Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 177 Imperial Financial Meeting
On the twenty-first day of the twelfth lunar month in the first year of Taichang, there was heavy snow.

Due to the bad weather, the court meetings in recent days have been cancelled. The imperial decree has been issued, and the first day of the new year, the New Year's Day court meeting will be held at the newly rebuilt Huangji Gate. The government offices in Beijing are already entering the New Year's rhythm.

Everyone is waiting for the Imperial Court to decide on this year's diligence and integrity rewards for Beijing officials today.

Inside the Qianqing Palace, there was a large charcoal basin in the middle, and the door was tightly closed to prevent the cold wind from coming in.

Kong Shangxian vaguely understood why he was summoned to attend this meeting. Sitting opposite him was Ning Yuan Hou, who seemed to be sitting there just to correspond with him.

And there was only one Xunwu there.

The three cabinet ministers and nine ministers sat in two rows facing north. In front of each person was a small desk with pamphlets on it.

The Minister of Revenue Chen Qi was reporting.

"Although the figures for the twelfth month have not yet been reported, we can roughly estimate the tax silver for the first year of Taichang..."

This was an end-of-year royal financial meeting.

Last year, it was decided that this year we would increase revenue from maritime customs, currency customs and commercial taxes. This increase in revenue will simply involve more stringent inspections.

With a little strictness, we have seen gratifying results.

"So, the eight major banknote customs collected an extra 200,000 taels, almost doubling the amount." Zhu Changluo asked, "The silver at the customs doubled, and the prices of goods from the north and south should have increased a bit, but I haven't received any reports. Great official, is it possible that the banknote customs are now much more honest?"

Li Dai said awkwardly, "The Ministry of Personnel has been issuing documents repeatedly, so it should be effective."

Kong Shangxian lowered his head: After the grain price incident in the capital at the beginning of the year, who would dare to raise prices in the capital again?
Qin Yongtai had said that the overall cost was now almost the same as before, which was acceptable. The extra money paid by the customs was just reduced accordingly.

"I have a ledger of Changming Hao here, and tax supervisors from various places have also submitted reports before." Zhu Changluo said, "They are all important officials in the court, so there is no need to collect them for discussion. From more than 340,000 taels in the 27th year of Wanli to more than 550,000 taels, the results are gratifying, but it is far from a positive number. The difficulty still lies in the administration of officials."

Li Dai and Chen Qi were silent, while Wang Xijue said, "It is just as your majesty said! Some civilians and merchants only pay one tenth of the tax silver when they go through the customs, and three or four out of ten bribe the upper and lower levels to conceal the report and miss the inspection. Since the truth of these places is clear, it is obvious that they are just going through the motions now. Even if they pay a little more tax, civilians and merchants still save at least 50% of the customs silver, so how dare they raise the price at will?"

If we take approximately 350,000 taels as a benchmark and take the hidden rules of the Linqing Banknote Customs confessed by Ma Tang as an example, then the total tax silver collected by the eight major banknote customs of the Ming Dynasty would definitely be able to increase by not only ten times, but four or five times.

After all, not everyone has enough connections or can afford to pay enough money. Local officials also look at people and treat them differently. Only big merchants with huge profits can move some officials to take risks to help them escape.

Zhu Changluo looked at Kong Shangxian, then at Li Dai and Chen Qi: "The banknotes are all sent by the Ministry of Revenue. If there is indeed a lot of official business, we can set up a special banknote clearance department and add some eighth and ninth grade experience officers to each banknote. They are sent to Beijing, and the rewards for diligence and integrity will naturally be linked to their performance."

"…I accept your order."

The two men understood, and the emperor was satisfied, but only a little satisfied.

The goal of the eight major banknote offices to increase revenue is probably based on an annual income of more than one million taels, which is far from enough now. As for whether the reward for diligence and honesty can satisfy the appetite of banknote office officials and how to prevent merchants from raising prices according to the actual taxation, that is the work to be done later.

"Now that Yuegang has reopened, although the foreign ships' share this year has exceeded 100,000 taels, it is still far behind the Grand Canal." Zhu Changluo added, "I know that it is dangerous for sea merchants to go out to sea. But whether this is true or not, wait until Changming Zhaiyanghang has a basis for dealing with Korea. If the difference is quite large, then don't blame me for not warning you. In the second year of Taichang, I will warn all the Maritime Customs Offices and Yuegang."

The last item, business tax on shops, has seen the largest increase.

When discussing financial planning before, Zhu Changluo used the data from the 27th year of Wanli as an example, and estimated that the business tax collected from shops in the first year of Taichang would increase from more than 150,000 taels to 420,000 taels, nearly three times.

But Zhu Changluo knew why this was the case, but he didn't point it out.

Zhu Changluo has already had people do statistical analysis on the raw data submitted from various places.

The growth rate of commercial taxes collected by large cities with large populations and prosperous businesses from merchants who opened fixed shops was much lower than that of prefectures and counties with smaller populations.

This can only mean one thing: the plundering of merchants is already going on, and it is mainly targeting small merchants.

The big businessmen in the big cities have stronger power behind them. Local governments are good at data and know that the court generally only looks at the overall data.

"Adding the income from the reform of the Zhaiyang General System and the fines for the major cases in Jiangnan, this year's annual income from land tax has increased by more than one million taels." Zhu Changluo waved his hand, "The rewards for diligence and integrity of the officials in the capital will be approved and distributed tomorrow."

"I would like to thank Your Majesty for your kindness."

This is to leave the table together and bow.

"In the future, what is retained by the local government will belong to the local government, but what should be paid to the court will not be the current amount." Zhu Changluo asked them to sit back and continued, "The salt tax has not been moved this year, and there is no need for me to say how chaotic the salt permit is. After everything is sorted out, it is not impossible for the national treasury to have an annual income of 5 to 6 million taels. You all also hope that the court's finances will be more abundant, right? Now only the Huangji Gate of the three halls and three gates has been rebuilt. Without the millions of taels of silver stored in the treasury, the three main halls can be rebuilt."

The annual salt tax revenue was more than one million taels, but based on the average number of salt permits printed by the Nanjing Ministry of Revenue each year, the actual salt tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty should be four or five times that.

But for so many years it has remained a stable amount of over one million taels.

On the one hand, the Cheng family in Jiangyou was found to be selling private salt, and on the other hand, there was really no money to rebuild the three main halls. Compared with banknotes, customs silver, foreign ship levies and commercial taxes, salt tax was a larger tax base.

If this can be straightened out, it would be no problem for the national treasury to receive five or six million taels of silver every year.

It’s just that countless local interests are involved.

"Let's talk about the other expenses that should be listed."

Count your income first, then discuss your expenses.

With an additional income of more than one million taels this year, it is naturally easier to allocate expenditures.

Rebuilding the Huangji Gate would cost more money than repairing the Dagaoxuan Hall and the Dragon Boat, not to mention that both had already been partially repaired and some silver had been spent?
He Shengrui was still frugal and efficient, and only spent less than 200,000 taels on this item.

In addition to this, there were expenses such as the repair of the barracks of the Beijing camp, which they had agreed to before, so the Ministry of Works took away more than 200,000 taels.

The diligence and honesty rewards for the officials in the capital are another expense. There are nearly two thousand officials in the two capitals, and many of them are of high rank.

After calculating the final result, Zhu Changluo sighed again: "If it weren't for the layoffs and extravagance in the Beijing Army, the salary and grain that should be given would have been reduced by 70%. I'm afraid that even if we get more than one million taels this year, it would not be enough. The difficult financial situation has not changed."

Naturally, everyone could only praise the emperor's good governance first, and at the same time knew it was time to talk about the highlight.

"Next year, we will add more officials to the local government, and we will allow them to be awarded public funds, and we will also award them with rewards for diligence and honesty. It will be difficult for both the central government and the local governments to make financial plans." Zhu Changluo looked at them, "We should decide what to do."

This was an order issued earlier, asking them to discuss together what to do next year.

In the meantime, the cabinet ministers were divided into two factions, and the emperor also experienced the eunuchs expressing their opinions in court.

Now they have to decide what to do next year. The Nine Ministers did not say anything and waited for the three cabinet ministers.

"Lord Shen, Lord Shen, please be patient. I will present the strategy." Wang Xijue stood up as if he was the right person. "There is nothing new. It is just that the Nanzhili prefectures that have not yet surveyed their land should complete this task. In addition, the provinces should strictly implement preferential treatment and exemption, and then more inspections should be carried out to avoid additional taxes. Finally, the laws and regulations should be clarified, culture and education should be promoted, and the style of scholars should be rectified..."

In the end, the performance evaluation system was not used directly to spur officials in Beijing and local governments. Everything revolved around strictly enforcing existing policies, while at the same time preparing to appoint new people to replace old ones by improving the status of local school officials.

There are already very obvious new and old parties in the court.

The leader of this new party was naturally Wang Xijue, followed by Tian Le.

In addition, everyone knew that the emperor was also a "new party", so the Jinyiwei, the Beijing camp...

Although the New Party among the civil officials seems small on the surface, its real strength is unstoppable at this time.

In fact, this was already the result of a compromise, and Shen Yikuan and Shen Shixing no longer raised any objections.

The rest of the process will be left to execution, and new events arising during the process will be opportunities - this is what the old party in the court thinks now.

Zhu Changluo nodded after listening to it: "Let me summarize. For officials, we should increase the number of staff, raise their salaries, and strengthen public services. For the people, we should abide by the law, follow the rules, and strictly exempt them from punishment. There is no harsh treatment. Duke Yansheng, am I right?"

Kong Shangxian was suddenly mentioned, his body trembled slightly, he stood up and bowed, saying: "Your Majesty is absolutely right, there is only grace for officials, and no harsh treatment for the people."

Zhu Changluo nodded with satisfaction: "I heard that the government and the public are discussing new laws and policies. As for the new things, it's nothing more than adding some officials to the local government, and I also gave some grace. As for the rest, the land transactions, the population growth, the fish scale book and the yellow book have to be remade every once in a while. There are rules for preferential treatment and exemption, and the laws and regulations have not been changed. The share of foreign ships, the banknote customs, the commercial tax, the salt tax, etc., are all followed as they are."

After looking at the crowd, he said earnestly: "There is no need for the world to discuss whether this is a new law or to make a fuss about it. There are already laws, but people are unwilling to follow them. They are just knowing the law but breaking it. This point must be made known to the world."

"It should be so!" Wang Xijue nodded repeatedly.

This is the result of compromise.

It can be said that there is really nothing new. But for the world, exposing the old laws that have been destroyed and the new unspoken rules that have been formed is the new law.

What's the point?
Zhu Changluo looked at Kong Shangxian again and said, "Duke Yansheng is a role model for culture and education in the world. I wonder if you can set an example and relieve my worries?"

Li Chengliang looked at him meaningfully, and the other twelve civil officials also looked at him with mixed feelings.

"I should set an example myself. How can I cause more worries for Your Majesty?"

Zhu Changluo actually stood up and bowed to him: "Duke Yansheng is loyal to the country, I will remember it!"

"I dare not... I dare not..." Kong Shangxian hurriedly stood up and returned the greeting, not daring to curse out loud what was in his heart.

You called me here just to make a gesture and embarrass me, right?
This bow is really expensive!
(End of this chapter)