I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 948 The fiscal and taxation system has been reformed

The conference layout of Wenhua Hall in Nanjing Imperial City is the same as the popular conference layout today.

There was a long round table, and Zhu Yijun sat at the top seat in the middle.

Xu Zhenming, Zhang Siwei, Pan Yinglong and Hu Ruguang sat in the first and second seats on the left and right respectively.

Li Zhi, the prefect of Yingtian Prefecture, and Yang Lingde, the governor of Jiangsu, sat in the third seat on the left and right respectively.

Huzhou magistrate Lin Zeyou and Zhejiang governor Ye Mengxiong sat fourth on the left and right respectively, followed by Anhui governor Hu Zongpu, Jiangsu governor Li E, Zhejiang governor Zhao Guancai, Anhui governor Zhang Sidi, Yingtian Shaoyin, Huzhou co-magistrate, and the left and right councilors of the two provinces.

The room was packed with twenty people.

Zhu Yijun was dressed in a dark blue official uniform. He sat in his seat with a smile on his face, and his eyes swept across the faces of his ministers.

"First of all, let me make it clear that there are heavy smokers here, and they can't live without cigarettes. But you must hold it in.

I don't like smoking, and Lord Rudong and Lord Fengpan don't smoke either. Moreover, they are old and have weak heart and lungs, so they will cough easily when exposed to smoke.

So all you old smokers, hold back."

Zhu Yijun paused for a moment and then said, "But I will give everyone some time to rest. Ten minutes of rest every hour. You can go out to smoke, go to the bathroom, or get some fresh air.

Jinshui, please watch the clock for me and remind me when the time comes."

"According to the order."

Yang Jinshui, who was sitting behind Zhu Yijun, responded with a smile.

"Today, the governors and deputy governors of Nanjing, Huzhou, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui, the capital, the state, and the three provinces, are gathered here to discuss important matters."

Zhu Yijun started to get to the point.

"To be honest, one of the most important tasks during my southern tour is to be a good fortune boy!"

As soon as Zhu Yijun said this, the ministers present couldn't help but exchange glances with each other.

At the plenary meetings of the Advisory Council and the Court Council in the first month of the year, what the emperor had said was finally going to be implemented.

OK!

From now on we are no longer the leaders of the Beggars' Gangs in each province!

Zhu Yijun continued speaking.

"What was the financial system of the Ming Dynasty like before? Everyone has their own calculations. To put it bluntly, it was not even as good as the small shops on the street today.

There are loopholes everywhere, which make it easy for many people to take advantage of the situation and engage in massive corruption.

We collect so much taxes every year, but we still complain of deficit every year.

Apart from unclear accounts, the biggest problem is the misalignment of tax sources.

Those who occupied the most resources in the Ming Dynasty and gained the most in the distribution of wealth, namely the royal family, relatives by marriage, nobles, aristocratic families, and gentry, paid the least taxes.

The people who borne the most taxes in the Ming Dynasty were the humblest and most hard-working common people.

This is not taxation based on wealth, but taxation based on power, which is extremely unbalanced. It not only causes the court's tax source to dry up and the treasury to be strained, but more importantly, it is unfair!
The final result will be chaos and a change of dynasty!"

Zhu Yijun's eyes were sharp as he scanned the faces of each of his ministers one by one.

"When I was still the crown prince, I looked at the messy accounts of the Ministry of Revenue and was very puzzled. The accounts had been this mess for 200 years in the Guo Dynasty and 1,000 years in the Qin and Han Dynasties. Why had such a life-threatening matter been so confusing for thousands of years?
Later I figured it out. It was simply that these people didn't understand these things in the first place, and didn't want to understand them.

It’s so good to be confused, it’s easier to fish in muddy waters!

But I don't want to be so confused, and Master Zhang doesn't want to be so confused either. We, the emperor and my subjects, don't want the Ming Dynasty to follow in the footsteps of the previous dynasties in confusion.

I don’t want China to sink again in confusion, and billions of people to fall into hell on earth in a new cycle of reincarnation.”

Zhu Yijun narrowed his eyes, as if recalling something, and paused for about ten seconds.

"Master Zhang helped me to rectify the finances of the Ming Dynasty, starting with surveying the land and taking a census of the population.

We streamlined the tax system and clarified the sources of taxation. After ten years, we encountered countless obstacles along the way, but they were all overcome by our rulers and ministers, and we have finally reached this point today.

You can see the annual cabinet financial report. Every time I see this report, I am very pleased.

The Ming Dynasty has finally achieved the goal of collecting taxes based on wealth, rather than on power. This is the first step to success, and we still need to continue to promote and improve it.

However, doing this also brings some side effects.

The finances are highly unified, and all power is in the hands of the cabinet. The purse strings of the provincial governors are completely controlled by the cabinet. "

Zhu Yijun smiled and pointed at the local officials in three provinces, one capital and one state with his right hand and said, "I know that you all call yourselves the leader and deputy leader of the Beggars' Gang in a certain province in private.

I have to ask the cabinet for money every year, and I feel very uncomfortable with being dependent on others."

The ministers hurriedly said, "We are terrified and would never dare to do that."

The new financial policy was presided over by Zhang Juzheng, but it was decided by the emperor, who had been supporting it strongly behind the scenes.

How dare we, and others, feel dissatisfied and complain in private?

To slander someone in one's heart is a serious sin!
Zhu Yijun waved his hand disapprovingly, "I am also aware of these side effects. But before the new financial and taxation system of the Ming Dynasty is fully established, these side effects can only be put aside.

After ten years of hard work, Master Zhang and a group of officials from the Ministry of Revenue finally built the new financial and taxation system for the Ming Dynasty. It has been running for several years with very good results. Even Lord Hai praised it as a good idea.

The establishment of officials, the number of staff needed in each local government office, and the annual salary and allowances are all clearly stated.

The budget and final accounts clearly show how much each local government office spends each year.

The grain is in the grain bureau, and the tax money is in the bank. The corrupt officials can only scrape out some scraps no matter how hard they try. It is not like before, when the court took 10 taels of tax out of 100 taels, and they dared to share 90 taels. "Zhu Yijun knocked on the table, "Taxes are collected from the people and used for the people. Collected from the local areas, they still have to return to the local areas.

It’s just that some places are poor and pay less taxes.

Some areas were rich and paid more taxes, so the imperial court would use transfer payments to allocate a portion of the taxes paid by the rich areas and subsidize the poor areas.

This method would have been unbelievable in all dynasties.

Since the Wanli period, unrest in various places has become less and less frequent, especially in the barren border areas that used to be prone to unrest, which have become peaceful.

why?
Because the imperial court divided various regions into mountainous, indigenous, border and poor areas, and provided targeted assistance.

Let’s first analyze the actual situation in these areas and find out why they are in such difficult situations.
In areas with inconvenient transportation, bridges, straight roads, and even railways can be built.

Since there are more mountains than fields, we should develop agricultural cash crops and increase the added value of agricultural products.

If this is really not possible, relocate the people and settle them in flat and prosperous areas.

The soldiers of the Ming army and navy fought bloody battles to expand the territory, wasn't it just to give the people of the Ming enough rich land?"

All the ministers nodded.

Even a blind person can see clearly the tremendous changes that have taken place in the Ming Dynasty since the first year of the Wanli reign.

Zhu Yijun stretched out the index finger of his right hand and waved it in the air.

"Economic construction is nothing more than industry, agriculture and commerce. Once economic construction is completed and the treasury has money, it should be invested in people's livelihood.

It is nothing more than the daily life of the people, including food, accommodation, transportation, birth, aging, sickness and death.

Previously, the cabinet was in charge of all major and minor local affairs, including industry, agriculture, commerce, people's livelihood and national affairs. From the county to the provincial government, the eating, drinking, defecating and urinating of all government offices were under its control.

This result was feasible in the early stages of building a new system, but gradually became extremely inefficient and must be changed now!"

Zhu Yijun's voice was clear and penetrated into everyone's ears.

“For more efficient governance, the Cabinet, Chief Secretary and counties should each assume their respective responsibilities.

The Cabinet and the Ministry of Finance were responsible for the construction of industry, agriculture and commerce above a certain scale, while the provincial governors were responsible for the construction of industry, agriculture and commerce below a certain scale.

When I was in Shandong, I gave them advice on how to develop agriculture through science and technology, and asked them to leverage their strengths to develop large-scale agricultural industries in various parts of Shandong.

Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Nanjing and Huzhou can also do it, especially Anhui, where the conditions are similar to those in Shandong. Using science and technology to develop agriculture and develop large-scale agricultural industries is also an important strategy. "

Anhui Governor Hu Zongpu and Provincial Governor Zhang Sidi quickly responded: "I will obey your Majesty's will."

Zhu Yijun continued: "However, you should provide more support to private industrial, commercial and agricultural enterprises, that is, industrial, agricultural and commercial industries below a certain scale.

You have unique conditions. Southern Anhui produces Hui merchants, Longyou, Zhejiang produces Zhejiang merchants, Ningbo produces overseas merchants, and there are also southern Jiangsu and Shanghai. We will discuss how to do it later.

The provincial governor is responsible for the system and leadership of the province's economic development, resource and wealth distribution, and the counties should mainly assume the responsibility of people's livelihood.

Building roads and bridges, schools and hospitals, and providing food, clothing, and food, shelter, transportation, birth, aging, illness, and death to the people in each county are the most important responsibilities of the county government.

The county level is responsible for coordinating resources among counties, as well as supervision and inspection.
Each has his own duties. ”

The ministers listened quietly.

It’s a rare opportunity for the Emperor to come to Jiangnan, so there will definitely be big moves.

As soon as we arrived in Nanjing, we gathered everyone together for a meeting to start the big action.

Now that the emperor has explained his policy intentions clearly to everyone, we must listen carefully and remember them.

In this ever-changing world, if you lag behind by one step, your career will be ruined by a thousand miles.

"Now the chief ministers and counties have to take on a lot of responsibilities and give full play to their subjective initiative. If you want people to do things, then at least their pockets should be full.

The emperor has no shortage of hungry soldiers. I must ensure that all provincial governors have money to do their work. So from last year to this year, I have been talking with Master Zhang, Wang Zijian, Lord Xuefu, Lord Rudong, Wang Ruguan and Pan Fengwu about fiscal and tax reform and how to allocate fiscal and tax revenues better and more effectively. Finally, we came up with a sound plan.

The Ming Dynasty's taxes were divided into agricultural taxes, which are traditional land taxes, and non-agricultural taxes.

Currently, non-agricultural taxes account for the bulk of national treasury revenue, which are mainly divided into tariffs, industrial and commercial taxes, salt, tea, wine and sugar monopoly taxes and other miscellaneous taxes.

Tariffs are taxes on imports and exports, and are taxes brought about by the Ming Dynasty's efforts to implement free trade overseas.

Industrial and commercial taxes refer to taxes such as value-added tax and business tax levied on enterprises.

The salt, tea, wine and sugar monopoly taxes are consumption taxes levied on individuals, and are also a variation of the traditional Ding tax and head tax.

The most important measure of fiscal and tax reform in the Wanli New Deal was the abolition of the head tax and the Ding tax, which had lasted for thousands of years, mainly corvée and miscellaneous labor, through the distribution of land tax and the reform of the monopoly tax.

This part of the burden should be more reasonably merged and transferred to taxes on land tax levied on a per-acre basis, salt consumed by men, women, and children, and cigarettes smoked mainly by men.

Zhang Siwei kept it in mind.

These are the moral and benevolent policies that must be vigorously praised.

The head tax and the popinol tax, which had been implemented since the Qin and Han Dynasties, were abolished during the Wanli New Deal of the Ming Dynasty. This was a groundbreaking event.

Why was there so little publicity about this area in previous missionary materials?

The political sensitivity of the Taichang Temple is still too poor.

This is also an important responsibility of the Civilization Construction Steering Committee.

Zhang Siwei could not help but straighten his back, feeling the burden on his shoulders become heavier.
(End of this chapter)