Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1416, Jiangnan is difficult to collect taxes
In a workshop of Caiyun Textile Factory in Beijing, Liu Jin and Wang Shouren were chatting while inspecting the production situation of the workshop.

Both of them took the imperial examinations in the same year. Liu Jin was the number one scholar, and Wang Shouren was the Tanhua. After many years, Liu Jin has been appointed as Minister of the Ministry of Officials, and Wang Shouren is now also in the third rank. tax collection matters.

Jiangnan taxation governor, this was set up after Liu Jin reformed Daming taxation. Because a special taxation office was established, the taxation office was directly under the jurisdiction of the Daming household department and was not under the jurisdiction of local officials. Therefore, some high-level taxation officials were also set up accordingly. .

The Jiangnan tax governor is one of them, in charge of tax collection in the entire Jiangnan area.

Both of them were named on the gold list at the same time, and they were both young and promising. They had already become important officials of the court, and they often exchanged letters.

This time, officials from all over Xinjiang came to Beijing to report on their duties. As a third-rank official, Wang Shouren also went to Beijing to report on his duties, and talked about his tax work in the Jiangnan area in the past few years.

"Old Wang, the textile factory of your family has done really well in the past few years, and it has now become the leader in the textile industry."

Liu Jin looked at the extremely busy workshop in front of him. The Caiyun Textile Factory has always been the benchmark of the textile industry in the Ming Dynasty. It was the first to establish and use new types of textile machines and looms, the first to use steam engines, and the first textile company to mass-produce ready-made garments. factory.

Because ready-made clothing has gradually become popular in the past few years, and there is a tendency to replace the original cloth, Caiyun Textile Factory has also become the first enterprise to eat cakes, with extremely fast development and a very large scale.

Nowadays, there are not only large-scale factories in Beijing and Tianjin, but also branch factories in Wang Shouren's hometown Zhejiang, as well as branches in Songhu, Xiyu, Hezhong and other places.

Many factories add up, employing more than [-] employees, with an annual production value of more than [-] million taels of silver, and a profit of more than five million taels of silver. It is definitely a hen that lays golden eggs properly.

Back then, it was just a textile factory established by Wang Shouren to experiment with an idea in his mind, and it is still the most important industry in the hands of the Wang family.

In comparison, the land, houses, and shops that the Wang family had in Zhejiang in the past are extremely insignificant. Of course, the Wang family has also invested heavily in many new industries over the years.

Plantations in Nanyang, pastures, plantations, and wineries in the Western Regions, Hezhong, and Nanyun Provinces, firms engaged in ocean trade and transportation, cement factories, shipyards, etc., have invested in many fields, and the scale is very large. It has become one of the representatives of the new type of capitalism in Ming Dynasty.

But this Caiyun Textile Factory is still very important to the Wang family, because it can bring huge cash flow and considerable profits. Compared with other industries, they are much inferior, and they are not as good as this Caiyun Textile Factory.

"It is because of the prosperity of our Ming Empire that we have achieved today's achievements."

Wang Shouren smiled and said modestly.

He is a person who is very good at learning and thinking. It seems to be a trivial matter for him to casually create such a huge textile factory.

Of course, Liu Jin, who came from later generations, knows very well the power of this person in front of him. Compared with his other achievements, this is really insignificant.

"How do you feel about going to Jiangnan, the governor of Jiangnan to pay taxes?"

Liu Jin smiled. When he was with Lao Wang beside him, Liu Jin always felt that he was very imaginary.

But fortunately, he and Lao Wang have also become friends over the years, and they can chat with each other very well.

"I feel that Jiangnan's taxes are difficult to collect!"

"It's not that difficult to collect, it's very difficult to collect. Even if the tax office uses force to collect taxes, it is still very difficult, and there is a lot of resistance."

Without even thinking about it, Wang Shouren said with a sigh.

"Tell me in detail~"

Liu Jin nodded slightly. It is precisely because the taxes in the Jiangnan area are not easy to collect, that's why Lao Wang was sent there. It is useless for ordinary officials to send there, and only Lao Wang can do it.

"First of all, officials in the Jiangnan area, up to the chief envoy and governor, are unwilling to cooperate with the work of our tax office, and even oppose our tax office."

"We are the tax police who go to arrest people quickly, and the yamen servants of the government's yamen and the police are quick to make troubles before us. We arrest people before they go, and they let them go behind."

"It has brought great obstacles and troubles to the work of our tax office."

"Secondly, there are many private schools and academies in the Jiangnan area, and there are many people who have studied. Even ordinary people can tell you about light corvee and poor tax."

"They are very resistant to paying taxes. Coupled with the deliberate propaganda of the powerful clan, big businessmen, gentry, officials, etc., they slander our tax office for collecting people's fat and anointing. The police and others have big prejudices."

"To the extent that sometimes our officials and policemen are thrown rotten eggs when they walk on the street, they are refused to eat in restaurants, and they are under pressure from many aspects."

"As a result, many tax officials, police officers, etc. chose to resign because they could not bear the pressure."

"There is also the emergence of group tax resistance. All merchants, factories, workshops, commercial firms, etc. in the entire county or a state capital resist tax together and refuse to pay tax."

"At the port, tax evasion is also very serious. A lot of smuggling has occurred in many places. Our tax office lacks sea power, and there is often no way to deal with these tax evasion ships."

Wang Shouren also began to talk in detail about his tax affairs as the governor of the Jiangnan area.

The tax in the Jiangnan area is really uncomfortable.

The big families, gentry, and big businessmen in the Jiangnan area who have always been accustomed to not paying taxes are full of resistance to paying taxes, and they have come up with various ways to refuse to pay taxes, so that Jiangnan has repeatedly appeared. The people's attack on the tax office.

On the Jiangnan side, Wang Shouren fought wits and bravery with these big families, big gentry, and big businessmen. He used eighteen martial arts, seventy-two changes and so on.

The results are also quite good. Nanzhili can now hand in nearly [-] million taels of silver a year. However, compared with Beizhili, it is only half of that in Beizhili. Obviously, there is a big gap, and there are still many people evading taxes. Tax evasion, tax refusal.

His words also made Liu Jin fall into deep thought.

For a long time, more than half of the officials in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty were from the Jiangnan area. Since ancient times, the Jiangnan area has been rich and rich, and the rich Jiangnan area has attached great importance to education. There are many private schools and academies, and a large number of talented scholars, scholars and officials have emerged.

Their influence in the court is very large, and they have always influenced the development of the Ming Dynasty.

These officials from the Jiangnan area themselves came from big families, businessmen, and gentry in the Jiangnan area, and they are inextricably linked.

And these big merchants, big families, big gentry, etc. in the Jiangnan area often have extremely large industries. In addition to a large number of fields, as before, Daming's textile industry, salt industry, tea industry, grain and many other important industries The industry is controlled and monopolized by these people in the Jiangnan area.

Therefore, they have been resolutely opposed to taxation from the very beginning. The court can have no money, the treasury can starve to death, and the emperor can be poor, but they must never levy business taxes or touch their cakes.

Once someone said that they wanted to levy a business tax, they would immediately be opposed or even attacked by these officials from the Jiangnan area.

Ma Wensheng, the former minister of the Ministry of War, felt that the border defenses were declining, the military supplies were not guaranteed, and the military equipment was slack, so that the Tatars invaded year after year, repeatedly detained and plundered the border people.

However, the treasury of the Ming court was empty, and there was no money at all to build the army, so he suggested to Emperor Hongzhi to levy business taxes to increase the revenue of the treasury.

However, it was immediately strongly opposed by officials in the Jiangnan area headed by Xie Qian, and in the end it was nothing. The Ming treasury still had no money, the frontier army was still struggling, and the court still had to worry about border defense every year.

However, the salt merchants, tea merchants, cloth merchants, grain merchants, etc. in the Jiangnan area are all rich and rich. To them, spending a lot of money on fireworks is nothing more than sprinkling water. There are countless flower boats on the Qinhuai River. Floating for dozens of miles.

This is the phenomenon in the Jiangnan area, and it is also a major drawback that the Ming court has always had.

Rich merchants, gentry, and big families in the Jiangnan area can hardly collect a penny in taxes. The imperial court’s taxes mainly come from poor farmers in poor areas.

Local officials don't even levy taxes, because not only will this be opposed by the local gentry, making it difficult for me to be an official, but also I have inextricably linked with these people, so it is impossible to levy taxes. own tax.

Had it not been for the fact that Emperor Hongzhi severely weakened the power of scholars in the Jiangnan area through several severe crackdowns on officials from Jiangnan, Liu Jin's tax reform in the Ministry of Households, the introduction of business tax, and the establishment of a tax office would have been impossible. Don't even think about it.

Even now, Emperor Hongzhi can still receive countless memorials to impeach the tax office, requesting the abolition of the tax office, the abolition of commercial taxes, and not to compete with the people for profit.

The demise of the Ming Dynasty, analyzed from the perspective of economics, was actually a matter of money.

The imperial court has no money, so they can't do anything, the army can't afford it, and disaster relief can't afford it.

Rich businessmen and gentry don’t have to pay taxes, and they can’t collect their taxes. They are drunk on money and dream of life. Poor people without money can’t even survive, but they have to bear the huge tax of the whole country.

Even if there is no foreign invasion, if this continues, the Ming Dynasty will perish.

(End of this chapter)