Chapter 123 Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?
"But can't this so-called guild president be greedy?"

Ye Qingan quickly caught the loophole:
“Besides the president of the Chamber of Commerce, other merchants still seem to not get any benefits.

The most important thing is that the amount of commercial tax to be paid seems to be entirely in their own hands.”

"Then let's find the crux of the problem first!"

Yun Shu directly used himself as an example:

"Look at me. As a princess, when I wanted to open the Tianwaitian Restaurant, I had to bring my father along. Why?
Because I am afraid that someone will find fault with me, so I must have a powerful backer.

The status of those merchants is not as high as mine. If they want to do business well, don’t they need a backer? "

"Princess means..."

Ye Qingan reacted quickly:
"The Chamber of Commerce is the backer of these merchants?"

"That's right!"

Yun Shu stroked his palm lightly and said approvingly:

"Master Ye, put yourself in their shoes. If you were a merchant, you would have to spend a large sum of money every year to please local officials and aristocratic families, and you would have to smile cautiously.
Even if the profits are not very good in a certain year, offerings to these people still cannot be reduced.

And if someone comes along who is particularly greedy, and keeps asking you for things like a bottomless pit, you have no choice but to do as he or she says, because once you fall out with him or her, you can forget about doing business.

At this time, the court established a chamber of commerce. As long as you joined the chamber of commerce and handed over a portion of your income every year, you could get the protection of the chamber of commerce.
If you encounter any corrupt officials who want to oppress you again, you can even report the matter directly to the emperor through the president of the Chamber of Commerce.

In addition, the president of the chamber of commerce is elected every three years by all merchants in the local chamber of commerce.

In other words, only those who are recognized by the vast majority of merchants can become the president.
Including you, it is not impossible.

Do you think you would refuse?"

"Of course not!" Ye Qing'an said without hesitation.

“Then the problem of merchants not wanting to join is solved.”

Yun Shu nodded:
“The next step is to find a way to get the Chamber of Commerce to pay as much tax as possible.

As I said before, since businessmen are only interested in profit, let them see the profit."

She once again used herself as an example:
"Master Ye, in order to encourage me to innovate more, didn't you tempt me by saying that I don't have to do homework?

As long as merchants realize that paying more taxes is beneficial, why should we worry that they will not pay? "

"But what can you get from paying taxes..."

Ye Qing'an frowned subconsciously at first, but soon he thought of something, and his eyes suddenly lit up:
"Salt!"

He turned around quickly and bowed to Emperor Xuanwu:

“Your Majesty, the court can easily use salt to lure those merchants!

Merchants in various places who pay the highest taxes can be awarded the right to purchase salt permits as a reward. In addition, the chambers of commerce that pay the most taxes can also be given a few extra quotas..."

In those days, salt and iron were controlled by the imperial court. Except for merchants who had obtained salt permits, no one else was allowed to sell them privately.

At the same time, the salt business was very profitable, and it was almost a sure win.

Therefore, any merchant with a little bit of financial strength wants to get the salt permit.

"Qing Ye's proposal is indeed feasible."

Emperor Xuanwu also nodded slightly:

“But even so, the only ones that can be attracted are those large and powerful merchants.
Most of them are small merchants who know that they cannot possibly get salt permits.”

"Isn't there still cheap paper?"

Yun Shu said casually:
“Although low-priced paper is low-priced, the profit is still very high.

If all merchants in the Chamber of Commerce that pays the highest taxes every year can do business with low-priced paper, those small merchants should also be tempted, right? "

"Your Highness is right!"

Ye Qing'an was reminded by her, and more thoughts came to his mind - "In addition to these, all new things that can be promoted through merchants in the future can also be used as rewards from the Chamber of Commerce!

Not only can it encourage merchants to pay commercial taxes more actively, but it can also roll out the things the court wants to promote as quickly as possible, killing two birds with one stone!"

"it is good!"

Emperor Xuanwu praised,
After opening their minds, the issues raised by the ministers in the court today when they opposed the new commercial tax seemed to have become very easy to solve.

The king and his minister became more and more excited as they talked, and Yun Shu, who remained silent, was ignored by them all.

Finally, Emperor Xuanwu got hungry and thought of eating some pastries to fill his stomach.
Only then did he finally notice the empty plate of pastries, and... Yun Shu, who was still chewing the last half piece of pastry in his hand.

Emperor Xuanwu: “?”

"hungry?"

"Just a little bit, but I'm not hungry now."

After swallowing the last half of the dessert, Yun Shu touched his still somewhat bloated stomach and slowly stood up:

"Father, there shouldn't be anything else for me to do, right?
Can I go back now, son?"

"No hurries?"

Being able to stay in the imperial study and listen to him and the ministers discuss matters is an honor that the prince would never ask for.

She just sat here and ate.

After eating, I'm still thinking about running!
Why, is he staying in the imperial study to warm his feet?

Emperor Xuanwu snorted:
"Did you listen to what I just said to Lord Ye?"

"..."

Yun Shu was silent for a moment, his eyes slightly wandering:
"Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?"

Emperor Xuanwu said expressionlessly: "It's a lie."

"That minister has listened."

Yun Shu lied honestly as ordered:

"Not a word was lost."

She was telling a lie.

So the truth is the other way around -

She didn't hear a word.

Emperor Xuanwu was almost pissed off by her and laughed:
“Who was it that made such a bold statement at the palace banquet on New Year’s Eve that he wanted to solve the problem of reclaiming wasteland?
What, your solution is to delegate all the work to others and just sit back and wait for the results?"

"Didn't I just help out with some advice?"

Yun Shu argued:
“But you know, Father, that I am just a little clever, and my brain is relatively new, so I can occasionally come up with some good ideas.

But when it comes to state affairs, he knows nothing about it.

I actually tried to listen to what you just said to Master Ye.

But it feels no different from listening to a book from heaven.”

"That's because you haven't listened enough!"

Emperor Xuanwu was too lazy to listen to her excuses.

He now realized that the cleverness of his kid was not something that ordinary people could possess.

But she is just too lazy!
The kind that if you don't force her, she will just lie there.

But if you give her a hard push from behind, she'll definitely be the kind of person who can bring huge surprises to people!