Chapter 334 The Emperor's Abacus
Taiji Palace, Lizheng Palace.
This is the queen's bedroom, Qin Lang sitting in the hall kneeling, a bit out of place.
Empress Changsun is making tea.
"This forty taels of gold per catty of tea leaves is really worth three years' food for the people."
Li Shimin held the teacup, looked at the tea soup inside and sighed.
Qin Lang respectfully took the tea made by the queen, "Your Majesty, it's more than that. Now the tea is fried to a box of one hundred and sixty taels of gold, one tael of tea is ten taels of gold, this cup Tea is worth at least 20,000 yuan. Ordinary ordinary people may not be able to spend 20,000 yuan in three years."
"Too extravagant!" Li Shimin said.
"Your Majesty, you need to look at things dialectically. Although this tea is expensive, not everyone can afford it. Those who can drink this tea are either rich or expensive. For example, the king of Huaihua County recently spent a hundred I bought a box of this tea from another house for sixty taels of gold. Is one hundred and sixty taels of gold expensive to the king of Huaihua County? Not expensive, he has hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep, and he is not short of money."
Li Shimin took a sip of the tea soup and listened to Qin Lang continue.
"For Duke Huaihua, it doesn't matter if the tea costs one hundred and sixty taels of gold or sixteen coins, it doesn't really make much difference to him, it's just a normal expense."
"If you have money, you shouldn't be so extravagant!" Empress Changsun said.
"Your Majesty, diligence and thrift are my traditional Chinese virtues, but I don't mean to be too frugal. For rich people like the king of Huaihua County, we can't ask them to live the same way as poor people. If that's the case, How will their wealth be spent, so what is the point of accumulating wealth? Or to put it another way, is he expected to accumulate money like many landowners, and then bury it in the ground?"
In fact, many people in ancient times advocated frugality and even opposed consumption. This concept cannot be wrong, but it is not true everywhere.
Everyone does not consume, which is not good for the economy.
"Your Majesty, I also oppose extravagance, but if you do what you can, it will actually be beneficial to the country and the people. If a person only wants to survive, two meals a day, simple tea and light food are enough, and common people can cover their bodies. You can live in thatched huts, but has your Majesty thought about a problem? If everyone is like this, then who will sell the silk woven by the people to grow mulberry and silkworms? And the craftsmen who build houses will also lose their jobs. If everyone does not drink Tea, tea growers will be unemployed, industry and commerce will fail, craftsmen and merchants will all be unemployed."
"A country cannot be stable without agriculture, rich without jobs, and prosperous without business."
Just like this cup of tea.
Because there are wealthy people like the king of Huaihua County consuming and purchasing, the tea merchants earn profits from trading, tea farmers earn profits from growing tea and frying tea, and the imperial court collects tea tax. Tea merchants and tea farmers make money, and they can buy and consume other commodities, which drives other merchants, craftsmen and common people to make money, so there are other taxes, which drive a larger market.
"Your Majesty, business brings tax revenue, and business brings vitality."
"So I oppose extravagance, but I don't object to everyone's normal consumption within their ability. This kind of consumption is benign. It can activate the market, increase taxes for the court, and increase wealth for the people. This is a good thing. Even if It is the home of poor people, and if there is a good year, they will kill a chicken to celebrate."
"What the imperial court has to do is to guide it well. For example, if this tea is good tea, as long as the government collects taxes from it, then although this cup of tea can be used for three years of food for the people's family, but the court has taxed it, it can also be used for the people. In other words, even if the king of Huaihua County does not buy the tea, does his money belong to the common people? On the contrary, he bought the tea, which really revitalized the related industries and increased taxes for the court.”
Empress Changsun didn't expect Qin Lang to talk about it from this angle, and she couldn't help but think about it.
"Landlords buy fields, lend money, and even sell goods. They have the advantage of making money from money. They can make more money than ordinary people. Therefore, the court should allow them to spend money, and even encourage them to spend money. Spend money because they have money, if money is not buried in the pigsty, it is just dead money, and even the court will have no money to use. If they are encouraged to consume and spend money, it can liven up the market, increase the circulation of money, and even more Importantly, consumption also generates tax revenue.”
Qin Lang's theory is of course the general rule of later generations.
In this era, there are some limitations, but there is still some truth.
The money earned by the rich will not be distributed to the people or donated to the country in vain. If you want their money to play a bigger role, you can’t rely on beating local tyrants, allowing or even encouraging them to consume, even if it is extravagant consumption , which is also a method.
Just like this tea, although this kind of tea with ten taels of gold and one tael is actually very rare, many teas are indeed consumer goods for medium and high production. For every sip of tea, the imperial court can collect a tax.
Similarly, with the expansion of the tea market, tea farmers will also increase, which is equivalent to adding a lot of jobs for the people all over the world.
The same is true for wine, sugar, etc.
Anyone who makes money by himself is eligible to enjoy it, but those who are emperors and officials are not eligible, because they are worshiped by the people.
Of course, Qin Lang didn't say this.
"Your Majesty said this. I'm not a monkey. How can I jump up and down? I just heard the king of Huaihua County tell me that this year's natural disasters are ruthless, and the newly attached Fengzhou Tianzi herdsmen are having a hard time, so I thought of contacting some people. Let's see if we can raise some money to purchase a batch of commercial goods, ship them to Fengzhou, and buy the cattle, sheep and camels that the herdsmen have no grass to eat."
"These herdsmen lightened their burdens and avoided losses, and we transported the fur, milk and meat back to the Central Plains. The fur can be used as clothing to avoid the cold, and the milk and meat can be used as food to satisfy hunger."
Li Shimin laughed twice.
He had heard the reports from Zhenfu Si Baiqisi and others a long time ago. Knowing that, under the banner of the Eastern Palace, he contacted many upstarts from Shandong who were doing this.
This matter is definitely profitable, and it can make a lot of money.
But it's not a big deal, after all, which of those aristocratic families doesn't behave like this.
He can only say that Qin Lang acted relatively quickly, and he also knew to ask Donggong to take the lead.
Li Shimin is a qualified emperor, he allows others to make money.
"I plan to let you go to Toyosu."
"To Toyosu?"
Li Shimin chuckled, "Don't you like to jump up and down, don't you like to make money? I will grant you this time, and you will go to Fengzhou in person. I will appoint you as the comfort ambassador of Fengzhou to appease those Yu She who is attached to you. Set up a Turkic tribe, and Qin Guozhong will stay in Beijing for the time being, so you can inspect the governor of Fengzhou, and I will ask Li Daliang to inspect the governor of Fengzhou to assist you."
Qin Lang has been with Li Shimin for a long time, and he knows him better. Now that Li Shimin sticks his ass, Qin Lang knows what **** he is going to do.
Let him go to Fengzhou to be the governor of the school. This shows that the emperor wanted to take advantage of Qin Guozhong to enter the court and install forces in the newly attached land of Fengzhou. The important thing is, although Tang Chu managed to regain it, he lost it later.
Now finally with Qin Guozhong's attachment, this land has returned to Datang, but only in name, so Li Shimin wants to take the opportunity to actually control him.
But the action should not be too big, lest Yu She set up the troops to be dissatisfied and even cause chaos.
So now let Qin Guozhong's righteous brother, Qin Lang, inspect Fengzhou governor on his behalf. Qin Guozhong is still Fengzhou governor and governor, but the emperor keeps him in Beijing temporarily, so Qin Lang is allowed to pass.
On the other hand, Qin Lang happened to organize a lot of money and grain to go to Fengzhou to do business with the herdsmen and buy their cattle and sheep furs, so that the resistance of Yu Sheshe's tribe would definitely be minimized.
Of course, the most important point is that Li Shimin trusts Qin Lang's ability to handle affairs.
Before inspecting the school, the governor of Youzhou, he performed very well.
Li Daliang, Li Shimin also carefully selected Li Daliang as the candidate for the governor. This title is the baron of Wuyang County. Although the title is very low, he is very capable of handling affairs.
Li Daliang was also born in Guanlong. His father was Li Chongjie, the general manager of Shuozhou in the Sui Dynasty. Li Daliang, who is now in his fifties, has a resume similar to that of Qin Qiong. He was also a serious Sui Dynasty officer in his early years. defeated and captured.
At that time, he was lucky. Zhang Bi, the Wagang general who captured him, killed all the other captives, but thought he was very special and left him alone. Li Daliang stayed under Zhang Bi and went to Wagang.
However, when he was in Wagang, after Qin Qiong returned with Pei Renji, he was highly valued, serving as the general of hussars and commanding the cavalry. But Li Daliang was only a school lieutenant under Zhang Bi at that time, so when he was in Wagang, Li Daliang was not well-known.
Later, Li Yuan invaded Chang'an. After Li Daliang heard about it, he immediately left Wagang and ran to Chang'an to vote for Li Yuan. Li Yuan didn't have much use for him, he just gave him the post of county magistrate.
But Li Daliang was also down-to-earth as his county magistrate, focusing on developing production, persuading the barbarians to surrender, and conferring meritorious service on Jinzhou Sima.
Later, he participated in Ping Wang Shichong's meritorious service and was the governor of Qian'an Prefecture. But at that time, Qin Qiong was awarded the Duke of Yi Kingdom with the merit of Ping Wang Shichong.
Li Daliang was later promoted to the governor of Yuezhou with the contribution of Pingfu Gong Er.
After Li Shimin succeeded to the throne, he served as the governor of Jiaozhou, and then transferred back to the imperial court.
He is capable of writing and martial arts, but because there are no hills, so far he is only a man from Wuyang County. He was also a false baron for all officials above the fifth rank and above when he ascended the throne.
What Li Shimin liked was that Li Daliang was hard-working and capable of civil and martial arts, especially his outstanding ability in recruiting Hu people and appeasing the people, so he was specially assigned to assist Qin Lang.
This also reveals that Li Shimin's attitude towards the Turkic descendants in Fengzhou still focuses on appeasement.
"I want you to go to Fengzhou. First, you have to appease Qin Guozhong's followers. Second, you have to beware of Xieli. You can't let Xieli swallow up the 100,000 horses, let alone let Fengzhou go to Fengzhou. swallowed."
(end of this chapter)