Northern Song Dynasty: Starting from the son of Song Renzong

Chapter 213 Free Market
If you are doing lending as the King of Yu of the Song Dynasty.

This may be somewhat controversial, but what if it is done in the name of the 'Liyuan Republic'?
All of this is justified.

Of course!
Implementing lending is not something you can do on a whim.

It’s like if you open a milk tea shop, you have to consider the location of the store and the flow of people.

The same principle actually applies to lending.

Next…

Zhao Xin asked Wang Anshi to conduct investigations everywhere.

See what places can be used to store food and fodder, and where loans can be made.

It took about half a year to conduct the investigation.

After selecting the place to store grain and lend money.

The next step was to inform the Song Dynasty court and then start work.

Build granaries, recruit managers, and implement lending.

Time passed quickly and before we knew it, it was the fourth year of Huangyou.

At the beginning of spring, the granary had not yet been completed.

There was an endless stream of people coming from all over the country to borrow grain.

After all, the landlords and gentry charge them 40% or 50% and those with a conscience will never charge less than 30%.

But Zhao Xin only charged them 20%.

This is definitely a conscience price.

Although in fact, in all dynasties, it is forbidden to lend money at usury, and the interest rate shall not exceed 30%.

However, regulations are regulations, and enforcement is another matter.

And Zhao Xin did this.

Naturally, some local officials and gentry also had a lot of opinions.

after all……

Isn't this equivalent to His Royal Highness the Prince of Yu personally coming out to rob them of their money?
There is a saying that cutting off someone's financial resources is like killing his parents.

then……

They began to find ways to target Zhao Xin.

today……

Stop the people from borrowing. Tomorrow, they will even pretend to be ordinary people, borrow from Zhao Xin, and then make money out of nothing and lend it to the people at a higher interest rate.

This lending business has only just started for less than a month.

The person who was invited back to be in charge of the relevant work realized that something was wrong.

Because this lending business experienced a situation where it suddenly became popular and then suddenly no one was interested in it.

I have also thought about whether all those who should have taken out loans have already taken out loans, so there is no need for them anymore.

But there shouldn't be even a fly at the door, right?
After hearing what the clerk said, Wang Anshi went out to inquire about it alone, and immediately asked the key to the problem.

Immediately afterwards...

He told his workers to look after the shop, while he himself came back to see Zhao Xin.

Then he reported the relevant situation to Zhao Xin.

After hearing this, Zhao Xin also said: "Then how do you think we can solve it?"

Wang Anshi's reasoning was not easy to solve.

After all, the hooligans in this village threaten the people and prevent them from borrowing money from them, saying that if they go to them, they will break their legs. Tell me, how can this problem be solved?

The people were also worried that their legs might really be broken by the other side.

After thinking for a while, he said, "Your Highness, if you want to solve this problem, you may have to use the connections in the Song Dynasty."

Zhao Xin also said: "Just go ahead and do it. I am also planning to deal with these people. I will ask my father to send the imperial guards to cooperate with you. If there are people in the imperial guards who disobey orders, I will send you the Liyuan Army. When the time comes... arrest all these people, drag them to the entrance of the vegetable market, and behead them for public display." Wang Anshi looked at Zhao Xin and thought to himself, Your Highness Prince Yu, you are more murderous than I am.

But these people are indeed a bit hateful.

But no matter how hateful he is, you can't just kill him.

first……

The laws of the Song Dynasty do not support this.

Secondly...

If we kill him, what if the landlords and gentry from other places unite and resist together? What should we do then?
By then, the entire court might even be filled with your enemies, Your Highness Prince Yu.

All Wang Anshi can do now is to rely on his connections and send people to investigate whether the people here have done anything illegal before but have not been punished.

For example, beating someone to death.

Then see if we can convict these people first.

People like these who like to exploit the locals will definitely reveal some flaws more or less and then be caught.

Zhao Xin didn't care about this, anyway...

They will punish anyone who stops them from lending money.

It would be even better if we could directly raid the other party’s house.

Wang Anshi went down and collected evidence of the other party's crimes while submitting a memorial to the court.

I hope the court can punish this phenomenon.

What kind of expressions do you think Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, Wen Yanbo, Pang Ji and others would have when they saw this memorial?

And it makes sense!
It is estimated that some of them have lent money.

but……

It is indeed a bit unfair for His Royal Highness the Prince of Yu to be both a referee and a player.

After learning about this situation and receiving Xia Song's instructions, the Imperial Censor Liang Jian said in front of everyone: "Is it considered abuse of power for personal gain? The country belongs to him, and he is still the Prince of Yu of the Song Dynasty, so both sides listen to him. Your Majesty, you also listen to the Prince of Yu."

"Your Highness Prince Yu has always said that he wants to crack down on corrupt officials, but in fact, even His Highness Prince Yu himself has to be corrupt. Isn't this simply competing with the people for profit?"

Zhao Zhen sat on it and looked at everyone.

Fan Zhongyan, on the other hand, was willing to speak up for Zhao Xin and stepped out to say, "Your Majesty, I think as long as the people of the Song Dynasty can benefit, it's fine. Previously, the interest rate was 40% or 50%, but now it's only 20%, and the people are all happy."

Liang Jian added, "But the landlords and gentry are also the people of the Song Dynasty. How can you be partial to one over the other, Prime Minister Fan? Anyway... I think that all the money from the Qingmiao was earned by His Royal Highness Prince Yu and went into the treasury of the Liyuan Republic. I don't think this is very reasonable."

After Zhao Zhen finished listening to everyone's words, he also asked, "Does anyone else have anything to say?"

Immediately afterwards...

At Liang Jian's signal, another person came out and shouted, "Your Majesty, I also think this is unreasonable!"

Ok!

Now it is easy to tell who is a loyal minister and who is a treacherous minister.

Some people, under the name of censor, actually act like treacherous officials.

If Zhao Xin didn't think Liang Jian was a traitor before, maybe he was just speaking out of personal opinion.

but……

The person who appeared later seemed to be helping Liang Jian and fanning the flames. Zhao Xin immediately concluded that he might have really touched some people's sore spots.

But to be honest, it is indeed unreasonable for him to do this.

There is a famous saying that goes like this: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Zhao Zhen looked at everyone's reactions.

On the prime minister's side, almost no one opposed.

It was just that the Censorate and lower-level officials had objections, so they said, "Zui Xinglai once told me a word called free market."

(End of this chapter)