The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 183 Alternative tax collection methods

After Zhu Cihong's three edicts were sent to the world, Jiangnan, which had just calmed down, became lively again.

This time even Zhejiang on the side was also affected.

Numerous maritime merchants are worried that the tariffs will be too high and they will be exploited by the officials of the Shipping Department in the future.

Countless businessmen who run restaurants and shops are concerned about the business tax, how much do they have to pay every year?Will those petty officials take the opportunity to blackmail him?
Of course, the biggest concern of all businessmen is not sales tax and customs duties, but the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Because the former two are at most paying some money every year, while the latter may be related to the fate and future of the entire family and even all businesses.

Almost all businessmen, big or small, are very excited about joining the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, especially small and medium businesses without much background.

Obviously, everyone is not stupid, and they all understand the purpose of His Majesty's establishment of this Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

To put it bluntly, it means that everyone pays protection fees to the emperor every year, and the emperor acts as a backer for everyone.

It's the same as they used to give money and shares to those rich and powerful, and give beauties mansions.

But the emperor wants to be more refined.

Although excited, but due to too many worries, none of them actually applied to join, and almost all of them were waiting and watching.

Because the conditions for joining the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry are very strict, you must first declare all your business and how much wealth you can earn each year, and then the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry will conduct an inspection and rating.

This one alone discourages many businesses.

Because in this way, their business and wealth will be exposed naked under the eyes of the emperor.

Then there is the horrible dues.

Anyone with an annual income of less than 2000 is not eligible to become a full member, and can only become an associate member if he pays a membership fee of [-] taels a year.

Those with an annual income of more than 10 taels and less than 50 taels are Bronze members and pay an annual membership fee of 5 to [-] taels.

Those with an annual income of more than 50 yuan and less than 100 million yuan are silver members, and the annual membership fee is 10 to [-] taels.

More than 100 million is a gold member, and the annual membership fee is [-].

It's just a money grab.

The reason why everyone is still excited about such harsh conditions is the treatment enjoyed by all levels.

Even if it is the lowest bronze level, as long as you get it, you don't have to worry about extortion and exploitation by officials from all over the world, because if this happens, members can report it to the general meeting at any time.

As for how the association will deal with it, there is no explanation in the edict, but just because the president of the association is Princess Kunxing and the honorary president is the emperor of Ming Dynasty, one can guess one or two.

It can be said that the bronze-level membership of the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a huge identity guarantee in itself, so that everyone who wants to deal with them has to weigh one or two first. Will the matter go to the emperor?
The treatment at the silver level is even more superior. Not only can they directly give performances to the emperor and provide suggestions for business development, but they will also be invited by the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry to attend a business conference in the capital every two years. The conference will be presided over by the emperor himself.

In addition to all the benefits of the silver level, the gold level has an added one. Once an accident occurs to members and immediate family members, they will always send people to investigate directly.

For example, if a family member breaks the law, the local government cannot use torture during the interrogation. At the same time, it must issue a written official document explaining the case to the General Assembly, and the General Assembly will send people to attend the whole process to ensure notarization.

As for the gold members themselves, they need to be authorized by the Ministry of Criminal Justice to be arrested and interrogated. After the verdict is completed, they must finally be reported to the emperor for approval.

This treatment is almost comparable to that of the Duke and Marquis.

Therefore, there are almost no businessmen who are not tempted. As long as they obtain the gold membership status, they will not need any backing at all in the future, and they will not need to give silver to anyone.

However, until the end of September, officials from all over the country had clearly classified and graded the merchants that need to collect business tax in their jurisdictions, and after reporting, there was still no firm that dared to take the lead in applying to join the Royal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Merchants who need to collect business tax have strict rating and classification standards. In addition, His Majesty has personally sent special envoys to check the data of acres of land in each county.

So this time, the officials in the prefectures and counties strictly followed the standards and did not dare to think carefully.

What's more, the cabinet has issued a notice that in the future, half of the business tax collected by the states and counties will be allocated.

Among them, [-]% will be distributed as bonuses to officials in various states and counties, and will be distributed in proportion to their grades.

The other [-]% is used as the official's support for honesty, and only the officials of the eighth rank have the support for honesty.

"Qizou Your Majesty, in the fourteen prefectures and four prefectures of Nanzhili, there are a total of more than 5 business establishments that need to collect taxes. The ministry estimates that the business tax that can be collected every year is about 500 million taels."

After Ma Shiying finished speaking, he also sighed, 500 million taels was a huge sum of money in the Chongzhen Dynasty, but in today's Shenwu Dynasty, it is simply not worth mentioning, and it is incomparable with the tens of millions of taels of agricultural tax.

"Business tax alone can collect 500 million taels every year. It seems that the business in Jiangnan is indeed very prosperous."

Zhu Cihong was a little excited. Except for the brothel industry, he set other business taxes, which were actually not high.

For example, the top restaurants in Nanjing pay a maximum of 500 taels of business tax per year. Compared with the 10,000+ net profit they can earn each year, it is a drop in the bucket.

"Which business establishment pays [-] business tax every year?"

"Returning to Your Majesty, it is the Meixiang Building on the banks of the Qinhuai River. It belongs to the category of brothels and is a first-class first class. The registered owner of the business is named Chen Yuanyuan, and there are more than 300 brothels and more than 200 painting workshops under the name of Chen Yuanyuan. It is the largest taxpayer, and the annual business tax to be paid exceeds 50 taels, accounting for [-]% of the total business tax.”

Ma Shiying explained slowly as if he didn't know Chen Yuanyuan's real identity, and even more amazed when he finished speaking.

"Hehe, it seems that Chen Yuanyuan's business is quite big. If this continues, he might become the richest man in Jiangnan."

Zhu Cihong couldn't help laughing and said to himself, this brothel industry is really the third largest industry in the south of the Yangtze River besides the textile industry and the salt industry.

Zhang Yan at the side gave Zhu Cihong an angry look.

She never expected that compared to Ying'er, Lang'er was more enthusiastic about opening brothels. Not only did she strongly support Chen Yuanyuan, she even advised her personally.

Zhu Cihong pretended not to see it, restrained his expression, and said seriously to Ma Shiying: "Ma Aiqing, the next step is to collect agricultural tax and business tax. The specific regulations are as follows..."

Following Zhu Cihong's explanation, both Ma Shiying and Zhang Yan pricked up their ears, for fear of missing a word.

Obviously, both of them are very curious about what methods Zhu Cihong will use to collect taxes, so as to prevent officials from all over the country from collecting taxes indiscriminately.

In fact, Zhu Cihong's tax collection method is very simple, that is, officials from all over the country are not allowed to collect taxes directly.

From now on, the yamen at all levels will first update and report the data on the number of fields and business premises in the area under their jurisdiction.

Then the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce will calculate the specific commercial and agricultural taxes that farmers and merchants in each county need to pay according to the tax standards. At that time, each county will make two detailed lists and send them to each state and county.

Then the states and counties will post notices to spread the word. Within one month, merchants and farmers who need to pay taxes go to the bank to pay the agricultural tax and business tax. At that time, the bank will issue a certificate to each person.

Finally, the bank will report the tax payment status of each county to the head office, and the head office will transfer the data to the household department. The household department is responsible for comparing the tripartite data of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Commerce and the bank, so that we can clearly know who has not paid taxes. , who paid less tax.

For those who did not pay taxes or paid less taxes, the Ministry of Household Affairs will send the list to the counties again, urge those merchants and farmers to pay taxes, and fine them twice.

The second time you fail to pay and underpay, you will be fined five times. If you fail to pay and underpay for the third time, the local yamen will send people directly to the door to seal up the shop and confiscate the farmland.

Except for this year, the agricultural tax will be collected at the beginning of March every year in the future, and the agricultural tax of that year will be collected.

The business tax is set in September, and the business tax for next year will be collected. In order to better inform the merchants and farmers, the release date is also unified on the first day of March and the first day of September every year. The deadline for the first tax payment is January and the end of March. and must be completed by the end of September.

After Zhu Cihong finished speaking, both of them were dumbfounded. Obviously, they didn't expect that the tax could still be collected like this.

"Lang'er, such a sophisticated and ingenious method of tax collection is simply unheard of before, but in this way, it can indeed completely put an end to the phenomenon of officials everywhere collecting taxes indiscriminately."

After Zhang Yan finished speaking, she also admired her face.

"Yes, I am afraid that only a sage like His Majesty can come up with such an exquisite tax collection method." Ma Shiying also expressed his sincere admiration.

"From now on, government offices at all levels shall not use any excuses or forms to collect a single penny from wealthy households and people in their jurisdiction, and those who violate it will be severely punished.

At that time, I will place an iron box at the gate of each yamen, and the common people can write letters to report. Every half a month, I will send people to the counties to collect a letter of report. "

Zhu Cihong didn't care about Ma Shiying's flattery, but said with a stern face.

Back in the cabinet, Ma Shiying immediately called the three ministers from the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Agriculture, and explained the tax collection in detail.

In the end, hundreds of clerks were added to each department, and they were asked to go back and start calculating and drafting the tax bills of each county, which must be completed within three days and then sent to each county.

Until this time, Ma Shiying finally understood why His Majesty asked him to recruit more people.

Otherwise, according to the usual manpower of each department, it is impossible to complete such a huge calculation work.

For a while, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Commerce, the two departments that the other six ministries looked down upon, became popular.

For three days in a row, the two yamens were filled with the sound of abacus, the bustle was in full swing, and even the lights were brightly lit at night.

There are two tax bills for each county, one for commercial tax and one for agricultural tax. They are all in quadruplicate and all are copied by hand.

One is kept on file, one is sent to states and counties, one is sent to the Ministry of Household Affairs, and one is reported to the cabinet.

For this reason, Ma Shiying had to temporarily withdraw hundreds of civil servants from the cabinet to two departments to help, and it was completed on time.

After the states and counties received the tax bills, they were also very busy, because they needed to copy the tax bills on the notice, and at least a dozen copies of each of the two tax bills had to be copied.

A copy must be posted at the gate of the city and in every town.

The gentry landlords and merchants in the county are easy to deal with. Once the notice is posted and the gong is struck, they basically know about it. However, ordinary people in remote areas who need to pay taxes have to notify in person.

For these farmers who don't have one or two mu of land, and they are all dry land, and can't pay much tax, they still have to send people from the government to notify them one by one.

(End of this chapter)