Why did the emperor rebel?

Chapter 260 The Backbone
With a sum of money extorted from the emperor, Shen Shangshu walked out of Wenhua Palace contentedly.

The so-called black hands and ruthless hearts, after finding out the emperor's intentions to enrich the treasury, Shen Shangshu became more courageous.

As a result, the normal double silver supplement that the emperor promised to give was doubled and quadrupled in the end.

This price is almost close to what Shen Shangshu estimated in his mind, the price that will be successfully traded in the mutual market.

Of course, the additional condition is that the two items of salt and tea will no longer be subject to repeated commercial taxes, and the goods covered by the eight taxes will be changed from four items to two items.

In addition, the Huangdian can withdraw salt and tea in advance, sell them first, and then make a unified settlement to the household department in June of each year based on the dimension of the whole year.

But even so, the household department is still earning a lot of money.

Because according to this price, the two items of salt and tea in the mutual market, although they are sold by the imperial store, are almost no different from those directly sold by the Ministry of household affairs.

Almost ninety-five percent of the profits fell into the hands of the household department. Not only did the imperial store not make much money, it might even put a small amount of money in it.

Shen Shangshu was terrified when he mentioned it, but he never thought that the emperor did not pay back the money for such a sky-high asking price, and he agreed directly, which really surprised Shen Shangshu.

After Shen Yi left, Zhu Qiyu closed his eyes slightly, closing his eyes and resting his mind.

After a long while, Shu Liang who had been serving at the side finally couldn't stand the eyes of the other servants, boldly took advantage of the time when he came forward to change the tea, and asked cautiously.

"My lord, this Shen Shangshu is a little too aggressive. You have raised the tax rate of the exchange market so high, and he even doubled the price of salt and tea..."

20 salt and [-] tea, the original price was more than [-] taels, but now it has quadrupled. With these two items alone, the income of the household department can approach one million.

Even though there are many nobles in the prairie tribe, the transaction is limited after all. Even if the annual transaction volume is more, it is calculated as 400 million taels.

Then the cost of manpower and material resources invested by Huangdian will be about 150 million taels.

For salt and tea alone, the Ministry of Household Affairs will steadily take nearly one million taels, plus the commercial tax revenue of other goods, it will be three to four hundred thousand taels.

It is equivalent to doing nothing by the household department, and you can get about 140 million taels.

On the contrary, Huangdian, busy with work, can only get a little over 100 million taels, most of which are taken by the Ministry of Household Affairs.

Zhu Qiyu opened his eyes, instead of looking at Shu Liang, his eyes fell on Wang Cheng, who was bowing his head aside.

This seems to be asked by Shu Liang, but in fact, the one who is really dissatisfied is probably Wang Cheng, the head of the imperial store.

Although these eunuchs are slaves of the emperor, it doesn't mean that they don't have their own ideas in their hearts.

He handed over a large part of the royal store's income to the household department. Although they did not dare to object, they must have complaints in their hearts.

This bit of resentment exists in their hearts, and they will not really dare to hinder anything, but when they really cooperate with the Ministry of Households, some friction is inevitable.

Therefore, after pondering for a moment, Zhu Qiyu said leisurely.

"Shu Liang, Wang Cheng, do you think that when I faced the Ministry of Households, I gave way too much. It is obvious that all the efforts were made by the Imperial Store, but the Ministry of Households took the bulk of the final profit. I feel that it is unfair. ?”

The two of them knelt down immediately, Shu Liang was calm, but Wang Cheng said with a look of panic.

"The slaves dare not question the emperor's decision. The treasury is empty right now. The emperor has all the people in his heart. The exchange market is also for the purpose of enriching the treasury. The slaves are loved by the emperor. Taking charge of the emperor's store on their behalf can be regarded as doing a little bit for the society. How dare you complain."

Zhu Qiyu smiled, what he said was high-sounding, but from the negative side.

Wang Cheng just felt that the Ministry of Household Affairs shouldn't take so much, it's just that the emperor deliberately gave it up for the sake of the country.

Although the truth is indeed such a truth, they cannot be made to think so.

Both Wang Cheng and Shu Liang are his confidants.

One of them is in charge of the Dongchang, and the other is in charge of the Huangdian. They are all respectable figures among the eunuchs. If there is a quarrel with the Ministry of Household Affairs, it will be a troublesome matter.

What needs special attention is that the establishment of Dongchang is not within the imperial court system.

Strictly speaking, the East Factory, including the West Factory established by Zhu Qiyu's eldest nephew, is regarded as a branch office of the inner court.

Therefore, the source of funds for the East Factory is different from that of Jinyiwei.

Jinyiwei belongs to a branch of the army, and the salary funds come from the commander of Jingwei.

The Dongchang is different. It is the same as other yamen in the inner court, and all the flowers are allocated directly from the inner treasury.

Therefore, the income of the internal treasury is closely related to Shu Liang, the admiral of the East Factory.

After pondering for a moment, Zhu Qiyu waved his hand, signaling the two to get up, and asked.

"What do you think is the most difficult and costly part of the mutual market?"

Shu Liang and Wang Cheng didn't speak, but looked up at the emperor suspiciously.

Zhu Qiyu didn't point to them to answer, but gave the answer directly.

"Businessmen in the private sector know that the biggest cost in making a business is not the cost of purchasing goods, nor the manpower and material resources for selling and transporting."

"The biggest cost of doing business is actually the exploitation of government offices at all levels and the risk of robbery by bandits on the transportation route."

Wang Cheng was the first to react, and spoke boldly.

"What the emperor means is that the reason why you gave Hubu so much money is because you want Hubu to fight for the Huangdian and protect it?"

Zhu Qiyu nodded, his expression was a little more satisfied, and said.

"That's right. In the past, the trade market was open to the public, and there were many ministers and honorable families who secretly participated in it. But this time, I have handed over all the trade affairs to the Huangdian. How could they be satisfied?"

"It's a must. If there is no strong support from the Ministry of Household Affairs, the mutual market will fail to pass the court meeting. How can we talk about profit?"

The so-called don't worry about scarcity but worry about inequality. When the market is completely closed, everyone has no money to make, and they are all honest.

But now they want to open a mutual market, but they can't get any benefits. There must be a lot of people who feel dissatisfied.

In this situation, either Zhu Qiyu is willing to give in and open it up to private businessmen, or he can only confront them head-on.

The former is definitely not acceptable, even if Zhu Qiyu did this, they would not feel the slightest gratitude, and would even encourage the trend of smuggling.

Therefore, they can only find a way to pass the court meeting if they prevent it.

The Ministry of Household Affairs is the yamen with the most say in the mutual market, Shen Yi, a big Situ, don't expect it to be difficult.

But in fact, after he took office, with such a weak state treasury foundation, he supported the purge of the capital's defense, the restructuring of the Beijing battalion, and cooperated with the Ministry of War to support the logistics transfer of the front line.

Then came the rewards after the war, the repair of the side walls, the implementation of the pepper and sumac salary, and the allocation of money to support the restructuring of craftsmen.

Although it was tossing and turning, everything was done properly, and nothing was lost.

His ability and official voice are highly praised in the court, especially among the middle and high-level officials who are aware of the situation in the court.

Therefore, turning him into a community of interests in the mutual market has won the most powerful force through the court discussion for this matter.

After hearing what the Son of Heaven said, Shu Liang also reacted and said.

"What the emperor means is that they are willing to fully support this matter only if the household department benefits, and only if the household department can have enough benefits, they will try their best to ensure the normal transaction of the mutual market. Whoever dares to make trouble, Just fight against His Majesty and Hubu, and Hubu will tear their mouths apart without the emperor's action."

Zhu Qiyu nodded and said: "That's right, as Shen Yi said, the mutual market involves many government offices, up to the Ministry of Households for taxation, the Ministry of War to deploy troops for protection, the Ministry of Industry to build markets, and down to the cooperation of local officials' offices."

"If you break through the joints by yourself, you don't know how much energy you will spend. But if the Ministry of Finance is the biggest beneficiary of this matter, then they will take care of these official relations."

"Even, if necessary, the household department will even discuss with the military department, and send troops to protect you during the process of transporting the goods."

"Without these constraints, the Huangdian only needs to do business with peace of mind. Since the mutual market is a monopoly transaction, it is a sure-fire business."

"What Huangdian has to do is to buy in bulk and then transport them to the border to sell, which only consumes some manpower and material resources. From this perspective, the Ministry of Household Affairs is actually at a disadvantage."

After hearing this explanation, Shu Liang and Wang Cheng really let go of the slightest bit of displeasure in their hearts, and said sincerely.

"The emperor is wise, in this way, if the Ministry of Household Affairs directly manages the mutual market, it will benefit the most. But since these bosses can't let go of their face, they can only benefit the emperor's imperial store."

On the contrary, Wang Cheng felt a little strange and asked.

"Since you have long planned to profit from some of the households, at the beginning, your lord, you deliberately covered up the mutual market because..."

Zhu Qiyu smiled and said.

"I will always cherish the things I have won little by little, and try my best to protect them, won't I?"

The two suddenly realized.

Zhu Qiyu ordered a few more words, and then let the two of them retreat.

The matter of the mutual market will not be officially launched until after the year.

With the income of more than 100 million taels as bait, Shen Yi will naturally think of a way to promote the affairs of the court, and Zhu Qiyu can also temporarily put it down.

Then, next, it will be the clans in Beijing...

(End of this chapter)