New Shun 1730

The Duke of Qi knew that Liu Yu could not leave for a while, so he had to deal with the account problems here and then take the profits of the emperor's treasury investment back.

However, the Duke of Qi also had a batch of silver in his hand that he needed to take back, which was the first national debt issued by Dashun in the Netherlands, called Huaihe Water Conservancy Construction Bond.

The annual interest rate was 6.5%. Given that it was the Chinese emperor or the six governments of the cabinet who borrowed money, China's image of prosperity in Europe at that time made Dutch financial capital not worry that Dashun could not pay back the money.

Moreover, the amount borrowed was not much, only 7 million taels, for a period of ten years, half of the annual interest was paid each year, and the full interest was paid after ten years, which could be extended.

Dashun only needed to pay about 200,000 taels of interest every year. This was cheaper than the annual exemption; and if it could be repaired, the exemption would save a lot of money, and some third-class fields would become first-class irrigated fields, and taxes could be recovered.

For this kind of national debt, as long as the interest was paid on time, there was no need to repay the principal at all. And it is foreseeable that for a long time, an annual interest rate of 6.5% will be considered high interest in the Amsterdam financial market.

With the cooperation between Dashun and the Netherlands, and the large amount of idle capital in the Amsterdam financial market with nowhere to invest after the war, this interest rate, which was like picking up for free in Dashun, has become a hot long-term investment in Amsterdam.

Duke Qi also saw what "merchants are unrighteous". The Dutch financial capital did not hate Dashun's behavior of seizing Southeast Asia.

This is also determined by the special national conditions of the Netherlands.

To a certain extent, industrial capital has a motherland.

Financial capital has no motherland.

Industrial capital needs the tariff protection of the motherland, the fleet controls raw materials, and the garrison controls overseas markets.

Financial capital... It doesn't matter who is the county magistrate, anyway, they are all the county magistrate's wife.

Historically, after Amsterdam's financial capital sucked the Netherlands dry, it moved to London and finally to New York.

The industrial capital of the Netherlands has actually been killed by the financial capital of the Netherlands.

This is the basis for the cooperation between Dashun and the Netherlands. Liu Yu is confident that he can borrow money from the Netherlands, which has just ended the state of war between the two sides. Not to mention that the war is over, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, more than half of the national debt that supported Britain's war was bought by the Dutch.

Of course, this is the first time that Dashun has borrowed foreign debt. This matter is still very important. Duke Qi needs to transport this large amount of gold and silver to the capital.

Dashun does not have a central bank. Once it is in urgent need of money, the method used is to let merchants contribute. Merchants from all walks of life can also make millions if they contribute. But this time the emperor only asked salt merchants to contribute, and did not kill the goose to get the eggs for the newly emerging capital group of overseas trade.

Duke Qi was away, but because of the debt, he had long known that the Huai River was going to be repaired here. Thinking of this big deal, and knowing that Liu Yu would take a large amount of cash back after handling the accounts this time, the emperor would be more determined to support overseas trade.

But he still had some concerns, and asked: "Shou Chang, before I went to Europe, there was a rumor that I had to solve the problems of the surrounding countries first. Not to mention recovering Annan, at least I had to control Burma, Siam and other places, making them no different from Nanyang. This way, there would be more benefits and less trouble. What do you think about this?"

Liu Yu said: "I have reported this to your majesty, just like the story of the whale sea. Draw a circle around the prison, first circle around, then determine the neighbors. What I mean is, do the difficult first and then the easy, not the easy first and then the difficult."

"Your majesty is wise, and you should do the difficult things first. As for the easy things, you can leave them to your descendants or talk about them later. In short, what I mean is that before going to India, you should appease Japan, Korea, Annan and other countries. Some things can be "turned a blind eye" and "covered your ears and stole the bell" as before."

"Although the public opinion of the world has the style of expanding territory and the prosperous Tang Dynasty, it is a good thing, but now we still need to guide more new things. My father-in-law can find a gunman to publish a book , talk about the strange things in the Protestant countries during the trip to Europe. Just ask the young scholars in the world to focus on this matter. "

"As for the disrespect of Burma, Annan and other countries, and the open tribute to the emperor and the secret tribute, just cover your ears and steal the bell. It has been like this for hundreds of years, and it doesn't matter if it's easy for a few years. "

The Duke of Qi also agreed with the strategy of "difficult first and easy later", so he said: "In this way, I have a plan in mind. As for the affairs of European countries and Aachen, I should also return to Your Majesty first and then tell you. This process must not be wrong. However, without discussing the details, you just need to know the overall plan, and everything will go well. "

"Well. I understand. Then my father-in-law will take a few days off and return to Beijing. I will deal with the account dividend issue here. It is estimated that I will be able to go back in more than a month. "Liu Yu calculated the major events to be dealt with this year, and it is estimated that there are only so many, and he can let it go for the rest of the time.

After the two sides agreed, the Duke of Qi rested in Songjiang Prefecture for another three or five days and took a boat to Tianjin.

After the farewell, the first shareholder dividend meeting of the Western Trade Company was officially held.

The Western Trade Company is still in the supervision stage. In essence, Liu Yu is in charge of the general direction. The overall model is similar to the cabinet system of the previous dynasty: the board of directors is similar to the cabinet, or secretary, handling some details and making plans. The general direction needs Liu Yu's signature to be implemented.

There is only one reason why this system can be supported, that is, it makes them make money.

This is the experience of the Netherlands.

When the annual interest rate was 50%, the VOC 17-member Gentlemen's Group could not even disclose the company's accounts. The Federal Parliament demanded that the shareholders unite to oppose the Federal Parliament and question why the Federal Parliament had to disclose the accounts when it had nothing to do.

When the annual interest rate was 20%, the board of directors had no power at all, only the right to dividends. The 17-member Gentlemen introduced policies, and no member of the board of directors questioned them.

When the annual interest rate was only 10%, the remaining directors of the board of directors would question the power of the 17-member committee and demand a reorganization of the board of directors.

This experience was also one of the reasons why Portugal and Britain were caught with opium and the Danish trading house was accused of a 25% increase in export tariffs.

This shareholder dividend meeting will take about ten days. Those who are eligible to attend the meeting are those who have invested more than 3,000 taels. Those retail investors below can come, but there are no tables and chairs, so they can only bring their own small stools.

At dawn in early June, the company's headquarters building was already crowded with people.

Soldiers from the Customs Corps were there early to maintain order. Today was an auspicious day, and shareholders of all sizes did not sleep well yesterday.

The most important dividend issue that had been on my mind for a long time would be revealed today.

Although I knew that I must have made a profit, I did not know how much I had made. Some people guessed that I could make 15% this year, while others guessed that it might not be that high.

Because Liu Yu had mentioned the issue of military obligations and the issue of the minimum annual interest rate dividend before, some people speculated that Liu Yu had "inoculated cowpox" in advance for everyone, so that everyone had a psychological expectation.

However, most of the major shareholders were still in a relatively relaxed state of mind.

The main reason was that the new markets developed by Dashun in recent years were quickly divided up.

Money has to make money to be capital.

In fact, these major shareholders do not have many investment directions.

Japanese trade capital is already saturated and cannot squeeze in.

The real peak of the development of Nanyang will have to wait until three to five years later when those plantations with huge investments really see profits.

There are many restrictions on buying land by the court, and these major shareholders are actually being watched by spies of the Children's Army. The emperor has made it very clear that he will not use your money to raise funds for repairing the Huai River in the south of the Yangtze River. He wants you to make money outside. But if there are really blind people who are shameless and have to invest this money in hoarding land, then don't blame the court for showing what "merchants are the cheapest among the four classes of people".

Most people can't keep an eye on it.

But these millionaire shareholders are keeping a close eye on it.

The market for other industries in the country is actually not large because of the small peasant economy and the small industry and commerce run by village landlords.

Iron mines, coal mines, machinery manufacturing, etc. that can be invested in have only developed slowly in recent years, and have not developed rapidly like a blowout, and there are not many directions to invest in.

The Huai River is repairing water conservancy projects, but many wastelands will become good fields after the water conservancy projects are completed.

However, the court does not allow these businessmen to intervene.

It is planned to make the land with increased water conservancy value as state-owned land, and create enough basic self-cultivating farmers in the Huai River area who "government land is permanently rented and cannot be sold" similar to the equal-field system.

On the one hand, in order to earn back the interest on the Dutch debt, and on the other hand, the court had to ensure the stability of the land between the north and the south under the national policy of abandoning the canal, and it was necessary to prepare at least 50,000 households of official land permanent tenants, mainly retired soldiers.

Originally, the merchants thought that the court was short of money to repair the Huaihe River. If it was really determined to repair the Huaihe River, they could also invest in buying wasteland. The court got money and they also got land.

However, Dashun still had a serious national policy of suppressing mergers and protecting small farmers, and resolutely prohibited big merchants from engaging in any form of land development in the "Jinnei".

Including collecting land for large-scale field operations to grow cotton and farm operations, which were also resolutely prohibited.

The so-called Jinnei is a very clear concept: west of Jiayuguan, south of the Songliao watershed, north of Guangxi, to the East China Sea.

After the Songliao watershed to the north, the Western Regions, Nanyang, Whale Sea, Ezo, etc., if you have the ability, even if you buy one million acres of land for development, the court will not say a word, but will give policies when it is necessary and exempt for three years when it is necessary.

In this case, these largest shareholders with the most wealth were actually forced to invest in industry and commerce, and they were allowed by Liu Yu.

Therefore, under various restrictions, their capital actually did not have many places to go. This also caused Songjiang Prefecture, a special place under the "Moving to Maoling" policy, to be deformed, and the loan interest rate was declining year by year.

As the loan interest rate declined year by year, the bottom line of the big merchants' profit rate also decreased year by year.

Dashun was considered to be "making up for the loss".

In the context of the head tax being included in the land tax, the national tax policy of "gentlemen staying away from the kitchen" leading to a sharp drop in land prices, a sharp rise in land rents, and self-cultivation being inferior to renting, relying on the introduction of various policies, at least the bottom line of profits that the big merchants of Songjiang Prefecture could accept was reduced from 30% to about 12%.

This is already the limit.

And it is only deformed and effective in Songjiang Prefecture.

Because Songjiang Prefecture has implemented the eleven tax reforms, the national tax has increased from thirty-one to nearly nine-one, which has greatly reduced the burden on self-cultivating farmers.

The per mu tax increased, the burden on self-cultivating farmers was reduced, the land ownership in Songjiang Prefecture increased in value, the land rent had reached 60% and could not be higher, the return on investment in land decreased, and the money began to flow into industry and commerce.

These merchants also knew the consequences of confronting the court, and they understood the policy of Dashun to protect small farmers and stabilize the country. They all had millions of dollars in assets and were very smart.

In this case, the major shareholders and wealthy merchants are looking forward to the dividends and profits this time, but at least they can sleep well last night.

Anyway, they made money, and at worst, they still have the minimum annual interest promised by Liu Yu.