Xinshun 1730

Chapter 1224 Start of War ([-])
This kind of opportunistic all-or-nothing choice was inevitable after the Dashun envoys arrived in France.

Because the French government has no money.

To fight is to fight for money.

Before the arrival of the Dashun envoys, France captured Maun, and the domestic sentiment was high. They felt that the possibility of exchanging money in the future would be greatly increased, so they bought 600 million national bonds.

After the arrival of the Dashun envoy, India failed, Louisburg was breached, and Prussia played two waves of tactical genius operations...

In this case, the big capitalists who still buy government bonds are fools.And such a stupid person cannot be a big capitalist.

Moreover, just like Dashun, even the rural private lending of later generations: if you borrow money, if you really can’t pay it this year, then you have to pay the interest first, right?We can push the capital, but the interest must be paid.

Now France also owes a lot of debt. If they want to borrow more, they have to pay interest to prove that they still have some credibility, at least to pay interest.

You don't have to pay back the debt you borrowed based on your ability, but the premise is that you don't use this method to make money next year.

To pay interest, you have to ask for cash.

No money in cash, what to do?
Last year I actively borrowed 8 million, but this year I didn't even borrow 10 million.The French government cannot borrow low-interest loans, and basically needs to reach an annual interest rate of [-]% to [-]% before it is willing to borrow.

No money.

Or tax reform.

Or eat more than enough food.

Regarding the tax issue in France, the reform plan is actually very clear: the tax system is chaotic, with a mess of taxes and exemption money.To reform, check the farmland with one whip, and the gentry pay the grain together, and the money can be collected.

It's not that France hasn't tried to reform. It changed its chief financial officer and said that it will carry out reforms in which the gentry pays food and errands together and checks the acres of land.That is, the French tax-exempt class needs to pay taxes.Check the acres of land and prepare to levy taxes according to the land.

This, of course, failed.

Why should the tax-exempt class pay taxes?What is the privileged class after paying taxes?Where is the decency?

The High Court of Paris strongly advised against it.

So the chief financial officer is gone.

Generally speaking, Dashun is really easy to understand.

For example, the French have to pay military service tax in addition to normal taxes.It can be roughly understood as the miscellaneous taxes and corvees of Ming Dynasty.

Theoretically, the premise of the preferential exemption of military service tax for the French nobles is that "the cultivated area is within a certain range", that is, there is a preferential quota.For example, how many acres are the small nobles; how many acres are the big nobles; how many acres are the bought nobles, etc.

The legal basis is similar to that of Dashun Daming.

The legal basis of France is that nobles have to pay blood tax, so a certain area is exempted.

The legal basis of the Ming Dynasty is that the students should educate the local area and assist the officials, so a certain area is preferentially exempted.

The French aristocracy did not farm their own land, and many of them rented out the land.People in Dashun should not be too familiar with what this kind of preferential exemption of "cultivated area within a certain range" will turn out to be.

Since taxes cannot be collected from the privileged class, they can only live without money.

Old three:
First, tax the ten years later; sell the official title; force the church to donate.

The taxpayers prepaid 8000 million yuan in advance, and you will collect it slowly in the future.

Selling officials sold 2700 million.

Selling officials in France can basically be understood as "donating supervisors".

You may not be able to be an official, the key is to have "exemption" - France has a population of 20 to 40 "noble" people, just like Dashun's millions of students, anyone else can be an official ?
After buying an official position, it is basically empty, because there are professional taxpayers for tax collection.

But with this preparatory official status, there will be preferential treatment for gentry, and some direct taxes will be exempted. As long as you don’t die and your status as a "supervisor" is not changed, it is actually equivalent to paying a tax of 100 yuan in your life. With a one-time discount, you can buy a noble status for 50 yuan, and you won't have to pay taxes in the future.

There were 40 nobles in France in the late period. There were not many feudal nobles in the medieval sense, and most of them were "students".

Church issues, involving doctrinal conflicts.Do good deeds to go to heaven, or do good deeds are useless? As long as you are a chosen person, you can go to heaven even if you kill, set fire, and scalp. Conflicts are also spreading in France, but in the end, the local government and the church still "donated" 2400 million .

Added together, more than 2 million yuan has been collected, and it can still survive.

The question is, if we have made enough this year, what will happen next year?
These money are all extra expenditures, which are expenditures outside the normal operation of the country.In short, the money is for war.

There is no turning point, next year there is no need to fight this battle, no money to fight?
Moreover, if you continue to fight, in addition to fighting, you have to pay more and more interest every year.The interest to be paid this year is [-] million livres.Because there is still money owed before.

In the face of money, any "strategic thinking and long-term consideration" is so pale and powerless.

We can only take the opportunistic route, trying to achieve the best results in one battle, and have a decisive field battle or naval battle.

This is a French issue from the perspective of Dashun, and it is also a political and diplomatic issue of when to form an alliance from the perspective of Dashun as a country.

But looking at this matter from France's own perspective, the problem is actually much more serious than it appears on the surface.

The great monarchical crisis caused by this financial problem has begun to spread in France.

The starting point of this crisis was precisely caused by the word "no money".

The King of France represents the absolute monarchy.

Paris High Court, representing the interests of the aristocracy.

The King of France, an absolute monarchy, proposed a tax reform plan, which was rejected by the Paris High Court representing the interests of the privileged class.

So caught in an endless loop.

Without the existence of the privileged class, there would be no absolute monarchy; and the absolute monarchy wanted to increase taxes, but the high court controlled by the privileged class rejected it with the theoretical and legal principles of the absolute monarchy; the high court, which represented the interests of the aristocracy, could only Invoking the theory of absolute monarchy as a weapon against kingship; and kingship is the most supportive of absolute monarchy, but tries to destroy the jurisprudence of absolute monarchy itself.

In the end, going around, it seems that the only way to untie this deadlock is to solve the absolute monarchy.

It is somewhat similar to Daming and Dashun.

That is to say, the real pillar of imperial power is the privileged class such as gentry officials; the legal theory of imperial power makes it impossible for imperial power to tax the privileged class like gentry officials equally; and the legal theory of gentry officials to protect their own interests is the theory of imperial power; Because without the hundreds of thousands of millions of privileged classes in Da Ming or Da Shun, there would be no imperial power.

Of course, under normal circumstances, this is not a problem. How can the imperial power and the privileged class live together?

But if the king or emperor is not very good at thinking, this is a big problem.

His Holiness's brain is not very good.

He doesn't know what his royal power and absolute monarchy come from, what are the pillars, and whether the existence of the privileged class hinders the king's power or strengthens the king's power?

He thought that the existence of the privileged class hindered the kingship, but in fact it was the opposite.

So he ran out of money and wanted to collect taxes. He thought that the middle class in Paris should be dissatisfied with the current unequal taxation in France, so he stupidly opened a "No money, tax reform, let's all come together" Discuss and discuss".

Can this thing be discussed?
Why is it said that he is not qualified to be a king, or that his brain is not working well? This is the problem.

These things cannot be discussed.

True, the privileged were exempt from taxes, and many resented it.

However, once this kind of thing is discussed, everyone will start to ponder: What is the legal principle of taxation?What is the nature of the privileges of the privileged class?
Once the discussion is released, the result is not that everyone is dissatisfied with the tax exemption of the privileged class, but that the sanctity of the king is completely downplayed.

Through this controversy about taxation, people's attitudes towards the monarchy itself have changed, and taxation, a national secret, is no longer so sacrosanct.

What was eventually agreed was not "it is wrong for the privileged class to be exempt from taxation and pay less tax"; but "it is wrong for the fucking privileged class to exist."

Historically, from the perspective of emperors and kings, in the 18th century, there were two stupid and unqualified feudal emperors in the East and the West.

One is Louis XV who foolishly brought up the issue of taxation and how the privileged class should levy taxes.

The other is Yinzhen who foolishly published "Dayijue Milu" all over the country and sprayed feudal superstitions on missionaries to fool ordinary people.

From the perspective of a feudal emperor, those two people are pure fools, not a qualified feudal emperor at all.

These things can also be released to the world and let the people discuss?

Do you think your rule is too stable?Do you think the imperial power is too solid?Do you think the sanctity of imperial power is too sacred, afraid that others will not be able to pierce this layer of window paper?
And now, I have to add the stupid Dashun Li family who actually took Chen Liang's "performance rating system" as the orthodoxy, and didn't complete the transformation back to Zhu Zixue in the stable period.

At this time, we only talk about France. Because of the factors of learning from the east and the west, this incident led to a route that made the royal power very painful.

Learning from the east and learning from the west here does not refer to Voltaire, but to the group of French Physiocrats.

The theoretical publication of this group of Physiocrats, "Physiocratism, or the Natural System Most Beneficial to Human Management" written by Du Pont, directly writes the place of publication as: This book was published in Beijing.

It seems that foreign monks like to recite scriptures. Writing this book and publishing it in the capital is to boost the authority and sanctity of their school.

The core idea of ​​their school is: only collect agricultural taxes, and ban all industrial and commercial taxes, customs duties, commercial taxes, etc.

In fact, the school itself is to fight against mercantilism and the French controlled economy.

Its theoretical basis is: agriculture is the only productive sector, and only agriculture can produce new wealth.

Industry and commerce do not actually increase wealth.

All increased wealth is the result of natural forces participating in agricultural production and is a gift of nature.

The net product is the balance of the value of the product produced by the cultivator of the land over the cost of production. Only agriculture can increase the value of wealth.

Industry only processes the raw materials provided by agriculture and changes its material form.

For example, if you weave cotton into yarn and cloth, what is added?Nothing has increased, but the shape of cotton has changed. How can it be considered that wealth has increased?

The only difference is in agriculture, you plant the seeds in the ground, the great nature, rain and sunshine will make one seed turn into ten, which really increases the sum of wealth on earth...

Leaving aside the most basic physical and chemical loopholes in this theory, and the development of natural science, this set of theories will definitely be abandoned.

But this set of doctrines is now prominent in France.

The rational conclusion drawn from his theory is that only land tax should be collected, and any act of collecting taxes on industry and commerce actually shifts the pressure on landowners.

However, land owned by landowners is the only way to increase social wealth, so if you put pressure on the only means of increasing wealth, isn’t that hindering the increase of total social wealth?

Say, for example, that you tax salt.

The land mainly does not eat salt?Should the landlord's servants eat salt?The salt the hired workers eat is the money given by the landlord.And where did the landlord's money come from?It is the result of the value-added after the seeds pass through the natural power.

So, if you tax salt, doesn't it mean that the landlord's capital investment in the land is reduced?

So doesn't this affect the increase of social wealth?
From this, it can be deduced that no matter what tax is levied, the final tax must be borne by the landowner.In the end, it will also affect the investment in land. If there is less input, there will be less output, and land is the only means of "creating" value that their school believes.

Therefore, the most reasonable taxation model is to only tax land and cancel any form of industrial and commercial tax.

This set of theories, which seemed to Liu Yu to be pure nonsense, produced a wonderful reaction in France.

Because France has a privileged class.

The privileged class in France has a lot of land.

The privileged class in France has preferential tax exemption.

The theory of taxation only on land naturally means that the more land there is, the more taxes are paid, which is integrated with the social reality of opposing the privileged class in France.

The King of Dharma saw it, hey, this theory is good, especially the sentence "the people are enough, the ruler is not enough; the people are not enough, the ruler is not enough", it makes a lot of sense.

Therefore, the King of the Fa also specially studied China. In the spring, he personally helped the plow and plowed the land, setting an example for the kingdom.

Then, something happened.

Under the influence of the Physiocrats, in conjunction with the spread of the Enlightenment.

In fact, a part of the privileged class, the aristocratic class, and a large number of wealthy classes in the third estate petitioned the king.

It is hoped that the king will "collect a unified land tax throughout the country according to the amount of land".

It sounds like a good thing, which is of great benefit to the king's finances.

However, if one thing is one thing, there will be a problem in terms of law.

"The reason why we support a unified national land tax is because of the equality of people, not because there is not enough money in the treasury."

"Objectively, the implementation of a unified national land tax will increase the revenue of the national treasury."

"Subjectively, we must make it clear that we did not agree to a unified national land tax because the treasury has no money."

"Out of the concept of equality of people, we put forward a petition to tax the land uniformly across the country."

"We even support the abolition of tax exemptions, the abolition of tax exemptions, and fiscal privileges. But we must reiterate that we support it, not because the treasury is short of money and the finances are out of money, but because of the concept of human equality. All privileges, and taxes according to the size of the land."

"It's just that our support for equality just happens to increase revenue for the treasury."

"Don't think that we agreed to a unified taxation in order to increase the revenue of the national treasury."

The most interesting thing in the whole incident was the High Court in Paris.

If they are substituted into the previous dynasties, or the scholar-bureaucrats of the past dynasties, they have the same historical significance as the group of people in the Paris High Court.

Perhaps, they are out of their own interests, selfish ideas, and self-interest of the privileges of scholar-bureaucrats.

But they all acted as "unconscious tools of history" in fighting against absolute imperial power and royal power.

In order to maintain the interests of the nobles, the Paris High Court dug up the ancient French charter before the era of absolute monarchy to fight against the monarchy.

In order to maintain their own interests, the scholar-bureaucrats dug out the ancient Chinese people-oriented thought and the theory of the Son of Heaven to fight against the imperial power.

And what is called "historical unconscious tool".

For example, Emperor Dashun did not want to use the railway to improve the lives of the people, but to facilitate the suppression and maintenance of the old rule, but he still decided to build a railway.

For example, the capital of Dashun did not want to benefit the Javanese people, but in order to facilitate the transportation of rice, indigo and spices, it still strengthened Java’s infrastructure, built canals, roads, and even schools.

For example, in the development of Northeast China in Dashun, investors did not want to make a living for the landless people, but for the profit of soybeans, tussah, silkworms, and sorghum rice, the originally barren Northeast area was developed, resulting in loss of land, unemployment, and salt loss for millions of Songsu people. The people survived.

When facing absolute kingship and imperial power.

France does not have an institution that can represent the interests of all classes and present ideas to the monarch, so it can only use the High Court, an institution that safeguards the interests of the privileged class, to argue with the monarch.

Dashun and Ming Dynasty did not have an organization that could represent the interests of all classes and propose ideas to the monarch.Therefore, they can only use the privileged class group of courtiers and scholar-bureaucrats to argue with the monarch.

It doesn't matter what their purpose is.

The important thing is that these actions of theirs acted as an unconscious tool of history, constantly disintegrating the sanctity of royal power and imperial power.

And the old system, no matter it was French or Dashun, the old system itself shaped the imperial power and royal power, and also shaped the privileged class.

The existence of the old system itself created the royal power and the privileged class, and it was also the root cause of the unsolvable financial problems.

If you want to solve it, the only way left is to solve the old system itself.

In the end, the privileged class and the king disappeared together.

Perhaps, the story of China is also like this.In the end, the scholar-bureaucrats and military aristocrats who represented the privileged class would disappear together with the emperor.

It's just that sooner or later.

After all, Dashun now seems to be full of fire and prosperity, and its finances seem to be fine for the time being, thriving and full of vitality.

France, on the other hand, was already stretched financially, and Louis XV thought he was smart, so he played such a game, trying to use public opinion to check and balance the privileged class to collect taxes, but it went wrong.

When petitions piled up, Louis XV himself panicked.

He knew that if he continued like this, something serious would happen.

However, the war has already started and the UK has the upper hand. Will the UK agree to the peace talks at this time?of course not.Can't help him,
Can discussions on financial issues continue?cannot.If the discussion continues, it will become a flood.

Therefore, he had no choice but to put all his eggs in one basket.

Or, concentrate all mobile forces, fight desperately in Hannover, pinch the king's egg, and exit the peace talks with dignity.

Or, concentrate all the navy, fight desperately in the strait, and send [-] soldiers and the small pretender of the Stuart family to the throne in Scotland.

The Dashun Mission was not in a hurry, and waited for the failure of this opportunistic military adventure before asking for a price.

That's right, China and France are considered traditional allies, but before that, the Indian fleet of the French army could only return to Mauritius for ship repairs and supplies.Even the most complete naval supply base in South and Southeast Asia is in Malacca controlled by Dashun.

(End of this chapter)