Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 242 Target Business Tax
"Xiu'er!"

"The child is here!"

After talking about Tian Ergeng, Wei Zhongxian turned his gaze to Cui Chengxiu. As his voice sounded, Cui Chengxiu stood up respectfully.

Tian Ergeng is fine, after all, he is much younger than Wei Zhongxian, but Cui Chengxiu, that old fellow, has a huge beard, and even his hair and beard are all gray. Wei Zhongxian calls him Xiu'er in a very calm manner, and he seems to be very calm and respectful to Wei Zhongxian.

To be honest, Wei Zhongxian was a little uncomfortable at first, but as time went on, calling her Xiu'er became more and more natural, and Cui Chengxiu also accepted it calmly, acting like a filial son and grandson.

"Now that Liaodong has not been pacified, the war with the red-haired barbarians in the south has started again. From now on, the court will need silver everywhere. What do you think about this matter?"

Cui Chengxiu bowed to Wei Zhongxian and said, "The greater the court's expenses, the more it cannot afford to pay with its current taxes. Although my adoptive father has been quite successful in clearing taxes for the emperor in Jiangnan, in my opinion, this is just a drop in the bucket and there are still many shortcomings."

"Well, we understand what you said. This year, Jiangnan has an additional 630,000 yuan in taxes. If it were a peaceful year, this amount of money would be enough for expenses. But now money is needed everywhere, and this amount of money is better than nothing." Wei Zhongxian frowned. The emperor's affairs are his affairs. If the emperor has troubles, as the emperor, he must solve the troubles for his master.

The biggest trouble now is the problem of silver. The expenditure gap of the court cannot be solved by 630,000 taels of silver. Let alone 630,000 taels, even if there is one million taels more, it may not be enough!

Today, Emperor Tianqi used what he found in Shanxi to make an exchange with Ye Xianggao, in order to avoid the Donglin Party causing trouble for him in the issue of tax collection in Jiangnan, so as to ensure the smoothness of subsequent taxation. Emperor Tianqi had already told Wei Zhongxian this clearly, and Wei Zhongxian also understood Emperor Tianqi's idea. But Wei Zhongxian felt that this was far from enough, but he couldn't think of a better way for a while, so he asked Cui Chengxiu to discuss it.

"Foster father, I think the financial problems of our Ming Dynasty cannot be explained in a few words. It would take three days and three nights to finish." Cui Chengxiu said, "The reason for Zhang Taiyue's new policy was the issue of taxation. Zhang Taiyue implemented the new policy with the power of regent, and it took more than ten years to achieve results. But what happened later? After Zhang Taiyue's death, the new policy was abolished in an instant, and more than ten years of hard work were destroyed. Today is even worse than before. There is only one Zhang Taiyue in the world. It is impossible to go back on this path."

As a civil servant, Cui Chengxiu admired Zhang Juzheng very much. Apart from Huo Guang in the Han Dynasty, Zhang Juzheng could be said to be the pinnacle of civil officials. Although on the surface Zhang Juzheng was only the chief minister during the Wanli period, he was the most powerful chief minister since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, and his power even exceeded that of the prime minister during the founding period.

Even Zhang Juzheng himself once said, "I am not a prime minister, but a sheriff!" This sentence represents that Zhang Juzheng's power has reached an unimaginable height. It is precisely because of this that Zhang Juzheng had the courage to implement his new policy. Under the implementation of the new policy, the Ming Dynasty adopted various new systems such as the Single Whip Law, thus reversing the financial problems of the Ming Dynasty.

If Zhang Juzheng could live another ten years and the new policies could be implemented and consolidated, the Ming Dynasty would be completely different. Unfortunately, Zhang Juzheng died too early, dying of exhaustion when he was at the peak of his career.

As soon as Zhang Juzheng died, the civil service group and gentry group that had been suppressed by him during his lifetime began to counterattack, causing the New Deal to die overnight. The Ming Dynasty train, which had been running at full speed and was about to run, suddenly stalled and stopped moving forward.

In Cui Chengxiu's view, the financial problems of the Ming Dynasty have reached a very serious level. The only real way to solve the financial problems is to re-implement Zhang Juzheng's new policies. Unfortunately, this is completely impossible. Just as he said, there is only one Zhang Juzheng in the world, an outstanding figure who has not appeared in a thousand years, and the court now is not the court of the past. Even if there is a figure like Zhang Juzheng, it is impossible to do what Zhang Juzheng did in the past in the current political environment.

"Godfather, I think the financial problem is nothing more than increasing revenue and reducing expenditure. Reducing expenditure is easy to understand, it just means reducing expenses and tightening the belt to live. This is certainly a solution, but it is not a fundamental solution, so increasing revenue is necessary."

"Well, what you said makes some sense. So how do we increase the source of revenue?" Wei Zhongxian asked.

Cui Chengxiu said: "In fact, the emperor and my adoptive father are already working on opening up the source of income."

"You mean the tax clearance in Jiangnan?"

"That's right!" Cui Chengxiu said with a folded hand. "Cleaning taxes in Jiangnan is also a way to increase revenue, but I think that just clearing taxes is far from enough. Father, during the Hongwu period, taxes in Jiangnan alone accounted for most of the country's total, and taxes in Suzhou, Songshan, Changzhou, Jiaxing, and Huzhou accounted for 90% of Jiangnan's total."

"During the Hongzhi period, although the taxes in Jiangnan were not low, they were much lower than those during the Hongwu period. Although this was due to the court's tax reduction, the problem was that the total amount of farmland in Jiangnan during the Hongzhi period had greatly exceeded that of the Hongwu period. The key to reducing taxes was land annexation and the people's contribution of land to officials and gentry, which reduced taxes." "During the Jiajing period, the situation became more serious. Forty years after the Jiajing period, taxes in Jiangnan fell further until Zhang Taiyue's new policy restored them."

"After Zhang Taiyue's death, the New Deal was abolished and the taxes in Jiangnan fell again. Compared with the amount of local taxes paid, the taxes in Jiangnan are now much less than what should be collected. To put it bluntly, even if there is a tax clearance, the amount collected is limited."

Wei Zhongxian was born a gangster and was illiterate. How could he understand these things? Today was the first time he heard Cui Chengxiu explain the taxation issue in Jiangnan. He was completely confused. Fortunately, Cui Chengxiu knew the level of his godfather and tried to explain it in simple words, which made Wei Zhongxian understand the general idea.

Wei Zhongxian asked Cui Chengxiu, if it is based on the Hongwu years, how much should the tax in Jiangnan be, and how much should it be during Zhang Juzheng's new policy? Cui Chengxiu answered immediately. After hearing this answer and recalling the current tax situation in Jiangnan, Wei Zhongxian frowned, the gap was really too big.

"Damn it!" Wei Zhongxian slapped his armrest and could not help cursing, "I didn't expect that the taxes in Jiangnan would be reduced so much. Local officials and gentry must have concealed a large amount of land, so that the taxes are getting less and less. Everyone in the world says that Jiangnan is the richest in the world, but now the taxes in Jiangnan are only this much. Is this world still the emperor's world?"

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. Wei Zhongxian cursed loudly. He even planned to send someone to inform the eunuchs in Jiangnan to investigate the hidden fields and increase the tax revenue in Jiangnan. 630,000 taels? Haha, he originally thought that this number was not small, but who knew that it was just a drop in the bucket.

"Godfather, you must not do that!"

"Why not?"

"Foster father, if we do this, we may not be able to collect taxes in the end, and we may even be attacked from all sides. We absolutely cannot do this!" Seeing that Wei Zhongxian was planning to take a tough approach, Cui Chengxiu hurriedly tried to dissuade him.

Listening to Cui Chengxiu's words, Wei Zhongxian looked unhappy. Didn't you just say that the tax revenue in Jiangnan had been seriously reduced? Since there are so many problems, isn't it normal to solve them yourself? Why are you saying no again?
Cui Chengxiu explained that the situation in Jiangnan was far more complicated than imagined. Jiangnan was the Donglin Party's stronghold. The Donglin Party's influence in Jiangnan was extremely huge. Once any action was taken in Jiangnan, the Donglin Party would inevitably launch a fierce counterattack.

At present, the Donglin Party is powerful, and direct fighting is not the best strategy. More importantly, Wei Zhongxian is not Zhang Juzheng. When Zhang Juzheng was the Prime Minister, he had to prepare for the implementation of the New Deal for many years, and he still encountered many difficulties in the implementation, otherwise he would not have died of exhaustion in the end.

Who is Wei Zhongxian? Although he is powerful now and favored by the emperor, he is still far inferior to Zhang Juzheng in the past. What's more, Wei Zhongxian is a eunuch! Whether a eunuch is right or wrong, he is inherently unacceptable to the civil service group and the gentry class. When the time comes, everyone will attack him. Wei Zhongxian will face huge pressure, and he may be driven out of office because of this matter.

Cui Chengxiu and others are now attached to Wei Zhongxian. Only when Wei Zhongxian is in power can they succeed. Once Wei Zhongxian falls, they will definitely be killed by the Donglin Party. Such a risk must not be taken for Wei Zhongxian or himself. Cui Chengxiu is absolutely unwilling to let Wei Zhongxian fight with the Donglin Party because of such a thing, not to mention that the chances of winning are not great.

After Cui Chengxiu explained, Wei Zhongxian finally came to his senses. So that was the case. If that was the case, it was indeed inappropriate to do this to Jiangnan. But the problem was that if the tax revenue did not increase, what would he do? The Emperor Tianqi was still eagerly waiting for the money. If Wei Zhongxian could not work for his master and relieve his master's worries, what was the point?
"Godfather, there is actually a way. Just because we can't touch the land for the time being doesn't mean we can't think of other ways." Cui Chengxiu said.

Wei Zhongxian hurriedly asked him to explain in detail. Cui Chengxiu explained that there were only two ways now. One was to start with business taxes. The land issue involved too many issues, directly affecting the interests of the Donglin Party and local gentry groups, and it was impossible to implement it with Wei Zhongxian's power.

It would be better to put aside the land and start with the commercial tax. Jiangnan has always been a prosperous business, and merchants gather in the Suzhou and Songjiang areas. The commercial tax in the Ming Dynasty was not high, but even so, it was rarely collected. Moreover, the commercial tax was one of the state's regular taxes. Wei Zhongxian used this angle to make an aboveboard approach, and no one could find fault with it.

Moreover, collecting commercial taxes is much easier than collecting taxes from farmland, because commerce depends on circulation, and merchants have to take official roads and pass through checkpoints to sell goods. As long as people are posted everywhere to guard, there is no need to worry about merchants evading taxes, and commercial taxes can be collected in this way.

In addition to commercial taxes, there is also foreign trade. As early as the Jiajing period, the foreign trade of the Ming Dynasty was very developed. At that time, in order to fight against Japanese pirates, Jiangnan started foreign trade when collecting taxes, using the tea, porcelain, silk and other materials of the Ming Dynasty to sell overseas to earn income.

Jiangnan's current foreign trade is all conducted privately by local gentry, and it is entirely possible to seize these trades in the name of the court. Collecting commercial taxes on one hand and foreign trade on the other hand will definitely be effective, and it will not overly stimulate the Donglin Party and local gentry, and the risks are much smaller, so it is worth a try.

(End of this chapter)