Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

In addition to the Goryeo envoys coming to Beijing and escorting Cai You, Li Yan and others to the north, there are also a large number of city shipping agency officials who returned to Beijing to "report on their work."

This was summoned by Zhu Guoxiang. At least one of the first and second leaders of each city's shipping agency must come to Kaifeng so that the Ming Dynasty and the New Dynasty can grasp the specific situation.

The Account Department has been busy for nearly half a month, sorting out everything that can be sorted out, and the remaining accounts are a mess.

As the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Qian Chen was overwhelmed when he received the summary report from his subordinates. He came to see the emperor and the prince and said: "The accounts of the government offices in the southeastern cities cannot be calculated clearly, and they cannot be calculated at all." Calculate how much tax is collected in a year."

The eunuch was ordered to bring a pot of boiling water, and Zhu Ming took it and made tea himself. He also made a cup for his father and himself, and poured some for Qian Chen.

Qian Chen stood up to thank him, and Zhu Guoxiang raised his hand to ask him to sit down and continue talking.

Qian Chen said: "In the early years of the Old Song Dynasty, no tax was levied on maritime merchants, and later a small amount was levied. The specific amount depends on whether the national treasury is sufficient. When the finance is in distress, it levies more, and when the finance is abundant, it levies less."

"When Zhao Ji became emperor, he probably imposed heavy taxes, right?" Ju Ming asked with a smile.

Qian Chen nodded and said: "That's true. But there are exceptions. Since Xining, in order to unite Goryeo to fight against Liao, the old Song Dynasty has exempted Goryeo's goods from tax. Later, after the Liao Kingdom disappeared, it wanted Goryeo to threaten the Jin Kingdom. Goods from Korea are still exempt from taxation."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Diplomatic relations are diplomatic relations, and taxes are taxes. From now on, Korea must be treated equally. How much should be levied!"

Qian Chen began to systematically describe the city shipping system in the Song Dynasty: "The city shipping yamen is divided into three levels, namely the city shipping department, the city shipping market, and the city shipping affairs. Big ports such as Hangzhou and Mingzhou have city shipping departments. Maritime trade is relatively small If there are few, a market or market service will be set up."

Zhu Ming began to crack pine nuts and asked Qian Chen to taste them too.

Qian Chen picked up a few symbolically and continued: "In the old Song Dynasty, there was a ban, just like Sichuan tea. Overseas goods could only be bought by the government, and private merchants were prohibited from getting involved. Due to the seriousness of private smuggling, there are many other Trouble, it’s been a semi-restricted situation since then.”

"Half-question ban?" Zhu Guoxiang didn't understand.

Qian Chen explained: "It stipulates that certain types of goods are prohibited and can only be bought by the government. Generally, they are fine and valuable goods that are easy to transport and can be easily sold, such as pearls, spices, ivory, etc. And the types are prohibited. It has been changing, for example, when the fatuous king Zhao Ji was in power, the types of forbidden goods were greatly increased, and the government almost occupied all the good goods."

"This is something Zhao Ji can do." Ju Ming commented.

Qian Chen added: "After the prohibited goods arrive at the port, they are sold directly to the government by maritime merchants, so these goods do not pay taxes. The remaining goods need to be extracted, which is a tax. One out of ten is drawn. One out of fifteen is drawn, or even two out of ten are drawn out. The amount of tax collected by this shipping department is different from that of that shipping department."

Zhu Guoxiang frowned and said: "The tariffs are not unified. This loophole is too big."

Qian Chen continued: "The goods shipped by maritime merchants are either thick or fine. The coarse goods are bulky and worthless, while the fine goods are light and profitable. The shipping department caught the fine goods and levied taxes. The maritime merchants were miserable. Later, it was changed to Choose some thick and thin. As for how much each will draw, this is not certain. Maritime merchants can even bargain with city shipping officials."

Zhu Guoxiang sighed: "No wonder the Ministry of Household Affairs has not collected statistics for half a month."

"It's not just that," Qian Chen said with a wry smile, "After overseas goods are taxed, the government still wants to buy them."

Ju Ming asked: "Didn't the government directly buy some goods after they were banned? Why do you still have to buy them after paying taxes?"

Qian Chen explained: "Although the ban was handled by the Shibo Yamen, it had to be transported to the capital for sale. However, the capital's Queyiwu paid for the ban, and the Shibosi could sell it locally, and the profits were shared by the emperor and Queyiwu. We share the profits with the Shibo Company. Moreover, buying and selling is often a cost-free transaction."

"How come there is no method?" Zhu Guoxiang asked.

Qian Chen said: "For example, in the seventh year of Zhenghe, the coward Zhao Ji was short of money for a large-scale construction project, so he issued nearly two thousand ultimatums to Que Yiwu. Que Yiwu then sold these ultimatums to Zhejiang, Guangnan and Fujian, and the money obtained Leave it to the Shipping Department to make capital, buy shipping cargo and bring it to the capital to sell for profit."

Zhu Guoxiang was speechless when he heard this: "From the capital to the local government, all yamen are doing business everywhere. Is this still considered a court? Is it still considered a government office?"

Qian Chen said: "In fact, when taxes are collected, the taxes collected are also in kind, and they are sold to local merchants. After the government has banned, taxed, and purchased, only the remaining goods can be traded directly with land merchants. "

"It is forbidden to buy by force, sell by imposing taxes, and buy and sell by force. These three all involve the sale of goods. It is impossible to calculate how much tax the city shipping department has levied, and it is also unclear how much money officials have embezzled. If it is transported to the capital for sale, there will be many people along the way. Let the Xiang army transport it, and the Xiang army does not need to pay for it. They even have to pay for delivery to the shops along the way. Occasionally, civilians have to be recruited to help transport it. The cost cannot be calculated, and it is a complete mess. "

Zhu Guoxiang ordered: "Go back and discuss with the shipping officials who came to Beijing to come up with a new set of shipping tax rules. From now on, except for silver and copper, other commodities will no longer be prohibited, and no more purchases will be made. It is necessary to make it easy to count taxes and try to prevent officials from embezzling and profiting from them. Those who have made meritorious services will be rewarded heavily. If a municipal official's suggestion is adopted, he can be promoted to three levels on top of his original official rank."

"Yes!" Qian Chen accepted the order.

After Qian Chen left, Zhu Guoxiang said with emotion: "This is the Song Dynasty that attaches great importance to sea trade. Customs affairs are a mess. I can't imagine how corrupt officials are!"

In fact, the Song Dynasty court also wanted to prevent corruption, so it stipulated that prohibited items must be transported to the capital, and the selling prices were also strictly regulated.

The execution was a mess!

When the court was keeping a close eye on the goods, officials were afraid of making mistakes and set the selling price very high. As a result, the goods could not be sold and there was a large backlog in warehouses in the Gyeonggi area.

When the court was not keeping a close watch, officials set the selling price very low, and collaborated with merchants to buy at a low price and sell at a high price to make a profit.

Or they can do both together, deliberately setting high prices first and filling up the warehouse. Then he reported to the court that it was difficult to sell and that it must be disposed of at a low price as soon as possible, otherwise the warehouse would not be able to hold it, and then he collaborated with merchants to sell it at a low price.

Some powerful people in the capital even secretly joined forces to control the shipping time of these commodities, forcing the government to sell them at low prices when the warehouses were full, and convert the commodities shipped from overseas into futures.

Why is the pump-and-buy system introduced again?

In fact, it is another system developed by Wang Anshi to officially intervene in the trading market through transaction transactions.

At that time, the dignitaries and big businessmen who were playing futures suffered heavy losses due to Wang Anshi, and the central government's finances quickly became abundant. But it led to more serious consequences. Queyiwu soon grew into a behemoth, disrupting the national business order through the local Changping Department, and forcing countless small and medium-sized merchants to lose their lives.

The root cause of all problems is the transformation of normal commercial transactions into a government-controlled purchase and sale. In order to resolve the problem, Wang Anshi asked the court to take micro-control measures. The final result was inevitable.

"How about setting up an exchange for a city-level port?" Ju Ming said suddenly.

Zhu Guoxiang was startled: "Exchange?"

Ju Ming explained: "Maritime merchants come from afar, so it is unrealistic to collect monetary taxes. They cannot carry a large amount of money, and the price of goods fluctuates, making it difficult to price and collect taxes. Therefore, the customs can only collect physical taxes. But the customs collects physical taxes, and it is difficult to collect taxes in kind." It must be sold and turned into money, leaving too many loopholes for officials to exploit when selling goods.”

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "Can we let the maritime merchants sell the goods first and then collect currency taxes?"

"What do you think?" Zhu Ming asked.

Zhu Guoxiang shook his head: "No way, maritime merchants and mainland merchants will join forces to make false accounts to evade taxes!"

Ju Ming said: "So, the warehouse of the Shipping Department can be turned into a local exchange. According to the quality of the goods, representatives from the Shipping Department and the trading houses will jointly classify the goods as high-grade, medium-grade, or low-grade. And It is not limited to these three grades, it depends on the market conditions. Anyway, merchants have their own set of inspection methods. After setting the grade of the goods, they are listed for auction on the exchange, and the shipping company collects currency taxes during the transaction. "

Zhu Guoxiang said: "This method also has many loopholes."

"Is there any perfect method in the world?" Ju Ming said, "As long as there is no problem with the general direction, the loopholes will be automatically filled in during the operation. The court only needs to grasp the general direction and make adjustments once serious loopholes are discovered."

Zhu Guoxiang nodded and said, "Then give it a try."

Ju Ming said: "Buying and selling of goods can be done on the exchange. In order to regulate the market, both parties to the transaction must register a company and pay taxes in the name of the company. For maritime merchants who ship goods to China for the first time, once the goods are stored in the warehouse, You can automatically register a company for free, and you can trade according to this company in the future. If you want to enter the exchange, you have to pay an admission fee. This money is put into the small treasury of the Municipal Shipping Department, which can also be considered profitable for the Municipal Shipping officials. Commodity trading When a voucher is issued, a stamp duty can also be collected.”

Zhu Guoxiang said: "The shipping department can set up an exchange, but what about the shipping market and shipping services?"

"In those places where the scale of trade is small, physical taxes can be collected normally," Zhu Ming said. "These physical taxes are transported to the provinces, prefectures, and counties in proportion, and allocated to local finances for free distribution. There are definitely officials making profits from it, but the scale is not large. , completely acceptable. From time to time, people are sent to inspect various ports. If it is found that the trading volume of a certain port has increased significantly for several consecutive years, the court can consider upgrading it to a municipal shipping department and establishing an exchange."

Zhu Guoxiang thought carefully and found that although this method had many loopholes, it was obviously better than the leaky sieve of the Song Dynasty.

You can try it for a few years to see the effect!

As long as the general direction of what the policymakers come up with is OK, the private sector can not only fill the loopholes, but also provide you with some tricks.

It is estimated that futures trading will appear on the exchange used for the purchase and sale of goods in a few years. By then, the futures trading process will have to be standardized and taxes will be levied.

Zhu Guoxiang asked: "By the way, what's going on in Korea?"

Ju Ming said briefly and smiled: "Don't count on Goryeo. Before the collapse of the Jin Kingdom, Goryeo will definitely not send troops. Only when we defeat the Jin Kingdom will Goryeo emerge to take advantage and become a truly reliable ally." There is only Yelu Dashi.”

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Then just send a few envoys to visit Goryeo, and the customs tax-free policy for Goryeo will also be cancelled."