Han Shizu

Chapter 1831 Local Status under the Old Tax System

"This is the case in Chuzhou, what about the situation in other places?" Zhao Pu was silent for a while, and couldn't help but sigh with emotion, his tone inadvertently revealing a little heavy, while walking, he ordered: "Later, you will report the political situation and public conditions in Chuzhou later." , every detail, tell me about it!"

Zhao Pu's pace was a little anxious, Zhao Chengzong hurriedly followed, and replied: "Yes!"

Yunlou is the largest restaurant in Shanyang Port. It integrates food and lodging, and its grade is not low. It is also the tallest building in the port.In the guest room, the windows are wide open, and you can sit by the window, and you can have a panoramic view of the dim view of the harbor.

Zhao Pu looked calm, and while enjoying the scenery and drinking tea, he listened carefully to Zhao Chengzong's report on various affairs in Chuzhou.Of course, Zhao Chengzong also had a certain level of intelligence and consciousness, and he also felt what Zhao Pu was most concerned about, so he spoke clearly about the land, finance and tax issues in Chuzhou.

On paper only, the land merger situation in Chuzhou is relatively serious. The land hidden by the big households is almost equal to or even exceeds the registered land, which has far exceeded the national average.

However, the class and economic contradictions in Chuzhou on the land are not sharp, which is due to the good basic conditions of Chuzhou.Even in terms of the number of acres of registered fields, the per capita arable land is nearly seven acres. Although this data is of little significance, it always has a certain reference value.

A canal, a Huaihe River, and a flood lake brought great benefits to the people of Chuzhou. Even if the big landlords took the majority, the remaining soup and water would be enough for the self-cultivating farmers to survive.

Of course, due to the Huaihe River getting sick from time to time, there are natural disasters from time to time, and there are always people who are not well managed, the trend of land mergers in Chuzhou is still obvious. But it was the initiative of the landlords to open up wasteland.

But even if all kinds of unfavorable factors are counted, the people in Chuzhou are still stable. Farmers without land can be tenants, work, or even go to sea. There is always a way to survive.

However, in the past, the most important thing for the imperial court was finance and taxation, and the most scruples were that the local finance and taxation could not be paid up. In Emperor Liu's centralization reform, financial power was a major focus.

Therefore, a mere 31 guan is nothing to Chuzhou. Even if there are difficulties, the local "sages" can squeeze in casually, and it will be enough for the state government to complete the task.

But this problem is not a big problem for Chuzhou, because in recent years, Chuzhou has often paid in full the tax tasks assigned by the Taoist Secretary, and it has never been short unless there are special circumstances such as natural disasters.

As for the amount of land and property, and the gap between rich and poor, since they are visible to the naked eye, it is actually difficult to quantify them specifically, and their reference attributes are naturally greatly reduced.The tax collection by bureaucrats in various places eventually formed a situation of apportionment and exploitation layer by layer, and the main targets were naturally those ordinary people who were easy to bully and exploit, such as farmers, herdsmen, fishermen, and small handicraft workers.

As for the social conflicts brought about by land mergers, as long as they can be suppressed and do not cause major disturbances, then it is stable, and stable means that there is nothing wrong with it.What's more, the two-tax system can be explained by the law. Land can be bought and sold freely, which means that land mergers are legal.

Nowadays, according to the tax amount set by the imperial court every year, the government governments in various places collect and hand over the taxes with guaranteed quality and quantity. What is there to be dissatisfied with?The local officials think so, and they do the same, and many courtiers in the central government also hold this view, as long as they don't go too far, arouse public resentment, and cause trouble
On the Chuzhou side, it cannot be "exempt from customs".In the 23rd year of Kaibao, it was formulated by the Financial Secretary and allocated by Huaidong Road. The tax amount in Chuzhou was 31 yuan. For ordinary counties, this is a heavy tax.

The situation in Chuzhou is so good, Daosi is naturally satisfied, and will not make other demands, let alone the land issue.And one of the very important questions is, how can the bureaucrats in Chuzhou only collect so much of the 31 tax allocated by the Daoist Department?Obviously impossible.

From the perspective of Han law alone, the only thing that can be blamed is the large-scale concealment of land, which often means tax evasion and tax evasion, which is infringing on the interests of the imperial court.

As for the tax calculation basis formulated by the imperial court, it has gradually become useless in the actual implementation in various places. In the early days, under the severe punishment and strict laws of the imperial court, it may have been restrained, but the speed of the bureaucracy's degeneration is beyond people's imagination. With the passage of time, the courage has gradually grown, and the governance power held by local officials is not small. Some local officials even put aside the two taxes and set up their own.

Zhao Chengzong has a certain degree of integrity. He is more restrained in his administration, but he does not completely follow the regulations of the court system. Even if he wants to, he can't stop the will of the bureaucrats and dignitaries in the whole state. He can only maintain it as much as possible to avoid excessive exploitation. People, avoid civil chaos.

Chuzhou can survive under such circumstances, but other Daozhous may not. After all, there are not many state capitals in the world that can have such favorable conditions as Chuzhou, let alone those poor states in Huaixi. County, where the situation is serious.

Regarding the issue of land annexation, it is naturally impossible for the Chuzhou government to be unaware of it, but it rarely intervenes. It is unwilling to touch interest groups. On the one hand, there is no major problem in Chuzhou's political situation and people's livelihood. On the other hand, under normal circumstances, It is also one of the characteristics of bureaucrats to be able to live in peace, and no one is willing to take the initiative to provoke right and wrong. Maintaining stability is one of their responsibilities in governing the local area.

Bureaucrats, this is often the case. The imperial court sets a tax amount, and in the process of actual tax collection, it is exploited and squeezed out layer by layer. He can search for three times, five times, or even ten times the amount.

According to Dahan's latest fiscal and tax distribution principles, the central government accounted for half, [-]% was reserved, and the remaining [-]% belonged to the administrative expenses of the subordinate states and counties.But how can the local government officials abide by this quota?
In fact, in the entire tax chain, except for the [-]% that is handed over to the central government, all the people from the Daosi down have a mentality of taking more and taking more.Dao Si felt that [-]% was not enough and wanted to take up more. The state government couldn't bear the pressure of Dao Si, so it naturally put pressure on the subordinate counties and townships.

I have to mention the disadvantages of the imperial tax system. Under the two-tax law, apportionment is made layer by layer from the center to the local area, which actually has the nature of a certain tax package.Although the imperial court has formulated a series of tax calculation basis, in the actual implementation process, it is impossible to completely follow the rules of the imperial court.

This kind of situation, in the 24th year of Kaibao, is already very common, and it is like this all over the country.The imperial court is not ignorant of such chaos, nor does it ignore it.

As for Chuzhou, the actual tax collected last year was a full 40 guan. Excluding the fixed part of the central and Taoist departments that should be handed over, the rest is enough to make the state well-off. As for the counties and townships, The actual tax money collected is obviously far more than 40 guan.

However, Chuzhou is not an ordinary state and county. It has a lot of cultivated land, good land conditions, developed water conservancy, and huge output. At the same time, it enjoys the benefits brought by the canal and has sufficient business taxes.Because of the proximity to the sea, the benefits of fishing and salt have also been developed to a certain extent. In the past few years, Champa rice and cotton planting have been promoted in Chuzhou. These are things that come with money.

In terms of taxation, Chuzhou is not under great pressure, not to mention the output of the land, a Huaiyang Canal is enough to live a comfortable life in the whole prefecture, so the pressure passed on to ordinary farmers is also It's relatively easy.

Moreover, the poorer the place, the harder it is to scrape the land.Especially those bureaucrats who only care about catering to their wishes and completing tasks while satisfying the greed of bureaucrats and landlords are even more sensational when they do things.

Dahan's monitoring system is supplemented by two spy organizations, and its monitoring capabilities far exceed those of previous dynasties, but even so, it is difficult to monitor all aspects of the local area.

Even if the court dealt with some people who went too far in the past, it only scratched the surface, and the general environment did not affect it.The vigorous official administration movement has dealt with so many officials, but the new successors still follow the previous model, governing the government and controlling the people and collecting taxes, and there is also no essential change.

Under such circumstances, the more information you receive, the more you learn. If the shocking and creepy current situation can make Emperor Liu sleep peacefully, how can he make up his mind to attack the financial and taxation system without pain? Promote tax reform.

Regardless of how many benefits the new tax system will bring, and what disadvantages it will produce, even the current situation of government oppression cannot be fundamentally changed, but at least through such a reform, the exposed disadvantages can be properly cleaned up some.
(End of this chapter)