Chapter 631 Explanation

The two chatted about poetry and Buddhism for a while, and finally talked about current affairs.

The great monk Daolong pronounced the Buddha's name and said to Wen Yanbo: "My lord, I have something that I don't know whether I should ask for help or not."

Wen Yanbo smiled: "The monk is too enthusiastic, and I'm afraid he won't become a Buddhist."

Daolong blushed: "My husband was joking. Speaking of which, this matter is also a meritorious deed."

Wen Yanbo nodded: "What's the matter?"

Daolong said: "It's like this. Tianshi Mansion, Daxiangguo Temple, Imperial Pharmacy Bureau, and Taiyuan Hospital have jointly launched many new medicines. I must know about it, right?"

Wen Yanbo nodded: "Yes, I also always have heat-reducing powder and Fengyoujing at home. What's wrong?"

Daolong said: "These things are all sold to Yisi now. We, as a few, do not need to borrow credit from Yisi, nor do we need to purchase medicinal materials from Yisi. Moreover, they are produced locally in central Beijing and are not foreign goods. So no matter what

From any point of view, there is no reason to be included in the management of the Municipal Affairs Bureau, right?"

Wen Yanbo asked: "Are these patent medicines also returned to the Yi Department?"

Daolong nodded: "Yes, and after the Department of Economics and Trade took away the medicine, the price immediately increased by 20%."

Wen Yanbo stood up and said angrily: "This is unreasonable!"

The reason why Daolong wanted to file a complaint was because there was a deeper reason.

Su You and Dao Long have been friends for many years. They had a friendship when Su You was a naughty child who just entered Bianjing.

Jingdong Road began to measure square fields, and the number of square fields in Daxiangguo Temple was more than one.

So Daolong asked Su You for advice.

Su You had long told Dao Long that every land in the world must pay taxes, and this is the right thing to do. There is no reason why monks should be treated the same as the Tian family.

Many people in the royal family of the Song Dynasty believed in Buddhism, and many people among the people donated land and fields, which attracted the attention of knowledgeable people.

Therefore, Su You drew a path for Monk Daolong. From now on, the Daxiangguo Temple would no longer take food from the fields, but would still pay taxes. The real income could actually come from other places.

Pickle garden, patent medicine, Wenshufang cakes.

These three things are closely related to the lives of Bianjing citizens. If they are done well, the income will be far less than the thousands of hectares of land that do not pay taxes and are always missed by the righteous people in the court.

Su Tanhua was very particular about the prices he set for patent medicines. For example, a pack of headache powder was 18 renminbi, a bottle of golden elixir was 38 renminbi, and a bottle of Fengyoujing was 68 renminbi.

When the price rises, it seems that the manufacturer does not suffer any loss, but when the sales volume drops, the loss will be huge.

Wen Yanbo suddenly thought of a question: "What about Sitong Company? How did they do it?"

Daolong said: "I don't know much about this great monk. He must have suffered a lot."

Of course, the damage is not small, but Sitong Company has many industries, and its eggs have not been put in one basket for a long time.

First of all, the sales of luxury goods will not be affected at all. Players who can afford those high-end goods will not care about the 20% increase in price.

Su You instructed Sitong Trading Co., Ltd., just in time, under the banner of profit sharing, to set a new price for luxury goods.

Just like some luxury goods in later generations, there are also series that the working class can afford.

Secondly, Sitong Company is now investing heavily in infrastructure, land, ports and terminals in Jinghu and Northern Jiangsu. These are the bulk investments.

There is also military products, which are directly settled with the Privy Council and do not go through the market at all.

There is also the decoration industry and the renovation of old houses, and the Municipal Bureau of Economic Affairs cannot interfere.

What the City Council can intervene in are some low-end and low-value industries in Sitong.

But the impact on the alcohol industry is quite severe.

The profit of Sitong Company is actually not in the wine, but in the distiller's yeast.

The alcoholic beverage industry has suffered a blow, and Jiuqu has naturally suffered along with it.

However, Su You instructed Cheng Wenying and Shi Dongxiu that we will not argue about this. Regardless of the pros and cons, the new law is first and foremost the national economy, and it is not something you businessmen can interfere with.

So it's up to the big guys to make trouble, but it's not up to you to step in and get beaten.

Shi Dongxiu was still quite heartbroken. After Cheng Wenying read the first loss report, he curled his lips and opened new and old banknote exchange counters in several state capitals.

Speaking of which, this loss is not just a matter of several exchange counters in the bank!

However, the ruthless rise in prices has affected the amount of currency. The Statistics Department of Sitong Commercial Bank is working with Huangsong Bank to conduct complex statistical calculations to determine how much currency should be in circulation in Beijing this year to avoid causing heavy losses to the bank.

Of course Wen Yanbo didn't understand this. He could only see the phenomena shown in the market. He returned home and wrote a memorial.

"I recently went to the Xiangguo Temple to perform incense. I saw that the merchants had placed dozens of forks on the east corridor of the Royal Street. They accumulated fruits one after another. They sent officials to supervise the sales day by day and divided them into pieces. Moreover, the melons and fruits were small and could not be cut with a sharp knife.

This is competition, exhausting patents, only damaging the body of a great country, and only accumulating the resentment of small people. What is the worth of a widow if she leaves her legacy behind?"

Zhao Xu summoned Wang Anshi: "It is easy to sell fruits in the market. If you review them, you will find that they are too complicated and detailed. How about ordering them to be dismissed?"

Anshi replied: "Because the common people were troubled by lawsuits and mergers, they surrendered to the government and begged to borrow money from the officials to earn interest, operate warehouses, sell fruits, and at the same time bear the responsibility of paying officials.

fruit."

"Since the legislation was enacted, the income of fruit sellers has increased than before. The salary paid to the supervisors has been reduced by nine-tenths compared with the previous expenses to support the government's needs and the exploitation of the annexers. At the same time, the officials have also

Get good fruit supplies.”

"These are the conclusions reached after finding people to provide confessions one by one and examining the facts of the case... Because they are all poor people and did not resist, they dispatched police officers to collect official money every day. The Municipal Yisi did not participate in selling fruits.

in business.”

However, Yousi remonstrated with the king and said: "The troubles caused by the market changes have been exposed to the world, destroying the people's property, and all the profits belong to the followers."

Yali refers to the transaction intermediary fee of Yali, which is generally 5% of the transaction amount.

However, Wang Anshi may not have understood the difference here, or he may have deliberately confused the facts and attributed it to "consolidation of official money."

The Yiwuya people in the city are government officials, and the yali are the same as the city regular money. They are used as salary expenditures for the city Yiwu subordinate officials.

The tooth money was not included in the government's fiscal revenue, but was managed by municipal affairs and fell into the pockets of subordinate officials.

However, in fact, in the previous tooth shops in Bianjing, tooth money was only for merchants who wanted to buy or sell, and it was counted as an introduction fee for providing information and matchmaking, rather than a market access fee that everyone had to pay to sell fruit!

Therefore, Wen Yanbo's memorial also said: "Send officials to sit in rows and sell goods, competing with the small people for profit, from vegetables, fruits, oils, noodles, and whatever they get, they will take it away, causing people to complain on the road, making people laugh when they get close, and business travel cannot be done.

, loss in wine tax. If you seize this, you will gain less and lose more."

This means that the Market Change Law has changed the traditional market structure of wholesale for large merchants and retail for small merchants. This has disturbed the normal market order and will inevitably lead to disadvantages such as forcing merchants and suppressing allotment.

This phenomenon has already been reflected in Bianjing’s wine making industry.

Zhao Xu also believed that market affairs should focus on wholesale, and retail sales were too fragmented, which would harm the national system.

Wang Anshi explained patiently: "Now that we have officials to supervise wine, we can sell it if we sell it for a liter; if we have officials to supervise business taxes, we can collect even one penny. Isn't it just a small matter? But why don't people think it's wrong? Because they are used to it. So as long as

Once you get used to it, you'll be fine..."

"In government, one should only consider whether the laws established are beneficial or harmful to the people and the Song Dynasty, and should not be abolished because of their triviality."

Wang Anshi also explained Zhao Xu's concerns about "competing with the people for profit": "As for the state, destroying and annexing, collecting the surplus, to promote utilitarianism and save people from hardship, this is the political affairs of the former king, and it cannot be called profit-seeking."

Finally, Wang Anshi criticized Zhao Xu: "If the city affairs are carried out by personnel, seven districts are established. There are too many such small laws. If your majesty is too harsh on these small matters, it will make the ministers shrink."
Chapter completed!