Fenghou

Chapter 1148 Amendments
When Chen Qing returned to the government office, it was already dusk, and the officials all went home, so Chen Qing had no choice but to go home directly, and we will talk about it tomorrow.

Chen Qing went straight into the gate of the mansion, and Steward Tian chased him up from behind, "Stop! Who are you, you dare to break into Prince Yong's mansion."

"Steward Tian, ​​it's me!" Chen Qing remembered that he was still wearing a mask, and hurriedly uttered the whistle, and his voice returned to normal.

"The prince is wearing a mask?" Tian Butler also heard the voice.

"Of course!"

Steward Tian still couldn't believe it, and said with a smile: "My lord, let's wash it off first! It will scare the ladies."

"Steward Tian, ​​let me come!"

Princess Lu Xiu brought a large group of servants over from the guest hall, glanced at Chen Qing and said with a smile: "Where did this wild boy come from, if you break into the palace, you will be punished by the supervisor!"

Chen Qing said with a grin, "Hey! Whose lady is this, she is quite handsome!"

The servant girls covered their mouths and laughed, Lu Xiuqiao blushed, stepped forward and pinched Chen Qing's arm, and ordered: "Chunyu and Dongxue, hurry up and get a pot of hot water in the kitchen."

The two maids rushed away, Chen Qing sat down in the guest room, Lu Xiu carefully tore off the mask for her husband, washed his face with hot water, and then returned to its original state.

Lu Xiu was a little displeased and said, "My husband went to Weifu for a private visit again?"

"I'll go to Wazi for a walk to learn about the situation of the people at the bottom. Don't worry! The inner guards are under surveillance, and the personal soldiers will follow!"

In front of the servant girl and servant woman, Lu Xiu couldn't say anything.

Chen Qing asked with a smile: "Why is Madam outside?"

"Counselor Zhou's wife came just now, and sat with her for a while."

"What is Counselor Zhou's wife doing here?"

"Nothing? I just want to ask about making winter clothes. Is it better to use wood cotton or grass cotton for the filling, and then let me introduce the tailor to her."

There are still some things that Lu Xiu didn’t say, Mrs. Zhou actually came to remind her implicitly, don’t let her husband pay for the tea money, it will embarrass the prince. Of course, Zhou Kuan asked his wife to come over and remind the princess that today’s tea money should be done. Not right.

Naturally, Lu Xiu felt very regretful in her heart, and she really didn't think carefully about asking the shopkeeper to ask her husband for the bill.

Fortunately, the husband is more tolerant and doesn't care about such things, otherwise the husband will be dissatisfied and her life will be difficult.

The carriage came, Chen Qing and his wife got into the carriage, and the carriage drove to the back garden.

"Husband has a private visit on microservices today, did you gain anything?"

Chen Qing nodded, "There are two major gains. First, the extravagance restriction is a bit ill-considered and may be adjusted."

"Why? Isn't your husband worried that extravagance will affect morale?"

"It will affect morale, but it is not right across the board. It will affect the survival of the people at the bottom, so we need to find a proper way."

"How can the luxury restriction order affect the lower class people? The lower class people have nothing to do with luxury!"

"It does matter. For example, rich businessman A goes to Qing'an Teahouse to drink a pot of Fengcha and spends a hundred guan. There may be [-] guan tea money in this hundred guan, and the other [-] guan is the wages of the shopkeeper, the waiter and the tea princess. There are also the wages of the water delivery man, and the rent and so on.

Now the rich merchants are not allowed to drink Fengcha, the one hundred guan money can’t be spent, the rich merchants have no loss, but the salaries of the shopkeeper, the waiter and the tea girl will be gone, and if they have no money, there will be no source of customers in the tile, so How to support multiple stores? "

"It seems to make sense!"

Chen Qing said with emotion: "So today a peddler said it well. Everyone has no special skills. They just rely on running errands, being a buddy, and doing some small business. You buy mine and I buy yours. Where does the money come from? Rely on the rich to spend money to leak a little out."

"so what?"

"So blocking is worse than sparse. The rich should be allowed to enjoy luxury appropriately, but especially in terms of food and clothing, they should not be restricted too much, so that they can spend money to benefit more people at the bottom."

Lu Xiu nodded, and asked with a smile, "What's your husband's second harvest?"

"I learned about the market price of cotton cloth."

"I know that too! The market price of cotton cotton cloth is three guan kuai, fine linen is [-] renminbi, extra-fine linen is [-] renminbi, and stuffed cotton is [-] qian kuai."

Chen Qing was stunned, "How could my lady know?"

"It's all in the newspapers! Daily market prices, how much is the price of food? How much is the price of meat? The price of cloth is all there. In addition, my husband wants to know the people's sentiments of the people at the bottom. Ask Tian Steward and Mrs. Wen, or ask the maids, You can all understand why you need to take the risk to make a private visit, in case you encounter an assassin, even if you have personal guards, you can't defend against it! If something happens to your husband, Ji'er is still so young, can he support your great career?"

Lu Xiu seized the opportunity and unceremoniously criticized her husband's private visit. The lesson of Yuchi County, Kaifeng Prefecture is so profound, how could he forget it in a blink of an eye?

After thinking about it for three days, Chen Qing finally made a decision to adjust the extravagance restrictions. First, food and clothing were removed from the extravagance restrictions. Generally, noble wives would not show their faces easily, and they were all active in the house and stayed at home. Or attending parties, etc., the extravagance order itself does not restrict staying at home.

The same goes for eating and drinking. If you want to eat delicacies from mountains and seas, you can eat them at home instead of in restaurants. It is better to eat in restaurants to prosper the catering industry.

What Chen Qing wants to prohibit is the extravagant consumption of Fenglelou. The luxury of Fenglelou does not lie in what to eat or drink. It is a status to enter Fenglelou. A pot of Baiguan will be sold in Fengle Building.

There are only dozens of dishes for a table outside, but hundreds of dishes are sold in Fengle Building.

In addition, there are the most beautiful women serving and even sleeping. Strictly speaking, Fengle Building is just the highest-level brothel.

Secondly, there are extravagant restrictions on housing and transportation. This rule cannot be broken, and people below the third rank can only ride in a one-horse cart, regardless of whether it is a government order or a wealthy businessman.

The third-rank and above ride a double-horse cart, and the three-horse cart can only be the carriage of King Yong.

As for living, it still follows the old rules. If you want to live in a big house, you have to go through the official rank, or make a contribution to get an honorary officer. If it is more than two acres, it is called a house, and if it is less than two acres, it is called a courtyard. The same is true for wealthy businessmen, who cannot get honorary officials, and are not allowed to buy residential land of more than two acres. If they have already bought it, they are not allowed to build it.

This is actually equivalent to a qualification to buy a house. You have to do good deeds first, and get an honorary officer. Before you get an honorary officer, you can only rent a house.

Zhou Kuan’s plan for heavy taxation on luxury goods has not come out for a long time. It is too difficult. The key is that it is too difficult to define luxury goods. What is luxury goods?What is not a luxury?It is difficult to define at all. Tongzhou Kuquan sheep is a luxury product, so how do you know that the sheep he eats is Tongzhou Kuquan sheep?
In the end, the Internal Affairs Hall unanimously approved Chen Qing's amendment plan, abolishing the restrictions on food and clothing, and instead restricting the way of operation, not allowing the appearance of luxury restaurants with restricted status like Fengle Restaurant.

The plans for housing and travel were also approved, and a little fine-tuning was made on the travel. In addition to King Yong, the troika also added the princess and the prince.

After the plan was approved by Chen Qing, it was immediately published in the Beijing News and received enthusiastic responses in Jingzhao City. Almost all restaurants and teahouses breathed a sigh of relief.

In the official room, Chen Qing was listening to Wei Ji's report.

"His Royal Highness, almost all merchants believe that the previous extravagance restriction order is an evil law. It does not restrict the rich people from enjoying luxury at home, but it restricts the development of restaurants and teahouses. The shopkeeper of Tianwei Restaurant said that they There are many secret dishes that take several years, and the process is very complicated. It is normal to sell a plate for ten guan, but there is a limit of [-] guan. They can only serve two dishes, which is very unfair to them.

The big shopkeeper of Taibai Restaurant also said that their champion wine and green plum wine are good wines that have been cellared for more than [-] years, and a pot costs ten guan. . "

Chen Qing listened to the report patiently, and said to Wei Ji and Chao Qing next to him: "You two must learn to persuade in the future, and you must promptly feedback the voices of lower-level officials and common people to me. This extravagance restriction is a very bad one. Not to mention the successful decree attempt, it took a lot of manpower and material resources, and more importantly, it was divorced from reality, and it was taken for granted. In the end, it was opposed by everyone from top to bottom, and had to be revised. The lesson is profound!"

Wei Ji and Chao Qing bowed together and said, "I know my mistakes!"

(End of this chapter)