Capital Datang

Hearing Li Yin suddenly ask such an inexplicable question, Li Ke who was next to him looked at Li Yin in a daze. I don't understand, where did Li Yin come to the judgment of the decline in tax revenue in Suzhou and several counties?

However, Xie County Magistrate was stunned when he heard Li Yin's question. After a while, he came to his senses. Since the second half of last year, there have been some problems with local and nearby taxation. Some time ago, Zheng Biejia from Suzhou even called us to discuss the issue, mainly because of the tax reduction issue.”

Hearing this, not only Li Yun and Li Zhen woke up, but Li Ke even showed concern. After all, this is also his fief, and he has to bear certain responsibilities for the tax reduction, so Naturally, he was very concerned, and Li Ke was also very surprised. Why did Li Yin know Suzhou better than himself?

Hearing the compliment from Magistrate Xie, Li Yin did not show the slightest complacency on his face, but went on to say: "Magistrate Xie, you must know the reason for the tax reduction better than us, so I would like to ask you Say it carefully!"

Although County Magistrate Xie still couldn't figure out what King Qi was going to do, judging from the other party's performance, he didn't dare to be negligent in the slightest. After organizing the language, he explained the reasons for the reduction of local tax revenue.Capital Datang 235

In fact, speaking of this matter, it has a great relationship with Li Yin. It can even be said that the tax reduction in Suzhou.It was Li Yin who caused it.It's a long story, and we have to start with the local economic situation in Suzhou.

Since the establishment of the ancient city of Suzhou by the State of Wu in the Spring and Autumn Period.This is the famous land of fish and rice, not only rich in rice and tea.In addition, there is another most important product, which is exquisite silk. Suzhou is known as the capital of silk. Almost every household in the territory grows mulberry and raises silkworms, and then bleaches and spins the harvested cocoons, and then passes through the delicate hands of southern women.It was made into bolts of exquisite silk, and then sold to all directions through merchants. Even in the Eastern Roman Empire in the far west, the upper-class nobles were proud to wear silk.

without any exaggeration.Silk accounts for almost half of Suzhou's fiscal revenue.Originally, goods like silk were in short supply no matter where they were, and Suzhou had never bothered about the sales of silk.However, this situation changed last year. With Li Min's huge investment in the textile industry, coupled with the increasingly abundant sources of cotton, more and more cotton cloths flowed into the market, and began to squeeze the living space of other cloths.

At the beginning, because the cotton weaving technology was relatively primitive, the spun cotton cloth was very rough, and it only had an advantage over linen.Therefore, it is only the linen market that is seized. However, as more and more merchants enter the textile industry, coupled with the promotion of Li Yin behind the scenes, the upgrading of textile technology is very rapid. In a short period of time, the quality of cotton cloth has improved. It has risen several steps, and the texture of cotton cloth is getting finer and smoother, and it has begun to compete with silk for the high-end cloth market.

In fact, in comparison, the texture and smoothness of silk are not comparable to cotton.Therefore, silk is the main clothing material of wealthy families, and even some middle-class families are proud of wearing silk, so no matter how exquisite the cotton cloth is, it cannot shake the status of silk as a top-grade cloth.

But the above mentioned only refers to the country of Datang. Only a small part of the silk produced by Datang is used for domestic sales. Most of the silk is actually sold overseas by sea or land. For example, the silk starting from Chang’an Although the goods on this road are not just silk, silk is the most representative product among them.

However, with the rise of cotton cloth, merchants in the north suddenly discovered that they no longer needed to travel thousands of miles to the south, and then begged their grandpa to tell their grandma to order more silk. Cotton cloth is cheaper and more wear-resistant than silk. These cotton cloths are shipped out by merchants through the Silk Road. Although the selling price is lower than silk, but because the cost is already low, in comparison, it is still brought by cotton cloth. higher profits.

It is precisely because of this situation that on the northern Silk Road, cotton gradually replaced silk and became one of the main products of Datang.The blockage of sales in the north has dealt a huge blow to silk production. Although shipping in the south can also solve part of the sales problem, due to the limitation of navigation technology, there is still a backlog of silk.

The poor sales of silk naturally caused a series of evil consequences. First, the number of merchants who purchased silk decreased, which led to a reduction in the price of silk. Once the price of silk dropped, the purchase price of silkworm cocoons would naturally decrease accordingly. Sericulture farmers are on the verge of bankruptcy, and more and more people cannot afford to eat.For example, the spring famine problem that Xie County Magistrate came to solve, most of the people who couldn't eat were silkworm farmers, but the fishermen on the seaside were not affected too much.

The sericulture industry was hit, and Suzhou, as one of the main producing areas of silk, was naturally deeply affected. Sericulture farmers were on the one hand, and taxation was naturally much more difficult.Speaking of taxation in the Tang Dynasty is more complicated, such as rent adjustment, land tax, household tax, etc., but in the early Tang Dynasty, the main tax was rent adjustment. This tax can actually be regarded as a poll tax, which is paid by each person every year. The tax is fixed, and it is said that this kind of tax will not be greatly affected, but now the silkworm farmers can't even eat, so they are naturally unable to pay the tax, so this main tax cannot be collected, and Suzhou's tax revenue will naturally be greatly affected.

After County Magistrate Xie finished speaking, Li Ke looked at Li Min with a depressed face and said, "Sixth brother, it turns out that the tax reduction in my fiefdom is all because of you!"

After hearing this, Li Yin gave Li Ke a blank look and said, "Third brother, what you said is wrong. You are also the main promoter of the textile industry, and now you have many textile factories under your name." !"

uh~!Li Ke's words left Li Ke speechless. Indeed, the textile industry in his family is managed by Wang Zihao, and he also earns a lot of income every year.

"Hehe~, in this way, Brother Seven and I also have a share, and everyone has a textile factory in their house." Li Zhen also scratched her head and smiled at this time. The textile industry has just started, and countless Chang'an nobles have participated in it. Li Yun He and Li Zhen are no exception, not to mention that they are also Li Yin's brothers, so it is more convenient to enter the textile industry.

The county magistrate Xie looked at the four princes in dismay. It was they, the nobles of Chang'an, who took the lead in making the textile industry develop rapidly, and caused the silk industry in the south to be hit. Now not only their Suzhou border, but also other sericulture industries are relatively developed. The same situation was encountered in the region.

"Magistrate Xie, in fact, the reason why I came here today is to solve the problem of selling silk, but this is not an easy task, so it may take several years." Seeing the appearance of County Magistrate Xie, Li Yin said, He smiled and told the main purpose of this visit.

"Your Highness, can you really solve the silk problem?" Hearing Li Min's words, Xie County Magistrate immediately stood up excitedly. He is a person who cares about the country and the people. These days, because of the blow to the sericulture industry in Huating County, Almost even his hair is turning white.Moreover, he was born in a big family in Jiangdong, and the sericulture industry was the main economic pillar of the family, so no matter whether it was public or private, he hoped to solve the problem of silk sales as soon as possible.

"Magistrate Xie is wrong to ask this question. No one in the world knows my sixth brother's ability. Let alone a small sales problem, it is just easy to start another industry that is more profitable than silk. Turning the palm of your hand!" Li Zhen was in a good mood, because he could already smell a hint of money from Sixth Brother's words, so if Sixth Brother can do it this time, then he will definitely be able to insert himself in the silk industry. 』Go up.

"That's right! It's my fault for being a subordinate!" Magistrate Xie hurriedly apologized and smiled when he heard this.The so-called "concern leads to "chaos", he even forgot that standing in front of him was the famous King Qi.Capital Datang 235

"Liulang, what can you do to solve the problem of silk sales?" After all, Li Ke is still a very responsible person. Now that he knows that there is a problem under his rule, he naturally wants to solve it as soon as possible.

"Hey, actually this question is very simple. Silk still has a very good market overseas. The reason for the current situation is actually because of limited transportation capacity. The commercial route in the north is taken away by cotton cloth, and the shipping capacity in the south is limited. So my The solution is to strengthen Datang's shipping!" Li Yin said with a smile.

As soon as Li Yin's words came out, not only Li Ke, Li Yun, and Li Zhen were disappointed, but even the county magistrate Xie sighed.Li Ke said, "Liu Lang, aren't you talking nonsense? We also know how to strengthen shipping, but it can't be done overnight. If you wait for your shipping to develop, the silkworm farmers in Datang will have been starved for a long time." died."

Li Yin laughed a few times after hearing this, and said after a while: "Third brother, you don't know something, in fact, the shipping industry in my Tang Dynasty is already very prosperous, and it is even enough to afford the ability to develop shipping. It's a pity that our maritime merchants in Datang are too timid, and the risk of shipping by sea is too high, so few people are willing to travel too far without organization, and I came to the south this time to solve the problem. this problem!"

"Liulang, what do you mean?" Li Ke seemed to vaguely understand something?

"What I mean is actually very simple. In the next two years, I will use Liuqiu and other places as bases to integrate Datang's maritime transportation capabilities, and then form a large fleet to sail outwards to reduce the risk of maritime transportation. Come, my Tang’s shipping capacity will increase exponentially, and the silk market will naturally be solved by then!” Li Yin suddenly stood up, took two steps forward, and said proudly with his back to everyone.

Although Li Ke understood Li Yin's words, he still couldn't figure out one thing, that is, why did Li Yin bring them to Huating?After all, the integration of shipping power doesn't seem to have much connection with this place, does it?

The question in Li Ke's heart was quickly answered, and Li Min, who was standing facing the wind, suddenly turned around and said solemnly: "As for Huating, I want to build a new city here, which will become a link between the mainland and overseas. The port is responsible for organizing the Yangtze River Basin, as well as the commodity distribution centers of Huainan Road and Henan Road!" rs! ! !