The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 190 Under Pressure

"I heard that the inheritance tax that was once abolished will be reinstated. Mr. Song, what do you think of this matter?"

At Chang'an Railway Station, a group of high-ranking imperial officials and dignitaries were gathered in the ornately decorated VIP waiting hall, looking out the window at the platform from time to time while whispering in low voices.

Qi Weizhi, Shaoqing of Zongzheng Temple and Marquis of Chengyuan, walked to the side of Song Wenqing, the Dean of Academic Affairs of Chang'an University and Pingyang Bosong. After exchanging a few words, he couldn't help but bring up the topic of inheritance tax, which was a hot topic in the capital.

"Inheritance tax was first spread in the ancient Roman period in Western Europe. After a wealthy family passed away, a tax was imposed, and 5%-10% of the value of the estate was levied to provide for the retirement of soldiers. Hundreds of years ago (the Middle Ages) in Continental Europe In the country, the heirs of a lord who want to inherit the title and property need to pay money to the superior lord; when the leader dies, the heirs also need to pay the lord in kind or money. This is called the inheritance tax in the medieval feudal era." Song Wenqing recommended. Pushing up the glasses on the bridge of his nose, he said slowly: "But in our Chinese history, there is no common situation of inheritance tax collection, and there is no established custom. In the past, Taizu first proposed to levy it, but for more than years, there have been cases from time to time. It has been repeated and discarded several times, but it has not developed into a long-lasting routine.”

"Yes, the inheritance tax committee is really unpleasant." Qi Weizhi said with a smile: "To be honest, personally, I strongly disapprove of the introduction of this tax. Tell me, after decades of hard work, I can't help my children and grandchildren. After accumulating a considerable amount of assets, we think that we can bless our descendants and allow them to live a comfortable life with no worries about food and clothing. But when we are dying, the government has to scrape a layer of skin from our bodies for nothing. It is really unbearable. .”

"Having said that, the imposition of inheritance tax will help to prevent the excessive disparity between the rich and the poor in the country to a certain extent." Song Wenqing shook his head and said: "In the past ninety years of our Qi Kingdom, the country has been prosperous and the people have been prosperous, which can be said to be ancient. The prosperous times. However, for decades, the rich have made millions, lived in mansions in Washington, and lived in extreme luxury. The poor, on the other hand, only had three meals to eat, lived in mud houses and wooden houses, and worked hard for a monthly salary of three to five yuan. , once an accident occurs, they will be destitute and impoverished. Imposing an inheritance tax on wealthy families may be able to reduce the excessive gap between rich and poor."

"Song Gong's intention is to approve the reinstatement of inheritance tax?"

"Uncle Chengyuan thinks it's not feasible?" Song Wenqing asked.

"Since the cabinet has introduced inheritance tax again, it must have received strong support from the Crown Prince." Qi Weizhi sighed: "Even if I don't want to at all, what can I do?... You can't go against your will!"

Song Wenqing smiled, stopped talking, and turned to look out the window in the direction of the platform.

Before the Qi-British War broke out, both the cabinet and the military were optimistic that the war would last no more than two years. As long as the English were beaten painfully, they would naturally surrender quickly and gain this seven-hundred-year-old country. The market of an island country with a population of over 10,000.

Heavily armed guards officers and soldiers were placed around like benchmarks. Gendarmerie and policemen armed with muskets and batons blocked the crowds welcoming relatives and friends from afar outside the cordon.

You know, in the past three years, our Qi Navy has rotated three waves of fleets, and has lost more than 30 main ships. Although most of them are pure sail warships, there are also many steam warships that need thorough overhaul. Overhauled or directly scrapped, the officers and soldiers suffered more than 4,500 casualties (a considerable number of them died of diseases due to acclimatization or infection with epidemic diseases).

When Emperor Taiping was recuperating in Nanyu County and the prince was ordered to supervise the country, news suddenly came out again that the inheritance tax would be reinstated.

If additional war expenditures and unexpected disaster prevention and relief expenditures are to increase, it is likely that national debt will be issued to meet the needs.

Many people are speculating that Emperor Taiping will probably imitate Emperor Taizu and abdicate as Supreme Emperor due to physical reasons, and then let the crown prince succeed him to ensure the political stability of the empire. In order to demonstrate his ability and authority, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince may really support the cabinet in resuming the collection of inheritance tax.

You, the State of Qi, will not try to steal the property of the dead under the banner of protecting the sanctity of private property!

During the period of Emperor Taiping, the State of Qi successively fought the Maratha War, the Acehnese War, and the Gulf War, which consumed a huge amount of national funds and caused a considerable financial deficit. At one time, it was proposed to re-levy inheritance tax. However, after several months of preparation and operation for a period of time, the effect of the collection was not very good, which caused complaints from powerful families, and was subsequently suspended.

However, it is indeed time to redefine the finances. The annual revenue is huge, and yet the government feels that it has no money to spend every year.

Commercial interests also suffered heavy losses. Many goods had to be transferred to the Dutch and French for transportation and sales, and a large number of goods were sold at a discount in the market, leaving merchants in these two countries with a lot of money. .

Just wait, and let those foreign barbarians appreciate the power of our Da Qi Empire!

Ordinary people like them are definitely not aware of the worries and dissatisfaction of the dignitaries in the VIP waiting room, but they must be happy to watch the excitement or feel a bit of schadenfreude after hearing that the inheritance tax has been levied again.

Railways, highways, water conservancy, urban infrastructure, national defense, diplomacy, foreign aid, public security, education, science and technology, medical and health care, national debt repayment, and increasing social security and welfare expenditures all impose extremely heavy financial burdens every year. A lot of pressure.

No matter what happens, this tax will never be levied on us ordinary people, right?

Things that can make noble men feel embarrassed are the things that we and other common people like to see most.

In 1598, in order to resist the Spanish invasion and persist in the War of Independence, the Netherlands officially began to levy this tax on the wealthy classes in the country in the name of inheritance tax. Later, European countries that were depleted by the Thirty Years' War also followed suit. Although the collection effect is not very good and the money collected is not much, it is still a slight supplement to the struggling finance.

Of course, the reinstatement of inheritance tax cannot immediately make up for the huge financial gap, but it somewhat shows the attitude of His Royal Highness. A task that three generations of emperors could not complete was accomplished under the leadership of the prince. It is hard to express in words how strong a force it is.

Unexpectedly, the Kingdom of England turned out to be extremely resilient. It endured for more than two years before taking the initiative to seek an armistice and peace talks.

What also surprised and depressed Qi was that before the war, England organized dozens of "suicidal" privateers to sail into the Indian Ocean and raid Qi's merchant ships.

The prince is starting to build momentum for his upcoming ascendancy!

There is an emperor and a minister. The current cabinet has only been in power for three years. If you don't want to be disliked after the prince succeeds to the throne and choose another cabinet minister, you can only adapt to the situation and try your best to cooperate with all the advancement affairs during the prince's supervision of the country. Maybe you can still Because of his reputation of being "loyal to the public and serving the country, and serving the country with sincerity", he was re-elected for one term.

As early as fifty years ago, Emperor Taizu accepted the advice of the Dutch financial advisor and also levied inheritance tax domestically. However, due to the opposition of the powerful class and many wealthy families, and in order to attract the influx of capital from all over the world, it was soon abandoned and the inheritance tax was stopped.

If coupled with this nationwide tax audit, I don’t know how many wealthy businessmen, as well as high-ranking officials and dignitaries will be implicated.

Yes, it is temporarily suspended, but not abolished.

The bustling crowd is already used to this situation. Looking at such a formation, it must be the arrival of foreign missions or important members of the royal family. It is estimated that a simple welcome ceremony will be held. After the distinguished guests leave, they will They put it in to greet their relatives or friends.

Although most of the Qi merchant ships in this area were steam-sail hybrid ships, which were far faster than English privateers and could easily escape the pursuit of pirates, several merchant ships were attacked due to negligence.

What shocked Qi even more was that the English privateers actually launched a "heroic" attack on the Hanzhou mainland. Two privateers appeared near the ports of Dongping County, Tai'an Prefecture (a small town in Denmark in southwest Australia) and Jingjiang County, Linhai Prefecture (now Karratha City, Western Australia). They shelled fishing boats, killing two and injuring five. Tragedy.

Although this matter was not a big deal, it really embarrassed the old empire, and the navy also suffered a lot of domestic criticism.

After investing so much military expenditure and building so many warships every year, your navy actually allows the enemy to attack you at your doorstep? ! It should be noted that apart from the early thirty years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Hanzhou built a large number of forts in important coastal cities and ports. Since Qi initially established its maritime hegemony in the Indian Ocean, many coastal towns and villages have not built any defense facilities at all. .

If the English privateers were more courageous, they might actually become the third hostile force to invade Qi's mainland after the Dutch East India Company and the Spanish colonial territory of the Philippines.

After the disturbance caused by the English privateers, not only some ships of maritime transport companies are considering reinstalling cannons on the bows (in order to save transportation costs and maximize cargo loading, Qi merchant ships plying the Indian Ocean no longer install cannons), Even some coastal towns lacking defense facilities began to urgently build a number of coastal defense forts and recruit local soldiers in turns to prevent enemy invasion.

Taking advantage of the war, the Navy carried out a new round of expansion, expanding the overall fleet size from more than 260 ships to more than 300 ships, and the number of officers and soldiers also increased from 65,000 to 74,000. Remain.

Not to be outdone, the Army used the excuse of establishing the Persian Garrison and the European Expeditionary Force to not only fully staff all twenty army regiments, but also to add eight additional regiments (five of which were empty regiments), as well as a large number of artillery, For technical arms such as baggage troops and dragoons, the number of officers and soldiers increased by as much as 30%, with the number of troops reaching more than .

Good guy, this military expenditure has soared by more than 1720% based on the th year of Taiping (), which has greatly squeezed the government's expenditure on other projects.

Not to mention that in order to strengthen control over many overseas territories - and of course, in order to more conveniently obtain many resources in overseas territories, the government is setting off a new round of investment in infrastructure such as railways, highways, ports, telegraphs and so on. Money is flowing like water into many industries and regions in the country.

"Well, no matter how much money this country saves, it will still be insufficient in the end." Qi Weizhi looked at the railway signal workers on the platform and suddenly became busy. Knowing that a train was about to enter the station, Qi Weizhi stood up and followed The welcoming officials left the VIP waiting room together.

"Woo..." As a long whistle sounded, a train spewed black smoke and slowly drove into the station. The signal flag in his hand was constantly waved by the signal flag to indicate the exact stopping position of the train.

"Huh..." The train exhaled a puff of white smoke and stopped steadily. Thick smoke enveloped the entire front of the car.

"play music!"

"stand at attention!"

"salute!"

As the door of a VIP carriage was opened, Baron Spencer Compton, Minister Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of England, stepped out of the carriage under the guidance of several diplomatic officials from Qi.

"Oh, God!"

Baron Compton glanced at the platform and saw two rows of majestic soldiers, dressed in sky-blue military uniforms, carrying muskets with bayonets, and "demonstrating" to them, accompanied by military music.

"Mr. Minister, this is Qi's honor guard, specially designed to welcome foreign heads of state and foreign envoys." A follower who was well versed in Qi's domestic affairs whispered.

"Well, Qi is really a brave and... interesting country." Baron Compton showed a smile on his lips.

After walking onto the platform, he subconsciously looked at the surrounding buildings and people.

In Qi State, in addition to some tall monuments and huge religious towers, there are also many magnificent buildings that are ancillary facilities related to railways.

The bridge spanning more than a mile, the huge train station, and the infinitely extending railway lines seem to be the external expression of the inner faith of this powerful empire.

The railway in the desert is straight and long, and the railway in the mountain valleys is laborious and winding. The clanking of the train echoes in the densely forested valleys, and finally it enters one prosperous and lively city after another.

On the wide river, huge bridges with strange shapes span both sides of the river - its towering cantilever beams, a dense network structure of beams, columns, pillars and cables, an oriental-style gatehouse, prepared for trains and ordinary traffic. In both directions, guests from far and wide are amazed and unforgettable in their hearts.

After traveling through most of the Han continent, Baron Compton truly saw the majestic face of a steam empire. Their steamships and steam locomotive tracks were as important to the empire as the frontier roads were to Rome.

No, the role of these things is definitely far greater than the frontier roads of Rome. They are the greatest inventions in thousands of years.

To be honest, along the way, Baron Compton was really shocked by the power of Qi, and his psychological expectations for the negotiations were constantly lowered and revised.

In his opinion, if it can successfully reach a peace agreement and sign an armistice agreement with Qi, then the Kingdom of England must learn from Qi in an all-round way, including their management system, their military, their machines, their inventions, their Science, and all of them.

This country is simply invincible to us in England. Their power is endless, and their industrial production is unprecedented in scale.

If it weren't for the distance and the special geographical environment of England being an isolated island, this powerful empire might easily tear us apart.

Thus, the only choice we in England have is to end this war immediately.

Even if you pay a heavy price for it.

(End of this chapter)