Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 1422, I can't go back at all

Following Xie Qian's words, the entire Golden Luan Hall became silent. At this point, anyone with a discerning eye could clearly see that the opinions of the top leaders of the Ming Dynasty were very consistent on the issue of taxation.

It's useless for the fourth-rank and fifth-rank officials below you to beep. Even Xie Qian, who was born in the south of the Yangtze River and has always been firmly opposed to the taxation of merchants, can't stand up to oppose it, because the situation is like this.

"Hmm~"

Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly, then glanced around the group of officials, fixed his eyes on Gao Yuanlong, Qian Qi and the others and said, "Do you have anything else to say?"

"Your Majesty, the sages of all dynasties have lightly paid their taxes and paid less for the people to rest and recuperate. The imperial court's excessive taxation will inevitably bring disasters, which is not what Mingjun said!"

Gao Yuanlong was very stubborn, and still insisted on his own opinion, so he almost pointed his nose and called Emperor Hongzhi a fool.

"Yes, Your Majesty~"

"The court's tax should be sufficient. There is no need to collect too much tax. In the past year, the court's tax was only three hundred taels of silver, and Ming Dynasty was still thriving."

"Now the imperial court's annual tax and silver exceeds [-] million taels of silver, and the various expenditures are very huge. You must know that the money and goods used by the imperial court are all the people's fat collected from the people."

"As the saying goes, water can carry a boat or capsize it. If the court continues to do so, the people may be overwhelmed by heavy taxes in the future, and there will be wars everywhere."

Qian Qi also followed up and said that it seemed that he was really thinking about the Ming Empire and the emperor. Those who didn't know would think that Emperor Hongzhi was really wantonly taking away the fat and anointing of the people and enslaving the people of the Li people desperately Woolen cloth.

"Your Majesty, it's just nonsense~"

Hubu Shangshu Zhong Zhong couldn't help standing up.

If the tax office was abolished and the new tax system was abolished, he, the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, would simply not be able to do it.

You must know that the current expenditure of the imperial court is very huge. Among other things, the salaries of officials alone have risen again and again, which has doubled several times compared to before.

Calculated based on the income of a seventh-rank official, in the past, the annual salary of a seventh-rank official was only 90 shimi, which was about 6400 catties of rice. Even though the price of rice was a bit more expensive in the Ming Dynasty, it was calculated as five yuan. A catty of money, calculated according to the current price, is actually an income of [-] yuan this year.

A seventh-rank official is almost equivalent to the main person in charge at the county level in later generations, with an annual income of about [-] yuan, and no other income other than that.

What's even more frightening is that about [-]% of the rice is not available to officials at all, and the emperor converted it into silk cloth, cotton cloth and other odds and ends.

It's good to have something, sometimes you just send you a treasure bill directly. Everyone knows that this treasure bill is just a pile of paper, and there is no one with much purchasing power.

This shows how low the salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty was. If you become an official, if you are not greedy and no one is filial, you will have problems supporting your own family.

However, since the tax reform and the establishment of the tax office, the tax revenue of the imperial court has increased greatly. Under Liu Jin's advocacy, the salaries of officials have also been adjusted and increased many times.

In the past, those who were supposed to distribute rice continued to distribute rice. Now, the county magistrates of Qipin can get 500 shi of rice a year, and because of the bumper harvest in these years and the next year, the grain is extremely sufficient, and the grain collected by the court is very sufficient, so this part Rice is fully distributed.

In addition to rice, there are also a lot of real objects such as cloth, silk, and tea. Officials of the seventh rank can receive 20 bolts of cloth, [-] bolts of silk, and [-] catties of tea every year.

Thanks to the thriving development of Ming Dynasty and the development of capitalism and overseas colonization, these can be distributed in full. Cloth and the like are actually not worth much now, and the market price of a piece of cloth is more than one hundred cash.

In addition to these real objects, the most important thing is of course silver.

If in the past, the imperial court basically had no money to distribute to officials, it would be considered good to send out some precious banknotes.

But now, precious banknotes have already withdrawn from the market, the emperor no longer prints precious banknotes, the market has eliminated precious banknotes, and the silver standard has basically been established.

Officials of the seventh rank can now receive an annual salary of five hundred taels of silver a year. This income can be said to be quite high, and now that the imperial court has money, it can be paid in full, and it is all paid by the First Bank of Ming Dynasty. Issued silver dollars or notes.

There is no way for the salaries of imperial officials to rise again and again.

One is that when the imperial court has money, it always has to find some expenses to spend the money, and putting it in the treasury is like a lump of iron, which has no effect at all.

The other one is that Daming's current wages have risen very sharply.

With the rapid development of colonialism, global wealth quickly gathered in Ming Dynasty, and a large amount of silver flowed in. On the one hand, it stimulated the prosperity of Ming Dynasty's economy, and at the same time, it also increased the labor force of Ming Dynasty.

The monthly salary of ordinary workers in the Beijing-Tianjin area has basically reached five taels of silver, and they can get more than sixty taels of silver in a year. If it is less than five taels of silver a month, you can't recruit people at all.

Daming has a vast land and few people, vast land, sparse population, and a lot of wealth. How can labor be cheap, five taels of silver a month, and you have to pay for food and housing to be able to recruit people.

In the past, not to mention five taels of silver a month, if you can only cover food and housing, there will be a lot of people willing to do things for you. If you can give another hundred and ten coins, then you will definitely be a living Bodhisattva.

Seventh-rank officials are official officials of the Ming Dynasty anyway, and their income cannot be lower than that of ordinary people, so the income of court officials is also constantly rising.

Over the past year, there have been nearly 20 officials in the Ming Dynasty. In this year, the salaries for these officials, bureaucrats, government servants, etc. in the imperial court are almost [-] million taels of silver, accounting for the revenue of the imperial treasury. [-]% of.

If, as before, the new taxation system is abolished, commercial tax is not collected, and tax offices are not set up, the imperial court collects several million taels of silver a year, and even if he sells his household secretary, it will not be enough Go to pay the officials.

What's more, the salary of this official has been raised, and it is basically impossible to lower it, and it is impossible to lower it at all, because once it is lowered, many officials really have no way to survive.

Besides, the former Hubu Shangshu was a position that everyone hated, and they didn't want to be this Daming's housekeeper, because there was no money in hand, and you could only greet anyone asking for money with a bad face, so that Hubu Shangshu often They are all equated with the iron rooster, like the former household minister Zhou Jing, they are called iron rooster and Zhou Papi.

But it's different now. I hold a huge tax of [-] million taels of silver a year in my hands. It doesn't feel too good, as if I have become the God of Wealth, with endless silver.

Cancel the current tax system, cancel the commercial tax, cancel the tax office, absolutely not!

"The taxes collected by the imperial court are basically quickly used for the national economy and the people's livelihood. Some are used to build roads, ports, reservoirs, and dams, some are used to build schools, private schools and academies, and some are used for disaster relief."

"The money collected every year will basically be used again, and the money will eventually flow back to the people, and it will also provide a lot of jobs for the people, and provide more jobs for factories, commercial banks, merchants, etc. Orders, business and transactions have promoted the prosperity of Daming."

"It doesn't mean that the money is not used after the court collects it. This money is like the blood flowing through the Ming Empire. It needs to be continuously circulated in more areas of the Ming Dynasty, so that it can promote the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty. .”

"This is exactly in response to the saying that taxes are taken from the people and used for the people. As important officials of the court and the pillars of the country, you don't even understand the role of taxes. Ce, what are your intentions?"

He Zhong was so angry, pointing to Gao Yuanlong, Qian Qi and the others and said, his beards were crooked.

"you~"

"We are just discussing the matter as it stands. The money collected by the imperial court is indeed the anointing of the people."

Gao Yuanlong looked at Zhong Zhong, the dead duck was still stubborn.

For people like Gao Yuanlong and Qian Qi, they are not ignorant of the role of taxation, and they also know that it is necessary for the court to collect a certain amount of taxation.

However, the commercial tax imposed by the imperial court greatly damaged the interests of these Jiangnan gentry, businessmen, and big families.

In the past, because there was no business tax, the families behind these officials could quickly accumulate huge wealth through business.

For example, salt merchants have always been synonymous with wealth and wealth. Relying on the necessities of life, salt, they have accumulated extremely huge wealth.

Another example is grain merchants, cloth merchants, and tea merchants, because the land in the south of the Yangtze River is the most important grain production area, cloth production area, and tea production area in Ming Dynasty. These big gentry and businessmen in the Jiangnan area will be engaged in business in related fields.

There is no need to pay taxes, and they can join together to form a monopoly, and everyone is rich.

But since the reform of the tax system, the introduction of commercial tax and the establishment of a tax bureau to collect taxes, their good days have come to an end.

The salt merchants were completely extinct, and they were completely sacked by the Changlu Salt Farm under Liu Jin. In the past, these unscrupulous salt merchants could sell a catty of salt for tens of pennies per catty. A catty of salt can infiltrate half a catty of sand for you.

Now the salt in Changlu Salt Field only costs a few cents per catty, and it is all high-quality snow salt. How can the salt merchants in Jiangnan compete with it?

As for grain merchants, tea merchants, cloth merchants, etc., the commercial tax was levied, and profits plummeted. At the same time, the large-scale rise of factories and workshops in the Beijing-Tianjin area caused the price of cloth to plummet. Prices plummeted and so on.

All of these made it difficult for the gentry, businessmen, and big families in the Jiangnan area at once, and they naturally wanted to oppose it.

(End of this chapter)