Survival Three Kingdoms

Chapter 689 Economic Problems
The busiest one was the Privy Council. The articles of association and regulations received from various places were piled up like a mountain every day. At the end of February, the candidates for the heads of each department and the functions of each department were determined.

However, the Executive Yuan and the Military and Political Yuan reported the salaries of officials at various levels agreed upon by the Department of Civil Affairs, the Department of Finance and Taxation, and the Department of Logistics, which made Zhou Cang gasp. 3000% of budget revenue.In the budget expenditure of the Department of Finance and Taxation, [-]% is for military expenditure, [-]% for infrastructure construction, [-]% for education, [-]% for office expenses, and [-]% for other miscellaneous items.In order to solve this problem, the Department of Finance and Taxation put forward five suggestions:
Increase the delivery of silver dollars.This opinion was flatly rejected by the bank. Although there are sufficient gold and silver reserves, it is absolutely impossible to increase unsecured currency without solving fiscal and taxation problems. Zhou Cang greatly appreciated the bank's approach.

increase income.One is taxation. It is suggested to increase the commercial tax and increase the agricultural tax. This proposal is extremely cautious and reserved by the Economic Department.The second is fees. For example, colleges and hospitals use fees to cover part of their expenditures. This suggestion has been questioned by the Department of Culture and Education and other departments.

Reduce spending.For example, the military pay that was originally planned to be implemented, and the reduction of infrastructure projects such as road construction, bridges and water control, etc., the Department of Infrastructure and the Department of Logistics shook their heads.

Put it somewhere.Xun Chen himself felt that this proposal was unreliable for local officials' salaries, infrastructure projects, education, etc. to be raised by the localities themselves. It is conceivable that once implemented, it would be passed on to the common people.

External expansion.Obtain resources and income from alien races and external forces.The Privy Council agreed that the last opinion is the most reliable, but how to plunder?

It is impossible to increase distribution, and Zhou Cang is a little bit excited about the distribution, which is exactly what I want.Zhou Cang then ordered that, in view of the long distance to Yingzhou and the inconvenience of overseas travel, he was allowed to self-control and live within his means, and he was allowed to bear the expenses of the Donghai Navy together.Everyone was happy with this policy, and the central government reduced a large part of its expenditure. In the budget, Yingzhou's income was almost better than nothing, but Zhou Cang did not know that Zhou Cang was building Yingzhou into his own experimental field.

The core of the remaining three opinions is to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.

Let's talk about open source first. Open source can't mess up fees and showdowns. It's best to get money from outside.Zhou Cang's first thought was that Lu Xun and Zang Ba should go to the Eastern Xianbei at this time, so the order to strengthen the plunder of the Xianbei people was quickly sent to Liaodong.Coal mining in Bingzhou is in full swing, so the second order is to open up coal sales for the chamber of commerce. One is to contact the Tuoba Department of Western Xianbei to exchange their horses, cattle and sheep, even fur, and the other is to find a way to sell them to Cao Cao in Guanzhong and Sizhou. sphere of influence.Thinking of this, Zhou Cang hated his death, hated why he didn't learn chemistry well, and would not fail the exam if he got a few more points in the exam. Even now, adding more things to the coal, the messy Cao Cao's gas poisoning will also mess up his brain lack of oxygen.After three years of planting cotton, the output has gradually stabilized and showed an upward trend, but it is far from meeting the demand. Zhou Cang will never let go of these military supplies, so where can he get money?Apart from the Xianbei and the Huns, the place Zhou Cang most wanted to attract money was Jiangdong.The trade with Jiangdong is mainly pen, ink, paper and inkstone, furniture, fruit wine, tea, which is far from enough.There is no shortage of food and grass in Jiangdong, and the only thing that can impress Sun Quan is military resources. Sun Quan suffered a lot from the cavalry in the battle between Zhang Liao and Hefei.Xu Shu suggested selling war horses to Jiangdong, but only eunuched stallions. Everyone agreed, so Zhou Cang sent Wang Can to Jianye to discuss horse sales with Sun Quan.The so-called buying and selling is to take advantage of Sun Quan's desire to have a good relationship with Zhou Cang and urgently need a war horse to drive up prices and profit from it.

Internally, charging items are not considered for the time being, and tax increases are replaced by tax adjustments. Commercial taxes and tariffs are divided into varieties and items. The more profitable and profiteering industries, the higher the tax rate. Private donations are encouraged. In addition to certificates and titles, naming rights are added, such as Zhang Sanlu, Li Siqiao, Wang Wulou, etc. will be named according to the number of donations for different years.

Let's talk about throttling.First, the military payment system originally planned to be implemented was slightly revised. Only those who have served in the military for three years will start to enjoy military payment, and the tax exemption policy after enjoying military payment will naturally be cancelled.Second, the original plan to add another 20 people to Liu Bao was reduced to 15, and the remaining [-] were distributed to various states for labor.The third is to promote economy and reduce office expenses. Expenditures that are personally borne should not be included in public funds.For example, Jian'an Anthology is only provided free of charge to officials and academies, and it is sold at a fixed price to other groups of people. Even so, buyers are still flocking to it.

According to this plan, the Department of Finance and Taxation re-established the budget, and finally achieved a slight surplus in balance of payments.The economy is a very complicated subject, which needs to be summed up and explored slowly, and new policies cannot be forced to be implemented without being understood. There have been many products that are beyond the age, so Zhou Cang does not plan to intervene too much , but ordered to implement according to the budget, and report any problems immediately.There are too many head-scratching things, one after another.Zhou Cang can only say that he was fortunate that there was no land problem. The local tyrants were disadvantaged and the big landlords were overthrown. Large tracts of land were distributed to the common people instead of being gathered to a few people or families.Everyone pays taxes and has no privileges, so there are no fundamental contradictions under Zhou Cang's rule, only difficulties.

Where there are difficulties, there are ways, and there are always more ways than difficulties.Zhou Cang's biggest advantage is that his subordinates are united, and capable ministers and officials can be reused. Therefore, in February of the 23rd year of Jian'an, all work gradually entered the right track.

After the first emperor unified the world, a very important task was to unify the currency, writing and weights and measures.At the end of the Han Dynasty, with the rapid development of economy and political chaos, various measurements appeared in disorder.

Dahan Bank issued gold, silver and copper coins to become the legal tender, and Zhou Cang added smaller coins under the copper coins, called jiao and fen.Perhaps it is because Bingzhou people are naturally good at financial management. Han Yue and Han Cheng discovered several financial geniuses in Bingzhou and hired them to banks and banks. The business development is booming.

Zhou Cang ordered the Department of Culture and Education to sort out the characters again, and use regular script and running script as official documents and standard fonts of the college. Seal script and subordinate are only used for learning. Learn to show off.Numerals are used as standard words for mathematics and counting.

Zhou Cang is a little worried about the unit of measurement, how can he be in line with future generations?At least it has to be about the same to be a good conversion.

(End of this chapter)