Xinshun 1730

Chapter 858

This kind of "low work" businessman's thinking that came out of the subconscious made the emperor himself a little embarrassed, thinking that he was the emperor, how could he have such a cheapest way of thinking?

When this kind of thinking subsided, the emperor still had to consider the issue of money.

Short of money.

The household government can pay a part, but certainly not enough.

There is not much domestic money left this year, and a lot of money has to be invested in Nanyang Trading as equity, and a batch of cinnamon betel nut gemstones were purchased before, but they have not been shipped yet, and they are betting on the warehouse.

In addition to the investment in the official kiln porcelain workshop and the investment in Western trade, if you don't want to catch the fish and kill the chicken to get the eggs, you have to wait for the money to slowly generate interest.

It cannot be taken out at this time.

For the Nanyang War, money was spent from domestic funds, and the money must have been earned, but it is certainly impossible to return the capital with interest next year after fighting Nanyang this year.

Liu Yu quoted Emperor Taizong's words, saying that no one knows when a human life will be gone.But in Dashun's memory, Emperor Taizong really died when the world was uncertain, and he really didn't live for a few years after the battle of Jingxiang, no one can say for sure.

Therefore, the emperor thought that since he wanted to do it, it would be better to do it early than later.

Liu Yu said that he could borrow money, but it is not impossible to borrow some money if it is really impossible. It is better to make a quick turnaround than to increase the "Huai salary" and cause chaos in the world.

If we really want to control the Huaihe River, we will stop water transportation next year.

Taking advantage of the winter, the money for the management of the Huaihe River will come out.

The placement of the waterworkers will also come from the money.

After all the calculations, it is not as simple as 3000 million taels.

If you don't borrow money, you have to save bit by bit.When did you save it?After saving for ten years, assuming everything goes well and the money is enough, what if I suddenly disappear?

Fighting India, if you really want to collect taxes, you can indeed make money.

However, Liu Yu firmly opposed aggressive advances in India. At this time, entering India with all his strength is to make enemies of Britain and France.

This thing still needs to be disintegrated by division, and now hitting India means that trade will stagnate, and the trade situation that Dashun managed to open in Europe will be completely destroyed.

The joint efforts of Britain and France can make it difficult for Dashun's cargo ships to even pass through Africa.

How about raising taxes internally, or reforming internally?

Tax increases are not considered.Tax hikes mean accidents.

Regarding internal reforms, the emperor was not ignorant of the benefits of Songjiang Mansion's proposal to try out the [-]th tax.

But at first, this kind of thing is difficult to do.

Second, this requires a large number of new students to enter the bureaucratic system and fight against the local gentry.This will arouse the great resentment of the scholars, and think that this is the imperial court using trivial knowledge to fight against the disciples of the sages.

Three, this is digging the root of the world's gentry.

The gentry rely on exemption from labor and apportionment, not tax exemption.

Therefore, for the gentry, the lower the tax rate, the better, because they paid taxes legally and theoretically did not cheat the country.

But with such a low tax rate, it is another matter whether the country is enough and whether the grassroots should apportion it.

Anyway, forced labor and apportionment have nothing to do with them, and they are not "legal" taxes in the first place. They have their own righteousness in mind.

If local officials increase taxes at will, of course, it is a tyranny more fierce than a tiger. "Fishing and Killing" knows that tax collection depends on the household government's documents.

With all these things, borrowing money is also a consideration.

Although it is said that in the past dynasties, such things as asking businessmen to borrow money have to be traced back to the Han Dynasty.

But today is very different, and before the beginning of history, it is not impossible to borrow money.

But since it is a loan, it has to be paid back.

Liu Yu also said that the difference between salt merchants and other industrial and commercial businesses and overseas trade means that for donations or something, you should find salt merchants with special status; other than salt merchants, you can only borrow, not donate.

Borrow, but you have to pay it back.

Just as he was thinking about it, Liao Hanhui said: "I think that if the Huaihe River can be healed, the bad land will be turned into good land, and the landlord will benefit. If the bad land was originally worth two taels of silver, but now it is irrigated, the value will increase to Four two."

"Two taels changed to four taels. Can the imperial court accept half of the added value of two taels?"

"If it is added to the top within a year, it may not be available, then the half of the value-added land money will be collected in five years."

"Secondly, if His Majesty abolishes the water tanks and transforms them into the sea, the private labor will be reduced, and the burden of drifting and wasting will also be reduced. Can taxes be increased?"

"Since it is necessary to control the Huaihe River, water conservancy, and irrigation, it is necessary to check the acres of land. After determining the number of acres, if it can be guaranteed that ten acres will be taxed one, or eight acres will be taxed one, the burden on the people will be lighter than thirty acres."

"In this way, within 30 to [-] years, the cost of treating the Huaihe River should be recovered."

"I thought that it would take 5000 to [-] million taels to govern the Huaihe River. This is a year's income. The imperial court is in charge of such a huge dynasty, so it is impossible to invest all the money in the Huaihe land."

"It is not impossible to make up for the Huai River today, and to increase the tax on the Huai River tomorrow to make up for other places."

"As long as the Huaihe River is increased after it is cured, the people will not have any complaints. And if the water transportation can be canceled, even if the tax is increased, the burden on the people will be reduced."

Liao Hanhui has been in the Huanghuai District for these years, and he really understands the emperor's statement that "the court is an ostrich".

Is the burden of the people a national tax?

Liao Hanhui knew it clearly.

He felt that his method was learned from the stamp tax that Songjiang Mansion tried out.Since you are doing business, when you buy stock certificates, you pay taxes according to the transaction price.

Then, the land has changed from bad land to irrigated land, and the increased part, in addition to increasing the original mu tax, can be regarded as part of the return on investment by the imperial court.

It seems that it is not unreasonable to take out part of the value-added part of changing the land from bad land to good land and hand it over to the national treasury.

In any case, the money for the treatment of the Huai River was pooled by various provinces.The national treasury can't do without money. In the future, if there is a disaster elsewhere, the money from the national treasury will have to be used for relief. It is not a bad idea to ask the Huai people to repay part of the Huaihuai governance money collected by various provinces.

This is different from later generations. The 3000 million is Dashun's total official fiscal revenue for one year.It doesn't matter whether the Huaihe River or the Yellow River is governed in later generations, I have never heard of any investment that requires a year's total fiscal revenue.

Liao Hanhui also knew that this amount was too much for Dashun.Even if Dashun still has income from overseas trade and industry and commerce, if the Huai River is really governed, it will leave a huge financial hole.

His thoughts are only from the perspective of one place and one prefecture.

The emperor was noncommittal about this, neither reprimanded nor praised, but asked Liu Yu: "Mr. Xingguo doesn't know about water control. But he always pays close attention to money."

"If I really want to abolish water transportation and control the Huaihe River, what strategy can Aiqing have?"

Liu Yu has been thinking about the waste of canals and shipping by sea many years ago, how could he not make preparations in advance?

Now the emperor does not ask him whether this matter should be done, but how to do it well?

This can be answered generously.

So he presented his thoughts on water transportation, sea transportation, water labor and other issues over the years one by one.

To sum it up, nothing more than two sentences.

The water workers formed the Xiang army.

Caomi buys and contracts.

The strategy that can be summed up in these two sentences made the emperor fall into deep thought.

It's easy to say, and it doesn't sound like it's impossible.

To sum it up, it's nothing more than the old method, new wine in old bottles.

Since the Huaihe River is to be governed, it is necessary to find someone to work anyway.

Looking for someone to work, but don't want to conscript labor.

Then you have to pay.

The same is for giving money, why not give money to those whose livelihood is affected by the abandoned canal?

Incorporate them into the Xiang army.

No armor, no muskets, no brightly colored military uniforms, and a whole set of equipment doesn't cost a lot of money.

According to the salary of two taels of silver per month, and to ensure that they can eat enough, let them work exclusively.

Incorporated into the 30 million Xiangjun, specializing in engineering.

Digging river channels is mainly done by these people.

Look for engineer officers trained by Jinghai Palace to be officers.

Of course, if you are in a hurry, you can recruit local people to work on the embankment during the slack season.Just send the money, anyway, it was spent according to 3000 million taels.

Originally, it was a sum of money to hire people to dig artificial rivers and canals.

It is another sum of money to relocate those who no doubt make a living by abandoning the canal.

And if you organize a Xiang army, you can use a sum of money to solve two things.

In addition, even if the Huaihe River is cured, will it be necessary to maintain it in the future?After the Huaihe River is cured, can the Haihe River, Liaohe River, etc. also be treated?The Yellow River and the Yangtze River dare not move, can't they pick soft persimmons?

In the future, maintenance and water control will continue, and this group of Xiang troops who become skilled workers can be directly used.

In other words, the purchase of Caomi is to ensure that there is no problem with sea transportation, the navy can control Nanyang, and Nanyang rice can be transported if something goes wrong.

In the Jiangnan area, silver is abundant and can fully support complete silver monetization.

So, wouldn’t it be enough to just exchange the rice that had to be paid in kind for rent directly into silver to pay the tax?
The imperial court handed over the silver converted from Caomi to the merchants.

According to the price, it is contracted to the merchant.

Then, the imperial court introduced some encouraging policies, such as Taiwan, Nanyang new land reclamation, ten-year tax exemption, etc. - anyway, there was no tax in these places.

Therefore, with policy guidance, let these wealthy businessmen go to Nanyang and Taiwan to set up rice plantations.

And setting up a rice plantation requires a lot of labor.

Because of the economic downturn on both sides of the canal caused by the canal being abandoned, and the poor peasants caused by the subsequent economic downturn, coupled with the annual famines such as floods, a large number of people who need imperial relief can go to Nanyang.

Working as coolies and slave labor in rice plantations.

Firstly, the manpower in Dashun was cheap, and it was about the same as the Tamil slaves used by the Dutch.

Secondly, most of these people in Dashun would have been able to farm.

Anyway, it must be better than the Dutch who promoted the cultivation of indigo in Java, and the locals didn't know how to grow it.

In this way, water transportation, which originally brought a lot of burden to the people every year, can bear three responsibilities.

One: Guarantee the supply of Caomi.

Second: to replace part of the imperial court for disaster relief.

Third: Enrich the population of Nanyang, such as the development of Jiangnan in the Jin, Sui and Tang Dynasties. In time, there will be a large number of Chinese in Nanyang, which can also be the basic board of the Celestial Dynasty.

Fourth: Promote the development of Nanyang. A large number of plantations will bring prosperity to small businesses, increase the consumption of consumer goods, and reduce the cost of settlement. It can also ensure the stability of Dashun’s ideal small-scale farming economy in the long run and ease the conflict between people and land. .

Moreover, the land in Java is fertile, and it is indeed more ripe in a year, and the grain output must be much higher than that in the Lianghuai area.

At the same time, due to factors such as the population moving south to Nanyang, the construction of water conservancy facilities on the Huaihe River, the increase in rice production in Nanyang, and the need to pay currency taxes instead of rice rents, the trend of planting cotton and other cash crops in the canal area will also increase.

And the increased cotton can just provide the raw materials needed for foreign trade.Especially under the condition that the first step of the Dutch negotiation was successfully completed and Nanyang was acquired by Dashun, the textile industry will definitely develop greatly, which can bring more taxes to the court.

The collapse of the two Huaihe Rivers, which was originally a disaster for the people, and the canal hated the rice transported by water on both sides of the canal. If this method is used, it will not only relieve the suffering of refugees in the canal, but also be used as a means for the imperial court to relieve the victims of the disaster and go to Nanyang.

These points alone are better than continuing to take the canal.

Among them, the imperial court did not spend a penny more, because the rice was originally wanted.

As for the time it takes to consider contracting plantations, that's not a problem either.

As long as there is silver, Dashun has a navy, enough cargo ships, and several million shi of rice, you can buy it anywhere in Nanyang.

From Java to Siam, and then to Ceylon and India, as long as the navy can rule the roost in Nanyang, there is no situation where it cannot be bought.

No matter how bad it is, what about the grain from Liaodong and Japan?Now that Japan is engaged in rice futures trading, the money is in place, and the warships can continue to go there. The feudal lords in Japan are eager to buy rice in Dashun. Japanese people pay taxes in kind, not silver. In exchange for money, you can buy a large amount of goods that Dashun brought after the opening of the port.

Therefore, Liu Yu feels that the time has come to completely abandon the outdated canal and water transportation, and to abandon the tax in kind in Jiangnan, which has the most economically developed economy.

It is also understandable to say that rent in kind is still charged in the north.There was indeed a shortage of silver in the north before.

But instead of collecting in the north, collecting rent in kind in Jiangnan, which has the largest silver stock, is unreasonable.

While conquering Japan, sailing to Southeast Asia, and expelling Western forces to ensure the safety of shipping, it actually also ensured the food security of Dashun.At least, it is the food security of the capital.

Considering the overall situation, Liu Yu didn't think about the tax increase or land value appreciation after the Huai River was controlled. He thought it was a detail.

The reason why he supported the governor of Songjiang Prefecture to carry out the [-]th tax was not to collect more taxes for the court, but to reduce the burden on the people, reduce the land purchase income of Songjiang Prefecture, and thus reduce the interest on industrial and commercial loans of Songjiang Prefecture.

If Dashun exploded in reforms, Li Gan would go crazy and carry out drastic reforms, and if he could collect tens of millions of taels of land tax a year, Liu Yu would be depressed instead. How long would the emerging class have to grow to overthrow this behemoth?
If Liu Yu engages in land equalization in Huaihe River, Liu Yu will support it to increase the purchasing power of domestic demand.

However, if the most basic issue of ownership is not touched, this kind of tinkering will have little significance for the development of industry and commerce, except that the household government can collect more money.

His purpose is to let the emperor spend money, and feel very happy after spending money.

And the money must have been earned from industry and commerce.

Liu Yu felt that if he really wanted to borrow money, the annual interest of 60 to [-] yuan would not be a problem at all, and he didn't think about squeezing out on the land at all.

The war in Europe is about to end, and the interest rate on national debt is stabilizing. For the time being, there are no good investment directions.They will not be in a hurry to get back the principal, but will be more inclined to charge interest every year.

This money is tantamount to taking it for nothing.

Those who have not yet paid back, if Dashun has been expanding abroad for a long time, to the point of defaulting on 1000 million taels, there is no need to pay back at all, come to Dagukou Armed Forces to collect debts.

And if it can be stable for ten years without causing a run, it proves that Dashun has established a firm foothold in Europe.Still short of the principal of 1000 million taels?

(End of this chapter)