At the end of Qin, I became a son of the plane

Chapter 522: Difficult Land Tax Reform and Active Journey to the New World

On April 15th, the 24th year of the Han calendar, Chang'an City, Yan Palace.

Wei Wei Chen Lie briefly reported to Xu Fan about the trend caused by Zhou Ce and others returning to the Han Dynasty from the New World. People from all counties of the Han Dynasty went to Linzi County, and the Han Dynasty's sea merchants also began to move northward.

Although the main force of the Han Dynasty's maritime trade is now in the Nanyang and Tianzhu areas, this route has great competition and low profits. Now the New World route has been opened up by the court, and Zhou Ce and his team have also proved that the potential of the New World is a huge market that is not inferior to Tianzhu. Merchants who have heard the news naturally want to open up this red ocean market and get the first taste of the soup. According to past records, the profit of the newly opened market in the first year is comparable to the profit of the next 10 years. After seeing the profit, merchants naturally swarmed in like sharks smelling blood. They were afraid that they would be too late and would not even get to drink the first soup.

This craze made Xu Fan a little happy, but also a little worried. He was happy that with the support of the civilian fleet, the Han Dynasty could transport tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people to the New World every year. You know, the price of a ship ticket to the New World is not low. As far as the current situation is concerned, the cost price of a ship ticket is tens of thousands of coins, and if you keep the profit, a ship ticket will cost 30,000 to 40,000 coins.

After all, a Han Dynasty ship with a capacity of 3 tons costs tens of millions of coins, and the annual depreciation cost is as high as one or two million coins. Transporting hundreds of people to the New World would waste more than half a year, and there would also be risks at sea. If one wants merchants to take the initiative to transport people to the New World, the ticket for one person would be at least coins.

If the Han Dynasty relied entirely on importing population to the New World, at most a few thousand people could be transported to the New World each year. Any more than that would not be supported by the Han Dynasty's finances.

The addition of civilian merchant ships can greatly increase the proportion of Han people in the New World and reduce the cost of the Han Dynasty's exploration of the New World, which is extremely beneficial to the Han court.

The worry was whether the various daily necessities could be sustained with so many people going to the New World. Xu Fan remembered that when Niu Niu Zhi colonized the New World, it almost couldn't hold on with just a few hundred people. The local natives were unaware of these people's cruelty, so they gave them turkeys to help them survive that difficult winter.

So they set up Thanksgiving to thank God for sending them these turkeys, and then when they were firmly established, they slaughtered the indigenous people of the mainland. The most shameless thing is that they even had the nerve to make a movie called "Pocahontas" hundreds of years later, because they were afraid that others would not understand this shameless history.

The Han people obviously won't learn this, so they need to handle the relationship with the natives of the New World. But if too many people go to the New World and there is not enough food, Xu Fan knows what these merchants will do. Given the degree of Han's crushing of the surrounding civilizations, pirates actually appeared. Where did these pirates come from? Xu Fan knew it very well.

In this era, people who go to sea basically have no moral bottom line. Merchants and pirates are two sides of the same coin. Almost all civilizations in the Age of Exploration have pirates. Obviously, when going to the New World, the Northern Yinzhou Governor's Office must solve the problem of logistics, otherwise there will be big problems. Of course, it would be best if we can find a way to let these sea merchants bring their own dry food.

Xu Fan thought for a moment and said, "Let Chen Mai, the chief clerk of the Northern Yinzhou Military Governor's Office, announce in Linzi County that the Military Governor's Office will purchase unlimited amounts of grain at the price of 400 coins from the New World."

Chen Lie said: “Yes!”

In recent years, with the growth of the Han Dynasty's population and the expansion of various cash crops, the price of grain in the Han Dynasty has finally begun to rise slowly. Last year, the price of grain in the autumn harvest of the Han Dynasty generally exceeded 40 coins per stone. If the grain is transported to the New World, the price can be increased by 10 times, and the profit can be earned by about 2 to 3 times. For the current Han Dynasty's maritime trade, it is not very profitable, but it can be regarded as a relatively stable income, and many maritime merchants will be willing to do such transportation.

The increase in grain prices was the best news the Han farmers had heard in the past twenty years. This price was equivalent to an increase of two to three thousand coins in income for each Han farmer. It was enough to pay for the children's six-month middle school tuition. Zhou Bo even regarded this as a political achievement and announced it at the Sages' Conference last year.

This is indeed not an easy thing to do. As industry increasingly becomes a source of wealth for the Han Dynasty, it is very easy for a craftsman to increase his income by two or three thousand coins. Just increase his salary by two hundred coins per month. But it is very difficult to increase a farmer's income by two or three thousand coins. The base of farmers is too large. Even now, the Han Dynasty is still an agricultural country where farmers account for the vast majority of the population. With such a large number and the low price of agricultural products, it is more than 100 times more difficult for a farmer to increase his income by 10 coins than for a craftsman.

Therefore, the increase in farmers' income will become Zhou Bo's political achievement. Of course, even if the income is increased, the improvement in living conditions for farmers in the Han Dynasty is still limited.

During this period of the great expansion of Han civilization, the Han Dynasty had occupied the Southeast Asia, colonized India, and even extended its tentacles to Central Asia, and also had colonies on the Yinzhou continent. The entire desert also belonged to the Han Dynasty, and the countless cattle, sheep, and horses in the desert provided the Han Dynasty with labor for farming, power for travel, and raw materials for the textile industry.

It can be said that it took the resources of more than half of the Eurasian continent to enable the 7000 million people of the Han Dynasty to solve the problem of food and clothing with the technological level of the First Industrial Revolution, and the living standards of some people reached a well-off standard.

But after solving the problem of food and clothing, the people of the Han Dynasty had higher pursuits, that is, to achieve a leap in family class. To achieve this step, one way is to go to the major vassal states of the Han Dynasty, which are in a pioneering state and have more opportunities.

The second is the easiest and most mainstream method, which is to study. As long as you can get into middle school and become a screw in the huge industrial chain of Dahan, it will not be a problem to become a middle class in Dahan.

At this time, the Han Dynasty still had a 6-year compulsory education system, and the cost of primary school was low (this was also relatively speaking, as the cost of paper, ink, brush and inkstone was also not small).
But the cost of middle school is not small, the annual tuition is four to five thousand, if there are many children in the family, more than ten years of savings may be spent in the three years of middle school. The current Han Dynasty is somewhat similar to the later generations, education, medical care and housing are the new problems that the Han people have to face.

And at this time, Zhou Bo found Xu Fan.

He saw Xu Fanma complaining: "Your Majesty, if you know the location of the gold and silver mines, why don't you tell the court? Let the court directly manage these gold and silver mines. The increased income can allow the court to do a lot of things, and the reduction of agricultural taxes that you have always envisioned will be settled."

Zhou Bo had been the prime minister of the Han Dynasty for four years. During these four years, he mainly did two things. One was to continue the policies of Xiao He and Cao Shen and vigorously build infrastructure projects so that all 4 counties of the Han Dynasty were connected by rail. At the same time, he replaced wooden tracks with iron tracks to build the Han Dynasty's main railway network.

Developing large-scale infrastructure is equivalent to fiscal transfer, which transfers the wealth collected by the court to the local areas again. It can boost employment of local people and promote the development of the steel industry along the line. It is beneficial to the local areas. Therefore, Han officials at all levels in local counties and prefectures fully support the court's construction of tracks, railways, docks, and asphalt roads. As a result, Zhou Bo's large-scale infrastructure projects have been carried out very smoothly in the past four years with almost no obstacles.

The second is to deepen the tax system reform in Dahan, reduce the burden on farmers in Dahan, increase their income, and enable farmers' income to reach Dahan's well-off standard.

The reform of land tax was very complicated. Zhou Bo pushed for four years. Even with the support of the emperor and the assistance of farmers at the local level, it was still difficult to reduce the agricultural tax.

At present, only in the ten poorest border counties of the Han Dynasty, namely Shangjun, Jiuyuanjun, Yanmenjun, Beidijun, their land tax has been reduced from 30% to 20%. Zhou Bo wants to reduce the land tax of the Han Dynasty from 30% to 10% within his two terms as prime minister, but there is still a long way to go, and it can even be said that there is almost no hope of achieving it.

It was difficult to increase the tax rate in the Han Dynasty, and it was even more difficult to reduce the tax rate. Especially agricultural tax, it involved all aspects, and it was not an exaggeration to say that one move affected the whole body.

The Han Dynasty's industry has developed extremely rapidly in recent years. In addition, the Han Dynasty court has the money-making tool of the Shaofu, so the Han Dynasty court's income has grown very fast. There is no problem in reducing some land taxes.

But the real obstacle to this problem is the local counties, whose income is not high to begin with, and land tax even accounts for a large part of it. The court can quickly transfer this part of wealth to the central court through the four major money houses of the Han Dynasty by collecting silver. But if the court collects grain, cotton cloth, silk, salt and other physical goods, due to their huge quantity and high transportation costs, the court has to leave these materials in the local area and build warehouses to store these materials.

And it is they who manage these warehouses. Not to mention the materials wasted by corruption and bribery by local Han officials, even if they are legal and compliant, a lot of wealth can be withheld by the local people.

When the imperial court reduced the land tax, the local counties suffered the greatest losses. Their income was not high to begin with, and with the further reduction, they were even more unable to make ends meet.

The county and township governments were even more reluctant to reduce or exempt land taxes, because the industrialization of the Han Dynasty was still in a state of taking a point to lead the whole. Only a few industrial counties were relatively wealthy, and other county towns might also have some small industries that could receive part of the commercial and industrial taxes.

However, in most counties and towns of the Han Dynasty, agriculture was still the dominant force, and land tax accounted for the vast majority of their income. Especially at the township level, almost all income came from land tax.

Zhou Bo had conducted an investigation a few years ago and found that the rural areas of the Han Dynasty almost depended on the finances for their livelihood. Once the court reduced the land tax, they would immediately lack a large portion of their income. The grassroots officials were the most opposed to the tax cuts.

This made it extremely difficult for Zhou Bo to push forward tax cuts. After all, the policies implemented by the court also needed the support of these local Han officials. If these people were emotional, the policies could not be pushed forward at all.

Therefore, during these four years, Zhou Bo first conducted a pilot project in Shangjun. The first step was to strengthen the county and weaken the township, and to divide and clean up the Han officials in the township offices who had the greatest objections to the land tax reform. In order to reduce obstacles, he almost cut off all the Han officials at the township level, transferred these local tyrants to the county office, and transferred all the staff to the county office. Those who did not want to go were all dismissed. The functions of the township office were superimposed on the county office, allowing farmers to pay taxes with money and grain, reducing the procedures for farmers to pay taxes.

At the same time, the court assured the Han officials in Shangjun that as long as they agreed to reduce taxes, the court would allocate some resources to them. This promoted the land tax reform in Shangjun. Then, taking Shangjun as the starting point, the land tax in the ten poorest border counties of the Han Dynasty was reduced by 10% in four years.

But the resources of the Han Dynasty are limited, and Zhou Bo cannot allocate unlimited resources to these border counties. According to Zhou Bo's current estimate, when he retires in six years, he can reduce the land tax of the entire Han Dynasty to 20%, which will be a huge victory.

A month ago, Zhou Ce and his team returned to the Han Dynasty with gold and silver from the New World. The gold and silver worth more than one billion shocked Zhou Bo. In just half a year, the gold and silver excavated by Zhou Ce's excavator exceeded that of Treasure Island. In the whole year, more than 30 billion worth of gold and silver must have been excavated. If the court had this extra income, the land tax reform would not be so difficult, and perhaps this goal could be achieved within six years.

So he was a little bit resentful of Xu Fan. The emperor obviously knew the location and quantity of the gold and silver mines in the New World, otherwise he would not have made such a solemn promise to the Han Dynasty's heroes.

But everyone knew the location, and they also knew that the New World was extremely rich in gold and silver, so why not just leave it to the court to dig it up themselves?

Xu Fan smiled and said, "If there were no real gold and silver, how could we attract the feudal lords and people of our Han Dynasty to explore the New World? Now, for our Han Dynasty, making the New World the same as our homeland and educating tens of millions of natives in the New World into the people of the Han Dynasty is the most important interest of our Han Dynasty. Everything else is just a trivial matter.

As long as it is beneficial for our great Han to educate the New World, we will do it; as long as it is beneficial for our great Han civilization to expand in the New World, we will promote it; as long as it is beneficial for our great Han to open up a homeland in the New World, we will support it. This is the most fundamental national policy of the court in the New World. "

"The vast land of the New World is the most important wealth. As for the little gold and silver buried in this land, what does it count for? It's not even a drop in the bucket.

Moreover, even if the princes of the Han Dynasty dig out these gold and silver, what will happen? They still have to buy our goods and circulate the wealth into the Han Dynasty. Wouldn't this further stimulate the enthusiasm of the princes of the Han Dynasty to explore for wealth? "

"You are the Prime Minister of the Han Dynasty. You should open your mind and stop being so fussy about this little bit of gold and silver. What is the value of gold and silver worth more than a billion? It only accounts for 2% of the fiscal revenue of the Han Dynasty. If the New World can be developed, it will bring tens of billions or even more wealth to the Han Dynasty every year, and the tax revenue increased by the court will be more than this gold and silver."

At this time, Cao Xing and other Han elders also found Xu Fan. They had the same idea as Zhou Bo.

Cao Xing said as soon as he opened his mouth: "Your Majesty, we support you in whatever you want to do. If you ask us to establish vassal states in the New World, we will be ready to build them. But since you already know that there are gold and silver mines in the New World, why bother to let us go to find them? Just tell us where the gold and silver mines are, and we will immediately go to build vassal states and make sure that the natives of the New World are educated and obedient, let them know that they are the blood of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors, and let the New World accept the education of Chinese civilization like the Han mainland."

Although Cao Xing and his men did not understand how the emperor knew about the gold and silver mines in the New World, they did not care about the reasons, but only the results. A mine could dig out 40 kilograms of silver and 1 kilograms of gold in half a year. What a huge fortune.

That was glittering silver, so shiny and valuable. If their family could control such a gold and silver mine, they would have a golden rice bowl for hundreds of years.

And through the emperor's actions over the years, Cao Xing and his men knew clearly that the emperor did not like them, the feudal lords of the Han Dynasty, to stay in the Han homeland. Thinking of the emperor's ruthless purge of all the nobles and powerful people since the Warring States Period, they understood that the emperor did not like even the nobles of the Han Dynasty.

The emperor wanted these feudal lords to go to the Han Dynasty to explore overseas areas just like Ying Bu and other princes.

Obviously, the emperor also took into account the friendship between the old brothers, and did not force them to leave the Han Dynasty, but threw gold and silver mines to them, hoping to induce them to take the initiative to explore. And they did not intend to resist the emperor's will. The emperor had already given them gold and silver mines, so they should not be ungrateful and exchange them.

Xu Fan said unhappily, "I have even pointed out the direction to you, but you are unwilling to investigate. There is no such good thing in the world. If there really is a gold mountain in front of us, the court would have gone to dig it long ago. This can only tell you that there are a lot of gold and silver mines in the New World. Most of the gold and silver in the world are concentrated in that area. If you have the ability, dig it out yourself."

He knew how the Spanish became rich, and how the Portuguese became a world empire, but asking him to point out the specific location of the operating mines was not difficult. Even if he had the Internet now, it would be difficult for him to find out (I don’t know who is blocking the news. I searched for two days and only found the locations of one or two gold and silver mines. The rest were useless information. The Internet is really flooded with garbage information now.)
Cao Xing and others were embarrassed by what they said, but in their hearts they thought that the emperor was making things difficult for them.

Xu Fan could only spread out the map of the New World, pointed to the central region and said, "I only know that there is a lot of gold and silver in this area, but you have to find the specific location by yourselves."

Then he persuaded them: "Although gold and silver are important, they are not as important as you think. Once the gold and silver are dug up, it's over. If you really want to build a vassal state, you need people, fields, and special products. There are tobacco, cocoa beans, rubber trees, and a medicinal tree called golden chicken frost sodium that can treat malaria in the New World. These cash crops are long-term wealth. I advise you to build vassal states in the New World, use the gold and silver you dig up as the starting capital, and focus on building these cash crop gardens. This is the endless wealth gold mine you leave to your descendants."

Cao Xingdao said nonchalantly: "Yes!"

(End of this chapter)