Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 375: Year-end Military and Political Conference (Part )

To put it simply, the salt-trading method was to ask merchants to help with transportation. As long as the specified military supplies were delivered to the border, they would be given a corresponding number of salt permits based on the quantity of goods delivered. After getting the salt permits, the merchants would go to the official salt fields to get salt, and finally transport it to various places for sale.

The transportation cost was passed on by the government to the merchants, and the merchants passed it on to the people who bought salt. Ultimately, it was the people who shared the cost.

However, Lu Jin's current territory has well-developed waterways, and there is no need to transport grain to Dadu, Liaodong, Shaanxi, and Yunnan for the time being. Other places can be transported directly by water, so there is no need to open the salt market now.

The Jiangxi and Huguang regions themselves do not produce salt. Jiangxi mainly consumes Jianghuai salt. Huguang's geographical location allows it to barely consume Sichuan's well salt. However, Sichuan now has a sparse population and limited salt production, and it is also a time of war. It is not easy to transport Sichuan salt out of the Three Gorges.

It's similar for Liu Futong in Henan. They either eat Chi salt from Shanxi, Changlu salt from Hebei, or Jianghuai salt. But Shanxi and Hebei are now in the hands of the Yuan court, and they will definitely not sell to them. So after all the calculations, only Lu Jin can sell him salt.

With this realistic foundation, Lu Jin could issue salt and iron coupons to their territory. If merchants in Jiangxi and Central Plains wanted to buy salt, they had to use salt and iron coupons to buy it. Salt and iron coupons would not be sold without them!
If you want to exchange salt and iron coupons, you have to exchange them for real gold, silver and copper coins, or trade them with other strategic materials, such as grain, cloth, cotton, medicinal materials, livestock, oil, etc.

To put it bluntly, it was a foreign exchange war, forcing them to join the payment system established by Lu Jin, and the salt and iron coupons were their "foreign exchange"!
Once they accepted this arrangement and allowed the salt and iron coupons to circulate in their territory, Lu Jin would be able to directly print money to buy up their supplies. He could also collect their seigniorage through financial means, causing them to face a shortage of supplies, and even manipulate prices to let them know what danger is.

Although it may not necessarily destroy them, it can at least weaken them.
After determining the ratio between the new banknotes and prices, as well as the method of issuance, Lu Jin requested to re-formulate the rewards and pensions this time. After fighting such a big war, they certainly couldn't just give away a stone of rice.

Of course, giving too much rice is useless. Not only would it waste the government's grain reserves, but those awarded soldiers would also want to buy something, so giving them a lot of grain would be inconvenient.

So the rewards and pension standards were finally determined.

The basic reward for the former Shengwu Army soldiers who participated in the war, excluding the newly recruited captured soldiers, was one stone of rice, twenty catties of salt, a piece of cotton and linen cloth, plus 20 yuan of salt and iron coupons per person. The total value was equivalent to two months' income of a high-income craftsman. Together with the distributed supplies, the total was about twenty or thirty taels.

For the seriously injured and disabled soldiers, the Shengwu Army paid for their treatment and rewarded each of them with five stone of rice, thirty catties of salt, and five pieces of cloth. Because the disability caused the family to lack labor, they were also rewarded with a donkey as a labor supplement. Finally, they gave them 50 yuan salt and iron coupons, which was equivalent to half a year's salary for a high-income craftsman.

For example, if a monthly salary of 8,000 yuan is considered a high income in modern times, then this is equivalent to a one-time compensation of 50,000 yuan.

In addition, the Marshal's Mansion will arrange jobs for them to transfer to other places and become instructors of the Internal Guard. The prerequisite is that they have to accept relocation and immigration. They have to move there before they can become instructors there. In addition, they can also become physical education teachers in schools in the future. If there is really no place to go, they can also get a job on a government-run farm. In short, they will never be left without a place to live.

Each martyr was given ten stone of rice, one stone of salt, ten rolls of cotton cloth, ten rolls of plain silk, and one hundred kilograms of cotton. Because the family was missing a young and strong laborer, they were also given two cows as a labor supplement. Finally, they were given 200 yuan in salt and iron coupons in cash. The total value is probably equivalent to 20 yuan today. In addition, one of their sons, nephews, or brothers could be sent to military school.

Other soldiers who have made special contributions, such as beheading generals, capturing flags, breaking through formations, and being the first to climb the mountain, will be rewarded with 500 new yen in addition to the basic reward after verification by the chief officer and the training officer.

This may seem like a lot, but the number of people who can meet the reward standard is only about a hundred at most. After all, only 36 cities were captured in the Eastern Expedition, and there were only 36 enemy generals who were first to climb the mountain and killed in battle. Only a dozen or so people can meet the award standard. Combined with the wars in other directions, the number of people who can get this reward is only about a hundred. A total of to taels will be needed.

According to this standard, the number of soldiers who needed to be rewarded in various directions was about 500. The total expenditure for rewards and pensions was about 70 million taels. At the price of 35700 wen per catty of salt, Lu Jin had to sell 48 tons, about stones of salt, to make a profit.
The Shengwu Army currently controls a territory with a population of just over 48 million. Assuming that each person consumes three taels of salt per month, these shi are almost enough to sell for a year, which is equivalent to overdrawing all the salt taxes for the coming year in advance. Fortunately, the salt tax is not only borne by himself, he can also sell it to Jiangxi and Central Plains, and he can recover the five million taels in about a few months.

However, this reward method also made Lu Jin realize what it felt like for Emperor Wu of Han to empty the national treasury to reward the army.
After everyone calculated this number, they all gasped. Fortunately, they now have the salt field, otherwise they really wouldn't be able to pay the pensions and rewards.

After finalizing this matter, Lu Jincai said, "In terms of military, the issues of rewards and pensions have been determined. The other issues of reorganization, military expansion, and next year's strategy will be discussed within the Martial Academy, so I won't talk about them here. What political affairs do the Literary Academy need to handle? Mr. Bai Shi, please tell us about it."

"Yes." Li Shanchang immediately stepped out and said.

"There are actually only six most important things. First, we need to send officials to the newly annexed territories as soon as possible to improve the official system and make their orders clear, so that the orders issued by the Marshal's Office can be executed.

“Secondly, we must compile a household register and find out the population and land situation within the jurisdiction as soon as possible. Only after knowing these can we formulate reasonable policies.

“Third, we must resume production as soon as possible, especially in the salt fields along the Huaiyang and Jiangsu and Zhejiang coasts. We need to send officials to organize the people to resume production.

“Fourth, we are preparing for next year’s spring ploughing.

"The fifth is to formulate tax standards. From the time when the Lord started the rebellion until before crossing the Yangtze River, we actually only collected one season's grain tax in Jiangyou, and we still collected it according to the old system of the Yuan court. But the Lord's territory is now larger, and we should take advantage of the current slack season to clarify the tax standards, so as not to delay work when collecting taxes next year.

"Sixth is the salaries of officials. Before, there were no coins or new banknotes. Salaries were only paid in the form of grain. Now that new banknotes are available, it's time to finalize the salaries."

Lu Jin nodded and said, "It's said to be six items, but in fact there are not so many. It's nothing more than sending officials and registering the people. Whether it's the salt field or spring plowing, it's all about resuming production. Then there are taxes and salaries. These are actually easy to do. Let's talk about the key points and what needs to be discussed in the meeting."

Li Shanchang said immediately, "The most important thing is the salt field. Salt tax is currently the most important source of income for the Marshal's Office. We need to appoint officials to manage it and resume production as soon as possible. But didn't we hear news before that many of the stove owners in Huaiyang have revolted and joined the army? Not only have some joined the rebel army, but some have also joined the Yuan army.

"Not only did he join the army, I also heard that the general named Zhang Jiusi was also a private salt dealer, and many salt farmers were involved in the smuggling, producing and selling their own salt.

"The current situation is that the stove owners have revolted, the salt fields are short of workers, and the lord has also abolished the Yuan court's household registration system. From now on, there will be no more stove owners. So how should these original stove owners be resettled, and how should the salt fields be run?"

Lu Jin nodded. This was indeed a problem. Although the household registration system of the Yuan Dynasty locked people in cattle pens as slaves for generations, it did "provide the people with a hereditary job". Now that the household registration system has been abolished and people have been freed from the cattle pens, they must be given corresponding jobs. They can either farm in the village or work in the city, otherwise they will become refugees.

So Lu Jin thought about it and said, "Let's open a salt company. The former salt farmers will become employees of the company, or workers. In the future, just like the iron factory in Luzhou, there will no longer be salt farmers, but only workers who work in the salt field and receive wages.

"The sale and transportation of salt will be handled by the company, so the salt farmers no longer have to transport and sell the salt themselves. This will also prevent them from secretly selling salt."

Qin Conglong frowned upon hearing this and asked, "Isn't this the Salt Administration Bureau? What's the difference between this company and the Bureau?"

Lu Jin immediately explained, "You can understand the company as a promotion agency founded by the public. Here it mainly refers to a business operation structure, which can be government-run or privately-run. In layman's terms, it is a private business.

"In the future, we will have to set up a Ministry of Industry and Commerce to uniformly manage, support, control, and collect taxes from merchants all over the world." "This, a privately-run government office, I'm afraid this is a bit inappropriate, isn't it letting the people run their own government offices?" Qin Conglong said in shock.

Lu Jin spread his hands helplessly, "It's also my fault for being too formal. Anyway, you should think of the company as a private business. Businesses have long existed among the people. They are private institutions that merchants use to organize procurement, production, transportation, and sales. They are similar to government offices, but without the name of government offices. Changing the name to a company is just to make merchants more standardized and more convenient for the court to manage.

"I have prepared a company system handout, as well as a draft of the company law and the labor law. You can take a look at it. If there is anything you don't understand or need to add, you can also raise it."

Lu Jin immediately had it distributed, and when everyone took a look at it, it seemed that it was really just a name change, but it was indeed more formal, and there was also an architectural diagram on it to facilitate everyone's understanding.

For example, if a business name is changed to a company, the owner is called the sole proprietor. If there are multiple people holding shares, each of them is called a shareholder. The operation of the company is decided by the general meeting of shareholders. If a single person holds more than 66% of the shares, he or she can serve as the chairman of the board and have a veto power. He or she can also be elected by the general meeting of shareholders. The 'shareholder' may not be a certain person, but another company.

Under the shareholders' meeting, the person who is directly responsible for the operation of the business was formerly called a shopkeeper, but here he is called a professional manager, that is, a person who "makes a living by managing and operating the business of others", referred to as a manager, who can be recruited by shareholders or serve as a shareholder.

Under the general manager, there are several departments including purchasing, warehousing, production, transportation, and sales. The company headquarters also has positions such as finance (accounting) and human resources, collectively referred to as department managers or supervisors.

Branches can also be opened in various places, called subsidiaries or stores.

There are also supporting industrial and commercial laws and labor laws, which limit workers' working hours, safety guarantees, guaranteed income, injury and illness treatment, etc.

In terms of taxation, shareholders' share transfers must be notarized by government agencies, and a stamp duty of 3% of the transferred shares will be collected. Private transfers without notarization will not be accepted. Once discovered, they will be prosecuted for tax evasion. The government will not recognize shares that have not been notarized, and lawsuits will be based on the notarized materials.

A registered company must also pay about 30% corporate tax, and there will be different tax standards depending on the industry.

Wow, one out of three! This business tax is too harsh.
Everyone was dumbfounded. Qin Conglong said immediately, "This, this, this, if we follow this method, wouldn't the company become a small court, the shareholders become the monarch, the general manager is the prime minister, the finance is the Ministry of Revenue, the personnel is the Ministry of Personnel, and it is allowed to open branches and subsidiaries in various places. Wouldn't this become a government office and a county office?"

Lu Jin refuted indifferently, "It's just a name change. Even if it's not changed to a company, does that mean there's no boss? No shopkeeper? No accountant?

"If I open a papermaking workshop and don't have staff, will I not recruit craftsmen? It's as if these departments are not set up, then these things will not exist in the first place.

"If there is no company, can't we open branches in various places? I see that many of those pawnshops, inns, restaurants and hotels are owned by the same merchant and have the same name. Does this count as opening government offices in various places?

"Mr. Yuanzhi is making a big fuss."

Well, these things do exist, but looking at them according to the company's organizational structure, they are a bit shocking. Qin Conglong still finds it hard to accept, and asks, "Private businesses do organize production and sales in this way, but they organize themselves on the one hand, and the court allows them to organize on the other hand. What if someone uses the company as a cover to commit treason?"

Lu Jin was speechless, "If we don't set up a company, will no one rebel? Excuse me for being blunt, but it is said that even a scholar cannot succeed in a rebellion even after ten years, and it is even more ridiculous for a merchant to rebel. I dare say that in China, there has never been a merchant who can successfully rebel. There has never been one before, and there will never be one in the future. Considering the moral character of merchants, you are overestimating them by expecting them to rebel.

"As for those who want to rebel, they use the company as a cover. Worrying about this is just throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Those who really want to rebel can still rebel even if they don't use the company as a cover."

Qian Yongren, the head of the Criminal Law Department, frowned and said, "But looking at the company system, company law, and labor law drafted by the lord, it is clear that he wants to encourage merchants. But shouldn't the country emphasize agriculture and suppress commerce? If the people all know that merchants can make money, who would still farm? Didn't the lord just say that low grain prices hurt farmers? He should set up a granary to protect grain prices, so as to prevent low grain prices from hurting farmers and causing them to lose their homes and property."

Upon hearing this, Lu Jin said, "Confucian scholars often despise merchants. Since ancient times, there has been a saying that scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans are inferior, as if everything else is inferior except for reading. Confucian scholars regard all kinds of trades and professions as inferior, and they themselves act high and mighty.

"But for a country, without agriculture there is no stability, without industry there is no prosperity, and without business there is no wealth. A country cannot just need a group of scholars, but needs all kinds of people. To be honest, I also hate merchants, especially those dishonest merchants, but you can't kill all merchants with one blow.

"I think merchants should be classified into three types. One type is merchants who run workshops and factories and engage in industry, such as weaving, papermaking, oil pressing, ceramics, brick firing, and vinegar brewing. Merchants in these industries are mainly engaged in production, and they have not done anything harmful to the world. The government should not only not suppress them, but should encourage and help them. Only when these merchants prosper can the country produce more materials and become rich and strong.

"The second type is the service industry, which does not produce goods but is a business that simply serves others. For example, inns, restaurants, teahouses, and transportation industries such as boats and carriages are all considered service industries. They do not produce any goods, but can provide convenience to pedestrians and travelers, and can also employ some unemployed vagrants in the city, providing them with job opportunities so that they can use their salaries to support their families. Therefore, this industry should not be suppressed or discriminated against.

“The third category that really needs to be controlled is those merchants who neither produce goods nor serve the public, but rely on hoarding, speculation, short selling, and price manipulation, especially grain merchants, money lenders, and pawnshops.

"They neither transport nor produce goods, but they manipulate prices, deceive the people, and make money by taking advantage of the price difference. They are the ones who cause the most harm to the world. In years of disaster, they sell grain at high prices, buy land at low prices, and lend money at high prices. Those engaged in this industry are mainly the so-called gentry, landlords, and tax farmers. They claim that poetry and books have been passed down from generation to generation, but which of them earned their wealth through honest farming?

"They call themselves country gentlemen, saying they are rich through hard work, but we have just calculated that a family with 50 acres of land can barely make ends meet, and their income is not as good as that of a coolie working at the docks in the city. Even if he is very hardworking, how can he get rich if he does not do something that harms the world? Do you believe what they say?
“Most Confucian scholars despise merchants, but they themselves engage in the most despicable and mean business among the three types of merchants. Should we care about such merchants?
"It is true that emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce is correct, but it should not mean suppressing all commerce. Industry and commerce should be encouraged, and only unscrupulous merchants should be suppressed. Am I right?"

Everyone was speechless. Although they wanted to refute, they couldn't. If the so-called gentry didn't have fields and were rich, how could they be called gentry? If they didn't rely on lending and mergers, where did they get so much land? Because this is the truth. Whoever has more land will naturally do more evil things.

Yang Xian was the fastest to react, and he praised immediately, "My lord is wise. The so-called emphasis on agriculture and suppression of commerce is indeed too broad. We should not treat all kinds of merchants the same. The three types of merchants you mentioned are refreshing. This is how we should govern the country!"

Lu Jin said expressionlessly, "I find that today's Confucian scholars never seem to study the way of business. Could it be that they are too pedantic and regard the four characters of 'scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans' as dogma?

"Has it been true that since Emperor Wu of Han promoted Confucianism alone and rejected all schools of thought, Confucian scholars only knew the Four Books and Five Classics, and no one studied the teachings of all schools of thought anymore? But I clearly remember that Sang Hongyang, who lived during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, based his salt and iron monopoly on the theories of Guanzi, and Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms period regarded Guan Zhong, the prime minister of Qi, as a role model in life and highly respected him. This shows that there were still people reading Guanzi until the end of the Han Dynasty.

“If a country wants to become rich and powerful, it needs this kind of talent the most.

"How many of you here have read Guanzi? Come on, raise your hands so I can see."

After a moment's silence, three people raised their hands.

Oh wow, I underestimated them. Some people actually read it——
PS: The second chapter will be a little later. If you can’t wait, you can read it tomorrow morning. Please vote for me next month.

(End of this chapter)