A few days later, the government affairs hall organized by Wen Yanbo, and gathered officials from the Sansi, the Censorate, the Censorate and other officials to discuss the reform of Ye County in Dutai. This matter was the emperor's imperial order, and most of the ministers in the court participated, which was very lively.

Because of poor health, Wu Yu, who was sentenced to the Ministry of State, organized the organization and arranged the soldiers and officials to serve the officials. Du Zhongxiao and the Censor-in-Chief Guo Shenxi arrived at Du Tai early.

Hanlin scholar Ouyang Xiu, Wang Zhu and Wang Gui have arrived here and have spoken their own rituals with Du Zhongxiao.

Everyone sat down, Ouyang Xiu said: "The affairs of Ye County were about the matter, after Zhongcheng arrived there for more than ten days, he wrote to the court and believed that it should be changed. Although Ye County has developed into a large settlement in recent years, most of the officials have just passed by and don't know what exactly there is. Zhongcheng, why not talk about it when taking advantage of this time?"

Du Zhongxiao bowed: "Nehan asked me, but I dare not obey my orders! Ten years ago, Ye County was just an ordinary small county in the Central Plains. Eight years ago, when I went to Yingtian, Jingxi Road, I found iron ore seedlings nearby, and there was another coal mine nearby, so I decided to open an Iron Supervisor. After the Iron Supervisor was opened, it was initially made railway machines for the imperial court. Because of the population, Ye County was closest to it, and there was nothing to gain. The Iron Supervisor became larger and bigger, and many of the key parts were sold in addition to supplying the Iron Supervisor, so they were sold. In addition, the railway was opened, and from then on, the Iron Supervisor became the most suitable place for factories in the world. Things that were difficult to produce in small factories were supplied with iron supervisors, and the factory could only have experienced professionals."

Wang Zhu said: "After all, it's because of the Iron Supervisor. If the Iron Supervisor does not offer takeaway parts, there would be no such thing."

Du Zhongxiao shook his head: "Nehan, establishing the Iron Supervisor is to do things for the court and benefit the people. Their machines are idle and idle. They make some parts and sell them, and make money by themselves, and the people get benefits, which is a benefit."

Ouyang Xiu said: "Ye County is prone to opening a factory, so why does it cause a lot of trouble? It can't even take care of it like the usual prefectures and counties."

Du Zhongxiao said: "After all, it's in the factory. Before the Iron Supervision Bureau was opened, there were factories in the world, but they were not large and had no big impact on the world. Ye County is different. A large number of factories gathered there to attract population and form large towns. With a larger population, it will naturally be difficult to manage. The factories opened are different from the people's farming and the shops in the city. I don't know how to manage the places."

Several people were silent for a while, Ouyang Xiu said: "Zhongcheng, is the factory very profitable?"

Du Zhongxiao smiled and said, "It seems that there are not many things in the world that are more profitable than opening a factory. Moreover, the market is now open and the supply of goods is in short supply, which is even more so. A factory is open there, and only familiar people can watch it, and you can make money every day."

Several Hanlin bachelors nodded together and thought to themselves. However, they still have no specific concept of what the factory looks like, what it produces, and how it operates. Du Zhongxiao said that it is different from the store, how it is different.

While several people were talking, Fan Zhen and Gong Dingchen, the Zhijianyuan, came in and sat down with their own greetings.

Fan Zhen was an official that Du Zhongxiao knew before he was appointed. He was very kind to him and was particularly polite. The status of the Censorate has increased in recent years, and he has all kinds of officials in the Censorate, and his status is not much lower than that of Du Zhongxiao.

Ouyang Xiu said: "We just asked Du Zhongcheng about where Ye County is special. Zhongcheng said that Ye County is close to the railway and has opened many factories. There are people and households there, and there are factories that make money, so it is difficult to manage. Two censors, do you know the factory?"

Fan Zhen said: "Nehan, the factory is not a rare thing. Didn't there be many homes in Kaifeng City? When I was free, I went to the factory in Kaifeng City to see it, and it was indeed different from before."

Ouyang Xiu nodded after hearing this: "I haven't been to the capital for a long time, and I still don't know that Kaifeng also has it."

Fan Zhen said: "The east and west capitals, plus Ye County, are connected to the railway into a triangle. People have opened factories along the road. However, the most dense place is Ye County. There is a railway near the railway station and there is also a railway. Next to it is Fangcheng Mountain, with sufficient water sources, which is most suitable."

Ouyang Xiu and other Hanlin bachelors were all in Qinggui positions and did not know much about local affairs. After hearing Fan Zhen's words, he hurriedly said, "We are worried about not knowing what the factory is. If you know the advice, you will tell us what to do?"

Fan Zhen said: "The factory is the most different from the previous business operations. It is mainly based on machines, and people are equipped with machines. Without machines, even if the things produced are the same, it is not enough to be called a factory."

Du Zhongxiao was very surprised when he heard this. Unexpectedly, the officials also made such a definition of the factory. Thinking about it carefully, the factory naturally had a definition in later generations, but he didn't know it, and this era may not be more suitable than Fan Zhen said.

Is the handicraft workshop considered a factory in the past? Of course, it is not. The bureaucrats have their own understanding of these new affairs. In their eyes, the biggest difference is that the newly opened factories use a large number of machines. The initials, such as hydraulic machinery, have been standardized after the iron supervisors participated. Some factories even began to use steam power. Moreover, in the past or two years, using steam power has become a trend.

Several Hanlin bachelors were particularly surprised to hear what Fan Zhen said. They had little contact with society, but they did not expect that such a place would appear in a short time. They had heard of machines, but they had never seen anything they could see when they used machines to produce things.

Fan Zhen said: "So Du Zhongcheng said that the factory is different from the previous store shops. If the court wants to manage it, it must make major changes. The factory is mainly based on machines. As long as it can operate the machines, people can be replaced at any time. Therefore, the court should of course be based on machines."

"Mainly on machines?" Ouyang Xiu frowned. "How to focus on machines?"

Fan Zhen said: "If you don't focus on machines, you can't manage factories. If the government wants to manage a factory, you must know which machines it has, which goods it can produce, and what value it sells. Only by knowing these can you manage and facilitate tax collection."

Du Zhongxiao actually never considered this issue. He didn't expect to take care of the machine. What machines are there in the factory and which one cares about it. As long as you know what to produce, how much it can be produced in a year, and how much it can be sold for. However, after listening to Fan Zhen's words, he felt that it made sense. If the machines in the factory can be counted clearly, wouldn't it be a step further? From this, we will calculate the output, count the factory income, and collect taxes more clearly.

The most important thing to manage a place is to collect taxes. As long as the tax comes up, some people in the government are rich, but they are afraid that they will not understand? The problem of Ye County is first of all, how to collect taxes on factories. Du Zhongxiao originally thought of it in his previous life, such as proliferation taxes and consumption taxes, but it is difficult to collect. Fan Zhen and others were officials of the Song Dynasty who directly started to focus on fixed assets. Don’t care about what to produce, and pay attention to fixed assets first, and then talk about other things.

The Song Dynasty followed the Tang Dynasty's two tax laws, with agricultural tax targeting land, while the Chenggu households targeting assets, and the actual tax was collected. When facing factories, the first thing that bureaucrats thought of was to collect taxes based on households and others. The standard for evaluating households and others was the machine inside.

Compared with the current weak market supervision system, it makes sense to collect taxes like this. If it is to collect taxes for proliferation or business taxes, it is difficult for the government to actually be unable to supervise the flow of goods. However, collecting machine taxes also has many problems, which can easily disrupt the production of machines.

Du Zhongxiao said: "Factory uses machines in the final analysis to produce products and sell them. If you only collect taxes on machines, it is inevitable that those factories that have bad business for a while are very unprofitable. They may not be doing poorly, or encounter difficulties, or just open a factory. The taxes on factories should be mainly based on what they produce, and the rest are supplemented."

Fan Zhen said: "If you collect taxes on products, it is difficult to prevent factories from selling them secretly or setting up places to sell them, which is a bit troublesome."

Du Zhongxiao said: "The court can collect tea tax, and the products produced by these factories can be more difficult to collect than tea tax? As long as you find a way, you can always raise the tax. As long as the government has money, everything is easy to say."

Ouyang Xiu said: "What Zhongcheng said makes sense. If you open a factory, you will produce goods. Of course, you have to collect taxes on the goods."

Fan Zhen said: "The land produces grain. We collect taxes, and it is also how much land is collected per acre of land a year, regardless of the year."

Du Zhongxiao said it for a moment. The land tax is indeed like this. No matter what your year or the good or bad you plant, you will collect so much grain per acre of land. When you put it on the factory, there are so many machines. No matter how much goods you produce, you will collect so much tax. If you do well, the factory owner will earn more, and if you do badly, you will naturally earn less money. When you first opened the factory, you will just give you a discount.

This is to simplify the tax collection method as much as possible, which is more suitable for the current actual practice. Although the proliferation tax and consumption tax in my memory are good, I am afraid it is not suitable for this era. Especially with tax deductions, it is actually impossible to operate. Du Zhongxiao did not expect that there were really some bureaucrats in this era who studied the characteristics of factories and were thinking of ways.

While several people were talking, Li Shen, Duzhi envoy Zhou Zhan, and Zhang Xuan, the envoy of the Ministry of Revenue, came in and said, "So you have arrived. Have you not arrived yet? The matter of discussion is important, so you will start early and get better soon."

Ouyang Xiu said: "No. If we don't have people, how can the priest come in? They have to work hard every day and can't delay any time."

After hearing this, everyone laughed. Ouyang Xiu said something, and he mocked the priest and insisted on waiting for all other officials to come before he could show up.

This discussion was mainly composed of the Political Affairs Hall, with Jia Changchao and Cheng Kan of the Privy Council participating. The capital hall was located between the Political Affairs Hall and the Privy Council. The prime ministers must have sent people to watch here and waited for everyone to come before they could show up. Otherwise, how could the status of the Privy Council be revealed?
Chapter completed!