Chastity Layman

  Chapter 257 Stacking picks

   "Your Majesty, except for a few ferocious beasts such as lions and elephants that are kept in the imperial garden, all the other tributes have been auctioned off, and a total of more than one million coins have been obtained."

  Looking at these numbers, Li Shimin stroked his beard and smiled with satisfaction.

Not only won the face of rewarding the tribute envoys, but also received so much money, according to Qin Lang's statement, even if the market price of these things such as Shaofujian is removed, he still earned at least 100,000 guan. For the cost of Shaofu, this time he earned a lot of 200,000 Guan.

   "You boy, you actually treat tribute and rewards as trade!"

  Although Li Shimin said so, the unconcealable smile in his eyes showed that he was very satisfied. Originally, he thought he would pay for it. After all, it costs money to maintain face, but who knew that Qin Lang would make money after some manipulation.

   Earned more than 200,000 guan, and got a lot of tigers, lions and elephants, and the transshipment department also left a batch of frosting sugar, spices, etc. for the palace, which can be worth a lot.

  Li Shimin is now even a little bit eager to be able to pay this kind of tribute a few more times.

   "The new shipping bureau of your transshipment department is good, and the idea is novel."

"My minister's idea is to set up a municipal shipping bureau in important coastal ports such as Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Jiaozhi, to take charge of sea and road relations and foreign trade, to levy import duties on ships that come to trade, and to levy certain export duties on ships that go out to sea for trade. In addition, It also represents the court to purchase and buy some imported goods that enter the customs, and manages the tributes of merchants to the emperor."

This Maritime Bureau is actually the Maritime Bureau of the later generations. There is no such thing at the moment, but Qin Lang feels that there is a prospect for the development of maritime trade, and the Tang Dynasty also had maritime trade at this time. Even since the Han Dynasty, the Southeast Maritime Trade has actually been already exists.

  During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the sea trade in Guangzhou, Jiaozhi and other ports was already very prosperous.

   With such a prosperous maritime trade, the imperial court must of course actively participate in it, not only to play the role of supervision and management, but also to be deeply involved.

  For example, for many commodities brought by foreign businessmen, such as pepper, ivory and other commodities that are very popular in the domestic market of Datang, they can be purchased at the port, which will undoubtedly be much cheaper. On the other hand, the imperial court also had a great demand for many imported goods, and purchasing them directly was cheaper than purchasing goods from Hu merchants in the capital.

   It is very necessary and profitable for the imperial court to directly send people to participate in these commodity trading activities.

   Not to mention, if import and export duties are levied, it will be a huge sum of money.

  For example, in the Song Dynasty, the customs revenue of the shipping department was more than one million guan a year, and they could earn hundreds of thousands of guan a year by selling ships such as fragrant medicines.

What's more, in Qin Lang's view, the establishment of the Bureau of Shipbuilding by the imperial court is not just a simple tax on paper, but a special customs office is set up. Then foreign trade will naturally rise, export trade will rise, and domestic China's industry and commerce, as well as navigation, shipbuilding, etc. will follow, which will be of great benefit to the court.

"As long as the imperial court guides it properly, the Maritime Silk Road will also rise in a short time. At that time, there will be a Silk Road in the northwest leading directly to the Western Regions, and a Maritime Silk Road in the southeast, connecting the vassal kingdoms. All things will be stimulated, and business and industry will prosper, so there will be no worries about finances.”

   This is the first time Li Shimin has heard the term Maritime Silk Road, but it seems to make sense after careful consideration. After all, during the Southern Dynasties, several small imperial courts in a peaceful corner all developed maritime trade and made a lot of profits.

  The courtiers who can bring money to Li Shimin now are all good courtiers, especially those who don’t exploit the people and won’t let the people complain about him, the emperor’s way of getting money. Li Shimin prefers it.

  Qin Lang said that he would open a shipping bureau and set up customs in important ports to collect taxes. Li Shimin didn't think anything wrong now.

As for the tax rate, Qin Lang proposed that import and export are taxed at 10 per 20, regardless of the size of your ship, anyway, your goods will be valued and taxed. For imported goods that enter the customs, if the goods are listed in the imperial court's procurement catalog, they will be taxed. The goods can be directly collected for tax credit at 20% of the tax. These goods are put into the Changping warehouse of the imperial court, and shipped to other places for sale, or supplied to the court.

In short, the prospect Qin Lang described to Li Shimin is that as long as the market is stable, the tariffs of one million yuan a year, plus the income from trading imported goods should also be one million yuan. Millions.

   "When will this number be reached, and how many years?"

Qin Lang didn't expect Li Shimin to be more anxious than him, so he could only say, "In three years, there will be at least 300,000 yuan in income every year; After that, at least two million guan can be earned every year."

In addition to tariffs, the focus is on buying and selling, such as spices and other hot-selling commodities. Shibosi buys some of them directly at the port, and then ships them to the mainland for sale. In fact, it acts as a distributor. This kind of distributor Of course you can make money.

"good."

  Li Shimin felt that the time was too long, but he didn't say much after all.

  Qin Lang went to see Changsun Wuji.

  Earlier, the eldest grandson asked him to write a report on tax reform. After giving him such a long time, he has not seen the result of the eldest grandson Wuji. Seeing that it has been a long time since the end of the year, Qin Lang couldn't sit still.

  After all, he had bragged to Li Shimin that the census would be completed within this year, and that 2 million new households would be added, but there is still no movement, so there is no delay.

  He remembered that there was an old man in history who bragged with the emperor, but was finally cut to pieces because he didn't realize it.

Seeing Changsun Wuji, he was quite polite to Qin Lang. The eldest grandson's family became an important distributor of Guogong sugar this time, and Qin Lang gave him all the white sugar distribution in Henan. In this land, you can only sell sugar from the Duke of Qin's family to the eldest grandson's family for wholesale, otherwise, even if you buy sugar elsewhere, you can't sell it in that land.

  The family has monopolized such a large market, and the eldest grandson's family is of course very satisfied.

   "The plan that was given to the eldest grandson years ago? I wonder if the eldest grandson has read it?"

"I've read it, and I have discussed it with the officials of the Political Affairs Hall several times, but it has been too long to reach an agreement." Changsun Wuji was also a little helpless. The resistance encountered in this matter in the Political Affairs Hall was greater than expected. many.

  He told Qin Lang that this reform of the tax law is very unfriendly to the bureaucratic landlords and aristocratic families, so now they are going to oppose it in the court.

   "Who are the supporters and who are the opponents?" Qin Lang asked.

   "Feng Pushe also has Wang Canzheng and Wei Canzheng. In addition, my uncle Gao Shizhong and Wei Canzheng are against it. Supporters include Fang Linggong, Du Shizhong and me. Your grandfather never expresses his opinion."

  Qin Lang didn't expect that there were more people who opposed it than those who supported it.

   As for Qin Qiong's refusal to express his opinion, it was also to avoid it. After all, Qin Lang proposed this plan.

   "Spring is coming soon, and the court is still arguing like this, I can't afford to delay." Qin Lang was also helpless. Although the Transshipment Department is not affiliated with Nanya, it is impossible for major decision-making to be made without the Prime Minister of Zhengshitang.

   "This matter, you can't be in a hurry, and you can't be in a hurry." Changsun Wuji said.

   "How about asking Your Majesty to express his position?"

"The attitude of the political affairs hall is divided on two sides. How does your majesty express his position?" Changsun Wuji asked back. Although Li Shimin is the emperor, the emperor cannot be consistent. Orders to be carried out will inevitably be opposed by the lower levels, or even violated by others, and there will never be good results in the end.

  So for this kind of thing, we must unify our thinking from top to bottom before we can act.

  Li Shimin can only express his position when the opinions of the upper management are almost reached.

Qin Lang's new tax law is naturally beneficial to the imperial court, and it is even a good medicine for the long-term stability of the Tang Dynasty. After all, the land equalization system is no longer effective. The overall collapse of the Tang Dynasty, if you want to change it again at that time, it will be hard to return.

   It’s just that such a good tax law is based on harming the current interest groups. The nobles, bureaucrats, landlords and powerful people are all losers of the new tax law, so who would be willing to pass it?

Changsun Wuji, Qin Lang, Fang Xuanling, Du Ruhui and others are willing to promote this tax law reform because they have a long-term perspective and consider the national interest, but more people don’t care about it. They only know that their own cheese Can't move.

  "Elder Grandson, can you please call a political affairs hall meeting, and then let me attend as a non-voting participant, I want to personally express the necessity of this reform to all the ministers."

"Feng Deyi is Zuo Pushe, the head of the prime minister. His current attitude is useless even if you go. In my opinion, it is better for you to ask His Majesty to hold a court meeting to expand the scale of the court meeting, and have His Majesty sit in charge." Hosting, it may have some effect at that time."

Reform is always difficult, but Qin Lang dared to propose the reform of the tax law because it was the beginning of the founding of the country, and Li Shimin was a very courageous and prestigious emperor. This was different from those reforms in the middle and late dynasties. In fact, they are all serious deficiencies, and the imperial court has accumulated deep faults that are hard to recover.

   Want to reform, but they are hindered everywhere, such as Wang Anshi's reform, such as Wang Mang's reform of the ancient system, it is difficult for them to reform successfully.

  However, in the reform at the beginning of the dynasty, there were no such problems. The most important thing was the attitude and determination of the emperor. As long as the emperor was willing to promote it, many things would be easy to handle.

  For example, Yu Wentai in the Northern Zhou Dynasty and Yang Jian in the Sui Dynasty, they all carried out comprehensive reforms, and the effect was very good. But when Yang Guang started to reform, he was much more resistant than his father.

Although Li Shimin was not the founding king of the country, he also participated in the war, and his fame and prestige was extremely high. In addition, he won the throne by force, so there is no problem with prestige, and there is no problem with courage. The only problem is that the center of the court cannot Unify thoughts and reach consensus.

   "Okay, I can only ask His Majesty to come forward. If you still have this attitude, then I, Qin Lang, can only quit and go back to the countryside to raise pigs and farm."

  (end of this chapter)