The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 437 on Finance and Taxation

The fifteen princes discussed it for several rounds and finally decided on the basic methods of local supervision in the Free State, the basic ideas of the imperial examination and the management of scholars.

The eldest prince Zhu Jingkun served as the host and led his younger brothers through the formal voting process, and these two proposals were passed with high votes.

After the eldest prince counted the votes and announced the approval, he glanced at the hands on the clock on the wall:

"It's almost noon. Does anyone have any other important issues of principle to add?
"If not, let's adjourn the meeting and have a break for lunch, and then start discussing the details in the afternoon."

This was originally a routine question before the meeting ended. Several princes had already left their chairs, but at this moment, the fifteenth prince suddenly raised his hand and spoke:
“My dear brothers, I feel that there is still a very critical issue at hand, and we need to formulate a predictive adjustment direction.

“This matter is very important in relation to the issue of finance and tax delivery between the Free State and the Kingdom.

"There may not be enough time in the morning, so we can discuss it in the afternoon."

The princes at the scene were stunned for a moment, and then several of them showed an expression of sudden realization.

Some people did not immediately understand why this matter needed to be specifically mentioned, but they would not stand up and oppose it at this time.

The eldest prince Zhu Jingkun also said directly:

"Okay, let's discuss taxation and finance issues first in this afternoon's meeting."

The meeting of the princes was temporarily over, and they went to have dinner together, and took this opportunity to think about the issue of money.

At two o'clock in the afternoon of that day, after the meeting officially began, the eldest prince Zhu Jingkun presided over the meeting and let the fifteenth prince who raised the topic speak first.

The fifteenth prince was well prepared and explained the matter directly:

"No one in the public discussion raised fiscal and tax issues directly, but other proposals have touched on them.

“Including the content that the civil representatives asked the royal court to supervise, there is a part about the use of finance and tax revenue.

“But none of them touch upon the biggest problem with this matter itself.

"The basic logic of the agreement between the Kingdom and the Free State is that the Free State requires the Kingdom to provide specific obligations, and the Free State must pay reasonable taxes for this.

“The Free State’s tax agency collects money from the people of the Free State, and then pays it exclusively to the Kingdom’s court tax department.

"This amount is logically equivalent to a service fee.
“This wasn’t a big problem in the past, as the support the Kingdom provided to the Free State could basically be considered a service in a broad sense.

"For example, cross-regional infrastructure construction, overseas ocean escort, etc.

“But in the future, the royal court will supervise the official institutions of the Free State. If we continue with this payment model, it will create a contradiction.

“The nobles and officials of the Free State certainly don’t want to be supervised.

“Even if they have signed an agreement and cannot confront it openly, they will definitely try to circumvent it secretly.

“If the governors sent by the royal court supervise the Free State officials too strictly, the contradictions and conflicts between the two sides may soon intensify.

"They are likely to respond in a more aggressive way, and they may deliberately stop paying this tax.

"According to the basic logic of the agreement, it seems that if the Free State is unwilling to pay this tax, then the Royal Court does not need to provide services.

"But that is exactly what the Free State nobles wanted.

“Because supervision is originally requested by the common people of the Free State, not by the actual rulers of the Free State themselves.

“The Free State government has no motivation to pay the money, and the governor sent by the Kingdom’s court has no coercive power to collect the money.

"In order to ensure that the money can be collected stably and then distributed to the dispatched personnel normally, there must be a driving force or a coercive force, and it is best to have both.

“My personal suggestion is to skip the Free State’s taxation agency and let the governor collect taxes directly from the people of the Free State.

"The money is collected through the imperial examination. One has to pay taxes directly to the prefectural governor's office before one can take the imperial examination. After taking the imperial examination, one can directly submit suggestions to the prefect.

"The governor also has the power to investigate and judge nobles and officials in the Free State.

“It means that the money should have been collected by the Free State and handed over to the Royal Court, and then given to the Governor by the Royal Court, and the Governor should have received it directly.

"This money does not go directly into the hands of the Free State government agencies, and requires the Free State to recognize this.

“At the same time, it gives local gentry a vested interest channel that can help them directly confront local nobles and officials.

“These wealthy and influential people in the local area also help the governor to fight against the Free State government.

"What do you think of this arrangement, brothers?"

After hearing this, the eldest prince Zhu Jingkun immediately expressed his approval:

“My personal analysis of Brother Fifteen is very reasonable, and this issue must indeed be taken seriously.

"Let the Free States pay to supervise themselves. This does require external forces to maintain.

“The idea of ​​letting the governor collect taxes through the imperial examination system is also a good one.

“When the new generation of wealthy people in the Free State had no titles or official status, they were suppressed by the existing aristocracy and bureaucracy.

“Now they can use the imperial examination system and the power of the royal court to improve their status.

"The royal court also used them to penetrate the Free States."

Several princes around him immediately spoke up to express their agreement, thinking that the Fifteenth Prince had considered the matter very carefully.

The Ninth Prince, who habitually opposed, once again raised questions and concerns:
“Isn’t the power of the prefectural government too great?

"He was in charge of the imperial examinations and received petitions from the people, and directly investigated and tried nobles and officials in the Free State.

“The key is whether we can collect taxes directly?

"How can we prevent the governor from being corrupt? How can we prevent the governor from engaging in power-for-money transactions with local merchants?"

The Grand Prince Zhu Jingkun said with a smile:
"Ninth brother, are you doing this on purpose? Picky objections can help the collective improve its decision-making, but this arrangement is simply to allow the governor and the merchants to trade power for money.

"The governor is the representative of the kingdom's court. If you pay taxes to the governor, you become a member of the kingdom's court.

"It's normal for the governor to have great power. The local areas are still controlled by the nobles and bureaucrats of the Free State. How can the governor, who has little power, seize power from them?"

The Ninth Prince immediately said:

“I understand the logic, but there should still be some minimum means of supervision.

“Otherwise, it’s really hard to say how much of the money directly received by the prefectural governor’s office can be used for the real things we are planning.

“I suggest that we design a tax circulation bill for the prefecture based on the invoice system designed by the emperor, so that when the prefect receives the money, he can issue it to the local scholar who paid the money.

"Free Staters took these notes and handed them over to the Free State's tax authorities to offset the taxes they should have paid in the Free State.

“The Free State government received these bills and forwarded them to the royal court to offset the taxes they should pay to the court.

“This bill should be made by the royal court, with strict usage regulations and amount ranges, and multiple copies should be printed at the same time and kept by relevant departments.

"One copy is kept in the archives of the prefectural government, one copy is kept in the archives of taxpayers, one copy is kept in the archives of the Free State taxation agency, and one copy is kept in the archives of the central court.

“Tax payers can go to the royal court to check and verify, and the royal court can go to the prefect to reconcile the accounts.

"In order to make the Free State appear incompetent and useless, our own administration should be as strict and regular as possible.

"The power of the prefectural government can be broad, but supervision and management must also be strict.

"Otherwise, if the local people and scholars compare and think that the Kingdom's governor's office is more corrupt than the Free State, then our plan will become a joke."

The eldest prince laughed halfway through, and after listening to the whole thing, he directly expressed his agreement:
"Okay, bill circulation is indeed a good idea."

After discussing for a while at the meeting, everyone finally agreed with the plan. The eldest prince then presided over the vote and it was passed with a high vote.

So far, there is a basic direction for dealing with finance and taxation issues.

The eldest prince continued to preside over the meeting and entered the discussion phase on the details of the plan, refining the direction that had been determined previously and listing the matters that needed attention.

Discussing the details took more time than discussing the direction, and the princes' meeting lasted for three days before they came up with a tentative plan.

On the morning of June 21st, the princes arranged for the Minister of Etiquette to make arrangements.

Notify the most core representatives among the nobles, officials, and people's groups separately and summon them to the palace for a private meeting.

A total of nine people, including three representatives from each party, arrived at the side hall of the palace to meet the emperor at nine o'clock in the morning.

These nine people were very nervous when they entered the palace alone.

Although they have predicted the final outcome based on the situation at the meeting, the decision has not yet been officially made.

And many of them understand that there may be plans for large-scale public meetings, but the process and results of the meetings can usually be analyzed and predicted.

But such meetings attended by only a few people usually mean that some changes have occurred.

Not all fifteen princes were present. Instead, four representatives, namely the eldest prince, the fifth prince, the ninth prince and the fifteenth prince, were arranged to meet them.

After the nine representatives saluted, they heard the eldest prince's instructions and then carefully sat down on the chairs on both sides of the conference room.

The fifteenth prince, who served as the governor of New York, began to explain the princes' decision to them as a representative: "Based on our discussion, it is obviously impossible to ask Free State officials to be directly promoted to the royal court.

“Because that would be unfair to the officials of the provinces and dominions.

“Unless the officials of the Free State are subject to exactly the same methods of selection, appointment, supervision and promotion as those in the provinces.

“For example, they are selected and appointed by the royal court and subordinate institutions, and cannot be governed by people in their registered place of residence and adopt the system of floating officials.

“After all, this is how officials from all provinces and dominions of the kingdom serve and work in the royal court and government offices.

“Officials in the Free State do not accept the same rules and naturally cannot have the same promotion paths.

"Everyone here, can you accept being transferred to another position and serving in a different place?"

The princes had made their decision and plan, but they still had to figure out how to notify the Free State representatives and ultimately implement the decision.

It cannot be announced directly at a public meeting to avoid a direct, open, and uncontrollable conflict.

The nine representatives from the three parties were all visibly stunned after hearing this. Their first reaction was not that they could not accept it, but that they should first consider what these rules meant.

All the representatives present had sufficient knowledge and had a basic understanding of the Ming Dynasty's system and culture.

The recent Free State reform movement has prompted them to gain a deeper understanding of the Ming Dynasty's official system, and naturally they are also aware of the tradition of itinerant officials and serving in other places.

After a brief pause, the noble representative spoke first, saying that he could not accept it.

For the nobles, if all bureaucrats are appointed and dismissed by the royal court and all local officials are from outside the area, then they have basically lost control over the local area.

The people then expressed that they fully supported the royal court's selection of local officials and cooperated with the system of floating officials and appointments to posts in other places.

Of course, the representatives of the people are willing to support a system that can break the aristocracy's control over local areas.

The bureaucratic representatives hesitated even longer because they had the most conflicted mentality and they themselves found it difficult to decide on the system of selecting officials for the royal court.

However, they have an instinctive resistance to serving in a different place and the system of itinerant officials.

But they also knew that if these two systems were truly implemented, they would be able to simultaneously obtain the status of officials of the kingdom.

So after hesitating for a few seconds, differences of opinion emerged among the three bureaucratic representatives, with two opposing and one supporting.

After seeing their statement, the noble representative Quincy said directly:
"Your Highness, among the nine of us, five are against it, which means the majority is against it..."

The eldest prince interrupted him before he could finish:
“The Ming Dynasty will certainly take public opinion into account, but it will not adopt your voting system, as that will lead to intensified internal conflicts among the people.

“Don’t say that the nine of you are just representatives of representatives, not representatives of all or even all the people.

"Even if everyone voted and the result was 5 to 4, it would only mean that the opponents barely passed the majority."

The three noble representatives heard the eldest prince's words and thought that the eldest prince was going to force his support. They suddenly became nervous and subconsciously wanted to open their mouths to refute.

The civilian representatives here were a little excited, and some people couldn't help but shout out:
"So Your Highness supports..."

The eldest prince also did not wait for the civilian representatives to speak, and immediately blocked their mouths:

“Similarly, the number of supporters is only four-ninths, which is still less than half. This also shows that this system is difficult to implement in the Free State, at least it is not suitable for the current Free State.

"If the imperial court pushes this by force, it will inevitably intensify conflicts among the people and endanger the stability of the Free State and even America, so it cannot be implemented rashly."

The noble representatives and the two opposing bureaucratic representatives all breathed a sigh of relief, and their moods were obviously much more relaxed.

The civilian representatives were somewhat disappointed and could not fully accept this explanation:
"Your Highness... If we let the nobles and bureaucrats vote on this kind of issue, they will certainly be against it..."

The eldest prince still ignored them and continued speaking:

"But we have to look at it from the other side again. If four-ninths of the people support it, that is already a very high proportion.

“This is also very important public opinion, and the court must pay attention to it.

“Therefore, the system of selecting officials and officials from other places must be implemented selectively.

“As discussed at the previous meeting, all public officials in the Free State must pass the imperial examination and obtain corresponding honors, and this should be gradually implemented.

“The subsequent selection and appointment of ordinary officials will still be decided by the local government of the Free State, and they can continue to serve locally.

“However, this process must be conducted under the supervision of the royal court and in the manner of a fair examination.

“At the same time, the people of the Free State should be allowed to take examinations and hold posts in other places, and public officials in other places should be recruited according to the same standards.

“All public officials who choose to serve in other places can be promoted to the central court of the kingdom later.

“The expenses of the local civil service examinations, the expenses of the selection of officials, and the salaries of officials, whether in foreign or local positions, shall be borne by the Free State.

"Do you think the nobles, officials, and people of the Free State can accept such a compromise?"

When the princes discussed the matter at their internal meeting, they originally believed that all officials and noble representatives would definitely not accept being selected by the court and being appointed to positions in other places.

Therefore, he prepared to use this excuse to directly reject the arrangement of promoting Free State officials to the royal court.

It now appears that their opposition is not as resolute as expected.

So the eldest prince followed suit and proposed a plan to select some of the Free State's civil servants by the imperial court and to appoint some of them to positions in other places.

The assignment of some public officials to other places can directly divide the officials of the Free State into two parts: local indigenous officials and officials from other places. There will inevitably be contradictions and conflicts between the two sides.

Indigenous officials may be inclined towards the local nobles, while most of the officials from other places will definitely yearn for the royal court.

This is certainly a good thing for the court.

This time, the official representative spoke up first to express his support and said that he would definitely accept it.

The officials were of course happy to accept it as it would not affect their current status and would provide them with more options in the future.

The civil representatives hesitated for a moment, and said that civil representatives should all be able to accept it, and this should be the most appropriate arrangement.

This is equivalent to achieving half of what the civil representatives have called for. Of course, we should just secure the achievement first and then look for opportunities to continue fighting for it later.

The noble representatives hesitated the longest, but finally expressed their approval. They believed that they could convince the majority of the noble representatives.

The involvement of the royal court and the relocation of some officials to other places reduced the nobles’ control over the local areas, but fortunately they still had to make the final selection.

They had already prepared themselves to make concessions and now felt that the losses were still within an acceptable range.

For the princes, the key to this arrangement was the imperial examination, and the system of some civil servants being appointed to positions in other places was an unexpected gain.

The eldest prince looked at the reactions of the three representatives and then instructed the clerk next to him:

"In that case, let's record these arrangements and draw them up into a formal agreement document."

Then he looked at the Fifteenth Prince again, and the Fifteenth Prince spoke again as a representative:
"Then there is the question of coordinating legal conflicts between the Free States, and the coordination of laws between the Royal Court and the Free States.

“The implementation and abolition of Free State laws must be reviewed by relevant agencies of the United States of America.

“The Kingdom’s Cabinet will arrange for the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Etiquette to organize the meeting, and will subsequently invite scholars who have participated in the imperial examinations and have achieved academic honors to participate in the discussion.

"There are two core purposes. The first is to avoid conflicts of law between different free states and between the free states and the kingdom.

“Then there is the need to prevent local nobles and councillors from seeking their own private advantage by amending the law at will.

“However, the laws drafted by the Free States shall not conflict with the laws of other Free States, Ming Dynasty, and the United States, nor violate social order and morality.

“Then the conference cannot organize the drafting of relevant laws.

“As to all the costs of the coordination conference, which are equivalent to the costs of this agreed matter, they shall be borne by the Free State which submitted the law.

"Representatives of all parties should be able to accept this overall arrangement, right?"

This time, representatives of the public and bureaucrats were the first to express their acceptance.

This is what the civilian representatives are pursuing, and it does not affect the direct interests of the bureaucrats.

Several princes originally thought that the issue of forming a free state parliament might need to be explained specifically to civilian representatives.

As a result, these civil representatives now seem to care nothing about this matter and do not notice the difference between the discussion being chaired by Parliament and by the Minister of Justice.

Because it had been determined before, all public officials must first pass the imperial examination, including members of parliament.

On this basis, the princes said that inviting acquaintances with achievements to participate in the discussion was exactly in line with their imagined new way of political deliberation, combining the imperial examination system with parliament.

Then they naturally won't have any objections.

The noble representatives hesitated for a while on this issue, but having already prepared themselves mentally, they chose to accept the reality.

The biggest limitation this matter imposes on them is that the frequency of legislation is limited.

The princes were a little surprised, but since it was passed smoothly, they naturally did not say much and directly instructed the clerk to draft the agreement document.

(End of this chapter)