"All the ministers have worked hard today, so let's have a meal and give them a banquet. After a while, the three ministers and nine ministers and all the officials of the Ministry of War, Civil Affairs, and Finance will stay and continue to discuss the remaining terms."

The court meeting lasted for a whole morning, and it was obviously delayed. Liu Bei was still kind and decided to give mercy to all the officials who came to court for a meal, and then let the people from the relevant departments stay in the afternoon to continue discussing the details and subsequent terms.

However, this situation is also very obvious: only people from the three relevant departments, or even those above the Nine Ministers, can be mentioned. Others are not from relevant departments and have low levels. You didn’t interrupt all morning, so there is no need to give you a chance later.

It seems that everyone is going to prevent the system of exploiting more severe government troops from passing the system of exploitation of the ruthless military force. It is better to choose the lesser of both evils and pass the new industrial and commercial tax law.

No matter what the court officials thought in their hearts, they could only thank the emperor for giving the banquet, and after a meal, they had to leave.

During the meal, several court officials still did not forget to seize the opportunity to chat privately and asked Liu Ba for some details, mainly about the specific implementation of the "official construction of canals and roads charging tolls" talked about in the morning.

For example, some people are worried that the court will calculate the interest rate too high when organizing government projects in the capital recovery algorithm, and the charging period is too long.

Ministers who care about these issues may not necessarily oppose reforms. They are more likely to have some business in their own family and want to know about the relevant changes in transportation costs in the future.

Just like when later generations heard that "highway tolls are for the purpose of making a profit, not for profit", everyone should ask how many years the expressway can be opened for free, and how much money will be charged each year before the free time is free.

If Liu Ba can answer these questions, he will answer them. If he can’t answer them, he will say that he will decide until the specific implementation is implemented. He cannot be reckless and should first pilot it.

In general, Liu Ba and Li Su had discussed several total guide prices privately before, nothing more than "If the government's investment in transportation infrastructure requires a long time to recover the investment, compound interest shall not be calculated when charging, and the total amount of future fees can only be calculated based on the actual investment of 20% per year. And the maximum interest shall not exceed twenty years, that is, the interest shall not exceed four times the principal."

If you can't recover the principal for twenty years, you can continue to collect it, but no interest is allowed. Therefore, it is equivalent to at most five times the investment amount received by the principal and interest.

In addition, Li Su also suggested setting a maximum period, that is, if a new construction project cannot pay back five times its principal and interest in fifty years, no construction fees are allowed in the future, just treat it as government investment to pay for the loss-

This is also considered that when building canals or highways similar to "Qinzhi Road" in the future, economic accounts cannot be fully calculated.

Even in two thousand years, building roads and canals to the frontier military areas will mostly be a loss. For such projects with military and political significance, the court's finances should cover some of the losses.

However, after the construction principal and interest are not charged, the charges are not completely stopped - because there are still "traffic maintenance fees" and "river maintenance fees". The infrastructure must be regularly repaired and the canal must be dredged and silted frequently.

Of course, this money has to be given, but it is much cheaper than the rate during the recovery investment period. It can only be charged half or even lower.

In short, Liu Ba's actions reposted in these aspects can basically convince the public.

The main reason is that Li Su has too much experience in these fields. He has never seen any charging mode for highways and railways in later generations. Li Su can avoid the pitfalls that the ancients have stepped on in history by using common sense.

Regarding the governance of government projects and the recovery model of infrastructure maniacs, later generations have a great advantage over the ancients.

After solving the problem of "total return on investment fees", the next key problem is "single charges".

At first, the court officials thought that the single charges for artificial canals in the future would be charged at two percent of the value of the goods, which was equivalent to the tax rate that was originally passed by one county or once in and out of the port.

But Liu Ba dispelled their fantasy and said that the rate he and Li Sikong discussed was "canal tolls, which should be charged according to a certain proportion of the average freight increase on the old route before the canal was opened."

At first, this algorithm made many officials with poor mathematics confused. Finally, they took advantage of the meal to discuss with each other and ask for good mathematics to roughly understand what logic is.

There is no doubt that Li Su easily borrowed common sense from later generations of this single-time fee algorithm.

After all, the canal not only has a gap, but also a type of transport that is thousands or hundreds of miles away from the Hangou.

There is also a future Nanyang-Yingchuan Canal and Lingqu, which have a short absolute distance, but is extremely difficult to build. Communication between two important water systems can significantly save the total mileage of water transportation.

If the canal mileage is collected according to the canal mileage, the court will only have the enthusiasm to build the previous type of canal, but will not build the latter type. This must be balanced.

Just like the Suez Canal in later generations, the charging standard for the Panama Canal has nothing to do with whether the canal itself has a mileage of one hundred nautical miles or two hundred nautical miles.

The Suez Canal is based on "If you don't walk here, you will drive 18,000 kilometers more around Africa, so my canal pass fee should be calculated based on a percentage of the 18,000 kilometers less you can walk 18,000 kilometers. In the end, you will still make a profit by walking the canal."

Similarly, the Panama Canal is calculated based on the fact that "circling around one less South America and saving 12,000 kilometers of costs."

The mathematical governance of the ancient Chinese dynasty was not good, and no ruler had ever settled the accounts like this. However, Li Su introduced this accounting model to ensure that both officials and businessmen could make money and recover their investment as quickly as possible.

For example, take the Nanyang-Yingchuan Canal that he is now building. Although the river channel is only 70 or 80 miles. But Li Su calculated the savings based on the fact that "from Jingzhou to Yuzhou, he could basically save 2,100 miles of water, or 80 miles of land vehicle-mounted transportation and two ship replacement loading and unloading."

Of course, it should be noted that the expression here has a "basically saving 2,100 miles of waterways", which is not a generalization.

Because this is the average calculated by "Originally, from Jiangling or Wuchang, from the Yangtze River to Wuhu Ruxukou, then from the Feishui River to Yingchuan to Xuchang, and now it is changed to Jiangling or Wuchang to go directly north to the Han River and Canal."

In fact, if you are from Wancheng to Xuchang, if you have to go on a hard way and don’t change the boat, you can save 2,800 miles, which is the most extreme situation.

If you start transporting from cities further downstream from Wuchang, such as Chaisang, the mileage saving may be only 1,000 miles. Similarly, the destination you are going to is not Xuchang but the downstream from Huanghuai, and the saving is not that obvious.

It’s like a sea boat that takes the Suez Canal. If the starting point is not from Europe to Asia, but is originally in Africa, then of course it will not save so much "save mileage around the entire Africa", and it is already halfway through the start.

So for fairness, when Li Su calculates the mileage savings of the Nanyang-Yingchuan Canal, he calculates it according to the conservative value. The materials set out from Jiangling (all materials produced in Yizhou in the future have to pass through this point, so this point is the most representative) can save two thousand miles, and Li Su actually saves half of the waterway.

The charging part is based on the theoretical cost savings, and officials and businessmen each account for half of the profit, which is "equivalent to the freight rate of 500 miles by water."

Merchants think that paying the toll equivalent to the freight rate of 500 miles of a boat is still cost-effective. If you earn more, then you will walk on the canal. If you think it is not cost-effective, then just like modern merchants who would rather go around Africa than the Suez Canal, choose between the two-way without any fraud.

Most civil servants who first heard this number subconsciously felt that the toll charges of Liu Ba and Li Su were too dark.

It is directly equivalent to the shipping fee of 500 miles? Wouldn't that be much more than two percent of the value of a ship of cargo? That is much more expensive than the original traditional crossing tariffs!

But then I thought about it, these new infrastructure was raised by the court, and I thought it was not worth it or not, so the court did not force you to leave. The money businessman decided whether it was worth it or not. It was reliable to buy it and leave.

This is just giving the people an extra option, so why not give a higher price?

"If you just settle the accounts like this, it seems that after the reform, the 'toll-trade tax' and 'toll-trade fees' are separated, and it seems that the tax collected in the transportation process was less, and the total amount of money collected by the imperial court in the transportation process of private merchants may increase.

However, this is based on the prosperity of private business and the long-distance trade that was originally unwilling to run was stimulated, so it is not a competition for profit with the people. It is an extra profit for circulation out of thin air, and the government and the people share..."

Some civil officials couldn't help but think so, especially Sun Qian of the Civil Affairs Department.

Although this kind of cognition is a bit uncommon, after all, the ancients believed that commercial circulation links do not create material wealth, and should definitely encourage frugality and not encourage consumption, so they always feel that something is wrong here...

This idea is similar to when Sima Guang, later generations, initially opposed Wang Anshi's commercial tax reform, and the state sold the monopoly rights to merchants at a price.

Sima Guang refuted Wang Anshi's reason: "The wealth and goods produced by heaven and earth are only of this number, but not the people, but the officials." That is a typical "zero-sum game" thinking.

I feel that there is only so much material wealth in the world, and the imperial court can only snatch it from the people if it uses it. It cannot rely on "developing productivity and creating new wealth and making the cake bigger."

Sima Guang's idea is of course ridiculous to those who have been after the modern industrial revolution, but there are many pedantic and old-fashioned people who are even more ancient and backward than the Song Dynasty in the late Han Dynasty and are even more unthinkable than Sima Guang.

However, Li Si's position is very powerful, and what Liu Shangshu said seems to be well organized, so I don't know how to refute it for a while.

Li Su's content of reform is indeed more clever than Wang Anshi in later generations. In addition, they do not understand the reform pressure caused by the threat of foreign enemies, so they can only choose to accept it first and then slowly understand it.

...

After Liu Bei's banquet was over, some officials of the department took a break and worked overtime to continue the afternoon discussion.

Because the number of court officials involved has decreased and the scene is not so rigorous, Liu Bei generously gave all the ministers who participated in the imperial discussion and could sit down and discuss it slowly. It was a hard work for the past morning.

The afternoon topic started with the "transfer of official monopoly rights", which means changing the original official business of salt and iron into the Song Dynasty system of "civil businessmen can spend money to buy copying, which is considered as paying full salt tax in advance, thus contracting the salt industry share."

This kind of operation is definitely different from the specific operation of the monopoly since Emperor Wu of Han, but everyone still finds it easy to accept.

After all, over the past three hundred years, the efficiency drawbacks of "directly sold state-owned enterprises" are obvious to all.

Not every period has a capable and honest salt and iron captain like Wang Lian, or a supervisor who knows a little bit of management and technology like Zhang Yi, who can do a good job in salt and iron government affairs.

Even if there are talents like Wang Lian and Zhang Yi, if they can free up their hands to do supervision and inspection work, and hand over the specific business to merchants, it is a good thing. Let professionals do professional things.

After some discussion, the court decided to collect a tax of 600 yuan for high-quality salt such as well as well as salt in the production process. Low-quality sea salt and some pond salt will be charged at 400 yuan for high-quality salt per stone.

When the merchant paid the money, he gave them a copy of the corresponding amount of salt, that is, a tax payment certificate, and allowed to sell the corresponding amount of salt.

The denomination of the copy is from ten stones to contract, with a denomination of six thousand coins.

The official will set up an internal supervisor in the future to be responsible for printing various denominations and pattern contents.

The salt indicia initially decided to print the fourth-level denomination, from ten stones and six thousand coins to fifty stones, one hundred stones and five hundred stones. The well salt indicia of five hundred stones is worth 300,000 coins, or two ingots of 15 taels of standard horseshoe gold, or three hundred taels of silver.

To put it bluntly, there was certainly no official exchange rate for money and exchange before the Han Dynasty, mainly because the money has always been insufficient.

But in recent years, Li Su also suggested that Liu Bei theoretically open this hole. He felt that it is possible to introduce silver from the production areas of neighboring countries in the future, not to mention that the government does not have to promise to accept it, and there is no problem to give an official guide price.

The actual prices of the people will definitely fluctuate with the change of scarcity and supply and demand. Just like in the later generations, your government sets a guide price for second-hand houses, and others will not accept your guidance when selling a house. This is two different things.

After setting the official price of standard salt indicative, Li Su actually had an idea, but he did not tell anyone at the moment - he did not intend to let Liu Bei issue paper money, because the Han Dynasty lacked financial concepts. Once the tool of paper money was abused, it was almost inevitable that excessive issuance would cause inflation. Therefore, this evil policy that was too advanced must be stuck.

However, since the official selling price of salt citations has been obtained, Li Su can also expect that the private merchants will directly use salt citations as money for circulation in the future. After all, as long as the anti-counterfeiting is done well, large-scale salt citations will have official seals of the courts at all levels according to their face value, and more exquisite decorations will be added in printing. Due to its high value density and stability, it is almost inevitable that private merchants will recognize circulation.

But this kind of thing needs to be discovered slowly, and it would be good to be able to be opened within a few years, and it would take a lot of work to follow up.

After the price of salt inlet is set, it is the iron inlet. The tax rate of iron is lower. The production tax of raw and cooked iron is ten yuan per kilogram, and the production tax of stir-frying steel and other steels is fifteen yuan.

During the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han Dynasty, the national steel production was only more than 1,000 tons per year. After Liu Bei entered Sichuan, he farmed with Li Supan. During the Northern Expedition four years ago, the steel production in Yizhou was more than 500 tons.

Now four years have passed. According to statistics from the Ministry of Industry last year, the steel production in Yizhou was close to 800 tons, and Guanzhong also grew rapidly, doubling from 200 tons to more than 400. Because the imperial court moved its capital to the next few years, Liu Bei expanded the relevant workshops to be the supervisor in the capital.

The remaining Liangzhou Jiaozhou steel industry is neglected. Jingzhou and Yangzhou have not been conquered for a long time. It is basically the same as before the transformation, and the output in Jingnan is slightly higher. Together, the six states under Liu Bei's rule currently have an annual steel output of between 1,500 and 1,700 tons.

The Yuan Shao and Cao Cao on the opposite side were only 700 tons, which was only 40% of that of Liu Bei.

It exceeds 1,500 tons a year. According to roughly converting one to 4,000 kilograms per ton, it will add 70,000 to 80,000 yuan to the court in a year. The absolute value is actually not much.

In contrast, the previous salt sales operation can be sold for 400 million stones per year at least, and the average tax of 400 to 500 yuan per stone is not worth more than 2 billion yuan, which is almost thirty times the iron tax.

(Note: The ancients had strong physical labor and poor salt quality, so they ate a lot of salt. Under the standard of the Han Dynasty, the daily salt consumption of strong men was equivalent to more than 20 grams of modern times. According to the measurement at that time, it was "one combination", that is, one hundredth of a dou)

Nowadays, the decisive battle to build a canal is not about to spend at least a few billion in a year, so I can’t get many copies of the tax on selling iron. The key is that the scale of the industry is too small.

Li Su is so determined, just hopes that the public can spontaneously expand investment in the steel industry by relaxing money to buy contract rights in the future—

After all, it has been written in the history textbooks of junior high schools. After the Song Dynasty changed the iron franchise to selling contract rights, the steel output increased from 1,600 tons in the Tang Dynasty to 3,500 tons per year. It can be seen that the people's desire for profit can be further stimulated.

Nowadays, because there is little iron, even iron pots are not fully popular among the people. If the industry can expand several times in the future, the private iron will also keep up, and the national iron tax will increase to hundreds of millions or even one billion yuan a year, that would be more interesting.

After all, we must rely on peace in the world and develop more handicrafts to create new wealth.

...
To be continued...