But charging tolls from businessmen? What is this?!
Although in Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, businessmen were always inferior people.
But even if they are low-class people, they are still citizens of the Ming Empire!
Did the imperial court buy money from these merchants?
This is just like a bandit!
Who will trust the government in the future?
Looking at Hu Changan, Zhu Yuanzhang was very unhappy: "Shilang Hu, how can you collect money from merchants to buy the road?"
"This is no different from a bandit who occupies a mountain and becomes the king!"
"Since you are still young, I won't argue with you."
"But you must not do this!"
"This has simply ruined the reputation of my court!"
Seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang was getting angry, all the ministers were silent and did not dare to raise any objections.
However, Hu Changan himself was very relaxed when he heard this.
In fact, Hu Changan was a little unimpressed: "Your Majesty, this is wrong."
“Why can’t the court collect tolls from merchants?”
"Those ordinary pedestrians are okay, but those businessmen, almost all of them bring long convoys."
"Such a heavy frame will definitely cause more damage to the road than ordinary passers-by."
"In this case, I think it's not too much to charge these businessmen some road maintenance fees."
"More importantly, with this cement official road, these businessmen will definitely be able to make a lot more money."
"The original three-day journey may only take one day."
"I believe these merchants are definitely happy to exchange some silver for faster transportation."
"Take my Hu family as an example. My Hu family not only has a shop in Yingtian City, but also has stores in nearby Suzhou Prefecture and Hangzhou Prefecture."
"If this road is built, my Hu family will definitely earn hundreds of taels more every day."
"I think it's not too much to withdraw more than a dozen taels of silver from there to use as tolls."
Zhu Yuanzhang was also a little surprised when he heard this.
Zhu Yuanzhang was not a businessman, so he naturally did not know how big the business process was.
As long as the official channels are repaired, these businessmen can earn hundreds of taels more every day?
This completely shocked Zhu Yuanzhang.
Hu Changan looked at Zhu Yuanzhang's somewhat surprised look, smiled slightly, and gave Zhu Yuanzhang more firewood: "Your Majesty, you must not be too nice to us businessmen."
"Right now, our Hu family's daily net profit is at least five hundred taels of silver."
"But how much does our Hu family pay in business tax per month?"
"Last month, our Hu family paid a total of twenty taels of business tax for so many shops!"
"This is the tax I paid without cheating."
"If I lie about my accounts again, maybe the business tax I pay can be even lower."
In the Ming Dynasty, commercial taxes were indeed very low.
Zhu Yuanzhang was born a farmer, so naturally he was not very interested in business.
When the Ming Dynasty was first established, all industries were in decline.
Business, in particular, has fallen into complete paralysis.
Therefore, when the Ming Dynasty was first established, commercial taxes could not be collected at all.
As a result, Zhu Yuanzhang paid less and less attention to commercial taxes.
Zhu Yuanzhang never expected that the profits earned by this businessman would be so astonishing.
Zhu Yuanzhang made up his mind to rectify the business tax in the future.
If this business tax could be collected, why would the Ming Dynasty worry about not being rich?
Zhu Yuanzhang no longer rejected Hu Changan's suggestion of collecting tolls.
Anyway, the only ones who are charged tolls are those merchants carrying goods.
Ordinary people walk on the pipeline without paying any money.
And those businessmen are all extremely rich, so what does it mean to pay a little money?
Think of it as paying some business tax.
Anyway, if they don't want to pay tolls, they can still take the muddy roads in the countryside.
Looking at Hu Changan, Zhu Yuanzhang also nodded: "Okay, in that case, let's leave it to you, Minister Hu, to repair the official roads."
"But you are not allowed to keep the money collected later!"
"Looking at the money collected from merchants in the later period, how about you and the court split it 28/20?"
"The imperial court is eight, you are two."
Hu Changan also nodded after hearing this.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang's allocation method is more biased towards the imperial court, the market is still very large.
There are absolutely countless official channels in the country.
If all the official roads are repaired, the daily tolls for merchants will definitely be a considerable amount of income.
Even if it is divided into two tenths, it is an astronomical figure!
Hu Changan is confident that he will recover all the principal spent on repairing the official road within three years.
After three years, you can sit back and wait for profits!
Seeing that Hu Changan agreed, Zhu Yuanzhang was also very satisfied.
Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a while and assigned a new task to Hu Changan: "Shilang Hu, why don't you also collect business taxes?"
"You and Fan Shangshu of the Ministry of Revenue will do the math together to see how we can tax the business."
"If you can raise taxes on business, I will reward you greatly!"
Speaking of commercial taxes, Zhu Yuanzhang had actually wanted to collect them for a long time.
Now that old things were brought up again, Zhu Yuanzhang was even more itchy.
If the business tax is raised, the Ministry of Household Affairs will never be short of money again!
Hu Chang'an and Fan Min, the Minister of Household Affairs, heard this and responded in unison.
Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Hu Changan and Fan Min, and then ordered: "Hu Shilang, Fan Shangshu, from now on you will not come to the morning court."
"In the recent period, please take full responsibility for commercial tax matters."
“If you have any needs, just ask!”
"As long as it is a reasonable request, I will satisfy it."
When Hu Changan and Fan Min heard this, they responded in succession.
Hu Changan couldn't help but sigh secretly in his heart.
It seems that the court is really short of money.
Zhu Yuanzhang may be cruel this time and will collect business taxes!
...
Early the next morning, Hu Changan arrived at the Ministry of Finance on time.
At this time, Fan Min, the Minister of Revenue, was already waiting for Hu Changan in the hall.
Fan Min looked at Hu Changan and said seriously: "I wonder what Mr. Hu has to say about collecting business taxes?"
Although Fan Min is not easy to talk to, he is an upright person.
Fan Min thinks he doesn’t know how to collect business taxes.
Therefore, Fan Min naturally wanted to ask Hu Changan's opinion.
After all, it was Hu Changan who first raised the issue of collecting business taxes!
Faced with Fan Min's question, Hu Changan calmly took a sip of tea and said, "Master Fan, what do you think is the biggest problem in collecting business tax right now?"
Fan Min thought for a while and gave Hu Changan's reply: "I think the biggest problem right now is that these merchants will move around."
"Agricultural taxes are very easy to collect. After all, these farmers have been facing the loess and turning their backs to the sky all their lives, and they will never move."
"Just send officials to the villages to collect taxes from door to door, and that's it."