Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1946 Returning to Japan (卌四) Proposal for Additional Levy

People are not sages, who can have no desires?Either for profit, or for fame, or for peace of mind.

However, whether you seek profit, fame, or peace of mind, there is no conflict at all when facing "eternal emperors" and "eternal famous ministers". It can even be said that no matter what you are seeking, in fact, "eternal emperors", "eternal emperors", "Famous ministers through the ages" can satisfy you!
This is not only a good name for all ages, it is also a benefit, and it can even bring peace of mind.

A good name has never been limited to the good name itself, and it can bring huge benefits.Moreover, this benefit can be explicit or implicit, as long as you are willing.

Confucius' "Teacher of all ages" has created the "Yanshenggong" who never absent in the dynasties with Confucianism as the "state religion". This is the power of good reputation; "People have been ashamed of being named juniper since the Song Dynasty, and I was ashamed of my surname Qin when I went to the grave." This is the influence of notoriety.

A name is never just a name.Especially under the special social and cultural system of Chinese civilization, no one can accurately measure its power, but no one dares to underestimate it.

As for the peace of mind...the five elders have studied Confucianism all their lives, who doesn't have the lofty ideal of "establishing a heart for the world, establishing a life for the people, inheriting the learning for the past, and creating peace for all generations"?

Whether it can be done or not can be said otherwise, at least in the bottom of my heart, I must recognize this ideal.Especially when he didn't have to pay a huge price, who wouldn't want to prove that he was such a Confucian child?

"Enclosed! North Korea must be enclosed!" Wang Jiaping took a deep breath, beard and hair stretched out, knelt on the ground, kowtowed, and played loudly: "The old minister is crying blood, no matter how difficult the road ahead, the court must overcome all difficulties, Make sure that the matter of enclosing North Korea is successfully completed! All court officials, who dare to speak different opinions, can be killed!"

"It can be killed!"

The elders of the pavilion were like a flock of birds in the forest, singing in unison. Following Wang Jiaping's statement of firm support for North Korea, they all expressed their support, especially the word "can be killed", which was extremely resolute and murderous. Let's fight against the enemies of the sky.

Zhu Yijun was extremely satisfied, raised his chin, and said proudly: "Now that my great Mingde has been spread all over the world, and my power is powerful in all directions, it is logical to accept the attachment of North Korea. I will accept the request of all my dear friends."

He narrowed his eyes slightly, stretched out his right hand, opened his palm and shook it suddenly, and said slowly: "Heaven has a gift, I... how dare I refuse it!"

"My emperor is holy!" The five pavilion elders prostrated themselves on the ground and chanted in unison.

"Let's all love you." Zhu Yijun waved his hand, smiled, and sat down on the throne by himself, and said with satisfaction: "Originally, Nisshin also had a side note, talking about the future direction of North Korea's economic development. But That appendix is ​​much longer than this one, so I won’t show it to all the love ministers to read one by one, and I will ask the secretary of ceremonies to send a copy to the cabinet later, and I hope the love ministers will review it carefully.”

Wang Jiaping said happily: "When it comes to economic issues, the old minister is convinced by the Marquis of Nanning. Since it was written by the Marquis of Nanning, there must not be any major omissions. The old minister can only say that he should try his best to make up for the gaps, and strive to make it better." As good as it gets."

After so many years of high-level pragmatic reforms, the results are obvious to all, but anyone who is not blind and deaf has nothing to say about economic development issues, so they all express their views modestly.

But then, Shen Yiguan, who was born in Ningbo, Zhejiang, "had to" stand up and plead for the "people in the south of the Yangtze River".

"Your Majesty, the affairs of North Korea are very important. It may not be appropriate not to have a large army stationed there, but I have heard that the Marquis of Nanning still intends to continue to conquer the mainland of Japan... so I have no choice but to express my objection."

Zhu Yijun raised his eyebrows: "Oh? What's Mr. Shen's opinion?"

"Your Majesty, since Longwan, the Ming Dynasty has flourished. Although the country is now at its peak, wars have continued in the past ten years. Your Majesty, please think about it carefully. In these years, there was a war to conquer the plains, which consumed nearly ten years of savings; then Bozhou, North Korea, The three places in the south of the Yangtze River used troops at the same time. Although the chaos in the south of the Yangtze River was stopped immediately because of the prestige of the imperial guards, it still cost more than [-] taels.

It cost about 500 million taels before and after the Battle of Banzhou. This is not counting the post-war leveling expenses. It is said that there are as many as one million taels, which is 600 million taels.

In the Korean War, from the early chaos of Imchen to the canonization of the armistice, the cost was about 460 million taels; from the chaos of Xinyou to the present, although the specific cost needs to be accounted for by the Ministry of Household Affairs, according to the rough estimate of the minister, it may have exceeded 600 million taels.

All in all, the imperial court had already spent tens of millions of dollars just for the Korean War.Even though the Marquis of Nanning has the ability to manage money, he has no choice but to levy additional business taxes in the five provinces in the south of the Yangtze River. However, if the tax is high, the people will wither and the people will suffer unspeakably..."

"Wait a minute." Seeing that Shen Yiguan started talking about the downfall of the people again, Liang Menglong couldn't help repeating what he said when he was in the cabinet again, saying: "The merchant tax of the Marquis of Nanning is levied on wealthy merchants, and it doesn't add a penny to ordinary people. It was already mentioned in the cabinet, why did elder Shen come to bother Sacred Heart again?"

"No." Shen Yiguan looked indifferent, and said: "The tax of the Marquis of Nanning is of course levied on the wealthy gentry, but since ancient times, the wealthy gentry can always pass on the tax, isn't it?

Although the money seems to come from the rich and powerful gentry, in fact, the rich and powerful gentry inevitably use this as an excuse to reduce the salaries of employees under their name, or to force the employees to extend their working hours under the pretext of the imperial court’s need for war. return. "

Liang Menglong said: "These situations are indeed possible, but the root cause is not taxation, but governance. If there is no lack of local governance, why would anyone dare to do such an illegal or immoral act? The cabinet should convene the Ministry of Finance and the Three The judiciary discusses the regulation, rather than blaming it on the levy."

Shen ***: "The imperial court issued a regulation to restrict it, which is the truth of governing the country, but it is definitely not something that can be obtained overnight. How can the grievances of the people in the south of the Yangtze River be relieved?"

Liang Menglong frowned and said, "Mr. Shen Ge said that the people's livelihood is poor, but he said that the people's grievances are boiling. What is the evidence for this? The emperor and I both know this time to aid the DPRK. It is just a three-item tax payment, banknote tariff and customs tax. In addition to the additional levy, and this stall tax is also exempted from small stalls and shops within a radius of five feet, is it really as dangerous as Shen Ge said? I don’t think so.”

Here we need to briefly introduce the commercial tax of Ming Dynasty. Although the mainstream theory of later generations has always said that the commercial tax of Ming Dynasty is almost equal to nothing, this statement is still too much. However, the tax rate is relatively low, and the scope of tax exemption is wide.

In the early Ming Dynasty, policies to encourage the development of industry and commerce were implemented, so the commercial and taxation system was simplified.The commercial tax collection agencies are local taxation bureaus. Although the state sets a limit for the taxation department, it does not seek to increase the surplus.

Levying methods vary with different levy objects. For various handicraft products sold by merchants and merchants, the value of the goods is generally estimated, and the levy is calculated based on price; , levy fish class.

Levy methods have their own characteristics and discounts, and they are usually paid in banknotes and money.The tax rate is generally one-thirtieth, and the scope of tax exemption can be described as extremely wide.

How wide is this "extremely wide"?A few simple examples: all things for weddings and funerals, self-woven fabrics, agricultural implements, food and taxed things (used for tax payment), own goods transported by car and boat, as well as fish, vegetables, and miscellaneous fruits, as long as they are not Take it to sell, all can be exempted from tax.Only the purchase and sale of land, houses and livestock is subject to tax, and the deed is subject to cost.

In addition, Daming also cut and merged tax agencies many times at that time.In order to prevent intrusion by tax officials, it is also stipulated that store calendars (that is, registers) should be set up in places where commercial taxes are collected, and the names, number of merchants, and dates of travel and departure of merchants should be registered for verification; All goods that are not marked to be taxed are exempt from tax.

However, Daming also had new commercial and tax items, the main ones are the following: store banknotes, banknote tariffs, labor tariffs, and deed taxes.As for the customs tax, this item was only created after Longqing opened the sea.Here we only introduce the three items that Gao Pragmatism has temporarily increased this time, and the labor tariff and deed tax will not be mentioned for the time being.

The so-called shop-to-door bills are the "door-to-door tax" that Liang Menglong said just now, that is, taxes levied on urban and rural shops and shops based on their turnover, which is also called "zhanji money" in Ming Dynasty.

The specific collection method of this tax is that the "Business Houses of Various Places" pay the local "Du Tax Propaganda Department" or "Tax Department Bureau" on a monthly basis, and then the government "gives Youtie a license, monthly A point-and-check inspection, if you fail to pay the deadline, or conceal and fail to report, you will be punished, and you will still be fined [-] guan."

Therefore, this is a fixed tax, but its tax rate is not fixed. It often increases or decreases due to time and place. It is different from the goods sold.

The reason why Gao Yushi chose to temporarily increase the gate tax of the five provinces in the south of the Yangtze River is precisely because this tax item has a "tradition" of variable tax rates.If he does this, as long as the tax rate increase is not particularly high, the people will not have a big response.

The so-called banknote tariff is one of the newly added commercial tax items in the fourth year of Xuande (AD 1429).At that time, the imperial court set up tax collection checkpoints along the river and along the canal. "Boats hired to load, pay bills according to the amount of materials loaded, and the distance of the road." The bills or silver collected are called bill tariffs.

The purpose of setting up banknote tariffs is actually to pass the banknote law.When the banknote tariff was first implemented, the tax was only levied on the passing ships hired to load the goods. The tax amount was calculated according to the number of beam heads and the length of the ship's hull. This tax was called "ship material" or "ship banknote".The ship banknote tax generally does not tax goods, but only tax ships.

The reason why Gao Pragmatically will increase the banknote tariff this time is mainly because the cost of waterborne trade is lower than that of land transported trade, and the profit is relatively higher. A slight increase of one "hundred three" will not be under great pressure.

In addition, there is a small calculation, that is, Gao Pragmatic hopes that through this small-amount collection, the circulation scope and circulation of small-value banknotes of the Ming Fed will be improved, which will be helpful for the full spread of banknotes.

The reputation of things like banknotes actually has a kind of "path dependence", which means that the more you use it, the more you will get used to it.When later Midi overthrew the Bretton Woods system and the petrodollar system had not yet been fully established, the proportion of the US dollar as a global currency did not drop sharply. It was because people were used to it in the past few decades and formed path dependence.

Gao Wuzhen also wants to play this trick now, so that people can get used to banknotes subtly. After waiting for a long time, he finds that the value of the small banknotes of the Ming Fed has always been strong, so he will no longer consider its anchors (gold, How much is there in the end (silver reserve), anyway, you can spend it.

Lastly is customs duty.This type of tax was first created by Gao Gong (described in Volume [-] of this book). It was divided into two categories: inbound and outbound at the beginning. described).

Since maritime trade is extremely profitable, and sea-going vessels are often much larger than inland river vessels, customs duties, even if considered on a single basis, far exceed bill tariffs.In other words, even if a ship owner who can run sea trade has only one ship, he must be a wealthy businessman in one place.

Since he is a wealthy businessman and the profits of sea trade are high, it is obviously not a problem to impose a "hundred and three" tax rate.

But, in fact, the reason why Shen Yiguan jumped out to oppose it was really not because of the tax and customs duties, but because of the customs duties.

The previous statements were nothing more than the inconvenientness of Shen Guan to speak out, and it was just a pity. Now that all kinds of reasons have been refuted by Liang Menglong, he has no choice but to speak out.

Shen Yiguan remained silent for a while, and finally said: "As we all know, the number one maritime merchant in the world is none other than the Marquis of Nanning himself. And the number one maritime merchant alliance in the world is also the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance. What is the reason for not including the provinces in the north and only the five provinces in the south of the Yangtze River?"

His question is fatal to a certain extent, after all, there is an old saying: don't worry about scarcity, but worry about unevenness.Why do the five provinces in the south of the Yangtze River want to impose additional customs duties, and the provinces in the north of the Yangtze River can get away with it with impunity? Is there any law for the king?
Even after Shen Yiguan asked, even Zhu Yijun seemed to feel something was wrong, and frowned slightly and looked at Liang Menglong.

Fortunately, Liang Menglong received too much practical opportunity in this matter, so he acted very calmly, and said with a slight smile: "Jiangbei provinces, or the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance, their trading areas are limited to Dongyang, and Dongyang is currently It is the war zone, and the trade has shrunk sharply. Is there any reason to increase the levy at this time?
This is not the case for the maritime merchants in the five provinces in the south of the Yangtze River. Although they also run the Oriental route, their bulk is always in the Nanyang area, and Nanyang is the main source of their profits.Even if North Korea and Japan are at war, it will not affect the Nanyang trade in the five provinces in the south of the Yangtze River. On balance, it is natural to levy more. "

Here I would like to add that after the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance sent troops to Luzon, the trade of the Philippine Islands area in later generations was also assigned to the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance in a pragmatic manner.However, according to Ming’s customary cognition, Luzon does not belong to Nanyang but Dongyang. Therefore, Liang Menglong’s explanation of Gao Yushi is actually taking advantage of loopholes to some extent.

Fortunately, Shen Yiguan himself was not familiar with business-related issues. He was just complaining on behalf of Jiangnan Haishang. Now that he was blocked by Liang Menglong, he was a little speechless for a while.

Zhu Yijun listened for a long time, but it turned out to be a compromise made by Gao Yushi considering the actual situation. He couldn't help feeling a little annoyed with Shen Yiguan and the Jiangnan merchants behind him, so he couldn't help but waved his hands and said, "Okay, okay, the total is fine. But adding a hundred and three, and it's not a method of control, it will naturally withdraw after the battle is over."

Shen Yiguan couldn't help reminding: "But Your Majesty, if you still want to conquer the Wa Kingdom..."

"So what!" Zhu Yijun seemed to be losing his temper, his tone became more serious, and the volume of his voice also increased: "It's such a small country, how difficult is it to get it? I think it's a few months at a time, and more than a year at a time. But, Jiangnan has been prosperous since ancient times, can't you even wait for this little time?"

Shen Yiguan has not been in the cabinet for a long time, his qualifications are not deep, and his political achievements are not outstanding. When he met the master of Ming Zhongxing, who was extremely martial arts, he was already showing signs of anger. No such intention, just a little warning of picking up lost things..."

"I know."

After all, Shen Yiguan was a Japanese lecturer, Zhu Yijun saw that he was subdued, so he didn't care too much, and waved his hands: "This matter will not be changed for the time being, and we will discuss it after Rixin returns to the court."

"Yes, I obey the order."
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(End of this chapter)