After Xue Xiang's words, the booing outside the courtyard stopped. The people's contempt and ridicule gradually turned into hesitation, confusion, and struggle, especially the merchants and peddlers, who began to discuss with their companions in a low voice.
In fact, before this, the merchants in the capital were also very upset, because after the development of the past few years, the scale of business in the capital has been growing, but mainly the small merchants have increased a lot, and the big wealthy merchants have not changed much. Most of the new business elites are still related to Zhang Fei. For these small merchants, this business has just started to improve, and then encountered a disaster. How can they not feel desperate?
It's just that they are just a minority, and they have some food stored at home, so they won't starve to death, so they are very easily ignored by everyone. After all, in this feudal society, the main thing is stability, and as long as you don't starve to death, everything is fine. So everyone's attention is still focused on ordinary farmers. These farmers will face life and death at the slightest wind and rain.
But in fact, small businessmen are also having a hard time. If this continues for a year, their business will not be able to continue.
Therefore, Xue Xiang's words seemed very reasonable to them. If Xue Xiang gave them copper coins, even if he didn't give them any, they would definitely agree with it wholeheartedly.
But this banknote is indeed worrying.
The imperial court?
Even dogs don't believe it.
"Why does this sound familiar?"
Fu Bi muttered softly and looked around again, but he did not find the familiar figure in the crowd.
...
...
Zhao Pin noticed Fu Bi's behavior and whispered, "That brat is with the emperor now."
Fu Bi nodded, "That boy is really becoming more and more like a master."
Zhao Pin smiled slightly.
At this time, the evidence had been presented, and Fu Bi and others looked at it carefully.
The people outside saw that they were all examining the evidence, and the discussion gradually became louder.
Zhao Xu, who was in the hall at the back, couldn't help but ask Zhang Fei, "You taught me this, didn't you?"
This approach is simply a copy of Zhang Fei from yesterday.
"no."
Zhang Fei shook his head and said, "If it were me, I would attack instead of defend. The first piece of evidence must be the problems encountered during disasters in previous years, especially the relief measures they are most accustomed to using. Whether my plan is passed or not is not important for now, but their policies must be denied first, and then they can only use mine in the end, so that they can achieve twice the result with half the effort."
As expected of Zhang Daer's pen, he really has a way! Zhao Xu's eyes lit up when he heard this. The court opened the warehouse to provide relief, which was really just for the sake of morality, but in fact it could not save many people. He couldn't help but smile and nodded, "It seems that the three officials have only learned half of it!"
He said it lightly, but it takes courage to learn from the other half. Most people can't do it. Among the government and the public, only Zhang Fei dared to do so.
But for Xue Xiang, he was already satisfied.
Sima Guang and the others didn't know that Xue Xiang, who was sitting here, was filled with happiness, because he loved this. Let's just talk about interests and nothing else. This is much easier than talking in the Chuigong Hall.
This is also his strong point.
After the evidence was presented, Sima Guang reviewed it. Although the accounts were similar to what Xue Xiang said, he felt that the key was not here. Xue Xiang was just using a rhetoric to fool everyone. So he asked Xue Xiang again: "According to the intention of the three officials, the tax coins are issued so that the people can use the tax coins to buy things from merchants, help merchants tide over difficulties, and avoid a reduction in commercial taxes. It is still for the national finances."
Xue Xiang nodded and said, "That's right."
Sima Guang said: "You give tax coins to the people, and the people use the tax coins to buy goods from merchants, and the merchants use the tax coins to pay taxes. In this process, the people get the goods, but what do the merchants get? What does the court get?"
After saying this, he suddenly realized that his words were a little inappropriate, so he added, "If merchants don't get benefits, why would they be willing to sell goods to the people?"
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone was confused again.
It seems that merchants get nothing except paying a little tax. After all, paper money is not a copper coin and has no value in itself.
The imperial court only distributed tax coins to help the people and it seemed to have no impact on the finances because the money had to be collected eventually. The more tax coins were distributed, the less taxes would be paid next year. This was still spending the next year's food before it is earned.
Xue Xiang replied very calmly: "Sima Shangshu is wrong. This account cannot be calculated in this way. If Sima Shangshu regards this tax coin as a copper coin, then there will be no problem at all."
Sima Guang said: "But tax coins are not coins after all, and......!"
He lowered his head to glance at the document, and after confirming it, he said, "And the bill you submitted clearly stated that this tax coin is only used for disaster relief, and the court will collect all the tax coins through taxation."
"Yes."
Xue Xiang nodded and said, "But the reason I said that is to help Sima Shangshu understand the interests involved. Although the tax coin is only issued once, the validity period of the tax coin is three years. Within these three years, it can be used to pay taxes, which is equivalent to currency.
Moreover, this account is not calculated in this way. For example, I use 1,000 guan of tax coins to buy 5,000 jin of fine wine from Baifanlou. On the surface, the account is that I spent 1,000 guan of tax coins and got 5,000 jin of wine, while Baifanlou got 1,000 guan of tax coins.
However, first of all, Baifanlou must have 5,000 kilograms of wine, so Baifanlou needs to spend money to buy coal or firewood, as well as food, wine jars, and hire people to brew wine, etc. Moreover, it is impossible for Baifanlou to brew only 5,000 kilograms of wine. The money he spent could be 5,000 strings of coins or 10,000 strings of coins.
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Because Baifanlou knew that their business would not be affected too much by the imperial court's issuance of tax coins.
Among them, charcoal merchants, firewood merchants, pottery merchants, grain merchants, bartenders, and others also received income from it, and the income included commercial taxes.
From this we can see that the tax revenue received by the court from spending one thousand strings of coins may be much more than one thousand strings of coins.
On the contrary, it will be reduced exponentially. If the court only distributes grain, everyone knows that this product cannot be sold, and Baifanlou will definitely reduce the original 5,000 kilograms of brewed wine to 1,000 kilograms, and the related coal merchants, wood merchants, pottery merchants, and grain merchants will also be reduced accordingly, and the commercial taxes received by the court will also be reduced exponentially. "
“......!”
The whole place was in complete silence.
Even though all those present are pillars of the country, and these Northern Song officials all understand some business economics, it is only limited to traditional economics. But when it comes to this level, they are all a little confused.
My brain just can't wrap its head around it.
Chen Maoqian asked Fan Yong, "Is this the case?"
Fan Yong was bewildered and said, "How should I know? The Three Envoys are just using our Baifan Building as an example. This is not true."
Chen Maoqian said: "Then think about it, is this the case?"
Fan Yong thought about it carefully, "It seems to be true. I have already planned to reduce the production of wine, because the price of grain will definitely rise, and the number of people buying wine will also decrease. But if the price of grain does not rise and the number of people buying wine does not decrease, then of course I will brew some."
Zhao Xu, who was sitting in the lobby, looked at Zhang Fei with a confused look, "Zhang San, what he said seems to make some sense."
"That's essentially what's going on." Zhang Fei nodded with a smile, then took out another coin and said, "Suppose I use this coin to buy a small bag of candy."
"Is sugar so cheap nowadays?" Zhao Xu asked in surprise.
"Uh...it's an analogy."
"Oh." Zhao Xu said awkwardly: "Go on."
Zhang Fei said: "When the vendor gets this coin from me, it must be counted as his income, and a tax must be generated."
Zhao Xu nodded.
Zhang Fei added: "And what Sima Xueshi meant was that everything would end here. But in fact, the vendors would use this coin to buy grain, and the grain merchants would get this coin, so wouldn't this generate another tax?"
Zhao Xu nodded thoughtfully.
Zhang Fei said: "But in fact, these two taxes are generated by this coin, and this is what the Three Envoys meant."
Zhao Xu nodded and said, "I understand."
Zhang Fei added: "The key to this business is flow, and the speed of flow depends on the currency. But when currency is scarce, everyone can only barter, and transactions are very cumbersome. Originally, I could trade ten times a day and generate ten taxes, but now I can only trade once, which can only generate one tax.
When currency is flooded, the result is the same. The issue of Jiaozi can illustrate this point. Scarcity makes things valuable. The more currency there is, the less valuable it becomes, and ultimately it becomes barter.
This is actually a double-edged sword. If used well, it can indeed be as the Three Envoys said, but if used poorly, it can also kill you, which is even worse than it is now."
Zhao Xu frowned and said, "Isn't it very dangerous?"
"It's not dangerous at this time."
Zhang Fei smiled and said, "Because we don't have enough money in the first place, many farmers in the suburbs still use barter, and because of the drought, there is a serious shortage of money in the market. At this time, issuing a wave of paper money, even if it is over-issued, will bring huge benefits to the court.
The problem with the Jiaozi in Shu and the Salt Notes in the Northwest was that when officials saw the benefits brought by this wave of paper money, and the court was short of money, they continued to issue them, and then fell into the abyss.
Therefore, as long as the court does not exaggerate, this wave of transactions will definitely make money, but in the long run, it is not certain. "
Zhao Xu kept nodding his head, but his brain was still digesting the information.
Zhang Fei did not disturb him, but turned his head to look at Xue Xiang with a hint of confusion in his eyes. How did this man know all this? Could he really be a genius that is rarely seen in a century?
Wang Anshi glanced at Sima Guang who was deep in thought and smiled secretly. Xue Xiang's method of learning and applying what he learned was really good!
He reacted quickly because he was studying this kind of thing every day. He had also issued salt notes in the capital at that time, and Zhang Fei's plan in Hezhong Prefecture was also discussed with him secretly, which more or less involved knowledge in this area.
But Sima Guang didn't know. He thought about it for a long time but still couldn't understand the truth. He simply said, "This is just your one-sided statement. Do you have any evidence to prove this?"
As I said, everyone can talk about the truth, and I can talk about it more beautifully than you, but the question is whether I can do what I say.
This is a hearing, not a talk show. You must provide evidence to prove what you say.
"some."
Xue Xiang nodded.
Sima Guang was surprised and asked, "What evidence do you have?"
If he couldn't think of something, it must have never happened in history. The key point is that paper currency was first invented in the Northern Song Dynasty, so how could such a theory come up?
"It's Hezhong Prefecture."
Xue Xiang explained calmly, "Since I was in charge of the salt and horse trade in the northwest, I paid close attention to the finances of the northwest. Recently, after taking office as the Three-Division Envoy, I carefully studied the financial changes of Hezhong Prefecture and found that the main growth of Hezhong Prefecture came from commercial taxes. Although the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs did play an indispensable role in this, it is well known that the public security, procuratorial and judicial organs cannot directly create wealth.
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The key reason for this was that due to Mr. Wang's new policy and the salt notes from the Transportation Bureau, the local government gradually issued salt notes worth between 500,000 and 1 million strings of cash, and then collected them back each time by collecting taxes.
According to common sense, the fiscal growth should be equal to the salt notes still remaining in the market, but the fiscal growth of Hezhong Prefecture is far more than that.
After careful study, I discovered this secret. Given the current tax collection method, as long as the appropriate amount of coins is issued, the income obtained can be multiplied. "
As he said this, he looked at his adjutant again and nodded slightly. The adjutant immediately stood up and presented a piece of evidence.
Xue Xiang added: "This is my summary of the financial growth of Hezhong Prefecture in the past two years. I have also marked some clues in it, which are enough to prove what I said."
"I see."
Zhang Fei suddenly realized. I said that it was impossible for him to think of this out of thin air. It turned out that he had studied the finances of Hezhong Prefecture. However, this was not easy. Lao Lu and the others had not discovered this before.
That's the truth.
The reason why Hezhong Prefecture's finances grew so rapidly was because the government issued salt notes to stimulate economic development.
After the evidence was presented, Fu Bi flipped it open and saw, "This looks like it was written last night."
Zhao Pin smiled and said, "It must be Zhang San's testimony yesterday that gave him inspiration."
Fu Bi nodded slightly.
Because these were statistical data and were very concise, the old men looked at them carefully and then looked at each other in surprise.
It seems...it seems to make some sense.
Fu Bi said, "This is actually the same as the money shortage. Money shortage will inevitably lead to business depression. If you issue coins during the money shortage, businesses will naturally think well. The wealth obtained will definitely not be just from issuing these coins. According to the new tax law, the tax revenue received by the court will definitely increase a lot."
Feng Jing nodded and said, "Yes! This new tax law cannot be ignored. It is precisely because we did not collect taxes that much before that it is difficult to reflect how much it can increase the country's finances when we are dealing with the money shortage."
Seeing that Sima Guang was still studying carefully, Fu Bi pondered for a moment and suddenly asked Xue Xiang, "The Three Commissioners just said that as long as the right amount of coins is issued, the income will increase exponentially. I wonder how the Three Commissioners determined this 'right amount'?"
Xue Xiang said: "Because the purpose of this policy is to seek disaster relief, and according to my observation, the most affected by this drought are the ordinary farmers who pay 5% or 6% tax. Under the drought, it is mainly these people who have completely lost the ability to buy goods.
Therefore, my plan is to distribute equal tax coins based on the taxes paid by these people, multiplied by twenty, that is, based on their total income for the year. This will not only ensure that their lives are not affected, but will also support the continued prosperity of business.
Of course, people who pay 8% or 10% tax will also be affected.
However, the people who pay 5% do not use all their income to purchase goods every year. Once the court issues tax coins, they must exchange all the tax coins for living necessities, which can make up for the ability of others to purchase goods.
But it has to be distributed in three installments. After all, we don’t know how long the disaster will last. If it is alleviated, the subsequent payments will be reduced.”
Fu Bi felt confused again.
Can it still be calculated this way?
This has never happened before!
Zhao Xu didn't understand either, so he looked at Zhang Fei again.
Zhang Fei said embarrassedly: "This is my suggestion to Master Wang, but it is not a standard answer. As I said before, based on the current situation in various places, there is actually a shortage of coins. It doesn't matter if we issue more. If we plan in this way, it will only make the reasons seem more sufficient.
Firstly, it shows that the purpose is to help the people at the bottom of society, so the calculation is based on their income, which is impeccable in terms of benevolent governance.
Secondly, the loss of purchasing power caused by the drought mainly comes from these people, which is hard to refute from a factual point of view.”
Zhao Xu nodded and said, "I see."
It is difficult to calculate a money supply value with current statistical technology, but fortunately, the timing and location are favorable. The Northern Song Dynasty was naturally short of money, and the economy has become increasingly prosperous in recent years, but the money supply has not increased. As long as it is not too outrageous, it doesn't matter if a little more is put in.
Therefore, Zhang Fei considered how much currency to issue based on persuading the court and the people.
......
Feng Jing suddenly asked: "But how can the three officials guarantee the amount of tax coins you will issue?"
Xue Xiang said: “Regarding this, Hezhong Prefecture already has a complete supervision system. The local government not only allows the procuratorate to supervise, but also allows businessmen to participate.
We, the Three Divisions, also plan to follow suit and get the major wealthy businessmen in the capital to participate, such as charitable foundations, the Football League, the Bian Jing Law Firm, the Baifan Building, and so on.
Of course, the Political Affairs Hall and the Censorate can also supervise.”
The merchants outside the courtyard couldn't help but feel delighted.
Can we participate too?
This was unimaginable in the past!
Sima Guang then asked, "So the three officials think that in this way, merchants will trust this tax currency and be willing to accept it? You know, there were many problems with the Jiaozi issued by the court before."
The businessman, who was delighted just now, suddenly felt a little nervous again.
Not to mention whether I can monitor it or not, the key point is that if the court goes back on its word, there is nothing we can do!
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We businessmen are like urinals, we only take them out when we need them.
Often exploited.
The people who had just thought that what Xue Xiang said made sense suddenly showed fear on their faces. They had all heard about the issue of Jiaozi and knew exactly what it was.
The imperial court used Jiaozi to deprive the people.
Zhao Xu was unhappy when he heard this and asked immediately: "Whose side does this Sima Junshi side with?"
This cannot expose your own shortcomings!
Zhang Fei hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, this is a good thing."
"Good news?" Zhao Xu looked at Zhang Fei in surprise.
Zhang Fei said, "Your Majesty, have you forgotten what I said before? If Sima Xueshi and his men were to hide the truth, the people would not believe it. The more difficult it is, the more confident the people will be in the tax coin."
Zhao Xu nodded slightly.
Xue Xiang answered without hesitation: "I know that there were problems with the Jiaozi issued by the government before, so I chose to issue tax coins instead of Jiaozi.
This tax currency is not Jiaozi. Its value is that it can be used to pay taxes. Everyone needs to pay taxes every year, and this cannot be changed, so its value will not change. Moreover, the imperial court will ultimately bear all the consequences, which is something that Jiaozi does not have.
From a judicial perspective, tax currency is a contract certificate, an agreement between the court and the people. If the court refuses to allow the people to pay taxes with tax currency, it would be a violation of the contract, and the people can file a lawsuit through the procuratorate.
In addition, during this hearing, the court will make everything public and explain all the doubts in everyone's mind. This is to help the people and to reduce the loss of the national finances. Now that Your Majesty is present, the court will not find any reason to refuse the people to pay taxes with tax coins. "
Fu Bi secretly glanced at the people outside the courtyard and saw that many of them were nodding their heads. He thought to himself that it turned out that the government took the initiative to hold this hearing in order to get everyone to accept this tax currency.
Jiaozi, as the name suggests, is the currency used for transactions.
The court can refuse to accept it.
However, the definition of tax currency is that it is used to pay taxes. It is only because it can be used to pay taxes that it has value and can be used to purchase goods.
But it is essentially a certificate.
If you don't allow us to pay taxes, then we won't pay taxes. Compared with Jiaozi, the people actually have a certain degree of initiative.
In addition, in this hearing, every word you said was under the watchful eyes of the public, and Xue Xiang also directly named you, and the emperor was also present.
The cost of regretting later is too high.
This has indeed reduced the doubts in the minds of many people.
Zhao Pin suddenly asked, "The drought has had a significant impact on the country's finances. It is difficult to make up for it by simply issuing tax coins. The Three Officials just said that we can only try to avoid losses. If the fiscal revenue is reduced significantly this year, will you issue more tax coins to make up for it?"
Xue Xiang seemed a little hesitant. In fact, he wanted to promote the monetization of tax coins, but if you dare to continue to issue them, no one will believe in them. He shook his head and said, "I have no plans in this regard at all."
Wang Anshi sighed inwardly, these old foxes are more shrewd than each other.
When the salt banknote issue came up, he had already thought about issuing paper money.
And Zhao Pin asked this to make sure that you can't continue sending.
Zhao Pin asked again: "Does the Three Envoys have any solution to make up for the financial crisis?"
Xue Xiang said: “First of all, even if there will be financial losses, we estimate that they will not be huge and we will still be able to sustain it.
Secondly, the Grand Court President should not forget that this is a work-for-relief program. We will dredge rivers, build canals, and build the Imperial Court, the Procuratorate, the Police Station, etc. These projects can increase future fiscal revenues. After the disaster, the fiscal revenues will not only recover, but also get better.
Finally, I have always regarded the issuance of tax money as an emergency measure. If the finances really cannot afford it, we still have to start with cost-saving, for example, in some places, debt restructuring is adopted. "
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