Do you know the long song of laughter?

Chapter 449: Maritime Customs

"I know this too. What I mean is, can the capital be moved in the future?" Zhao Ceying asked.

"Your Highness, it's too early to talk about this now," Li An said.

Seeing that Li An did not want to talk more about this issue, Zhao Ceying did not continue to say this and said, "I have already reported to my father and asked him to re-employ the royal teacher. My father has sent someone to convey the order to summon the royal teacher to Beijing."

"Your Highness, Brother Jiefu wrote to me not long ago, saying that his mother is in poor health and he is afraid that she will not be able to come to the capital in response to the imperial edict." Li An said.

He and Wang Anshi had been in correspondence all the time, and when the emperor passed away, he even sent a letter to Wang Anshi.

Not long ago, Wang Anshi wrote back to him saying that now that the new emperor has ascended the throne, he needs to be busy stabilizing the foundation and it is not a good time to carry out reforms. He does not plan to return to Beijing in the short term.

Moreover, the views that Ang Lee had expressed before were very inspiring to him, and he needed time to discuss and think about solutions.

"Master Wang's mother is sick? Is it serious?" Zhao Ceying frowned slightly.

"I'm not too sure. After all, Brother Jiefu's mother is old, so it's normal for her to have some minor illnesses." Li An said.

"I'll send an imperial physician to take a look later." Zhao Ceying sighed and said, "I only knew that the Song Dynasty was plagued by problems before, but now that I have a real understanding of the court's situation, I realize that the problem has become so serious. I wanted to have Master Wang come to the capital to present the reform plan to my father in person, but I didn't expect Master Wang's mother to be ill."

"Your Highness, this is actually not a good time to reform," Li An reminded.

"I know that, but the court's accumulated problems have reached the point where they must be resolved. The court's annual expenditures are gradually increasing, while tax revenues are decreasing. If this continues, the court will be unable to make ends meet." Zhao Ceying sighed.

Li An and Gu Tingye fell silent upon hearing this. They did not expect the situation in the court to have become so serious.

"My Lord, please advise your father to conduct a thorough investigation of the salt business. Nearly half of the Song Dynasty's annual revenue comes from the salt business, but the revenue from the salt business has been decreasing in recent years. If the salt business can be thoroughly investigated, the financial crisis can be temporarily alleviated. Ziqian, what do you think?" Zhao Ceying asked.

"My Lord, you are mature and prudent. Since he said so, I think it is naturally feasible." Li An said.

"Zi Qian, the royal teacher respects you very much, so you should not be secretive. Tell me, besides the salt business, are there any other ways to increase the court's revenue?" Zhao Ceying asked.

"The court wants to increase its revenue, just like ordinary people, it can only increase revenue and reduce expenditure. Your Highness understands the importance of reducing expenditure even if I don't need to explain it, so I will just talk about increasing revenue. The court's revenue nowadays comes from the government-run tea, horse, salt and iron ore, in addition to taxes and the income from the Maritime Customs, and the rest can be ignored. As long as a new source of income can be opened up, income can naturally be increased." Li An said.

"Does Ziqian have any good idea?" Zhao Ceying asked in surprise.

"I haven't."

Li An shook his head and said, "But I think the court does not pay enough attention to the Maritime Customs. There is still a lot of potential for maritime trade."

"Don't you attach enough importance to the Maritime Customs?" Zhao Ceying frowned and said, "As far as I know, the court attaches great importance to the Maritime Customs. Not only did they build a large number of Maritime Customs docks, they also personally sent envoys to negotiate maritime trade cooperation with those countries. How could they not attach importance to it?"

"Your Highness, when I say we don't attach importance to it, I don't mean the level of support, but the fact that the tax revenue on maritime trade is too low," said Li An.

Maritime trade began in the Han Dynasty, but was not very developed due to the limitations of shipbuilding at the time.

During the Song Dynasty, the imperial court attached great importance to maritime trade because the roads to the north and the Western Regions were blocked by the Liao Kingdom and the Western Xia.

According to what Li An knew, the imperial court had established more than a dozen Maritime Customs Offices in coastal ports across the country, and also sent envoys to other countries to negotiate and conduct trade.

It is precisely because of the strong support from the imperial court that maritime trade is so prosperous.

However, the annual profits and taxes collected by the Imperial Maritime Customs were only a few hundred thousand taels.

It sounds like a lot, but when it is spread across more than a dozen Maritime Customs Offices, the average annual income of each Maritime Customs Office is only a few tens of thousands of taels.

You have to know that the imperial court spent a lot of money to build the Maritime Customs, and also needed to arrange a large number of officials to manage it.

With this calculation, the Maritime Customs made almost no money throughout the year.

This is outrageous. You have to know that those small countries are far behind the Song Dynasty in terms of culture and technology, and they are very keen on various products of the Song Dynasty.

However, things that are not very valuable in those countries are very valuable in the Song Dynasty.

It can be said that ocean trade at that time was very profitable.

In fact, all the money went into the pockets of officials, dignitaries and wealthy businessmen, while the court gained nothing from all its hard work.

"Do you mean increasing the tax revenue of the Maritime Customs?" Zhao Ceying said.

"Your Highness can send people to investigate the merchants behind the maritime trade. Which of these people is not making a fortune? Even if the tax is increased tenfold, it will be a drop in the bucket for those merchants." Li An said.

"Is maritime trade really so profitable? I heard that maritime trade is very dangerous and ships often sink to the bottom of the sea." Zhao Ceying said.

"Your Highness, I have also heard that the precious gems and spices in the Song Dynasty are not valuable in those countries. If maritime trade is not profitable, why are there so many merchant ships going out to sea every year?" Gu Tingye said.

"That's right. The imperial court also has merchant ships going out to sea. Your Highness can check and see how much profit is made from each voyage." Li An said.

"I will look into this matter." Zhao Ceying said.

"Your Highness, Ziqian, it's getting late. I'll have someone prepare some wine and food so we can eat and chat." Gu Tingye said.

"No, I'm just here to visit you, and I can't stay too long." Zhao Ceying refused.

After chatting for a while, Zhao Ceying said goodbye and left, and Li An followed him.

After saying goodbye at the door, Ang Lee took a carriage back home.

……

"Sir, why did you come back so late today?" Minglan asked while helping Li An change his clothes.

"Zhong Huai angered the Queen Mother and was beaten with a stick. I went to visit him after I got off duty." Li An recounted the general course of events.

Minglan didn't ask any more questions after hearing this. After Li An changed into his casual clothes, the servants brought up the food.

The couple sat down and started eating.

"By the way, sir, I have seen the house over there. It is quite nice, with a large garden. In the garden there is a pond of several acres, which is actually connected to the Bian River with running water." Minglan said.

"Haha, it was originally a marquis' mansion, so it can't be bad." Li An said with a smile.

"It's just that the house is a little old. We need to find someone to renovate it. Otherwise, it will be inconvenient to do repairs later after we move in," Minglan said.

"Just find someone to repair it. We're not in a hurry to move there anyway," said Li An.

"Well, I've already made the contact and someone will go check it out tomorrow," Minglan said.

"If you want to repair it, do it properly and don't be reluctant to spend money," said Li An.

"I know."

Minglan nodded and said, "By the way, didn't the master say that he wanted to marry Haitang to Desheng? When do you plan to marry them?"

"If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have almost forgotten. You can help Haitang prepare some dowry. After they get married, let Haitang be in charge of the front hall affairs." Li An said.

There were so many things going on during this period that he almost forgot about it.

"Does your husband need to remind me of this? I prepared it for her when I bought the gift last time." Minglan said.

"My wife is really my good wife. Now that spring has arrived, I will take a few days off and then we can go out of the city for an outing." Li An said with a smile.

"Really?" Minglan's eyes lit up when she heard that. After all, she was only a teenager, and even if she was a steady person, she would have to stay at home every day to have some food.

"Of course it's true. How could I lie to you? Take your brother with you when the time comes." Li An said.

"Thank you, sir." Minglan said with a smile.

……

Perhaps because Li An was willing to accompany her out to play and not forget to bring her brother along, Minglan was very touched. In the evening, she became proactive, contrary to her usual behavior, which made Li An enjoy himself.

The next morning, Li An had breakfast and went to the palace to take up his duty.

That day, Ang Lee finally had a job and was no longer idle like before.

The attendant sent over the records of the officials' words and deeds that had been recorded over the past few days.

Ang Lee and his team need to recompile and record these.

Because Li An was a newcomer, he was assigned to record the emperor's daily life. The records of the emperor handling government affairs and summoning ministers were written by Fan Cunjin and others.

After looking through the records of the emperor's daily life over the past few days, Li An was speechless. There were even records of which concubine the emperor stayed with at night and how many times he got up at night.

It’s just a matter of time before I write about what the official did.

In addition, there are records of what the officials ate every day and how much they ate.

It can be said that there is no privacy at all.

Apart from these unimportant things, the only thing left was that the emperor would go to pay his respects to the empress dowager early every morning, and then go to Longtu Pavilion to handle government affairs.

These days, Fan Cunjin and Zhang Weihua have been passing on their experience to Ang Lee. Although these daily records are numerous and complicated, they are not difficult to compile. One just needs to highlight the key points.

To put it simply, if the emperor did not often favor a concubine, there was no need to write about the emperor going to rest.

If the emperor often favors a concubine, you only need to write that so-and-so is very much loved by the emperor.

There are not many types of breakfast, so the official should be written as being thrifty. When paying respects to the empress dowager every day, the official should be written as being filial.

If you handle government affairs on time, you will be written as an official who is diligent in his work.

In general, the advantages are magnified and the disadvantages are downplayed.

The daily record that Ang Lee was assigned was a thick stack. Although it looked troublesome to compile, it was actually very simple, consisting of only a few words.

……

After listening to what Li An said yesterday, Zhao Ceying came to the document library outside Jin Yaomen early the next morning.

The Jin Yaomen Archives mainly collected and stored the archives of the three departments and six ministries. After being stored in the shelves and cabinets of the yamen for a certain period of time, these archives would be sent to the Jin Yaomen Archives for storage.

Zhao Ceying had the tax records submitted by the local customs offices over the years and the trade records of the fleets sent out to sea by the imperial court retrieved and looked at them carefully.

He first looked at the tax records of the Maritime Customs over the years, and just as Li An said, the annual income was not high, only a few hundred thousand taels.

Next, Zhao Ceying began to look at the records of the imperial fleet’s overseas trade.

It records in detail each time the fleet went out to sea, what goods were transported, how much they were worth, and how much profit was made in the end.

While Zhao Ceying was watching, an official from the secretarial department quietly left the secretarial department.

……

It was not until noon that Zhao Ceying left the document library with a happy face. He did not need to look so carefully, he just needed to see how much money he could make every time he went out to sea.

According to written records, the profit from each voyage was several times or even ten times as much. If more ships were sent out to sea, it would indeed be a way to quickly increase income.

And what Li An said was right, the taxes collected from those merchants going out to sea were too low.

After leaving the document library, Zhao Ceying came to the palace and entered the Longtu Pavilion after being notified.

"My son, I pay my respects to my father!" Zhao Ceying saluted.

"Why did you come into the palace in the middle of the day? Have you eaten?" Zhao Zongquan asked.

"I haven't had my meal yet," said Zhao Ceying.

"That's perfect. I haven't eaten either. Please dine with me."

Zhao Zongquan turned his head to look at Eunuch Dou who was standing beside him and said, "Have someone serve the meal. Prince Huan and I will eat here."

"Yes." Eunuch Dou responded and walked out.

"sit down."

Zhao Zongquan asked his son to sit down and said, "Tell me, what do you want to see me for?"

"Father, I went to the archives this morning and looked up the tax records of the Maritime Customs and the records of the court's ships going out to sea over the years," said Zhao Ceying.

"The Maritime Customs?"

Zhao Zongquan frowned and thought for a while before he remembered that the court seemed to have such a department. He asked in confusion, "Why are you checking these?"

"Your Majesty, I have read the records of the court's arrangements for shipping goods to sea for trade over the years and found that the profits from each maritime trade were several times or even ten times. However, the tax collected by the Maritime Customs Office is only a few hundred thousand taels each year, which is too low. Moreover, the court does not arrange many ships to go out to sea, and the frequency is very low. If the tax revenue of the Maritime Customs Office can be increased, and at the same time the number of ships and frequency of sea trade can be increased, it will definitely increase a lot of revenue for the court." Zhao Ceying said.

"Really?" Zhao Zongquan's eyes lit up when he heard the word money.

After becoming emperor, he found that being an emperor was not so easy.

Not to mention the national treasury, even the emperor's private treasury didn't have much money.

If it weren't for the Prince of Yan's rebellion, he would have confiscated the homes of some officials who followed the rebellion and obtained a lot of money. After rewarding his meritorious officials, he would have emptied his private treasury.

"According to what I understand, this is indeed the case. You have to ask the officials of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Revenue for details," said Zhao Ceying.

The Song Dynasty established the Three Departments, separating the authority to manage the country's taxes from the Ministry of Revenue.

The three offices were divided into the Salt and Iron Office, the Revenue Office and the Ministry of Revenue.

The Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Revenue mentioned by Zhao Ceying are not the same department.

"After dinner, I will have someone summon officials from the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Revenue to ask questions." Zhao Zongquan nodded and asked, "Why did you suddenly notice the Maritime Customs Office?"

"I was ordered to visit Zhong Huai yesterday. Li An was also there. I heard him mention it while we were chatting." Zhao Ceying said.

"Oh." Zhao Zongquan nodded, not knowing what he was thinking.

After a while, the food was served. After the father and son finished eating, Zhao Zongquan instructed Eunuch Dou to go and summon the chief adjutant of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Revenue.

(End of this chapter)