Since the advent of cement made by Gao Jingshi, Ming Dynasty has gradually accepted cement as a new building material. In recent years, from the perspective of the imperial court, cement has been widely used in projects such as the renovation of the Datong side wall and the renovation of the Jibei side wall. The same is true for river engineering. A large amount of cement has been purchased for several consecutive years to strengthen key river sections and newly dug river sections.
According to Wei Xuezeng and Gao Pingshi's confession, this year alone, the amount of money used by Hegong to purchase cement reached 270,000 taels, and the total court allocation for Hegong this year was only 710,000 taels. Cement expenditure accounted for as much as 38%.
This makes it easy to understand why Wei Xuezeng came to Gao Pragmatic to discuss the credit matter. Wei Xuezeng, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, and Pan Jixun, the president of the river, were both promoted by Gao Gong. They may have dared to postpone the payment of other funds, but for Jinghua Cement They certainly would not dare to postpone the payment without Gao Pragmatic's consent. This would greatly affect internal unity.
However, since it is internal, relatively speaking, there is an advantage, that is, we can discuss it privately, so Wei Xuezeng's trip today was born.
Gao pragmatically knew that the cement sold by Jinghua Cement Factory was actually quite expensive, and he did not lower the price in this regard just because he wanted to "support national construction." Gao pragmatically always hoped that the Ming Dynasty would establish an effective and feasible new cement system. The financial system can complete various national projects within the scope of normal commercial operations, rather than someone else learning from beginning to end.
He said he was willing to pay taxes, which was true, because in his opinion, paying taxes is a matter of course. Without a good business environment provided by the country, how could a businessman achieve good profit margins? For example, once the country is in turmoil, there may be Some businessmen can make a fortune, but more businessmen will definitely go bankrupt. This is the impact of the business environment.
But taxes must be paid, and normal business practices should not be distorted. Of course, in the Ming Dynasty, there were too many distortions, but this one is not missing. For example, the three major levies of Wanli in history, many people in later generations have We know that the Ministry of Finance did not invest much money in those three battles, and they mainly relied on Emperor Wanli's internal funds to support them.
In fact, for this kind of war at the national level, isn't it natural for the Ministry of Revenue to contribute military expenditures?
There are also various tax exemptions due to disasters in the middle and late period of Wanli. Internal funds help to pay for exemptions and exemptions. Wanli even had to issue an edict to warn the Ministry of Household Affairs "Don't rely solely on internal funds."
This is actually a typical distortion of the fiscal system: local governments refuse to collect taxes - the Ministry of Household Affairs has no money, so it refuses to pay - the emperor uses internal funds to subsidize state use - there is no internal funds, so he sends middle-level officials to collect mining taxes (business (mainly taxes) - local governments scolded the emperor for being greedy for money - the emperor criticized the Ministry of Revenue for inaction and continued to collect mining taxes - the more local governments refused to pay taxes.
As the cycle went on and on, the situation got worse and worse. Local officials felt that the emperor was greedy, and the emperor thought these officials were useless. As a result, the overall situation of the country became worse and worse, and the emperor became less and less interested in seeing these officials.
In the final analysis, the key is that officials feel that the world belongs to the emperor. Even if the court is short of money, the emperor will have to pay for it from his own pocket. And the emperor thinks that you only know how to reduce taxes here and tax there, and you can reduce or subtract. The Ministry of Household Affairs is so poor that even a mouse wouldn't go there. If something goes wrong with the country, I won't be able to pay for it, so I have to pay for it out of my own pocket. Do I know magic and can make real money out of nothing? Well, let's collect taxes. You should just leave it alone and I will send my slaves to collect it myself!
When the eunuchs arrived at the place, in addition to completing the tasks assigned by the emperor, of course they also had to earn a "hard fee" for themselves, so it was common for them to exploit the place. At this time, coupled with the cold eyes of the local government and even secretly Encourage, why is it so strange that there is a local riot against the mine supervisor?
To put it bluntly, there are eight words: selfishness and lack of separation of powers and responsibilities. Selfishness mainly refers to officials, but the lack of separation of powers and responsibilities can be blamed on Wanli himself - and his ancestors. For so many years in the Ming Dynasty, there has been no emperor. I feel that there is something wrong with this financial system and it needs to be reformed!
Most of the emperors before Wanli did not realize that it was very important not to raise taxes. By Wanli, he actually "progressed" a little bit and realized the importance of money to the country, because no matter what he did, Everyone has to be rich. But he didn't think of a solution from the system, so he could only rely on "shamelessness" to make money to subsidize this financial system that is riddled with holes.
To what extent was Wanli "greedy for money" in history? Some businessmen dared to wear bright yellow clothes, and when an official reported it to Wanli, Wanli actually said: As long as they pay the money.
Gao pragmatism simply doesn’t know how to evaluate it. Is this a big heart, or is it more sad than heartbroken? In order to make money to subsidize the state, even such a major matter that could be regarded as treason in other eras is just a matter of money in Wanli’s eyes. !
Of course, at least Wei Xuezeng has not discussed with him the use of free cement yet, he just hopes to delay the payment time, which is still negotiable.
"Wei Budang, in fact, whether it is Jinghua Cement Factory or Jinghua's other industries, we rarely ask about the specific business. But in business, business is business, and late payment or credit... does not mean that it is definitely not allowed. , but it is not yet clear whether the cement plant will affect the start of construction because the money is not in place. This is delayed for the time being, so specific matters need to be discussed in detail."
This is the proper meaning in the question. Wei Xuezeng is not a passionate young man, so he will not understand its meaning, nor will he be pragmatic and sacrifice his family for the country. He nodded lightly and said: "I naturally understand what Qiuzhen said. , but I have another suggestion, I wonder if you would be willing to listen to it?"
Gao pragmatic smiled and said: "I would like to hear Gao's theory."
"It's not a high-level argument." Wei Xuezeng waved his hand and said: "Originally, when the ports were opened last time, whether it was Tianjin in the north or Ningbo, Quanzhou and Guangzhou in the south, their official ports were opened by the imperial court. Although Tianjin Port is now Because of your large investment in Qiuzhen, a situation has now been formed in which the private port of Beijing is the main one and the official port of the imperial court is supplemented, but the official port always exists."
Gao Pingshi was moved in his heart, but he didn't show it. Instead, he asked with slight surprise: "Not bad, so what?"
"Those official ports were built by the Ministry of Industry, and the property rights are also linked to the Ministry of Industry." Wei Xuezeng really hit the point that made Gao pragmatic and excited: "The Ministry of Industry means that these official ports can barely maintain their capital in the hands of the Ministry of Industry, or even The Southern Three Ports actually still have to lose money, so why not just sell it... I wonder if Qiu Zhen is willing to take over?"
Gao Pragmatic knew that what Wei Xuezeng said "the three ports in the south actually still lose money" did not mean that the opening of the port itself was losing money. The problem was that the tax introduction and import and export taxes were not the benefits of the Ministry of Industry. What the Ministry of Industry could get was just the port. Operating income. But where will the Ministry of Industry operate what ports?
Tianjin Port has developed some economies of scale thanks to its highly pragmatic private port, so the Ministry of Industry can barely maintain its capital, while the popular trend in the south is that everyone has their own small port - I would like to add some explanation here.
, the opening of ports in this period was not basically just one huge main port like in later generations, but many private individuals could build their own docks and call it a port.
For example, when Quanzhou opened its port, there were actually dozens of private ports, and most of them only had one or two piers.
With such dispersion, it is naturally difficult to achieve economies of scale, thus allowing Guangang to benefit as well.
Although he was very excited, when it came to business, Gao Pragmatic still pretended to be embarrassed and said: "Since Wei Budang also said that the three southern ports are losing money, are you still offering this to Wan Sheng in exchange?"
Unexpectedly, Wei Xuezeng shook his head and said, "It's true that I lost money in the hands of the Ministry of Industry, but how could I lose money in the hands of you, Qiuzhen? Although I don't know how to do business, Qiuzhen, I still have some confidence in my vision.
The construction cost of these three official ports exceeds 250,000 taels. Adding the Tianjin official port, the total construction cost is close to 400,000 taels. Although it has been a few years, it should be no problem to estimate 350,000 taels, right? Please forgive me.
One point, I will sell you the four major official ports in a package, and you will waive the cement payment for this year's river engineering work, and then raise a hundred thousand taels for the Ministry of Industry, what do you think?"