There are many ways to increase wealth.

But in Zhu Youxiao's view, starting an official business is more in line with the long-term development needs of the Ming Empire.

After all, it is a fact that the new social wealth added by the Ming Empire has been concentrated on business.

Because the Ming Dynasty is not the Qing Dynasty in the 19th century that lags behind the world's advanced countries.

The Ming Dynasty is still the most advanced country in the world and has the most advanced productivity in the world.

Because the Ming Dynasty had thousands of years of technological accumulation, it was the representative of advanced productivity in the Iron Age before the emergence of the Industrial Revolution!

Therefore, after the great geographical discovery, global trade opened up and almost all the silver in the world flowed into the Ming Dynasty.

As Zhu Youxiao knows, some historians have said that Western colonists have almost all the silver stolen from the Americas to China for Chinese silk and porcelain products.

It is precisely because of this that it can be said that because of globalization, the Ming Dynasty made a lot of money.

Like these developed countries in later generations, they occupied the upstream of productivity and made great fortunes through the spring breeze of globalization.

But unfortunately, most of the money earned by the Ming Dynasty was privately owned and concentrated in the hands of powerful and noble gentry.

But these powerful and powerful gentry are exempt from tax evasion.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty court did not enjoy this kind of welfare at all.

The people naturally cannot enjoy it even more, and they will even be forced to be even more desperate by the more wealthy and powerful gentry through annexation of the land.

As the emperor, if Zhu Youxiao wanted to make the court more dominant and to make the distribution of wealth and interests of the Ming Dynasty more fair, he had to seize the interests after the beginning of global trade.

In addition, although the main income of the Ming Dynasty was still agricultural tax, it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to increase its income from agriculture.

Because the land of Daming is limited, agricultural technology cannot be improved overnight.

Moreover, agriculture is greatly affected by the climate, but for a long time, the climate is not friendly to agriculture.

What's more, as the empire continued, more and more powerful gentry who were qualified to be tax-free in the Ming Dynasty, they occupied more and more land.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, the agricultural tax in the Ming Dynasty could only decrease and decrease. Unless the agricultural tax was imposed, it could continue to be imposed. The people of the Ming Dynasty would sooner or later rebellion, and the ruling system of the Ming Dynasty collapsed sooner or later.

therefore.

If the Ming Dynasty wants to survive and continue to grow stronger, it can only open up wealth in business.

There are two ways to open up commercial financial resources, one is to impose commercial taxes, and the other is to engage in official business.

Wanli has already engaged in commercial taxation, and sending eunuchs to various places to collect mining taxes is an example.

But the opposition was so loud that after Taichang ascended the throne, the Donglin Party immediately instigated Taichang to abolish this system.

Of course, because eunuchs are not professional tax personnel, it is true that many problems have caused in the tax collection process.

Moreover, eunuchs themselves are vested interests, so the mineral taxes imposed are often transferred to ordinary workers, making the conflicts at the bottom even more acute.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao did not intend to restore the mining tax and increase the commercial tax from the beginning. After all, this requires a large number of professional tax personnel and a complete tax system to be established before the taxes of the gentry and the powerful will be imposed instead of being exploited by the gentry and the powerful.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao chose the second type, namely, to engage in official business.

This is also a kind of suggestion by Sun Chengzong and Xu Guangqi.

It can be seen that Sun Chengzong and Xu Guangqi also knew the pros and cons of imposing commercial taxes, so they did not directly advise Zhu Youxiao to ask the court to impose commercial taxes.

Of course, as for whether Sun Chengzong and Xu Guangqi were also members of the powerful and powerful gentry, they did not want the court to impose commercial taxes and only accepted the way of allowing the court and his family to make money, Zhu Youxiao didn't know.

Originally, Zhu Youxiao did not intend to let civil officials such as Sun Chengzong and Xu Guangqi run official business for him, but instead directly let eunuchs and royal nobles do it.

However, after careful consideration, Zhu Youxiao had to admit that if he wanted to do an official business, he could only let civil officials such as Xu Guangqi and Sun Chengzong do it.

Because eunuchs grew up in the inner court, they didn’t know what kind of industry management they were doing. Even if they were involved, they would act as other people’s protective umbrellas and then participate in dividend distribution or ask professional managers to run for themselves.

The same is true for the royal family members. The royal family members of the Ming Dynasty were almost abandoned because they had a job of iron.

However, civil officials such as Sun Chengzong and Xu Guangqi are different. They have a connection base based on the relationship between clan teachers and students, and can recruit talents and organizations who are good at doing business to recruit various craftsmen. They also have their own fields in areas where commercial mobilization is launched along the coast of the south of the Yangtze River, and their own intelligence and abilities are screened through various assessments.

Therefore, if Zhu Youxiao wants to do a good job in official business, he can only rely on mobilizing some enlightened and loyal civil officials.

This is the same as the Westernization Movement in history that were basically completed by Han scholars and officials.

Zhu Youxiao admitted that he had to rely on some civil servants to compete for interests with other interest groups.

Therefore, after adopting Sun Chengzong's advice on official business development, Zhu Youxiao still asked him to do this.

Originally, Zhu Youxiao was more interested in Xu Guangqi, who was a wealthy businessman in Jiangnan, but because Xu Guangqi had more important tasks, he could only let Sun Chengzong, who took the initiative to make this advice.

In addition, Zhu Youxiao also investigated through Dongchang by asking Wei Zhongxian to strengthen the power of Dongchang and found that Sun Chengzong's family was a big player in growing and selling cotton, so he simply asked Sun Chengzong to open the first official cotton yarn mill in the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, if Zhu Youxiao wants Sun Chengzong and Xu Guangqi's human resources and land, and wants others to do their jobs loyally, he naturally cannot directly confiscate his home or confiscate his property.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao thought of a way to grant a small amount of official industrial shares to Xu Guangqi and Sun Chengzong.

Let Xu Guangqi and Sun Chengzong participate in their own land as equity capital, which can be regarded as a business model that innovates the Ming society.

At the same time, this is also the open plot of Zhu Youxiao to tie the families behind Xu Guangqi and Sun Chengzong together with the Ming Dynasty royal family.

Zhu Youxiao knew that it was impossible for him, the emperor, to fight against the entire vested interest group, and to transform the Ming Dynasty successfully.

Maybe before the reform is completed, the world will be rebelled and even die without knowing death.

Therefore, in Zhu Youxiao's view, he needs to win over a group of people to have the motivation to reform the Ming Dynasty with him.

In addition, Zhu Youxiao had to admit that the reason why the emperors of the Qing Dynasty were more comfortable than those of the Ming Dynasty. If they wanted to go to Jiangnan, they would go to Jiangnan, build the opening palace, and kill the gentry as soon as they wanted to kill them, and even directly paid food for officials and gentry. The emperors of the Qing Dynasty were alien emperors, and behind them there was a Manchu military aristocratic group because they wanted to exploit all Han people and the interests of the emperor were consistent with the emperor, so they unconditionally supported the emperor, so that the emperors of the Qing Dynasty could kill Han officials and gentry unscrupulously, and Han officials and gentry had no choice but to use these Qing emperors.

But Zhu Youxiao was not an alien emperor, so naturally he had no absolute support for himself but was different from most human races as the basic base, so he could not be as powerful as the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao was determined to organize a trusted group who was absolutely loyal to him, and use the method of binding interests and strengthening his thoughts. Bundle interests is the basis. After all, human nature is to seek profit and avoid harm, and thoughts are theoretical means. After all, people who are loyal to him are people with absolutely excellent character and ability.

Sun Chengzong and Xu Guangqi are the types of people Zhu Youxiao wants to win over and tie up.

Therefore, Zhu Youxiao took the initiative to give these two families wealth and honor.

Zhu Youxiao hopes that one day he will also have a strong enough imperial party group to check and balance other groups of forces and maintain his power.

In this way, the emperor could go to Jiangnan if he wanted to go to Chengde if he wanted to go to Chengde for the summer heat, or go to hunt outside the border, no one dared to stop him.
Chapter completed!