Elegy of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 56 Tang and Yan, the unbearable weight of the common people
This article talks about why before the Anshi Rebellion, the salt policy reform based on the tax laws of the Middle and Tang Dynasties could never be implemented (including Liu Yan’s version of the Salt Law: civil property, official collection, commercial transportation, and commercial sales).

This article is very important and is strongly related to the plot. If you only want to read cool articles, you can skip this article.

For the plot of Sogter Brocade, I checked the information for a day or two; and for the salt tax, I started from the governor of Shangben, intermittently, and checked the information for a few months.

From the first floor to the second floor, and from the second floor back to the first floor.From the world without salt tax, to "scientific taxation", and then to the world without salt tax.

I have gradually deepened my understanding of the salt tax over and over again. I should now be the No. 1 author among the Qidian authors who studies the salt tax. I once dreamed about how to collect the salt tax in the feudal era.

The reason why history is charming lies in its unchangeable and thought-provoking nature. It lies in the fact that it will return to its original essence in the end despite all the complicated and charming things.

Lift the veil of beauty, and the bloody essence will be revealed in front of you. This is history.

According to Shuangwen's routine, when Xiaofang grew up, he "should" have encountered the financial crisis of Datang Tianbao.Xiaofang took advantage of the situation and proposed a "scientific salt tax" to partially solve the financial problems of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. At the same time, he "strongly" seized power from the top. This should be a "reasonable" plot.

But I regret to tell you that if the subsequent plot is written like this, this book will be useless.

It’s not a spoiler, but I just want to tell readers, masters, that I, the author who started the in-depth study of salt tax, will not let Xiaofang do anything to “benefit the country and the people” before the chaos comes.

Why do you say that, because the essence of taxation is that the state takes money out of the pockets of the people and uses it where those in power want or need it.

Its purpose may be different, but the essence of taking money from people's pockets is not different.

The first fallacy: In the early Tang Dynasty, salt was in a state of laissez-faire.Only "big smart" traversers know that salt should be taxed.

Actually no, the salt tax in the early Tang Dynasty was not only not laissez-faire, but even more stringent than after the An-Shi Rebellion.And because there is no tax and the mining cost of salt is relatively low, a virtuous cycle is formed.

Because there is no tax, the price of salt is low;

And because the price of salt is low, the government has no profit in it, making salt a daily necessity far from commodity attributes, and grassroots officials in salt administration are generally relatively clean.

When errands are unprofitable, promotion becomes the only benefit, which is actually a very understandable thing.

Also, because the cost of salt price in social life is almost negligible, social conflicts are alleviated to a certain extent.

The country didn't know to collect salt tax. Such a thing had never happened since Li Yuan was in power.It's not that I don't want to accept it, but because of various reasons, I choose not to accept it.

The social stability in the early Tang Dynasty was indispensable to the no-salt tax policy.The time traveler's proposal to "scientifically collect taxes" during the Kaiyuan or Tianbao years does not prove "outstandingness".

The second fallacy: Before the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty did not collect salt taxes at all.

Actually no, it has been operating at a "low level" since the Wu and Zhou Dynasties.Salt tax is not only collected, but also collected in a scientific and reasonable manner. The extent and method of tax collection are also different for salt mines or salt ponds of different natures.

Generally divided into three types:
1. Tax in kind: For salt households who rent salt ponds and mines for mining, they have to pay 3 shi to the government if they mine 1 shi salt.And this rock salt is put into the Changping warehouse for military supplies or to stabilize the market salt price.

2. Labor tax: Officially mined salt ponds and salt wells, the laborers in them are compensated for the rent with their labor.

3. Currency tax: Private salt wells or salt ponds are usually backed by big families and powerful people.

According to well-documented information, in the tenth year of Kaiyuan, this taxation method has been implemented, but the tax rate is very low.In reality, the tax collection time must be advanced.

The third fallacy: The Tang Dynasty court were all stupid pigs, and they didn’t know how to use the salt-cutting method.

In fact, Datang's policymakers are not only not stupid, but also know the concepts of "trial operation" and "special economic zones".Policy experiments on salt law have long been carried out.

Then they came to a conclusion that nearly broke them:

In the economic centers of Guanzhong and Hebei, most of the Yanchi and Saltworks where salt is sourced are government-run!The salt-and-pepper method is almost impossible to implement!
Specifically, these major producing areas are Hedong Salt Pond, Hebei Changlu (Cangzhou) Salt Farm, and Liangzhou Salt Pond.

The official salt pond collects taxes for itself, so where does the money come from?

If taxes are increased, the money will still indirectly push up government procurement costs. The economic game of left-hand over right-hand has no meaning in the feudal era except increasing administrative costs.

After the Anshi Rebellion, and before the Anshi Rebellion, what is the essential difference between Datang's economy?

That's right, Datang lost Hebei!The Changlu Salt Field, which was enough to feed millions of people, was lost. At the same time, Liangzhou was captured by the Tibetans, and Hedong was also in the flames of war.

In other words, the economic premise for Liu Yan to implement the "Scientific Discussion of Salt Law" was that Datang lost the three main salt production areas in the north, and the large state-owned salt farms no longer existed, so they had to vigorously develop private salt farms from the Jianghuai side.

Obviously, before the Anshi Rebellion, this premise did not exist.

The fourth fallacy: Before the Anshi Rebellion, using the "scientific questioning salt method" in the middle Tang Dynasty, it was possible to achieve a large financial supplement without damaging (or slightly damaging) people's livelihood.

This is just wishful thinking.

To understand the nature of the salt tax, it is necessary to thoroughly analyze both salt and tax.Salt is the carrier of tax. Salt must have "salt tax", but "salt tax" does not necessarily require salt.

Once you understand this problem, the rest will be easier to understand.

The reason why the salt questioning method could be implemented in the middle Tang Dynasty was actually because the original household registration system was completely disintegrated after the war in the Tang Dynasty.In other words, only 1000 million people actually paid the rent in Datang's books, but the tax collection was still based on 6000 million people!
Except for those who died in the war, less than 2000 million people just disappeared from the books and became hermits.

To put it more clearly, the imperial court used the iron law of "people will die if they don't eat salt" to make up for the loss of rent adjustment with salt tax when there is no way to rebuild their household registration. To pay household tax and land tax.

The fundamental reason why the salt tax in the mid-Tang Dynasty became more outrageous year after year is that the imperial court rebuilt the household registration system and a new tax system with the two tax laws as the main body, but it still collected salt tax to death!
It is worth mentioning that, 150 years after the separation of Hebei from Tang Ting, a total of 4 months of salt discussion was implemented.Then the dental soldiers in Hebei agreed that they were very upset and it was better to live alone, so Hebei was separated from Tang Ting's economic control and resisted the salt law.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the people in Hebei lived a little better than the people in other places. The reason is probably needless to say too clearly, everyone understands it.

Back to the topic, what would happen if the Salt Law of the Mid-Tang Dynasty was implemented before the Anshi Rebellion?
It doesn't matter to the big dogs who take a bath in the salt pond, but what about the people at the bottom?Countless people will be crushed by this "inconspicuous" salt tax.

Since the cost of salt mining is only one-tenth of that after the tax increase, illegal salt is bound to flood.Then the imperial court had to form a new army (yes, think of the salt merchant Huang Chao) to combat smuggling, which would definitely increase administrative costs greatly.

The common people who were bankrupted by the salt tax would take risks to sell illegal salt or join the ranks of salt merchants, and the sales of tax-collected salt plummeted; This vicious cycle.

There is nothing new under the sun. During the Song Dynasty, illegal salt was unavoidable, and it accounted for more than two-thirds of the salt used by the common people.Objective laws cannot be reversed by one or two traversers.

The duck's mouth was stiff even after it died, but it still couldn't fly into the sky.

In modern times, the Republic of China government handed over the management of the Changlu Saltworks to the British. The British came up with a formula that highly overlapped with Liu Yan's ideas.

Let the government salt tax be X and the market retail price of salt be Y.Then Y=F(X), the so-called salt tax is nothing more than finding the F function.

The devil of the salt tax is all in the details. Even if the bulk salt is transported in sacks, it can greatly reduce the loss of salt and increase taxation without damaging the price of salt.This example is all proven method in the history of salt tax.

The danger of high salt tax is no less than that of rich people getting diabetes. This is a big topic. Since these are not the content of this article, I won’t talk about them here.

The update will be delivered later.

PS: If any big brother travels back to ancient times and becomes a powerful person, remember to be nicer to the common people.

(End of this chapter)