Daily Intelligence System: Don't Kill Me, Honey!

Chapter 409: Chapter 151 Huang Wan’er: I’m Pregnant Now (10,000 Words Subscription Request)_4

This was because Chen Jie had given 60% of the refined salt business’s profits to Darugachi; otherwise, the earnings would have been even greater.

The fourth principle was the eradication of harsh practices.

These oppressive measures refer to two aspects: Firstly, the disciples of White Tiger Hall imposing unofficial fees, oppressing small merchants and vendors on their own streets, not paying for meals, and demanding tributes.

Chen Jie directly warned against these actions and immediately expelled anyone from White Tiger Hall found engaging in such behavior, never to be employed again. He also regularly sent people to inquire about the vendors’ conditions, taking severe actions immediately upon any reports, showing no mercy.

The other aspect of harsh practices involved some of the grey-area businesses of White Tiger Hall.

Such as high-interest loans!

As a guild, White Tiger Hall often dealt in high-interest loans, which had previously been one of its major sources of income.

These days, borrowing money was common for the populace, such as when crops failed, illnesses led to poverty, or gambling losses accrued, among others.

In any case, a single natural or man-made disaster was enough to ruin a family.

To survive, they had to borrow from the wealthy—and who had money? The guilds did.

But the interest rates of the guilds were extremely high.

For example, the commonly seen nine out and thirteen back or, more ruthlessly, rolling the donkey.

Nine out and thirteen back meant if you went to the guild to borrow ten taels of silver, the guild would write a debt note for ten taels but only give you nine. However, you had to repay thirteen taels.

However, this was relatively merciful.

More often, the guilds practiced ”rolling the donkey.” For instance, when Chen Jie borrowed one tael of silver from San Liu in Xiantao Town, it turned into twenty-five taels two months later. This was rolling the donkey.

As a result, many families were crushed under these high-interest loans.

If you couldn’t repay the debt, what would happen? If you had land, it was confiscated; if you had a house, it was taken; if you had children, they were taken as well.

Especially daughters — after confiscation, they were sold to brothels, generating a substantial income!

Over the years, due to high-interest loans, countless families had been ruined.

Chen Jie was aware of the harm and, after careful consideration, introduced a very low-interest credit scheme within his territory.

This significantly reduced the extravagantly high-interest rates of the past.

Firstly, for farmers borrowing due to poor crop yields, a ten out and eleven back scheme was implemented, meaning only a 10% interest was charged.

In this era, this was considered extremely low, though it was only implemented in the three village towns of White Tiger Hall that had fisheries, lending to their own towns.

Next was for the townsfolk who wanted to start businesses. For them, it was ten out, twelve back.

Thirdly, loans for gambling, which were prevalent in this era, with gambling houses all over.

Chen Jie couldn’t stop people from gambling, but he placed restrictions on their loans, shifting from rolling the donkey to nine out and thirteen back and demanding that all gamblers could only borrow once, forbidding them from entering gambling houses again until they repaid their loans.

Because of these series of reforms, White Tiger Hall’s reputation greatly improved compared to when Peng Shizhong was alive, becoming even more prosperous.

The name of righteousness spread throughout Mianshui County.

This caused the businesses of others to be severely impacted, especially the three streets closest to Chen Jie’s White Tiger Hall, belonging to Eagle Hall.

Eagle Hall’s three streets, adjoining White Tiger Hall’s four streets, were originally set up by Nan Batian to monitor Peng Shizhong, but now, due to Chen Jie’s economic reforms, directly led to a significant decrease in the income of the three streets of Eagle Hall.

Eagle Hall could not compare to White Tiger Hall—after all, White Tiger Hall had Peng Shizhong’s foundation, their own iron mines, salt fields, and commercial streets.

As for the Ying San brothers, though they might be skilled at fighting fiercely in the Jianghu, managing streets was far more challenging.

Therefore, their main sources of income on these streets were gambling dens, brothels, and high-interest loans.

Indeed, the main profit-making method of Ying San was high-interest loans, with a business strategy of enticing people to gamble, urging them to spend at brothels if they won, and borrowing high-interest loans if they lost, only to gamble again. Losing again resulted in more borrowing, until you couldn’t repay, and then Master Qin would come to seize your house, your land, and send your daughter or wife to replenish the brothels.

The critical point among these was the high-interest loans, yet now the neighboring White Tiger Hall launched low-priced loans, causing fewer and fewer people to borrow from them.

Slap!

Qin Hu slammed this month’s account book harshly on the table.

”It’s overbearing, so overbearing!”

Qin Hu roared angrily. Seeing Qin Hu like this, Qin Ying frowned slightly and asked, ”What’s wrong?”

”Big brother, look at this month’s account book. White Tiger Hall is practically shitting on our necks!”

Hearing this, Qin Ying picked up the thrown account book from the table.

The account book showed that this month, the total income of Eagle Hall was a mere 1,500 taels, half of last month’s three thousand taels.

Qin Ying couldn’t sit still any longer, ”How did this happen?”

”Isn’t it all because of those damn thieves from White Tiger Hall!”

Qin Bao, who was responsible for the entire loan business of Eagle Hall, angrily spoke from the side.

”Brother, White Tiger Hall is too much. They’ve even adjusted the lending rate to ten out, twelve back. White Tiger Hall can withstand it with the Nan Lake Salt Field to support them, but how can we survive? If this continues, our Eagle Hall will be ruined!”

”Yeah, big brother, White Tiger Hall is too overbearing. I even found out yesterday that two traitors were planning to secretly join White Tiger Hall, and there are not a few with such intentions now. If we don’t react, we fear it won’t be long before we collapse, and all our men will have run off.”