Nowadays, in Cao Cao's territory, the prices of various daily necessities are constantly increasing. If food was still available for one stone yesterday, today it has been increased to one and a half for one stone. The price of salt has dropped sharply. In fact, the price of salt has not increased since the salt-drying method was popularized. But now it has dropped so much that those individual salt-dryers will probably go bankrupt. "The homespun cloth cannot be sold for a price, and more people are facing bankruptcy. The landlords will never be merciful, and the usury loan will not reduce the interest just because the homespun cloth cannot be sold. The biggest shortcoming of the forces that rely on landlords and aristocratic families to maintain their rule is that they cannot afford to be ravaged by industrial products. They only need to expand industry and increase production. Such traditional forces are often self-defeating. Since the last month-end summary, Cao Cao has devoted all his energy to coping. It¡¯s just that as an authentic ancient person, Cao Cao and his group of men could think of very few ways to deal with it. To say that these things are prohibited, the family of the world is obviously unwilling. It is obviously unacceptable to put good products for the so -called patriotic buying and poor quality and poor quality. Various commodities were constantly flowing from the Han Dynasty to the Wei State. Under the leadership of Cao Cao, the Wei State's first thought was how to ban such commodities from entering its own market. As a result, after working hard for more than half a month, the goods that were supposed to sell for the same price still sold for the same price. The goods were banned by officials and began to be smuggled. Wei's border management was very weak, and there was not even any import and export agency. , with the kind help from the aristocratic family and the benefits promised by the businessmen, the aristocratic family is very welcome to stay in seclusion so that they can make more money. History has explained everything. When the aristocratic families tried their best to seclusion, it showed that they had seen the huge profits from the smuggling market. The Ming Dynasty banned the sea. As a result, the aristocratic family fleets in Jiangsu and Zhejiang were all over East Asia, and they made a lot of profits through smuggling. Seeing this huge profit, the aristocratic family would naturally not allow others to share the profit. The Donglin Party at that time was largely supported by these merchant families in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions. One party pushed them to power, and the other was responsible for serving as the leader of these aristocratic families. spokesperson, acting as the vanguard of the Forbidden Sea. In their eyes, it is the ancestral family law, and it absolutely cannot be changed just by saying it. Zhu Yuanzhang played in the Forbidden Sea, and as a result, his descendants followed him to endure hardships. History has also proved that even if the peasant uprising succeeded, Even if you become an emperor, you will have to live a hard life. After a month of seclusion and a month of ban, northern goods were still rampant in the south. Cao Cao didn't know where these goods came from. He only knew that he still couldn't ban these goods. The worst thing was that the biggest characteristic of smuggled goods was , that is, it does not need to pay taxes. It was banned for more than a month, but the goods were not banned. As a result, Cao Cao¡¯s domestic taxes shrank by 40%. Jiang Wan finally stood up and said forcefully that if Cao Cao did not turn the switch on, one of the consequences would be that the government would go bankrupt. At least, there would be no money that could be used to build new residential areas. "What's interesting is that Jiang Wan was the only one who asked for the switch at this time. Most of the other aristocratic families, even Xiahou Dun and others, obediently kept their mouths shut and had no intention of turning it on. This is the inevitable outcome. After eating meat, no one will want to go back and drink the broth. Xiahou Dun and others may be dedicated to the Wei Dynasty, but for people with status like them, the family expenses are also very terrible. Daily expenses How can their salary be sufficient for their expenses? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? The older aristocratic families have done business to subsidize their families. China has despised businessmen for a long time, but in fact, there are very few officials who don't have a chamber of commerce behind them, and there are very few poor and stupid people like Hai Rui. "Gong Yan, how did the north face such a situation?" Cao Cao was speechless and could only ask Jiang Wan for help. "The North does not have any measures against this. In fact, because of a large amount of exports, almost no imports, and little need for imports, they have no need to prevent such a situation." Jiang Wan shook his head. "Then, what should you do?" Cao Cao simply asked the question to Jiang Wan. ¡°Perhaps we can set up an agency to be responsible for foreign import and export issues. According to our needs, for some excessively scarce resources, we can exempt from tax and directly clear customs; for some things that we need but don¡¯t need too much, we can levy a certain amount. Tax rates, and heavy taxes on some luxuries that we don¡¯t need very much and have nothing to do with life, may force northern merchants to increase the price of goods. In this way, when the price of goods increases, you can buy these things There will be fewer people, but at least we can collect a lot of business tax." Jiang Wannao said.After wandering around, I got acquainted with the initial concept of customs. As for the last sentence, it can be said to be a complete fig leaf. ¡°I have no means to control the goods coming from the north, nor can I avoid the impact of their goods on the local market, but at least the government can receive enough tax revenue from it, which can meet the government¡¯s other construction and governance needs. Cao Cao had no idea. After much deliberation, Jiang Wan's method was still somewhat useful, at least as he said, "At least we can receive a lot of business taxes." A new department was established. Interestingly, the name is also called Customs. The reason is very simple. Many merchants from the north may have come over by land, but in fact most of the goods are transported to the south through seaports. The price of sea freight The transportation cost is much higher than that by land, so many businessmen choose to use sea transportation. When the proportion of shipping reaches a certain level, shipping has actually become the main means of foreign trade. Therefore, the main target of the new department is to target these shipping caravans. The name is also very appropriate. After the customs was established, it supported a large number of officials and petty officials. Cao Cao even increased the construction of foreign trading ports and improved the infrastructure of these ports. The originally wild south began to become more and more under Cao Cao's governance. Becoming more alive and energetic. So, three months passed in a hurry, and the preliminary results of the customs were still good. They received a lot of fleets every day and collected enough taxes as needed. In the past three months, the commercial tax rate had increased a lot. But the question arises again, how much should the tax rate be increased? Cao Cao and his subordinates have no experience in how to determine the tax rate for items that are novel and not considered daily necessities. Jewelry can be said to be luxury goods, but Cao Cao and his department only set a tax rate three times the original rate. Originally, a piece of jewelry sold for a regular price had to pay a tax rate of about 20%, which is 200 copper coins. Now, the tax rate has been tripled to 60%, which means that the jewelry has to pay 600 copper coins. After three months, the price of jewelry has increased slightly, but it does not affect the low-price sales plan of jewelry at all. In fact, many jewelry today cannot be industrially produced, but it does not matter, such a small tax rate cannot stop the sale of low-price jewelry at all. Invasion. Cao Cao and his men's lack of control over tax rates directly led to the increase in commercial taxes, but they were unable to prevent others from openly invading goods. The worst thing was that after enjoying the pleasure of smuggling, many aristocratic families openly or covertly Helping northern merchants with smuggling. The most famous one is naturally known for his greed for money and real estate. Cao Cao's younger brother Cao Hong was very courageous. His chamber of commerce openly helped northern merchants to smuggle a large amount of goods without paying any taxes. Selling in the South. As a result, in just three months, the business tax revenue was huge, but more private businesses and more small workshops closed down. A large number of people lost their livelihood jobs and became unemployed. The number of people increased. These Those who practice the exercises directly become unstable elements in society. So public security began to deteriorate, and there was nothing we could do about it. In the past three months, Cao Cao has been thinking of ways to adjust policies, desperately trying to maintain social stability, and trying to control the differences between exports and imports But he sadly discovered that the family has become his mortal enemy at this moment. . He finally understood that everything has two sides. Aristocratic families can give people a greater sense of belonging, but similarly aristocratic families are selfish. When society develops, aristocratic families are the biggest hindrance. Cao Cao, who was severely held back by the aristocratic family, was in a desperate situation. He only faced two choices. One was to learn from Liu Ming and suppress the aristocratic family, and the other was He couldn't figure out what to do.