After Li Guang went inside, he found that many officials were visiting the place.

Take Li Gang, the judge of Liaodong Prefecture, for example. He was carefully observing the surrounding layout.

Li Guang stepped forward, bowed, and said, "Lord Li."

Li Gang bowed and said, "It's Taifa (Li Guang's courtesy name), you've come here too."

"I was strolling down the street when I saw a lot of people here. I was curious, so I came in."

He was quite emotional, saying that he comes to Tokyo every year and something different comes out every year.

This new thing is like a seed planted in a field, automatically taking root and sprouting.

Li Gang laughed and said, "Supermarket? That's a really strange name. I wonder what the person who came up with it was thinking."

"The name is strange, but it's a good place." Li Guang casually picked up a soap box from the antique wooden shelf. The words "Suzhou-style manufacturing" were written on it in willow-leaf script, next to which was a picture of a classical beauty, and behind it were pictures of the raw materials for manufacturing.

Li Guang always thought that the person who invented this thing was a genius. He heard that the first soap came from Huaxing Trading Company.

No one knows who is behind Huaxing Trading Company. It seems like an ordinary and inconspicuous thing, but it has indeed changed people's lives.

He then took a towel from the elevated floor; it had a label indicating that it was made by Zhang's Trading Company in Zhengzhou.

Li Guang said, "Master Li, you see Su-style manufacturing and Zhang's Trading Company, but I have never seen their shops in Tokyo."

Li Gang nodded: "I haven't seen it either."

“In the past, to do this kind of business, you had to have your own shop, but there were limited street-front shops, and they were expensive but not in demand. Now that Tokyo Supermarket has opened, if I want to do some shampoo business, I don’t need to rent a shop to sell it. I just need to cooperate with Tokyo Supermarket and I will provide the goods.”

Li Guang was quite excited; he couldn't believe business could be done this way.

By bringing together all kinds of daily necessities, it not only makes it more convenient for buyers, saving them from having to go to different stores, but also creates many opportunities on the supply side.

Li Gang said, “Indeed, by lowering the entry standards for private businesses and allowing more people to participate, once more people in a city have the opportunity, the scale of income will increase, and the city’s income structure will develop in a more level direction. This is what Your Majesty meant by the increase in middle-income earners in your ‘Economic Treatise’.”

Ministers who had read Zhao Huan's "On Economics" had been wondering about one thing: was it really possible for the common people to create a large number of people with incomes in the middle class?

Judging from the results of the new policies over the past ten years, the Song Dynasty has created a number of wealthy people, such as Zhu Qing in Tokyo, Xue Donglai in Chang'an, Lian Chengzhi in Taiyuan, and Zhang Yuan in Youzhou.

These people are the biggest beneficiaries of the new policy.

They seized the opportunity early on.

Some start with construction teams that take on road repair projects.

Some started with transport teams that transported grain.

Others obtained tenders from the imperial court and formed mining teams.

These people seized the wealth brought by the new policies and became the first batch of wealthy people under the new policies of the Song Dynasty.

However, enormous wealth has been concentrated in the hands of a small number of people.

With wealth comes money that flows towards those with power.

Zhao Huan's finance minister, Zhou Chao, once expressed his concerns to the emperor with great worry: if the Song Dynasty continues to develop along its current trajectory, the wealth of a small number of people will only increase, while some people, although they have solved the problem of food and clothing through their work, are merely struggling on the edge of having enough to eat, and the contradictions among the people are becoming more and more prominent.

At the end of the year, Zhao Ding, the general manager of the Royal Bank, also remarked: "Banks are more willing to lend money to the rich because the rich will not lose money in their businesses, and the banks can recover the principal and interest."

The ministers had always harbored doubts about the emperor's idea in his "Economic Treatise" that the development of the private economy to a certain level could create a group of middle-income earners.

Li Guang put down the soap and shampoo in his hand, holding a conservative opinion on Li Gang's statement.

“Simply commercial innovations like supermarkets cannot change the structure of private income.”

Li Gang sighed. He knew that the supermarket model alone could not possibly change the complex issue of private financial income.

He suddenly said firmly, "After the debate on the new policies this year, I will report to His Majesty that the court should increase its investment in the Royal Merchants' Company and begin to tighten its control over aspects such as clothing, food, housing, transportation, minerals, and construction projects."

Li Guang said, "Prime Minister Li, I have heard that this year, six-tenths of the commercial tax is paid by the royal merchant guild. This proportion is already very large. The court is competing with the people for profits."

Li Gang said in a low voice, annoyed, "I believe that eight-tenths of the commercial tax should be paid by the Royal Trading Company!"

The two fell silent.

After all, it's a noisy place with many people around, so it's not a good place to discuss such important national affairs.

The greater the wealth of the people, the greater the land annexation in the past.

As the year draws to a close, the people of the Song Dynasty are scrambling to buy New Year's goods.

The Tokyo supermarket was packed with people. Li Gang bought two jugs of wine from the Western Regions, paid at the counter near the entrance, and left with Li Guang.

"Taifa, let's go find a place to have a few drinks."

Just after Li Gang and his group left, an ordinary horse-drawn carriage stopped on the side of the road opposite the Tokyo Supermarket.

No one knew that the emperor was sitting in the carriage.

Of course, no one knew that it wasn't just the Imperial Guards patrolling the area; the Imperial City Guard had completely surrounded the area.

Tang Rui, the assistant director of the Commerce and Finance Department, was coming out of a supermarket in Tokyo when he was stopped by someone.

"Tang Sicheng."

Tang Rui's pupils suddenly shrank to the size of pinholes: "Thank you, Commander!"

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