Qian Song

Chapter 113 Both soft and hard (ask for a monthly ticket!)
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After the guests and hosts were seated, Chen Kuutong said in a chatting tone: "The southeast coastal ports of Quanzhou, Hangzhou, Mingzhou, Xiuzhou, and Jiangyin are all in the hands of our Huben army. Soon Wenzhou and Guangzhou will also be captured by our Huben army." , When you are in this place, if there is any communication between the inside and the outside, you must rely on my tiger and the army."

Upon hearing this, Wang Chaoyi and Wang Yuan, the grandfather and grandson, glanced at each other indiscriminately.

If Chen Kuutong hadn't boasted, then China's maritime trade in the future would really have to be decided by Li Cun.

At this moment, Wang Chaoyi and Wang Yuan had a concrete understanding of Li Cun's strength.

Qian Zai said: "The kings and ministers of Zhao Song Dynasty did not understand the benefits of the sea, did not pay attention to the development of sea trade, and blindly suppressed business, so that sea trade was intermittent, which was not a way to benefit the country and the people..."

To be fair, compared with the previous dynasties, the business environment in the Northern Song Dynasty was much better.

But on the whole, the Northern Song Dynasty still implemented the policy of emphasizing agriculture and restraining business, that is, while emphasizing agricultural development, it also restrained commercial development.

There is nothing wrong with emphasizing agricultural development. This move adapted to the level of agricultural productivity in the Northern Song Dynasty and laid a solid foundation for the economic development and prosperity of the Northern Song Dynasty.

——The prosperity of foreign trade in the Northern Song Dynasty was mainly due to the development of agriculture and the variety of agricultural products, which could be exported in large quantities.

Generally speaking, the economy of the Northern Song Dynasty was still agricultural, and the prosperity of agricultural production promoted the prosperity of the entire social economy.

But the problem is that the policy of not suppressing land annexation in the Northern Song Dynasty led to powerful landlords annexing farmers' land in large numbers, which intensified social conflicts.

——The peasants who lost their land had no choice but to launch an uprising against Zhao Song's rule and win a chance of survival for themselves.

The main measure of the policy of "restraining business" implemented by the Northern Song Dynasty was to inherit the monopoly system of the previous generation, that is, to establish a system of state monopoly for a number of important commodities in the form of economic legislation.

The monopoly system had already been implemented in the Han Dynasty. In the Han Dynasty, salt, iron, wine, etc. were sold to the state. Later dynasties continued to increase the monopoly items, and tea, alum, etc. were included in the monopoly list one after another.

The monopoly system in the Northern Song Dynasty was called "Qingyu", and the items were more extensive-in addition to the content of the previous dynasty, coal, spices, jewelry, etc. were also added.

It has to be said that through the "discussion", the court of Zhao and Song Dynasties did participate in social economic activities through coercive means and obtained huge profits, which made up for the lack of finance in Zhao and Song Dynasties, enabled the court of Zhao and Song Dynasties to master a large amount of property, and consolidated the rule.

But the problem is that this also severely inhibits business activity, delays social change, and hinders social progress.

It is also against this background that many of Zhao Song’s municipal and shipping agencies have been repeatedly set up and abandoned, and the ports have also been opened and closed, closed and opened again.

For example, Hangzhou Shipping Department was established in the second year of Taizong Duangong, cut and moved to Mingzhou Dinghai County in the Chunhua period, reset in the second year of Zhenzong Xianping, abolished in the third year of Shenzong Yuanfeng, and restored in the first year of Huizong Chongning .

Several establishments and few wastes not only show the unstable state of the Hangzhou Shipbuilding Department, but also show that the Zhao and Song courts have a hot and cold attitude towards these maritime merchants, which greatly increases the difficulty of these maritime merchants.

——This situation did not really get better until the Southern Song Dynasty.

Following Qian Zai's narration, Wang Chaoyi and Wang Yuan gradually understood that the Huben Army was preparing to open the five ports of Quanzhou, Hangzhou, Mingzhou, Xiuzhou, and Jiangyin Army, and even prepared to invest heavily in the construction of five ports. The capture of Wenzhou Port and Guangzhou Port is also planned to do the same.

In addition, the Huben Army also proposed a series of policies to encourage maritime trade, such as reducing the types of "drinks", strengthening the protection of merchants, and so on.

It is not difficult to see from the policies of the Huben Army that the Huben Army is really preparing to encourage maritime trade.

However, at the same time, the Huben Army also established its own Shibo Division and introduced something called "tariff".

This tariff is very detailed, not a rough one-size-fits-all.

There are import taxes, export taxes and transit taxes collected according to the collection objects;

There are financial tariffs and protective tariffs collected according to the purpose of collection;
There are specific tax, ad valorem tax, mixed tax and sliding standard tax according to the collection standard;

There are independent tariffs and agreed tariffs based on tax rates;
There are also import surcharges, differential taxes, preferential taxes and generalized system of preferences based on differential treatment and specific implementation conditions.

Moreover, detailed remarks are made at the back of each tax.

Just from the tariffs that have been exhausted, it is not difficult to see that the Huben Army is not a temporary idea, but is really planning to do a big job in maritime trade.

In this regard, neither Wang Chaoyi nor Wang Yuan was in a hurry to express their views.

The biggest question right now is not whether the Huben Army's policy is good or not, how much tariffs it charges, or whether the Huben Army is really planning to build various ports or use this excuse to squeeze money from the pockets of sea merchants, but whether the Huben Army can resist Can withstand the suppression of Zhao Song.

——If the Huben army can't stop Zhao Song's suppression, all of this will be nothing more than empty talk.

Qian Zai also knows that talking about it now is actually useless.

Therefore, after introducing the policies of the Huben Army, Qian Zai took out a beautifully crafted iron plate.

There is a big "free" character in the middle of this iron plate, and the number is engraved with Chinese characters and Arabic numerals below it.

When Wang Yuan saw it, he asked: "Qian Xianggong, what is this card? Is it a gold medal to avoid death?"

Qian Zai laughed and said, "It's the same thing, but it works the same way." Then he explained: "This is the duty-free card of our Huben Army. With this card, you can exempt a total of one million yuan from customs duties. You can also use this card to redeem goods on board at Quanzhou Port..."

To put it simply, the Huben army seized all the ships and goods on Quanzhou Port. Li Cun wanted to take all these things for himself, but Li Cun was afraid of drying up the marsh and burning the forest and hunting.

However, if Li Cun released all these cargoes with a wave of his hand, where would the development expenses, military expenses, and war expenses come from?

Therefore, Li Cun and a group of Huben army officials researched this duty-free card.

This can save 100 million yuan of duty-free cards, and Huben Army is going to auction it at a reserve price of [-] yuan.

Then, the Huben army used the duty-free license as currency to auction off the cargo on Quanzhou Port.

Smart people can imagine that in the end, the Huben army must issue more duty-free licenses.

——But this rhythm must be grasped well.

In fact, Huben Army doesn’t have to worry about not being able to sell this duty-free card. After all, the cargo on the port is real, and there must be many people who are very willing to buy those cargo at a low price.

And those tax-free cards that are super-issued are not useless. In the future, they can really be tax-free according to the remaining money.

In fact, Li Cun originally planned to issue currency directly in this way.

It is too unstable to use tariffs as the standard currency, and it is easy to damage the credibility of the currency issued by the Huben Army.

Therefore, in the end, Li Cun, Qian Zai and others discussed a compromise solution, which is to issue a temporary "currency" first, that is, a tax-free card.

Another advantage of using this large denomination duty-free card is that the merchants who hold it will definitely come to the port of Huben Army to trade again. After all, only when they arrive at the port of Huben Army, this valuable duty-free card can Realize.

In fact, even if Huben Army does not engage in duty-free licenses, maritime merchants who really want to do maritime trade will still come to Li Cun's port for trade. After all, Li Cun has almost formed a monopoly business.

However, in order to make his food look less ugly, and to quickly realize those luxury goods that did not have any substantial help for the development of the Huben Army, Li Cun still pulled a fig leaf for himself.

To put it bluntly, the Huben army sold the seized cargo at a low price to realize cash, and overdrawn some future tariffs, and did not want to fleece the sheep.

In fact, except for the original owners of those cargoes, no one else will suffer, and those who are bold will make a lot of money.

As for the original owners of those cargo?

I am sorry.

Your protection fee was not handed over to me, Li Cun, but to Zhao Song. There is no need for me, Li Cun, to help Zhao Song protect you.

When your protection fee is handed over to me, Li Cun, I, Li Cun, will definitely guarantee the safety of your property and life.

When Li Cun approached the Wang family, he hoped that the Wang family could find some wealthy gentry and rich merchants to take the lead in supporting the policies of the Huben Army and taking the lead in purchasing the duty-free licenses of the Huben Army.

"Minzhong is the home of the governor of my family, so my Huben army doesn't want to massacre in central Fujian."

"However, our Huben Army does not allow the fields to be concentrated in the hands of a few people, so that the world is unstable. This is the cornerstone of the Huben Army and must be implemented."

"I hope that the Wang family will tell the rich gentry and nobles in central Fujian that they will take the initiative to hand over the land, and only keep a hundred acres of land for self-cultivation. Don't be stubborn and hurt the hometown of my family."

Then, Chen Kuutong patiently explained to Wang Chaoyi and Wang Yuan: "Central Fujian is not comparable to the two Zhejiang provinces. Central Fujian has more mountains and fewer fields, and land-holding gentry and rich merchants are far from comparable to the two Zhejiang provinces. In this generation, my tiger and Ben army will kill if they kill in the two Zhejiang provinces." Er, not to mention Minzhong, but our Huben army does not want to massacre in Fujian, I hope everyone knows."

Chen Kuutong also said brazenly: "Where an army of [-] troops is dispatched for thousands of miles, the expenses of the common people and the tribute of the public are worth a thousand dollars a day. Whether the Wang family can lead the wealthy gentry and wealthy merchants in central Fujian to subsidize one or two, you need to know that the governor of my family is The Fujian people are famous, how can the Fujian people not help them?"

Hearing this, Wang Yuan couldn't stand it anymore. Li Cun, a native of Chuzhou, insisted that he was from Fujian in order to ask for money from rich gentry and rich merchants in Fujian. This is too shameless.

Then, Wang Yuan wanted to say a few words.

Fortunately, Wang Chaoyi gave Wang Yuan a look and calmed down.

Seeing this, Chen Kuutong said with a smile: "The Wang family and my family's chief governor are real relatives, so it's not appropriate to stand by and watch."

Hearing this, Wang Chaoyi and Wang Yuan simultaneously remembered the scene where Li Cunkang left Wang Huiniang, and then both grandparents and grandchildren sighed at the same time.

Then, Chen Kuutong asked very caringly: "If there is any difficulty, the old grandpa and the little officials can just say it's okay, otherwise my Huben army will help the Wang family kill chickens and monkeys first?"

As soon as the words "Kill the chicken to scare the monkey" came out, Wang Chaoyi and Wang Yuan subconsciously thought, "I'm afraid it's either my Wang family or the chicken!"

Chen Kuutong used both soft and hard methods to make the Wang family bleed, and let the Wang family take the lead in making the rich gentry and nobles in Fujian also bleed, which made Wang Chaoyi, Wang Yuan, his grandfather and grandson very annoyed.

This tiger ben army is really domineering and unreasonable, it's a clear robbery.

But Wang Chaoyi and Wang Yuan could also tell that Li Cun really didn't want to kill people here in Fujian.

Otherwise, Li Cun can go straight to the big knife. What kind of cargo, I even tied people up for you as meat tickets and extorted ransom; All are rewarded to the subordinates; I will give you a whole pot of donations.

The situation is compelling.

Besides, Li Cun and Wang Huiniang were still promiscuous in that day.

——He was still forced by Li Cun, which is somewhat excusable, but the eldest lady of the Wang family did it completely voluntarily, and she made a fuss for everyone to know.

It is really difficult for the Wang family to get off the Huben army's chariot. There is no way, no matter whether Wang Chaoyi and Wang Yuan are willing or not, the Wang family can only bite the bullet and help the Huben army take Fujian completely...

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(End of this chapter)