Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 280 Now the treasury is rich

Ying Tianfu's Yin Chengde and Ying Tianfu's co-prefect Chen Yu began to organize manpower to re-correspond to Tianfu City to carry out tax statistics. Accompanied by Wu Jiayin, a doctor from the household department, the tax invoices were drawn up on the spot to collect taxes on the spot.

At the same time, the officers and soldiers of Wucheng Bingma Division are also on standby at any time, as long as there are tax resisters arrested on the spot.

Because dozens of heads fell to the ground, no one dared to have any resistance to the taxation. Wei Guogong, Chengyi Bo and other honorable families obediently ordered the stewards of various industries to open boxes of silver dollars and prepare to pay taxes;

Officials such as Liu Zongzhou, Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, and Qi Biaojia, the right servant of the household department, also began to take the initiative to send people to ask their families to pay taxes and go to various branches of the Central Bank of Daming to exchange silver dollars.

The order of taxation in Nanjing City has become more orderly, and if some individuals still do not cooperate, Ying Tianfu will no longer hesitate to take people, or forcefully close the shop.

For a while, some merchants and handicraftsmen in Nanjing city refused to pay taxes, refused to recognize tax invoices, and even defied them openly. Naturally, the imperial court would not be merciful, and would still forcefully detain them. Death is inevitable, but there is no way around it. Things to avoid.

For the bureaucratic class, it is necessary to kill a lot of people, but for the civilian class, it is naturally not special.

Moreover, these resisting civilians are just a few who are more manic, have a strong sense of struggle, or rely on their relatives with a certain official.

Most civilians still choose to cooperate with the government to collect taxes. After all, the tax rate collected by the government is not important to them, who can only be regarded as small rich and well-to-do landlords.

Zhu Youjian has made it clear that the Household Department only recognizes silver dollars for tax collection, which means that the common people can only come to the Daming Central Bank to exchange silver dollars at various branches to pay taxes.

People who didn't trust silver dollars before, whether they were officials or civilians, once again came to the branches of the Central Bank of Ming Dynasty to exchange silver dollars, setting off a crazy run.

For this reason, Zhu Youjian also specially summoned Yang Mingshen and Wang Jiaqin, the two vice-presidents of the Central Bank of Daming, who had been appointed as the right servants of the household department, and Han Shoujing, the eunuch of the Central Bank of Ming Dynasty, and asked them whether the Central Bank of Ming Dynasty had reserves Enough silver dollars to handle this exchange craze.

Wang Jiaqin said that based on the market circulation surveyed by the people below, he estimated that the total value of the commercial tax and foreign trade tax of the entire Ming Dynasty this year should be between 8000 million taels and 9000 million taels of silver. The silver coins that the bank has put into the market and the silver coins that the Daming Central Bank has already reserved, this time the Daming Central Bank has minted another [-] million taels of silver coins as early as half a year ago.

"That is to say, as long as it is put on the market in the form of an exchange of 2000 million taels of silver, it can be exchanged back to 700 million taels of silver. The bank can make a profit of more than [-] million taels of silver this time, which can be converted into silver dollars of more than [-] million silver dollars."

Yang Mingshen made the calculations for Zhu Youjian.

Zhu Youjian couldn't help laughing. This is also the benefit of the imperial court opening a bank. It can easily collect money, and can also control the economy through the amount and type of currency issuance.

"Since there are sufficient silver dollar reserves, it is good, but we must not arbitrarily increase the amount of silver dollar printing," Zhu Youjian said, and Han Shoujing and others made it clear.

At this time, the minister of the first and auxiliary household department of the cabinet also came to hand in the final 18-year commercial tax and tax silver of Yingtianfu Chongzhen: "Reporting to Your Majesty, this time the tax collection, Yingtianfu Nanjing City collected a total of 820 six tax dollars. Thirteen thousand and five cents of silver dollars, and the other prefectures of Yingtianfu received a total of 720 and four cents of silver dollars, and a total of 550 twenty-three thousand and five cents of silver dollars for taxation."

"so much?"

Zhu Youjian was quite surprised. Although he knew that the people of Ming Dynasty were very rich, he never thought that just one Yingtian Mansion would collect more than 6000 million silver dollars in taxes!
But if you think about it carefully, Zheng Zhilong's annual profit can be as high as tens of millions of taels, and a corrupt official can confiscate several million taels. In addition, Zhu Youjian did not know whether there was tax evasion in other places in Yingtianfu outside Nanjing.

However, Zhu Youjian was also very pleased to receive more than 6000 million silver dollars, which was much better than when he was only relying on several million treasury income from the two countries.

Two months later, Fan Jingwen, the chief assistant of the cabinet, once again reported that the tax money from other places in Ming Dynasty except Yingtianfu had also arrived in the capital, and there were still more than 7000 million silver dollars.

That is to say, Zhu Youjian's Ming court made a total profit of more than 5000 million silver dollars in this tax collection work, including the profit made by the Central Bank of Ming Dynasty through the exchange business.

What is the concept of more than 5000 million silver dollars, which is equivalent to the treasury revenue of the previous 20 years of the Ming Dynasty!
This is only the 18-year expropriation of Chongzhen.

Zhu Youjian smiled happily. He didn't expect that the commodity economy in the late Ming Dynasty had developed to such a degree, especially in the Jiangnan area, where it was so rich that his own tax increase was much more cost-effective than the farmers' tax increase.

Some people say that the main body of Ming's economy is still agriculture, and it is farmers who should bear the main responsibility for the national treasury revenue.

However, most of the agricultural income of the Ming Dynasty was controlled by the gentry and landlords. The increase of the agricultural tax revenue of the Ming court only increased the burden on the self-cultivated farmers who obtained a small part of the agricultural income, but did not increase the burden on the gentry who accounted for most of the agricultural income. .

Therefore, Zhu Youjian felt that he did not violate the economic logic by increasing the commercial tax collection. After all, most of the commercial activities at the moment were gentry and landlords, and the tax increase from them was equivalent to taking part of the agricultural income from them. The country, and achieve the result of effectively increasing the revenue of the treasury without increasing the burden on the civilian population.

What Zhu Youjian needs to think about now is how to spend the more than 5000 million silver dollars so that it can generate more value.

The Secretary of the Ministry of Accounts, the Chief Assistant of the Cabinet, is also thinking about this issue, because Zhu Youjian has clearly stipulated that, except for the central bank of the Ming Dynasty, the salt and iron patents and the income of enterprises controlled by royal capital, all kinds of tax revenues are returned to the treasury, that is to say Of the more than 5000 million silver dollars, more than 3000 million silver dollars will be decided by him, the Minister of the Household Department.

When people are rich, it is easier to make relationships, and when the court is rich, it is easier to do things.

Recently, Fan Jingwen, the chief assistant of the cabinet, and Qi Biaojia, the right servant of the household department in charge of expenses, are the most popular. The officials of various temples, temples, government offices and other yamen lined up to give them gifts and invite them to dinner.

Even, some local governors also began to give the two of them extra ice gifts.

There is no other reason, they all want to get a little more money from the Ministry of Households.

Zhu Youjian also knew that the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty were low, and it was not the time to reform the political treatment of officials at all levels, so he gave instructions to Fan Jingwen, Shangshu of the Ministry of Households, and Qi Biaojia, the right servant of the Ministry of Households, as long as they were not too excessive, and they should take advantage of the affluence of the court. At that time, try to meet the needs of the government offices of various ministries, but the household department must control this level, so as not to embezzle internal funds when there is no money.

If that step is really reached, except for special reasons, the right minister of the household department and the minister of the household department will be dismissed directly on the spot.

(End of this chapter)