To their surprise, Xu Guangqi was not angry at all, and still smiled and replied: "The road office is in charge of money and the progress and quality of road construction. The local government is responsible for the construction. The imperial court sends censors to inspect, and each investor can also send representatives to accompany them.
The censor checks the accounts."
This conclusion was suggested by Zhong Jinwei, approved by the emperor, and agreed by the cabinet. Therefore, Xu Guangqi had already been mentally prepared. Otherwise, it would be difficult to say whether Xu Guangqi would have answered this question with a smile.
When the people in the audience heard Xu Guangqi's answer, they did not expect such a result, and their confidence in investing in road construction and making money suddenly increased.
Another person, based on the person's question just now, was worried that the question time was coming, so he asked a bunch of questions at once: "Excuse me, Mr. Xu, how is the cost of road construction estimated? How much is the vehicle fee?
What’s the law? Why not charge passers-by? After we recover the principal profit, what will the charging situation be like?”
If the cost is too high, then the speed of the money will inevitably become longer. For capable businessmen, quick return of funds is also what they look forward to.
If the vehicle fees are too high, then the cost of going to Zhangjiakou to trade on their own will be high, which will virtually reduce the profits they make from road construction.
If passers-by are charged, it will definitely reduce some of their expenses and shorten the time and cost of recovering the money. This is what they expect.
If vehicle costs remain the same, the profits they make from building roads will eventually be repaid.
These aristocratic merchants in the audience are all wealthy people, and they all know the ways to make money, so the questions this person asked are very important to them, and they pay special attention to them.
Xu Guangqi took a sip of tea calmly and glanced quickly at the window on the second floor where Zhong Jinwei was.
He didn't know why Zhong Jinwei was sure that these people in the audience would ask these questions, and he had already answered them one by one in the previous discussion.
"The cost of building a cement road is roughly divided into two aspects: cement and manpower. Today is different from the past. Like you, the people in the capital area also suffered heavy losses during the invasion of the invaders. Therefore, during this road construction, the emperor
In addition to allowing the people building roads to have enough to eat, they also provide a little monetary subsidy. In addition, the soldiers of the construction army, which was adapted from the army, will have a higher income. The last part of the people who have worked hard for crimes will not receive monetary subsidies."
After Xu Guangqi put down his tea cup, he started to explain calmly. But he saw that there were people in the audience who had listened to what he said, and seemed to be hesitant to speak. He knew what they wanted to say, so he continued: "Whether it is ordinary people or ordinary people,
You aristocratic merchants are all the emperor's subjects, so the emperor will naturally treat them as one. If you have subsidies, of course you have to give some subsidies to ordinary people. But don't worry, the emperor considered that the cost of road construction may be too high, so he issued an imperial edict.
, let state-owned enterprises and their low prices provide the cement used for road construction.”
When the aristocratic merchants in the audience heard this, they thought that this was actually equivalent to using cement money to subsidize those who built roads, which was more or less the same. Many people nodded slightly in agreement, and then listened to Xu Guangqi continue to answer the next question.
.
Xu Guangqi saw the change in their demeanor and without comment, continued to answer the next question: "The consideration of tolls on cement roads is mainly based on the degree of damage to the cement roads. Passers-by walking has basically no impact on the cement roads.
But vehicles are different, especially those transporting goods. They weigh several times or even dozens of times the weight of passers-by. No matter how strong the cement road is, it will still be crushed over time. Therefore, there is a way to charge vehicles and passers-by free of charge.
.”
The people in the audience understood Xu Guangqi's explanation. The key was the price. They were all very concerned about it.
"As for the price of the vehicle, the imperial court has made a preliminary estimate. The cost of a vehicle traveling on the previous dirt road is compared with the cost of the cement road, and 50% of the difference is charged as each vehicle.
The cost of the car. In this way, merchants can actually make money by using cement roads."
Everyone has an account. Xu Guangqi made it clear. These merchants from aristocratic families naturally also know the benefits of walking on cement roads. In addition to convenience, they even know that vehicles can carry more goods than before. Moreover, they also know that vehicles can carry more goods than before.
The role of this cement road will be even more obvious on rainy days.
Xu Guangqi glanced at the clerk who was filling his tea cup with water, and then continued: "The fees collected by the court will be used for three aspects. The first is for the maintenance of cement roads, which is managed by the Road Yamen
.”
The people in the audience had no doubt about this and nodded.
"Second, it is to repay the principal profits of all investors."
There is no doubt about this, and the people in the audience nodded one after another.
"Third, it is necessary to run an official school in the place where the road is to be built."
As soon as Xu Guangqi said the third point, many voices such as "what", "ah", "this" and so on suddenly sounded from below. They did not expect that such a thing would happen.
Xu Guangqi glanced at the emcee on the side, and the emcee quickly said loudly: "Silence, silence!"
After all, the person on the stage was the Minister of Industry of the imperial court, one of the highest-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, for these people below, the official authority was still very strong, causing them to shut up and look at the stage.
Xu Guangqi said solemnly: "The current emperor is an unparalleled benevolent master. He truly wants to educate the people of the Ming Dynasty into people who are knowledgeable and courteous, and who know gentleness, kindness, respect, frugality, yielding, loyalty, filial piety, and benevolence.
Righteousness, etiquette, and wisdom are what distinguish us from the barbarians. But don’t worry, the official schools we set up will only provide free children with basic knowledge, and it won’t cost much.”
When Xu Guangqi said this, he already had a hint of longing in his heart. The basic mathematics tutorial he wrote was finally about to be used.
This news is really shocking, and it is something that has never happened before. Letting those children with muddy legs be able to read and write, this somewhat made people present feel a little unhappy, and felt that it undermined the name of scholars.
But this is the goal advocated by Confucianism, something that has always been wanted to be realized but has not been realized, and it remains only in words.
Most of them are businessmen themselves. Although their status is different now, strictly speaking, they are not qualified to make irresponsible remarks.
But right now they were focusing on making money, and after hearing Xu Guangqi explain that it was just basic education and it wouldn't cost much, they accepted it a little more.
Some quick-thinking merchants from aristocratic families quickly thought from Xu Guangqi's words that the imperial court would implement this method nationwide.
Because this policy of the imperial court is obviously to cover the whole country, and a separate road office has been established, it is obvious that it will not just build one road. It is estimated that future road construction will refer to the model of this first cement road.
Thinking about it this way, it is really possible to realize this great undertaking. But in remote places, the roads are not easy to repair, and if they are repaired, there are not many cars. It is hard to say in such places.
What they didn't know was that Zhong Jinwei had already provided the court with a solution to address areas that were not covered by road construction. State-owned enterprises would supplement this plan and provide basic education in remote areas.
However, when this basic education was promoted, resistance still appeared that even Zhong Jinwei had not anticipated. But it is understandable, because this resistance came from places that had already died out in Zhong Jinwei's era.