dognovel Chapter 1127 No, does your Ming Dynasty have some serious illness?
Chapter 1127 No, does your Ming Dynasty have some serious illness?
Zhu Biao was completely bewildered after Yang Shaofeng uttered the statement that "there is no solution for merchants."
My brother-in-law saw that his previous argument about "aristocratic families, officials, and maritime merchants" didn't give me a headache, so he came up with another argument about "merchants."
If I were to write another letter back to the capital, would my already unreliable father come straight to Quanzhou and beat me up?
Even if her unreliable father could be reliable this once, would her brother-in-law raise any new questions?
Seeing the conflicted look on Hei Sesame Tang Yuan's face, Yang Shaofeng chuckled again and said, "Your Highness might as well think back to the 'On Gentry' that I wrote back then. That thing is almost the same as 'On Merchants'."
Merchants want a sense of security, and so do gentry.
"When merchants have money, they think about getting their hands on the court. The gentry want to get their hands on the court anytime, anywhere."
"Moreover, the gentry have a natural advantage; the phrase 'passing down the family tradition of farming and studying' can leave the wealthy merchants far behind."
"And there's the tax revenue right that I mentioned before."
"Your Highness might consider whether the Ming Dynasty has truly succeeded in tax collection?"
"Which specific government department is collecting taxes? Who are the taxpayers? What are the types of taxes? What are the procedures for the transfer and final destination of tax revenue? How can tax revenue collection be guaranteed?"
"This leads to the question: what exactly are the specific responsibilities of each government office?"
"For example, if the Ministry of Railways asks the national treasury for money to build railways, how should the operation of the railways be calculated after they are built?"
"If we were to accept freight transport from the public, and even allow ordinary people to ride in steam locomotives, how would we set prices? Who would collect the money? Where would the money ultimately go? How would we calculate the taxes?"
"For example, how should taxes be collected from small vendors? How should their tax standards be determined? Who should collect taxes from them?"
"..."
Zhu Biao stared blankly at Yang Shaofeng's mouth opening and closing. His ears seemed to hear everything, yet he also seemed to hear nothing. Only three questions echoed repeatedly in his mind.
Who is Gu?
Where am I?
What am I doing?
The problem of the "merchant theory" has not yet been solved, and now another big problem of the "taxation theory" has been put forward.
Yang Shaofeng put down his teacup and smiled, "Your Highness might as well think about it from another perspective."
"Whether they are merchants or gentry, the reason why they want to frantically seize profits and power is partly due to the inherent greed of human nature, but another reason is also due to the old saying, 'A county magistrate who ruins a family, a prefect who wipes out an entire clan.'"
"How can we ensure that the rights of merchants and gentry are not infringed upon by officials before they make any mistakes?"
Zhu Biao was completely numb.
After a long while, Zhu Biao sighed and said, "I am just a prince, and I cannot understand such a complicated problem."
Yang Shaofeng smiled again and said, "Then Your Highness can think about it slowly. Anyway, you should return to the capital to report on your duties in a while. You might as well bring up these issues then and give the Duke of Han and the Marquis of Chengyi a headache."
As Yang Shaofeng finished speaking, Heizhima Tangyuan was completely bewildered, and Zhu Lao Er, Zhu Lao San, and Zhu Lao Si all took a step back in unison.
"Fifth brother is the smartest."
Zhu Lao Er whispered to Zhu Lao San, "Our eldest brother, the Crown Prince of the court, has been tormented like this. It's not necessarily easy for us vassal kings to be like this either."
Zhu Laosan's lips moved slightly, and he said in a low voice, "It's not that it's necessarily easy to be a prince, but it's definitely not easy—don't forget, my elder brother has already told my brother-in-law that when we are enfeoffed, he will arrange for us to be the chief clerk of the prince's mansion from Ningyang County."
"Think about Chen Mo and Zhou Jingxin."
"Where are the good people in Ningyang County?"
Zhu Lao Er and Zhu Lao San complained in low voices, but Zhu Lao Si tugged at Zhu Lao San's sleeve, stared intently at Yang Shaofeng and Zhu Biao, and lowered his voice again, saying, "You two keep your voices down, don't let your brother-in-law hear you."
Zhu Biao ignored his three whispering, foolish younger brothers and said with a troubled expression, "What do you want my brother-in-law to think?"
"Other issues are relatively easy to resolve, but this matter of how to protect the rights and interests of merchants and gentry involves the question of who should advance and who should retreat."
“If the imperial court advances, then merchants and gentry will retreat, and their rights and interests cannot be guaranteed.”
“If the court retreats, merchants and gentry will advance, and they will only become more and more frenzied.”
“From the Song Dynasty to the present, these people have become accustomed to betraying and selling out the court to gain power and benefits, and even more accustomed to oppressing the people to seize profits.”
"Otherwise, we wouldn't have come to Fujian, and there wouldn't have been this mess of 'purging the court of corrupt officials'."
Yang Shaofeng nodded and said, "So, Your Highness still needs to think about it slowly."
Then, until the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month in the seventh year of Hongwu, when Yang Shaofeng and Heizhima Tangyuan had to return to Beijing for the New Year and to report on their duties, Zhu Biao was still thinking about solutions to the "Merchant Theory" and the "Taxation Theory".
Yang Shaofeng, being a pure person, a person detached from vulgar interests, pointed to a group of street vendors by the roadside after entering the city gate of Nanjing and said, "Your Highness, take a look at them."
“You should collect taxes from them. They rely on setting up stalls to support their families, and they already earn very little. If you collect taxes, they won’t be able to make any money.”
"If we don't collect taxes from them, is that fair to the merchants who own shops?"
"As the saying goes, 'Many streams make a river, and many grains of sand make a tower.' If a stall pays one coin in tax a day, then with thousands upon thousands of stalls, that's tens of thousands of strings of cash a day, and millions of strings of cash a year."
Zhu Biao was completely bewildered.
I've been thinking about this in Quanzhou for a month or two but haven't come up with anything. Now that I'm back in Beijing, my brother-in-law will nag me all over again. How am I supposed to live like this?
Zhu Biao grew angrier the more he thought about it, so he simply kept walking with a dark and sour face.
Zhu Biao only smiled when the group arrived outside the palace.
Zhu Biao pointed to a stall and said, "Brother-in-law, look at that stall. If I'm not mistaken, it looks like a stall selling Ningyang braised chicken. If I'm not mistaken, that guy should be Wu Sansi from Jia Yilu, the cousin of Wu Ju, the current prefect of Yangzhou?"
As soon as Zhu Biao finished speaking, Zhu Lao Er, Zhu Lao San, and Zhu Lao Si immediately perked up.
Yang Shaofeng's face gradually darkened.
Not only do these damn street vendors set up their stalls outside Chengtianmen, but some of them are even so audacious as to set up their stalls on the Inner Five Dragon Bridge. After crossing the Inner Five Dragon Bridge, to the left is the Imperial Altar of the God of Agriculture, to the right is the Imperial Ancestral Temple, in the middle are the Duanmen and Wumen, and further in is the home of Lao Deng and Xiao Deng.
No, does your Ming Dynasty have some serious illness?
Although Lao Deng has always encouraged small handicrafts and street vendor economy, isn't it a bit too much to encourage street vendors to set up stalls on the Neiwulong Bridge?
Also, what's with those little girls playing football inside the Inner Five Dragon Bridge, outside the Duanmen Gate, near the outer wall of the Imperial Ancestral Temple? One of you damn well better explain this to me!