Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 539: Dog meat rolls three times, Brother Tian can’t sit still

There was indeed not much food in the camp, but Guo Kang decided to treat these people to a meal.

Although his fighting skills are quite bad, as the saying goes, if you are a Sudan, even if you have never seen a big-eared sheep running, you must have eaten big-eared mutton. Once your status and knowledge reach a certain level, you will naturally understand many things.

As a descendant of the Shihou Guo family, apart from other things, he has seen a lot of top martial arts. In the previous contest, perhaps for the sake of the host's face, Old Hans didn't seem to take action seriously.

On the one hand, these patrol teams are not actually regular troops. They are hastily formed militiamen with very poor training. They can only beat up thieves who steal things. On the other hand, we can also see the strength of these people. They should Still pretty good.

After all, "poor literature and rich martial arts", this kind of business depends on food and nutrition to support it. In this case, it is normal for people to eat more.

Tuo Huan, Zhu Wenkui and others were still busy, and Guo Kang did not bother them. He led the group of people out of the camp, walked for a while, and came to a market.

"It's cheaper to buy things here. Every time we buy something, we purchase it from here," Guo Kang said.

Everyone looked around and saw that the market was crowded. There were indeed many people buying and selling goods, and it was very lively. On the road not far away, there were groups of large trucks transporting goods, parked on the side of the road, waiting to be unloaded.

"I never imagined that a market could be so spectacular." A strong man wearing a feather hat couldn't help but sigh.

"Furthermore, the city entry fee is only the same on paper. It's hard to tell in practice." She thought for a while and added: "If you have connections in the city, the city entry tax for goods can be charged at the standard level. Otherwise, The people guarding the city gate will definitely cause you some extra trouble and ask for more."

First of all, trade volume has nothing to do with this charge. The premise of trade is that there is excess output. Only when these excess outputs reach a certain level can enough materials pass through Dadu and drive the city. For various city charges to affect the entire trade volume, the premise must be that everyone has good harvests year after year, and the materials produced are so surplus that the market can be affected by other factors.

When the Genoese controlled the port of Constantinople, the port was still there in theory, but the ownership was transferred from the Eastern Empire to the merchants. How should we do business? How can we still do business? It’s just a matter of changing customers. But in fact, the trade volume at this time was even far less than it was hundreds of years ago, when production and navigation technology were even more backward. In fact, it is because Italian businessmen only control a few ports and do not care about them - of course they cannot control other places. As a result, the Black Sea coast has generally fallen into chaos and the economic recession has been severe. The goods passing through the port of Gemburg will certainly be affected.

"It's all a good thing." Everyone sighed with emotion.

In fact, he felt that this threshold would not stop anyone. After all, there are so many people without household registration in the city. Everyone knows about them, but no one cares about them. With so many people coming and going, it would be useless to stop a few small businessmen.

"Uh... I, as an apprentice, have just come out to practice and have little experience in the world of martial arts." Old Hans smoothed things over and said, "It would be nice if I had more experience."

"You will definitely have to deal with all kinds of businessmen and city residents in the future." Joanna didn't care, and helped explain: "There are more rules in the city than in the countryside. In addition to the laws and precepts promulgated by the government and the church, there are also There are many explicit or implicit rules. If you are an outsider and sell things in the city, let alone whether you can let buyers know your existence and find your stall, even if you really sell, someone will definitely come. Looking for trouble for you."

"But I heard that the defenders of the city and city gates performed very poorly in the previous rebellion. They were investigated afterwards and found a lot of illegal activities. Many people have been arrested now. I don't know how many more people will be involved in the future. . Anyway, I estimate that in the future, the entry fee will probably be more fair."

"Then since the take-out prices in the city are so cheap, why don't they bring the food in and sell it themselves?" A young man asked curiously: "It's the same entry fee anyway, and they've all gone here, so it doesn't matter if they go into the city again, right?" ?”

Guo Kang could only nod along.

"Business competition in the city is also very fierce. No one will complain about lack of money, so people without money always want to make money, and people with money want to make more. If you sell more goods, others will Make less money. It would be abnormal if we didn't start a fight. People with no foundation will definitely suffer big losses."

Guo Kang had asked Tuo Huan and others about the city entrance fee before. He feels that setting this fee is completely unnecessary. Because the city entry tax is very low on paper, it seems like it attracts a lot of people, but it doesn’t amount to much money in a year. Compared to the huge trade income in most cities every year, it’s just a drop in the bucket. Moreover, it is very troublesome to collect this money, and even if calculated, it may not be enough for the tax collector's own labor.

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone looked back at him speechlessly.

"This is the case in larger cities. There are several markets like this around Florence." Joanna said: "There are many people in Constantinople, and a huge amount of supplies are consumed every day. But here when entering the city , and they also charge extra, so many people choose to transport their goods to markets outside the city, and then wait for big customers or retailers in the city to come out to purchase."

However, Tuo Huan told him that the charge actually had nothing to do with what he thought.

In addition, the urban management level of the Purple Horde Khanate is limited, there are abuses of power, and it is difficult to supervise in a timely manner, which basically leaves a hole for the relevant personnel to make money. In that case, why not just cancel it? It stands to reason that the increased trade volume can bring much more profits than this amount of money. Moreover, directly abandoning this threshold will allow everyone to participate in market competition more fairly.

When there is a shortage of such goods, even if the price increases, we can only endure it because there is really nothing else to choose from. Of course, the city at that time had also declined to the point where farming could be done within the city walls, which could be regarded as adapting to the new environment...

Second, they do want to tax transactions in town, but business-related taxes are not that easy to collect. They didn't plan to collect this amount of money directly.

In fact, even if there is no city entry tax, the only people who can do business in the city are local cowards. And if there is a fee, even if the fee is not high, they will definitely try to escape. Similar things happen every day at the dock customs and the market in the city. However, it is precisely because of this that such a tax must be specially set. Because the key is not how much money is collected, but that everyone knows that they will definitely evade the tax. In this way, there is a regulation with a fixed amount and a clear scope - the amount of other business taxes can be falsely reported or concealed, but this thing is something that all businessmen must have.

Therefore, as long as you catch a big businessman in the city, there will definitely be problems in this regard. According to Roman legal tradition, as long as tax evasion is involved, no matter how much, it is a very sensitive crime. The imperial court would immediately send tax collectors to the merchant to carefully investigate and account for his funds, property, and tax payments.

Unlike businessmen who like to accuse, this step does not require methods such as torture and weaving. Because none of those wealthy businessmen can withstand inspection. Many people have made more money and their businesses have grown. In order to make it easier to make money, they don't even bother to pretend. A little checking can make them shed their skin. Many businessmen will immediately choose to spend money to eliminate disasters and sacrifice part of their wealth in order to maintain basic business. Some people even bite deliberately, hoping that their competitors will suffer the same misfortune as themselves, so that they will not suffer the disaster.

Of course, there are those who want money but not their lives. In order to deal with these people, the Ministry of Punishment also set up corresponding interrogation agencies. In order to prevent the leakage of information and prepare accomplices, these special interrogation places are frequently changed to ensure they are hidden and preferably placed where no businessman can find them. They also hired several Greeks who specialized in torture to study these things every day. It can be said that they took great pains.

Through this method that also severely damaged the business environment in Guo Kang's subconscious, the Khan's court basically received a large amount of extra income on a regular basis. It looks like fishing, but what is frustrating is that the businessmen should know that this is a conspiracy, but they still rush in one after another. Guo Kang at that time couldn't understand for a long time, couldn't he be a little more honest...

After this turmoil, Tuo Huan and others even regretted it. They felt that they had been too tolerant to the merchants before, so that the guild merchants had money to please Zhu Guo and control the city. From this point of view, they received too little and let the guild merchants have money. These people have too much spare money.

Therefore, he hopes that everyone will supervise each other, especially not to be fooled by his businessmen. Otherwise, if this kind of thing happens again, it will be difficult for everyone to deal with it.

However, he always felt it was inconvenient to tell Joanna directly about this kind of thing. Joanna should have been aware of these things, and he would have been prepared even if he didn't tell her; if he said it specifically, people might think that he had ulterior motives, and wanted to fatten her up just like the Khan's court did with those businessmen. Eat.

Moreover, this time it resulted in most places restricting entry and exit. What happened until now was originally caused by Guo Kang himself, and it was hard for him to say anything. But to be honest, before this incident, he never imagined that in more than ten years, the city would have so many problems.

Tuohuan told him that Theodora ran to the palace at that time, copied the guy and reasoned with everyone, and forced them to jointly judge the enemy's behavior as treason. After Tu Huan asked her, why did she rush to make the matter so serious?
Theodora said that if it were not so serious, these people would definitely turn the big problem into a small one. If they protect each other, even if they want to be held accountable, there is nothing they can do. Therefore, we had to set the tone first so that everyone had nowhere to retreat, so that we could deal with those guys who had problems but were usually inactive afterwards. Otherwise, once they are given a little room to compromise, these old cunning people will definitely have to waver again.

Although Guo Kang himself often likes to have sex, as a modern time traveler, his ideas on most political issues are much more conservative than those of the Middle Ages. The violent methods of Tuo Huan and Theodora were somewhat extreme in his opinion.

But thinking about it now, maybe he was too naive and didn't think about so many things. These methods are actually the best choices at this stage.

Therefore, he did not continue to say anything, and led everyone into the market to select.

He originally planned to buy two meat animals, but it was already past noon and the bulk of the livestock had been traded. Guo Kang went to find several livestock sellers. The people selling livestock said that the church sent people out of the city to purchase today and bought all the pigs, cattle and sheep. They came a little late.

Guo Kang had no choice but to think about it and searched for a while, and finally found a dog seller. There was still some left over here, so he asked the boss to pick out a few fat dogs, help them slaughter them, and asked everyone to help carry them before returning to the camp.

Dog meat is a traditional delicacy in Germany. Old Hans and his party obviously didn't eat well on the way, and they were hungry again after arriving here. Some young people in the team who were not very calm even started to drool when they saw these beasts. Old Hans couldn't help but scolded them a few times before they calmed down.

Guo Kang saw it and smiled.

"It doesn't matter if everyone is greedy. I heard that in some places, people regard dog meat as a lower substitute for mutton. But I think this is too undervalued." He said with a smile: "This thing and mutton have their own differences. The flavor of each is, in some aspects, better than that of mutton.”

"We Central Plains people have been doing this kind of cooking for thousands of years. Because dog meat is not expensive, it is the favorite of the common people. But among the common people over there, there are too many heroes. It is said that Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty He’s one of those streetwalkers who likes to eat dog meat.”

"People today no longer have the chivalrous spirit of Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty. However, people over there still like to try the dishes they praised back then, and remember the classical era, when we were at our most glorious."

"People from the classical era..." Old Hans probably still knew this term, but some other people simply didn't understand it anymore: "It's so far away."

"Yes, very far away. It was also a rare glorious moment in Italy." Joanna also sighed with emotion: "At that time, the most powerful countries in the world were either the Han Dynasty or Rome. The other princes were just relying on the ground. Being in a remote place, hiding outside the reach of the sword, just hanging on for a living. Unfortunately, that era will eventually pass..."

"I'm a really talented intellectual." Old Hans's students said with envy: "You can talk so much about someone who is just a dog!"

"I talked too much without paying attention." Guo Kang admitted: "But don't worry, this food will definitely be delicious. Most people here, even professional chefs, are still too rough in cooking dog meat. I'll do it myself this time. As the saying goes, 'If the dog meat rolls around, Brother Tian can't sit still'. If the fragrance of this thing comes out, Brother Tian can't help but put his head in to smell it."

Everyone was very excited and followed him back to the camp to get a big iron pot. I went to Princess Ma again and went to Zhu Wenkui's temporary warehouse to pull out some cooking tools and seasonings. Guo Kang asked everyone to thank her, became familiar with her, and went to cook.

(End of this chapter)