Daming Yuanfu

Nanning Hou Gao pragmatic, a bachelor of Zhongji Palace and the Minister of Household Affairs, has closed his doors to thank guests for ten days, and the trend of impeaching officials from the Xin School has also miraculously disappeared. However, even though the emperor had issued seventeen edicts in the past ten days to ask Yuan Fu to return to the pavilion to take care of matters, Gao Pragmatic still refused to go out "carefully" and even ran to him on the eighth day. I went to Jianxinzhai Villa in the north of the city to inspect the Jinghua Craftsman School.

Now the court is in chaos, especially the two elders of the cabinet, Zhao Zhigao and Zhou Yong, who ask the Chief of Ceremonies to report to the emperor every day, saying that if Yuan Fu does not return to the cabinet, the cabinet will no longer be able to assist the government.

It stands to reason that as long as there is a cabinet minister working in the cabinet, there should not be such an outrageous situation as "unable to assist the administration". Because according to the normal operation process of power, the six ministries and the Metropolitan Procuratorate and other executive departments will put forward "ministerial opinions" when reporting, which is the handling opinions. So if it really doesn't work on the cabinet side, you can just copy the ministry opinions directly. Isn't it impossible? Why is it "unable to assist in government"?

However, it was okay to do this in the past, but it seems to be really impossible now. Zhu Yijun has heard Zhao Zhigao and Zhou Yong say it many times these days. Nowadays, many things are handled by Gao Pragmatic, and there is no precedent in the past. The Sixth Department does not know what to do next, and does not know how to handle the situation when it happens - —In case the current handling is not in line with Yuan Fu’s vision, who will take the blame when Yuan Fu comes back? Therefore, for these matters, the ministry's decision became "there is no rule to follow, but only to ask for the Holy Judgment."

Of course, "Holy Judgment" is just talking. If everything is ruled by Holy Judgment, then why do we need a cabinet? But the problem is that the six departments didn't dare to mess around, and Zhao Zhigao and Zhou Yong didn't dare to mess around either, so after staring at each other, they really just "asked the Holy Judge".

Now, the pressure is on Zhu Yijun's side. His style is actually very similar to that of Gao Pragmatic. In essence, they only set the general direction and do not care about specific matters. In the past, Gao Pragmatic handled these specific matters, and he did not find it difficult to handle them. However, now that Gao Pragmatic had given up his choice, a lot of specific matters were placed in front of him. He was stunned when he saw them - I don't know what these things are!

For example, the tax reform issue has been ongoing in recent years. Although Gao Pragmatic has already made clear the general direction, he will make some small adjustments every year based on the actual financial situation. These "small adjustments" may not be a direct adjustment of the overall tax rate, but may be an adjustment to the collection ratio or an adjustment to the tax collection rate. sequence.

It’s a bit difficult to understand. For example: Generally speaking, the Jiangnan area is the most important tax source for the imperial court, and it is usually collected in the first wave. However, there have been many disasters in Jiangnan this year. Some places have been exempted from tax by the imperial court, and some places have been exempted from taxes. Taxes were reduced by the court, and in some places, taxes were deferred - for example, if you pay less or no taxes this year, you will have to make up payments next year, the year after, or even longer.

So, how much will you pay this year, how much will you pay next year, how much will you pay the year after... Your county will pay first, or the county next door will pay first, how much each will pay, etc. These things are to adjust the collection ratio and collection sequence.

Since Gao Pragmatic is responsible from the beginning to the end of the tax law reform, only Gao Pragmatic has a plan in his mind about "comprehensive consideration". Others, including the four ministers of the Ministry of Revenue, don't know about it, or they don't know it comprehensively. , so as long as Gao Pragmatism is not there, others can't stand up to him at all. Looking at the income and expenditure statement, Monk Zhanger is all confused.

Then you say, wouldn't it be okay to deal with it roughly first? Isn’t it possible to make some minor adjustments based on experience and compare the income and expenditure statement? It's really not possible, because this year's expenditures are huge, and no one knows how big a "sea" this "hundred rivers" of tax revenue will eventually merge into.

This "sea" has a clear role. If the harvest is too small, the Western Expeditionary Army will be defeated due to insufficient supplies. The grand strategy of sending troops to regain the Western Regions for the first time in hundreds of years will be frustrated. Who dares to take such a big blame? ?

As for you, can we first consider the expenses of the Western Expeditionary Army and regard disaster relief as an expense that can be adjusted? No, because disaster relief has now been included in the examination scope of the examination method. Especially if there is a wave of refugees in your local area and leads to a civil unrest, it will be a fatal blow to the official examination.

In other words, if your cabinet and the Sixth Ministry dare to deduct the disaster relief funds that local officials should have received, then they really dare to jump on their feet and curse others. The examination method is becoming more and more strict every year, which not only puts pressure on local officials, but also puts pressure on the central government's attitude towards doing things. In general, everyone can only be more strict day by day, and the range that can be "adjusted" is getting smaller and smaller day by day.

The above only talked about taxation. In fact, the concept of "finance" is bigger than "taxation". Since Gao Pragmatic took over the financial power, the Ming court has gradually moved from the typical feudal society of "as long as the people do not rebel" to "developing social productive forces."

In other words, if local officials want to be evaluated well, in addition to the eternal indicator of maintaining stability, they must also focus on "GDP growth." As Gao Qingshi mentioned to Gao Gong thirty years ago: a good county magistrate should be able to increase local taxes year after year without causing complaints among the people.

Gao Gong thought that this would be very difficult. It would most likely result in the county magistrate imposing more taxes year after year, and at the same time, he would intensify the suppression of local people's opposition. In the end, there would be results in the first few years, but when the critical value was reached, a civil commotion would break out. This is the typical thinking of feudal society, and it is difficult for even Gao Gong to escape from it, because in their eyes, social productivity is constant, and if you collect more taxes, it will only increase the burden on the people.

In fact, the reason why the commercial tax set by the Ming Dynasty during the Zhu Yuanzhang period was so low that it was almost negligible has its ideological roots - it is not that Zhu Yuanzhang did not collect commercial taxes, he also collected them, but he thought that once the commercial taxes were collected too much , prices will rise immediately, because businessmen are the most cunning, and they are unwilling to suffer losses, so in the end it is the common people who are unlucky. Therefore, he lowered commercial taxes again and again, and eventually Ming's commercial taxes became dispensable.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang still didn't understand. Even if you waive all business taxes, merchants will not lower their prices because of it. They will not love the people just because the emperor loves them. How reasonable prices should be set is a market behavior, and what can affect it is actually market purchasing power.

In other words, how much money people have in their hands determines the price at which your goods can be sold. If the product is too expensive and cannot be sold, you will have to lower the price; if it is sold out as soon as it is launched, you will definitely increase the price.

Increase prices and remove inventory? That can only be achieved if someone injects a large amount of liquidity into the market. Ming Dynasty does not have that ability now. The currency of the Ming Dynasty was not credit currency, but precious metals. You have to dig for this stuff and get it through trade with the Spaniards and Japanese. You can't inject it just by "injecting it".

In short, after decades of economic reform, the Ming Dynasty's economic model is now in a period of great change, and the person who masters the direction of this change is the only one in the entire court who is highly pragmatic. However, finance is the foundation for the operation of a court. Now that Gao Pragmatic has given up his job, the entire court will soon be in chaos.

At this point, not only the cabinet and various ministries were panicked, but Zhu Yijun was also panicked. He felt that if Gao Pragmatic waited a few more days and refused to return to the cabinet to take care of matters, the entire court would be shut down - although it seemed that everyone was As busy as a headless fly, the court has actually stopped functioning.

That's pretty cool!

Zhu Yijun could no longer sit still. He felt that Gao Pragmatic had probably made up his mind this time. He could no longer trick him into returning to Wenyuan Pavilion with "gentle words of comfort" and "strict orders to return to the pavilion". He had to take a heavy blow... Ah no, he had to do it himself. This time I saved my face and went to invite him in person. If he doesn't give him enough face, Rixin really dares to give himself a long vacation!

"Chen Ju!" Zhu Yijun made up his mind and asked, "Where is Rixin now?"

Chen Ju replied cautiously: "Back to the emperor, Yuan Fu is still meeting Xin Zhai."

"Get ready, I'm going to see Xin Zhai." Zhu Yijun gritted his teeth and said, "If you don't invite Ri Xin back today, I will sleep at his place!"
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PS: I had too much free time the past two days to read the History of Napoleon's War to accumulate some knowledge for the next book (not to write about Europe), and then I got addicted to reading it and delayed a little update... Well, now that the New Year is over, I'm back. ,Back to normal.