prosperous age

Chapter 1046 1137 Wei Guangde's Thoughts

The Guanya system is an important system in ancient Chinese commercial management. Its history can be traced back to the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, when Guanya merchants appeared in livestock trading markets.

With the development of society, the functions of ivory traders are no longer limited to the livestock industry, but have gradually expanded to other industries.

During the Tang and Song dynasties, with the refinement of social division of labor, ivory merchants appeared in various commodity exchanges.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the official ya system officially became a national system, and ya merchants were officially introduced into commercial control by the government, becoming a business group that integrated merchants, officials, and clerks. They assumed official functions such as supervising merchants, assisting in the collection of commercial taxes, and maintaining market security and commercial order.

The implementation of the Guanya system reflects the ancient Chinese government's innovative attempts to regulate the market.

Through administrative contracting, the government grants part of the administrative power to tax agencies with a certain official nature. It uses the intermediary nature of the tax agencies to grasp the market transaction situation and improve the efficiency of tax collection.

The dental clinics applied for "dental certificates" from the government to open their businesses, obtaining an official legal background. At the same time, they paid dental taxes to the government and did things for the government.

This system completely introduced the dental clinics into the government administrative system, realized the government's indirect management of the market, reduced the government's supervision and decision-making costs, and at the same time extended the regulatory reach by having the dental clinics assist in the market management.

In addition, the official tooth system also reflects the government's refinement and standardization of market management.

A qualified pawnshop must obtain "official seals and documents" before it can operate, and it must also establish a business ledger to record customer information.

The government used public power to ensure the implementation of the "official tooth certificate" system, prohibited private tooth shops, and imposed joint liability on official tooth shops that covered up and concealed the truth, in order to ensure fair market transactions and accurate tax collection.

After learning about the "official tooth system", Wei Guangde had a deep understanding of it.

In fact, this was already an attempt at commercial taxation in the Ming Dynasty.

However, due to various reasons, not all tax revenue was collected, and most of it fell into the hands of officials and brokers.

The reason is very simple. At that time, the Ming Dynasty government did not collect commercial taxes through pawnshops.

The government's act of collecting money from dental shops and issuing dental certificates was essentially closer to the stamp duty of later generations.

That is to say, based on private transactions, the brokerage firm charges a certain amount of tax according to the transaction amount, acting as an intermediary.

Stamp duty is a tax levied on the act of writing and receiving legally binding certificates in economic activities and exchanges. It gets its name from the practice of affixing stamp duty stamps on taxable certificates as a sign of tax payment.

However, in terms of transaction volume, the Ming Dynasty did not have business tax, tax surcharges and consumption tax like in later generations.

Wei Guangde was calculating the commercial tax of the Ming Dynasty. Because it was the rule set by Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, it has now become the ancestral system in the eyes of officials in the court. It is quite troublesome to implement it. He is too lazy to argue with these people, and it is also troublesome to form cliques.

People from later generations naturally have more flexible brains.

In fact, it’s not that people in later generations are smarter, but that they have seen more, so naturally they have more methods to learn from, which are actually the crystallization of the wisdom of their predecessors.

Since it is troublesome to confront it head-on, just go around it. As long as the goal is achieved, the effect will be the same.

This time, Wei Guangde proposed to increase taxes in Yuegang, which was essentially taking advantage of the missing link in Yuegang transactions, namely official teeth.

From now on, all goods entering and leaving Yuegang must have their prices registered, and the pawnbrokers will issue receipts as proof of the transaction and collect a 30% commercial tax on behalf of the government.

Yuegang tried to test the waters and gained some experience, which it could then promote to the whole country when needed.

Here, we must also talk about Wei Guangde's cautious side, which is that this tax law will not be brought up unless it is absolutely necessary.

It was not that Wei Guangde was reluctant to pay the taxes, but if it was launched rashly and taxed nationwide, the consequences would be serious and would inevitably cause dissatisfaction among the officials and gentry families who had close ties with the merchants, who would think that the court was robbing them of their money.

This time, the imperial court needed silver to make up for the deficit, and Zhang Juzheng and Wang Guoguang were in the front to support it.

Wei Guangde just played some supporting roles and the matter was smoothed over, so he didn't have to face those sea merchants directly.

In fact, he had unknowingly become a member of the maritime merchants. If they knew that he was betraying his own people, it would have a bad impact.

When does the commercial tax on transactions across the country begin to be levied?

Wei Guangde actually had thought about it, which was to take it out when the court encountered a serious financial crisis.

There is an advantage at this time, which is that in order to alleviate the serious financial crisis of the court, at least most officials will stand on his side.

After all, the Jinshi scholars of the Ming Dynasty still admired talent and learning and discriminated against businessmen in their bones.

Although they sometimes have to deal with money, they consider themselves superior and are actually unwilling to take the initiative to cooperate with businessmen.

Ultimately, their ambition is to cultivate themselves, manage their families, govern the country and bring peace to the world.

The court was facing a financial crisis, which had already affected the governance of the country and even the peace of the world. Naturally, there were no other considerations at that time.

It is better to consider introducing appropriate policies at the right time, otherwise it is easy for good policies to die halfway because they are launched at the wrong time.

Wei Guangde knew all this, so he took advantage of the financial deficit raised by Zhang Juzheng and tried to make up for it by increasing taxes in Yuegang, collecting experience and improving the entire policy.

With so many considerations in mind, when Zhang Juzheng asked how to levy taxes, Wei Guangde calmly expressed his ideas.

"The imperial court set up an official yamen in Yuegang to control the market and manage commerce, and collected the additional tariffs. A 30% tax was collected on the goods entering and leaving the port, and they were escorted to Beijing by the port courier."

Wei Guangde spoke up. Seeing Lü Diaoyang's hesitant expression, Wei Guangde knew that he was worried about the tax rate being too high, so he continued, "For goods sold to the barbarians, there is naturally no possibility of adding 30% to prevent the barbarians from buying them.

I have said before that the 30% tax is nothing compared to the profits that these businessmen can make.

However, there might be some resistance to the goods sent by the barbarians.

But I also have to say that the only people who can afford to buy the goods of the barbarians are the wealthy families in the area. Ordinary people will not buy their things.

In fact, it protects people’s livelihood.”

At this point, Wei Guangde thought again that it seemed that this word did not exist in this era, so he explained: "For the livelihood of ordinary people, the most important thing is actually food and clothing.

As for clothing, most people made their own clothes by weaving coarse cloth, and they also grew their own food, except for salt, which they had to buy from the government.

In fact, as long as people can buy salt at low prices, there will be no major problems with their livelihood.

Of course, this does not include natural disasters, which require the court to reduce taxes or even allocate grain for relief.”

At that time, China was still a small-scale peasant economy, and the external demand was not strong. This was because most families were farmers, and they produced and sold their own food.

Although they had to endure taxes and rents from the government and landlords, life was still bearable if the weather was good.

The most famous line in "The Legend of the White Snake", "You till the fields and I weave cloth" actually reflects the small peasant economy life in ancient times where men till the fields and women weave cloth.

The small peasant economy, also known as the natural economy, is an economic model based on the family as the unit and is characterized by self-sufficiency.

In this model, family members divide the work, with men responsible for farming and women responsible for weaving.

This division of labor reflects the core characteristics of the small peasant economy, namely men farming and women weaving.

Another important feature of the small peasant economy is its small scale. Although it cannot provide enough food and clothing, it can meet the basic living needs of the family.

This economic model lasted for a long time in ancient China, until it was gradually replaced by a modern industrial economy in modern times.

However, the current Ming Dynasty is still far from the industrial economy era. Wei Guangde grew up in Bengshan Fort since he was a child. He was surrounded by military households. Except for those who were incorporated into the Hundred Households Office, other military households also lived such a life, so he was not unfamiliar with it.

Moreover, perhaps because it is not common in later generations, Wei Guangde actually has a good impression of this kind of life.

He knew what such a family needed most. In fact, they had no shortage of staple food, and they made their own clothes. Although they were a bit rough and not as comfortable as cotton, there was really no need to buy any.

The only thing you have to spend money on is salt.

However, the salt policy of the Ming Dynasty is difficult to describe in a few words.

Not to mention the poor people, even for a family like his, salt is actually quite expensive.

This is also the reason why most big businessmen in the Ming and Qing dynasties were salt merchants. Relying on the fact that salt is a necessity of life and a monopoly industry, they arbitrarily raised prices and exploited the people.

Wei Guangde had long wanted to discipline these people, but their relationships were even more complicated and extremely difficult to deal with.

In fact, if the Ming Dynasty had just cleaned out the corrupt officials in the salt administration, the society, which was dominated by small peasant economy, would not have been in chaos if it had not suffered from consecutive years of severe drought like in the late Ming Dynasty, when the court was unable to provide disaster relief due to financial difficulties.

But since Wei Guangde had the idea of ​​collecting commercial taxes and had successfully tried it and accumulated experience, if he really encountered such a disaster, he could collect commercial taxes in the country, mainly in the south of the Yangtze River, to provide relief to the victims in the north, which would probably alleviate some of the problems.

What's more, the Ming Dynasty has now extended its tentacles into Southeast Asia. When the time comes, it can purchase large amounts of food in Southeast Asia to rescue the disaster-stricken areas in the north, and there will be no possibility of large-scale riots.

The small peasant economy is the cornerstone of Chinese social stability. Unless the people are pushed to the limit, no one would rebel.

Zhang Juzheng, Lu Diaoyang and others naturally understood the reasons given by Wei Guangde.

Ordinary people naturally would not buy those exquisitely crafted Western gadgets. Only local wealthy families and officials and nobles would be interested in them.

And they wouldn't be short of that little bit of money.

Therefore, increasing the taxes on Yuegang seems to be no problem as long as the barbarians can be guaranteed to accept it.

Just as Wei Guangde said, the goods exported by the Ming Dynasty are right there, and there is only one such company, no other, they have no choice at all.

Unless you don’t buy anything from the Ming Dynasty.

  Looking around, who else can provide these goods except the Ming Dynasty?

“In addition, I also think we can consider asking the three customs offices in Quanzhou, Fujian, Mingzhou, Zhejiang, and Guangzhou, Guangdong to continuously reduce tribute trade starting this year.

Speaking of which, the imperial court asked them to manage the tributes from the vassal states, but looking at their annual revenue, I have checked before, and the highest tax collected by the Guangzhou Maritime Customs in a single year was only 40,000 taels of silver.

The annual income of the three places is only 100,000 taels. What's the point of being so inefficient?"

Wei Guangde brought up the Maritime Customs again and compared the taxes collected by Yuegang with those of their three Maritime Customs. The effect was naturally clear.

In fact, the Maritime Customs was a huge source of profits, but the profits did not flow into the imperial court, but went into the pockets of some people in local government.

Think about the three major customs offices that governed the Ming Dynasty’s foreign trade. Yes, although the Ming Dynasty nominally banned maritime trade, neither Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Di, or other emperors were fools.

The Chinese trade circle that began to take shape in the Tang and Song dynasties was right there, and its effect is actually easy to understand.

In fact, since the Tang Dynasty, China's foreign trade has been controlled by the government, of course, for the purpose of collecting taxes.

The Ming Dynasty merely inherited it, so it also had its own Maritime Customs Office.

However, the three major customs offices located in Ningbo, Zhejiang, Quanzhou, Fujian and Guangzhou, Guangdong seem to have reached a tacit understanding, and the taxes and silver reported each year are almost the same, and they all feel the same.

In fact, anyone with a discerning eye can see the trick.

Wei Guangde took advantage of this opportunity to bombard the Maritime Customs, in fact, he also had the purpose of squeezing the trade of the Maritime Customs to Yuegang.

Compared with the tax rate collected by the Maritime Customs, Yuegang's tax rate is naturally higher. If the Maritime Customs is not more strictly controlled, some merchants may take advantage of loopholes, obtain low-priced goods from the Maritime Customs and resell them to the barbarians on the high seas.

In that case, the court would lose tax silver, and the measure he proposed would be greatly discounted.

This is something Wei Guangde doesn't want to see.

Since he proposed it, he naturally hopes to achieve the best results.

Although increasing the draw points may seem to achieve the same result as increasing taxes in Yuegang, this is not actually the case.

Because foreign merchants who conduct transactions with the Maritime Customs must hold tribute certificates, petitions, number books and other documents, and they are foreign envoys, and are only allowed to pay tribute after being inspected and approved by the Maritime Customs.

Except for tributes submitted to the court, other goods brought by foreign envoys can be traded at the Huitongguan in the capital. The government will reward tributes with preferential prices, and all goods participating in the market will be exempted from commercial taxes. For goods transported to the location of the Maritime Customs, the Maritime Customs will purchase them according to the policy of "buying with a price" and no commercial taxes will be levied.

It was reasonable to exempt tribute from tax, but Wei Guangde felt a little annoyed about the tax exemption for envoys to purchase goods.

This is where Confucius could take advantage of, and the commission collected by the Maritime Customs was actually a commercial tax on the portion of the trade that exceeded the trade volume.

This is also the reason why the Maritime Customs collected very little tax. The officials of the Maritime Customs took advantage of the situation and made a lot of money.

Increasing the imperial tariffs would inevitably plug these gaps, otherwise Yuegang’s business would likely come to a standstill.

Now Wei Guangde has invested a lot in Yuegang. It is in his greatest benefit to gather the whole country's strength to support Yuegang.