Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

When Yang Yao and Dai Chengsi were discussing how to develop Taiwan, Zheng Hong was transferred back to Tokyo to be the prefect of Kaifeng.

This ignorant little fat man has now become an ignorant fat man.

Before he got too hot in Kaifeng, he requested to set up an exchange in Kaifeng.

This thing was established by father and son in six major shipping companies, and has never been introduced to the mainland market.

Zheng Yuanyi was helping to refill the wine. Zhu Ming picked up the wine glass and asked, "Why do you have this idea?"

Zheng Hong said: "I have seen the Guangzhou Shipping Company's exchange. When I returned to Beijing, I found that the Kaifeng market had been monopolized by the Merger House, so I requested the establishment of an exchange to break this monopoly."

"You are very brave." Ju Ming smiled.

Zheng Hong also laughed: "If it weren't for last year's big case, I wouldn't dare to mention this kind of thing. Although I haven't read many books, I have asked people about it. The former Song Dynasty King Xianggong was dismissed because of this."

Wang Anshi's reform was collectively opposed by vested interests.

The content of the reform that has attracted the most opposition is not the average land tax. Measures such as inventorying farmland and adjusting agricultural taxes may seem to have a broad impact, but in fact the local gentry is in disarray and can be suppressed by sending a few cruel officials.

The direct reason for Wang Anshi's dismissal as prime minister was that the combination of "Market Change Law" and "Exemption from Service Money" offended the royal family members, important officials in the court, and the big businessmen who colluded with them.

The consequence was market chaos across the country, and even greater chaos in Tokyo. Even the supply of supplies to the imperial family had problems.

Relatives of the emperor and dignitaries in the DPRK and China are among the biggest "victims" of the reform. The relatives the emperor had contact with, including the Queen Mother, complained all day long that Wang Anshi had caused chaos in the world.

The specific details are as follows:

Governments across the country collected a lot of taxes in kind, including grain, cloth, wood, etc., which had to be sold to merchants and turned into money. Or what supplies the government needs must be supplied by merchants. Or maybe there is some activity that needs to be carried out, and merchants are needed to supply goods and services.

Merchants bulked goods, supplied goods, and served the government, collectively referred to as "Kepi".

Coordination is completed by the commercial guild as a unit. For example, if it is related to cloth, it is handled by cloth merchants.

A guild is often headed by a large wholesaler, who joins forces with other wholesalers to monopolize regional trade. Retailers purchase goods from wholesalers and are exploited and oppressed by wholesalers.

In order to facilitate transactions between the government and merchants, local governments conduct price inquiries once every ten days to obtain the latest market prices for various commodities. Local governments quote prices to the court once a month so that the central government can control the latest market prices across the country.

However, whether it is a ten-day price or a monthly price, it is definitely different from the specific price.

When dealing with government departments, big businessmen would go to those departments to find profitable deals. If there is a loss-making business, we will arrange for small and medium-sized businessmen to deal with it.

In addition, large businessmen join forces to monopolize the market and drive up prices through hoarding, which leads to the bankruptcy of small and medium-sized businessmen every year and causes economic losses to the central court and local governments.

Wang Anshi tried to solve the problem through the Market Change Law, which not only turned big businessmen from joining forces to monopolize the market, but also turned the government into controlling the market. When large merchants deliberately lower prices and refuse to accept goods, the government directly collects the goods, then distributes them in bulk to retailers, and lends money to small and medium-sized merchants at low interest rates.

When officials implemented the market transaction laws, they corrupted and violated the law, which made the market more chaotic. Big businessmen joined forces with the powerful to add fuel to the flames, and the government's scientific management was in a mess.

The situation of small and medium-sized businessmen has become even more difficult!

Wang Anshi also introduced the exemption of service money to patch up, that is, businessmen who do not want to submit to the government can choose to pay directly to avoid the service.

The combination of market changes and laws to exempt people from labor service has had a huge impact on the royal family, dignitaries in the court, and wealthy businessmen, which is tantamount to digging up the lifeblood of their fortunes. The resulting opposition was countless times greater than the per capita tax on farmland, and eventually Wang Anshi resigned and returned home.

But the real reason for the failure was that Wang Anshi took the wrong path.

There is a problem with wealthy businessmen monopolizing the market, but is there no problem with the government directly monopolizing the market? Wang Anshi's remedial measure was to increase the salaries of officials to prevent them from making money through market transactions.

As a result, officials passed the Market Change Law and intensified their efforts to harm small and medium-sized businessmen.

Most of the excuses used by the opposition to attack the Market Change Law actually exist!

This problem cannot be solved, at least not by Wang Anshi, because it requires a bigger knife.

During the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, Cai Jing picked up the market change law and the money for exemption from service. However, the Market Trade Law was soon abolished, and the exemption of service money was inconveniently preserved because it was beneficial to big merchants.

The later Yuan and Ming dynasties continued the Song Dynasty's Kepi system.

One of the slogans of Li Zicheng's rebellion was "buy equally and sell equally". He wanted to abolish the scientific system of the Ming Dynasty.

In the end, Kebu was abolished in the Qing Dynasty, but the important prerequisite for its abolition was that the degree of "monetization" of taxation and the market was high enough.

The Ming Dynasty established by Zhu Guoxiang and Ju Ming also collected a large amount of in-kind taxes.

For example, when a merchant transports a ship of timber, whether it is the tolls on the way or the transaction tax when it is transported to the place of sale, a large amount of goods must be deducted from the tax. Because commodity prices fluctuate and copper coins are not easy to transport, extracting physical goods as taxes can prevent officials from harming merchants and embezzling commercial taxes.

The government cannot keep these taxes in kind in the warehouse all the time. They must be sold to merchants and turned into money.

Realization must be based on the market price, and the monthly price obtained by the central government every month and the ten-day price obtained by local governments every ten days are different from the real market price.

If there is no scientific coordination, there will be too much room for collusion between government and businessmen!

…

The father and son have been steadily reforming this matter since the founding of the People's Republic of China.

First, continue to use the scientific distribution system for materials related to the national economy and people's livelihood.

Second, the rest of the goods are auctioned.

Third, follow Wang Anshi’s method of exempting people from labor service.

Fourth, gradually increase the issuance of banknotes.

The ultimate goal is to completely monetize the commodity tax and use paper money to solve the problem of physical points.

After the bulk commodities are monetized, the remaining physical items will no longer need to be allocated, and the allocation system will naturally be completely abolished.

However, it cannot solve the problem of wealthy businessmen joining forces to monopolize and manipulate the market.

Now Fatty Zheng has provided a plan to set up an exchange in Kaifeng. Although monopoly cannot be completely solved, it can make the market more transparent and increase the monopoly costs of wealthy businessmen.

Zheng Hong said: "I was an official in Guangdong before, and the Guangzhou Shipping Department's exchange was well run."

"During the pre-Song Dynasty, goods transported inland to Guangzhou were controlled by a few large merchants. If sea ships wanted to purchase goods, they had to look at the merchants' faces. However, goods transported to Guangzhou from overseas were monopolized by the imperial court, and finally were monopolized by merchants in the capital. Control.

"After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, sea goods were no longer sold by officials, resulting in both land and sea goods being controlled by Guangzhou trade leaders."

"But with the Shishi Shipping Exchange, how much land cargo is going to sea and how much sea cargo has entered the port can be clearly checked at the exchange. Those wealthy merchants in Guangzhou can no longer control the goods. If they want to lower the price, they can't The goods will be received by merchants from Fujian and Zhejiang."

"Furthermore, this exchange is different from the market transactions of the previous Song Dynasty, because the government will not interfere in the trading."

Ju Ming said with a smile: "The establishment of exchanges in the six major shipping companies is just to facilitate the collection of tariffs. I didn't expect that there would be such an unexpected gain."

Zheng Hong said: "Not only that, the exchange also makes it more convenient for merchants to buy and sell. For example, land merchants sell cargo orders on the exchange in advance, and maritime merchants take the cargo orders and pay the down payment in advance. After the next trade wind arrives, both parties "

Since the emergence of exchanges, futures will definitely be born. How to avoid risks can be solved by merchants themselves.

Ju Ming asked: "Is there anyone who specializes in reselling the bill of goods to make a profit?"

"Yes." Zheng Hong nodded.

Look, there are already futures traders.

Ju Ming felt that banknotes could be issued in the six major cities.

Zheng Hong said: "Kaifeng is at the feet of the emperor. The dynasty was first established and the court's prestige was extremely high. Naturally, merchants would not live in such strange settlements that the people in the city could not afford coal and froze to death. But merchants did not dare to do big things. , but often play small things. I looked through the official price inquiry documents of Kaifeng Prefecture last year, and found that there are businessmen who took advantage of the nationwide investigation of major cases to join forces to manipulate prices in Kaifeng Prefecture to make profits."

"Haha." Zhu Ming smiled.

Last year, several merchants who took the opportunity to manipulate prices in the capital had their homes confiscated.

Of course, the reason why their homes were confiscated was because they were involved in a major corruption case.

After several companies were severely punished, prices in Tokyo quickly stabilized. Because the government seized a lot of inventory, it was directly auctioned to middle and low-level merchants (retailers).

Zheng Hong said: "Goods from all directions are transported to the capital. The merchants are manipulated by the business leaders, and the small and medium-sized merchants are also manipulated by the business leaders. They eat what goes up and down, and deliberately disrupt prices. It is impossible for the government to control them all the time. , and often cannot be managed. I believe that an exchange can be opened in Tokyo. This is equivalent to a market transaction where the government only collects taxes but does not participate in transactions. It not only circumvents the shortcomings of Wang Xianggong's market transaction, but also obtains The benefits of market transactions.”

Zhu Ming shook his head: "The exchange is not a panacea. Once the wealthy businessmen figure it out, they can control prices through purchase and sale orders. Of course, this will greatly increase their costs. They will not be able to operate as easily as before, and the government will handle it." It’s also easier to get up.”

"That's enough." Zheng Hong said.

Ju Ming praised and said: "I didn't expect that over the years in this place, you have become more and more advanced."

Zheng Hong smiled and said: "Although I am not good at reading, I have always been good at business. These are related to business."

Ju Ming said: "I asked the cabinet and the six ministries to discuss and cooperate with the exchange to carry out commercial tax reform. First conduct a pilot in Kaifeng, check for leaks and fill in the gaps, and then promote it to inland large cities. It does not need to be promoted in all provinces across the country like Wang Anshi's Municipal Affairs Bureau. Just promote it in a few big cities. Your suggestions this time are excellent. Keep reading, learning and doing more, and there is hope for the position of Minister of Household Affairs."