"Why do we have to farm? There's so much copper in these mountains. Wouldn't it be better to dig more ore and make more money?"
Cheng Jun was puzzled.
"That's good, but it won't keep people."
Su Xun smiled bitterly and said, "Food has to be bought from outside, and few people come to trade. Many hired workers dig for a while and then take their money back to Jiangzhou City to squander it. In the long run, Guangning will always be just a copper mining area, not even as good as a town."
"Isn't that nice?"
Cheng Jun shrugged: "You are responsible for digging copper mines and minting copper coins, so why bother with so much trouble?"
Su Xun glanced at him and said, "This is why you can only be a businessman, not an official. If you only focus on these small commodities, how can you achieve great things?"
"you!"
Cheng Jun was furious.
This seems to be what he said about Su Xun before.
"Alright, alright."
Madam Cheng quickly tried to smooth things over, saying, "We finally meet, why bother arguing again?"
"The magistrate said that being an official is not just about maintaining peace in a region, but also about benefiting the people and developing the countryside."
Su Xun said proudly, "This time the imperial court has allowed local governments to withhold 30% of taxes. Although our Guangning Prefectural Office didn't have to pay much tax before, only paying copper coins to the imperial court every year, the prefect said that only by spending money on construction can we generate more money. If the Guangning Prefectural Office grows in number and becomes more prosperous, it will produce more copper, and wouldn't that also mean more money?"
This time, Zhao Jun had high hopes for him. With the development of the commodity economy in the Song Dynasty, the demand for currency continued to increase. Even though the court had established more than 40 copper coin custodians, it still could not meet the demand, so it had to be imported from overseas.
Now we not only import copper from Japan, but also silver, all to meet the needs of social development.
In the past, the Song Dynasty court was plagued by problems such as serious copper shortage, chaotic management, and excessively high quotas. For this reason, Zhao Jun specially selected smart and capable officials to serve as local supervisors, who were not under the jurisdiction of the prefectures but directly under the jurisdiction of the roads. He first lowered the quotas and retained some copper coins for the local areas to allow them to develop.
Many prison areas are located in deep mountains and forests. Apart from the miners, there are almost no other people. Zhao Jun told them the development direction, which was to build roads and reclaim farmland.
With farmland and food, local prices would stabilize, attracting settlement. Improved roads would attract more people and facilitate transportation for the imperial court. This would gradually develop, eventually forming a settlement, with more miners and coppersmiths. Wouldn't this drive the entire industry upward?
So for things like gold, silver, copper and iron, you won't become rich immediately just by having a mine. Instead, you need to first build good local supporting facilities and attract more people before you can increase production.
Otherwise, the mine is there, but we can't even dig it out, let alone get rich.
“But this place is still so shabby!”
Su Shi looked at the dilapidated rammed earth city wall in the distance and felt that this place was far inferior to his hometown of Meishan.
"It's going to be okay. Everything is going to be better."
Su Xun looked into the distance and saw that some people were already cultivating fields in the wilderness, and others were repairing roads. They had no plans to repair the city yet. They wanted to first improve the infrastructure so that the local area could produce both grain and copper. This was the long-term solution.
.
.
After the new policy was issued, provincial and county governments across the country were all striving to achieve political achievements.
During his private visit to the people, Liu Yong, the magistrate of Xinzhou, discovered that there was a landlord surnamed Liu in Yiyang County. Taking advantage of the remote location of Qingshan Township, he colluded with the head of the village and the head of the household to enrich himself.
He outsmarted the landlord's lackeys, found out the situation in the village, and then mobilized the people to capture the landlord Liu and his gang on the spot.
Ruyin County Magistrate Li Xiaoji discovered that his boss Bai Zhipeng condoned his younger brother Bai Zhiyuan's forced buying and selling and tax evasion.
So he pretended to please her, but actually reported it immediately after getting evidence.
In August, with the implementation of the new national policy, all regions prospered, agriculture was flourishing, commerce was booming, and even rebellions and uprisings became less frequent.
In the city of Bianliang, there was singing and dancing, and the cotton shipped from Guangzhou was quickly sold out as soon as it was put on the market.
As summer taxes were significantly reduced, the amount of grain available for sale on the market also increased dramatically.
In a short time, the price of grain plummeted to more than 200 wen per stone.
It is expected that in a few years, it will be only a matter of time before the price of a stone returns to the period of Emperor Zhenzong of Song, when it would be forty or fifty wen.
With the people resting, the whole country is prosperous.
On August 6, in the Constitutional Court, Zhao Jun was looking at official documents from various places.
He had already dealt with the affairs of Liu Yong and Li Xiaoji. Those who should be killed were killed, and those who should be exiled were exiled. The criminals were severely punished.
But it is impossible to kill all such people, especially under the new policy, loopholes are likely to appear.
Therefore, during the period when supervision was particularly strict, such incidents were reported almost every day, so much so that the Dali Temple and the Court of Justice were extremely busy recently.
"This new policy has caught a lot of corrupt officials."
Li Zi shook his head and said.
He had just dealt with a case of tax evasion. As the Minister of Industry and Commerce, he had to take responsibility for strictly investigating business issues with the tax department under the Ministry of Finance.
Counterfeiting and selling counterfeit goods are now considered minor problems. Since the new policy makes tax evasion so easy, it is expected that commercial taxes will be significantly reduced again this year.
"These are officials who evaded taxes for their relatives and friends. These are only the ones who were caught. There are many more who have not been caught."
Zhao Jun shook his head: "There are endless corrupt officials to be caught."
"I've said before that this new business tax is unreasonable. If it continues like this, what will happen?"
Lu Yijian sighed.
Zhao Jun spread his hands and said, "What can we do? Everything has its pros and cons. As long as the pros outweigh the cons, it's a good idea. Remember what I said? We need to make a bigger cake."
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