Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 536 Financial Tax Reform (Special thanks to book friend tai1972 for 2 monthly tickets!)

Chai Zongxun discussed for a long time with other ministers about this minister who made the greatest contribution. After comparing Han Tong and Li Tao, Chai Zongxun finally decided to rank Han Tong first.

At that time, Emperor Taizong died suddenly, Chai Zongxun ascended the throne hastily at the age of 7, and there was no confidant in the court. The support of Han Tong, who controlled half of the imperial guards, was decisive.

Of course, Chai Zongxun knew that his mother’s full support and obedience to his words was more crucial, but the title of the queen mother naturally could not be included in the "Hall of Time".

After several days of preparation, Li Hang recruited more than 200 craftsmen and painters with the most top skills of the time from the Ministry of Works and the public, and began to build the "Hall of Time" in Bian Jing in July of the 43rd year of Kaixi.

The layout of the "Hall of Time" is as follows: in the center is a golden statue of Emperor Chai Zongxun, and twenty-eight heroes stand on the left and right sides of the statue according to their merits, with inscriptions next to them outlining their achievements.

After its completion, the Ministry of Internal Affairs sent special personnel to guard it, so that all the people of the Great Zhou Empire could burn incense and pay homage.

On the fifth day of July in the forty-third year of Kaixi, there was an early morning court session.

After the emperor and his ministers discussed some domestic affairs, the Prime Minister, Minister of Personnel Kou Zhun, came out and said:

"Your Majesty, I have two things to report:

The first thing is that the commerce of our Great Zhou is now increasingly prosperous, and daily trade has increased dozens or even hundreds of times compared to the early years of Kaixi.

The transaction volume of workshops and businesses increased significantly, especially that of large maritime trading businesses, which often had transactions of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of taels in a single transaction.

For such a large amount of silver and money transactions, it is naturally most convenient to use silver notes issued by the "Royal Bank".

The "Royal Bank" of our Great Zhou Dynasty has abundant capital and excellent acceptance, and has been circulated among merchants in dozens of countries.

However, the silver notes issued by the "Royal Bank" were still based on the "one tael, five taels, ten taels, and one hundred taels" system formulated by Li Xiang in the early years of Kaixi. The largest denomination was one hundred taels, which was no longer suitable for today's huge commercial transaction needs.

I propose that Your Majesty grant permission to the Royal Bank to issue 1,000-liang and 10,000-liang silver notes to promote the development of commerce and trade."

When Chai Zongxun heard this, he realized that the industry and commerce of the Great Zhou had flourished to this point and the transaction volume had increased greatly.

Because he was usually busy with state affairs, Chai Zongxun could only understand this gradually changing trend after Kou Zhun's proposal.

The Deputy Minister and Minister of Revenue Ding Wei came out of the class and said:

"Your Majesty, I think we should be cautious in issuing large-value silver bills, because issuing them will accelerate the price increases of various commodities in society."

Since conquering Fuso six years ago, the Great Zhou court has adapted to local conditions and established more than 200 gold and silver mines of various sizes in Fuso, which is extremely rich in gold and silver deposits.

More than 300,000 local people were employed as miners, with a monthly salary of 1,500 wen. It can be said that this directly supported about 2 million miners' families, and enabled even more people from all walks of life to make a living.

By the end of the 42nd year of Kaixi, Fusang's annual gold production had reached 100,000 jin and silver 10 million jin, greatly alleviating the needs of commodity trading in the Great Zhou society.

But there are also disadvantages, that is, with the rapid inflow of gold and silver, the prices of commodities in the whole society are tending to rise.

Chai Zongxun pondered for a long time and said:
"How is the grain price in various parts of my Great Zhou now?" Ding Wei asked:
"Your Majesty, I have reviewed the industrial and commercial data from various places last year. The price of grain has increased rapidly in recent years, from 500 wen per stone to 800 wen."

Minister of Works Guo Zhi came out and said:
"Your Majesty, the supply of gold and silver in the market has suddenly increased, and prices are on the rise. Grain prices are the basis of the prices of all kinds of commodities, and they are also the lifeblood of the people. I think the court should release the reserve grain in the "charity granaries" of various prefectures to stabilize grain prices."

Chai Zongxun knew very well that with the huge increase in the supply of gold and silver, prices were rising rapidly, which was an "imported inflation" in the economy.

The price of grain is the mother of all prices. If the imperial court takes action to suppress the price of grain, it will naturally stabilize the prices of all social goods.

However, "low grain prices hurt farmers". If we suppress grain prices to stabilize the overall social prices, it will actually make all farmers bear the cost of inflation.

If prices are allowed to rise, it will be a process of "price breakthrough" until the commodities in the entire society of the Great Zhou Dynasty and the gold and silver circulating in the market reach a balance again.

During this period of rapid price increases, the richer the people are, the more money they make, and they are least affected by inflation and may even benefit from it.
The people with a single income channel have weaker earning ability and are more affected by inflation. If the court fails to handle the situation well, the people's living standards are in danger of declining.

For the imperial court, as prices generally rise, the amount of taxes collected will also increase.

The demand for large-denomination silver bills also shows that, after more than 40 years of efforts by Chai Zongxun to promote industrial and commercial development and years of market competition, all walks of life in the Great Zhou Dynasty have seen the emergence of a small number of leading companies with strong capital strength, which have the potential to monopolize the industry.

Chai Zongxun pondered for a long time and said:
“This price increase is due to the huge increase in gold and silver supply caused by the mining of Fuso gold and silver mines in the short term.

If the imperial court used stored grain to stabilize grain prices, it could quickly control the rising trend of social prices, but it would be extremely detrimental to the income and production enthusiasm of farmers, who accounted for nearly half of the population.

It is better to let prices rise until the supply of gold and silver in our Great Zhou society and the total commodities produced in society are balanced again through the market, and then prices will stabilize.

I would like to solve the problem of rising prices from five aspects and multiple approaches:

First, restrict the development of Fuso's gold and silver mines. Neither the imperial court nor the private sector are allowed to open new gold and silver mines. The current annual production of gold will be maintained at 100,000 jin and silver at 10 million jin.

Second, the "Royal Bank" issued silver notes of 1,000 taels and 10,000 taels to meet the needs of commercial development.

Third, the minimum monthly salary for employees in all prefectures across the country, except for some newly occupied areas with relatively backward economies, will be raised to four taels per month.

The tax exemption amount for the people has been increased to eight taels of monthly salary to ensure that the people's living standards are protected and improved during this price increase.

Fourth, a new "Anti-monopoly Law" was added to the Commercial Code of the "Da Zhou Criminal Code":
In any industry, if one or several larger businesses jointly manipulate the supply and price of goods, or artificially set up obstacles to prevent other businesses from entering the industry, they will engage in monopolistic behavior.

The government will reorganize, split up, and even ban businesses that violate this law to ensure healthy competition in all industries.

Fifth: In view of the fact that the commodity economy of our Great Zhou is now very prosperous, the maritime trade is developed, and there are a considerable number of wealthy merchants who have earned huge wealth among the people, the court has imposed an "inheritance tax":
For families with private wealth exceeding ten thousand taels, when their children inherit the property, they must pay the "inheritance tax" which is one of the three taxes to the court. Only then will it be legal and the court will protect their property.

These taxes are used to expand livelihood projects and increase the welfare of the vast majority of people.”

(End of this chapter)