Yunyin felt immense pressure falling on him from the ministers present.
They looked at him in shock and astonishment.
This plan... wasn’t it even greater than the previous plan?!
Under this immense pressure, even Yunyin’s stoic persona was about to break... but he held on and continued, "Creating a waterway through the imperial province and allowing enemies to invade... such an act goes against order.
But creating a waterway going through all provinces, carrying goods from each province, isn’t it better?
In addition, not everything has to be done directly, and each province can build their own part of the waterway, while contributing to the other parts..."
As he continued, he felt the pressure ease as each minister fell into contemplation...
Wasn’t this actually a good idea?
The initial plan proposed by Minister Zhong would’ve mostly benefited their commerce and also slight aiding the provinces in the waterway a bit. But if you made a waterway going through all provinces but the imperial province... wouldn’t you effectively avoid the issue of the imperial province and allow each province to participate in trade?
They no longer were restricted to only their neighbours, and the assistance of other provinces in times of crisis...
With a huge waterway, even if a round trip would be long, they would still obtain more!
Wait... wasn’t the Xuanxi province’s goal to create a waterway so they could go to the yellow sea?
How come the goal has switched from going outwards to increasing the trade inwards?
No, wait – if they went through the Heling Province, then they could go out any time they wanted.
This idea... it opened the way for everyone actually!
Although the Xuanxi Province would still benefit most, since they bring in items from outside and also trade items from inside, and would then have the option of being able to trade throughout the whole province, in the end, it would still benefit other provinces immensely!
"Ministers, you should first think of the cost. Such a waterway, even if we spend ten million gold taels, it won’t be accomplished. As the young official said, let’s first talk about constructing sections and evaluate the benefit before continuing.
The best way would be to take a two pronged approach – establish a waterway to the north and another to the south, focusing on the neighbours of Xuanxi Province.
Xinhu Province is close by and the section isn’t long, while Yangling Province is larger and would require a larger budget.
How do we plan to take on this project?" Grand Minister Fa directly accepted this proposal and the suggestion, forming a plan right away.
They, the Ministry of Revenue, might be poor now... but after each tax, they hold an immense budget they can direct.
In the past few years, they’ve focused their budget on many smaller projects, which is why it appears as if they don’t have the budget for a large project.
But Grand Minister Fa...
Everyone looked over and knew the next point of order would definitely hold a part in which they redistribute various budgets to fill this budget.
For now, they only had to make a general outline of how they would proceed with the plan.
Obviously everyone knew that this plan was only discussed so quickly because it had such a great appeal – in fact, after this round, there would be endless discussions about it.
But this was the perfect occasion for the ministers to reveal their stance, so they spoke up one after another –
Minister Zhong, looking over to Yunyin with bright eyes, was the first to speak up, "This young official, your idea is a lot better. Haha, it was my fault! Those merchants aren’t very smart nor creative, they only know how to sell and buy, they don’t know how to plan grand projects.
But they still have a lot of gold and silver –
Before proposing it, they offered to contribute one million gold taels upfront, and another million gold taels every year for as long as the Ministries of Revenue contribute one million yearly too."
"This Chamber of Commerce is quite wealthy," Grand Minister Fa commented as he looked at Minister Zhong.
"Minister Fa, in addition to my own 800.000 gold taels, I am sure the chamber of commerce wishes to contribute to the dynasty too and would be willing to contribute 500.000 gold taels to ensure the Qingling Province recovers as quickly as possible!" Zhong Yu said right away when he heard the Grand Minister’s comment.
If you’re so wealthy but aren’t contributing to the state, then aren’t you afraid?
Naturally these chambers of commerce are afraid, which is why 10% of their profit every year... but now such a disaster happened and they wanted to ask for funds in the same year.
Without paying a bit more, they could only blame themselves if the Ministry of Revenue decided not to take their money and spend a few more years to complete this plan on their own.
This was the power of the Ministry of Revenue, and also the reason why Minister Zhong had such strong influence in Xuanxi, even though the highest ministry was the Minister of Commerce –
After all, the Ministry of Commerce still had to direct all merchants to pay their taxes and ask the Ministry of Revenue for the money if they wanted to do anything.
Before he left the province for the capital, not only did the Lian Family ask him to do everything to complete this deal, even the Ministry of Commerce promised him that as long as the deal was done, they would help him in passing on the minister position in the Xuanxi to any person he picked out!
With so many benefits, he would go all out, even promising gold before asking for it. Anyways, the chamber of commerce had enough, they should do their part as citizens and contribute to disaster relief!
Grand Minister Fa smiled, "The Lian Family has always kept their word, so I will take it as a promise! Haha, the Lian are indeed very good, then, let’s make a deal directly –
The south is indeed the richest, and the north is the strongest. So, how about we make it like this –
Yueling and Heling will contribute with their crafters and builders, Qingling and Yangling will contribute work force and grain. Xuanxi and Lanhua will contribute gold. Fujian and Nanshan will contribute iron.
Finally, at the end of construction, Weihe will protect the southeast, Huoli will protect the northeast, Maqian will protect the northwest and Xinhu will protect the southwest!"
A grand plan was presented to everyone, including all twelve provinces!