If I fail to overcome the tribulation, I can only return to the Ming Dynasty and become a prince.

Chapter 172 Agricultural Tax and Commercial Tax

What are the benefits of being Ming Dynasty's dog?If you ask other people, this may be difficult to explain clearly.

For example, a samurai master would say that being a dog of the great Ming Dynasty has more status and honor, and life is much more comfortable than being a subordinate of the great Ming Dynasty. The difference of one word can make a world of difference.

As for ordinary people, the answer is very practical. The food everyone has to pay has changed from six public and four citizens to ten taxes and one tax.

In fact, the local agricultural tax in the Ming Dynasty at this time was about [-] taxes to [-] taxes, which was a relatively very low tax rate.

For the people of Japan, such a low tax rate was as unreal as they could never dream of.

Of course, if you asked farmers in the Ming Dynasty whether they only had to pay so much tax, the answer you would get would be yes. But if you want to say that farmers only had to pay so much to the court in a year, you would be completely wrong. .

Because in addition to food, farmers in the Ming Dynasty also had to pay additional taxes that were several times the agricultural tax.

This includes bureaucracy at all levels apportioning it layer by layer. In the end, there may be twenty or thirty different names, and the total amount can even be more than ten times the agricultural tax.

This is why in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, there was such a thing as landowners and noble families. Because landlords and wealthy noble families received less than the court, these tenants were naturally willing to farm land for the landlords and wealthy noble families, rather than paying taxes to the court. Taxed.

But for the people of Japan, this was a kind of virtuous government that they could never dream of.

This is of course not that the people of Japan are more humble and think being exploited is a good thing, but that they were exploited even more severely in the past.

You must know that the Japanese daimyo collected taxes from six citizens and four citizens, which were just agricultural taxes and land taxes. In addition, they asked the common people to work for them, work as errands, and various other taxes were calculated separately.

For example, the money levied on paddy fields, the hanging money levied on dry fields, the building separation money levied on houses, the taxes levied based on income tax, the virtuous money levied on the wealthy, and the land warehouses established by loan sharks. The Tibetan servants and the market money levied from the market revenue tax.

In addition, when temporarily raising military expenses, levy money will also be issued.

There is even a tax levied on monks' marriages in historical records.

Not to mention, when the samurai lords went to war, peasants were recruited to the battlefield to die for the samurai lords.

But now, the benevolent Prince of the Ming Dynasty has announced that from now on, only [-]% of the tax will be paid. The other taxes and miscellaneous taxes added together will not amount to [-]% of the harvest. How can this not be a benevolent government?
As a result, the common people of Japan simply brought their own dry food and offered "all their loyalty" to Zhu Zhanyu, and even the lower-level warriors who served as acting officials also became loyal.

Although the so-called Bushido of Japan in this era has not yet developed to the extent that it was so outrageous in later generations, for the grassroots warriors, loyalty to a wise lord is still a matter worthy of honor and respect, not to mention this The Lord is also unimaginably noble and possesses great strength.

Even because the tax collected in the decree issued by Zhu Zhanchun was too low, those warriors felt that this would harm Zhu Zhanchun's interests, and they collectively knelt in front of his door and begged Zhu Zhanchun to raise the tax rate.

This was unimaginable in the Ming Dynasty. After all, you can't imagine that those called officials in the Ming Dynasty would kneel at the gate of the palace and beg the emperor to collect higher taxes. They all wished that the emperor would not collect taxes.

But in the Japanese country, these warriors really do this, because a very important benefit involved is that they themselves also have to collect taxes. After all, the taxes collected from their territory are their own.It is impossible for these warriors to support a large family and soldiers with just the salary from the lords and daimyo.

Therefore, let the lords and daimyo collect a little higher, so that they can collect more.

But now, the princes of the Ming Dynasty only charge [-]% of the agricultural tax. Why do you dare to charge [-]% of the agricultural tax?
These warriors are very realistic when it comes to issues related to their own economic interests, so they staged a drama of collective remonstrance.

However, this kind of pleading and admonishment was meaningless to Zhu Zhanqi, or in other words, his management of the territory had never relied on the income from agricultural taxes.

After suppressing all the objections with the sentence "My Ming Dynasty only has a tax of fifteen to one, you dare to charge three taxes to one, do you want to lose your head?" After suppressing all the objections, the issue of agricultural tax in this territory was settled.

After all, His Royal Highness the Ming Dynasty's noble vassal prince is really good at cutting off people's heads. No matter how fearful of death these warriors are, they would not dare to perform a traditional art of seppuku for His Royal Highness King Zheng on such a matter.

However, in addition to the agricultural tax rate, Zhu Zhanqi has many things to worry about.

Agricultural taxes are important. There is no doubt that in this feudal era, if the territory cannot even be self-sufficient in food production and feed the army with the collected land tax, then there will really be a big problem.

But if the territory's fiscal revenue only relies on agricultural taxes, then don't even think about getting rich.

Therefore, after the agricultural tax was set, the more important commercial tax was set at a high level of five to one tax.

The five taxes and one tax were already a very high tax rate in both Japan and the Ming Dynasty, even to the point of being outrageous. If it were placed in the Ming Dynasty, there would be censors at all levels, Zhu Zhanju, who levied excessive taxes and exploited the people.

But in the Japanese country, when Zhu Zhanquan exempted him from other messy exorbitant taxes and collected five taxes and one tax on profits, the businessmen on Kyushu Island actually didn't have much objection.

Because after calculation, they found that although they had to pay one-fifth of the profits to Zhu Zhanchun, because the entire Kyushu Island was now Zhu Zhanchun's territory, there was no need to pay additional tolls and customs taxes for different lords. , the total amount of tax they have to pay has actually become less.

As a result, these businessmen accepted the tax rate obediently, and also gave Zhu Zhanyu the precious gifts they could afford.

Zhu Zhanyu didn't pay attention to these things, so asking Hu Shanxiang to come forward to accept the gift from the businessman was the limit.

After all, whether in the Ming Dynasty or in the Japanese country, the status of merchants was very low. It was an extra favor to have His Royal Highness's personal female officer to receive him. In theory, it was the end of the businessman's ability to meet the palace's subordinate officials.

After these things were settled and the territory had settled down a little, what Zhu Zhanchun really wanted to do was finally put on the agenda, which was to open a mine.

He chose Kyushu Island as his fiefdom not only because of the good climate and natural conditions here, but also because of the Ryoka Gold Mine, the largest gold mine in Japan.

Before, everything was undecided, and there might be trouble if he started mining hastily. But now that everything has been settled, Zhu Zhanqi can naturally start digging for gold happily.

(End of this chapter)