Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1307 Xinzheng New Deal (Part [-])
Gao Yushi believes that the problems of the northern merchants are easy to solve, but the problems of the southern merchants are not easy to solve. It is not just because he is sure to persuade the core of the northern merchants - the Shanxi Merchants Gang. There is a deeper reason here, that is, the North-South Merchant trade was inconsistent in many ways.

Northern merchants mostly did trade in bulk grain, salt, cotton cloth, fur, and ginseng (produced by Jurchen). In the later period, due to Alda’s tribute and Jinghua’s intervention and guidance, trade in cattle, sheep, and horses was also included. In addition to participating in the above-mentioned trades, Jinghua itself also had a large amount of ironware (including military industry), ships, cement, soap, porcelain, etc.

The southern merchants overlapped with the northern merchants in terms of grain, salt, cotton cloth, porcelain, ships, etc., but the rest included silk, silk, silk, and silk (different) production, weaving (clothing, shoe and hat processing), printing and dyeing, and paper production. Industries such as manufacturing and printing (books) are items that northern merchants are less involved in.

Some observers may want to ask, what does these differences have to do with whether the two parties are willing to pay commercial taxes?Why does Gao Pragmatism think that northern businessmen are easy to persuade, but southern businessmen are not easy to persuade?Is the consciousness of northern businessmen higher than that of southern businessmen?

Of course it is not a question of awareness, the question here is how much to pay.

As I said before, it is not that scholars and senior officials have discussed issues such as whether or not to pay commercial taxes and how to pay them.

From the perspective of Gao Yushi, a traveler, the most representative discussion on commercial taxation in the Ming Dynasty probably could not escape the two different opinions of Qiu Jun and Wang Fuzhi.

Qiu Jun and others supported the idea of ​​"not expropriating the city", and Wang Fuzhi and others agreed with the idea of ​​commercial levy.

As Qiu Jun introduced before, he advocated elevating the status of merchants, but on this issue, he advocated following the etiquette of the ancients and supported "no collection of closed markets".

Does he contradict himself?That's not true, because he believes that the ancient taxation system for "markets" is a "policy to suppress business", and that the original intention of the ancients to establish a customs market is "the intention is that the wicked will chase after the last and patent it, so it is not beneficial to legislate to suppress it." and also".

It means that the ancient city was set up to regulate and manage merchants, and part of the taxation was also for the purpose of "suppressing merchants", not for profit.And "later generations will use it exclusively for the benefit of the country, which is not what the ancients intended."Therefore, he proposed to improve the status of merchants, but did not agree to a general tax on merchants-an idea that Southern merchants now strongly supported him.

But in fact, Gao Pragmatically knows that Qiu Jun's "no levy in the closed market" is not a complete and complete non-levy.

Gao Wushi is quite familiar with Qiu Jun's works. Qiu Jun once said that "the people who grow five grains have already paid rent and tax, so there is no reason to pay them. It is not comparable to bamboo, wood and livestock. There is no taxation for bamboo, wood and livestock. Therefore, merchants sell their goods in Guan City, and officials can tax them. Now that people pay rent in official warehouses, and Guan City also collects taxes, isn’t it heavy? This is not only not the king’s government, nor is it natural.”

Therefore, what Qiu Jun meant was not "no levy", but not "full levy". There must be a distinction here.For example, for grain, the farmer has already paid rent, tax and land tax. If he sells the surplus grain in the market, you have to ask him to pay another tax. Then you are double taxing, which is not only unreasonable, but even immoral. .

Gao Pragmatism agrees with this point of view, and believes that not only food should not be "double-taxed", but also household necessities such as cotton cloth should be taxed at a low level, and it is even better to be tax-free.

But he can't just consider one person's point of view. Although Wang Fuzhi is not even born yet, the points he advocates are not new ones, and Gao Yushi himself knows those points of view.

What is Wang Fuzhi's opinion?Different from Qiu Jun of the Practical School, Wang Fuzhi, who is more inclined to "moral practical study" (but he cannot be regarded as the Mind School), has a more traditional attitude of suppressing business.He believes that "merchants and merchants take advantage of villains, and those who despise human nature and thieves' lives are their own extremes... The barbarians capitalize on the profits of merchants, and merchants are proud of relying on barbarians, and human nature is almost extinct forever"; The peasants are peasants, and those who kill the peasants are Jia."

Precisely because he advocated the suppression of business, he advocated Liu Bang's viewpoint of "suppressing and humiliating businessmen" in his works, and believed that "businessmen must be suppressed by the king."

However, he also admitted that merchants are an important part of the economic field, and everyone (including merchants) has the obligation to pay taxes. The loser will serve as the king's people."

Here, Wang Fuzhi abandoned the traditional idea of ​​a single agricultural tax, and insisted that commercial tax is a legitimate fiscal revenue, not only should it be taxed, but also some "earning more without labor" commodities should pay heavier taxes.

He also emphasized that the expenditure of the national army should come from commercial taxes.For example, he once said in "Nightmare": "And like the Zhou system, the chariots are given by the merchants, and the chariots, horses and cattle are built for the profit of the merchants, while leather, money, silk, bamboo, wood, feathers, Clothing and the like are all handled by Jia, and it is the expenses of various bureaus who use military leather as firearms, so there is no doubt that the merchants should be held accountable."

In addition to Wang Fu, Ma Qing also explained that the collection of business is in line with the laws of the ancient sages and kings from the perspective of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business. If you want to suppress what is at the end and return to the farmer, the ancient sages and kings read the meaning of the people, valuing the grain and despising the gold and jade. This is also a sincere and good law. Therefore, the king's law will not be abolished for the levy of the market."

According to the empty state treasury at that time, it was also believed that the collection of business tax "can benefit the public and broaden the power of the people".He also said: "Nowadays, the money and expenses have been exhausted, and the supply of the high wall is absolutely indispensable, and the power of the people has been exhausted. It is really unbearable. The benefits of the husband's business acquisition are far from the benefits and disadvantages of the people's fat." The rationality of soliciting business provides a moral explanation.

Later, it was suggested that "traders all over the world who travel between the north and the south are taxed through Linqing and other places. Those who only follow the Huaihe to the west and go through Zhengyang will not be taxed, and it will be uneven." The reason is to open Zhengyang Customs.

Putting together the two representative ideas and viewpoints of these two, we can see how "distorted" Gao Pragmatism's attitude was in the eyes of the people at the time. However, he insisted that merchants should pay commercial taxes.

In the eyes of ordinary people, since you want to focus on business, you should give businessmen a good business environment, and in the eyes of the world, the best business environment is of course that you don’t have to pay taxes.While you are emphasizing business, you are asking businessmen to pay taxes. Are you schizophrenic?

Of course, Gao Pragmatism is not schizophrenic, he is just "seeking truth and being pragmatic" - this kind of thing is useless to analyze in theory, you have to be able to implement it in practice, and what is the reality now?
First of all, it is impossible not to collect commercial taxes. If a cripple wants to outrun a person with sound legs, how developed should his leg that is under pressure be?Daming is crippled now, relying solely on that little agricultural tax for support. However, although the peasants of Daming are indeed strong in the world, no matter how strong they are, they can't stand such exploitation.

Secondly, the collection of commercial taxes is to relieve the pressure on the country, not to bring the country down.If it is true that taxes are paid across the board and the tax rate is the same, can those who sell food compare with those who sell technology (printing and dyeing, weaving, papermaking, etc.), can those who sell cotton cloth compare with those who sell silk, and those who sell bamboo and wood can compare with those who sell porcelain Is it better than profit?Obviously not comparable.

Incomparable, the problem is coming.Except for Gao Yushi's own Jinghua Department, most of the current main business of the northern merchants should be classified as "raw material trading", at most it is "rough processing industry".This kind of business generally has two characteristics: one is bulk, and the other is low value-added products.

Southern merchants were different. They were engaged in either high value-added industries, such as silk, porcelain, and papermaking; or “fine processing industries,” such as dyeing, weaving, printing, and even pen making.To put it simply, the "unit benefit" is very high, and the added value of the products is very high. Even if it is a small trade, the amount involved is not small.

In this way, if one-size-fits-all taxation methods were used in the past, the businessman with low added value should not do it at all, because his profits may become negative after deducting taxes.

For this reason, the Practical School made a not-so-detailed division of these things in the previous commercial taxation.

To put it simply, with the current commercial tax implemented, the tax rate imposed on southern merchants is much higher than that of northern merchants. Only a very small number of "northern merchants" are taxed heavily-for example, there are many in Jinghua, such as cement , soap, etc. are all heavily taxed, otherwise the high pragmatism would not pay more than 170 million taels of tax silver every year.

However, Jinghua has its particularity, and has always been treated with a kind of "exceptionalism", so it is not truly representative.In the eyes of the outside world, the current commercial taxation promoted by the Practical School is a typical "light in the north and heavy in the south"-the tax rate paid by merchants in the north is very low, and the tax rate paid by merchants in the south is very heavy.

In fact, if you really look at the absolute value of this thing, the north is "extremely light", but the south is not too heavy.

Why?The average business tax in the north (excluding Jinghua) is only about one hundred and two (1%, 2%), while the southern merchants only collected one hundred and five (5%) after Zhang Siwei took the opportunity to carry out a sneak attack, and did not include In the whole of the south, only Nanzhili and Zhejiang are accepting, and neighboring provinces such as Jiangxi, Huguang, Fujian, etc. have not implemented it, let alone Guangdong and Guangxi.

Can a 5% tax rate be called a heavy tax?Of course not, but that's not how it looks.There is a saying, "Don't worry about being few, but about unevenness." In the eyes of southern businessmen, this matter is very simple: Why do you pay only one hundred for business tax, but it becomes one hundred and five for Lao Tzu?Is Lao Tzu so easy to bully?
Of course it's not easy to bully, there is a huge School of Heart standing behind them!
The reason why it is difficult to reconcile the contradiction between the School of Reality and the School of Mind is that "orthodoxy" is on the one hand, and interests are on the other.

Gao Yushi has always advocated steady and steady development. This time he has to work hard on business and taxation. One of the main reasons is that he knows that it is impossible to reconcile such contradictions. He can only "take the opportunity to attack" like his uncle Zhang Siwei.

To take advantage of the opportunity, you must first have the opportunity, so do you have it now?

Have.

The imperial court waits for the rice to go to the pot and is generally eager to ask for money. This is an opportunity.

Originally, if the court was in a hurry to ask for money for other things, such as repairing the three halls, the Xin School would have many reasons to refuse.However, the reason why the imperial court is waiting to use the money is very legitimate. Dealing with the clan issue is a temptation that the School of Mind cannot refuse, and the deeper reason is to defeat Canyuan. It's hard to say no - this is the last wish of the second ancestor, you refuse?

This is why Gao Pragmatic chooses to do it now. If this opportunity is missed, it will be even more difficult in the future.

Hu Zhili was a little uncomfortable with Gao Yushi speaking so bluntly. He always felt that Gao Yushi seemed to treat him directly as a member of the Practical School, and he always felt a little restless after listening to it.

Of course Cheng Wen didn't feel this way, he just pondered, thinking hard whether this matter could be done.

As one of the top executives of the Practical School, Cheng Wen is very clear that Shen Shihang was forced to agree to Zhang Siwei’s collection of a hundred and five business taxes in Nanzhili and Zhejiang last time, and then Shen Shihang himself was under huge internal pressure. The reason why he was so obsessed with bringing Wang Xijue into the cabinet was also due to this pressure.

Wang Xijue is the richest man in Suzhou, and he can better represent the interests of the "golden masters" in the south than him.Recommending Wang Xijue to the cabinet, on the one hand, can prove that Shen Yuanfu is always on the side of the donors, and on the other hand, it also allows Wang Xijue to share the firepower with him-if such things happen in the future, you, Wang Xijue, should always be on top First line, right?

And because of the "lessons learned from the past" last time, Cheng Wen felt that Shen Shihang would definitely be more careful about business and tax matters, and would also be more resolute in its opposition.

Cheng Wen sighed, and asked in a low voice: "If Yuan Fu insists on refusing, is Situ going to have a 'commercial tax discussion' with the Mind School?"

The term "commercial tax discussion" is obviously compared with the "big ceremony discussion".Of course, Gao Wushi could hear that Cheng Wen was emphasizing the huge impact of this matter, and it might affect the whole country like the Jiajing Dynasty's grand ceremony, and countless high-ranking officials rose and fell because of it.

Gao Yushi also knew that Cheng Wen's words were not false threats. The most important reason why the Great Ritual Discussion had such a huge impact was that it split the officials. What followed was a comprehensive political contest between old and new forces and a brutal fight.

Will the "Business Tax Discussion" have an impact comparable to that of the "Great Gift Discussion"?Very likely, because once Shen Shixing and Wang Xijue choose to strongly oppose it, the political structure since Gao Gong came to power will be completely broken.

The struggle between the School of Reality and the School of Mind will never be the same as before. Both sides are guarding their own bottom line, testing and fighting each other above the bottom line.Once this seemingly tender veil is completely torn off, the two sides can only copy guys into battle and fight hand-to-hand. Unless one side falls, the war will hardly stop.

However, Cheng Wen, one of the important ministers of the Practical School, knew very well that the emperor might not want to see this scene now. He just wanted to raise money to open the feudal ban, and then go into battle lightly, accumulating the materials, money and silk needed to attack Remnant Yuan. , to fulfill the last wish of the second ancestor Liezong, to rejuvenate the Ming Dynasty.

If this great cause can be accomplished, perhaps the emperor's temple name in the future will be "Ming Shengzong", or even "Ming Shengzu"!
Holy!
Why is it holy?

"Posthumous Posthumous Law" says: "Promoting good and simple poems is called sage; respecting guests and generous gifts is called sage; emptying oneself and admonishing is called sage; worshiping and offering sacrifices and honoring rites is called sage; practicing Dao and transforming people is called sage; exhausting reason and doing one's nature is called sage; poor God knows." Transformation is called sage; mastery of the prophet is called sage; greatness and transformation is called sage; generosity is called sage; deep research is called sage; ability to listen to good ideas is called sage; tailoring heaven and earth is called sage; wise and wise sky is called sage; common people To be able to do so is called sage; to prepare things into tools is called sage; to prepare the way to be perfect is called sage;

Simply put, it's perfect!

The temple name "Sacred Ancestor" was created in the Tang Dynasty by Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty, for his ancestor Lao Tzu Li Er. Later, emperors of all dynasties specially named the ancestors of great virtues in their families.Later, the emperors with the temple title of "Holy" usually had great achievements in "resetting the universe".

Completely destroying the remnant Yuan, conquering the 200-year-old enemy of the Ming Dynasty, uniting the world, and establishing a new sky, can such an emperor not be a "holy" temple name?
Conversely, with such a "future" in front of us, can today's court allow a split among officials like a grand ceremony at this moment?Cheng Wen was very skeptical.

But Gao Yushi's face was very calm, and he said: "A gentleman will do something and not do something. Reforming the old system will never be a smooth road. No matter whether the road ahead is a deer stronghold or a deep abyss, we only care about the world. Where righteousness lies, even if there are tens of thousands of people, I will go there.”

Cheng Wen sighed, and simply pointed out the main idea: "If the emperor doesn't want to see the dispute between our two factions at this moment, then what?"

"Then convince the emperor."
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(End of this chapter)