Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 2272 Economics and Party Struggle () Agreed

Zhu Yijun's reaction to such a grand idea was very realistic. The emperor pointedly asked: "Who will pay for these constructions?"

Out of his understanding of Zhu Yijun, Gao Pragmatic was just stunned for a moment and immediately gave the answer: "Whoever wants to benefit from it will fund the construction."

"Benefit?" Zhu Yijun lowered his gaze and thought thoughtfully: "After these projects are completed, will they pay taxes according to...the existing commercial tax rate?"

Gao pragmatically said: "Naturally."

"Which tax rate?" Zhu Yijun immediately asked.

Gao pragmatically said: "Industrial and mining enterprises are subject to the industrial and mining enterprise tax rate, but railways are subject to the lowest tax rate, and even a tax holiday of at least several years is required."

"Why should the railway be tax-free for several years?" Zhu Yijun frowned: "According to what you said, this rail transit can improve transportation capacity, so it should be profitable anyway, and it may even be quite profitable... Since So, why should we be exempted from tax for several years?”

Gao Pragmatic smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty, this is because the initial investment is huge, and the subsequent maintenance costs are also very high."

"Why do you say this?" Zhu Yijun asked.

Gao pragmatically said: "You can imagine that the railway is almost equivalent to laying two rails of equal length on a Qin straight road. In other words, not only do these two rails themselves consume a huge amount of pig iron, but also before laying them The total cost of building a very high standard of solid straight roads will naturally double.”

After a pause, he continued: "In addition, there is no need to mention the maintenance costs. The straight track itself requires long-term reinforcement and maintenance, and the rails are even more troublesome. It is necessary to ensure that the rails themselves never break or go off track, and also A fixed team of horses should be arranged for patrolling.

As you know, although the price of iron has dropped a lot in the past two decades, it is still considered scarce among the people and its value is not low. This means that once the rails on the railway are left unattended, it is like an open-pit gold mine. There is no guarantee that someone will not take the risk and steal the rails for profit.

As a result, railway owners had to hire or hire a professional armed horse team to patrol and hunt down thieves, which was undoubtedly a huge expense. "

Originally, Gao Pragmatic planned to simply settle the account with the emperor, but Zhu Yijun interrupted with some confusion: "Isn't this a matter of the local garrison or the Yamen?"

Gao Pragmatic spread his hands and said: "If it is left to the local garrison, because this matter has no interest in the garrison, then there will be two results: First, if the railway does not give certain benefits to the garrison, the garrison will have nothing to do. In the end, the results of the inspection and pursuit were worrying, and the railway and the garrison began to argue with each other. In the end, it was the court that was in trouble.

Secondly, even if the railway is willing to provide certain benefits to the garrison, and even negotiate a price acceptable to both parties, considering that the inland provinces do not have nine sides and ten armies, and their cavalry scale is often limited, I am afraid that they may not be able to do this effectively. Errands. Once there is disharmony, it may lead to conflicts between the military and the people in the area, which is not a good thing for the local area.

To sum up, it is better to let the railways choose to hire armed cavalry to ensure railway safety based on local conditions. To put it simply, if the local public security situation is good, the railway can hire fewer people, and patrols may not need to be maintained every day. On the contrary, if the local public security situation is poor, the railway can also hire more people, increase the density of patrols, and strictly guard against safety to ensure safety.

All in all, rather than letting the court take care of this errand, it is better to delegate power to the railways to handle it themselves. As far as the court was concerned, as long as it ensured that each of these horse teams did not exceed a certain number of people, the court could leave it alone. This even has an obvious benefit..."

Gao Pingshi paused deliberately when he said this, and Zhu Yijun asked, "What's the benefit?"

"If necessary, the court will have an additional cavalry force that usually does not cost a penny but can be mobilized at any time - it is nothing more than a little money."

"Ah..." Zhu Yijun suddenly realized, then he thought about it for a moment and asked: "In your opinion, how should the size of this patrol horse team be limited?"

Gao pragmatically said: "I haven't calculated it carefully, but I generally think that we can consider that the size of the patrol horse team hired per two hundred miles of railway should not exceed five hundred cavalry as an upper limit. In other words, the maximum number of people hired by the two hundred miles of railway can be Five hundred riders, hiring less than this number depends on the railway’s own wishes.”

Zhu Yijun thought for a while and asked: "Approximately how far is the Zhaoling Mausoleum of the late emperor from Beijing?"

Gao Pragmatic was startled at first, and then he realized: the emperor lacked an intuitive understanding of distance. The farthest place he visited relatively often was actually the late emperor's tomb, so he needed to use this comparison to confirm whether "two hundred miles with five hundred horses" was appropriate.

Gao pragmatic replied: "If we calculate it from the imperial palace to Zhaoling, the straight-line distance is about eighty miles, and the actual distance does not exceed a hundred miles."

Zhu Yijun thought for a while, nodded and said: "So, two hundred miles is quite far, five hundred rides is also appropriate." But he immediately asked: "According to your prediction, will this two hundred miles long railway be built in the future?" How many?" Gao Pragmatic has never thought about this question, so Shen Yinping said: "I think that within ten years, the Ming Dynasty will not have more than five railways that are 200 miles long."

Zhu Yijun was stunned and asked in surprise: "How come there are so few?"

Gao Pragmatic said bitterly: "Your Majesty, didn't I just say that? The cost of railway construction and maintenance is very high, so we can only plan railways on lines with huge profits. If the profits are not enough, then the investors will inevitably lose money. , How can anyone be willing to do this?”

Zhu Yijun was still a little unbelievable. The Ming Dynasty had such a vast territory. Could it be that within ten years, only five routes that could reach a length of two hundred miles and still be profitable could be found? He couldn't help but said: "Well, give me an example of what kind of good route is enough to maintain a profitable railway."

Gao Pragmatic thought for a moment and planned to give the emperor a close example, so he said: "For example, the Beijing-Tianjin Railway, from the capital to Tianjin Port. I predict that this railway may be the largest railway we can build within ten years." The long railway - will be over three hundred miles."

"That means hiring a cavalry team of seven to eight hundred people to ensure safety." Zhu Yijun pondered for a moment and asked: "Why can this railway maintain profitability?"

Gao pragmatic smiled and said: "Because Tianjin Port is the unloading port for the south-to-north grain diversion, the amount of grain transported from Tianjin Port to the capital alone every year exceeds four million dan. Four million dan is equivalent to sixty million jin [Note: Made in the Ming Dynasty] One stone is equivalent to approximately 1 jins, so 150 million shi is approximately equal to 400 million jins]. This is a big deal.”

Zhu Yijun felt something was wrong, thought for a while, shook his head and said: "The grain that can be transported from Tianjin to the capital is only transported by land from Tianjin Port to the canal, and then transported by the canal to Tongzhou. How can you count it as a direct railway from Tianjin Port? Could it be more cost-effective to transport it to the capital?"

Gao pragmatically said: "Grain can still be transported to Tongzhou and unloaded, but it is still about three hundred miles. As for freight, I am sure that it will be cheaper than before to use railway for the whole journey, because there is one less loading and unloading fee - Your Majesty, water transportation Although it is cheap, loading and unloading ships is not cheap.

In the past, although this section of the road was not long, it did require an extra process of loading and unloading the ship. Therefore, it was always not cost-effective in terms of cost, but there was no way. If the railway can be built, the railway can pass through Tongzhou, so that the grain shipped from Tianjin Port can be unloaded in Tongzhou. With such a huge amount of food, one less step of loading and unloading would save a lot of costs. "

Zhu Yijun let out a long "Oh", and before he could ask anything else, Gao Pragmatic added: "Besides, grain transportation is only part of the railway business. Most of the throughput of Tianjin Port must go through Beijing and Tianjin." If there is a railway on this line, do you think how big the business will be?"

"It's indeed very big..." Zhu Yijun nodded and admitted, but he immediately became worried and said, "But if this happens, wouldn't the fleet and boatmen who were originally engaged in transporting goods on this route lose their jobs? This is Gyeongsang Province. We can’t cause any trouble.”

Gao pragmatically said: "Your Majesty, you don't have to worry too much. Before the canal was converted to sea, weren't there many people who were worried about the livelihood of millions of canal workers? But in fact, after the canal was converted into sea transport, the vacated waterway was not abandoned. It was just used for transport. Grain has been transformed into transporting goods and people, and water workers still have work to do...

All in all, as long as our business in Ming Dynasty can maintain prosperity, then these are nothing more than lost things. Although there will definitely be chaos among the people for a period of time, the imperial court can guide and help them to complete the transformation as soon as possible, so that they will not be afraid of any chaos. "

Zhu Yijun listened to Gao Pragmatic's eloquent talk and couldn't help but be infected by his optimism. At the same time, he was quite lucky and said with emotion: "Rixin, you can still see these things clearly... I'll tell you what you see, this court It’s really going to be a mess without you all day long. You should try your best to go back to the pavilion as soon as possible to take care of things, you know?”

Can you go around this and ask me to go back to work quickly? Why didn't you tell me to give me a salary increase? Well, I don’t care about salary or anything like that...

Gao Pingshi smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty has urged me again and again, how dare I delay deliberately? I will naturally return to the cabinet when the time is right."

Zhu Yijun was very satisfied, nodded and said: "Okay, this matter has been settled. As for the things you mentioned, I have agreed to them, but you still have to go to the court. If the courtiers have any questions, Discussion, we have to let them discuss clearly, so as not to cause chaos in Shilin... Do you think so? "

"What the emperor said is true, and I have no objection."

Isn’t it just public opinion between the government and the opposition? I can control the situation within the imperial court, and I can influence the people among the scholars.

Seeing that Gao pragmatically agreed, Zhu Yijun looked at the time and said: "That's it. I can't stay here for a long time, so I will go back to the palace first - remember to go back to the pavilion early."

Gao Pingshi was a little surprised. At this point, Your Majesty, why don't you just have a meal at my place?

He mentioned something, but Zhu Yijun waved his hand and refused, saying: "No need, I'd better go back to the palace for dinner. It's not good to be late."

Gao Pingshi had some doubts in his heart, but since the emperor insisted, he couldn't say much, so he just said: "I will send you to the emperor."

"Yes." Zhu Yijun was not polite, because it was a courtesy. He stood up and walked out of the room quickly, while Gao Pangshi followed him out the door two steps behind.
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