariff to domestic merchants, he has a deeper consideration, that is, future overseas expansion!

In the near future, merchants or capitalists will control the state machinery. Only when overseas trade is profitable will these capitalists promote the expansion of the state machinery, use giant ships and cannons to knock out trade barriers in one country after another, and continuously dump the goods produced by the Ming Dynasty.

By then, the overseas expansion of the Ming Dynasty will be closely linked with the large domestic capitalists to form a guarantee of interests. In this way, the old path of dynasties expanding first and then shrinking will no longer be repeated. Driven by interests, the empire's external expansion will last for at least several centuries!

Wang Pu was even fantasizing that centuries later, the world was full of colonies of the Ming Empire, and the Ming Dynasty's goods were continuously sold to colonies around the world. Billions of colonial indigenous people supported the huge Ming Empire with their wealth. Every citizen of the Ming Empire lived a prosperous life. Even the homeless people on the streets could rely on government relief funds to travel abroad for vacation...

The eyes of merchants such as Chen Yiguan also lit up, not only because of the greater profits in overseas trade, but also because they discovered huge smuggling business opportunities!

How could Wang Pu not know what these smart merchants were thinking? He reminded him at the time: "But I must solemnly remind you not to smuggle, bypass the customs and sell goods directly to foreign merchants. The consequences of doing so will be very serious. Once caught by the detective team, just wait to lose everything!"

Several merchants were touched by Wang Pu and their expressions suddenly became very embarrassing.

Wang Pu said to Wang Ju again: "Brother, let's talk about the official asset auction first. Now you can take a few big players to Xiaoyao Fairyland for a meal, and continue to discuss the specific details in the afternoon."

After Wang Ju took Qian Kan and waited for the merchants to leave, Lu Daqi said worriedly: "Mr. Marquis, do you really plan to remove the internal supervision of various provinces and prefectures, and the official supervision and the relevant registration card? If you really want to remove all these, there will be no tax source in the palace and local governments. Can they agree?"

Qian Qianyi said with concern: "Yes, Marquis, if you really want to force the place to be too anxious, I'm afraid they will rebel."

Wang Pu nodded and said, "The two cabinet masters' concerns are reasonable, so this matter must be done step by step, and there is no rush. I mean, first try it in Nanzhi, Zhejiang and Huguang, and wait for the Central Army to recover the northern five provinces, then implement it in the northern five provinces, and finally turn around and rectify the provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou."

Sun Chuanting said: "This is the best."

Lu Daqi said: "Mr. Marquis, I don't know whether to speak or not?"

Wang Pu said: "Ge Lu has something to say."

Lu Daqi said: "In addition to the collection of source taxes and tariffs, the court will relax all restrictions in all walks of life. Have the Marquis ever thought that the power of merchants would lose control? If one day these merchants control a large amount of wealth and someone rebels, and these merchants spend all their money to support the rebels, what should the court do?"

Wang Pu nodded secretly, thinking that Lu Daqi still has some vision on this issue.

But what Lu Daqi was worried about was exactly what Wang Pu wanted. What Wang Pu had to do now was to spare no effort to support the industrial and commercial forces, first tie these industrial and commercial forces with his Central Army, and convene a parliament when the time was ripe to support the industrial and commercial forces to dominate.

Only when these industrial and commercial forces are strong enough can they withstand the counterattack of feudal royalist forces.

As for the old bureaucratic forces such as Lu Daqi and Qian Qianyi, after the industrial and commercial forces grow in the future, Wang Pu can only give them two paths, one is to integrate with the new industrial and commercial forces, and the other is to die! Apart from these two paths, there is no third path to choose from.

However, Wang Pu would certainly not say these words to Lu Daqi and Qian Qianyi, and it would be even more impossible to say them now.

Wang Pu patted Lu Daqi on the shoulder kindly and smiled: "Ge Lu is too worried. As long as my Central Army is here, what kind of storm can these merchants cause? I can destroy them by wielding my little fingers!"

"Yes, yes." Qian Qianyi quickly flattered, "The Marquis is right. The Marquis is the Dinghai Shenjian of our Ming Dynasty. As long as the Marquis and the Central Army are there, the Ming Empire will not be in chaos."

Lu Daqi said: "Since this is the case, then there is nothing to say in the disciples."

"Ge Lao Lu." Wang Pu suddenly said, "I have a suggestion. I don't know if you want to listen to it?"

Lu Daqi hurriedly said, "Mr. Please tell me."

Wang Pu said: "The government assets to be auctioned this time involve Nanjing, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Songjiang, and Hangzhou. The amount is huge, and the rough steps are estimated to be more than 20 million taels. Such a huge asset can't be handled by just a few merchants. If the younger generation expected it, these merchants would definitely buy the government's industries in the form of fundraising."

"The form of fundraising?"

Lu Daqi looked at Wang Pu blankly, not knowing the intention of Wang Pu saying these words.

Wang Pu said: "The so-called fundraising is to jointly fund multiple merchants and then distribute profits according to the amount of funds they have invested. As far as the younger generation knows, many honorary relatives in Nanjing plan to contribute capital, jointly buy the government workshop with merchants, and then run it by merchants, and they only eat dividends."

Qian Qianyi had already expressed his grace and said happily: "What the Marquis means is that court officials can also invest in the shares?"

"Of course!" Wang Pu said, "The court officials have invested, and I have raised my hands to agree with it."

This is true. If the officials of the court also invested in the shares, they would soon become capitalists. Although the investment in the shares may lead to collusion between officials and businessmen and corruption, Wang Pu does not care about these things now. The most important thing now is to build up the industrial and commercial forces as soon as possible and give birth to a group of large capitalists with government backgrounds!

Lu Daqi said sadly: "I have no spare money in my family, and it is impossible to invest in it even if I want to."
Chapter completed!