Xuande

Chapter 275

Regarding Liu Hong's crazy love for money, Guan Yu has some other opinions.

"The emperor is rich all over the world, why is he so keen on these things? Shouldn't the emperor rule the four poles and sweep the eight wastes? Why should he be so concerned about this kind of business? And so...greedy?"

In front of Liu Bei, Guan Yu didn't want to hide himself, he directly expressed his inner thoughts.

Liu Bei thought about it.

"This is probably the difference between our emperor and other emperors. Other emperors still care about their own image, but our emperor doesn't have such thoughts. He... is more practical."

"A gentleman loves money, and he should get it in a proper way. An emperor loves money, and he should do it in a proper way. I really don't know the reason for this."

Guan Yu shook his head and said, "Brother, what do you think? Do you think this is the right way?"

I think?
But now is not the time for me to think.

What's more, as a political figure, Liu Bei feels that it doesn't matter whether the emperor's actions are correct or not, but whether it is good for him is the most important thing.

Is what Liu Hong did good for him?

of course.

Not only are there benefits, but the benefits are great.

So Liu Bei just comforted Guan Yu, but didn't answer his question directly.

Now all his energies are devoted to rectifying Liangzhou, and he will soon start the docking work with Meng Tuo who arrived in Ji County.

Meng Tuo is worthy of being a professional. Although his character is questionable, his professional ability is indeed very strong.

He is very familiar with business and cross-regional business, and he speaks clearly and logically, and he is very familiar with the major checkpoints, ferries, and private checkpoints set up by local governments from Liangzhou to Luoyang.

Even he has some connections in these places, and he is very familiar with the road problems in Liangzhou, Sanfu and Sanhe, and he is a rare expert.

He was very excited when he learned that Liu Bei recommended him to be the agent of the three parties. He was very grateful for Liu Bei's recommendation, and expressed his willingness to donate a sum of money and food to help the Liangzhou government.

Liu Bei admired him very much, accepted his gift, and then asked him to send it to Ji County with great fanfare, making the momentum great.

Meng Tuo immediately assured that he would definitely do well.

Then Meng Tuo also gave his own opinions on some details raised by Liu Bei, and assisted Liu Bei to repair some places that Liu Bei himself did not understand thoroughly, and made targeted improvements.

After the discussion on the salt issue was almost over, Liu Bei began to discuss with Meng Tuo about Liangzhou livestock and ironware because the matter of rose peach wine had already been discussed.

Knowing that Liu Bei not only wanted to trade salt and apple wine, but also wanted to trade ironware and livestock across regions, Meng Tuo also gave his own views from a professional perspective.

"Livestock and ironware have different needs in different places, but generally speaking, there is a shortage of horses in the south of the Yangtze River than in the north of the Yangtze River. If you can sell the horses to the south of the Yangtze River, you can get a lot of profit. As for ironware, it is not the government that is really lacking. But folk.

Folk farmers have a great demand for iron farm tools. When I was young, I traveled to many places. I generally found that there was a lack of farm tools in the local area. When I asked the local farmers, the farmers said they couldn’t buy farm tools. Even if they could, the quality was very good. Shoddy, unusable, ruins quickly.

And once the agricultural tools are damaged, it is even more difficult to buy them again, not to mention whether they can be bought. Once a war breaks out, no matter whether it is the government or the private sector, they will not produce agricultural tools, but will go to produce weapons.

As a result, farmers in many places are very troubled by this, and the farming time is delayed, but they have no other way. In some places, farmers even use stones to grind them into farm tools, barely replacing them, but the effect is just..."

Liu Bei was very surprised by this.

When he was in his hometown in Youzhou, he also ran the business of iron farm tools. At that time, under the protection of Han Rong, he was able to reduce taxes, so he made a lot of profits.

With such a good business and such a big market, why are so many farmers unable to use farm tools?

The Han people's iron forging technology is not bad, and the output is not low. It is not difficult to make the output of farm tools cover the agricultural production of the whole country.

Mentor has a different view on this.

"The iron affairs of this dynasty, since Emperor Xiaohe, have been government-run and privately operated. Generally speaking, the ironware used by the government is mostly forged by the government-run workshops, while the private workshops mainly produce ironware for the people, but the actual situation is not the case. .

Before Emperor Xiaohe, during the reign of Emperor Xiaozhang, the monopoly of salt and iron was once resumed to subsidize national use. During the monopoly of salt and iron, iron officials mainly made iron wares to meet the orders of their superiors, not for private agricultural production, so there were few farm tools. , and less forging, poor quality.

After Emperor Xiaohe, although the salt and iron monopoly no longer continued, there were many corruptions in the government-run workshops. The imperial court issued an order, and the government-run workshops often embezzled funds, and asked private workshops to hand over forged ironware with less money. Catch up on errands.

In this way, private workshops could have forged agricultural tools and sold them, but they could not do so because of government errands. Therefore, if farmers wanted to buy iron agricultural tools, they had to try their luck.

When there are no government errands in the workshop, you can forge farm tools a little. Once there are errands, you must complete the government errands immediately, and you can't slack off, and the production of farm tools will be abandoned.

Moreover, high-quality ironware can only be used as weapons. Even if the farm tools are forged, the quality of the farm tools is quite poor, and they will be damaged after a short period of time. It is even more difficult to buy them again. "

"It turns out that there are still these things in it."

Liu Bei didn't know much about this matter. He mainly relied on Han Rong's protection to manage the iron business in Zhuo County. Now that he thinks about it, without Han Rong's protection, his iron smelting business would not be able to continue no matter what. Not to mention profits.

"That's not counting, it's just a problem."

Meng Tuo smiled wryly and said: "The imperial court imposes taxes on iron smelting. Each of iron mining, production, and local iron sales needs to pay [-]% tax. Duplicate taxation, [-]% for less, and [-]% for more.”

"Fifty percent?"

Liu Bei was very surprised: "If you sell from this county to another county, you will be charged [-]% of the tax? I have never heard of such a high tax before!"

"It's not all [-]%, but at least [-]%. According to my experience, [-]% to [-]% is relatively common, and the key is double taxation, which is more tax than salt. Therefore, ironware is really What’s hard to sell far away.”

Meng Tuo sighed: "It has always been very difficult for merchants to travel far. If you want to avoid tax checkpoints, you have to go to remote mountains and old forests, and those places are often haunted by beasts and strong men. If you don't pay attention, Life is gone. If you want to be a little safer and follow the official path, you will have to pay heavy taxes.

This is really a dilemma, but you have supernatural abilities, and with a little work, tax relief is not a big deal. Even so, I don’t recommend you to sell ironware beyond the land of Sansuke and Sanhe. The price is too expensive, and farmers cannot afford it. "

After hearing this, Liu Bei was silent for a long time before speaking slowly.

"Agriculture is the foundation of a country, and business is the only way to revitalize the country's situation. There are many obstacles, not only business, but also agriculture. It is said that agriculture is more important than business, but this farmer Where is the weight? Taxes?
I can figure it out, there is no such thing as emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business. Farmers are taxed once, and merchants are taxed again. They are both cheap and heavy. Only high-ranking officials and nobles. As long as they live comfortably, farmers and businessmen are only theirs. Just money bags. "

(End of this chapter)