Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 684 Joint Stock Company
In February of the 12th year of Chongzhen, Daming Minsheng Daily suddenly published an article, which discussed in detail the importance of taxation to the country and the people.

For most people, such an article does not attract their attention, but it has attracted great attention from officials and scholars. Strictly speaking, they are concerned about the person who wrote this article, this person named Huang Zongxi.

Many people know that Huang Zongxi is an important member of the Fushe, and the members of the Fushe opposed Li Jing's government orders, so they were strongly suppressed by Li Jing. Many of them, including the leader of the Fushe, Zhang Pu, were assigned by Li Jingfa to North Korea.Now that Huang Zongxi suddenly stood up to speak for the court, what does this mean?
There is no doubt that Huang Zongxi's article must have been included in Li Jing's book case, and even got Li Jing's affirmation, which means that this Huang Zongxi may be in his early days.

Just when everyone was speculating about how Li Jing would reuse Huang Zongxi, someone leaked a big piece of news. Huang Zongxi is now Li Jing's personal staff without any official position, but he is taking the lead in formulating a new tax rate.

As soon as the news came out, there was an uproar in the ruling and opposition parties.

After Li Jing came to power, he raided corrupt officials, increased business taxes, abolished the army, and investigated the vassal kings. The purpose was only one, which was to make money and reduce expenses. People once joked that the cabinet formed by Li Jing was a cabinet that asked for money. Jing is the old man who copied the house.

Now that Li Jing wants to re-establish the tax rate, everyone's first reaction is that the treasury is out of money, and Li Jing is going to increase taxes.

Just when everyone was panicking, news came out from the Ministry of Household Affairs that the possibility of adjusting the tax rate and reducing the tax rate this time is more likely.

Upon hearing the news, everyone did not believe it. How could the treasury be short of money to lower the tax rate?If the tax rate is lowered, will this year's treasury revenue be able to offset the expenditure?

In fact, Li Jing knew that after the land tax was reduced, he would definitely be unable to make ends meet.Don't look at how Huang Zongxi listed the two items of income and expenditure in detail when he settled the accounts. In fact, it was not as simple as Huang Zongxi imagined.

First of all, the number of officials in Ming Dynasty is seriously insufficient. In order to prevent the power from being too concentrated, and to make things more efficient, Li Jing plans to set up more functional departments, and each department needs to arrange a large number of officials, and the salaries of these people are huge. s expenses.

In addition, after the steam engine is successfully developed, the production speed of military factories will be greatly increased, which means that more and more raw materials will be needed. To solve this problem, it is necessary to increase manpower to mine and build more refineries. Another huge expense.

Such projects are not within the plans of the Ministry of Households, and it is impossible to calculate how much money the country needs in a year with the revenue and expenditure accounts of the Ministry of Households.

However, Li Jing still asked Huang Zongxi to adjust the tax rate, because Li Jing knew that relying on the land of the common people would never be able to maintain the expenditure of the imperial court. In the end, he had to find a way from industry and commerce, especially industry. Only when industry develops, the country will become stronger and stronger. getting richer.

But people nowadays have not realized the importance of industry. Of course, a large part of the reason is because resources are in the hands of the imperial court, especially resources such as mines. Naturally, without resource merchants, it is impossible to build factories.

Therefore, in order for businessmen to build factories, some resources must be released.And it’s not enough just to focus on resources, the merchants have to trust the court, because the court didn’t let go of resources before, but once they ran out of money, they would take back these resources immediately, and then investigate those merchants, which is actually robbing merchants money.These practices are undoubtedly very bad, directly affecting the credibility of the imperial court.

So how can the merchants believe that the court will not back down this time?

In the cabinet study room, Li Jing looked at De Bauer with a smile and said: "Mr. De Bold, I heard that your East India Company was jointly established by many people. You call it a joint-stock company. I really want to know what your joint-stock company is How it works."

Hearing Li Jing's inquiry about the East India Company, De Bauer couldn't help being a little disappointed.

When De Bourr learned that Li Jing wanted to see him just now, he thought that Li Jing wanted to discuss with him the trade between the two countries, but Li Jing actually asked about the operation of the East India Company.

After thinking for a while, De Bauer said: "My lord, this matter cannot be explained clearly in a few words. If you are not afraid of wasting time, I will tell you from the beginning."

Li Jing smiled and said, "It doesn't matter, the more detailed the better."

De Bourgh nodded: "The establishment of the East India Company started with the Portuguese entering Southeast Asia. After the Portuguese occupied Malaga, they plundered a lot of materials and wealth from Southeast Asia.

At the end of the sixteenth century, probably around 1960... Ah!I'm sorry, Prime Minister, I just used our western era time, which is different from your Ming Dynasty's era time method. Forgive my ignorance, I don't know how your era time is this year, so I can only use our era era method . "

Li Jing smiled and waved his hands: "It doesn't matter, I understand, just talk."

De Bourz praised: "The Prime Minister's knowledge is really profound."

Li Jing smiled and said nothing.

De Bauer continued: "Around 1960, a group of Dutch businessmen sent people to Portugal to spy on business conditions. They learned that the Portuguese had occupied Malaca and plundered a lot of wealth from Southeast Asia. Soon afterward, these Dutch businessmen began to set up companies. Ready to take a share in Southeast Asia.

From [-] to [-], Dutch merchants established a total of [-] companies focusing on East India trade. Well...East India refers to India and Southeast Asia.In order to avoid commercial competition, these fourteen companies finally merged to form a joint company, the East India Company.

There are more than 70 members of the East India Company's board of directors, but there are only [-] people who are actually in power, that is, the partners when the joint company was established, and the company's equity is basically in the hands of these people.

The East India Company can own armies, issue currency, and sign formal agreements and treaties with other countries.In order to ensure its own safety, or to enhance its military power, the East India Company began financing, and shareholders offered a part of the shares for subscription.

Due to the high rate of return of the company, the distributed shares were quickly subscribed, and the company used the money raised to manufacture and purchase warships and recruit soldiers in large numbers.With the guarantee of military strength, the company develops faster and earns more and more profits. At the highest point, the dividend can reach 40.00%, which is the [-]% you said. "

Li Jingwen nodded silently.De Bauer said it implicitly, but Li Jing knew that the reason why the East India Company was able to obtain such a high return was mainly due to the plunder after military occupation.

In order to monopolize the clove trade, the aborigines of the Banda Islands were either killed or driven away by them, and they also sold slaves. When they first arrived in Ming Dynasty, there were thousands of people along the coast of Guangdong and other places. People were captured and sold as slaves.

Li Jing didn't think anything wrong with the actions of the East India Company, because what Daming was doing now was not much different from what the East India Company was doing, or even worse.

Because the East India Company implemented colonial rule in various parts of Southeast Asia and retained the regime of some small countries. Although they had the right to rule, they did not turn the occupied places into the territory of the Netherlands after all.

Li Jing, on the other hand, wants to bring the whole of Southeast Asia into Ming's territory. He will never allow any regime to exist, and all resistance forces must be wiped out. Compared with what Ming did, what the East India Company has done is completely insignificant. .

Smiling, Li Jing asked: "Mr. De Bauer, you should know that I have many industries under my name. If I want to turn these industries into joint-stock companies, how should I operate them?"

De Bauer was surprised when he heard the words, and looked at Li Jingdao: "The Prime Minister's business is all about making money, so why set up a joint-stock company to let people get a share?"

Li Jing smiled: "Because I want to finance more businesses and build more factories."

De Bauer laughed suddenly after hearing this: "It turns out that it is so easy for my lord to raise funds. As long as my lord says a word, countless businessmen will be willing to buy shares."

Li Jing shook his head and said, "I don't want those businessmen to buy shares in my new firm, but to buy shares in the industries I'm running. Well, that's what you just said to subscribe for the shares I issued."

De Bauer said: "I'm afraid it's not easy to do this, because the equity is actually an asset, but my lord has too many properties, and the assets are probably tens of millions of taels, so I have to convert so many assets into equity and distribute them." It's not an easy thing."

After pondering for a while, De Bauer continued: "I suggest that my lord divide the property under my name into several companies. For example, my lord's Jingji Carriage and Horse Company can be renamed Jingji Transportation Company, and then calculate the assets. Every tael of silver It doesn’t matter if you do one share or ten shares, you can divide as many shares as you want, and then the adults will take out a part of the shares and let everyone subscribe.”

Li Jing nodded upon hearing this.

After a while, Li Jing then asked: "Those who have subscribed for the shares should belong to the company's shareholders. Will these people participate in the management of the company in the future? If they have different opinions, who should they listen to?"

De Bauer smiled and said: "Of course I listen to the adults. The adults must have shares that can dominate the discourse. Although those businessmen who have subscribed for the shares are also shareholders, they do not have as many shares as the adults, so they can only listen to the adults. Of course, even if they don’t have shares based on their status as adults, these people have to listen to adults.”

Li Jing waved his hand: "In business, I can't use my status to overwhelm others."

De Bauer laughed and said, "If you want to say that, you have to draw up a detailed charter and explain everything clearly. Well... Our East India Company has a ready-made charter. I will copy a copy for the Prime Minister later. Bring it."

"Then I would like to thank Mr. De Bauer first." Li Jing said with a smile.

De Bauer smiled and said: "It's just a matter of raising your hands, you don't need to be polite, Mr. Prime Minister."

After a pause, De Bauer continued: "I just don't know if there are any restrictions on the distribution of shares by adults this time?"

"Restrict? Restrict what?" Li Jingqi asked.

(End of this chapter)