Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1210
Prince Zhan Shi and Dongge University scholar Li Gang were dissatisfied with the emperor's complacency, thinking that the emperor was expropriating and blackmailing businessmen in disguise, and believed that this trend could not be opened, let alone long.

"How can this be extortion? Businessmen compete for sponsorship qualifications. Although they are indeed using money in exchange for the sponsor's name, their efforts are not in vain. Their gains are very significant. Businessmen talk about profits. , It’s not early enough without profit. Which one of these can become sponsors is not a world-renowned big business group or a big business house. They will lose business and still compete to do it? The imperial court does not force them to become sponsors, they pay Sponsors with money, the benefits are very high.”

Li Gang said that the emperor should not talk about profit, and he should not be like a businessman.

Luo Cheng smiled and looked at Cui Junsu.

"Cui Xiang, tell Master Li for me, can the court not talk about benefits or money?"

"Sages, ordinary people, seven things to open the door, firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea are inseparable from money. As for the imperial court, there are more places to spend money. Last year, the imperial court's income from two taxes was more than [-] million. For stones, for stretched cloth, there are more than [-] million horses, and for money, there are more than four million guan.”

"There are also industrial and commercial taxes, monopoly taxes, customs duties on ships, and the imperial court's income from buying and selling, and tribute trade with vassal states, totaling about 5000 million yuan."

Cui Junsu is the chief steward of the imperial court. The figures he said are naturally not wrong. Of course, these figures are actually public, and none of the memorials to the court from the Ministry of Civil Affairs are confidential.

"Is this money enough to spend?" asked the emperor.

Judging from these figures, the income of the imperial court is very high. As the income of the two taxes of the regular tax, the real rent of corn and silk cloth collected is not high. , 500 million stone millet is just the rent of 900 million dong.When the Sui Dynasty was strong and prosperous, there were nearly 2000 million households. Even if it was calculated as two dings per household, it would be nearly 4000 million dings. Two shi per person would be an annual rent income of [-] million shi millet.

In fact, although non-class households and non-class Ding have to be deducted, the difference is huge. This is why there were so many grain stocks in the Sui Dynasty. The average land distribution was small, but the rent was based on the standard of one hundred mu per Ding The unified annual rent is two stones.

Of course, in the Sui Dynasty, there was no industrial and commercial tax, monopoly tax, market ship tax, etc., and there was no such thing as buying and trading.

However, the Great Qin court attached great importance to industry and commerce, and established a very good tax system for this area. The tax was very high. The salt tax was nearly 3000 million a year ago. Now, although the salt tax has been reduced by more than half, there are still 1000 a year. The salt tax of more than 3000 guan, coupled with the increased tax on tea, wine, and mines, made the imperial monopoly tax reach nearly [-] million guan a year.

Adding more than 1000 million yuan in industrial and commercial taxes and customs duties on ships and ships, and then government-led shopping and trade, the annual income of this money is about 5000 million yuan.

Amazing.

"Saint, the imperial court has a lot of income, but the expenditure is also large. The millet in the two taxes and the regular tax is more than 300 million stones, and 300 million is turned into silk cloth, which is added to the Liujing treasury. Food and the materials of the official kitchens of the various divisions were merged into the Beijing warehouse. 400 million recharged rice was transferred to Beijing to be used as the official salary and the grain of the various divisions. Dangzhou warehouse."

"As for the more than 1000 million pieces of cloth and silk, 500 million went to Luoyang, 200 million went to the other five capitals, and the remaining [-] million were given to Hebu by various Taoist soldiers, and Bianjun was charged for official materials, postage and other expenses. "

"The money is more than 200 million guan, of which 200 million guan is used to repay the national bond, 600 million guan is used for the official teaching materials and post horses of Zhudao counties, and [-] million is used to fill the Hebu army rations of Zhudao counties."

"The other 3000 million yuan is used for the military expenditure of the Sanya soldiers and horses."

Li Gang said, "Then the imperial court still has a surplus of 500 million yuan a year?"

"Five million guan seems to be a lot, and there are many places where money can be used. This is the spare money reserved by the imperial court. In case of war, floods and droughts, etc., there are many places that need money. In addition, road construction, embankment, Building cities and so on are waiting in line to wait for the imperial court’s approval to withdraw money.”

According to Cui Junsu, not to mention 5000 million guan, even if there is more money, it is not enough. Now the imperial court is stuck in using it and living within its means.

Based on the financial income of the previous year, then formulate the financial budget for the next year, and reserve a little money for backup.Therefore, how to make this budget and where to get the money are also the focus of disputes between the government and the court every year.

No matter how much you fight, you will not be able to satisfy all parties in the end, so it can only be roughly balanced, with some budgets cut and some project requests rejected.

Li Gang was a little puzzled, why in the Sui Dynasty only collected mediocre rents, without the huge income of industrial, commercial, market and ship trade, but was able to be stable, and even had the prosperity of the founding emperor. Now that the court has so much income, it is still everywhere It's hard to do.

"In the Sui Dynasty, everyone had to serve 20 days of free labor. Before finishing the service, they had to fold three feet of silk to serve as Yong. , they are all the same rent adjustment, one dong or two stones per year for millet rent or two feet of silk and three feet of cotton.”

"As for our dynasty, since the reform of the two tax laws, households are divided into nine classes, the rich and the poor pay household tax according to the difference, and the land tax is collected according to the mu, and all kinds of miscellaneous donations and even the company's service in the original Sui Dynasty are also allocated to the mu. , the land tax is levied per mu. In this way, if there is more land, more land tax will be levied if there is less land, less land tax will be levied, and if there is no land, no land tax will be levied. The discounted rent is much less than in the past.”

Of course, the biggest difference between the two taxes and the adjustment of rent and mediocrity is that the tax rate is relatively flexible and reasonable. The poor pay less tax and the rich pay more tax. The biggest feature of the tax in the Sui Dynasty is actually a disguised population. Taxes are collected by dime, and the rich and the poor pay the same tax.

Therefore, the population census and household registration control during the Sui Dynasty were the strictest. After the Sui Dynasty unified the world, the national population almost tripled in a short period of time. In fact, all the hidden households in the world were searched out.

This method of taxation by dime is of course simple to collect, and there are as many taxes as there are dice, but it is actually very unreasonable. Poor people pay the same tax as those billionaires, and even a large number of officials become No account, but no tax.

Why did Sui die?
One of the big reasons is that according to the tax system of the Sui Dynasty, if you are in peace, everyone can barely live after paying the rent adjustment.However, in case of a disaster or large-scale labor, ordinary people who are already in difficulty may go bankrupt, and the tax system of the Sui Dynasty, once such a situation occurs, often a large area of ​​common people goes bankrupt, and a large number of people have nowhere to go. , naturally can only rebel.

(End of this chapter)