Zhao Hao could only encourage him by saying, "You can think about Zeng Nong. You two are both foreign nationals. Zeng Nong is a ginseng seller, and you started out as a humble person... Oh no, you started out as a southern goods seller. You two are equal."

They once created a little golden man, who was able to occupy the villages of the Song Dynasty, build a city with a radius of hundreds of miles, a large population, over ten thousand soldiers and horses, set up five large camps, and no one dared to provoke Zengtou City. Isn't it more glorious than being a prefect?

You have me as your backer, so why can't you also take root in a foreign country, grow bigger and stronger, become a local tyrant? Make the pastoral envoys obey you, and become a great contributor to the recovery of Tamra?

Only then did Fatty Tang agree.

In fact, he was just flirting with Zhao Hao and wanted to be on camera more. Tang Youde knew very well that Mr. Zhao's ambition was not to be in the court but to be overseas.

Zhao Hao unified Jiangnan only to make better efforts overseas. As for the operation in Beijing, it was actually to reduce constraints and to use the banner of a big company as a pretext.

From a business perspective, he could understand Mr. Zhao. What is business? It means buying low and selling high. Selling something cheap in place A to place B where it is expensive and making a profit from the difference is business.

This is true for his southern goods sales; this is true for maritime trade; this is also true for the young master who uses the imperial court's tiger skin to operate overseas - the Celestial Empire's brand is worthless in China, but extremely valuable overseas. The young master wants to buy this brand from China at a low price, and then sell it at a high price overseas!

This is a big business that uses the golden signboard accumulated by the Celestial Empire for two thousand years to cash in! Even if Tang Youde is beaten to death, he is unwilling to miss it!

~~

So Tang Youde reluctantly accepted Zhao Hao's appointment and served as the first mayor of Xingang City.

According to the "Xingang City Management Regulations (Provisional)" personally formulated by Mr. Zhao, the mayor is the administrative head of Xingang City. The term of office is five years and can be re-elected once. His responsibilities include leading the overall work of the City Hall and rewarding and punishing the appointment and removal of City Hall staff other than the counselors.

The responsibility of the City Hall is to ensure a stable, free and open environment in Xingang City and promote the prosperity of Xingang.

Specifically, City Hall's number one priority is collecting taxes - customs duties, business taxes and residential taxes.

The tariffs were imposed on imported and exported goods, but the import and export goods of the Ming Royal Shipping Company were exempt from tax. To put it bluntly, it was a tax collected from the Joseon merchant group. The tax rate was 10%.

The commercial tax is levied on shops and merchants conducting business activities in Xingang City, with a tax rate of 1 in 20.

As for the resident tax, it is levied on residents settled in Xingang City, with a fixed amount of one tael per household per year.

Taxation is a good thing. Without taxes, who would engage in urban construction?

Oh no, it should be said, how can we carry out urban construction without collecting taxes?

And according to Mr. Zhao, earning income through taxation is only one aspect, it can also establish ties with the citizens. After all, no one will cherish what is easily obtained, and only when the residents and shops pay the cost will they truly protect the city!

Okay, that's gross, but it's true that you can use taxes to keep citizens in line, keep the population stable, and keep an accurate grasp of the city's economic situation.

You see, there are so many benefits to collecting taxes. Even if Mr. Zhao is not doing it for the sake of making money, he still has to collect taxes well.

Of course, no one would pay taxes voluntarily, so the City Hall set up a tax department, led by a tax officer and a tax inspection team to enforce taxation.

Although anyone is welcome to work and live in Newport City, if you want to do business or buy property here, you must hold a continuous tax payment certificate.

In order to make Xingang City prosper as soon as possible, the first year of its opening was tax-free, and no tax payment certificate was required for purchasing a house.

One year later, anyone who dares to resist taxes will be thrown into prison and tried by an arbitration tribunal. The lighter punishment will be fined and expelled, while the heavier punishment will be sent to labor reform.

Prisons are indispensable institutions of violence; without prisons there would be no order.

The arbitration tribunal is an indispensable arbitration institution in the city, otherwise various disputes cannot be handled. Because the city is limited in size and the institutions are kept as simple as possible, the arbitration tribunal also has judicial functions. The full name is "Arbitration and Arbitration Tribunal". It not only handles civil disputes, but also criminal cases. It is very important.

When adjudicating cases, the arbitration tribunal generally refers to the Household Law and Criminal Law sections of the Ming Dynasty legal system. As for the Official Law and Etiquette Law, a small city like Xingang does not need them and there is no need to abide by them.

Young Master Zhao, the old man and Zheng Ruo had discussed repeatedly and drafted the "Xingang Civil Affairs Management Regulations" in accordance with the "Household Law" and related collections of famous examples, which legislated on Xingang City's population household registration, land and housing taxes, commerce and foreign trade, market order and other social and economic and personal relations content.

His "Civil Administration Regulations" differed greatly from the "Ming Dynasty Household Law". First, he strictly restricted the amount of private land and houses owned, and used punitive tax rates to crack down on the annexation of land by wealthy and wealthy businessmen.

The Ming Dynasty, or any dynasty, was destroyed by land annexation, and land annexation was the biggest enemy of the industry and commerce he developed. Zhao Hao hated it but was powerless to do anything about it. He could only kill this cancer of humanity at the source in the places where he had the final say.

He clearly stated in the "Civil Affairs Ordinance" that because the land in Xingang City was all leased by Jiangnan Group, those who wanted to own land in Xingang City could only lease it for a long time and could not buy it permanently.

He also stipulated that arable land should be divided into ten mu per unit and non-arable land into half a mu per unit. Citizens only need to pay a symbolic rent every year to rent one unit of arable land and one unit of non-arable land for a long term. The rent varies according to the location, but it is only one-tenth of the normal level, and the lease term can be as long as 50 years.

This approach of only having the right to use but not the ownership will of course greatly suppress the impulse of wealthy people to merge.

Moreover, Zhao Hao also stipulated that for each additional unit rented, each household would have to pay twice as much land tax each year.

That is to say, if you own one more unit of land, you have to pay 2 taels of land tax every year. If you own two more units, it will be 4 taels. Three units will be 8 taels, four units will be 16 taels, five units will be 32 taels... In this way, a large house covering an area of ​​3 mu only needs to pay 32 taels of land tax every year, which is affordable for the rich.

But if you want to build a garden of six mu to live in, you have to pay 2048 taels of land tax every year, and 7 mu is 8192 taels. Who can bear this?

The same principle applies to arable land, which not only takes into account the needs of the rich for land, but also curbs excessive mergers.

The most important point is that everyone has to pay taxes. No matter if they are wealthy businessmen or high-ranking officials of Jiangnan Group, no one can enjoy tax exemption. Even Mr. Zhao who buys property on the island still needs to pay taxes. This makes tax evasion methods such as fraudulent donations useless.

The Civil Affairs Ordinance also stipulates that if anyone evades tax by means of flying, spraying, or sending mail, his or her property in Xingang City will be confiscated and he or she will be expelled from the country. The informant can receive one-tenth of his or her property.

In addition, the Civil Affairs Regulations clearly stipulated that Xingang City only collected land tax, not agricultural tax. In other words, if a family in Xingang City cultivated less than ten mu of land, apart from a tiny amount of rent, almost all the income could belong to themselves.

What? The Ly Dynasty government is here to collect taxes? Ask their officials if they dare to come? We won't break their legs!

This alone is enough to absorb enough basic population to support Xingang City.

In addition, the Civil Affairs Ordinance also stipulates that slavery and indentures are not allowed in Xingang City. Indentures signed outside the city are not protected by the city. Employers must sign employment contracts when hiring workers. The maximum length of a single contract is no more than five years, but it can be renewed indefinitely.

What, what about those Japanese workers? They were found guilty by the arbitration tribunal and need to undergo forced labor reform. Of course, this is within the scope of the Criminal Law.

In terms of criminal law, Zhao Hao abolished all corporal punishments. Except for serious crimes such as murder, robbery, and rape, which were sentenced to death, all other crimes were punished by labor reform. For example, for petty theft, the first offender was sent to labor reform for three months, the second offender was sent to labor reform for two years, and the repeat offender was sent to labor reform for life, ensuring that the prisoners' souls would be sublimated in the sweat.

In addition to worrying about these violent organizations, Fatty Tang is also responsible for some sunny undertakings. For example, he founded and maintained schools for local people, popularized Chinese education, and vigorously promoted Confucianism. Young Master Zhao asked him to hire the most traditional old masters, preferably the kind of corrupt Confucian scholars who can be smelled every three blocks. Let them use the teachings of saints to influence the natives, strengthen their compliance with the Three Bonds and Five Constant Virtues, their obedience to the Celestial Empire, and their gratitude to the Jiangnan Group.

By the way, the Chinese schools in Xingang City do not offer science classes. Apart from the Four Books and Five Classics, they only teach some applied mathematics such as accounting and using abacus. The locals should listen to the words of the saints more, which is the kingly way. Science, such a boring and unorthodox way, should be left to torture the people of the Ming Dynasty.

~~

The city’s security is the responsibility of the Xingang Police Station of the Gap Island Marine Police Station.

However, the police station is under the dual leadership of the Water Police Bureau and the City Hall, so Tang Youde can still mobilize them within the city of Xingang.

The most important trade with Japan was handled by the Tamra Chamber of Commerce. Although the Tamra Chamber of Commerce was nominally an independent organization, it still had to register with the city hall and accept business guidance from the mayor.

There are many other big and small things, too. In short, all matters in the entire city are under the responsibility of the City Hall, and in the end, Fatty Tang can always be found.

With so many things to do, Fatty Tang certainly cannot handle it all by himself, and monopolizing power will do neither him nor the group any good.

Therefore, Zhao Hao set up a municipal committee with several counselors to assist the mayor in managing the city. The counselors were directly appointed by the group, and the mayor had no power to directly appoint or dismiss counselors, but had the right to make recommendations.

In addition, if more than two-thirds of the councillors sign the petition, the group can recommend the removal of the mayor. And outside the city hall, an inspection and supervision committee will also be set up to prevent the mayor from turning the city into an independent kingdom.

This is certainly not to guard against Fatty Tang. Mr. Zhao still has absolute trust in his first business partner.

But only a good mechanism can make our friendship last forever.