After the Third Prince returned, several new imperial edicts were issued from the capital in the second month.
The first thing is that the imperial court has established a new Ministry of Commerce, named the Honglu Temple Sifang Hall.
It is specifically responsible for managing foreign trade.
The second rule is to strictly prohibit land annexation. Any locality or individual that acquires or annexes more than 1,000 mu of land within five years under any pretext shall be sentenced to fifty strokes of the cane and have the newly acquired land confiscated.
If the area exceeds 3,000 mu, the offender shall be sentenced to immediate execution and the newly acquired land shall be confiscated.
The third step was that Emperor Qingyuan clearly defined the ranks of the emperors, determining their rank based on their contributions to the court.
The highest rank was bestowed upon him the title of "Virtuous Merchant," and he was granted the treatment of a third-rank official.
Second-class merchants were called Confucian merchants and were granted the treatment of fourth-rank officials.
Third-class merchants were called "refined merchants" and were granted the treatment of fifth-rank officials.
Of course, contributions to the imperial court here include, but are not limited to, donations of disaster relief funds, grain, medicine, and gold and silver exceeding five million taels of silver, and only those who actively respond to the imperial court's call can qualify.
Emperor Qingyuan's biggest appeal right now is to offer up land.
In return for handing over 10,000 hectares of fertile land to the imperial court, one would receive a method for producing a product, the right to start a business, and a sales chain.
Initially, with powerful families backing them up, no one was willing to contribute.
But now, with Emperor Qingyuan pulling this stunt, everyone knows that once they secure a sales chain and open a factory, real money will flow in like water. It would be foolish not to make money when it's available, so some merchants couldn't sit still any longer.
Individually, one or two businesses might not dare to disobey the wishes of a powerful family, but when there are many of them, all the merchants unite as one, and the powerful family can do nothing about them.
Thus, the merchants, united as never before, worked together to develop the business. They quickly handed over the deeds to the imperial court for their remote and difficult-to-manage lands, in exchange for a method of product manufacturing, factory licenses, and sales chains.
In order to acquire land, Emperor Qingyuan didn't care about how shameful his greed was. He meticulously categorized all kinds of goods, such as electric lights and windmills.
You think you can just sell it as two separate parts: electric lights and windmills?
That's wishful thinking. Emperor Qingyuan simply counted the glass bulb outside the light bulb as one item, the tungsten filament inside as another, the wires as another, and the windmill as yet another.
Glassware is also included; cups and teaware count as one item, and mirrors count as one item. Each business is only allowed to produce one type of item, and those who violate this rule will have their licenses revoked.
Moreover, 20% of the profits from the sale of these products must go to the national treasury.
The merchants were heartbroken and felt their teeth ache. They secretly thought that it was a waste of Emperor Qingyuan's talent that he didn't become a cunning merchant!
However, these things were genuinely popular and had a real market. Whether they were aristocratic families or merchants, after doing the math, they found that even though Emperor Qingyuan was exploiting them quite ruthlessly, they still had a large profit margin.
Moreover, once they have the technology, they can simply reprice it!
Even with your eyes closed, running this business is more profitable than farming, especially since Emperor Qingyuan is determined to increase taxes on large landowners. It's hard to say what the future holds for the land.
Merchants have already made their moves, and even established families can't hold back anymore. They're acting quickly to grab a high-profit share; if they keep pretending, they'll only get scraps.
As a result, merchants and established families all took action.
Within two months, Emperor Qingyuan had reclaimed more than one million mu of land.
Immediately afterwards, Emperor Qingyuan issued another decree, stating that all good registered citizens who had neither houses nor land could go to the local government office to receive two mu of land per person. For the first ten years, one mu of the land would be used to pay taxes on grain, and the other mu would be kept for personal consumption.
Ten years later, these two acres of land will belong directly to the farmer, who can obtain a land deed and pay taxes like other landowners.
In other words, paying heavy taxes for ten years is considered buying land in installments.
Upon hearing this decree, Xie Yushu couldn't help but give Emperor Qingyuan a thumbs up. His team was quite capable, managing to implement phased implementation; their thinking was quite advanced.
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