Why did the emperor rebel?

Chapter 259

Looking at Shen Yi's surprised expression, Zhu Qiyu repeated what he said just now.

He has never forgotten that the original intention of opening up the exchange market is to enrich the national treasury. Although on this basis, he also has other purposes, but they are all secondary.

Years of wars have overwhelmed the Ming court.

The natural disasters in the next few years made things worse.

Without money in the treasury, there is no way to build various projects, and there is no way to organize disaster relief measures in a timely manner.

When a disaster occurs in a local area and the imperial court is unable to provide relief, there will be a large number of refugees, which will intensify land annexation, which in turn will further worsen the imperial court's tax revenue.

This is an almost unsolvable vicious circle.

In his previous life, he spent eight years, lightly corvee and pay little money, stop fighting, and slowly recuperate for the imperial court, gradually recovering.

But it turns out that this is not a good way.

Just like what he said to Shen Yi, reducing expenditure is not as good as increasing revenue, and only thinking about how to maintain the existing tax revenue and save expenses will only make the national treasury more and more sluggish.

In order to truly enrich the treasury, we must open source.

This exchange market is an attempt by him.

It is true that he handed over all the content of the mutual market to the Huangdian to manage, because he wanted to hitch a ride and enrich the internal treasury.

But this is not the main reason.

In fact, if possible, the most ideal state in Zhu Qiyu's mind is to have the Ministry of Households replace the Huangdian to complete all the transactions.

Zhu Qiyu knew how rich the big businessmen in Jiangnan and other places were after Longqing, and their wealth was no longer enough to describe their family business.

The real big merchants in the late Ming Dynasty often had tens of thousands of acres of fertile land and could employ tens of thousands of weavers and tenants.

Although commercial trade is at the end of the four peoples, there is no doubt that its ability to make huge profits is very strong.

That being the case, why couldn't the imperial court collect this huge profit?

The reason why the Ming Dynasty died was largely because the treasury was unable to make ends meet. Since the mutual market was going to open, it would inevitably be accompanied by a large amount of trade.

The profits contained in this are extremely astonishing. Instead of letting it flow into the private sector, it is better to return it to the state treasury to ease the financial pressure on the court.

Of course, Zhu Qiyu knew it in his heart.

At least for now, it is absolutely impossible for the household department to run the official store and conduct exchanges with foreigners, at least for now.

So for the time being, only Huangdian can come forward to carry out the transaction.

Even so, he, the emperor, will inevitably be criticized and regarded as competing with the people for profit, but looking at the emperors of Ming Dynasty, how many have a good reputation?

As long as you don't touch some things that are completely untouchable, a mere reputation is nothing.

Zhu Qiyu still has this responsibility.

On the other side, when Shen Shangshu heard the emperor repeating it again, he shivered tremblingly, and his mind quickly turned.

The business tax of Ming Dynasty was set when the country was founded.

No matter what kind of goods, there will be a tax of thirty one.

Many people think that Daming suppressed merchants and suppressed commercial development, but in fact they were only half right.

It is true that Daming despised merchants, but he actually encouraged ordinary commercial transactions.

It sounds contradictory, but it is true.

To put it bluntly, Taizu did not oppose normal trade, but he did not hope to produce a large number of full-time businessmen.

The reason why Taizu set a tax rate of one for thirty taxes was to restore the commercial trade that was destroyed by the Great War at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.

But even this tax rate has never really been enforced.

The reason is again, Daming has a lot of goods that are exempt from taxation.

At the time of the Taizu, there was a regulation that all items such as pens, ink, paper and inkstones, agricultural tools, boats and carts, silk cloth, fish, vegetables and mixed fruits were tax-free.

The reason for this is that most of these things are scattered and small trades, and it is very troublesome to collect them.

The second point is that in the early days of the founding of the country, there were not many specialized merchants.

Most of the common people cultivate land as well as weave cloth and grow vegetables.

It is impossible for ordinary people to pick a few baskets of vegetables to sell in the market during the slack season, and the government has to collect taxes.

This directly led to the fact that Daming's commercial tax was very small, and it was less than one percent of the entire national treasury revenue.

But what did the emperor just say?
Cloth, jewellery, pearls and jade are subject to one tax per ten, and grain, ironware, tea, and salt are in short supply, and four are in short supply, each taxed on eight.

This is not just as simple as the so-called "heavy tax". The signal revealed in it made Shen Yi a little frightened. Regardless of etiquette, Shen Yi hurriedly asked.

"Your Majesty means that no matter what kind of goods, they will be taxed?"

Zhu Qiyu nodded and said.

"That's right. Except for grain, ironware, tea, and salt, the taxes are taxed one to eight, and the rest of the goods are all taxed to one tax, and there are no exceptions for any goods."

Shen Yi let out a long breath, stood up and prostrated himself on the ground, saying.

"Your Majesty is wise. With His Majesty's words, I must do my best to help the matter of the mutual market pass the imperial court."

If it is said that at the beginning, Shen Shangshu was half forced to stand with the emperor and promote the mutual market because he had no money at hand.

Then the bargaining chip thrown by the emperor really made Shen Yi, the Minister of the Household Department, admire the heart of the emperor.

The essence of mutual market is actually a kind of monopoly trade.

Many supplies needed by the grassland tribes can only be found in Daming.

Because of this, Daming, as the only seller, actually holds the power of pricing.

Under normal circumstances, daily necessities such as spices, cloth, pearls and jade, which are not necessities, can often be sold at more than double the price in the customs market.

As for urgently needed goods such as grain, ironware, salt, and tea, they can be sold for three to four times the price.

Especially ironware and tea.

A piece of tea brick on the grassland can even be equivalent to gold when it is expensive.

The same is true for ironware. When smuggling was strictly prohibited in the Ming Dynasty, it was very common for a good horse on the grassland to be exchanged for an iron pot.

On the contrary, horses, cattle, sheep, furs and other materials of the grassland tribes are also very popular in the pass.

Each of the five major tribes under Tuotuobuhua is a large tribe with more than 20 herdsmen.

In addition, those grassland nobles like hoarding all kinds of gold and silver things the most, and they are also flocking to the fine silk and porcelain from the Central Plains.

In this context, once the mutual market is opened.

All kinds of daily materials needed by ordinary herdsmen, such as grain, tea, salt, and iron materials that are in short supply, plus jewelry, silk, and porcelain that Mongolian nobles like,

Then the annual transaction volume reaches 400 to [-] million taels, I am afraid it is not difficult.

Originally, according to the tax rate of [-] in [-], most of these profits would be taken away by private merchants.

Only a small part of the Ministry of Households can fall, and most of them are only on the two items of salt and tea. The real business tax is pitifully small.

However, if it is a tax rate of one tax per ten and one tax per eight, plus the taxation of all categories, the Ministry of Household Affairs can obtain nearly 40 taels of tax from it. The income from here can even be close to one million taels.

This number is enough to reach one-tenth of the land tax.

And these incomes, it should be said, were allocated by the emperor to the Ministry of Households from the original profits of the imperial store.

Seeing Shen Yi's excited look, Zhu Qiyu smiled and said.

"As I said, this matter is done well. Shen Qing, Minister of the Household Department, won't have to worry about money for a while."

Shen Shangshu stood up, showing no signs of displeasure just now, his face was full of joy, and he nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.

"What your majesty said is that in order to fill the treasury, your majesty has worked hard and painstakingly, and I admire you very much."

After rubbing his hands, Shen Shangshu stepped forward, with a hint of shame, and said.

"It's just that, Your Majesty, other goods are fine."

"This salt is the same as tea, but it is the most expensive thing in the market."

"Let's go to the Salt Law. Your Majesty, you know that official goods such as salt and tea have fixed prices and trading places."

"You must have bought salt from the nearest place, but if you took so much salt from the same salt field at once, the imperial court will give less to other merchants. If they are sent to other places to collect salt, the imperial court will have to make up for their losses."

"And since you want to sell in the mutual market, then the imperial store will definitely not follow the price set by the imperial court."

"Since that's the case, how about the discounted price of salt and tea discounts from the Imperial Store to the Ministry of Accounts, do you think..."

Seeing old man Shen's shining eyes, Zhu Qiyu's face darkened...

(End of this chapter)