Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 131 Social Practice

Chapter 131 Social Practice
The incident of stealing spices from an official ship caused a great uproar in the court, and the emperor was furious, and ordered the Liangzhe Road Transshipment Department and the Criminal Prosecution Department to investigate the case.

The case was investigated for two months before it was concluded. According to the results of the investigation, the former governor of Mingzhou, the former magistrate of Yin County, the Mingzhou Tongjuan, and the ship envoy of Mingzhou Port were all held accountable.

The nearly 54 pieces of property belonging to the Zhang family were confiscated and confiscated, and turned over to the court. The six brothers of the Zhang family involved in the case, except Zhang Qilin, who committed suicide, were all sentenced to death. All [-] members of the family, old and young, were demoted to low status and exiled. Lingnan.

The imperial court's investigation has nothing to do with Fan Ning, and he and his companions started a one-month study tour.

There are two types of study tours. One is to study with a class in a different place, which belongs to the category of academic exchanges.

The other kind of study tour is to go deep into life and investigate various social and economic phenomena, which is a bit like social practice.

For students who are about to take the imperial examination, the latter study tour is more important.

This is because there is an important question in the imperial examination, the countermeasure question.

Countermeasure questions are to express their own views on various major political events or social life, which requires students to go deep into life and learn to think independently.

The study tour of Wuxian County School is only part of the academic exchange in other places. More importantly, the students must go out of the school and go deep into the fields to understand the hardships of the people.

In the room, Fan Ning said to the eight companions: "The test questions are generally close to the characteristics of each state. I looked at the previous Pingjiang Mansion test solution questions, and praising the king accounted for [-]%, and farming and shipping accounted for [-]%. Encouraging business accounts for [-]%, and other miscellaneous items account for [-]%. The secret lesson of our four chief professors is to write articles for the above content."

Dong Kun raised his hand and asked, "Brother, is the focus of our study tour this time on countermeasures?"

Fan Ning nodded, "Countermeasure questions account for [-]% of the imperial examination, which is the most important thing in the imperial examination. I think that the nine of us will be divided into three groups, and we will go to various parts of Yin County to investigate farming, shipping, and commerce. After returning to Wu County, Let’s share the content of the investigation.”

As soon as Fan Ning finished speaking, Mingren immediately smiled and said, "We've covered the commercial side, and we've personally experienced it, so it's guaranteed to be more profound than others."

"It is not only deeper, but also wider in scope, larger in scope and richer in content." Ming Li is supplementing their business opportunities.

Fan Ning gave their brothers a hard look, and said: "Everyone discuss among themselves, how to form a team, we will start today."

Everyone quickly reached a consensus that Fan Ning, Ming Ren, and Ming Li were in charge of business investigations, Su Liang, Duan Yu, and Lu Youwei were in charge of shipping investigations, and Dong Kun, Lin Hong, and Li Dashou were in charge of farmers' tax investigations.

After lunch, the nine of them split up.

The reason why Li Dashou was not allowed to follow Mingren and Mingli was because Fan Ning considered that Li Dashou's family was a big businessman, and it was of little significance for him to investigate the business.

Anyway, Li Dashou had a very good relationship with Dong Kun and Lin Hong. With the support of Li Dashou, a strong and big man, Dong Kun and Lin Hong, two officials' children, would not suffer much when they went to the countryside.

Fan Ning's investigation also received strong support from Wang Anshi. Although he devoted all his energy to cleaning up the Zhang family's property, he still sent three experienced civil servants to accompany them on various inspections.

"My surname is He, and the petty official can call me He Wu."

The clerk who accompanied Fan Ning's group was surnamed He. He was a scribe. He was not tall and thin. He wore a soap-colored jacket. He had a shrewd face. He used to be a tax official. Mingzhou is very familiar with business.

Ming Ren and Ming Li heard that the guide in front of them was actually a tax official, and their attitude towards him immediately became very enthusiastic.

"My name is Ming Ren, and he is Ming Li. I hope Officer He will take good care of us two brothers."

He Wu was also surprised by the appearance of their brothers, they actually looked exactly the same, which is rare.

He chuckled and said, "Two petty officials, don't worry, it's my duty to take care of the three, and I will let the three complete the investigation satisfactorily."

The Mingren brothers are not satisfied with investigation, the gene of doing business has penetrated into their bone marrow, as long as it is profitable, they will never let it go.

Ming Ren whispered a few words to He Wu, He Wu was stunned, "You two want to buy pearls?"

"I heard that there is a black market for pearls here. Ordinary people can't find them, and even if they find them, they can't get in. Can you help me, Mr. He?"

The pearl black market is actually a tax evasion market. Pearls belong to jewelry, and the tax rate is relatively high. Some businessmen traded secretly to avoid tax officials. Not only are pearls cheap, but they are also of high quality and huge profits.

Brother Mingren had investigated long ago. If a high-quality pearl is sold in the jewelry store of Pingjiang Mansion, the profit will be [-]%. If it is sold in the capital, the profit will be doubled.

However, there is also a huge tax here. They have to pay one tax in Mingzhou and another tax in Pingjiang, and [-]% of the profit will be lost. If they want to earn more, they must avoid these two taxes.

He Wu was a bit in a dilemma. He was a local and had worked as a tax official. Of course he knew where the black market was and the people in it, but what should he do if the county lord found out?
He looked at Fanning in perplexity.

Fan Ning did not object to the idea of ​​the two cousins. The best way to investigate the business in depth is to do it yourself. Tax evasion itself is the most profound knowledge in business.

If you want to write a high-level countermeasure article, if you don’t go deep into it, how can you do it? Fan Ning himself wants to experience it for himself.

As for the safety issue, Fan Ning turned his head slightly, glanced back from the corner of his eye, and saw a faintly visible black figure thirty steps away behind him.

Fan Ning smiled at He Wu and said, "I would like to ask Officer He to show us for a while, and I will explain it to the county magistrate."

Seeing Fan Ning's statement, He Wu nodded, "Okay! I'll take you there."

. . . . . .
The pearl black market in Mingzhou is completely different from what Fan Ning imagined. There is no market. It is just an ordinary family that stores a batch of high-quality pearls at home. You need to be introduced by an acquaintance to find it here.

The only thing special is the cash transaction. For this transaction, Akihito and Mingli each brought 300 taels of silver, which is 600 taels of silver, and they can buy about a thousand of the finest Japanese pearls.

In Pingjiang Mansion, it can be sold for 1000 taels of silver, with a profit of 400 taels of silver.

If it was a normal transaction, they would first have to pay 240% of the tax in Mingzhou, sell it to a jewelry store in Pingjiang Mansion, and then pay [-]% of the tax. Their profit would only be [-] taels of silver.

This is still a profitable pearl business. If it is an ordinary small commodity, the profit itself is very low. Although the commercial tax is only [-]%, which is [-]%, it is taxed according to the value of the commodity. Once it is imported and exported, it is a tax of [-]%. .

In the end, there are only a few points left in the profit. It can be seen that the tax burden on small businessmen is actually very heavy.

A thousand pearls were placed in two small wooden boxes, and each pearl was wrapped with a small piece of cloth. He Wu took them out of the pearl black market.

Mingren and Mingli were not worried about how to bring the two boxes of pearls back to Pingjiang Mansion, although there were five or six tax cards along the way, and merchant ships had to show tax payment certificates before they could be released tax-free.

And they have a study tour certificate issued by the county school, and the tax card will not embarrass them, and the journey is unimpeded. It's a little troublesome.

At this time, He Wu's role was revealed.

Fan Ning followed and thought all the way. Tax evasion has existed since ancient times. The appearance of invoices is an effective means to deal with tax evasion.
In the Song Dynasty, there were no invoices, but there were already documents similar to invoices, such as tax payment certificates, which proved that the goods had been paid taxes in a certain place, and there was no need to repeatedly collect taxes along the way.

Generally speaking, after the goods are delivered to the buyer, the tax payment certificate becomes invalid.

Can the tax payment certificate be considered as an invoice and handed over to the buyer for retention as a basis for legal purchase, so as to plug a large loophole.

Like the thousand pearls of Mingren Mingli, they couldn't show the tax payment certificate, and the shop bought them privately. Once they were found out, the shop would be at risk of being fined and bankrupt.

In this way, shops dare not easily accept such goods of unknown origin, and tax evasion will be greatly reduced.

Fan Ning has learned a lot from a unique social practice. If the countermeasure questions of the imperial examination pass the commercial tax test in the future, will he make a fuss on the invoice, and maybe he can really write a high-level countermeasure essay.

(End of this chapter)

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