Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 492 Eight Great Customs
After the recovery of Beijing, the unification of Hunyuan in the world became a foregone conclusion.

In terms of employing people, or the convenience of governance, Zhu Yixi also has his own standards.

To put it simply, the south is strong and the north is slow.

That is, in the south where there has been peace for many years, powerful officials are selected to carry out the New Deal, while in the broken north, traditional and moderate officials are selected to govern.

For example, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang and other places basically did not reduce or exempt any taxes, while Shandong, Beizhili, Shaanxi, Henan and other places basically reduced or exempted taxes ranging from one to three years.

As for increasing the population, corvee labor was suspended for five years.

This is unimaginable in the South.

There was even an unwritten rule in the Ming Dynasty that people from Nanzhili were not allowed to serve as ministers of the household department, for fear that they would be soft on their hometown.

Of course, when it comes to the issue of heavy taxes in the south of the Yangtze River, this is actually a false proposition.

Some people always give examples, saying that Nanzhili's taxes accounted for [-]% of the court's income, which shows that the people in the south of the Yangtze River have a heavy burden, and they support the Ming Dynasty with their own efforts.

Generally speaking, the reason why Nanzhili has high taxes is mainly composed of two aspects.

One is the existence of a large number of official fields.

The so-called economy determines politics, and politics is the feedback of economy.

First of all, the taxation of official land is basically divided into [-]-[-]. The official land of the Yuan court (the land of the civil and military clan in the Song Dynasty) and the land of Zhang Shicheng's relatives and noble families all became the possessions of Daming.

In the early Ming Dynasty, there were repeated major cases, such as the four major cases in the early Ming Dynasty, which almost wiped out all the middle and upper-level bureaucrats of the imperial court.

In the end, the tyrants moved to Fengyang from the south of the Yangtze River and confiscated a lot of land.

As a result, during the Hongwu period, the number of official farmland in the Jiangnan area accounted for [-]% of the total farmland.

For example, in the last years of Hongwu, the total farmland in Suzhou was [-] hectares, while the official land was [-] hectares, and the confiscated fields accounted for one-third of the official land.

The highest proportion of official land is in Kunshan, where the rich and wealthy gather, and the official land has reached a terrifying [-]%.

Therefore, it can be said with certainty that the land cultivated by most of the people and gentry in Nanzhili is composed of official land, so the tax is the highest in the country.

Secondly, it is because the Ming Dynasty, more than 200 years old, likes to use grain to calculate taxes. Many taxes in the Jiangnan area are calculated by grain, so it is so high.

And crops such as silk, hemp, and cotton are also uniformly converted into grain, which is convenient for statistics.

Therefore, since the 200 years of the Ming Dynasty, Nanzhili has complained a lot, but it has never been said that the corvee is heavy, not the heavy tax, because they all steal the official land and collect the wool of the Ming court.

As for the serious problem of white grain service, that is, the people in the south of the Yangtze River transported grain to the capital by themselves. Nanjing was not far away, but they were forced to transport it to Beijing, resulting in the destruction of their families.

And when it comes to the issue of official land mentioned above, it also pitted the later Qing Dynasty.

After Man Qing got the fish scale book from the Ming court, he was very excited and came to the south with great interest to collect the official land and distribute it to the Eight Banners, but it attracted opposition from the whole south of the Yangtze River.

Because all the official land and military land are occupied by the landlords, gentry, and even the common people, you can collect heavy taxes, but you can't make them hand over the land.

After a series of rebellion and uprising activities, even after a large number of honors were canceled without compromise, the Manchu Qing could only succumb in the end.

For Zhu Yixi, [-]% of the land in the Jiangnan area has been converted to rice and mulberry cotton, and it is basically meaningless to collect food taxes.

It's better to take advantage of the trend and collect more business taxes, such as cotton, linen, silk, etc., which are more than collecting grain.

Therefore, the reduction and exemption of food is beneficial but not costly.

"The Ministry of Household Affairs also needs to use snacks for Anhui and Jiangsu. If you don't press them, it will be difficult to get back the taxes owed."

"In addition, the examination method should also be used. If the taxes owed are not equal, the officials will be demoted and dismissed. Don't condone it."

The emperor made some points, which is why he met Zhao Shu alone.

The fact that the first assistant is in charge of the household department is his experience of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and money can pass through the gods.

Zhao Shu naturally understood that the emperor attached great importance to money, but he felt that this was not the main purpose of the emperor calling him here.

He was simply very patient, just waiting quietly like this.

Appreciating the sound of the rain hitting the glazed tiles for a long time, the emperor no longer hesitated, and said directly: "In the final analysis, the gold, flowers and silver of domestic funds are still local taxes, and the Ministry of Households should collect them!"

"His Majesty--"

Zhao Shu was startled and sighed inwardly.

If you want to take it, you must first give it. The emperor is advancing by retreating!

There are two major sources of the emperor's internal funds, Jinhuayin and Chaoguan. Jinhuayin is poorly transported and remote in Jiangxi, Huguang, Nanzhili and other places. It is converted from grain collection to silver, about 2 million a year two.

"The internal money is not enough. If there is no gold, flower and silver, wouldn't it be wronged to His Majesty? The government and the public are afraid that they will not stop impeaching the veteran..."

Zhao Shu said quickly, with bitterness written all over his face.

"That's it!"

Zhu Yixi seemed to realize something: "But since the emperor has spoken out his promise, he must keep it."

"How about this!"

As he said that, the emperor suddenly said again: "The imperial court directly collects the banknotes of the canal, so I only need the tax from the customs!"

"Customs?" Zhao Shu frowned, and instantly understood this word. It is related to overseas money, similar to the Department of Shipbuilding.

"The old minister doesn't understand."

"After all, Shibo Division is too narrow."

Zhu Yixi said calmly: "Daming is only limited to Yuegang and Nanjing, and there are too few. I intend to open new import and export banks in Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Ningbo, Hangzhou, Songjiang, and Tianjin. , Yuegang, that is, the eight major customs offices, to collect tariffs."

"Eight Great Customs—" Zhao Shu murmured, his face constantly changing, and he was constantly thinking about the pros and cons.

Undoubtedly, although the customs at this time did not know its benefits, the Nanjing Municipal Shipping Department alone collected more than [-] taels of taxes a year.
Even the eight major customs offices are only more than two million taels.

The eight big banknotes of the canal, in the Wanli period, were only 300,000 taels, while Jinhuayin was 2 million taels, so it is not far from the eight major customs.

But obviously, after the emperor implemented sea transportation, the potential of customs must be greater than that of internal transportation, and its future is promising.

In theory, the imperial court would suffer.

But on the surface, the court does not suffer, and the emperor is also happy. Isn't this the best?

Regarding this, Zhao Shu said wittily: "How can the ministers make it difficult for His Majesty to supply, the world will inevitably sin against the ministers, the gold flowers and silver will be included in the household department, and the banknotes must not be transferred..."

As he said that, he said thoughtfully: "The establishment of the customs has not yet started. In order to avoid the shortage of the court, it is not too late to transfer gold flowers and silver in ten years."

"Ten years is too long."

The emperor shook his head, very satisfied with Zhao Shu's thoughtfulness in his heart: "Just three years, after three years the gold flowers and silver will be taken by the imperial court."

(End of this chapter)