The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 336 Solving Employment
A short while later, Jiang Shaohui was invited in.

Yue Wenxuan looked closely and saw that Jiang Shaohui looked to be in his thirties. He was strong and sturdy, as if he had practiced martial arts. He was also dressed in martial arts attire, looking like a hero rather than a businessman.

However, he introduced himself as a merchant: "Jiang Shaohui, a merchant from Hangzhou, greets Prefect Yan..." After saying that, his gaze turned to Gong Erniangzi next to him, and he immediately realized what he meant and said, "Greetings, Privy Councilor."

However, he clearly did not recognize Yue Wenxuan!

Only people within the Northern Song Dynasty knew that Yue Wenxuan was the mastermind; outsiders had never heard of him.

Yan Chengping clasped his hands in greeting: "I have long admired the name of Minister Jiang of Xixi in Hangzhou. I am delighted to meet Minister Jiang's son today... But I wonder what brings you to Chuzhou?"

Jiang Shaohui said, “To be honest, although my father was granted a title, he did not actually engage in officialdom. The Jiang family still mainly focuses on business… The Grand Canal is closely related to our business. A few years ago, Huainan was in great turmoil, and the Grand Canal was almost ruined. But a few months ago, I heard that the Northern Song army had swept away the notorious bandit Li Cheng, wiped out the water bandits of Hongze Lake, and also cleared out the mountain bandits and road bullies in several surrounding counties. The Chuzhou area has now stabilized. So I took the liberty of coming here to try and revive our business.”

Yan Chengping: "I see!"

Gong Erniangzi lowered her voice and said to Yue Wenxuan, "He is from the Southern Song Dynasty, yet he comes to the territory of the Northern Song Dynasty to do business. Don't merchants have any sense of national boundaries?"

Yue Wenxuan chuckled softly: "We're all from the Song Dynasty, which is one of the advantages of us being under the Song flag. You see, before we came, this was the territory of the Jin and the puppet Qi state, and he clearly hadn't been here before. Now that we're here, he's here too, and there will be many similar things happening in the future."

Gong Er Niangzi suddenly realized: No wonder the True Lord created a fake prince and named the country Song.

Jiang Shaohui said, "I've heard that the Northern Song Dynasty has planted a large amount of cotton in the Chuzhou area. I've also heard that this cotton was given to me by immortals and can be harvested in about four months. I wonder if this is true?"

Yan Chengping laughed: "What immortals said about it? That's all a misconception. This kind of cotton is called grass cotton. It came from the Hu people and has been planted in Gansu and other places for a long time. It's true that it can be harvested in about four months. There's no doubt about it."

Jiang Shaohui was overjoyed: "The rumors are true, that's great! I dare to ask if I can buy up a large quantity of the cotton planted in four months and transport it away... But I don't know what the Northern Song Dynasty's regulations are, such as how much tax they will levy on vehicles and ships?"

Now Yan Chengping and Yue Wenxuan both understood. His real purpose was to explore the route and see if it was feasible to run a business along it.

The Song Dynasty was a rather... well, you know... country.

In every industry, the government intervenes and restricts them tightly.

For example, salt was entirely state-run; salt craftsmen were not allowed to sell it privately and had to sell it to the government. Although some people did sell smuggled salt, that was illegal, and legitimate merchants dared not do it.

Besides salt, there were also tea, iron, coal... and many other things that were monopolized by the government.

So when Jiang Shaohui arrived in Chuzhou, he first sought out Yan Chengping to ask about the government's rules.

Only then can he calculate the profit according to the government's regulations!

Yan Chengping pondered, "A charter? Oh dear, actually we don't have any charters." After saying that, he secretly glanced at Yue Wenxuan and saw that Yue Wenxuan was giving him an encouraging smile. He understood that Young Master Yue still meant the same thing: to improve the business environment.

Yan Chengping understood the situation and spread his hands, saying, "We don't have any exorbitant taxes here, only regular taxes. Just send a boat over, and you can buy as much cotton as you want. As long as the farmers are willing to sell to you, we won't interfere."

Jiang Shaohui: "Huh? Ah?" He was a little confused!
I thought the Northern Song government was going to monopolize cotton, but Yan Chengping seemed to be saying "I don't care". Even if you don't officially monopolize it, you should still collect all kinds of exorbitant taxes and levies. Why don't you collect these?
Yan Chengping said, “When the cotton is harvested, I will collect taxes from the cotton farmers. Since they have already paid taxes once, they are free to decide what to do with the cotton. It is their freedom to sell it to you, and I will not interfere. As for the exorbitant taxes, they are all bad taxes, so it is better not to collect them.”

Jiang Shaohui was so shocked his jaw almost dropped.

The Song Dynasty was one of the dynasties with relatively heavy commercial taxes.

The general tax for traveling merchants is 2%, which means paying 2% of the total value of the goods. The tax for stationary merchants is 3%, which may not sound heavy, but this is only the main tax. In addition to the main tax, there are also miscellaneous taxes such as the cash tax, the total cash tax, the monthly tax, and the account tax. All these things together amount to about 10%.

Yan Chengping's words were essentially telling Jiang Shaohui that he would only charge Jiang a 2% tax, and nothing else, which would save him 8% of his profits.

Jiang Shaohui was stunned, utterly stunned. The Northern Song government was completely different from the Southern Song government; it was far too, far too, far too, far too enlightened.

Just then, Yue Wenxuan, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up: "Brother Jiang, you're buying a large amount of cotton because you plan to transport it back to Hangzhou, weave it into cotton cloth, and then sell it for money, right?"

Jiang Shaohui clasped his hands in greeting: "This young master..."

Yue Wenxuan: "My name is Yue Wenxuan, and I am a friend of Prefect Yan."

Jiang Shaohui quickly said, "So it's Young Master Yue. To be honest, my Jiang family has a large textile workshop in Jiang Village, Xixi. We not only spin cotton cloth, but also linen cloth, silk, and so on... In the past, we mainly spun silk and linen cloth because there wasn't much cotton here, so the production of cotton cloth was extremely small. After learning that Chuzhou was planting a large amount of new cotton, we came here."

Yue Wenxuan: "Well, that makes it easier to talk. I have a small suggestion: would you like to open a textile workshop in Chuzhou City?"

Jiang Shaohui: "Huh?"

Yue Wenxuan: "I know that setting up a workshop so far away must be troublesome and stressful for you, so I can offer you some preferential policies. For example..."

He paused slightly, an idea forming in his mind, and smiled, "For example, for every three hundred workers you recruit, I'll give you a one-cent tax exemption..."

Jiang Shaohui was even more surprised.

If you open a workshop here, you become a "sit-in merchant" and should pay the 3% tax rate applicable to sit-in merchants.

But if every 300 workers are exempted from 1%, then 900 workers can be exempted from the 3%!

They've gone mad! Have the officials of the Northern Song Dynasty gone mad?

In fact, it wasn't just him who thought Yue Wenxuan was crazy; even Yan Chengping was startled, thinking: Didn't Young Master Yue tell me that even if there were no tax exemptions, the taxes that should be collected would still be collected? Why is he making an exception for the Jiang family?
Only after Jiang Shaohui left in a daze did he finally ask, "Young Master Yue, doesn't this mean there's no tax to collect?"

Yue Wenxuan laughed: "This is a different way of thinking. It uses tax exemption to solve the employment problem for the people. In other words, it lets businessmen help the country support the people, so of course they can be exempted from some taxes."

(End of this chapter)