Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 99 A small step towards taxation
No one knows whether Zhao Kuangyin loves Zhao Guangmei's behavior or is extremely disgusted. Anyway, Zhao Guangmei is like patching him up. If he changes one thing, Zhao Guangmei will change it accordingly.

In essence, all of Zhao Kuangyin's reforms boiled down to one sentence: strictly guard against death and prevent the army from joining forces, even if it slightly weakens the combat effectiveness of the Forbidden Army.

And Zhao Guangmei's patch is just one sentence: Unite the Forbidden Army and let the Forbidden Army connect with the trading houses. Even if the power is weaker because of this, they will accept it.

Anyway, Zhao Kuangyin has never publicly expressed his dissatisfaction so far. When he mentions Zhao Guangmei and the trading company, he always praises them. After all, the power of the trading company comes from the bottom up. In fact, even if he really wants to intervene, he will feel a little unable to start. .

Of course, the beatings against him followed. In just the first round of rotation, Pan Mei and Yang Ye, two well-known members of the Qin King's party, were sent out. Pan Mei was sent to Hunan as the southern deputy. Supervising the administration, Yang Ye took his troops to the Guanzhong area to serve as a defense envoy in Fengxiang.

The commander in Beijing was sent to serve in other places but was not awarded a military title. It was difficult to say whether he was promoted or demoted. Fortunately, these two places were also regarded as front lines. If nothing else, they would still have the opportunity to make meritorious deeds.

Anyway, Zhao Guangmei is very happy. After all, he has always believed that these two people are two tigers, and staying in the capital is the real talent.

However, immediately afterwards, Zhang Qiong was dismissed from his official position due to various rumors and was changed to the commander of the Xiaoqi Army. Although the post of Yuhou in front of the palace was filled by Yang Xin, the Banzhi became independent and was reorganized. The royal horse is in a cluster, and the inner and outer halls are guarded, each with a commander.

Zhao Guangmei was also noncommittal about this. This had been the case in all dynasties. The internal structure of the Imperial Guards, which had the smallest number, was the most complex, and it became more and more complex as it changed. However, from this point of view, his eldest brother was indeed far inferior to Li Shimin in terms of self-confidence.

These Banzhi soldiers were guarding the gate for him. To put it bluntly, they had no chance to go into battle to kill the enemy. They were mainly there to prevent someone from trying to carry out a palace coup. They were Zhao Kuangyin's personal bodyguards. Zhao Guangmei's identity was sensitive, so it was naturally inconvenient to say anything more.

In other words, he secretly despised his elder brother.

Obviously, the eldest brother no longer trusts Zhang Qiong. As for who is he guarding against by making Ban Zhi so complicated?Cut~
Anyway, inexplicably, Zhao Kuangyin and everyone in the world have decided that Zhang Qiong is already his King Qin's man. It is probably because of this that he lost his job.

But in fact, he and Zhang Qiong had never met each other a few times, and they were not familiar with each other at all.

In fact, these are indifferent things to Zhao Guangmei. The most important thing for a business is to make money. To put it bluntly, Zhao Guangmei actually has no tricks in politics. He even has no foundation in the military. He always has a trick. , that’s a big money throw.

Zhao Guangmei cannot see any plans or calculations. There is nothing in this world that cannot be solved with money. If there is, then you can try adding more money.

Who gives people the ability to turn rocks into gold?

Whether Zhao Kuangyin or Zhao Guangyi, even all the civil servants in the court have realized this, but Zhao Guangmei is really too rich. The trading company made more money in the past year than the Salt and Iron Department and the Ministry of Household Affairs. It adds up to a lot. Even if it is divided into three, the disposable funds in his hands are still more than 500 million yuan.

Excluding military expenditure, the imperial court only had more than 800 million yuan. Such a small amount of money was not abundant at all. Zhao Kuangyin wanted to break every penny in half and spend it. Naturally, it was not as wealthy as Zhao Guangmei.

In fact, it is not only the civil servants who are worried about this, Zhao Kuangyin can hardly sit still. It is not that he is really on guard against Zhao Guangmei, but as a king, instinctively, he cannot allow anyone to be worse than him. Money.

Sometimes having money means having power.

It's not that commercial banks can't be rich, but they can't be so rich.

And all the sources that caused the imperial court to have no money from the merchant houses were undoubtedly taxes.

A few days later, Zhao Kuangyin even went to Zhao Pu on a snowy night and said sincerely: "The Two Tax Laws of the Tang Dynasty are obviously no longer suitable for use. However, the tax law is the foundation of the country after all. How can it be adjusted?"

When Zhao Pu heard this, he opened his mouth to say something, but suddenly he closed it again when he remembered something. He couldn't help but smiled helplessly and said: "As for money matters, I'm afraid there will never be a King Bi Qin in the court." Your Highness understands better, why don't the officials ask the King of Qin?"

"Hey~ I have to ask him about the national policy, but before asking him, I still hope to have a framework and a draft. After all... hey~"

After all, the most direct reason why I was so anxious to do taxation was to restrict businesses.

The trading company was so rich that Zhao Kuangyin found that he had almost no means to restrain his good third brother. No matter how much he dared to force himself into the palace, Zhao Kuangyin found that he had no means to restrain his good third brother.

Next year, when the trading houses get involved in the salt-making business, they are already clearly competing for the jobs of the Salt and Iron Company. By then, the imperial court’s annual income will definitely be less, and the profits of the trading houses will be greater. Yes, of course this can also be seen as a left-hand move. To my right, but after all, the trading houses were almost independent of the imperial court. Of course, not only those civil servants would feel like facing a powerful enemy, but even Zhao Kuangyin would definitely be a little unhappy.

After a few more years of this, I’m afraid I’ll have to look at your business firm’s face if I want to make money in the future?

Of course he knew that Zhao Guangmei was the best in this field. Who among the economists of the Song Dynasty didn't know this?

However, it is a bit too much to ask Zhao Guangmei to give advice and make the main policy in order to restrict Zhao Guangmei. Even if he believes that Zhao Guangmei has no selfish motives, does he, Zhao Kuangyin, have no face?
Of course, we cannot overemphasize the importance of national policies. Therefore, before this policy is officially introduced, it must be read by Zhao Guangmei no matter what. To put it bluntly, Zhao Kuangyin came to Zhao Pu just to come to him to make a draft. The text part It definitely needs to be written by Zhao Guangmei. To put it bluntly, it’s just a piece of cake.

Zhao Pu naturally understood this meaning, and his expression turned ugly for a moment.

After all, who wants to be a brick?

"This... official family, do you know what His Highness, King Qin, has been busy doing recently?"

"Huh? Isn't he busy opening branches in border counties and distributing benefits to the Forbidden Forces stationed abroad?"

Zhao Pu said: "That's just a matter of spending money. For a commercial bank, making money is the main business."

Zhao Kuangyin couldn't help frowning when he heard this, and couldn't help but feel upset in his heart.This is very bad about the trading company, because it is completely outside the imperial bureaucracy, so there is no permanent supervision between the trading company and the emperor, a means of reporting from superior to subordinate, that is, unless he takes the initiative to ask, otherwise the trading company If you don't report to him what you are doing, he will really get a black eye.

Of course, his son is a shareholder of the trading company, and Queen Mother Du has been helping her eldest grandson behind this, but...

Hey ~
The trading company is really evil, very evil. Look at these shareholders here. They are all brothers, sons, sworn brothers, mothers, and former subordinates. They should be our direct descendants no matter how you look at it. Power.

But including Zhao Dezhao, as long as he didn't take the initiative to ask about the business of the trading company, no one would take the initiative to say a word to him. Of course, if he asked, no one would hide it from him, but after all, he didn't Maybe take the initiative to ask every day?

These shareholders, consciously or unconsciously, seem to be consciously maintaining the independence of the board of directors of the commercial bank, consciously or unconsciously not letting themselves, the emperor, interfere in it, and so far, all he can do to the commercial bank seems to be to ask, Even if you want to install a few of your own people, you will be knocked back by soft nails.

This feeling made him very unhappy, or rather strange, because the trading company was really his family's property, and the [-]% of the shares in Zhao Dezhao's hands was essentially his.

"Third brother, what did he do again?"

"He bought a lot of iron ore and expanded the iron smelting workshop of the trading company. He also came up with improved technology. The budget alone was enough to spend 30 yuan to build a huge furnace for iron smelting. Listen to him He said that by this time next year, the company's steel and cast iron production will at least double."

Zhao Kuangyin frowned: "Not only does he need to eat salt, he also needs to eat iron? Oh, but why does he need so much iron? Who will he sell to for such a large output?"

Zhao Pu shrugged and said he didn't know. Anyway, it was not sold to the Privy Council.

Although the imperial court is expanding its army next year and has a huge demand for armor and weapons, the original output of the farm is actually enough. Who knows who he plans to sell it to, but Zhao Pu believes that Zhao Guangmei will never do it. A losing business.

I heard Zhao Pu say: "His Royal Highness Qin can make money and dare to spend money. I believe that His Highness Qin's large-scale iron smelting must have his plan and he will definitely be able to make money, but... why did he choose to smelt iron? In fact, he There are ways to make more money elsewhere, and I always feel that he may have done it on purpose."

"On purpose? What do you mean?"

"Iron smelting requires a large investment, a long cycle, and is relatively more sensitive. No matter who he plans to sell the extra iron to, most of the existing production capacity will still be sold to the Privy Council. The price is fixed, and it is still the same as before. The price didn't even leave them any profit at all during the court system. No matter how low the cost was, how much profit could he make? If the extra money he had was used for civilian use, it would at most be slightly less than selling it to the Privy Council. If it’s higher, how much higher could it be? That’s impossible.”

"Huh?" Zhao Kuangyin also reacted after hearing this.

"Does it mean that the third child won't make money this time?"

"It is impossible not to make money, but it is definitely not much. For His Highness the King of Qin, it is not necessary. However, the business does not pay taxes, and it has expanded so much this time. I know about iron smelting. Yes, the larger the scale, the lower the cost per kilogram of iron. Once the trading house expands like this, I am afraid that at least [-]% of the iron workshops in the world will no longer be able to operate."

Zhao Kuangyin suddenly realized it and said: "The private iron workshops are closed, so the iron tax cannot be collected. Yes, this is the real purpose of the third brother. He...he wants to completely replace the salt Tiesi?"

Once again, Zhao Kuangyin finally broke his guard. If this continues, I might as well leave all of Da Song's money bag to you.

Zhao Pu was more calm and said: "His Royal Highness the King of Qin has repeatedly emphasized that the two tax laws have long been disadvantaged, and the model of trading houses is like this. As long as the trading houses are still there, not only salt and iron wine, but also tea, sugar, wood, vinegar, and soy sauce, these imperial court Industries with special taxes will face the squeeze of commercial banks sooner or later, and the Salt and Iron Department... I think that it will be a matter of time to ban it. The court should really find another source of revenue. I think, This may be what His Highness King Qin originally meant."

Zhao Kuangyin thought for a while after hearing this, and then had to admit: "He has a long-standing disdain for the Two Taxes Law, and has long wanted to change it. He is especially dissatisfied with these special taxes of the Salt and Iron Division. It seems that, This is exactly his advice, haha, in this case, I can’t disagree even if I want to.”

As he said that, Zhao Kuangyin couldn't help but shook his head.

It is indeed something that the third brother can do. Even to his eldest brother, he is still so domineering and overbearing.

True domineering is not to kill at every turn. At least in Zhao Kuangyin's view, killing is nothing but a skill like Zhao Guangmei's, leading the civil and military officials by the nose, and even forcing Zhao Kuangyin to act according to his ideas, but He chose not to kill anyone, even forcing everyone to do so reluctantly.

To put it bluntly, Zhao Guangmei has long expressed that he wants to abolish the special tax. Of course, he cannot agree immediately. No, if Zhao Guangmei uses some tricks, he will have to abolish the special tax.

"If the special tax is completely eliminated, the court and the physical tax will be fine, but the monetary tax will become more and more tense. Where can we fill such a big hole?"

Zhao Pu thought for a while and said: "I think that the business operation and tax payment model of the business bank are actually very useful for reference. The court does not care about the specific operation of the business bank and only takes [-]% of the profits. In fact, the three percentage points are already a lot. The court even more This saves a lot of manpower and energy.”

Zhao Kuangyin smiled bitterly: "How could I not have thought about it? But can other merchants be the same as the trading houses? To put it bluntly, the trading houses are our Song Dynasty trading houses. The money earned by the trading houses is handed over to the court. It is essentially left-handed and right-handed, so that's why With such cooperation, no matter how much you earn, you will honestly hand over [-]%. Moreover, the third brother said that every Forbidden Army soldier is actually a small shareholder of the trading company, so the financial affairs of the trading company must be completely open and transparent, and even established. He joined the inspection team. In fact, he really spent a lot of energy on these four words: openness and transparency."

"As for other merchants? If they are required to pay taxes based on profits, how can the court really know how much money each merchant earns? If the court really collects taxes according to this, I am afraid that it will not be able to collect a penny. All merchants in the world will lose money."

Zhao Pu nodded and said: "That's true, but what if the court collects their profits in advance?"

"Collect early? What does this mean?"

"I heard that since His Highness bought Fan Lou, thirteen restaurants in Kaifeng have formed an alliance and will work together to deal with Fan Lou. Maybe we can use this as an example to let them try? I heard that, His Highness Prince Qi seems to have contact with these restaurants and has a good relationship."

"The biggest advantage for officials and merchants involved in restaurants is that they don't have to pay liquor tax, that is, they can make liquor at will without having to buy distiller's yeast. I think it would be better to simply relax the tax on distiller's yeast in Kaifeng City and simply allow them to buy it. The imperial court can simply sell the liquor licenses at a high price, take the money for the koji out of the liquor licenses, and let the merchants snap up these liquor licenses on their own."

"In this way, after a few months, when we officially go to sell liquor licenses, we will naturally be able to calculate how much difference this method has compared with the original method. After using this method, whether Fan Lou, who is backed by a trading company, can still make money. With huge profits? We might as well have a comparison. If this method is indeed feasible, can this method be generalized? In addition to distiller's yeast, can all salt, tea and other products be replaced by this method? If it can be If so, maybe it can relieve the worries of the officials?"

(End of this chapter)