Xinshun 1730

Chapter 955 The last successful reform of the dynasty ([-])

Liu Yu was thinking about how to engage in fishing, to handle a major case that shocked the whole country similar to the "empty seal case" of the previous dynasty.

In the capital, a huge map of the Huanghuai River Basin hung in front of the emperor.

However, what the emperor was looking at in his hand seemed to have nothing to do with the Huaihe River, the canal and other issues.He was reading Liu Yu's memorabilia on trade.

"Yingyi Tea Tax Theory"

It's just that the emperor stopped every time he looked at it, and glanced at the hanging Huanghuai map, and glanced at Haizhou, Yangzhou and other places.

Those are the two major saltworks in Dashun.

One is north of the Yellow River and the other is south of the Yellow River.

In the memorial, Liu Yu introduced the British tea tax that led to the proliferation of smuggled tea, smugglers caused the unsalable legal tea, and the unsalable legal tea promoted the flood of smuggled tea and so on.

These things, the emperor and any minister of Dashun can understand, because Dashun is also facing a similar thing.

salt.

The reason is the same - high tax, more private goods, more private goods, official goods can't be sold, official goods can't be sold, more private goods... It's the same as tea.

This time, the abolition of water to transform the sea, the cleaning of the Huaihe River, and the southward movement of rice are all large-scale reforms, and they are basically concentrated in Jiangsu. This is where these major reforms have the greatest impact.

It seems that it has nothing to do with salt.

In fact, the relationship is huge.

Because the waste water is changed to the sea, it means that the transportation route of salt will also be changed.

Before transporting salt to the north and south, it was necessary to wait for the rice boat to pass through the canal before transporting it, and it was also the canal.

In order to facilitate inspection, anti-smuggling, prevention of entrainment, etc., special inspection places should also be set up, and the routes must be rigidly stipulated. The impact regulations must be bundled and transported for inspection.

It is not just a matter of millions of water workers, but also the problem of salt transfer.

Salt needs to change the transfer mode, and the canal will not be able to go... It can go this year and next year, but as long as the water transportation is abolished, the canal will be completely silted up in three to five years at most, based on the sediment carried by the Yellow River.

Shipping, not a problem.

Never a problem, including Caomi.

Problems other than transportation are the problems.

For example, for Caomi, it is necessary to consider the risk of piracy without a navy, and consider the possibility of Westerners directly raiding the Yangtze River estuary to cut off Caomi and split North and South directly.On the contrary, the safety of transportation is the lowest priority.

Same goes for salt.

Transportation is not a problem, even if the canal is gone, transportation is not a problem.

The problem is that under the current policy, the anti-smuggling and inspection agencies that go hand in hand with transportation are the big problem.

The court of Dashun is full of top talents, and the imperial examinations are really the result of thousands of troops.Those who can take the imperial examinations and become champions, you let them be good at arithmetic, geometry, physics and chemistry since elementary school.

The main thing is that the things I learned are not good enough.

But when you are really an official, the things you learn are basically useless, and you still have to rely on practice to accumulate.They are smart people, so they naturally thought of many reform measures, especially the reform of the salt administration.

But it couldn't be used before, and I didn't dare to use it.

Because the court's first choice is stability.

For example, in Dashun's project of abolishing the canal and transforming it into the sea, Liu Yu's original idea was to wait for the Yellow River to burst and silt the canal, so he had to go by sea.It's just that the emperor took the initiative to try reforms after seeing Dashun's voyage to Nanyang and seeing that the navy was guaranteed.

This is an unexpected decisiveness, an unexpected joy that was not planned by Liu Yu, I thought it would wait for the Yellow River to burst.

Today, salt has not been a major problem for the time being.

However, the emperor was looking at Liu Yu's theory on tea tax between Yingyi and Yi, and his eyes kept flicking in the direction of Shanghai and Yangzhou on the map...

It seems that there is a sense of "one sheep is driven, and two sheep are also released". Anyway, after the waste water is changed to the sea, it will be changed, so it is better to change all of them.

But in essence, it is not the reason.

salt tax.

The importance of the former Ming Dynasty and Dashun was not just the salt tax itself.

But as a kind of "emergency finance", this is the fundamental factor that makes the salt issue so important.

The reason why Daming and Dashun cannot engage in national debts, Liu Yu has told the emperor countless times, of course the emperor also envied the British national debt system, but after listening to Liu Yu's explanation of the simple interest issue, he knew it was pure nonsense and could only envious.

Dashun's taxation continues the Ming system, and the poor clang is ringing. If there is a war or a catastrophe, the treasury will bottom out in an instant.

What should we do at this time?
The importance of salt merchants as "emergency finance" has been highlighted.

Salt merchants' "donations and repayments" are the "national debt" of Dashun.

Yangzhou is the "Square Mile" of Dashun.

Yanyin is Dashun's "emergency national debt".

This is something more important than smooth taxation.

Why did the British government allow the East India Company to buy emergency national debt?Because of the monopoly power, the emergency national debt of 600 million taels of silver before the battle of King Austria's succession was exchanged for 20 years of monopoly power.

Why does Dashun allow salt merchants to "donate for service"?Because of the monopoly power, the emperor went around the south of the Yangtze River to repair the Huaihe River, and the reward of 300 million taels of silver was exchanged for the monopoly of the salt government—want to do it?donate money.Don't donate money?roll.

Moreover, Dashun has always maintained this policy on the issue of salt administration, and there is another important historical factor.

In theory, if the court is short of money, it can also increase taxes.

However, Dashun had PTSD in the late Ming Dynasty, so the "Liao pay", "Lian pay" and "Suppression pay" that theoretically could not be completely unaffordable by the common people can be said to be "fresh in memory".

I know too well what this kind of tax increase will become once it goes down.

The United Kingdom can collect a window tax. If Dashun collects a window tax, it can directly collect a wave of uprisings. The top will collect 200 million taels, and the bottom will dare to collect 2000 million taels.

Therefore, Dashun dare not use this kind of theoretical thing.

That being the case, if tax increases and national debts are not possible, then the salt policy can only be kept unchanged.

However, with the commercial rise of Songjiang Prefecture, the emperor's pig raising policy, and the huge overseas trade, the emperor saw a new and alternative source of "emergency finance".

In this, there is an important factor that has not been implemented in the "salt administration reform":

The salt administration reform proposals proposed by the ministers, all proposals, can guarantee one thing: the salt tax will not be less than before.

But none of the solutions solves a problem: In case of an emergency, the salt will be changed to a salt ticket, and there will be no monopoly, so who will meet the urgent financial needs?

It seems that the salt merchants don't pay a lot of money every year. On average, 200 million a year?
But the key lies in the difference between "emergency" and "average".

This year there will be no disasters, no wars, and no need for salt merchants to pay for their services. There is basically no shortage of finances.

Once there is a catastrophe or war this year, you will need to donate for service.

Chongzhen received 13 million taels of silver in 500 years, which is equivalent to an extra 50 a year for 275 years.

The proposals given by the ministers are very good, and they have perfectly demonstrated various benefits, except that they did not mention the emergency financial situation.

Now, Liu Yu quietly solved this problem.

The rise of the navy has solved the fundamental problem of water transportation. The difficulty of sea transportation has never been a problem, and Meng Yuan can play with things that he understands; the risk of sea attacks and the severed connection between the north and the south, leading to financial collapse and the collapse of centralization, are the big problems.

The rise of foreign trade has solved the fundamental problem of salt administration. Salt tax has never been a problem. All reforms that did not mention the abolition of salt tax are ensuring that the salt tax will not be reduced; fundraising under urgent financial needs is the big problem.

The "pigs" of foreign trade and sea merchants were imprisoned in Songjiang Prefecture.

They may not necessarily be "poorer" than salt merchants.

In addition to the pigs in the pigsty of Songjiang Mansion, there was also the 700 million taels of silver that Duke Qi brought back from the Netherlands a while ago.

Dashun... can afford the national debt!

Liu Yu clearly told the emperor that there was no need to repay the principal for the borrowed money.As long as the interest is paid every year, as long as the interest is paid, the interest can be reduced to 5% next time.

It should be said that for at least 30 or even 50 years, European loan interest will basically remain at around 5%.

This is also thanks to the 20-year crisis that spread throughout Western Europe and exploded two bubble economies in succession.

Although, like the tulip bubble, the economic bubble and hype don't have a long memory, but at this time, "well rope" for three to fifty years is not a problem.

Due to the impact of these two bubble explosions, it should be said that within three to fifty years, there will be no investment that can attract and accommodate enough capital like the later bubbles.

As long as Dashun can guarantee an annual interest rate of 5% to 7%, there is absolutely no problem with the loan.

Moreover, with Dashun's size so large, the most feared thing is that it can't pay back the debt if it loses a war. As long as it is big enough, as long as it is the perfect, In a country ruled by a moral philosopher king, there is no problem at all with borrowing money.

Furthermore, not only was Dashun able to borrow national debt, but Liu Yu also set up a bank in Songjiang Mansion, or a "bank" to store foreign trade silver forcibly.Although 1:1 issuance is guaranteed, it can be exchanged at any time.

However, this thing is usually not used. Once it is needed, when it is really necessary to "ask relatives and ministers to borrow a few million taels or the country will perish", who cares about him?
Just embezzle the silver first, as long as the [-] garrisons in Songjiang Mansion are still there, is it possible that the bank vaults that are known as "impregnable" are really impregnable?
In addition to appealing these factors, there is another factor that cannot be ignored, that is, the in-depth and strengthened version of the one whip law reform implemented by Dashun.

Although a whip is only implemented in southern Jiangsu for the time being, in other places, the poll tax reform has also begun as a prelude.

It can be said that a lot of people popped up in Dashun overnight.

Many of them were not born at all, but were hidden by various means because of the existence of the poll tax.

This also led to the rapid update of Dashun's demographic data, and the demographic data is closely related to the number of salt introductions.

Salt, not sweet potatoes, potatoes, wheat, rice.Only statistics of wheat and rice production, people who eat sweet potatoes and potatoes must be considered.

Selling rice will not increase the population because of the surge in population. Many people may not be able to afford rice at all, and they just need to eat some sweet potatoes to survive.

But salt is different.

The honorable emperor who ate sweet potatoes, rice, and even delicacies from mountains and seas had to eat salt.

Before sodium chloride, everyone is equal.

As the population increases, the amount of salt must also change.

Coupled with the change of the inspection and anti-smuggling route caused by the waste of the water and the sea.

Although it is said that one sheep is herding two sheep, it is only a secondary reason for the reform of the salt administration, but the combination of these two secondary reasons just promoted the emperor's determination to reform the salt administration this time.

(End of this chapter)