Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 86 Tax Collection
September 1590, 9, at noon.

"...My lord, according to statistics, by the end of August, a total of more than 1 dan of sticky stone mines have been mined in Zhangjiaping Mountain, and more than 1 dan of lime (about 2 tons) have been burned. It was successfully fired at the beginning of July, and more than [-] dans have been fired so far."

In the backyard of the Qianhu House, Huang Laifu was wearing a plain robe, leaning on a bamboo recliner, with his eyes slightly closed, and the two iron gallbladders in his hands couldn't help turning. He was listening to Zhou Wendong's financial report, while Yang Xiaolu, Jiang Dazhong and the others He also stood by and listened carefully.

In view of Zhou Wendong's performance, a few days ago, Huang Laifu had asked him to manage all kinds of financial and accounting work in Wuzhai Fort. If there was any shortage of manpower, let Zhou Wendong recruit people to solve it.As for Steward Yang, he was in charge of the treasury of Thousand Households, and also examined Zhou Wendong's financial books. The two checked and balanced each other.

Not long after he came to Wuzhaibao, he gained such trust from Huang Laifu, which boosted Zhou Wendong's spirit and made him work more joyfully.Yesterday, he carefully sorted out the financial situation of Wuzhai Fort, and today he came to report to Huang Laifu.

"Well, not bad, with this result, it's already pretty good."
Huang Laifu opened his eyes, took the tea brought by a maid, took a sip, and said slowly.

Huang Laifu is still satisfied with the current achievements of the Dawuzhaibao Cement Plant.Some rural factories in later generations had 5 or 6 lime kilns, and generally produced no more than 1 to [-] tons of lime per year.And my own Dawuzhaibao Cement Factory is also a village-level lime kiln production area. There are eight lime kilns. From the beginning of the year to the present, it can produce more than [-] tons of lime, which is already very good. Well.

As for cement, this new thing in the Ming Dynasty can be developed, and these Ming craftsmen are already capable. After I went to Beijing to replace my job and came back, I heard that the cement was developed, and I was happy for a while.It took more than two months to burn more than 2 tons of cement, which is more than 1000 tons a month. Well, compared with the later Sanwu small cement factory, which can produce at least [-] tons of cement, it is still a little bit worse. , to continue to work hard.

"How are the sticky stones and lime sold?" Huang Laifu asked.

Zhou Wendong looked at the account book and said, "Since the lime was fired successfully, merchants have come to buy it one after another. According to the situation in the account, by the end of the year, there should be a gross profit of more than 3000 taels for adding lime to the sticky stone."

Huang Laifu nodded. Although the profit was a little lower than he estimated, it was within expectation.The main reason is that Huang Laifu insists on burning lime with coal. Wuzhaibao does not produce coal, and the coal needed for burning lime has to be imported from Datong, Ningwu and other places. The cost of consumption here is a bit higher.

Of course, if you want to reduce the cost, you can also use the local method to burn lime, but for every kilogram of lime burned, you need to consume [-] kilogram of pine wood, which is a serious loss of forest resources.This is what Huang Laifu does not want to see.In order to protect the environment of Wuzhai Fort, he insisted on burning lime with coal, and the higher the cost, the higher the cost.

"By the way, there is still that cement, how much has it been sold?" Huang Laifu asked enthusiastically.

"This..." Zhou Wendong hesitated for a while, and said in a low voice, "Returning to my lord, I didn't sell a load of this cement."

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"Ma'am, the young master is losing his temper in the backyard." A maid ran to the main room and said.

"Oh, what's the matter?" Yang Shi, who was playing mahjong with the elder sister, second sister, and third sister, asked with concern after hearing this, and the older sisters also stopped.

"Your servant doesn't know either, you'll know when Madam is gone," said the maid.

"Let's go and see what's going on." Yang has always been very concerned about her son, and since Huang Laifu traveled through time, he has never let his parents worry about it. It is rare for him to lose his temper right now. Shi and others are very concerned.At that moment, Mrs. Yang and her sisters got up and came to the backyard.

"Hmph, these profiteers, why don't you buy my cement? Isn't my cement bad?"

Huang Laifu walked back and forth in the backyard, angrily saying, seeing Zhou Wendong and Jiang Dazhong staring at him, he felt extremely shameless.During these times, I can say that everything goes well for me. No matter what I make, it is a guarantee of best-selling. I never thought that the cement I put on my high hopes and spent a lot of manpower and material resources in exchange for this ending. It really makes Huang Laifu disappointment.

"Also." Huang Laifu suddenly remembered that there are more and more merchants in Wuzhaibao, but it seems that he has never collected commercial taxes from them. He said sharply: "I didn't ask them to charge those profiteers." Taxes, they don’t know to take the initiative to pay taxes, they are really treacherous and cunning!”

No wonder Chinese businessmen have always had a low status, either driving up prices, evading taxes, or engaging in counterfeit and shoddy products.At the end of the Ming Dynasty, merchants and civil officials colluded, so that the tea tax in a province changed from 20 taels to 20 taels. Later generations have all kinds of highly toxic commodities. These merchants have remained unchanged for thousands of years.

Huang Laifu is an officer now, but he will be a businessman in later generations, so he naturally knows the bad nature of businessmen. He decided that starting today, he will implement a strict management system for businessmen in Wuzhai Fort.

As for what the merchants would think, Huang Laifu didn't mind. His Wuzhai Fort was originally based on agriculture, and merchants only needed him, not important.And according to his understanding of businessmen, as long as there is money to be made, these businessmen are like flies, and they can't be driven away.If there is no money to make, they will dismiss you even if you attract investment.

According to the current rapid development of Wuzhai Fort, the number of merchants in Wuzhai Fort will only increase in the future, and will not decrease. Huang Laifu has the capital to pick and choose among merchants.

Just as Huang Laifu roared, Yang Shi and several sisters walked in.

"Fu'er, what's the matter?" Yang asked with concern.

Huang Laifu hurriedly went up to meet her, and said, "Mother, why are you here?"

Zhou Wendong, Jiang Dazhong, Yang Xiaolu and others were also busy saluting to Yang and others.

Yang said: "I heard that you are angry, mother is very concerned, what is going on?"

Huang Laifu said, Yang and several sisters also scolded, the eldest sister Huang Ziju said: "These merchants are too shameful, the cement developed by my brother is such a good thing, why don't they buy it, everyone can buy it for a few catties OK."

"That's right." Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu also hurriedly interjected, "Master, how much energy has been spent on developing cement, whoever doesn't buy cement, just doesn't give Qianhuzhai face, this kind of person must never stay in Wuzhai Fort." Only Zhou Wendong stood aside and said nothing.

Huang Laifu pondered for a while, and said: "Little donkey, you take a group of servants and call all the well-known merchants in the castle. I want to discuss something, young master."

Today's Wuzhai Fort is bustling with business, with hundreds of shops and countless small vendors on the street. If everyone calls, there will certainly not be enough room in the lobby of the Qianhu House.Forget about small vendors on the street, let alone some small shops with small capitals, besides these small merchants, there are dozens of powerful merchants, these are the people Huang Laifu wants to call.

Yang Xiaolu hurriedly responded, waved his hand, and led a group of servants away.

※※※

"Ah, his shopkeeper."

"Oh, so it's Shopkeeper Du..."

"Hey, isn't this Boss Li? I heard that your dental and rice shop has made a lot of money?"

"Hey, how much did we earn? Isn't the biggest gross profit all earned by the shopkeeper?"

In the hall of the Thousand-Family House, there was a crowd of richly dressed merchants, including rice merchants, tea merchants, silk merchants, leather goods merchants, salt merchants, etc. Everyone greeted each other and bowed to each other while Inquire about why Lord Qianhu recruited them.

Among them, Qu Yuanrui is like the stars holding the moon. He is now the largest grain and rice wholesaler in Wuzhaibao. Anyone who wants food must establish a good relationship with him. Also, Qu Yuan yesterday Rui released the news that in mid-September, the Qixian Guild Hall would open a series of food processing factories in Wuzhaibao, as well as wool processing, which attracted another wave of visits.

All the merchants have gained huge profits from this bumper harvest of Wuzhai Fort, and according to Master Qianhu, Wuzhai Fort will only become a bigger and bigger source of grain in the future, and now another new crop has appeared. The non-staple food source of income naturally attracts all the merchants.

Shopkeeper Du Maozhen of Derun Buzhuang asked Qu Yuanrui, "Treasurer Qu, you are on good terms with Mr. Qianhu, do you know why Mr. Qianhu invited us here?"

Qu Yuanrui shook his head, and said: "I don't know about this, I don't know what to say, I'll just wait for Lord Qianhu to come out."

Shopkeeper Du Maozhen nodded and sat down.

Soon, Huang Laifu, accompanied by He Chaoxun, He Fuqianhu, Jiang Yongsheng Jiang Baihu, Yang Anzhang and Yang Baihu, came out from the back hall.This time, Huang Laifu decided to bring in He Fuqianhu and others in the management of merchants and the collection of commercial taxes.Anyway, they are idle now, so it's good to help, and their current interests are all connected with Huang Laifu, the more Huang Laifu gets, the more they get, so they will naturally do their best.

Seeing Huang Laifu and others coming out, all the merchants stood up and bowed to Huang Laifu.

Huang Laifu nodded and motioned the merchants to sit down, he said: "Thanks for coming, all shopkeepers, Laifu is here to express my gratitude." After hearing this, all the merchants hurriedly bowed down.

Huang Laifu continued: "Thanks to everyone's blessings, Wuzhai Fort is becoming more and more prosperous, and this is due to the shopkeepers. However, there are many merchants, but it also creates a problem, that is, the good and the bad are mixed."

He looked around the crowd and said: "In the future, more and more people will come to Wuzhaibao to do business. In order to better standardize the business order of Wuzhaibao, this thousand households decided to implement the tooth post system of the states of Ming Dynasty in Wuzhaibao. Municipal registration system, and pay taxes according to the regulations, and those who evade taxes will be severely punished."

According to the regulations of Ming Dynasty, merchants in cities must implement the merchant city registration system.The so-called merchant city registration system means that merchants register with the local government with a letter of guarantee for applying for city registration. After obtaining the approval of the government, they obtain the right to live in a certain place and pay a certain city rent before they are allowed to set up shops in the city and engage in business. Sales and other business operations are similar to business management certificates and business certificates in later generations.

The implementation of this system is conducive to the management and taxation of merchants.Wuzhai Fort used to be just a simple military fort with few merchants, and the management of merchants was relatively simple. Any merchant opened a shop in Wuzhai Fort without even saying hello, and did not even pay a penny for taxes, but Now Wuzhai Fort has a tendency to develop into prefectures and counties, and the related business management naturally has to keep up.

As for the tooth post system, it refers to some middlemen, wholesalers, financiers, business brokers and other figures who charge commissions. After applying for and receiving official approval, they can engage in all kinds of business operations Activity.Considering the prosperity of business in Wuzhaibao in the future, there may be some dental shops, money shops and pawnshops. It is necessary to keep up with this management system in advance.

As for the management of these merchants and the collection of commercial taxes, Wuzhaibao will set up a tax bureau, with ambassadors, deputy envoys, Zandian, patrols and other small officials.The specific management personnel were appointed by He Chaoxun, Deputy Qianhu and others after discussion.The monthly accounts of the Taxation Bureau will be handed over to Zhou Wendong for review, and the money collected will be distributed collectively according to the size of the Wuzhaibao officials in addition to public expenses every year.

After the Taxation Bureau was established, it meant that Wuzhaibao was no different from some counties in the interior. According to the guard system of the Ming Dynasty, everything in the guardhouse was managed by the officers of the guards. It was nothing to set up a Taxation Bureau.

In fact, it's not that the military forts in the border towns don't want to set up tax bureaus, it's just that many military forts are remote and cold, and there are no merchants at all, so naturally there will be no tax bureaus.However, like the town of Wuguan in Zhenning, Shanxi, because there are many soldiers and merchants, there is also a tax bureau in the town, and the commander-in-chief instructs his confidantes to collect taxes.

After Wuzhai Fort established a series of commercial market management organizations, it was beneficial to the future operation and management of Wuzhai Fort, and increased the financial revenue in the fort.Of course, as soon as the Wuzhaibao Taxation Bureau is established, the household department will also come to Wuzhaibao to check the tax invoices and collect taxes, but Huang Laifu doesn't care about it. It is the duty of every citizen to pay taxes according to the law. I don't care if the Ministry of Households comes to collect taxes from him.

After listening to Huang Laifu's words, the merchants in the hall exchanged glances with each other, and Du Maozhen, the shopkeeper of Derunbuzhuang, stood up and said: "My lord, it would be the best to set up the dental sticker system and the municipal registration system. A law-abiding businessman will naturally abide by the law and pay taxes according to the regulations, but I don’t know how much the tax in Wuzhai Fort is?”

Huang Laifu arched his hands and said, "Every business tax in the Ming Dynasty is one in thirty, and those who pass it will be regarded as violating the order. Today, in the tenth year of Wanli, there is another saying that there are three tax exemption deeds under the shop, and the purchase price is not enough. 40 taels and the pawn price are all tax-free, and the purchase price is more than 40 taels, and every tael of tax-free silver is one cent five cents. Of course, Wuzhaibao is acting in accordance with commercial laws."

The business tax in Ming Dynasty has always been very low. It used to be 30 in 40, but it was reduced to [-]% in the [-]th year of Wanli.Small businesses, hawkers, and those with an annual turnover of less than [-] taels of silver are exempt from tax, and those who set up street stalls do not have to pay a penny.

Such a low business tax will make people laugh their heads off in future generations, but at this time, the merchants of Ming Dynasty are not satisfied. Tax evasion is very common, especially those big merchants. Whoever does not evade taxes seems embarrassed to see humanlike.Huang Laifu couldn't figure it out. With such a low business tax, why do those big merchants still want to evade tax?In the end, Huang Laifu came to a conclusion that the heads of these Ming merchants were made of pig brains, not human brains.

(End of this chapter)