Late Tang Dynasty Floating Life

Chapter 294 Business Tax
A caravan with a large herd of horses stopped outside a mule and horse shop on the south bank of the Wuding River.

The mule and horse store is obviously newly built, and it is very large, almost like a post station.

There are more than ten shopkeepers and cooks in the store, and there are two Kunfazhangmen at the door, helping customers to guard the cattle, sheep, mules and horses.

"He's old shop." Xie Tong looked up and read the name of the shop from the plaque half covered by the wind and snow.

There are really too many mule and horse shops in Xiazhou!Almost every shop that deals in accommodation, wine and food has a large pasture, and there are special people to help look after the livestock, and the charges are not expensive.

Perhaps this is a local characteristic.

"The customer can actually buy so many horses?" An elderly shopkeeper came out to receive them, amazed.

Selling horses has always been Lingxia's big business.Yinchuan in Yinzhou, Yongqingzha in Fengzhou, and the newly established Xishicheng Ranch in Huizhou are all government-run. It is difficult for ordinary people to buy war horses raised there, unless you have a special way.

Outside of the three major ranches, you can only buy horses from the grassland tribe.But it depends on luck. People usually have regular customers to buy their horses. If you come to the door rashly, others will pick the rest, and the quantity may not meet the demand.This caravan bought sixty or seventy horses in one go, which surprised the well-informed shopkeepers.

Good luck!
Xie Tong and Xie Yanzhang did not speak, the others naturally did not dare to talk too much, they just negotiated casually with the shop.

"The little money given by the guest can only be fed with hay."

"Why is life so expensive? Can't you feed some wheat bran and beans?"

"At most, some turnips can be added. If you dig it before it snows, you can still eat it."

"Then hurry up."

The entourage and the shop went to the open pasture behind the shop, a gust of cold wind blew, mixed with bean-sized snow particles, and drilled straight into the neck of the person.

Some cowsheds and stables have been set up on the edge of the pasture, and there are special personnel to cut grass and feed it.Basically, they were escaped slaves who ran over from the grasslands, worked in these shops for a year or two, and then waited patiently for the government to register them.As long as the registered household is registered, then there is an identity, and the headmen on the grassland have nothing to do with them.

"Without Xiasui Town, there will be no difficulties." Another group of merchants came to the store, and they chatted as soon as they sat down.

"The four towns are unified. The exorbitant taxes of the merchants should be lowered? Dingnan Army, Zhenwu Army, Tiande Army, Shuofang Town, there are so many Guanjin, it's time to cut some. If there are fewer tax cards, our town Business can also be a little more prosperous.”

"Hu San, I heard that when leaving Yanzhou for Gyeongju next year, the tax cards for Tongsaicheon, Chexiangxia and other places will be withdrawn."

"Gyeongju's tax card will also be withdrawn? Binning Town is not..." At this point, the merchant decisively shut up.

Some things can be understood but cannot be expressed in words.What is the origin of Li Yanling, the commander-in-chief of Binning Festival, and whoever he listens to, knows everything.

"If you want me to say that it is a good thing that the king of Lingwu County leads the ten states. We are in business, not afraid of paying money, but afraid of extortion. If we can consolidate the taxes and customs of each state and town, and pay less money, we will How much more livestock can be sold out? Suizhou East City and Xiazhou South City can collect more than [-] yuan a year in tax alone, not much more than the tax card?"

"Can it be the same? The tax collector's money belongs to the tax collector, and the tax collector's money belongs to the marshal. Why should the tax collector consider the marshal?"

"So Shuofang Town is set up well, it saves a lot of trouble!"

Xie Tong listened silently without making a sound.Xie Yanzhang was extremely irritable, got up and went outside the shop.

"Good guys, I finally caught you!" There was a sudden shout, Xie Tong was caught by a few pairs of iron arms before he could react.

"Tell me, where did you buy these horses? Have you paid the taxes?" A middle-aged tax collector ran over panting, pointed at Xie Tong and asked.

"I bought it on the grassland and brought it to Henan. What kind of tax?" Xie Tong asked a little dizzy.

"I don't need to ask which prairie, the commander-in-chief has ordered that the ten prefectures in Shuofang and the three prefectures of Binning, all internal taxes will be cancelled, and only a card will be set up at Guanjin on the road leading to the outer town to collect the tax. You have not yet left the country. , have not paid taxes, but have you paid the money?" The tax collector asked loudly.

According to the system of the country and the dynasty, the envoys of the festivals and observations of various roads rate tax merchants at the main roads of Jinji, and those who count the money to more than [-] will be taxed at [-] to be used as military funds for miscellaneous purposes.

To put it bluntly, the feudal town can be understood as a country. When a merchant passes through the two feudal towns, if the value of the goods they carry exceeds 10 yuan, they will be charged a [-]% tax, which is actually a tariff.

Some feudal towns go too far, not only collecting taxes once, but once three or five tax cards are established, 50% of the tax is handed over.In addition to paying taxes, they also face unwarranted extortion by tax collectors, which is an extremely heavy burden. These extortion and taxes will eventually be apportioned into the cost and let the final consumer pay the bill.

Now that the four roads in Guanbei are integrated, the land of ten states can be regarded as a whole, and internal taxation can indeed be cancelled, which is obviously not conducive to business.Moreover, Shao Shude also included the three bordering states of Binning and Ningxia. These thirteen states are a unified market, and there are no customs duties among the internal states. Only taxes need to be paid when "entering and exiting"—— ok , Shao Dashuai even changed the name of the tax, and it will be called the tariff in the future.

In addition to Moqian, it is actually a transaction tax.In the beginning, [-] wen were collected per pen, which increased to [-] wen during the Jianzhong period, and then decreased to [-] wen.

In fact, this kind of money is very difficult to collect, and it is generally only possible to receive it between shops. Like before, Zhao Cheng's caravan sold things in the countryside of Huizhou, and they would definitely not be able to receive the money.But if they go to the city's market to sell, they can't escape, and the 2% tax rate is appropriate.

In addition to this tax, there is also a tax in the market, which is opposite to the tax. It is called the residence tax, which is calculated at 3 per thousand dollars, that is, a tax rate of [-]%. Received at that time.

"68 horses, one of which I'll give you thirty pieces of silk, so the total is two thousand and forty pieces of silk. If you don't pay the money, I will charge you forty pieces of silk and eight feet." The tax collector grabbed Xie Tong's clothes, He sneered and said: "If you dare to hide the goods, you will be caught by the lawsuit, and you will lose one-third of them. Those who sell vends and not go through the official road will be guilty. You did not buy horses at the market, and you escaped from Moqian. Now you will be fined 23 horses." Ma, do you have something to say?"

A group of businessmen in the store were stunned and a little guilty.Tax evasion, almost everyone has done it.If you really have to investigate carefully, none of them can escape.Who hasn't gone to the grassland to steal cattle and sheep?Grassland people don't understand the market, so they can lower the price arbitrarily, and after buying it at a low price, the smarter people will not follow the official route, but take the mountain path, and resell it for amazing profits.

This group of Henan businessmen are unlucky enough, why were they arrested?
"I will accept the punishment!" Xie Tong reacted, and signaled Xie Yanzhang not to act rashly with his eyes: "I am willing to use money and silk to redeem the confiscated horses. I will take all the 68 horses away, and I hope you can accommodate me."

The tax collector pondered for a while, then said, "That's fine, but you have to pay the money."

******
"Marshal, the business tax collected by the shogunate is mainly the tax on tea, bamboo, wood, lacquer, and iron, which is more than [-] yuan a year." Liang Zhixia, who was promoted to be a judge of the mutual market department, reported.

"Today, if we want to find a solution on tariffs, removal money, and housing tax, we have to do three things." Liang Zhixia continued: "One is to attract more businessmen to enter the country. When there are more people, there will be more tariffs. Thirteen states The land has a household registration of more than one million, and there are many livestock, medicinal materials, and skins. Every year, more and more merchants from other towns enter the country. Now the inland state and county tax cards have been cut, which greatly facilitates business. With word of mouth, it will surely attract more people. come over."

"Two, build more bazaars, let merchants come in for transactions, and collect money and housing tax. Those who don't follow will be arrested by a supervisor, which will definitely make them terrified."

"Third, the tax collectors who abolished the tax cards were given horses and equipment, and ordered them to patrol the mountain paths everywhere, so as to deter those who tried to bypass the official roads."

Shao Shude nodded silently.

In terms of commercial income, the previous Dingnan army shogunate mainly came from Yanchi and government-run horse shops.You can say that they are "state-owned enterprises", and this part of the income is regarded as the profit and tax paid by the state-owned enterprises.The salt profit is about 20 yuan a year, and the sales volume of the horse shop is theoretically more than 20 pieces of silk, but a lot of money is spent on immigration and other aspects, so it is not bad to have [-] pieces a year.

This part of the income is also kept by concubines in the mansion, and Shao Shude classifies it as "public income".

The money earned from selling land every year is classified as "public property income".

The real commercial tax, as far as it is concerned, is still the thirteen thousand tax revenue.Except for Moqian, housing tax, tax payment and the like, the evasion is serious, and the income is very little, and it mainly comes from the two major markets of Suizhou East City and Xiazhou South City.

In order to make this part of the income soar, it is necessary to reorganize the market system that has been dilapidated for many years, and to establish more markets.And you have to find a way to get more people into the market, otherwise how do you collect money?

"Marshal—" Liang Zhixia couldn't help but said, "Actually, the money is not much, and the energy wasted too much..."

"No!" Shao Shude stopped Liang Zhixia, and said: "Judge Liang, a certain rule has more than 180 million people, and their lives are stable, and there are no riots and looting. They are still attractive to merchants. We will give up our business. We need to take a long-term view. The life of the people in the town will get better and better in the future, and they will have more money to buy things. Business taxes will gradually increase, so much that you can’t believe it .”

"There are some rules, it's best to establish them from the very beginning. After the merchants from other towns and even the Hu merchants come over, it's not beautiful to make rules in a hurry, full of mistakes and omissions." Shao Shude said again: "It's not good to just rely on monopoly to negotiate taxes. It is a long-term solution. It is not easy to raise an army, there are more than 7 soldiers, and there will be wars ahead, if the financial and tax affairs are not done well, and the military is not enough, how can we fight?"

That's what it means to plan ahead.Shao Shude feels that some things are done now, and the interests involved are not too complicated, and the difficulty is not high.If it really waits until the commodity economy is booming, it will be much more troublesome.

There are more than ten states in Shuofang Town, and he is confident that he can attract more businessmen.

The elimination of internal tariffs and the establishment of a unified market are a great benefit to businessmen.

The environment is relatively stable and there is no war, which is also a big plus for businessmen.

It is located in a key position connecting the grasslands, the Western Regions, and the middle of Sichuan, which is even more beneficial to merchants.

He remembered that the financial pillar of the Song Dynasty in later generations was commercial tax revenue. This matter must have a lot to do, although it may not yet show signs of this.

　The two chapters were updated together, and it was gone in the afternoon, too busy.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)