I studied in modern times

Chapter 724 Finance (2)

When Lu Gongzhu saw this, his mouth never closed again.

Because the numbers that come into view are extremely detailed, listed one by one by month.

"A bureau that specializes in manufacturing military equipment is actually making so much money..." he muttered to himself.

The account book clearly states the income and expenditure of the military equipment manufacturing bureau.

First of all, in terms of expenditure, in the first year of Yuanyou, the annual expenditure was 1,657,800 strings of cash.

Among them, 1,114,600 strings of cash were allocated to the Military Equipment Bureau.

The purpose was to reward the various departments of the Military Equipment Supervision Bureau for completing the quality products set by the government.

There are a lot of products listed in the table.

Making armor, crossbows, arrows, even dry food, vinegar cloth, dried meat, pickles, and cheese are included.

Although the so-called 'yield rate index' was a new term, Lu Gongzhu understood it instantly.

Just ...

"Baoban..." Lü Gongzhu asked, "What is the relationship between the Military Equipment Supervision Bureau and the Military Equipment Manufacturing Bureau?"

This is also what many people outside are curious about.

The Military Equipment Inspectorate was a product of the Xining Reform and was part of the supporting reform policies promoted by Wang Anshi.

It is also one of the few new laws that are generally considered by the ministers of the old party to be "good laws".

Even Sima Guang never said a word against the Military Equipment Supervisor during his lifetime.

The Bureau dedicated to manufacturing military equipment was established in the third year of Yuanfeng of the previous emperor. It was a new institution directly under the command of the emperor and independent of the Military Equipment Supervision.

As the name suggests, its main task is to manufacture military weapons.

In the past, the bureau dedicated to manufacturing military equipment was headed by eunuchs, while the Military Equipment Inspectorate was led by civil officials or above.

Key figures in the new law movement, such as Zhang Dun, Shen Kuo, and Zeng Bu, all served as judges of military equipment.

However, after the current emperor ascended the throne, he, in the name of the late emperor's will and entrustment, elevated the status of the military equipment manufacturing bureau to the level of "family property" that was "passed down from father to son and from posterity to grandchildren" of the Song Dynasty.

Then, in the name of the late emperor, Shen Kuo was reinstated and ordered to take charge of the military equipment manufacturing bureau.

Shen Kuo was a civil official, so the duties of the Military Equipment Inspectorate and the Bureau specializing in the manufacture of military equipment overlapped.

However, since the eighth year of Yuanfeng, these two systems have been running smoothly.

Because of the special nature of the bureau, which is dedicated to manufacturing military weapons, ordinary people dare not spy on or inquire about the situation inside.

I could only find a general idea through the officials of the Military Equipment Bureau.

But the fact is - even the officials of the Military Equipment Bureau themselves cannot clearly explain what the current situation is inside the Military Equipment Bureau.
Because the person in charge of the Military Equipment Inspectorate now is Cai Shuo - he is Cai Que's younger brother.

Naturally, Cai Shuo was a die-hard imperialist.

Since the eighth year of Yuanfeng, Cai Shuo has been drinking tea in the Military Equipment Supervisory Office every day.

It is said that the first thing to do when going on duty every day is to make tea for yourself, then sit on a chair, take a copy of the Bian Jing Newspaper, read it happily for the whole day, and then pat your butt and leave.

This is the case every day, 365 days a year, except for holidays.

Cai Shuo not only did this himself, but also persuaded other officials from the Military Equipment Bureau to do the same.

If it were someone else, the crows in the Censorate would tear him to pieces for being so lazy and indolent.

But Cai Shuo did this and nothing happened.

Not only did he not receive any punishment, he was promoted instead.

In March of the first year of Yuanyou, he was promoted to Chaofeng Doctor, and was exempted from the imperial examination and appointed to the Jixian Academy.

In December, on the Dragon Festival, he was promoted to Baowen Pavilion due to grace.

He got promoted while drinking tea and reading tabloids.

Among the officials in the capital, Cai Shuo was the most comfortable, so people gave him a nickname: Cai Shuo.

As a result, all the officers and men in the Military Equipment Bureau felt at ease and followed Cai Shuo to drink tea in the yamen every day, and they were very happy.

But he knew nothing about what was going on inside the Military Equipment Inspectorate.

Oh……

How much is your salary? How long have you been doing this?
They still know.

Liu Weijian smiled slightly and said, "If the Left Prime Minister is curious, it would be best for him to go to the Military Equipment Supervision Bureau and the Military Equipment Manufacturing Bureau in person."

"But old slave, you can also briefly introduce to the left prime minister the relationship between the Military Equipment Manufacturing Bureau and the Military Equipment Supervision Bureau..."

As he spoke, Liu Weijian gave a brief introduction to Lu Gongzhu.

Mr. Lu listened thoughtfully.

According to Liu Weijian's introduction, the Military Equipment Inspectorate is still an independent institution today.

However, its production tasks and the quantity of armor and other equipment were arranged by the military equipment manufacturing bureau based on orders from the Privy Council and the palace.

It is a pure production and manufacturing organization!
Apart from the production and manufacturing of military weapons and armor, they don't care about anything else.

The Bureau, which specializes in the manufacture of military equipment, handed over most of the new technologies and tools it developed related to the production and manufacturing of military equipment to the Military Equipment Inspectorate.

Except for the gunpowder production which was under the charge of the Gunpowder Department.

Thus, a system was formed in which the Military Equipment Manufacturing Bureau was responsible for research and development and trial production, while the Military Equipment Supervision Bureau was responsible for implementation and production.

Therefore, now, all regulations and systems of the Military Equipment Supervision Bureau need to comply with the requirements of the Specialized Military Equipment Manufacturing Bureau.

The military equipment manufacturing bureau would also frequently dispatch technical officials and skilled craftsmen to the Military Equipment Supervision Bureau to provide guidance and oversee production.

The so-called "yield rate" was authorized by the government to Shen Kuo in order to encourage the craftsmen of the Military Equipment Supervisory Office to produce seriously and make military equipment for the country. It was promulgated in the Military Equipment Supervisory Office and engraved on a stone tablet at the entrance and exit of the Military Equipment Supervisory Workshop.

Different workshops produce different tools.

Each "production line" has its own yield rate and production quantity indicators.

Moreover, it is divided into five different levels: upper-middle, upper-middle, middle-middle, lower-middle, and lower-lower.

There are rewards for those who perform above average, and corresponding punishments for those who perform below average or below average.

In this system, the yield rate corresponds to the level of reward, and the quantity determines the amount of reward.

After listening to this, Lu Gongzhu could not help but sigh: "No wonder last year, the generals did not report the quality problems of the relevant armor and weapons to the court!"

"That's it!"

In the city of Bianjing, money can make the devil work.

When the quality and quantity of what you produce determines how much reward you can get.

The craftsmen in the Military Equipment Bureau will naturally work hard.

Just ...

"Production line?" Lu Gongzhu wrote down the term.

What Liu Weijian specifically mentioned must be not simple.

Today's officials like to come up with new ideas and create new halls.

The smart ones got on board early.

For example, Shen Kuo came up with a unique theory called "investigating things to acquire knowledge" to distort the meaning of the sages.

But he just caught the emperor's preferences and thus became his favorite.

Even his deceased father-in-law was posthumously awarded the title of Minister of Rites and the title of Tongyi Doctor.

Does Lu Gongzhu want to become such an official confidant?
Of course he wants to!
The Lu family of Shouzhou made their fortune by trying to figure out the intentions of their superiors.

One of his family's secret skills is how to flatter the emperor and get his own things done.

With this in mind, Lu Gongzhu continued to ask Liu Weijian: "Yaban, I saw in this account book that in the income of manufacturing military equipment, besides the income from fireworks, what is this so-called 'patent license fee'?"

According to this account book, the military equipment manufacturing bureau had an annual income of 1,857,423 thousand strings of cash.

Among them, fireworks ranked first in terms of income.

The total amount reached an exaggerated 684,000 strings of cash.

However, Lu Gongzhu had psychological expectations for this income.

After all, the booming business of fireworks in Bianjing City is obvious to all.

Those gorgeous fireworks and crackling firecrackers have quickly become popular in the market since they debuted during last year's Kuncheng Festival.

In the city of Bianjing, no matter it is a festival, a birthday or a business opening.

Everyone had to buy some to set off. For a period of time, one even had to find connections and ask for favors in order to buy those high-end and expensive fireworks.

As a result, a trend of comparison was formed in the city of Bianliang.

If you set off ten boxes of first-class fireworks for your business opening, then I will set off fifteen boxes. This is really not spending money properly.

In this atmosphere, with the Winter Solstice, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and Lantern Festival all coming together, the sales of fireworks and firecrackers are naturally rising.

What’s more, the fireworks business was not limited to the city of Bian Jing.

The entire Kaifeng Prefecture, as well as the wealthy families and official families in the capital area, would come to Beijing to buy fireworks.

Because the government abolished the city gate tax in Bianliang last year, people from Luoyang, Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture (Shangqiu) and other places have come to Beijing to buy fireworks.

Therefore, Lu Gongzhu had anticipated the huge profits from the fireworks industry.

However, the so-called "patent licensing fees" which was second only to the fireworks house in the account book and had an income of 570,000 strings of cash made Lu Gongzhu a little confused.

Liu Weijian laughed and replied: "The so-called 'patent licensing fee' should be called 'imperial franchise and exclusive patent fee'!"

"It is the Imperial Order that the Specialized Military Equipment Manufacturing Bureau has issued secret recipes or unique technologies invented by the Specialized Military Equipment Manufacturing Bureau to merchants in the capital, allowing them to use them to finance production and sales!"

After Liu Weijian said this, Lu Gongzhuo immediately remembered it.

Nowadays, there are all kinds of utensils used in the official residences of officials in the capital.

For example, bowls, chopsticks, tables and chairs, paper, pens, ink, candles, etc. were all purchased by the Ministry of Revenue and Kaifeng Prefecture from the workshops of merchants with backgrounds of foreign relatives and nobles such as Cao, Liu, Wang, Yang, Gao, and Xiang.

There were already complaints from both the government and the opposition, and those whose interests were damaged were even more furious.

The crows in the Censorate were ready to make a move, just waiting to catch hold of something to severely impeach these greedy relatives and ministers.

But in the end, everyone discovered that the Ministry of Revenue and Kaifeng Prefecture purchased the utensils from the servants and relatives of these foreign relatives and meritorious officials.

Although the quality is not very good, it is usable and is no worse than the official products on the market.

Some of these things are even of higher quality than ordinary goods on the market.

The key is cheap!

Take the teacup used for drinking tea for example!
On the market, a common Ding kiln white porcelain tea cup costs thirty cents.

However, the kilns outside the city only charged twenty-five cents for white porcelain tea cups of the same specifications and size.

It was five cents cheaper each.

Not to mention the desks and chairs for office use.

In the Wang family's woodworking workshop, a set of tables and chairs only costs three thousand five hundred coins.

On the market, the same tables and chairs start at four thousand coins!

The key is that the Wang family’s tables and chairs have smooth surfaces, without any protrusions or burrs.

At the same time, it still retains its natural texture, which makes many scholars very happy.

So, he actually spent money to buy tables, chairs and other furniture from Wang's workshop.

What is more crucial is that Cai Jing and Zhang Heng both publicly declared that the purchase price in the second year of Yuanyou must be further lowered!

This is very confusing.

How did these foreign relatives and nobles, who were as greedy as termites, manage their businesses?
How did you keep costs down?
So, the root is here?
Just ...

Lu Gongzhu couldn't understand why those foreign relatives and nobles were willing to pay this money?
This is not a small amount.

That's 570,000 strings of cash a year! If it's evenly distributed among the families, it's equivalent to each family paying tens of thousands of strings of cash as tribute!

And Lu Gongzhu knew very well the true faces of these foreign relatives and nobles of the Song Dynasty!

They are all misers. Asking them to pay is like asking for their lives!
When Wang Anshi carried out reforms, he implemented the exemption from military service and the exemption from travel laws, requiring them to pay money.

Each household only contributed two or three thousand strings of cash every year, but everyone acted as if they were about to die and went to the palace to cry every day.

Now, look what happens. They are spending tens of thousands of dollars without blinking an eye.

Officials, what kind of magic potion did you give them?

This is what Lu Gongzhu didn’t understand.

Zhao Xu not only gave them technology, but also gave them the franchise.

It’s just like the liquor and fireworks monopolies.

Zhao Xu might not be able to take care of other places.

But in Kaifeng Prefecture, the relevant technologies and products are only available in these people’s workshops, and they are the only ones allowed to sell them!

Not only that, Zhao Xu also gave them orders.

All the departments in the capital, the imperial guards in the capital, and even the imperial guards stationed in other counties bought their needed goods from them.

In addition, they were also allowed to participate in Song-Liao trade.

It was almost like feeding the food to your mouth.

In this case, how can these guys not pay the money obediently?

Of course, all this is only temporary.

This will only happen in the next one or two years. Starting next year, the relevant franchise will no longer exist.

At the same time, relevant technologies and tools will be made public to allow everyone to participate.

If these guys want to continue making money without doing anything, they must increase investment, improve production scale, and upgrade the industry.

Of course, the cost of this part is not as high as Lu Gongzhu imagined.

All together it’s less than 200,000 strings of cash a year.

The remaining three hundred thousand strings of cash were the koji fees paid by five official stores specializing in liquor, including the Sun family’s official store.

The liquor monopoly is a profiteering business.

And the new type of alcohol, baijiu, is the most profitable among all the other types of alcohol!

What’s more, it is a monopoly!

……

Lu Gongzhu suppressed the doubts in his mind and continued to point to other income and ask Liu Weijian.

Liu Weijian gave simple answers one by one.

After listening to this, Lu Gongzhu took a deep breath.

The income structure of a military equipment manufacturing bureau was slowly taking shape in his mind.

The total income from the fireworks monopoly and the so-called "patent licensing fees" is almost 1.3 million strings of cash!

The remaining more than 500,000 strings of cash mainly came from two major sources.

One of them is arms sales.

When seeing this, Lu Gongzhu was shocked.

Because the account book clearly showed records of the sale of military weapons such as the Shenbi Bow.

And the sales targets made him even more nervous - according to Liu Weijian, they were mainly the two great Tibetan leaders Wen Xixin and Xiba Wen, as well as the local officials of Jiaozhou.

The things they bought ranged from divine arm bows and iron armor to arrows and leather armor, covering almost all military weapons.

This piece was sold for nearly 300,000 strings of cash.

And Liu Weijian said that the military equipment manufacturing bureau planned to sell more than one million strings of cash of military equipment this year, which made Lu Gongzhu even more nervous.

Selling military weapons like this?
Aren’t you afraid of backlash?
Lu Gongzhu did not ask in front of Liu Weijian, but he planned to ask the emperor about this matter.

Don’t raise an An Lushan!

In addition to the income from arms sales, there is also rental income.

According to Liu Weijian, most of the workshops in the city that specialized in manufacturing military equipment have now moved outside the city.

Therefore, these idle workshops were rented out by the store management.

This business can bring in about 70,000 guan of revenue every year.

Finally, there are some miscellaneous incomes.

For example, the cotton ginning earned more than 2,000 strings of cash, and the fishing grounds made a profit of more than 1,000 strings of cash by catching fish in the Bian River and the Wuzhang River. Although most of the catch was used as food for the craftsmen, a small portion was sold in the market.

Things like this, when added up in bits and pieces, ended up amounting to about 10,000 or 20,000 strings of cash.

After hearing this, Lu Gongzhu took a deep breath and said with emotion: "Your Majesty is truly a genius in business!"

Although Lu Gongzhu felt that some practices were problematic.

However, money can be squeezed out of the mouths of relatives and nobles.

In this respect, the current government has surpassed all previous governments.

You have to know that since Taizu, no one in the Song Dynasty has been able to get money out of the mouths of foreign relatives and nobles.

It has always been the government that subsidizes these foreign relatives and nobles.

Therefore, he became even more curious about where the surplus of more than 4 million guan in the capital came from.

(End of this chapter)