Win the Ding 1617

Now, the Southern Guangdong Army wants to hand over the monopoly rights of a large amount of grain, oil, salt, etc. to the Jiangnan Group to ensure the livelihood of the people in Nanzhili and Zhejiang. Isn't this picking us all to make a fortune?

It is no secret among the big Jiangnan families that Nanzhong produces grain. It's just that due to the long distance and insufficient transport capacity, the grain and rice piled up in mountains and seas cannot be transported to Jiangnan for a while.Today, the Southern Guangdong Army has offered to sell grain to various families in the south of the Yangtze River. The temptation of huge benefits is really hard to resist.

It is to collect grain and rice from the Nanyue Army according to the price in the Wanli period, and then turn around and sell it at the price of two taels of silver and one stone!The benefits gained are more than tens of millions? !

With such a huge bargaining chip in hand, shopkeeper Chen Da's negotiating waist was as hard as a diamond, and he insisted on the condition that the tariff rate should not be lower than [-]%.If you want to break through this bottom line, then the conditions proposed by the Jiangnan Group that the value-added tax, income tax and other taxes should not be implemented in the Jiangnan area, "My lord is also forgiven! The lord has drawn up a memorandum for today's emperor, and is going to ask the emperor to implement the integration of government and gentry to pay food, return fire consumption to the public, and implement commercial tax, income tax, value-added tax, customs duty and other taxes in various parts of Daming, especially in the southeast wealth area. .It will change the situation that the treasuries of various places in my Ming Dynasty are empty, the people's livelihood is dying, and the country's plans to suppress thieves and provide relief are unable to carry out due to lack of money and food!"

"This way, I'm afraid that things in Suzhou can abound! Everywhere in the south of the Yangtze River is Suzhou!"

Not to be outdone, Qian Qianyi angrily listed the cases of violent tax resistance in Suzhou in the face of the aggression of shopkeeper Chen to retort.

"It doesn't matter! My lord has already thought of it for Tan Huagong. If there are local treacherous people who want to use their own methods to get rid of the fire, they must use swords and firecrackers to teach them what my Taizu Emperor Gao taught his ministers!"

"I don't know how Jue Shuai intends to teach the people in the south of the Yangtze River with the words of the Great Letter?"

"In the past, the Taizu asked the officials, who is the happiest person in the world? Only Ru Taisu answered Taizu's heart, 'The people who fear the law are the happiest!'"

After saying this, Master Chen changed his face again, "To be honest, Mr. Tanhua, among the generals of our Southern Guangdong Army, there are quite a few people who want to make meritorious service to honor their family. When Qin Wang was a few days ago, due to the limited number of ships, he could not use When the army came, quite a few generals had some criticisms. That's why Xiamen and Jinmen were conquered in one day after the First World War. At present, all the generals have written letters, willing to use the garrison brigades of their troops as the leader of the emperor, and go to the south of the Yangtze River to implement tax system."

Where is this going to the south of the Yangtze River to implement a new tax system for Emperor Chongzhen?If a few brigade commanders of the Southern Guangdong Army who wanted to make meritorious service and promotion brought tens of thousands of barbarian soldiers from the Southern Guangdong Army into the south of the Yangtze River, since there had been no military fire in the south of the Yangtze River for more than a hundred years, the officers and soldiers would not be able to deal with even a bandit. strenuous combat.I'm afraid it is possible to kill Jiangnan with blood flowing into rivers!

"This is absolutely impossible!"

joke!If Li Shouhan's title book is published, Chongzhen, who is short of money and who secretly treats it as a thing, is afraid that his eyes will be red?After an imperial decree came down, several garrison brigades of the Southern Guangdong Army marched into the south of the Yangtze River grandly, using firecrackers and bayonets to forcibly collect taxes, and the people of the Cao Gang were on the sidelines to help the evildoers.It's over.

However, before that, Qian Qianyi is afraid that he will be killed by these aristocratic families first. Not only will he die, but his reputation after death will also be scolded by the pens in the hands of these aristocratic families. , The reputation after hundreds of years was completely criticized and stigmatized.

"Uncle's loyalty to the country, we naturally have the utmost admiration! However, although Jiangnan has always been known as rich and prosperous, it is just a vain appearance. The inner suffering, Master Chen, will understand after walking around Jiangnan. .”

"Exactly! Today's world is not peaceful, and business is not easy everywhere! Many times when goods are walking on the road, they will be robbed by someone! Sometimes they are rebels, sometimes they are bandits. Sometimes they are hungry people, and sometimes they are After the incident, everyone's capital is almost gone! But the scene outside has to be strong!"

"Small ones are engaged in the brine industry. This salt shop can still earn some money to support the family. But over the years, illegal salt has been rampant, and the group of salt bastards in the salt gang have brought in countless illegal salt. Disrupted salt There is a flood of private salt from the shore, and the country's salt tax will naturally not be collected!"

These people who came with Qian Qianyi were all talking and complaining about their masters.

The exorbitant asking price link of both parties ended, and entered the stage of paying back the money on the spot.

Qian Qianyi considered for the benefit of the entire Jiangnan Group. (Is it still for his rebate?) The tax rate was firmly bitten at the three-point ratio, and the shopkeeper Chen took out the documents from the Ministry of Households to explain the matter. "Shangshu Bi Ziyan increased the tax according to the standard of every [-] yuan. We haven't collected according to the standard of every [-] yuan! The tax rate must be implemented according to the standard of [-]%!"

"That's why Bi Ziyan ended up miserable! His younger brother Bi Zisu's nose was cut off by random knives when he was caught by the Ningyuan rebels!" Qian Qianyi scoffed in his heart, but he forgot that the Ningyuan rebellion seemed to be related to Bi Ziyan The cause and effect of proposing a tax increase has been reversed.

"Four points! No more!"

"Nine points! This is the authority my lord gave me!"

"Treasurer Chen, everyone is a merchant, so we must do it conveniently!"

"This rich man, small-sized goods entering and exiting Wusongkou in the future will also have to pay taxes!"

Shopkeeper Chen bowed his hands to everyone present with a sad face, "It's going to be the season of spring famine soon, don't I plan to finish this matter right away, so that I can grab a hat later?"

Now it is late April, just when the spring famine is approaching, grain merchants everywhere have started to transfer positions, preparing to hoard grain, and scrape oil on the civilians in various cities and towns.

"Four and a half!"

"Eight points!"

"Five points! But we will no longer hand over the routines of Admiral Caojiang's yamen! Ships of all sizes in the south of the Yangtze River enter and leave Wusongkou and various places on the Qiantang River. The navy of the Nanyue Army must ensure the safety of the ships' cargo and population!"

"Five points! This does not include the regular money of Admiral Caojiang's Yamen! In order to investigate and arrest the treacherous, the Nanyue Army Navy still needs to see the banner of Caojiang Yamen before they can let them go!"

"At the same time, the great families in the south of the Yangtze River have to ask me, Long Shengxing, to run newspapers in cities and towns in the south of the Yangtze River, and recruit unranked scholars and unranked children to write articles."

Such things as newspapers are not new in the Jiangnan area where the economy is prosperous and the ideology and culture are extremely active, but.Most of them are stuck in the stage of copying and reprinting Dibao.

Such things naturally cannot be hidden from Qian Qianyi, who is the leader of the Jiangnan literary world.

The publishing and printing industry of books and periodicals can be regarded as a small sign in the early industrialization of Jiangnan, printing fonts and using copper movable type.Chinese movable type printing first appeared in Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bi Tan", about 400 years earlier than Westerners. (Bangzi expressed his dissatisfaction, "Since there were dogs. Koreans have had printing!") After that, there were "clay movable type boards", "magnetic boards", "wooden movable type boards", "copper movable type boards" and "lead movable type boards" , "tin movable type" and other styles.

Copper movable type was popular in Wuxi, Suzhou, Changshu, Nanjing and other places in Jiangsu during the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty, and there were many rich and powerful businessmen.They are all making books with movable copper type, the most famous of which are Huajia and Anjia in Wuxi.

However, during the Tianqi and Chongzhen periods, due to the decline in economic capacity.Coupled with rising copper prices.Feeling that the cost of copper movable type printing is too high, most of them use wooden movable type, which is a relatively cheap printing method, and copper movable type is used to make private money and copperware for profit.The Di Bao was issued to the outside world, and it was hand-copied. I don’t know how many copyists in the capital it has supported.

It's just wooden movable type printing, and the printing quality is not good.The font is skewed and the ink color is diffuse, which makes the reading experience extremely poor.A typical black-hearted pirated book!

(By the way, Song Jiashu, the father of the three famous Song sisters, first made his fortune in pirated books in the Shanghai Concession. However, no one would ask him for royalties for the things he printed, because he pirated the Bible , it seems that the property rights belong to Brother Su.)

A mere promise to distribute a newspaper in various places in the south of the Yangtze River can be exchanged for a huge concession of three-point tax.All the people present readily agreed.

So the Jiangnan Times had a birth certificate.

This Jiangnan Times, which was born out of Nanzhong Business Daily, is roughly divided into current affairs news, miscellaneous reviews, town news, Jiangnan wonders, and Ming news.Overseas news and other columns are occasionally filled with a large number of advertisements, commercial information, and even the so-called entertainment section, which was despised by honest men and gentlemen, and was called Huabao at that time.Mostly, a certain oiran so-and-so and a certain red card so-and-so became Jinlan sisters and established a "dog-loving gang". The content above is very rich and refreshing.

There are many types of personnel such as editors, doctors, editors, editors, editors, interviewers, and printers in various urban institutions. In addition to printing workers, people such as doctors, editors, interviewers, and editors are mostly employed The unranked scholars and the underachievers are responsible for the children, so that this generation can earn a living by selling literature.In addition to these personnel, the newspaper office also has from twenty to dozens of thug guards. Most of these strong men have the identity background of the Cao Gang or the Salt Gang, and they are the most well-informed. You can respond to everything.

With the secretive tax treaty being ratified by both sides, the half-time whistle officially marked the two sides.The nerves that had been tensed for a long time finally relaxed, and a large number of ships with the identification flags received from the Caojiang Yamen swarmed out, loaded with various products, and headed in all directions.

In less than a month, nearly 40 yuan in tax money was received in just one banknote pass at Wusongkou!That is to say, nearly 2000 million yuan of goods were exported through Wusongkou.

When Wu Songchaoguan presented the letter to Shou Han in Guangzhou, Shou Han was also a little surprised. He didn't expect that the prosperity of Jiangnan had reached such a level.

"It's not surprising. Before the export of Jiangnan was sluggish, everyone feared that going to sea would cause losses, and they were afraid to move forward. When they heard that the switch was made, there was bound to be a blowout trend. It will be better if you wait for a few months."

Li Peilin, who came from Hue, was familiar with the laws of economic operation and told the truth.

"These 40 silver dollars are divided into four parts. Take out 20, send someone to escort them to the capital and hand them over to the emperor, and tell him that this is the income from our tax collection at Wusongkou. This year, at least 100 yuan can be handed over to the internal treasury. Before the total The money we handed over to him, in the emperor's internal treasury, can almost reach [-] million yuan!"

"Then, what about the other three copies?"

"Take out 15 yuan, transport it to the capital, and give 20 yuan to each of the two princes and fathers of the Sili Supervisor, and tell them that this is their bonus. This year, there will be [-] yuan! The remaining [-] yuan will be given to the Sili Supervisor. All the eunuchs, divide it yourself! In addition, take out [-] silver dollars. Purchase our own things such as rice, cotton cloth, vegetable oil, refined salt, etc., and give some tuition fees to scholars and children in academies and private schools in the south of the Yangtze River, and tell them , This is the bursary awarded by the Nanyue Army to sympathize with the hard work of the scholars. The rest of the money will be left in Wusong, ready to be used by the faction!"

Li Peilin listened.Just nodded and said yes, but when it came to the actual implementation, there was a little deviation.

The subsidy for the poor scholars in the south of the Yangtze River was ordered by Chen Da shopkeeper to go to the Meixiang Building to invite Li Xiangjun's cheap wife Li Zhenli to come out to do it.

All of a sudden, poor scholars from all over the south of the Yangtze River.All weeping like snow, the scholars are poor, and the beauties donate their legacy!Caressing the heavy rice bag, and the thick and soft calico, now, I can finally feel proud in front of that yellow-faced woman at home!

When Shou Han learned about this, he saw all the wives and concubines in the inner house.Especially when it comes to Li Muhua's special expression, looking at Li Peilin's expression, he can't laugh or cry.

This is something to say later, so I won’t press it for the time being.

Looking at the huge lucky boats densely dotted on the Huangpu River and Qiantang River, the wealthy businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River laughed so hard that their mouths cracked to the back of their heads.

Since the second half of last year, a large-scale famine has begun to brew and spread again, and gradually has the momentum to sweep all over the Ming Dynasty. There has been no rain since the beginning of spring in Jifu, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi.A bucket of rice is thousands of dollars.The common people peel off the bark and sawdust and eat them, or dig the white mud from the mountains for food. When they looked at the villages, the bark was stripped off, and starvation was everywhere.

After the severe drought, migratory locusts cover the sky, and where they gather, the seedlings and reeds are all gone.

No grain harvest.It is bound to lead to a horrific skyrocketing of food prices. It is normal for a few taels, more than a dozen taels of silver per stone, and there is often no market for the price.No one is willing to sell, and the large amount of money in hand is in danger of becoming waste rock.

Misfortunes never come singly, there is a severe drought in the north and floods in the south.

On May [-]th, it rained heavily day and night in Wujiang, Gui'an and other places in Su, Song, Hu and other prefectures.But the price of rice is soaring, and a bucket of rice costs three or four dollars in silver. Many rich families close their houses, and the people eat all the grass and trees, and they leave their wives and dead people to sleep with each other.Domineering gangsters ate in groups, clamoring for food, neighbors went on strike, and villages closed their doors to make people angry.

Following the catastrophe came another plague, and more than half of the people who were lucky enough to survive died again. Not a few whole villages, whole towns, and whole cities died.

Therefore, in the eyes of the merchants everywhere, the deep-drought lucky boats moored on the river at this moment are not carrying rice, cooking oil or the like, but a boatload of white flowers and silver.

"The three lucky boats headed by us belong to Daxing Rice Bank! No one will snatch it from me!"

"Okay! The last two are from our Xiangji!"

"The last five boats belong to our Dadexing!"

On the Xiaguan Wharf, looking at the fleet of grain transport ships with masts like clouds coming hand in hand, the street runners of several major grain merchants in Nanjing are vying with each other, demarcating each other's spheres of influence, while carrying money on their shoulders. The "student" of the box opened the silver box, and the white silver dollars were broken from the red mulberry paper with force, and the sound of jingling was melodious.

"Everyone, we are all colleagues in the city of Nanjing. The food in front of us must not be enough for one family. We must negotiate a price among our colleagues, so as not to be taken advantage of by the Nanman!"

"That's good too! I say one stone of good-quality japonica rice costs seven silver coins!"

"Sell it in various towns, two and a half silver dollars for one stone!"

According to the current prices in Jiangnan, this price is simply too black-hearted.Su Songtai, Hangjiahu and other places have already raised the price to four dollars per bucket of rice, and there is no market for the price. These merchants actually want to buy good round-grained rice from Nanzhong for seven dollars a stone, and then sell it at more than three times the price.Sure enough, it was a worthless transaction.

However, those small grain merchants have nothing to do. Who makes them inferior to others?

"I will sell a delivery contract of [-] shi of Nanzhong Shanghao Japonica rice at the price of one silver dollar per shi rice. The minimum batch is [-] shi! There is no limit to the number!"

"It's the same price for me, [-] shi!"

"There are thirty thousand stones in our mansion!"

A series of voices came from the tea shed behind the pier, and a few sons of nobles in Nanjing and a few sons and sons from various yamen in Nanjing came out humbly. This scene almost made the eyes of the merchants fall out.

When did Xungui and Donglin's children get so close? !

"Everyone, I don't know that the grain and rice on these dozens of ships, when the fleet was still outside Wusongkou a few days ago, everyone in Long Shengxing signed a delivery contract with me and sold them to me at the price of seven renminbi and one stone. Wait, today is the delivery here, if you want to buy, come to my son!"

The young masters waved the contract with the vermilion seal in their hands, triumphantly.

This is the first time they have done this kind of business. All the people in the government just need to go around the pier, sell the contract on the pier, and then pay the rest of the money with the Nanzhong merchants. This is not rewarded by Uncle Li. What is the silver of our Nanjing prefectures? !

Seeing that they couldn't offend these sons and lords, the people on the pier saw that they couldn't offend them, so they could only put away the silver boxes in resentment, and carefully apologized in front of the masters, and put away all the pride and arrogance they had just now.

"Oh! How dare you not bow your head under the eaves!"

"It's okay! For the sake of money, what is it worth to say a few good words in apology?"

After all, the temptation of huge profits is there. After chatting with this group of domineering young masters for a while, everyone can only accept the price of one silver dollar and one stone, and buy the contracts in the hands of the young masters. Pushing the food in all parts of the south of the Yangtze River to five taels of silver and one stone, I am sorry for today's grievances!"

Several street runners from Da Dexing and Daxing Rice Shop held bowls of hot rice wine, watched the coolies transport the rice bags on the boat into their own warehouses, and couldn't help but swear in their mouths for today's day. Encountered and resentful.

They changed hands for the nobles in Nanjing City and the leaders of Donglin, and they got at least three silver coins. However, they didn't know that the grain and rice of the Southern Guangdong Army were calculated on the basis of the consumption of ships, and the water was worthless. Breaking the sky can't surpass three coins and one stone!

However, soon, an incident came from Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture, which calmed their anger slightly.

"What?! Nanzhong merchants want to buy the reed beach by the Huangpu River?"

The county magistrate of Shanghai County was in a state of desperation for the many victims brought by the flood, the collapsed houses and city walls, etc., when he suddenly heard such a very untrue news.

His first reaction was, if this is true, did the Nanzhong businessman have a fever and his head crooked?

"We are willing to buy some riverside land to build houses, roads, docks, warehouses, etc."

In addition to buying nearly [-] mu of land at the price of one shimi per mu of riverside wasteland, Nanzhong merchants also donated two thousand shimi to rebuild Shanghai County.

This incident quickly spread throughout the Yangtze River Delta, and people who heard about it learned a new word.

Nanban merchants, foreign disks!

It means a stupid sheep with a lot of money.

However, they did not know that the land purchased by the Nanzhong merchants happened to be located on the Huangpu River between Suzhou Creek in the north and Zhoujingbang in the west and Suzhai on the Suzhou River in the west.

This is where the British Concession we are familiar with is located.