Borrow the day to change the day

To their surprise, Xu Guangqi was not angry at all, and replied with a smile: "The road government is in charge of money, the progress and quality of road construction, the local government is in charge of construction, the imperial court sends censors to inspect, and the funding parties can also send representatives to accompany them." The censor checks the accounts."

This conclusion was suggested by Zhong Jinwei, approved by the emperor and agreed by the cabinet.Therefore, Xu Guangqi was mentally prepared, otherwise, it would be really hard to say whether Xu Guangqi would answer this question with a smile.

When the people in the audience heard Xu Guangqi's answer, they didn't expect such a result, and their confidence in investing in road construction to make money suddenly increased.

The other person, based on the person's question just now, was worried that the time for questioning would be up, so he asked a bunch of questions in one breath: "Master Xu, how is the cost of road construction estimated? How much is the vehicle fee charged? What is the law? Why don’t passers-by be charged? After I get back the principal and profit, what will the charging situation be like?”

If the cost is too high, then the speed of getting money back this time will inevitably become longer.For capable businessmen, the quick return of funds is also what they look forward to.

If the vehicle fees are too much, then if they go to the Zhangjiakou Mutual Market by themselves, the cost will be high, which will virtually reduce their profits from road repairs.

If passers-by are charged, then for them, part of the expenditure will be reduced, and the time and cost of recovering the money will be shortened, which is what they expect.

If the cost of the vehicle stays the same, the profit they make on the road will eventually be returned.

These aristocratic merchants in the audience are all valuable people, and they are relatively clear about the ways to make money, so the questions asked by this person are very important to them, and they pay special attention to them.

Xu Guangqi took a sip of tea calmly, and quickly glanced at the window on the second floor where Zhong Jinwei was.

He didn't know why Zhong Jinwei was sure that these people in the audience would ask these questions, and they had already answered them one by one in the prior discussion.

"The cost of building cement roads is roughly two aspects of cement and manpower. Today is different from the past, and the people of Gyeonggi have suffered heavy losses in the Jianlu invasion just like you. Therefore, during this road construction, the emperor, In addition to allowing the road construction people to have enough food, a little money subsidy is also given. In addition, the soldiers of the construction army reorganized from the army will have a higher income. The last part of the labor labor due to crimes has no money subsidy."

After Xu Guangqi put down his teacup, he calmly explained.But when he saw some people in the audience who heard him say this, he seemed hesitant to speak, and he knew what they wanted to say, so he continued: "Whether they are ordinary people or merchants from your family, they are all subjects of the emperor. Naturally, you have to look at it as a whole. You have subsidies, of course you have to give some subsidies to ordinary people. But you can rest assured that the emperor considered that the cost of road construction may be too high, so he issued an imperial decree to let state-owned enterprises and their low prices provide road repairs the cement used.”

When the merchants in the aristocratic family heard it, it was actually equivalent to using cement money to subsidize those who build roads, which is almost the same.Many people nodded slightly to express their agreement, and then listened to Xu Guangqi continue to answer the next question.

Xu Guangqi saw their changes in demeanor, and continued to answer the next question without comment: "The consideration of the cement road toll is mainly in terms of the damage to the cement road. Passers-by basically have no impact on the cement road. But vehicles are different, especially vehicles that transport goods, which are several times or even dozens of times the weight of passers-by. No matter how strong the cement road is, it will still be crushed after a long time. Therefore, there is a way to charge vehicles and passers-by for free. .”

People in the audience understood Xu Guangqi's explanation. The key is that they are very concerned about the price of the charge.

"As for the price of the vehicle, the imperial court has made an estimate in advance. After comparing the cost of a car on the previous dirt road with the cost of the cement road, 50.00% of the difference will be charged as the cost of each car. In this way, merchants can actually make money by taking the concrete road.”

Everyone has a book account, and Xu Guangqi said it so clearly, these aristocratic merchants naturally understand the benefits of taking the cement road.In addition to convenience, they even know that vehicles can carry more cargo than before.Moreover, the role of the cement road will be more obvious in rainy days.

Xu Guangqi glanced at the official who was pouring tea into his teacup, and then continued: "The fees collected by the imperial court will be used in three aspects. First, it is needed to maintain the cement road, which is in charge of the road office. .”

The people in the audience had no doubt about this and nodded their heads one after another.

"Second, it is to repay the principal and profit of the investors."

There is no doubt about this, the people in the audience nodded one after another.

"Third, it is necessary to run government schools in the place where the road is built."

When Xu Guangqi said the third point, there were many voices of "what", "ah", "this" and so on. They didn't expect this to happen.

Xu Guangqi glanced at the master of ceremonies on one side, and the master of ceremonies quickly said loudly: "Silence, silence!"

After all, the person on the stage was the minister of the Ministry of Industry, one of the highest officials of the Ming Dynasty.Therefore, for these people below, the official authority is still very strong, making them shut up and watch the stage.

Xu Guangqi said with a little seriousness: "The current emperor is a benevolent master who is not born in the world. He really wants to educate the people of Ming Dynasty into people who are knowledgeable and polite, who understand gentleness, kindness, respect, thrift, concession, loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, Righteousness, propriety, and wisdom are also the differences between our celestial dynasty and the barbarians. But you can rest assured that the official school will only be used for free to learn basic knowledge for ** children, and it will not cost much."

When Xu Guangqi said this, there was already a trace of longing in his heart, and the basic mathematics course he wrote was finally about to be used.

This news is really shocking and unprecedented.Letting those mud-legged children also be able to read and write, this somewhat displeased the people present, and felt that it would damage the title of scholar.

But this is the goal advocated by Confucianism. It has always been wanted to be realized but has not been realized. It is just a matter of lip service.

Most of them are businessmen themselves. Although their status is different now, strictly speaking, they are not qualified to make irresponsible remarks.

But right now they are focusing on making money, and after hearing Xu Guangqi explain that it is only basic education and it doesn't cost much, they accept it a little more in their hearts.

From Xu Guangqi's words, some quick-thinking merchants of aristocratic families quickly thought that the imperial court might implement this law throughout the country.

Because the policy of the imperial court is obviously to cover the whole country, and the road government has been established separately, obviously it will not just build one road. It is estimated that future road construction will refer to the model of the first cement road.

Thinking about it this way, it is really possible to realize this great cause.But in those remote places, the roads are not easy to repair, and there are few cars after repairing, so it is hard to say about such places.

What they didn't know was that Zhong Jinwei had already provided the court with a solution to solve the areas that could not be covered by road construction.It is the state-owned enterprises that will supplement this plan and pay for basic education in those remote places.

However, when this basic education was carried out, there was still resistance that even Zhong Jinwei hadn't estimated.But it is understandable, because the resistance comes from the place where Zhong Jinwei's era has already disappeared.