Xinshun 1730

Chapter 938 Jokes
Xu Heng tried to think about the many reform policies in the Jiangnan area over the years from the perspective his father said, and nodded involuntarily.

Indeed, some of the reforms attempted by several prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River in recent years seem to have nothing to do with business people like them.

Change the mu tax today, set up a green crop loan tomorrow, send people to Nanyang the day after tomorrow, reform grain rice into tax bank the day after tomorrow, and cancel the shipping fee for rice imports the day after tomorrow...

Many changes seem to have nothing to do with industry and commerce, and even have nothing to do with those who engage in overseas trade.

But when all this happened, the consequences slowly emerged.

First came the mu tax reform, followed by the green crop loan.The combination of the two immediately reversed the original situation in Songjiang Prefecture that "the master is not as good as the tenant".

Originally, a large number of small farmers sold their land and rented land from gentry.One of the main reasons is that Dashun allocates poll tax and other miscellaneous expenses to the land, while gentry can be exempted from miscellaneous labor and a large amount of apportionment. In fact, the burden of national tax is indeed collected according to the land, but the burden of local tax is basically all on small farmers.

After the per mu tax reform, land prices rose, and self-cultivating farmers no longer sold their land, but regarded it as treasure.

The Green Crop Loan that came out immediately after that, of course, the Green Crop Loan in Songjiang Prefecture is not the same as that in the Lianghuai area. The Green Crop Loan in Songjiang Prefecture requires land mortgage, and it is only loaned to self-cultivating farmers who have their own land.

Pure tenant farmers either go to Nanyang or work in factories, and they will not give the tenant farmers this way of life.

The introduction of the Songjiang Green Crops Loan has made the self-cultivating farmers in Songjiang Prefecture more stable.

In fact, it did not make the sharecroppers any more miserable.

Although, the increase in national tax is essentially a tax increase on the gentry.

The tax increase on the gentry was naturally passed on to the tenant farmers.

However, this is the same as the rent problem under the housing subsidies of the British Poor Law at this time. If the tax on the gentry is not increased, will the gentry be merciful and reduce the rent?Land rent has nothing to do with tax increases, but is only related to the tenant's tolerance; housing rent has nothing to do with the cost of owning a house, but only to the tenant's tolerance.

The combination of these two policies, at least in Songjiang Prefecture and the surrounding areas, has caused a sharp drop in loan interest and a sharp drop in land yields.

This is a "legitimate" policy change.

The "illegal" method is naturally to use the plaque of "Respect the Heaven and Love the People" in the Forbidden City at the beginning of the founding of Dashun as a righteousness, and use various means to kill chickens and monkeys, suppressing wealthy businessmen on the list of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to buy land and invest elsewhere in the country.

After these sets of policies, these maritime merchants who didn't feel that they had a huge influence at first suddenly found that their capital was locked up by Liu Yu.

It's like digging a pool and using various means to block other gaps, leaving only three gaps: the quota-determined maritime trade, Nanyang development, and emerging industries.

Or, flow this way.

Or, suffocate in the pool.

Capital needs to flow to be profitable, so I definitely don’t want to hold back.

Originally, there were several gaps in land, usury, and land hoarding, but now these gaps, at least in several prefectures in southern Jiangsu, have been blocked.

The wealthy merchants on Liu Yu's list wanted to flee Songsu with their capital, but in the end they were stripped of their skins, and they were in great pain.

The Western Trading Company and the Japan Trading Company, as Dashun's "note-issuing banks", have long been included in the scope of reform.The preparatory bank required gold and silver profits to issue exchange certificates, promising to be cashed at any time, but the problem is that these banknotes are currently only used in southern Jiangsu, Nanyang, Jinghai, and the coal and iron areas relying on Liaohe and Tianjin.

It is not so easy to change to silver.

Although it can be exchanged at any time, but what to do after exchange, you have to record it.

And the bank's compulsory exchange of banknotes is based on the high rate of return of trade, so that merchants from all walks of life have to accept: either, give up the dizzying profits of the Western Trading Company and the Eastern Trading Company; or, accept the banknotes .

In fact, Dashun has only developed one copper mine in Yunnan in recent years, which alleviated the problem of small currency.But Dashun does not have huge silver or gold mines, so the "currency" that Dashun increases every year, it can be said, all come from Dongyang Trading Company and Western Trading Company.

Liu Yu also does not have a moving stock, but a currency increment that is relatively easy to move.

The currency increment of East-West trade is also huge.

From the Ming Dynasty to the present, the pure inflow of silver from outside has reached 7 tons, equivalent to 22 billion taels.Before the Ming Dynasty, China's total silver deposits may not have been one-third of this amount.

This does not count the inflow of Japanese trade.

Therefore, Liu Yu directly grasped the gate of inflow, that is, the newly added silver is issued in the form of banknotes every year, and the banknotes can now be exchanged for a full amount of silver, but the banknotes are not circulated throughout the country.

This is similar to setting up a "foreign currency zone" in Songsu Nanyang and other places.But to spend money in other places in Dashun, you have to use Dashun's local currency, silver and copper, and other places don't accept paper money at all for the time being.

Is a wealthy businessman like the Xu family rich?
Very rich, worth millions.

But if you leave these special areas, you will have no money.

As for these special areas, it can be said that no matter whether it is luxury enjoyment, or eating, drinking, whoring and gambling, it will not affect them.

If the southern part of Jiangsu can't be satisfied, then other places probably won't be able to.

Even so, it is difficult to say whether there is money or no money.

It can only be said that their money is not free.

Very unfree.

When it was first implemented, no one could see any impact.I feel that there is wear and tear in holding silver, and it is troublesome to trade large amounts. Of course, it is better to engage in paper currency exchange certificates.

But after people gradually accepted it, the merchants discovered that there were still shackles on it.

These slow-moving reforms, when all of them were connected together, became the rhetorical question in Xu Tao's mouth.

"now what?"

An invisible hand firmly controls the flow of these overseas trade value-added capital.

Because the owner of this visible hand is convinced that, relying on the invisible hand, these value-added capital custody go to land and lending.

But after the last shackle of the non-national currency notes fell, the scene Xu Tao lamented now appeared:
The Duke of the State said that in business, we must talk about interests, and the prosperity of the world is all for profit. I will not use official means to force you to do what you don't want to do!

The backhand is a set of policies that make it difficult for those who benefit the most to buy land and lend money.

Just put a rope around the dog's neck first, and then spread a pile of chili powder and rat poison on its favorite salted fish and bacon within the range of the rope, so the dog voluntarily went to eat leftover steamed buns.

If you don't believe me, you can ask the dog if he voluntarily eats leftover steamed buns.

Of course, there seems to be another problem here, that is, dogs elsewhere can still eat salted fish and bacon.And dogs from other places will see that there are only leftover steamed buns here, and they don't want to come.

But actually this is not a problem.

This is also a special case of "I have my own national conditions in Dashun".

Firstly, East-West trade is Dashun's note-issuing bank.The annual increase in value is enough to support the slow-moving industrial and commercial development of Dashun. There are not too many cats in other places who love to come. You can buy land in your hometown, collect rent and lend usury.Can't afford to provoke or hide?

Secondly, although compared with buying land and lending usury, if the high investment really reduces the dividend, it can be regarded as leftovers.But the ones that are better than leftover steamed buns are salted fish and bacon, and the rest are not as good as leftover steamed buns.

Thirdly, with 12% annual interest rate, the gentry of Dashun Investment may hold their noses and feel wronged.But in Amsterdam, the world's financial center at this time, the 12% annual interest rate can be broken by investors.At least Dashun is not afraid of capital outflows. Anyway, Liu Yu does not believe that any fool would rather buy Liberty’s 5% UK government bonds than the 12% to 15% intervention stocks under Dashun’s official supervision.

Fourth, Dashun’s special handicraft industry is abnormally developed, and its labor costs are extremely low. The average daily wage is one-third to one-fourth of London’s, and the price of food in silver is one-third of that. Market sales, capital accumulation will continue, and the existing foundation is sufficient, and there is no need for investment from other gentry.

After all, this is a cotton cloth trade war. Relying on pure handicrafts, hedging against the British steam engine from 1767 watts to the 1890s, the hand textile industry has only collapsed by half-hand spinning must have collapsed, but hand weaving has collapsed because the yarn is cheap. The development was so great that until the year before the Sino-Japanese War of [-]-[-], Nantong Tubu actually relied on machine-made cotton yarn to push back a wave of foreign cloth with almost no tariffs—a miraculous and industrious country.

[Nothing illustrates the plight of our textiles in China better than the fact that after the 'treaty' the raw silk actually shipped to London was packed in the finest Manchester cotton.Because it is the most worthless packaging that can be found in Jiangsu—it is even worthless than the Hangzhou cheesecloth that the locals often use for packaging. 】

Dashun's special national conditions, special currency issuance channels, special capital appreciation speed, and special labor cost advantages make this set of policies only applicable in Dashun, but not in other places.

Used in the Netherlands, not to mention such a "strict" control policy, it is to change the rule that the export of gold and silver is not allowed, and London will become a financial center tomorrow.

Dashun's current industrial and commercial policy is "the court allows merchants to make money, encourages them to make money, but only allows merchants to make money where the court wants them to make money."

Apart from these policies, what Xu Tao said is that "fools can be replaced" is what Xu Tao said. This is to scare businessmen with bureaucratic honors, but it is the least important point.

Because... this can only scare, not really do it.

Some of the impact of these policies can be felt by a businessman like Xu Tao, some cannot be felt or understood, and some are the least important but are considered by these businessmen to be the most important...

But these policies are indeed starting to work.

Xu Heng thought for a while following the idea proposed by his father, and couldn't help sighing: "Now it seems that the Duke's treatment of us is similar to the way he dealt with the Dutch, forcing the Dutch to follow the steps he set. Moved to Ceylon and established cooperation, but there was no fierce battle. In fact, the ending was already doomed on the day when the Duke of Japan cut off the sales of Nanyang Sugar."

"Don't father feel a little scared? This is calculating us step by step, forcing us to follow the path he has set."

Xu Tao asked back: "Otherwise? Do you know where to go? What do you want to go?"

Xu Heng hesitated for a moment, and seeing no one around, he whispered: "After all, he is an official, and we are just people. If it is like the Dutch system, I like it the most. Only businessmen like us can be the leaders of the four peoples."

Xu Tao was not surprised at all. After all, he has dealt with many Westerners, and businessmen naturally envy the Dutch system. Many people have thought about it.

Then he smiled and said: "It's easy, but everything is difficult at the beginning. You just need to blow your breath, first destroy the [-] good families stationed in Songjiang Prefecture, then destroy the fleet of Tianjin Weihai Lushun, and then destroy the [-] Beijing camp stationed in the capital." This is the beginning of the new army in the field.”

(End of this chapter)