The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

In Liu Sheng's view, even after the wars in the late Ming Dynasty, the population dropped by tens of millions.

The livelihood and economy of the southern provinces have not been greatly damaged.

According to his understanding, there is room for improvement of at least 20 to 30 million silver dollars in Da'ei's commercial tax.

The most intuitive way to determine a country's strength is to look at its financial resources in addition to its military strength.

Liu Sheng has been actively understanding and learning financial knowledge in the two or three years since he established Dawei.

This includes understanding the actual situation of trade, taxation, productivity, etc. in the Ming Dynasty through various books, files and other materials, and calculating relevant data.

Generally speaking, people of later generations often only look at the official tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty, which ranges from several million taels to as many as one to twenty million taels, and think that the productivity of the Ming Dynasty was low and the economy was underdeveloped.

This is actually the reason for the failure to understand the full picture of the Ming Dynasty’s economy.

You can actually know it if you think about it.

Before the Ming Dynasty, the economy of the Song and Yuan Dynasties was not bad, especially the Song Dynasty.

There are two most prominent impressions of the Song Dynasty in later generations. One is that those in power were too cowardly, and the other is the extremely prosperous economy.

According to the calculations of later generations, the GDP of the Song Dynasty was likely to reach 60% of the world at that time!

After experiencing the national fusion of blood and fire in the Yuan Dynasty and the cultural exchange between the East and the West, in the Ming Dynasty, many technologies were improved compared to the Song Dynasty.

Take rice production as an example. Champa rice was introduced in the Song Dynasty and took hundreds of years to promote it.

By the Ming Dynasty, not only had the promotion of Champa rice been basically completed, but the farming and cultivation techniques of various crops had also been greatly improved.

The average grain yield per mu in the Song Dynasty was more than two hundred kilograms, and by the Ming Dynasty it was as high as three to four hundred kilograms.

Some high-yielding paddy fields in the south can even produce five to six hundred kilograms of rice per mu!
In addition, from the early to the late Ming Dynasty, the promotion and planting of cotton was also completed.

As for the cultivation of cash crops such as mulberry and hemp, the scale has also expanded significantly.

When Liu Sheng was in Nanyang, he even saw a small field growing tobacco leaves.

At the same time, the handicraft industry is also highly developed.

In a record of the previous Ming Dynasty, it was mentioned that Lu'an Prefecture in Shanxi Province counted more than 13,000 silk looms in a certain year! (Lu silk, Shu brocade and Hang satin were jointly known in the world during the Ming Dynasty.)
In addition, the former Ming Dynasty Ministry of Industry's Renovation and Cleaning Department had more than 1100 handicraft workshops in Beijing!

This is true in the north, and you can imagine the southern provinces such as Jiangnan where the handicraft industry is more developed!

Therefore, later generations speculated that during the peak productivity period of the Ming Dynasty, GDP accounted for approximately 45% of the world's GDP!

Even in the Tianqi Dynasty in the late Ming Dynasty and the early and middle Chongzhen Dynasty, GDP still accounted for about 29% of the world's GDP.

In addition, Liu Sheng also secretly compared the financial and taxation situation of the Qing Dynasty in later generations that he knew.

Taking the Qianlong period as an example, after Yongzheng's reforms, his annual tax revenue amounted to more than 50 million taels of silver alone!

By the Jiaqing and Daoguang years, the population was close to 400 million, and the Qing Dynasty's annual tax revenue was as high as 70 to 80 million taels!
As for the late Qing Dynasty, the tax revenue exceeded 100 million taels, and the peak exceeded 300 million taels. This was actually the result of modernization after the Westernization Movement and was not comparable.

Based on various relevant information submitted by various ministries and collected by Xiuyiwei, Liu Sheng preliminarily concluded: During the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the recorded trade volume alone was as high as 700 million taels of silver!
It should be noted that there are records here, which mainly refer to official trade and private open trade.

In fact, a lot of trade in the Ming Dynasty was conducted in the form of smuggling.

For example, private salt, private tea, private mines, and definitely large-scale maritime trade smuggling.

At a lower estimate, the more official data of 700 million taels may only account for one-third of the Ming Dynasty's real trade volume.

At a grander estimate, 700 million taels may not account for one-fifth of the real total trade volume, or even less.

Even if we take the 700 million taels and the lowest commercial tax rate of 30 taels in the Ming Dynasty, there are at least more than 22 million taels of commercial taxes a year.

Although the commercial tax in Da'ei now largely follows the Ming system, many changes have been made. It is estimated that the average tax rate has reached one-twentieth.

In this way, the commercial tax received was only more than 21 million silver dollars. How could Liu Sheng be satisfied?
Although there is a reason for DaEi to strip off tariffs.

But how much was the Ming Dynasty tariff?

Taking the sixth year of Wanli as an example, all the banknotes in the mainland totaled only 40 taels, and the two major cities in Guangzhou and Quanzhou only had tens of thousands of taels.

Even during the Chongzhen period, the former Ming Dynasty imposed additional levies and even added Chaoguan.

However, according to an accurate written record from the 80th year of Chongzhen, the tax revenue earned in this year was only more than taels (the tax revenue of the Municipal Shipping Department has been included).

In other words, Da'ei's separation of customs duties from commercial taxes will hardly affect the comparison with the commercial taxes receivable in the previous Ming Dynasty...
Liu Sheng is well aware of the potential of tariffs, especially the potential of customs tax revenue.

They also specifically separated it from commercial taxes, and even established a Customs Department under the Ministry of Finance to take charge of this matter.

Since then, nearly comprehensive reforms have been made in terms of tariff collection and management.

This is not.

Next, Qian Yunsheng's annual report on tariffs demonstrated the results of Da'ei's tariff reforms.

"Our country's tariffs are currently divided into two categories: overseas trade tariffs and domestic trade tariffs, referred to as customs tariffs and domestic tariffs."

"Customs currently has eight offices, namely: Qinzhou in Guangxi, Guangzhou in Guangdong, Quanzhou in Fujian, Ningbo in Zhejiang, Jiading in South Zhili, Haizhou in Huainan, Dengzhou in Shandong, and Tianjin in North Zhili."

"Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, we have encouraged sea trade. Last year, the world was generally at peace, and sea trade became more and more prosperous."

"So last year, a total of 1235 yuan in customs duties were collected!"

Hear this number.

Only a few ministers in the palace who knew about it could not help but secretly marvel.

More than 12 million yuan!

This is nearly a hundred times the customs tax revenue of the previous Ming Dynasty!

Even Liu Sheng nodded secretly, his expression softening slightly.

He can only say that he is basically satisfied with the Customs’ tax revenue this year.

As far as he knows.

Later, when Westerners opened the country to Daiqing, the customs was forced to be managed by foreigners. As a result, customs taxes increased year after year.

In just one or twenty years, its customs tax revenue increased from more than 8 million taels to more than 40 million taels!

It should be noted that at that time, due to the failure of the Second Crow War, the Qing Dynasty reduced tariffs on import and export goods on a large scale, and even did not charge tariffs on imported goods, so as to facilitate the dumping of goods by the great powers.

If customs taxes were collected normally, the annual tax revenue of the Qing Dynasty customs would definitely be higher!
After Da'ei comprehensively reformed customs duties, the collection and management efficiency of customs duties could be said to be directly on par with, or even surpassed, that of the foreign tax collector teams of later generations in the 19th century.

It’s just that now Da Mingfang has emerged from the war in the late Ming Dynasty, and its population is less than 200 million.

To encourage maritime trade, the average import and export tax rates are not too high.

Being able to collect nearly a quarter of the customs duties of later Qing dynasties in one year was pretty good.

Qian Yunsheng paused, and then reported on the internal tariff.

"This year, we have 13 large inner gates, 54 small inner gates, and hundreds of tax departments."

"Eighteen provinces collected a total of 512 yuan in tariffs throughout the year."

Regarding this data, the finance ministers in the palace were not too surprised.

The internal tariffs in Da'ei are actually the banknote tariffs, industrial tariffs, dam crossing taxes, etc. of the Ming Dynasty.

The former Ming Dynasty tax was established during the Hongxi and Xuande years.

At that time, the value of Ming Dynasty banknotes had reached an extreme level.

The treasure banknotes are only worth a few cents, and no one is willing to take them.

Seeing that the treasure banknotes were about to be completely destroyed, even worse than papyrus, the Ming court came up with the trick of banknotes.

Set up checkpoints at places that business travelers must pass through.

Passing business travelers are required to pay cash according to the quantity, value and distance of the goods carried.

It is hoped that this will boost the value of the banknotes.

Later, it was changed to use copper coins and treasure banknotes as the original color and silver as the discount color.

After Zhang Juzheng's reform, he basically only accepted silver and copper coins.

The Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes were not saved, but the name Chaoguan was passed down. As for industrial taxes.

It evolved from the bamboo and wood drawing place established during the Hongwu period.

Its original purpose was to extract some physical objects from the past work materials such as bamboo, wood, charcoal, etc. to share the expenses of the royal family, court, and government.

By the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, such points could also be paid in exchange for silver.

Because the bamboo and lumber mills were affiliated to the Ministry of Industry in the Ming Dynasty, the related income was also called "industrial tax".

According to Liu Sheng's information from various related materials of the Qian Ming Dynasty, there were only seven Chaoguan in the Qian Ming Dynasty.

Later, they were gradually added, reaching the highest number in the Jiajing period, with twelve.

After Wanli came to power, the court officials asked Wanli to reduce the number of Chaoguan to seven on the grounds that Chaoguan was competing with the people for profit.

After Emperor Wanli became truly familiar with government affairs, he felt that he had been deceived by his courtiers.

So they kept increasing the amount of tariffs (that is, the minimum amount of tariffs a certain bank must receive this year).

He also sent envoys to collect mining taxes, overtaxes, etc., which can be called retaliatory tax collection.

Because Wanli did not go to court, although the interest groups behind many ministers and even their own interests were harmed, there was nothing they could do.

When they finally got to Wanli, they took advantage of the chaos in Taichang and the early days of Tianqi, and directly canceled all banknotes in the Ming Dynasty in the name of Emperor Wanli's edict!
When Liu Sheng learned this at the time, he immediately laughed.

Both the monarch and his ministers took state affairs as a joke. One retaliated by collecting taxes, and the other retaliated by canceling all banknotes.

How could the Ming Dynasty not decline rapidly?
Emperor Apocalypse was somewhat skillful, but he waited until the fifth year of Apocalypse before using the eunuchs to restore the seven banknotes on the grounds that the military expenditure required to quell the slaves was insufficient.

During the Chongzhen period, three more banknotes were added, eventually reaching ten.

At first.

When Liu Sheng carried out a comprehensive reform of tariffs, he proposed the establishment of thirteen major customs, forty-eight minor customs, and hundreds of tax divisions. It can be said that the officials in the Government Affairs Council were stunned.

Many ministers objected for various reasons.

But Liu Sheng directly implemented this policy with an iron fist.

Because, according to his understanding, during the three dynasties of Kangyong and Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, there were forty-eight "huguan" and more than twenty "gongguan".

Daiqinghuguan is actually the Qiaoguan of the Ming Dynasty, and Gongguan is also inherited from the Gongguan of the Ming Dynasty.

Dozens of household checkpoints and work checkpoints can be established in the early and middle stages of the Qing Dynasty. There is no reason why they cannot do so.

It should be noted that in the Qing Dynasty, tariffs not only had a fixed amount designated by the court, but also had a surplus.

And it was collected in two groups.

The officials in the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Works of the imperial court were responsible for collecting the full amount, while the servants of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were responsible for collecting the surplus to provide for the expenses of the palace masters.

In addition, during the Kangxi period, a system of "additional grades for excess amounts" was introduced.

In other words, the more surplus the slaves receive, the faster they will be promoted.

The servants of the Ministry of Internal Affairs naturally tried their best to collect more tariffs in order to get promoted.

It is equivalent to collecting two crops of taxes in one pass, and one of them is quite cruel.

When Damei was first established, the administration was relatively clear and clear, and the internal tariff rates were not set high and were mostly reasonable.

Although dozens of large and small internal customs offices and numerous taxation departments have been established, other messy tax cards on the commercial road have been basically eliminated.

In addition, bandits in all provinces have been basically wiped out, and official roads, rivers, and even railways have been actively repaired.

The current business environment of Damei Business Travel is actually much better than that of the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty.

This year's more than 5 million taels of tariffs are a good illustration of this - if the business environment is not good, no matter how many checkpoints are set up in Dawei, we will not be able to receive so many tariffs.

After reporting the customs duties, Qian Yunsheng began to report miscellaneous taxes.

Miscellaneous taxes mainly refer to various miscellaneous incomes in the Ming Dynasty. There are so many names that even many officials in the relevant ministries and departments have difficulty explaining them clearly, and many miscellaneous taxes are local.

Damei did not abolish all miscellaneous taxes across the board. (Eichu County and Longshou County have no miscellaneous taxes, which is almost the same system as in China.)
However, many unreasonable miscellaneous taxes have indeed been eliminated, and some miscellaneous taxes have been included in commercial taxes.

Therefore, there is not much miscellaneous tax revenue.

"...According to the financial reports of each province, the total miscellaneous tax revenue of our country this year is 78 yuan."

No matter how much it is, it is still more than the motley income of the previous Ming Dynasty.

Because many taxes in the previous Ming Dynasty were not collected from the gentry and wealthy people.

Although Dawei has not abolished some tax-free privileges of the gentry and powerful people, it has strictly followed the pre-Ming system and did not allow these people's privileges to be expanded or expanded.

Although the number of these privileged classes is much smaller than that of ordinary people, they have more assets, engage in more various activities, and naturally pay more taxes.

In addition, Da'ei's official administration was relatively clear, and miscellaneous tax revenue naturally far exceeded that of the previous Ming Dynasty.

but.

At this time, some civil servants in the palace were not thinking about this year's miscellaneous tax revenue.

They are thinking that Da'ei's total tax revenue for this year has been released.

But it seems that there is still a long way to go to support this year's military spending, let alone support other aspects of the imperial court's spending.

In this way, we can only look at the amount of government-owned assets and the amount of confiscated parts.

"To sum up, our total income from agricultural taxes, commercial taxes, customs duties, and miscellaneous taxes this year is: 5871 yuan!"

After Qian Yunsheng finished speaking, he changed to a similarly large booklet and continued his report.

"Since the Weibu period, our country has had many government-owned properties. As of this year, there are a total of 3688 government-owned properties of various sizes!"

More than 3,000 official assets sounded astonishing, but the officials in the palace looked dull.

During the pre-Ming Dynasty, the Ministry of Industry's Renovation and Cleaning Department had more than a thousand workshops in Beijing, and their actual nature was somewhat similar to that of Da'ei's government-run assets.

Of course there are differences.

In the previous Ming Dynasty, the production of these workshops was only for the needs of the court, and work stopped when the court's tasks were completed.

The most typical ones are the official iron yards in various places, which exist for the tasks of the imperial court. Some were even abandoned for decades before being reopened, and then abandoned again within a few years.

Da'ei's official assets focus on the word "camp".

For example, Dawei's iron and steel plants in various places usually try their best to improve productivity and increase output within the plans of the imperial court.

The steel produced first met the needs of the imperial court - not directly to the imperial court, but sold to the imperial court at a price slightly higher than the cost.

In addition to meeting the steel needs of the imperial court, the iron materials can also be sold to the private sector at market prices to earn higher profits.

Of course, in many cases, the steel from the government-run factories is first sold to the military factories in Da'ei, then to the government-run iron factories in Da'ei, etc., and finally to private workshops.

Steel is like that.

The operating model of other Da'ei government-owned assets is generally the same.

Iron plants and steel plants are assets, as are mines, forest farms, mulberry fields, government fields, restaurants, shops, workshops, etc.

Da'ei now has eighteen provinces. In the process of unifying the four directions, it is unknown how many assets (funds and industries collectively) have been obtained.

Not to mention anything else, the total assets of the former Ming lords and nobles that were confiscated in that year amounted to thousands.

Based on this calculation, Da'ei's more than 3,000 government-owned assets at this time are considered small.

The reason for this is because the International Trade Department sold many assets that were not suitable for government management.

At the same time, some small assets of the same type, or assets that can form upstream and downstream industrial chains, have been integrated into one asset for easy management.

Under Liu Sheng's guidance, most of these government-owned assets in Da'ei were able to earn considerable profits.

As for how much profit these government-owned assets will make this year, only the International Trade Department, Finance Department, and Accounting Department knew before.

Some people noticed that the face of Yi Yingchang, the doctor of the International Trade Department, was glowing, and they couldn't help but guess that the International Trade Department's earnings this year must be quite high. (End of chapter)