Daming Crazy Emperor

Chapter 242

The imperial court established the Ministry of Commerce, which is in charge of merchants and business.

The Ming Dynasty is about to abolish the policy of banning the sea and open the sea in an all-round way. Taicang New City is tentatively set as the starting point for opening the sea. All foreign countries can go to Taicang New City to buy or sell goods, as long as they pay taxes honestly.

There are several large and small shops in Taicang New City. The rent of large shops is 1000 taels of silver a year, and the rent of small shops is 500 taels of silver a year. A branch of the Daming Bank has been set up in the city, and all merchants can go to the rental shops with bank notes.

One after another, explosive news spread from Nanzhili, quickly spread throughout the entire Ming Dynasty, and spread to the surrounding foreign countries.

The entire Ming Dynasty is about to explode. Merchants from all over the country, who have a little brain, are trying their best to rush to Taicang Prefecture!
These shops are all cash cows, hurry up and grab them!

There is a problem here. There are only so many shops in Taicang New City, and there must be more than so many shops in various places. Then, how can this limited shop be rented to so many shops? Is it first come first served?

This is definitely not possible. You must know that Taicang Prefecture belongs to Suzhou Prefecture, and Suzhou Prefecture is a well-known and prosperous place in Nanzhili. It is estimated that there are not one thousand but eight hundred shops that can afford to rent.

If it is first come, first served, then the shops will probably be robbed by the merchants in Suzhou Prefecture. Even if there are more merchants in Suzhou Prefecture, there is Yangzhou Prefecture next to it, and Jinling City is not far from here. Just these few places The merchants in Taicang New City are rushing in, and there are not enough shops in Taicang New City. What about the merchants in other places?
For example, Huizhou merchants are the leaders in the business circles of the Ming Dynasty at the moment. If they were first come, first served, they would definitely not be able to outrun the merchants in Suzhou and Yangzhou, and they would not be able to outrun the merchants in Jinling City.

If they want to come over and see that the shops are all rented out, they will be so angry that they will spurt blood!
Naturally, Taichang had anticipated this point, so after the notice was sent out, he recruited Bi Maoliang and several talents from the Academy of Arts and Sciences to the newly-arranged meeting hall of the City Shipping Department to discuss.

These high talents of the Academy of Arts and Sciences are all the proud disciples of Chief Assistant Xu Guangqi and Minister of Industry Bi Maokang, and they all have one thing in common, that is, they are all from Songjiang Prefecture next to Taicang Prefecture.

It may be because the first assistant Xu Guangqi and the minister of the Ministry of Industry Bi Maokang are both from Southern Zhili, so they especially like students from Southern Zhili.

Of course, they are not nepotism, these students are all really capable.

For example, Chen Zilong, the son of Chen Suowen, the former right servant of the Ministry of Industry, although this son is only about 20 years old, he is proficient in poetry, poetry and Fu, and has a lot of research on agronomy. He can help Xu Guangqi compile "Agricultural Administration".

Another example is Xu Fuyuan, the grandson of Xu Jie, the chief assistant of the cabinet of the former Jiajing Dynasty. This son is only in his twenties, but he is also full of talents, especially good at poetry and prose, and has a lot of research on business.

There are also Xia Yunyi, Du Linzheng, Peng Bin, etc., who are all rare young talents.

Therefore, Taichang brought them all this time and prepared to train them well.

Taichang looked at the young talents who were sitting with Bi Maoliang on both sides like studious students, and couldn't help but secretly nodded.

He thought for a while, and then smiled slightly: "You should also know that Nanzhili has a very strong business atmosphere, and there are countless rich merchants. Moreover, as long as there are some thoughtful merchants in Taicang New City, they can think of business opportunities. What if so many merchants flock to rent the limited few hundred shops?"

These young talents will certainly not foolishly say that first come, first served, as long as they think about it for a while, they will know that first come, first served must not work.

Everyone frowned and pondered for a while, Xu Fuyuan was the first to cup his hands and said: "Your Majesty, I thought that we should try our best to rent to powerful big merchants, so that we can play the role of the shop, because Fanbang vassals came here to buy goods with great difficulty, that's for sure Not a little bit. If you rent to small merchants with average strength, there will probably be problems with the supply, and if there is something wrong with these small merchants, it is estimated that the rent will be unsustainable. If there are too many such small merchants, they will be replaced all day long. It’s very troublesome to exchange.”

They are all officials at the head level of the six ministries now, and they already have some experience in politics, and the suggestions they put forward are quite pertinent.

Hearing this, Taichang couldn't help nodding and appreciating: "Well, it makes sense. Renting shops to powerful merchants can avoid a lot of troubles, especially since Taicang New City has just opened, and it is still facing foreign countries. If the shops in the city Changing people every day, selling this one today and another the next, will make the foreign kingdoms feel that our Ming court is doing things in a mess. We must pay special attention to this. Those who do business are most afraid of such a messy court. This shop should be rented to powerful people as much as possible. Merchant, question, how to judge the size of the merchant, have you thought about it?"

There is not much information on the Internet at the moment, and the size of the merchants is rarely known to outsiders unless they are locals.

Xu Fuyuan thought for a while, and then replied: "How about we follow the records on the yellow pages, Your Majesty, what do you think?"

The Yellow Pages is the "Yellow Book of Taxation and Service" compiled by the Ming Dynasty. Basically every household will be recorded in the book, and every adult has an official transcribed page, just like an identity certificate. When leaving the place of origin on the Yellow Book That's what you have to bring with you.

The yellow pages not only record the date of birth of the individual, but also the number of people in the family, what they do, how many fields, how many houses, how many shops, etc., are all recorded in detail.

This thing can really tell the size of a person's business.

If there are many shops, it must be a big business, because the shops also have to pay taxes, and no one will build more shops boringly to make their faces fat.

Taichang nodded slightly and said: "According to the records in the Yellow Pages, there is no problem, but we still have to consider the issue of someone taking the risk and asking someone to fake it."

Logically speaking, the Yellow Pages cannot be faked, because there is not a single copy of this thing, but many copies, each household has one copy, the local government has another copy, and the imperial court also has a copy.

Moreover, every few years the imperial court will re-count and create a new yellow book.

In other words, it is easy to find out if you changed the Yellow Pages yourself, and if the local government changed it for you, you can also find out.

What Taichang meant was to prevent people from taking risks in the face of their own interests. If they really bribed local officials to change the yellow pages, it would be quite troublesome to check.

For example, some profiteers deliberately underreported their shops in order to evade taxes. If he goes back and asks people from the local government to change them back, you can check that he still has the shops that have been changed, and the local government can also shirk it for the next time. Prepare for the preparation of the "Yellow Book of Taxes and Service", and it will be unclear at that time.

So, how to prevent people from taking risks and making fakes?
Everyone frowned and pondered for a while, Xia Yunyi cupped his hands again and said: "Your Majesty, I feel that we can choose the merchants who rent shops based on this without notifying the merchants in various places in advance.

Anyway, they had to carry the Yellow Pages with them, so we posted the notice in the Shibo Department's office, and these people could only see it when they rushed over.

Moreover, we can also stipulate that a state capital can be processed in one day according to the distance, and it will not wait when it is out of date.

In this way, merchants basically have no way to go back and change the yellow pages, because we handle one state capital a day, and we don’t wait for it to be outdated. "

This method is indeed good.

Taichang nodded slightly and said: "Well, according to the distance, it is good to handle a state capital in a day, yes, there is another question, how many shops will a state capital rent to others? If we rent to several nearby state capitals Merchants, that would be unfair to merchants in other state capitals. Moreover, the output of several nearby state capitals are similar. If you don’t have to sell it, that’s not good either.”

Hearing this, Xia Yunyi frowned and pondered for a while, then cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, I feel that it is enough to rent ten large shops and twenty small shops to merchants in each state capital, so that in about 20 days we can Rent out the shops, and basically the nearby state capitals and the state capitals along the Yangtze River and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal can rent shops. If the state capitals are farther away, there is no need to rent them, because the road Shipping costs for goods that are too far away is not a small expense, and we don’t need to make merchants go through such fuss.”

Oh, this kid is not bad!
Taichang nodded slightly, already thinking about it.

He discussed with Bi Maoliang again in a low voice, and then said solemnly: "Okay, the matter of renting the shop is settled like this. Fuzhai and Yizhong, the Taicang Shipbuilding Department needs two promotions. Are you interested?"

Yes!

How not?

You must know that they are just juren, and at this moment their ranks are all six ranks, and this city's boss is from the fifth rank!

It was unimaginable in the past to raise people's fame and fame to the fifth rank within a year or two.

Besides, in the Hongwu Dynasty, civil servants were appointed to serve as Shibosi. Since the Yongle Dynasty, eunuchs and eunuchs were all appointed as the secretary. They did not expect that the emperor would suddenly appoint civil servants to serve as Shibo. Tiju.

Naturally, such a good opportunity cannot be missed.

The two hurriedly cupped their hands and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness."

Taichang nodded, thought for a while, and then seriously said: "The Shibo Department is one of the most important functions of the Ministry of Commerce. Let's temporarily select a fifth grade for the Shibo Department's promotion. You first rent the shop. As for your specific duties, I will discuss with Shi Gao again."

My God, it's not from the fifth rank, but the fifth rank!
Both Xu Fuyuan and Xia Yunyi were so excited that they didn't know what to say, but Chen Zilong, Du Linzheng, Peng Bin and others showed more or less disappointed expressions on their faces.

They also want to show their talents, they also want to be promoted!

Seeing this, Taichang couldn't help smiling and said: "Renzhong, Yanru, you don't have to be discouraged, everyone has their own strengths, and there are still many opportunities for you to display your talents."

(End of this chapter)