In terms of their status among grain merchants, the Meng family's total assets were only four or five hundred thousand strings of cash, ranking them only in the second or third tier, and they could not be considered the top grain merchants at all.
But Meng Chengqi has connections.
Meng Chengqi sat in the second seat below Zhao Jun on his left.
His family is actually not that rich.
The rest of them were also among the top merchants in Bianliang who dealt in tea, salt, grain, oil and other daily necessities. The poorest among them had a net worth of more than 400,000 or 500,000 strings of cash.
It can be said that if all the property of the people here were confiscated, it would probably help the imperial court to earn tens of millions of strings of cash.
Zhao Jun had known him before. He thought this man was interesting, sensible and obedient. He managed a printing house in which he had no shares in it in an orderly manner. The editorial department also relied entirely on Meng Chengqi for help.
So, when you need a grain merchant, it's understandable to take advantage of him. After all, it's better to find someone you know well than to find strangers whose background you don't know.
There was already charcoal in the room, and charcoal basins and stoves were used to keep the indoor temperature at a certain level. There was also wisps of green smoke rising from the incense burner, and the tea aroma mixed with the smell of spices made the smell in the room even more penetrating.
After the servant served the tea, he backed out and closed the door to prevent the cold wind from outside from blowing in.
Everyone sat down.
Then the servants of the Li Mansion brought tea, all of which were top-quality tea, and the fragrance of tea filled the entire house in an instant.
Li Zi said this as he picked up the teacup in his hand and squinted his eyes to scan the room. While pretending to drink tea, he was actually watching everyone's reactions.
As he expected, many businessmen present showed joy.
It was only at this time that Li Zi looked around and said, "Everyone, I believe everyone already knows the purpose of inviting you here today."
He continued, "The imperial government's monopoly on goods is plagued by numerous problems. Officials in the tea, salt, rice, oil, and iron markets are either overstaffed and idle, or corrupt and corrupt. As a result, the goods produced are of inferior quality, and the people are simply unwilling to buy them. Therefore, reform of the imperial government's monopoly on goods is imperative."
Not only will most of the profits go to the government, but it will also be difficult to guarantee quality, necessitating later processing.
The quality of private salt can be guaranteed, but the government will catch it.
After all, there are thresholds for the sale of these daily necessities. Tea has tea permits and salt has salt notes. Although salt has not yet been included in the Kaizhong Law, it was not until the eighth year of the Qingli period that Fan Xiang, the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of War, amended the salt law and included salt in the Kaizhong Law, and then the salt note policy was started.
But at that time, salt was an absolute government monopoly. Private individuals were not allowed to own salt and could only be subordinate distributors of the government. They could only sell whatever salt the government gave them.
So when they heard that the imperial court had lifted the monopoly on sales, everyone was naturally very happy.
Seeing everyone's reaction, Li Zi felt emboldened. He glanced at Zhao Jun and, seeing him nod, said, "You are all well-known businessmen in Bianliang. I'd like to hear your thoughts today. What do you think?"
Therefore, as long as it involves monopoly and sale, these ordinary big businessmen who do not have high-ranking officials as their backers are no match for those high-ranking officials who are already involved in the matter.
If the imperial court could open up the monopoly on tea and salt, allowing them to obtain tea and salt without any barriers, the business situation would definitely be much better.
"Under the leadership of the government and the magistrate, after the reform, the goods on the market will definitely become better and cheaper. This is truly a wonderful thing for the country and the people."
Everyone opened their mouths to talk about the government and the people, and closed their mouths to talk about the country, offering flattery. Under the monopoly system, although they could get a taste of the spoils, it was only a taste of the spoils.
Tian Chang quickly said, "This is naturally a good thing. The emperor and the ministers of the court are wise, and with the reforms of the prefect and Prime Minister Li, it will naturally benefit merchants and people all over the world."
"That's right. If the monopoly is abolished, everyone will be able to make good tea and salt with their heart. Unlike before, the market had varying quality, which hurt the people. Prime Minister Li's move is truly beneficial to the country and the people."
This resulted in the officials in charge of the sale being idle and even selling state-owned products to merchants in private, or stealing them and selling them themselves.
In addition, many officials have family business ties behind them, such as Ma Jiliang, the Dragon Pavilion Assistant, Hu Ze, the Imperial Secretary, and Wang Yanhou, the Imperial Censor.
In fact, the biggest profit went to the officials in charge of the monopoly, not the government.
Under the state-owned monopoly system, they have no motivation to improve technology or increase product quality, because the people have to buy from them no matter what. Why waste so much energy?
Even prime ministers Lü Yijian, Wang Zeng, Wang Sui, Cai Qi, Song Shou, Sheng Du, and even Yan Shu built many private houses and rented them out for huge profits, and were impeached by Cai Xiang.
It is no wonder that Su Xun lamented this deeply in his Jiayou Collection: "Officials doing business are fortunate not to be punished, and obedient not to be taxed. They are supported by the county magistrate's public purchase of grain, carried by the county magistrate's men, and transported by the county magistrate's boats. The customs and guards do not criticize them, and the bridges and ferry do not criticize them. Therefore, being an official and doing business is truly a joy."
If I were to list the names of officials involved in business, it would probably take three days and three nights to finish.
Because not only central officials, but also local officials are engaged in business.
This resulted in a commercial boom during the Song Dynasty, but the absence of elite merchants like the Ming Dynasty salt merchants, whose net worth reached tens or even hundreds of millions of taels of silver. With private merchants completely suppressed by these official merchants, the emergence of capitalism was impossible, not even in its infancy.
"alright."
So in a sense, there was indeed less corruption in the Song Dynasty, because people not only had high salaries, but also did not need to rely on corruption to get rich. They could use the power in their hands to make their own money.
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