Wei Zheng, Du Ruhui, and Fang Xuanling are all the leading ministers of Shangshu Province. They are all aware of the situation Li Er is facing, but they each have their own areas of responsibility. Such trending issues are easy for Li Er to discover, and
…
When a problem arises, someone has to make an idea about the priority of solving it, and this is the job of the king.
So after they were called together, Wei Zheng and others were a little stunned. Although they had some impression of this matter, they really didn't expect Li Er to take it so seriously.
But when I thought about it, there were so many merchants who directly engaged in their own business without looking at any rewards, which made the Tang Dynasty continue to lose blood. This... This is a bit embarrassing. Listen to Li Er's description, and then think about the states and counties.
There seems to be quite a lot of local memorials.
So... what exactly is going on...
As soon as the meeting started, Wei Zheng, Du Ruhui, Fang Xuanling and the others thought they were here to discuss an ordinary matter, but as soon as they arrived, they discovered that this was a really big deal.
And it’s something that everyone arranged with great interest some time ago!
Of course, at present, it cannot be said that there is any big problem with this matter. It can only be said that it has no effect, but the lack of effect is also a problem in itself... Things like government orders have costs, and they are costs at various levels.
"Um……"
After thinking for a while, Wei Zheng slowly spoke, "This matter is not a trivial matter and must be investigated... The previous decree should still be valid..."
When Wei Zheng said this, Fang Xuanling, who was usually very talkative, suddenly frowned and retorted, "We can't be satisfied with this! If the gold and silver reserves of the Tang Dynasty become less and less, if things go on like this, the country's foundation will be shaken!"
Wei Zheng was not angry at Fang Xuanling's rebuttal. Instead, he smiled bitterly and said, "It would be fine without this decree. But it is still like this with this decree. That's why I say it's not a trivial matter..."
When Wei Zheng said this, Du Ruhui, Fang Xuanling, and Li Er were stunned for a moment, and then their faces turned as dark as water!
That's right...
At this moment, not only Wei Zheng, but also everyone else suddenly realized the horror. Because of Wei Zheng's reminder, they suddenly discovered...
Yes, the rewards given by the court are real.
The reputation of the Tang Dynasty is well-known in later history books and reviews. They are all real rewards without any bells and whistles.
And under such rewards, there will definitely be a large number of merchants who will act according to the rewards...
But now, the inflow and outflow of precious metals are almost equal, and Datang itself has almost no substantial income.
In other words, you can even think that this great cause of sea trade is in vain!
Even if you include the treasury expenditure required by the introductory reward decree, this is still a clear loss!
this……
It’s so hard to bear.
What's more, just one operation was as fierce as a tiger, and the result was zero and five.
Even if we include previous initial investments, such as the construction of Zhongzuo Suojun Town, the construction of Hangzhou Industrial Zone, and the construction of the fleet...
These costs are not only zero bar and five, but can even be regarded as zero bar and fifty...
Of course, the accounts cannot be calculated in this way, and it would be too hopeless to calculate it this way. The military town of Zhongzuo is not only for maritime trade, but also valuable for maritime defense itself, and the Hangzhou Industrial Zone, not to mention shipbuilding, is not only for the Forbidden Army of the Tang Dynasty.
In addition, there are also maritime trade merchants who directly pay for consumption, which is also income.
As for the Imperial Guards of the Tang Dynasty, they built a fleet and increased their combat power, so it cannot be said that their efforts were in vain.
But in the end, all this is taking place under the big chess game of sea trade. Whether it is military towns or fleets, they are all chess pieces, used to form bonds. In the end, a net inflow of precious metals must be achieved, and then the game will be as much as possible.
There are many external resources for this purpose.
Now that the sea trade is directly like this, how can the faces of Li Er and others not be dark?
After all, how much effort was put into opening up the maritime trade route before, so how difficult was it to develop the Southeast Bay? Even Li Sheng didn't know how many nights he spent worrying about it.
Now that things are going like this, the net inflow of precious metals has completely become a waste. Who can withstand this?
To put it bluntly, the theme of this meeting was born, but the atmosphere was completely dampened.
The theme is very simple, it is what to do when faced with this situation.
Regardless, that is impossible. With so many factories in Datang, don’t they need all kinds of resources? They definitely do, and they are indispensable.
And since it is an urgent need, the income from precious metals, gold and silver is extremely important, because in order to acquire many resources in the future, we must rely on gold and silver reserves...
And since sea trade is related to this most important value point, how could Li Er and others not be as good as facing a powerful enemy.
However, after thinking about it, it is difficult to find a reason for this matter, let alone solving it.
The meeting lasted for a long time, but Li Er and others did not say a few words. Wei Zheng, Du Ruhui, Fang Xuanling, and even Li Er and others were all thinking frantically about why this phenomenon occurred.
...and what to do.
But in the end, no results came out.
Of course, it is only natural that the meeting did not discuss the results. After all, for the problems faced by the entire Tang Dynasty, it would be good to take "a period of time" to come up with a solution. Solving it all at once is a bit of a luxury.
But for several days after that...
No matter it was during court time or a small meeting after court, in the end everyone still couldn't come up with any solution!
So this is troublesome. After all, this matter cannot be left alone forever...
Do you still want to protect the future of Datang? Huh?
But since he couldn't figure it out, Li Er couldn't do anything.
One day Li Er was so upset that he simply announced the end of the morning court early, changed his clothes and slipped out of the palace to relax.
This time I went to Hangzhou again, not because the scenery in Hangzhou was so attractive to Li Er - anyway, there was no scenery in China that he had not seen before.
But because Li Er subconsciously felt that since Hangzhou is the number one base for sea trade and a place where merchants gather, there should be some ways to observe...
However, after arriving, Li Er, Wei Zheng and others inquired around according to the identities of the wealthy merchants in Chang'an, but they did not find any results. In fact, the merchants who traffic in exotic goods from overseas have simple ideas, they can only make money, and
Earn more than selling items from the Tang Dynasty...
In fact, this is not such an outrageous thing. Price and profit are just what they are, so of course the merchants will decide this way.
As for the encouragement from the court, it is part of the profit for the merchants - since it is part of the profit, of course it is just an accounting issue. It is nothing more than the calculation that selling goods overseas can make more money...
