Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 681 On Land Tax

Smiling, Li Jing continued: "As for my suppression of the Donglin Party, it is not only because they formed a party for selfish interests, but also because they only cared about their own interests and disregarded the interests of the imperial court."

"Your Excellency said that the Donglin party members disregarded the interests of the imperial court. I don't know where to start?" Huang Zongxi asked suspiciously.

Li Jing looked at Huang Zongxi and shook his head slightly: "Let me ask you, what does the imperial court rely on for its treasury revenue?"

"Rely on taxes." Huang Zongxi said.

Li Jingjing nodded and continued to ask: "Let me ask you again, do you know how much Daming's tax was in the previous year?"

"This... seems to be about 200 million taels." Huang Zongxi said.

"Have you ever thought about why the huge country of Ming Dynasty only has so little tax a year? Have you ever thought about why a corner of Pian'an in the Southern Song Dynasty could resist the Kingdom of Jin for decades?" Li Jing asked.

Sighing lightly, Li Jing continued: "Because of the commercial tax, Daming's commercial tax is pitifully low, and those merchants are still unwilling to pay such a low commercial tax.

You said that so many people of insight in the court can't see the disadvantages?Let me tell you, many people are aware of this disadvantage, but every time someone proposes to increase business taxes, there will be countless people who oppose it.

Huang Zongxi, do you know who are the people who oppose the increase of commercial tax? "

Speaking of which, Li Jing sneered: "Let me tell you, they are members of the Donglin Party. Because the Donglin Party members are inextricably linked with the wealthy businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River, they want to protect the interests of the businessmen and at the same time protect their own. Interests. For personal interests, they don't care whether the country has money to support soldiers, or whether the country has money to provide disaster relief.

But the country still has to raise soldiers after all, and it has to find ways to provide disaster relief.what to do?These people will eventually find a way out.

So someone was unlucky, who was the unlucky one?It is the farmers who depend on the sky for their food, and all the taxes are added to the farmers.

The country has been fighting in Liaodong for these years, and a Liao salary is 1000 million taels a year. The suppression of bandits is 280 million taels a year, and the training salary collected for training is more than 700 million taels a year.Where does the money come from?All apportioned on the farmers.

As citizens of the Ming Dynasty, merchants do not pay taxes, and farmers have to pay all taxes. Is there such a reason in the world?
If I want to levy commercial taxes, I must first defeat all those who oppose the collection of commercial taxes. That's why I put all my effort into suppressing organizations like the Donglin Party and Fushe.

Huang Zongxi, do you know?In the past, the annual commercial tax collected by the whole country in Ming Dynasty was less than 50 taels, but now the country collects more than 1000 million taels of commercial taxes every year.You can't imagine it?
Of course, my method of collecting taxes is a bit harsh, but can it be done without being ruthless?If I am not ruthless, those businessmen will find ways not to pay taxes, or even resist taxes violently.For these people, you have to make an example and let them know that they are afraid.

So I issued an order: Anyone who refuses to pay taxes will be punished and ruined their property, and anyone who violently resists taxes will be killed without mercy!
I know that if my order continues, many businessmen will be arrested or even killed, and some innocent businessmen will inevitably be implicated, which will cause considerable damage to businesses everywhere.

However, there is no way around this. Those merchants have not paid taxes for many years, and the imperial court suddenly began to collect commercial taxes and raised the tax rate. Of course, these merchants will not pay their taxes quickly.If I am not more ruthless, they will not face up to my decree.

It's all right now. The merchants know that they will pay taxes voluntarily when they see that the court is getting serious.

Many people say that Chen Dahu is illiterate and ignorant, but last year Zhejiang sent more than 200 million taels of tax money to the Ministry of Households, ranking first in the country.You are from Zhejiang, you should know that Chen Dahu didn't receive so much tax money by ransacking his home and killing his head, right?I sent people down to check. After Chen Dahu arrived in Zhejiang, those businessmen paid their taxes happily, and there was almost no incident of tax resistance and non-payment. "

Huang Zongxi couldn't help smiling wryly at Li Jing when he heard the words, and said in his heart: "Chen Dahu didn't arrest or murder many people in Zhejiang, but when he was in Nanzhili back then, he killed many people, and the number of people who were arrested was even more rare.

Businessmen in other places may still dare to refuse to pay taxes, but who would dare under Chen Dahu's rule?Chen Dahu had tens of thousands of elite soldiers in his hands, and he was unambiguous in arresting them. As for the violent resistance to taxes, he was simply impatient.Such a murderous person came to Zhejiang, how dare the businessmen in Zhejiang not pay taxes happily? "

Although Huang Zongxi slandered in his heart, he had to admit that Li Jing's approach was indeed effective, especially the appointment of people like Chen Dahu and Liu Erleng as the local political envoys had achieved miraculous results.

Seeing Huang Zongxi's silence, Li Jing continued, "Let me tell you again, if the country hadn't started to levy commercial taxes, there would have been locust plagues in Shandong and Henan this year, how many victims would have rebelled, and how many people would have starved to death!
However, for their own benefit, there are still a large number of members of the Donglin Party and Fushe who oppose my levy of commercial taxes.Hey, are you saying that it is wrong for me to suppress the Donglin Party members and the Fushe organization? "

"For the sake of the country, the adults suppressed the members of the Donglin Party and the Fushe, and the students had nothing to say." Huang Zongxi said.

Li Jing smiled: "I know you still don't agree with my suppression of Donglin Party members and Fushe members, and I didn't intend to let everyone agree with my approach. Okay, I will answer your questions. I’ve answered it for you, you just said that you disagree with some of my government orders, and I want to hear your opinion.”

"Thank you, sir." Huang Zongxi cupped his hands.

After pondering for a while, Huang Zongxi continued: "My lord, please forgive me for speaking bluntly. The students think that your lord is still not considerate in collecting land taxes."

Li Jing smiled and said, "Do you think my tax rate is too high?"

Huang Zongxi shook his head: "This is just one of them. The adults may think that all exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes are cancelled, and only land tax is collected. Even if the tax rate is set higher, the burden on the common people is still lightened. In fact, it is not the case. The land tax was first formulated in the past dynasties. In fact, we always want to reduce the burden on the people, but tax reform, every time there is a change, the burden on the people will increase, and each time it is more serious, this is the accumulated harm."

Li Jing couldn't help thinking when he heard the words, seeing Li Jing thinking, Huang Zongxi immediately shut up.

After a long time, Li Jing said solemnly: "You continue."

Huang Zongxi continued: "Secondly, the tax is not the harm that comes out. My lord, Wen Zhenggong implemented a whip method in the past, combining land tax, corvee and other miscellaneous levies into one, combining the collection of silver taels, and paying by mu, which greatly simplified Collection procedures, while making it difficult for local officials to cheat.

The implementation of this method enables farmers without land to be relieved of their labor burdens, and farmers with land can spend more time cultivating the land, which has indeed greatly reduced the burden on the common people.

But there is actually a problem here. Your Excellency should know that the common people basically don’t have much money in their hands. However, if the imperial court wants to collect money, the common people must wait until the grain is harvested and sell the grain before they can pay taxes. At this time, Businessmen must suppress food prices.In other words, ordinary people will be exploited by businessmen.

Adults may say that the imperial court has a custom, and grain prices are not allowed to change at will, but the money is in the hands of grain merchants, and grain merchants can choose not to buy grain. What should ordinary people do at this time?The imperial court has to collect taxes, but grain merchants do not buy grain.Where do they get money?
Unless the imperial court paid for the food of the common people, how could the imperial court get so much money to buy grain? Even if they had money, they would not buy so much grain. In that case, why would they still collect taxes?Therefore, ordinary people can only sell grain to grain merchants at a low price, in exchange for money to pay taxes.And what about grain merchants?They bought grain at a low price, and even if they sold it at the court's price, it would be huge profits. "

"You are right, so I stipulate that ordinary people can use grain to offset taxes." Li Jing said.

Huang Zongxi smiled: "Your Excellency really understands this truth, but unfortunately many things are not as you imagined. Your Excellency should know that every prefecture and county has a tax task every year, and it is impossible to complete this task, and the states and counties also There are not so many grain stocks to store so much grain, so after the grain storage is full and the task of collecting grain is completed, the various places start to collect money. Then the ills that the students mentioned just now appeared.”

Li Jingwen listened silently.

After a while, Li Jing said: "You just said the first, the second, there must be the third, what is the third."

Huang Zongxi continued: "The third is the harm of the lack of grades in the fields. You should know that there are good fields and bad fields. The yield of good fields can reach more than three stones, the yield of medium fields is only about two stones, and the yield of low-grade fields is only one stone." A little more. However, the imperial court does not distinguish between good and bad land, and they are all collected according to the same standard. It is conceivable that only farmers with low-grade fields cannot afford such a high tax rate."

Hearing this, Li Jing suddenly got up, walked around the room for a while, then suddenly looked at Huang Zongxi and said, "Chisheng, since you see so many problems, do you know if there is a solution?"

"My lord, the student has also thought about a solution, but the student doesn't know if it is applicable." Huang Zongxi said.

"Let's listen to it." Li Jing said anxiously.

Then Li Jing said again: "Wait a minute."

After speaking, he turned to Su Heng and said, "Pingzhi, write down what Chisheng said."

"Yes!" Su Heng hurriedly said.

When Su Heng got the pen and paper ready, Li Jing said to Huang Zongxi, "Chi Sheng, please tell me."

Huang Zongxi cupped his hands and said: "Students dare to speak nonsense, if what you say is wrong, please don't blame me."

Li Jing smiled: "But it's okay to say it, even if it's wrong."

Huang Zongxi said: "Students don't know how much land tax is appropriate, but students know how much grain the country should collect every year.

Your Excellency, now the salaries of imperial officials are basically issued in real silver, so the state's grain requisition is mainly used for the army, secondly for corvee service, and finally for famine preparations. "

Li Jingwen nodded slightly.

Huang Zongxi continued: "Among them, the food used by the army is the best calculation. We can quantify according to the needs of wartime. How many troops the country has, how much food each person needs every day, and how much food they need in a year can be easily calculated.

(End of this chapter)