Chapter 39 Land (IV)
Huo Chong felt it was a little unreal to sit face to face with Liu Laowu without any quarrel. However, the real thing soon appeared in front of him. The receipt was brought. Huo Chong compared the two copies and found the contents were the same. He took out the silver from his purse. Seeing the loose silver, Liu Laowu's eyes almost lit up. He turned around and asked, "Have you got the scale?"
Huo Chong also said to Tie Niu: "Tie Niu, where is our scale?"
This is the trouble with silver, especially the loose silver, which has different fineness and weight. Therefore, in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, the Eagle Dollar from Mexico was very popular in the Qing Dynasty. There is a reason for this.
Although Liu Laowu had been talking nonsense before, making Huo Chong want to kill him, he was surprisingly serious at this time. Huo Chong had never done such a deal before, and he was a little anxious and angry.
In the end, Huo Chong returned the money to Liu Laowu, and Liu Laowu's hostility also decreased. After putting the money back into the purse, Liu Laowu asked in a calm tone: "Brother Huo, my blessing money..."
Huo Chong decisively blocked this thought and said, "Let's talk about it after the New Year."
"Brother Huo, have you made a fortune?" Liu Laowu asked tentatively.
"This is my own business." Huo Chong replied coldly.
As they were talking, they saw several wealthy people in the village rushing over from their residences. Liu Laowu probably had received the money, so he seemed calm and composed. He did not add fuel to the fire. However, it must be Liu Laowu who notified these people.
Huo Chong was not angry. Liu Laowu's action saved Huo Chong the trouble of going to each family. When those people came to the table with anxious faces, Huo Chong rushed to them and said, "Everyone, let's count each family one by one. Don't be anxious."
After that, he smiled at Liu Laowu and said, "Uncle Wu, can you give up your seat?"
It's not to mention that this group of people had made things difficult for Huo Chong before. Now seeing Huo Chong taking the silver to pay back the money, everyone was very polite. Moreover, the first of the two sums of money that Uncle Liu borrowed was clearly stated in the loan note, and the money would be repaid at the end of the year. Although some people asked about it, when they heard Huo Chong's answer that if it was repaid in advance, the interest would be waived. Those who lent money to Uncle Liu no longer mentioned it.
Huo Chong paid back more than thirty taels of silver plus interest, and took back all the land deeds. Before leaving, the group of people were quite polite to Huo Chong, as if they had never done anything cruel to him before.
Huo Chong was a little confused. Why did these people do that before? If they were worried that they would not be able to get their money back, would they be able to get their money back by forcing Huo Chong to death?
But on second thought, Huo Chong felt that he could understand it. When the platform was going smoothly, those investors lined up to invest their money in the platform. Once there was some unfavorable news about the platform, a large number of people would immediately line up to withdraw money. As long as their money was not lost, it didn't matter whether the platform would go bankrupt or not.
It seems that as long as you are working on this kind of platform, it is the same in any era.
I went home and carefully put the title deed away. In the past, there were many news reports that a group seeking to go public encountered a financial crisis, so it sold a house in Beijing or Shanghai. As a result, in terms of pure funds, in addition to paying off the debt, it also had a book surplus.
No project is as reliable as fixed assets. This is what Huo Chong cares about most. Even if Huo Chong has no projects after paying off the money, these 30 acres of land and this house alone can allow Huo Chong to survive in this era.
Huo Chong slept deeply that night. After waking up, he felt refreshed, yet had a sense of confusion as to what year it was.
When I walked out the door, I saw Qian Qing had already gotten up and was sweeping the floor.
"Seventh Brother, you got up so early." Huo Chong felt like saying hello to his junior sister.
Qian Qing nodded and said, "Good morning, Senior Brother."
With such a good feeling, Huo Chong was full of energy and his mind seemed to be more flexible. Potatoes are good things, especially because they have a single ingredient. The wine brewed from them is very pure and can be considered alcohol. So would using potatoes to brew vinegar have the same effect? If potatoes could brew pure acetic acid, that would be the result Huo Chong had always dreamed of.
After the class, Huo Chong called his fourth apprentice brother and asked him to go to Zhu Erniu and ask him to consider whether it is feasible to use potatoes to make vinegar. However, the fourth apprentice brother could not give a complete answer, so Huo Chong simply wrote a note to teach the fourth apprentice brother.
When the fourth apprentice brother took the note, Huo Chong suddenly remembered something. He didn't know whether Zhu Erniu could read or not. Huo Chong had never asked him.
If you ask someone in the 21st century whether they know how to read or not, they will definitely think that you are accusing them of being uneducated. They will never think about the literal meaning of the question.
Huo Chong used to be like this. But this habit was not right in 1717. It is said that when the People's Republic of China was founded , less than 20% of the population was literate. Some even say that it was less than 10%. The proportion in the Qing Dynasty was not necessarily higher than this. If we use the 10% ratio, the probability that Zhu Erniu was illiterate is more than 90%.
After thinking about it, there was no solution. Huo Chong could only hope that his fourth junior brother could convey the message accurately.
After sending his fourth apprentice brother out, Huo Chong continued his work. Without vinegar, or acetic acid, calcium acetate cannot be made. Without calcium acetate mixed with alcohol, solid alcohol cannot be made. Moreover, modern solid alcohol generally adds some fatty acids. Huo Chong couldn't get it.
In this case, Huo Chong gave up making solid alcohol and started making eyeglass lenses directly. Everyone started working in the morning, and it was almost noon. Then they heard the sound of a gong outside. Not long after, the gong stopped at Huo Chong's door, and someone started knocking on the door.
This noise obviously came from the officials. Huo Chong couldn't understand how even the officials knew about the money he had just earned.
Fortunately, with Xu Youlin, a collaborator who could be called a backer, Huo Chong was not too worried and went to open the door. It turned out to be an official outside the door. When he saw Huo Chong, he said, "Hurry to the village entrance. It's time to pay taxes !"
Pay taxes? What kind of taxes?
Huo Chong felt confused for a moment. But after thinking about it carefully, he felt that his idea was simply incomprehensible. Huo Chong has been a glorious taxpayer of New China for many years. He has never escaped once.
Huo Chong was not a member of the Donglin Party in the late Ming Dynasty, and the current emperor Kangxi was not Chongzhen. It was normal for him to be taxed.
After instructing his fellow apprentices to guard the house, Huo Chong followed the yamen runners and set off. It was the same earthen platform as last time, with several runners in official uniforms waiting there. The village's leading figures had all arrived, and seeing their bleak expressions, Huo Chong felt very happy.
The leader seemed to be a legal advisor or accountant. When all the wealthy families in the village arrived, he said with a stern face, "The court has ordered that the tax be paid according to the amount of land. This year, the tax must be paid!"
The faces of the wealthy families were not very good, but Huo Chong could not see any emotion on their faces, even after hearing the words of "dividing the land tax into acreage", Huo Chong only felt his heart beating faster, and was emotionally shaken by the information in this person's words.
Huo Chong was very impressed by the term "dividing the land tax into acreage". Among the Qing emperors, Yongzheng was the only one who was not despised by the industrial party. Compared with the emperors of the Qing Dynasty, his treatment was already very high. And wasn't one of Yongzheng's famous policies to divid the land tax into acreage? How come it came out during the reign of Kangxi? Could it be that he had traveled through time and space and directly caused the change?
"How much do I have to pay?" Liu Laowu asked almost mumblingly.
The manager looked at the booklet, clacking on the abacus, and quickly calculated the amount, "Your family pays five taels of silver."
Huo Chong didn't know how the tax base was calculated, so he wanted to ask. When the manager saw Huo Chong approaching, he immediately asked, "Whose family are you from?"
"Liu Feng's house." Huo Chong replied.
"Liu Feng..." The manager looked at the book and calculated for a moment, "Your family pays one tael and five cents of silver."
In this era, one catty is sixteen taels, one tael is ten coins, and one coin is ten cents. Just thirty mu of land requires a tax of one tael and five coins. With one tael and five coins, Huo Chong can buy 1,500 catties of potatoes. This tax burden shocked Huo Chong. It was really a cannibalistic old society!
But there was no way to refuse at this time, Huo Chong paid the tax. He even received a "receipt". Didn't expect that Kangxi Dynasty was so particular about doing things?
The other wealthy families looked at Huo Chong as if he were an enemy. Many of them said they didn't bring any money and had to go back to get it. Then they turned and left. Huo Chong was puzzled. Could these people evade taxes?
Although I regretted it, I was new here. Although I would have the opportunity to evade taxes in the future, at least I should avoid bad luck for now. Seeing that there was no one at the official's desk, I tentatively asked how the tax per mu was calculated.
Maybe because he was bored, or maybe because Huo Chong was the first to pay the tax, the steward wanted to be polite to Huo Chong, so he explained, "The court exempted everyone from corvée labor, and only collected the silver for corvée labor. They also no longer collected the poll tax, and this poll tax was collected from every acre of land..."
Huo Chong understood, but he had a doubt. Could it be that the Qing Dynasty did not pay taxes in kind, but only collected silver?
Because he had never studied the history of this area, Huo Chong did not dare to ask randomly. He could only choose a topic that suited his status and asked: "Sir, how much silver did my family earn per mu of land?"
"Land tax, corvée, and land tax. Your family is charged 4.9 cents per mu."
Huo Chong calculated that this was not right. The land he owned was charged 1.5 cents per mu. Just as he was thinking about how to ask, the manager seemed to see through his thoughts and said dissatisfiedly, "This year is the first year that the land tax is charged according to the land in Shandong. The prefect said that you are not allowed to charge too much. I will only charge you 1 cent. How dare you complain?"
Huo Chong didn't dare to say anything. He could only lower his head and walk away quickly.
I didn't expect to hear the words "dividing the land tax into mu" and "fire consumption" today. This is really an interesting experience. One tael and five cents of silver is not much for Huo Chong now. Liu Laowu was directly charged five taels.
Thinking back to how Liu Laowu and the wealthy families in the village were collecting debts, Huo Chong began to think that they were doing this probably because they had to pay taxes soon and all the money they had was borrowed by Uncle Liu.
Zhu Erniu was so arrogant when he had five taels of silver. According to the tax rate of five cents per mu of land, Zhu Erniu's income was equal to the tax paid by Liu Laowu who had 100 mu of land. No wonder this guy was so excited.
Although he still couldn't accept the way the wealthy people in the village treated him, Huo Chong finally felt much calmer.
