Daming: The most ruthless tyrant in history

Chapter 986: Tariffs
The case uncovered in Shandong did attract Zhu Youxiao's attention, especially since some Western forces were involved behind the scenes, which Zhu Youxiao could not ignore.

Zhu Youxiao also found it strange at first.

Why are there some counterfeit coins in the circulation process of the new currency made by the Shaofu, which are so good in appearance that they are indistinguishable from the real ones? After all, the Mint and Qinglisi spent a lot of effort to tinker with it bit by bit.

However, if these things were linked to some of the forces of the Western Barbarians, Zhu Youxiao would not find it strange.

In fact, to be honest, if the Ming Dynasty wants to fully open up its seas in the future, it will inevitably face these barbaric robbers. There is no way around it, as the Ming Dynasty has been silent for too long.

When it comes to science and culture, Zhu Youxiao can be skeptical about the European continent, but when it comes to navigation, Zhu Youxiao must pay attention to these alien forces.

Nowadays, those who can roam across the vast seas without fear of life and death, especially those who work together, should not be underestimated. It is inevitable to confront them.

But before confronting this group of guys, Zhu Youxiao had to clean up the Ming Dynasty first, especially the southeast. The more he knew, the more confident Zhu Youxiao would be.

The wealth hidden in the southeast is likely beyond his imagination.

If all this wealth and the land acquired through illegal means could be concentrated in the hands of the central government, Zhu Youxiao would have full confidence in building the Ming Dynasty into a powerful country on land and sea.

If you want to accomplish this, nothing else will work, the only option is killing.

This has already been done.

But how to do it? Zhu Youxiao had to change his mindset. He was the emperor of the Ming Dynasty and he could not massacre the city. So he had to base himself on justice and kill people in batches, otherwise the foundation of his rule would be gone.

"Director, His Majesty has issued an order to increase tariffs at my customs. This is not going to be easy."

General Administration of Customs.

Office room.

A senior official of the General Administration frowned and said solemnly, "Since the establishment of the General Administration, we have been strengthening vertical control and clarifying the tax items of each branch. By now, all matters have been basically clarified."

"As for taxation, there are actually quite a few tax items, and the tax rates are quite high. This has also made many local maritime merchants dissatisfied with this matter."

"Yes, Director."

Another person followed closely and said, "If we really do this, I'm afraid that this dissatisfaction will spread. At that time, let alone other things, smuggling alone will surely increase."

"Once this matter is reported from the local level to the central level, the authorities will certainly make a fuss about it, and our General Administration of Customs will be in a more passive position."

According to common sense, the General Administration of Customs' imposition of tariffs is a good thing for the people in the General Administration. After all, as tariffs increase, the tax source will also increase.

In this way, the burden that the emperor gave to the General Administration of Customs was invisibly solved through additional taxes. After all, part of the military expenditure for the three fleets needed to be borne by them.

But this matter cannot be viewed so simply.

Who would easily get involved in maritime trade without some strength and background these days? This is not something that ordinary people can get involved in.

It’s just that some things that happened before led to the establishment of the General Administration of Customs, and everyone must play within the new framework, otherwise no one will be able to play.

That’s why we have the current situation.

"Imposing tariffs will cause great dissatisfaction, but it must be done." The silent Wang Yingxiong said in a low voice after listening to what his subordinates said.

"The emperor is furious about what happened in Shandong. Even now, there are still large numbers of smuggling groups running rampant. This is simply a contempt for the court and a disregard for the law." The atmosphere in the hall became subtle.

The news of Shandong spread in a small circle, especially to the Shaofu. Some people have already rushed to Shandong to assist the detective team in investigating the case and at the same time solve the problems that the Shaofu has with the officials in Shandong.

"This additional levy, if used properly, can have a punitive and deterrent effect."

Seeing that no one was talking, Wang Yingxiong continued, "If it is used improperly, the problems you mentioned will occur, so what we want to discuss is how to balance them."

After all, the General Administration of Customs has done a lot since its establishment, but there is still a lot that we have not fully understood about this emerging system.

For Zhu Youxiao, since a number of general offices were being established, he has been consciously dispatching a group of talented people to take charge of these general offices in order to achieve the standards he wanted.

Taxation cannot be levied however you want.

In Zhu Youxiao's view, the complex taxation system of the Ming Dynasty could not be covered by the Ministry of Revenue alone. In this case, he had to build a complete taxation system to ensure that other levels had no right to interfere in matters related to taxation. Only in this way could the central financial problems be solved.

“Additional taxes must be approved one by one.”

Looking at the people with different expressions, Wang Yingxiong frowned and said, "But the General Administration of Customs will also further refine the corresponding exemption measures. As long as there are maritime merchants who can do the exemptions specified by the General Administration of Customs, then when they dock at the corresponding customs, they should be given exemptions."

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This……

Everyone who heard this couldn't help but look puzzled. Isn't this a superfluous move? In this case, the actual tax levied may not increase much, but it has increased the burden of customs in disguise.

But Wang Yingxiong didn't think so.

Additional levies are the power of the General Administration of Customs and are adjustments made to customs in response to different situations at different times.

But the exemption is a kind of favorable policy guidance for maritime affairs.

These two things combined can have a counteracting effect, but in fact they are completely different. This represents an attitude towards the outside world.

In future maritime affairs, if there is serious smuggling in certain places, the General Administration of Customs will take punitive measures.

This will lead to two results.

Or increase the scale of smuggling.

Or reduce the scale of smuggling.

As for the former, it is going against the imperial court, which is easy to deal with. There will be corresponding officials to crack down on smuggling and carry out crackdowns.

But as for the latter, it must be that someone was assisting the imperial court in cracking down on smuggling.

Since some things cannot be prevented, we have to come up with corresponding solutions to these problems. The General Administration of Customs has not been established for a long time, so many details need time to settle and be improved step by step.

The General Administration of Customs is an official department that Zhu Youxiao values ​​very much. In the future, when the Ming Dynasty opens its seas to the outside world and even expands overseas, the General Administration of Customs will play an extremely important role.

Therefore, before this trend was fully launched, Zhu Youxiao wanted to make the system of the General Administration of Customs as perfect as possible, so that it could shoulder heavier responsibilities and burdens in the future. This was also the reason why Wang Yingxiong was appointed as the Director-General of Customs.

(End of this chapter)