Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 1676 Fiscal and Taxation Reform III
"Silang, you're here." In Guanfeng Hall, Shao Shude, who was reading the memorabilia, stood up, grabbed his son's hand, looked up and down several times, and said with a smile, "The eyebrows and eyes are very similar to your mother, but she is too handsome. , should go out more."

Shao Guancheng was embarrassed: "Grandpa, now my son also practices martial arts often, so I won't go to Goulan to listen to music."

Shao Shude nodded in satisfaction, sat back on the court, and said, "Sit down first."

The fourth child's biological mother is the virtuous concubine Zhuge.

When he was still under Zhuge Shuang's tent, he had a good relationship with Zhuge Zhongbao, the father of the Zhuge family, and they were called brothers.

During the Hanzhong Rebellion, he led his army to quell, captured Zhuge Zhongbao, and captured his daughter who was about to marry.

Shao Shude once loved this niece who grew up watching him very much.

After middle age, I gradually lost interest, but every time I think of the first time I met, Zhuge, who was still a little girl, saluted him sternly, and when he returned the meeting gift, I felt a little impulsive and couldn't help but want to gallop.

Now that I am old, I have to rest for half a month or a month to play once, and I have more energy than energy.

Fortunately, the experience is rich, and the good memories of the past can always be recollected.

"I heard you moved to Guangling last month?" Shao Shude looked at his son and asked.

"Yes." Shao Guancheng replied: "Dashi, Persia, and Brahman merchants only like to go to Guangzhou and Yangzhou, and Haizhou is relatively rare, so I plan to sit in Guangling and take care of everything."

Are these the only reasons?of course not.At least, the prosperity of Guangling is a very important factor, but it doesn't need to be said.Anyway, he is the envoy of the cities of Hebei, Huaihai, and Huainan, so it is not unreasonable to stay in Guangling.

Shao Shude nodded.For this son's disposition, he knows very well, he is only fond of fun and pleasure, and loves prosperity.

Among so many sons, in terms of IQ, the fourth child probably ranks first.Alas, among the Shao family's muscular guys, it's rare to find a man with a high IQ, who is not motivated and likes to lie down. Every time he thinks about this, he feels a little sad.

However, he has given up on correcting the fourth child.Everyone has his own aspirations, he wants to live a rich and worry-free life, let him go.

"How about the task you were asked to do?" Shao Shude calmed down and asked.

"Grandpa, please take a look." Shao Guancheng took out a memorial and handed it over.

Shao Shude watched carefully.

Shao Guancheng quietly looked at the decoration and furnishings in the hall, and when he saw a few gold wares that were obviously exotic, he became interested, as if he was seriously studying the artistic style and origin of these gold wares.

"Diaodou!" Shao Shude tapped the case a few times.

Shao Guancheng immediately sat up straight, his face serious.

"The children are running all over the place, and they are still so tired." Shao Shude said while reading the memorabilia, "You have always worked on financial planning, and the imperial court plans to reform the ratio of land tax and contribution. What do you think?"

"It's okay to change it now. It's difficult to change it later." Shao Guancheng said.

Shao Shude raised his head and asked, "Tell me the reason."

"Grandfather, do you know that rich merchants in Huainan and Jiangnan like to buy land?" Shao Guancheng asked.

Shao Shude hummed, and said, "In recent years, the number of applications for land purchases by tea merchants in the south of the Yangtze River has increased significantly, and the government has approved many of them. Some transactions are not small, often costing hundreds of acres."

China's land ownership system entered a strange state during the Northern Dynasties.

At the time of Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei Dynasty, he granted land to the people of the world—women can also grant land, and men and women have equal status in this matter.

The people who have been granted land need to bear taxes, one is paid in grain, which is called "rent", and the other is paid in cloth, called "tune".

After the people died, the fields were recovered and distributed to other people. This kind of land was called "Lutian", and it was called "Koufentian" in the Tang Dynasty.

Gradually, the common people can also keep some fields, mainly house gardens.As the name implies, homesteads are privately owned, and usually have orchards and mulberry gardens attached to homesteads, which are used to produce cash crops, such as fruits, wood, silk, etc., which are also privately owned and collectively referred to as "homesteads."

In terms of system, it is similar to later generations of China.

During the Northern Wei Dynasty, cultivated land (open fields) belonged to the government, and later generations belonged to the village collective.

During the Northern Wei Dynasty, the house garden was privately owned, and the homestead and private land of later generations were also privately owned.

It has to be said that China's history is too long, and the answers to many systems can be found in the pile of old papers.

This system was also used at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty. For example, there were Kou Fen Tian and Yongye Tian.

The transaction of Yongyetian requires the approval of the imperial court, and the folks in the garden can trade without approval.

However, this land system basically tended to disintegrate during Wu Zetian's period, and was replaced by the confirmation of private land rights.In order to curb mergers, Wu Zhou issued a decree stipulating that land transactions must be filed and approved by the government.

After the hardships, with the introduction of the two tax laws, the imperial court has basically given up the suppression of land mergers.

However, the Tang Dynasty did not die from land annexation, and even the subsequent Song Dynasty did not die from land annexation.

The introduction of the two-tax law, which taxed the amount of land held by a household, enabled the imperial court to maintain its finances.

Those with more land paid more taxes, and those with less land paid less taxes. This to a certain extent suppressed the enthusiasm for land mergers. In fact, until the end of Tang Dynasty, there were no super big landlords.

The Xia Dynasty inherited the previous system in terms of land policy, but it just emphasized that land sales need government approval, otherwise they will not be counted.And because of factors such as the war and the 150-year separatist regime, the land is relatively average, and the number of big landlords is even much smaller than that in the late Tang Dynasty.

Not many people are interested in investing in land these days because there are not enough people to farm it.

But Jiangnan may be an exception.

"What do you think?" Shao Shude asked.

"Fields are classified into upper, middle and lower classes. The tax rates for upper, middle, and lower fields are different. I think it is possible to follow this example in terms of the amount of land and implement different tax rates?" Shao Guancheng asked.

Shao Shude was silent for a while, and said: "I tell you to go to Goulan less to listen to music, and go to the countryside more, but you don't listen. Progressive tax can be figured out, you think the world is too stable. This policy is not good, Don't mess around."

Shao Guancheng choked.

Shao Shude put down the memorial, and patiently explained to him: "The great power of an emperor lies in gathering the crowd. Once the crowd betrays relatives, it is no different from a lonely family. I have enough prestige, and sometimes I can bully the people and generals, but there is a limit to everything. It doesn't matter once, twice, three times or even five times, ten times, maybe it's okay, but No.11 times, there may be problems. My vigorous immigration has already made many people feel dissatisfied, and I can't do it again and again. This matter of concern.”

His words are very clear.

He is a prestigious founding monarch, and his willful ability is stronger than most emperors, and much stronger.But there is a limit after all, and he doesn't know where the limit is, but it's best not to try.

"The land tax is like this." He said: "However, the information you provided is also helpful. In recent years, the number of land purchase applications in Jiangnan has indeed increased. I will issue an order to Huainan, Jiangdong, and Jiangxi to make them tighten up. Some, withhold approval."

"Let's go back to your old business." Shao Shude said, "How was the implementation of tariffs in the past year? Is there any room for improvement?"

"Since the imperial court ordered the combination of berths, offerings, and closings into tariffs, a total of 211 million tariffs have been collected by shipping companies in the northern and southern cities in the four years of Tongguang," Shao Guancheng said.

This more than two million yuan is the total tariff revenue of the shipping companies in various cities across the country, which is several times higher than the previous 30 yuan.The reason is that Shao Shude took the initiative to cut the flesh.

He set an example by taking out the "Jin Feng" that the maritime merchants had dedicated to the emperor's private, and incorporated it into the tariff.That is to say, maritime merchants no longer need to pay taxes, just pay more taxes.

The market closing system was also abolished. The imperial court no longer forced to buy goods from maritime merchants at low prices, but estimated the income in this area in previous years, converted it into tariffs, and increased the tax rate a little to make up for this income.

This is a formalized management, which is much better than the previous kind of asking for "admission" and forced buying and selling, and all the money went into the treasury.

Maritime merchants have no loss, while Shao Shude and the officials of the Maritime Bureau have lost their interests, and the court has benefited. There may be more than myself, so I simply abolished it, although most officials will ask for it in private.

"What about Moqian?" Shao Shude asked again.

"One million silver dollars." Shao Guancheng replied.

"New money or old money?"

"For new money, one yuan is worth two coins."

"That's 200 million." Shao Shude said.

Chumoqian is similar to transaction tax, an old tax in the Tang Dynasty.According to different categories of goods, different tax rates are implemented, ranging from 2%, 3% to 30%.

The Fangshi under the jurisdiction of the Shibo Department has Chumoqian, and of course the local Fangshi also has Chumoqian.

This piece is still relatively large.At present, more than a hundred centralized trading markets have been established across the country, which can collect more than 160 million silver dollars from Moqian every year, which is 30 million when converted into copper coins.Including the customs, Chumoqian is already the second largest source of commercial tax, with a total of more than 500 million.

The income of more than 500 million yuan was previously purchased in Fangshi on the spot to support various expenses of the imperial court and the army, which only existed on the books.

But the money on the books is also money. Excluding Moqian, tariffs and taxes, the total of these three categories has exceeded 800 million, which is quite a lot.

After Tang Xianzong Yuan and ZTE, the fiscal revenue of the Tang court was only 4000 to [-] million guanshi a year-including grain, so it was counted as "guanshi"-nearly half of which was at the peak of commercial taxation.

In fact, after the Anshi Rebellion, under the pressure of huge military expenditures, Tang Ting really used a lot of brains in terms of business taxes. Many tax types are the first of its kind in history. There is a layer of separation between the corners.

At this time, Shao Shude also missed Wu Qi, Liu Yan, and Yang Yan, three financial experts.

They really know how to make money, and of course they took a lot of detours. Fifth Qi was criticized for launching the "Tithe Tax". Emperor Tang Dynasty had to amnesty the world and announced its abolition.

Both Liu Yan and Yang Yan died unexpectedly...

Tang Dezong was forced to run away for a while, and issued an imperial edict for a while, so he was very embarrassed.

But after he handed over the magic strategy army to the eunuchs, the public officials had nothing to do with him, and they were able to grit their teeth and maintain the results of the financial reform. It has been 140 years, and the two tax laws have been difficult to shake—of course, the eunuchs master the magic strategy After the army, although court officials are a dish, the emperor is also a dish, but this is another story.

"National municipal customs duties, fangshi demo money add up to more than [-] million yuan, and stamp duty is more than [-] yuan..." Shao Shude read softly.

Stamp duty is also levied in Fang City, the tax rate is very low, and it is not compulsory. Only when the credibility of the other party is not assured and government endorsement is required, both parties to the transaction may pay stamp duty.

"Here—" Shao Shude looked at the back, pointed to the item "over-tax", and said, "You propose to abolish over-tax, what is the reason?"

"Grandfather, tax payment is actually an old calendar. In the former Tang Dynasty, there were a total of 26 customs clearances, and taxes were required to pass through the customs. After the division of feudal towns, Jiedu envoys set up tax cards privately to collect taxes. Grandpa was in Lingxia. , canceled the internal tax, and made it clear that the tax was only required to be paid when entering and leaving the town. Uh, it seemed to be called a customs duty at the time." Shao Guancheng said: "After the founding of the Great Xia, there were many tax cards among the old towns, which have not been abolished, and are still being collected. The merchants complained about the tax payment, and all hoped to abolish it."

Shao Shude pondered for a while.

The nature of taxation is similar to that of a well-known tax in later generations, called "Lijin".

Of course, likin is even more outrageous, not only collect the goods from the place of origin, but also collect them when they go out of the house, and also collect them when they go out of the mountain.

In fact, it is equivalent to a complex of taxation and residence tax in the Tang Dynasty, but it is more "draconian"-the so-called residence tax refers to the tax paid by merchants sitting on the ground, which is a bit similar to business tax, and taxation is more like "tolls".

"It's okay to abolish the old checkpoints, but not all of them." Shao Shude said: "The use of taxation is great, and the construction of first-class national roads can be used."

Uh, this statement is actually self-deception.

The Xia Dynasty collected millions of dollars in taxes a year, and there was not a penny for road construction, all of which were embezzled.As for the construction of the first-class national road, the Shao bandits are completely prostitution.

"There are indeed too many checkpoints that have been taxed, but according to the standard of the 26 checkpoints in the former Tang Dynasty, they are too few." Shao Shude said again: "You can discuss again to determine which water and land checkpoints need to be taxed and which ones are not. If you need it, report it at the end. As for the reduction or exemption of the residence tax you mentioned, the tax rate can be lowered appropriately, but not too much. I will give a rough figure. If you add the tax and the residence tax together, you must receive at least one year 400 million. How to adjust it, you can figure it out.”

Fiscal reform is not only to reform the system, but also to reduce the tax burden, even if it means it.

In terms of taxes, Shao Shude canceled many types of taxes, reducing taxes by more than 30 yuan a year.

On the tax and housing tax side, we should make some concessions and then reduce or exempt some of them. Anyway, the government’s expenditure is now reduced, which can really let the people breathe a sigh of relief.

"I understand." Shao Guancheng replied.

"The rest are small taxes and miscellaneous taxes, so I won't bother you too much, you can figure it out." Shao Shude closed the memorial and said, "Besides the two major categories of land tax and commercial tax, there are only money supervisors left. It's..."

(End of this chapter)