Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1397 Public Revenue and Finance ([-])

"Now our country's public revenue can roughly be divided into two categories: tax revenue and non-tax revenue. Of course, this is a simple division by me, Liang, and the Ministry of Finance must have a more detailed division method, but since you are not students majoring in accounting , so you don’t need to understand it in detail, just listen to me and give you a general introduction.” In a large classroom in the Second Fort of the Corps of Qingdao County, Liang Qiangdong, the boss of Qiangdong Trading Company, was invited by the students to give a few lectures.

"Our country's annual revenue was initially dominated by non-tax revenue—mainly the profits turned over by state-owned enterprises. Now the gap between the two has been evened out, and tax revenue has come from behind, greatly exceeding non-tax revenue. It has gradually become the main body of our government's fiscal revenue. " Liang Qiangdong flipped through the handouts, and then wrote on the blackboard with plaster chalk and said.

According to the latest data from the Ministry of Finance, the total government revenue in the 1664-1665 fiscal year has reached an astonishing height of 760.2 million yuan. Among them, the profits and other non-tax revenues paid by Chinese enterprises add up to 313.2 million yuan. tax) reached 447 million yuan, of which the movable property tax and real property tax combined reached 55.4%, which can be described as the top priority-although such fiscal revenue cannot be compared with established European countries such as the United Provinces, France, Spain and other countries are on par, but they are already quite good. After all, the east coast only has a population of 80 million including non-nationals. Being able to generate such government revenue is already considered "skillful in amassing money". How can the huge navy and army support the development and construction everywhere, let alone occupying land and colonizing everywhere!

760.2 million yuan, equivalent to about 600 million taels of Ming treasury Pingyin, which is roughly a quarter of the peak government fiscal revenue in the early Ming Dynasty.Of course, the government of the Ming Dynasty did not have so much cash income, only about a few million taels, but the agricultural tax (rice and wheat), the government’s farming, the horse administration (the horses that were released), charcoal, consumption, forage, taxation, corvee, The addition of miscellaneous and miscellaneous income in kind, such as extra money, is several times the cash income, so the total is more than 2000 million taels. Of course, the income in the late Ming Dynasty decreased year by year, because more and more gentry lands did not pay taxes. lead to.

But in any case, a population of less than 200 million has created a financial income level of tens of millions of people, which is enough to make the East Coast proud. This means that the government's finances are extremely abundant, and more money can be invested in various places. Carry out one's own will—well, some people may say that based on purchasing power parity, the money is not as much as it seems on the east coast where prices are high. Well, this is true, but it still cannot conceal the wealth of the east coast government.

Of course, the profits paid by the state-owned enterprises are not bad. These are real incomes, but in terms of tax revenues, there is always the problem of arrears.In particular, movable property tax and real property tax, which are known as the bulk of fiscal revenue, are extremely contradictory to collection. There are varying degrees of arrears in various places, making the government's actual fiscal revenue far less than the 760.2 million yuan on paper. Not to mention the fairness of tax collection at the local level, which undoubtedly further intensified the contradiction and made the situation more complicated.At present, the Ministry of Finance is already planning and designing a new fiscal and taxation system. In this plan, which they call the "third tax reform", the movable property tax and real property tax are likely to be eliminated and replaced by other forms of taxation. in order to minimize conflicts.

"Let's talk about non-tax revenue first." Liang Qiangdong wrote a few big characters on the blackboard and said, "Non-tax revenue mainly includes three types of public business, public property and administrative revenue. Some people may say that public debt can also be regarded as special fiscal revenue of the government. , but today we are not discussing this item, only stable general fiscal revenue.”

"The first is public business. The government is a public organization of the people, and it should seek the interests of all the people. At the same time, it operates economic enterprises as a legal person, and the income it obtains is used for the people. This is the so-called public business income." Liang Qiangdong said: "Public income, in our Dadong'an, simply put, it is the extra profits paid by state-owned enterprises in addition to the normal tax payment. This part of the income totaled 313.2 million yuan in the last fiscal year, which is a lot, right? Hehe, this It is related to our country’s economic system. Among these public incomes, East Coast Building Materials Company, Nanhai Group (including Nanhai Transportation Company, Nanhai Liner Company and Nanhai Fishery Company), Northern Chemical Factory, Northern Arsenal, Ping’an Weaving Factory, Big Fish Enterprises such as He Jiji Textile Factory, Dafeng Food Company, State-owned Department Store, Ping'an Iron and Steel Factory, Tieling Special Steel Factory, South Railway Company, East African Transportation Company, and Beidao Sugar Factory have made great contributions, contributing the vast majority of public income. part."

"Of course, the profits handed in by these enterprises, in addition to supporting various national constructions, must also subsidize other public welfare undertakings that are short-lived. For example, the railways, highways, postal services, port affairs, and telegraphs that have been losing money for years (due to laying a large number of networks and training employees enterprises that are at a loss), water supply and other enterprises, and other enterprises that are at the break-even point but are more important, such as gas, burials (Taoist associations will also pay part of the funds), public bathrooms, rail street cars, slaughterhouses, etc. must also A certain amount of financial subsidies shall be given as appropriate." Liang Qiangdong added: "Public income, its expenditures are basically the above. You are all students of Bingtuanbao, and many people will surely enter the above-mentioned state-owned enterprises in the future. I hope that you can abide by the principles taught by the school and use the knowledge you have learned in the past ten years to manage and supervise these enterprises well, so that they can serve our people to the best of their ability."

In other words, the so-called "third tax reform" that is currently brewing in the financial system also involves public revenue.That is to say, they believe that once the tax rates of the two main tax categories, movable property tax and real property tax, are lowered or even eliminated altogether, they must be compensated in other ways in terms of government fiscal revenue. One of the plans they are currently discussing is, It is to find a way from the public business or public property revenue run by the government.

In short, they believe that there is no problem in abolishing movable property tax and real property tax, and the government can monopolize some mass consumer goods to earn monopoly profits.In fact, this is a suggestion put forward by the veteran diplomat Gao Mo. He recalled the monopoly of tobacco leaves and matches in France, the monopoly of salt in Italy, the monopoly of tobacco leaves, camphor and salt in Japan, the monopoly of tobacco leaves, matches and lottery tickets in Spain, and the monopoly of tobacco leaves, matches and lottery tickets in India. Salt, opium monopoly, etc., are all very good means of increasing government revenue.

Among the commodities intended to be monopolized, because of the "negligence" of the previous two governments, excellent monopoly targets such as tobacco, sugar, spices, and tea were all missed. It is everywhere, and if you want to take it back and start a franchise, there will be too much resistance. After all, do you think those big wholesalers are businessmen with no roots?Ha ha, how is it possible!

Therefore, if you want to engage in monopoly products, it is best to look for new things that have never appeared, such as matches and lottery tickets that may appear in the future are good things.In addition, currently there is only one domestic company producing or one company importing commodities, such as table salt and some expensive medicines (such as essential oils, Huoluo oil, cooling oil, cinchona bark powder), etc., there is little resistance to being monopolized by the state. It's worth doing.

However, in view of the extreme importance of the two main types of taxes, movable property tax and real property tax, as well as the huge fiscal expenditures on the east coast, it is generally difficult to cancel them all at once until there is no income that can exactly replace these two types of taxes.It is estimated that we can only lower the tax rate a little bit first, otherwise the national finance may face an extremely serious deficit.

"Public property income is a considerable amount of income in the old continent countries at this time, but it is not enough on our east coast." Liang Qiangdong continued to explain: "This classification mainly includes the government's income from farmland, forests, The income obtained from the sale of fishery and mineral resources, such as the British government’s auction of real estate and lease of real estate to raise military expenses in previous wars are good examples. However, on our east coast, most of these resources are developed and operated by state-owned enterprises established by the government , the income is not much, and some farmers buy land from time to time, which is the bulk of the money. As for the lease of wasteland for farms and pastures, the sale of licenses for hunting sea animals, etc., the number is not only small, but also unstable, and cannot be relied on. big head."

In fact, farmers on the east coast currently earn quite a lot from land purchases, as much as 10 yuan. However, since most of this money belongs to the fiscal revenue of the local government and has not been sent to the central treasury, it has basically not been collected. The statistics are included in the central fiscal revenue, and most of the income is used for local construction, which is why Liang Qiangdong just said "it's not enough to see".

But it is undeniable that as the number of citizens increases, this income will gradually become a big source of revenue in the future, and the central and local governments have to compete for this.Moreover, in view of the "extreme poverty" of local governments at all levels on the east coast, if the central government does not help them open up new sources of income, it is conceivable that they will keep the income from the sale of land. After all, many local infrastructure construction, Militia training, official salaries, and education expenses are all expected to come from here.

"After talking about public property income and public property income, I'm going to talk about the last item of non-tax income, that is, administrative income." Liang Qiangdong picked up a handout and said, "This is actually very easy to understand. , mainly fines, fees (such as litigation fees, execution fees, transcription fees, management fees, registration fees, inspection fees, certification fees, registration fees, etc. There are hundreds of kinds), franchise fees (such as franchise company licenses, special industry or personal licenses, etc.) three major items. Among them, the royalties income belongs to the central finance, and the fines and fees belong to the central finance or local finance depending on the situation. They cannot be generalized. But in any case, this part of the income In fact, it is very limited, especially for the central finance. Of course, this is related to the nature and system of our country. For many monarchies in the Old World, fines, fees and royalties are very large. income."

Liang Qiangdong is right. Taking countries such as Britain and France as an example, the license of the franchise company has always been one of the important incomes of the royal family. In addition, the plethora of fees can also greatly enrich their treasury; and if it is replaced by Eastern countries, the income from fines It is astonishing. For example, in the Ottoman Empire, Russian Empire, Mughal Empire and Ming Empire, every time they ransacked their homes, they could obtain a huge amount of gold, silver, real objects and real estate income. The amount was often so large that it almost became an important government one of financial income.However, these methods of raising money are "unfortunately" not developed on the east coast. Their income may be a small supplement to the local government, but it is not worth mentioning to the central government with an amount of 760.2 million yuan.

It can also be seen from this that the fiscal revenue composition of the East China Republic is very different from that of the eastern countries of the old continent or western countries. The root cause is that they are very different from the political and economic systems of the old continent.In particular, the operating profits handed over by a large number of state-owned enterprises have accounted for 41.2% of the total fiscal revenue. This is a proportion that no country in the Old World has ever achieved, and it cannot be replicated unless they also find a way to come to the New World from scratch. Create a new country.Otherwise, it would be too difficult to develop a relatively large group of state-owned enterprises—or “government property”—and maintain a good operation based on the intricate and complicated relationships of the old continent. .They can't even manage and sell the salt farms independently by the government, and they need to rely on the power of monopoly businessmen, which can be seen.

However, with the development of the state-owned enterprise group on the east coast, there are actually big doubts about whether the current profit margin can be maintained in the future.Many people have accused these companies of being more corrupt, wasteful, and overstaffed than other companies, and it's not all groundless.What's more, with the increasing scale of private capital in the east coast, I don't know how many people are staring at these state-owned enterprises that are making money, such as the east coast construction materials company, such as Nanhai Group , For example, Beidao Sugar Factory, etc., they are trying their best to privatize it, and they have used almost any means for this. At this time, whoever dares to block their way is their sworn enemy.

Fortunately, the current financial system of the East Coast Republic is completely unable to abandon public income. In addition, the older generation of time-travelers are still in charge of power, and their heads are relatively clear. Therefore, this large-scale privatization of state-owned enterprises It will be difficult to see it in about 30 to [-] years.But no one knows what will happen in the future, and we can only take one step at a time. After all, no one can establish a perfect regulation or system that is once and for all, and that will last forever.

(End of this chapter)