Hearing Li Tai's decisive answer, everyone present was stunned and didn't react for a moment.
Although the Tang Dynasty enjoyed the convenience brought by the Grand Canal, it was only after Li Zhi and Wu Zetian abandoned the people of Chang'an to eat in Luoyang that they understood this.
The importance of the canal.
Even after the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty was able to continue to maintain the decent empire that should have, was a very important reason for the life-suspending effect of the Grand Canal.
From then on, in ancient China, it basically abandoned areas like Chang'an that were easy to defend and difficult to attack, but chose to rely on cities with the Grand Canal to establish capital. This was the case in the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.
The political map of the entire China changed completely the day the Grand Canal appeared.
Because of the contemporary tendency to condemn Emperor Yang of Sui, the Grand Canal left over from the Great Sui Dynasty was ignored as if it was dark under the lamp.
Fang Xuanling heard Li Tai's words and said, "King Yue believes that the existence of the Grand Canal will change the tax policy?"
"Yes!" Li Tai said seriously,
"From last year, we can see the important role of the Grand Canal in communicating the north and south sides of the north and south sides.
The emergence of this canal has actually changed a lot of things, not only because of the simple resource scheduling.
More importantly, it strengthens exchanges between the north and the south, promotes integration between the north and the south, and makes the south and the north no longer two different worlds.
Even if you don’t look at economic interests and only look at political significance, this canal is worthy of regular maintenance and repair.”
When everyone heard the four words "regular maintenance", they immediately understood why Li Tai advocated tax payment.
Where do you get your money without paying taxes? How can you carry out regular maintenance if you don’t have money?
In the same sentence, the internal affairs problem is the entire logical chain of "Why use money, where does it come from, and how it needs to be used".
Of course, although all these things have been thought of, if you really use this money, you will also get rid of different people.
That will definitely make others feel distressed, so how to handle a relationship well depends on the political skills of the politician.
Fang Xuanling was also due to the limitations of the times. Although he knew that the Grand Canal was important and convenient, he was not as transparent as Li Tai saw.
But after Li Tai pointed it out, Fang Xuanling realized that it was inevitable to charge the canal transportation fee.
Because the significance of this Grand Canal to the entire country is so important.
To some extent, it is even worth paying for money to maintain this lifeline, let alone making money from this canal now.
Li Chengqian watched Li Tai talk in front of everyone, but he wanted to replace him.
Although he still couldn't understand why he maintained the Grand Canal, he even had to ask the people to pay taxes.
But he remembered Li Shimin's instructions that although he had the qualifications to obey the government, he did not have the right to interrupt.
Thinking of this, I couldn't help but feel envious when I saw Li Tai convince all the ministers present from the three provinces and six ministries.
Li Chengqian turned his eyes to Li Shimin, but saw that Li Shimin looked at Li Tai with pride.
Li Shimin touched his beard and couldn't help but say, "Qingque, do you hope that the tax on the canal transportation will spread to the world's sewer channel in the future!"
"Why not!" Li Tai said when he heard Li Shimin's words:
"The way of tax burden is taken from the people and used for the people.
If the imperial court has no money to maintain the waterways, these excavated waterways will sooner or later be silted as time goes by, and the waterways will be silted, which will cut off the life paths of the people along the coast who rely on the canal to make a living.
It will not be easy to clean it up again at that time, so it is better to use the money to maintain the waterway from the beginning."
"The King of Yue's idea is still very reasonable!" Wei Zheng said when he heard Li Tai's words.
"But King Yue, you have thought that if you pay taxes directly to a dock master like you as stated in the "Theory of Canal Transportation", then there are likely other problems with this tax.
You are born in the royal family and taught by the saints. You will naturally adhere to the right path and will not seek these small profits.
But other wealthy families in charge of the docks are likely to pass on taxes to the canal transport workers, what should they do then!"
Li Tai was stunned when he heard Wei Zheng's words, but he didn't expect that Wei Zheng had already seen this.
But thinking about it seems that this is not a strange thing. After all, the individuals in the Zhenguan period did not say that they were from poverty, but they had seen disasters at the bottom due to the chaos in the Sui and Tang Dynasties.
Especially Wei Zheng was born in Wagang's uprising army. Even if he had never experienced the hardships of the people at the bottom, he had seen them, let alone such a simple method of transfer. For the wise man present, it was almost just a thought.
Something about.
"Binwang will answer this!" Li Tai pushed Binwang to everyone and said.
Ma Zhou was not afraid at all, and said calmly in the face of everyone:
"I did discuss the transfer of the matter with King Yue, so we thought of a second way.
However, compared with the first method, this method requires greater early investment and may even require changes in weights and measures.
Therefore, it was not included in the "On the Canal Transportation" to avoid causing unnecessary disputes.
Now that Secretary Wei has denied the method proposed in the "On the Canal Transportation", he can only use segments to build the dock!"
"Build a dock in sections?" Hearing these words, everyone present couldn't help but flash a little confused.
"Yes!" Ma Zhou continued, "Although water transportation is less than land transportation, it is still consumed.
Moreover, the water levels of rivers and canals will vary depending on the New Year Festival.
When building a dock in sections, it adopts sectional transportation. If the water is open, the canal will be transported, and if the water is shallow, the storage warehouse will be installed, and granaries will be set up along the canal.
In this way, the canal ships will not stagnate, and the grain will not be damaged, which will greatly increase the capacity of canal transportation."
When the crowd heard Ma Zhou's words, they nodded in understanding, feeling that Ma Zhou's proposal was pretty good.
Censor Xiao Yu said: "Although this matter is good, it has nothing to do with the collection of taxes. Please don't keep it in the liability."
After Ma Zhou saluted Xiao Yu, he continued: "
The docks and warehousing were invested and constructed by the imperial court. Should the ships be charged for docking and should the use of warehousing be charged for?
When ships come and go, the court built a dock and then charged the ships and cargo.
As long as the ship reaches the dock, there will be a fee, and these fees are actually taxes.
These fees cannot be collected from the Caofu, and even if they want to transfer them, they cannot transfer them directly."
Hearing Ma Zhou's words, everyone present couldn't help but think. Instead, Dai Zhou of the Civil Affairs Department frowned and said:
"The plan is good, but the cargo transportation and transportation are all kinds of strange things, and there are countless varieties.
It’s okay to store these things in small quantities, but if there are too many, how many people will need to count and how many people will need to maintain them.
This method can only solve the urgent problem for a while, and it is impossible to completely solve this problem."
"What Secretary Dai said is very much!" Ma Zhou nodded in approval, but still said calmly.
"So, from the suggestion of King Yue, the court needed to create a special transport tool that could be packed in packaging, determine its length, width and height, and uniformly put all the items in it, and call it a container!
All items are placed in this transport box during transportation, and we charge a fee based on the number of this transport box.
Items that are less than a container shall be calculated as one container.”
"Container?" Li Shimin looked at Li Tai with his eyes and said, "You came up with it?"
"Yes!" Li Tai admitted calmly,
The tax collection method is naturally simple, it is best to change a dog to the job, so that the tax can be collected smoothly.
Simplifying complex problems can help us reduce many problems.
After Gaoling opened a dock, I could see that people were coming and going on the dock, and various affairs were extremely complicated.
This has caused the hustle and bustle of the pier, which can even cause congestion and clogging of the pier.
Now, there are nearly 50,000 porters at Gaoling Wharf, but sometimes there is no time to unload and transport goods.
Sometimes it is very likely that a bag of rice will be sprinkled on the ground, which will cause some road sections to be blocked, thus affecting a large area of chaos, which will cause great difficulty in managing.”
"Then if it is replaced by the so-called container, can we solve the problem you mentioned?" Wei Zheng was a little unbelievable.
Li Tai said: "Yes, just ask them to send the container back to their warehouse, and then they will slowly dismantle it after they go back!
In fact, the benefits of containers are not only that.
If containers can be fully popularized, then a carriage can be manufactured that can specifically accommodate the container.
At that time, a piece of cargo will save you the trouble of moving up and down along the way. It will directly double the efficiency from the cabin to the designated location. Even if you need it in the future, you can directly install wheels under the container.
At that time, even if it is a land route, transit station, and bridge, it can be easily transported.
By then, you can imagine how amazing the speed of the material dispatch within the Tang Dynasty would become.”
Li Tai stretched out his hand to draw a blueprint for the future. I don’t know if it can’t be realized, but it’s definitely enough to bluff people.
"It takes a lot of investment to build a segmented dock in advance, right?" Dai Zhou's words brought everyone back to reality.
The scene depicted by Li Tai is indeed quite tempting, but the reality is that you need to invest a lot of money in the early stage!
"In fact, compared with the investment in port construction, the biggest problem is that the weights and measures have not been unified." Li Tai said helplessly.
"Have the weights and measures not unified?" Wei Zheng said in confusion when he heard Li Tai's words, "Since the First Emperor, I have used weights and measures in China for a short time. I have never had a unified weights and measures. This is the first time I have heard of this!
”
"If it is unified, how can there be a big fight and a small fight?"
Li Tai did not retreat at that moment, and looked at Wei Zheng and said,
"Because there are problems with weights and measures from the very beginning, our Tang ruler is longer than Qin ruler, but we still use it incorrectly, just to deduct a few more food from the people!"
"Qing Bird!" At this time, Li Shimin couldn't help but look serious when he heard Li Tai's words.
"Aye, Secretary Wei, I'm out of my composure!" Li Tai took a deep breath and said,
"In short, if you want to use the second method, you need a relatively stable unit, which is what it is.
It will not be promoted to other places, but the result will become like the Qin ruler and gradually become a problem of measurement like the Tang ruler.
If you don't pay attention to this, then, if you are bigger and smaller, it will become difficult to tax. I won't talk about it now.
More importantly, even if you can force shipping, when you need to use a carriage for transportation, you find that it is too large to transport it, so the goods may have to be thrown at the dock!"
After hearing this, everyone understood what Li Tai meant, why should we unify the weights and measures?
Li Tai continued: "It can be said that if there is no unity of weights and measures, taxation based on the number of containers will become absolutely impossible!"
"This..." When people present heard Li Tai's statement, they naturally tended to be the second type.
After all, they can also hear that although the second type has a relatively large investment in the early stage, they will almost collect money in the future, and they can accurately grasp the quantity and materials of others.
In comparison, the first type is that you can only ask the dock manager to charge fees, and the fees you receive is second. What is more important is that as a big government, you are born to want to control the grassroots level.
If there is a way to control the grassroots level but is given up in vain, it will be unwilling to accept it for anyone present.
"King of Yue, you always plan and act before doing things. I believe you should have already met the standards of weights and measures!"
Fang Xuanling looked at Li Tai. Although Fang Xuanling didn't understand what Li Tai had, Fang Xuanling could understand Li Tai's thinking.
Basically, if Li Tai really has no choice, then Li Tai will not talk about this matter.
Li Tai glanced at Fang Xuanling, and always felt that he was good at finding steps, so he couldn't help but speak:
"When Li Chunfeng was in the Agricultural University, he created new standards.
When Chunfeng comes back, he can test the origin of weights and measures in front of you.
But if you want to implement new weights and measures, you will definitely need the support of the imperial court.
If the court agrees, Gaoling can be used as a pilot and slowly promote it to the whole country!”
"Gao Ling is a pilot?" Wei Zheng said with a serious expression, "It seems that King Yue is here prepared!"
"Since I have submitted the "On the Canal Transportation", I will naturally prepare this matter as well as possible!"
Li Tai was not afraid of Wei Zheng. After all, he thought it was right to do things, so why should he retreat?
Li Tai's eyes fell on Wei Zheng for a while, but finally fell on Li Shimin, and said:
"In addition to the promotion of weights and measures, there are also segmented construction of ports, which all take time.
I think instead of implementing it on the Grand Canal at once, it is better to implement it on the Wei River for a period of time to accumulate enough experience.
Any problems and how to solve them can be handled one by one.
You should know that there will be countless chores when going east and west of the Wei River. The Grand Canal is north and south, communicating with the north and south of the entire China. This will definitely encounter more problems than the Wei River Water Transportation!”