Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

“It’s a long way to go to the ocean!”

Zhu Youjian sighed as he looked at the news coming from Fujian and Jiangnan.

Pirate leaders such as Zheng Zhilong went to land when they had the chance, not to mention the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River.

Although Zhu Youjian left them a loophole, allowing them to own large amounts of land and slaves overseas.

After their resistance failed, most of the gentry chose to resign themselves to their fate and accept the kindness of the emperor.

But there are always people who are unwilling and cause all kinds of trouble.

After Zhang Pu left for Nanjing to take the exam, the Suzhou gentry came up with something:

"Suzhou gentry and farmers demanded that land be measured according to the new system, in line with the land area in other places."

"This is a good thing, but unfortunately the person who proposed it had bad intentions."

Zhu Youjian had always advocated the unification of weights and measures, so logically he should support it.

But the problem is that the mu in Suzhou has always been relatively small, only 0.92% to % of that in other places. Under the new measurement system, the old mu is only equivalent to mu under the new system.

Therefore, the mu of Suzhou is equivalent to only 0.6-0.7 mu of the city. The tens of millions of mu that were originally estimated to be surveyed were instantly reduced to six or seven million mu.

This would certainly have a significant impact on taxation, and this was also where Zhu Youjian was in a dilemma.

He asked Wang Wenzheng, who was returning to Beijing via Suzhou:

“What is the situation in Suzhou like?”

"What is the attitude of the gentry towards the court, and what do the people think?"

As the future governor of the East Factory, Wang Wenzheng could not help but investigate Suzhou. He replied to the emperor:
"Although some Suzhou gentry are dissatisfied with the imperial court, they would never dare to rebel against it."

"After Master Shan went south to form the Martial Arts Association, all the capable fighters in Suzhou were also recruited into the association."

“Even if some gentry wanted to take action, they would not be able to find anyone who dared to do so, and the people who were allocated land would not support them.”

This made Zhu Youjian nod his head, and he was quite appreciative of the work of the Eastern Depot and the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

There is no need for the army in a place like Suzhou. The Jinyiwei, which he transformed into a police agency, can suppress the opposition forces in Suzhou.

All the Suzhou gentry could do was to put up soft resistance and misinterpret the court's policies to their own advantage.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian was determined to have a good chat with the Suzhou gentry, perfect various measures as much as possible, reduce their room for loopholes, and then implement them to various parts of Jiangnan.

He asked Wang Wenzheng again:

"Besides the farmers who were given land, what about the merchants and workers?"

"What are their views and whether the people are stable."

Wang Wenzheng smiled and said:

"The workers all said that the emperor loved them, and they all supported Mr. Zhang's proposals for a lifetime employment system, an eight-hour workday, and a technical grade wage system."

"The female workers even formed a special female workers' association, hoping to select hardworking female workers to serve the emperor in the palace."

"There are some men and women who want to work in the inner court. Will the palace accept them?"

Zhu Youjian readily accepted this and said:
"Since this is the wish of the people of Suzhou, of course we should accept them."

"But everything must be voluntary, and they have the power to make their own choices."

"Workers must also sign employment contracts as required, and can terminate their contracts according to the terms of the contract if they are not comfortable with the job."

"Special care must be taken of the Suzhou employees. They can serve as the inner court's foundation in Jiangnan."

He also specifically reminded him:
"One of the reasons why Wei Ni was resisted by various places when he came to power was that too many of his subordinates were from Northern Zhili, especially those in the palace."

"So we must recruit people from the south, especially from Suzhou, the queen's hometown, and recruit them from hired workers to give them a chance to turn things around and check and balance the Suzhou gentry."

"As for Fengyang, we can also recruit some people appropriately. The eunuchs should not only be mainly from Northern Zhili, but also have to be from Southern Zhili."

This was an adjustment he made to the eunuchs' power, wanting to expand their source areas as much as possible and expand the influence of the inner court in various places.

As long as there is one person who stands out in the palace, he will have a huge influence on the local area.

Local gentry must also take them into consideration, which is equivalent to adding another force to the local area.

In the future, the eunuchs in the palace will still be mainly from Northern Zhili, but there will also be some people from Southern Zhili and overseas. These are the basic positions that Zhu Youjian has set for the royal family, using eunuchs to establish direct connections with the local areas.

As a native of Northern Zhili, Wang Wenzheng was naturally somewhat reluctant about this, but he knew that the emperor was considering expanding the influence of the inner court, and these sincere words also showed his trust in him.

So he immediately said:

"I will definitely strengthen the examination of the eunuchs' origins and add more people from Suzhou."

"Should we inform the Internal Affairs Supervisor Liu Zhangyin about this matter and ask him to give priority to promoting people from Suzhou?"

Zhu Youjian nodded slightly and said:
"You can tell Liu Ruoyu, but forget about giving him priority for promotion. Everything should be done according to the rules."

"But we can give some places to the inner school and focus on training some talented people."

"The eunuchs in the palace must be reliable people, trained from childhood."

Wang Wenzheng wrote these down, and then answered the emperor's question about the Suzhou merchants, reporting:

"Most small merchants in Suzhou support the court's policies. They are willing to pay taxes and hope to form an association to supervise tax collectors."

"The big merchants were very dissatisfied, believing that the court was seizing their property by taxing them."

"Especially in Suzhou, many gentry are engaged in business, and they are the ones who are most dissatisfied with this."

“Some people are willing to hand over government land, but are very resistant to business taxes.”

Zhu Youjian seemed to be thinking about something, and vaguely understood why things in Suzhou were in turmoil again.

Obviously, it was those families that were a combination of scholars and merchants who caused trouble after learning about the business tax.

He sneered at this and asked:

"In your opinion, how much commercial tax can be collected in Suzhou?"

"How much of Suzhou's land tax can be achieved?"

Wang Wenzheng knew that the emperor paid attention to numbers, so he did not dare to speak nonsense. He thought for a while before saying:
"Suzhou's commerce is booming, and it can at least reach 20% of the land tax."

"It is estimated that we can collect 200,000 to 300,000 taels of silver."

Zhu Youjian estimated this number and asked Wang Wenzheng:
"What is the standard for silver in Suzhou?"

"How much silver is equivalent to two million stone fields?"

Wang Wenzheng said: "In the past, the standard for converting silver was high and low, but the average was close to five cents."

"Governor Cao and Mr. Zhang have agreed to calculate the price at 50 cents per stone of rice."

"So two million shi of rice can be converted into one million yuan."

"Rice prices in Suzhou are high nowadays, often above 70 cents, and even up to one yuan."

"Governor Cao estimated that except for the hired workers who had just been allocated land, most people would choose to pay the silver."

"It is estimated that Suzhou will receive 700,000 taels of silver and 600,000 dan of grain."

"Suzhou's grain tax is 700,000 dan. Governor Cao plans to purchase 100,000 dan from outside, but Prefect Kou thinks that landowners with more than 300 acres of land should be required to pay the tax."

In the Jiangnan area, more cash crops are planted nowadays. It is no longer the time when "Suzhou and Lake Tai are prosperous, and the whole world is well-fed" at the beginning of the country.

Now the food supply of Jiangnan depends on Huguang, and many people have to purchase food from Huguang in order to pay taxes.

Therefore, people in Jiangnan were very supportive of the Single Whip System at the beginning, because they could pay silver directly instead of buying grain and paying it back.

Now that the imperial court allows people to pay grain or silver at will, given the high grain prices and low silver exchange rates, they will naturally choose to pay silver rather than grain.

Zhu Youjian thought about this and frowned. In his heart, he wanted to collect more grain, because this was the most important material for the court.

However, the loss of grain transported from Jiangnan was too great, and it was far less valuable than silver that could be directly transferred from the account.

So after thinking about it, he said:
"Forget it, let's just follow this standard!"

"In the future, the standard for converting grain into silver will be determined by reducing the grain price by 10% in that year. The standard will be reviewed every three to five years and decided by the local council."

"In recent years, the land tax rate has been 50 cents per stone. The land tax for the two million stones that Suzhou needs to ship is 1 million yuan."

"If we can collect 200,000 taels of commercial tax instead, the land tax can be reduced to 800,000 taels, or 1.6 million shi."

"Based on the average grain tax of 615 dou per mu, million mu of land is needed. This number of acres should be able to be measured."

"Even if we pay taxes according to the new measurement system, we can still pay 1.6 million shi."

"I complied with their wishes and remeasured the land using the new system of weights and measures."

"I don't care how much can be produced or how much tax is collected, but the tax collected from Suzhou cannot be less than 2 million dan."

He ordered Wang Wenzhen to have Yang Jingchen write a draft according to this idea, and then approve it and send it to Cao Wenheng.

He was somewhat laissez-faire towards Jiangnan. As long as taxes were paid, he didn't want to interfere in anything else.
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In Suzhou, Cao Wenheng was very happy after receiving the reply from the court.

He had originally planned to increase the average tax to three dou per mu after measuring the land according to the new system.

Unexpectedly, the emperor was so understanding that he lowered the land tax in Suzhou a little bit, and only asked to make up for it with industrial and commercial taxes.

In this way, the conflict between the people and the government originally created by the Suzhou gentry shifted to a conflict between farmers, workers and merchants.

In particular, merchants, who were the main source of business tax, became the main victims of this measure. If they did not pay enough taxes, not only would the Suzhou government not agree, but Suzhou farmers would also not agree.

Thinking of those gentry families doing business, Cao Wenheng said happily:
"Come here, ask the people from Nanjing Taifu Temple to come over to discuss the establishment of the Taihu Inspection Office's Taxation Department."

"The Taihu Lake Basin must implement a single tax system as required by the court, so that every ship can sail unimpeded after paying taxes."

This was done in accordance with the court's requirements and was also a preparation for the collection of commercial taxes.

The reason why he chose the entire Taihu Lake Basin instead of Suzhou was because he was worried that he might not be able to collect 200,000 in Suzhou this year, and he would need to collect tax silver from other places to make up for it.

As the distribution center of goods in Jiangnan, many merchants in Suzhou are not locals. If Suzhou does not collect taxes from the entire Taihu Lake Basin, it is likely that the commercial taxes in Suzhou will not be collected much. Merchants will flee Suzhou to avoid taxes.

However, in Jiangnan, where water transportation is the main means of transportation, they could not escape the Taihu Lake Basin. Cao Wenheng admired the emperor's establishment of the Taihu Lake Inspection Office and believed that it should be used to divide the regions and levy taxes.

As his newly appointed Inspector General of Taihu Lake, he will let the world know the pros and cons of this position.

What happened in the governor's office soon spread.

Upon learning that the court had once again lowered taxes, requiring only 1.6 million shi of farmland tax and the remaining 400,000 to be made up with industrial and commercial taxes, the farmers in Suzhou were jubilant and expressed their gratitude to the emperor.

The merchants in Suzhou were in trouble because they had no intention of paying the business tax. Now they had to pay it, otherwise the Suzhou farmers would target them first.

Even now, some farmers are scolding Suzhou merchants, believing that they are rich but unkind and have been evading taxes:

"These sons of bitches are so rich, and they keep rich slaves and beautiful maids."

"The taxes we pay are so low, even worse than those of us who farm the land."

"I think those shops should be smashed. They are evading taxes!"

This is an attempt to fish in troubled waters, trying to incite people to smash stores and steal things.

However, the people of Jiangnan are gentle and most of them do not want to be so violent. Someone said:
"There's no need to smash the store, but we can choose not to buy things from his store."

"From now on, we should try not to go to any store that doesn't have a tax receipt."

“Those who were urged by the government to pay taxes were published in the Su Bao and included in the blacklist of the Hired Workers Association.”

"Let's see if they dare to evade taxes and make us pay more taxes."

Obviously, after the imperial court set the tax rate, the people of Suzhou quickly split. Farmers and workers all wanted merchants to pay more taxes to reduce their own burden.

The merchants were certainly unwilling to do this, especially those gentry merchants who caused trouble, who were even more unwilling to accept this.

But the current situation is that with orders from the imperial court above and support from the people below, their resistance will have little effect and will instead bring greater losses.

Soon after the Tax Commissioner of Taihu Circuit issued the first collection notice, the blacklist drawn up by the Employees Association was published in the Su Bao.

This business was boycotted by all employees who joined the association, and the association members working there also resigned and left.

Many people even went to protest in front of the store, demanding payment of taxes.

Faced with so many workers and farmers' boycotts, the business soon could not hold on and paid the taxes and late fees in full.

The tax commissioner of Taihu Inspectorate got off to a good start and soon began to collect taxes from other businesses.

In light of the fate of that business, these merchants dared not ignore it. Many people began to follow the court's policy and actively declared the taxes they should pay.

Especially those small and medium-sized businesses are very supportive of this, because after the implementation of the single tax system, their burden has been reduced.

Only those big merchants who evaded taxes in the past had to pay higher business taxes than small and medium-sized merchants. They even had to be invested in by the imperial court to enjoy the tithe tax.

This made them rack their brains to find ways to reduce the taxes they should pay. Later, they really found a way, which was to split into small companies and avoid the business tax that large companies should pay.

This has resulted in a large number of small and micro businesses in Jiangnan, which have flourished on the basis of complying with tax laws. Moreover, many small businesses have not broken off relations and have formed various industry associations.

They even share the same brand, unify purchasing and sales, form a syndicate-like organization, and jointly form a monopoly.

Under the pressure of the imperial court's policies, the capital organizations of the Ming Dynasty began to develop. (End of this chapter)