The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 438 How to get the client to accept the arrangement
The Grand Prince and the Free State representatives arranged the issues of official promotion and legal coordination, and then personally explained the other two reform arrangements:

"Next, we should talk about the issue of appeal. The Free State is also part of the Kingdom. It is reasonable to allow Free State matters to continue to be appealed to the Kingdom courts.

"The royal court should accept..."

The eldest prince paused here and deliberately glanced at several nobles and bureaucratic representatives.

The bureaucratic representatives were still hesitant, and the nobles were clearly unwilling to accept it, which would certainly have a direct impact on their influence.

The eldest prince did not wait for them to speak and directly added another sentence to suppress them:
“However, the matter of the appeal is not isolated and should be discussed together with the Free State’s supervisory matters.

“The establishment of a special agency to oversee the operation of the Free State’s official institutions is the core demand of the people of the Free State.

"Both the Royal Court and the Free State institutions should respond to this call."

The noble representatives understood that, while there was still room for discussion on other issues, the establishment of a supervisory body itself could not be discussed.

If the nobles insist on refusing, then the unruly people below might really rebel, just like when the nobles joined forces with the Ming Dynasty to drive out the British, and drive away these nobles.

Quincy Adams asked almost subconsciously:

"Your Highness, it is indeed necessary to establish a supervisory body, but what does this have to do with the appeal?"

The eldest prince Zhu Jingkun asked him with a stern face:

"After you were supervised by the Free State Censor, investigated by the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner, and tried by the Chief Justice, do you want a chance to appeal?
"Or should the first trial by the Free State judge be the final trial?"

Quincy reacted immediately. Since there was supervision, there would be investigation and trial. If there was a possibility that he would be tried, he would naturally hope to have a way to appeal.

So Quincy was choked up:

“This… is indeed…”

The eldest prince continued to explain with a straight face:
“You are all nobles of the kingdom, and you cannot allow the Free State supervisory officials to shout and kill you at will.

“So the royal court will of course allow you to appeal to avoid a false conviction against you.

“In the Ming Dynasty, if a prince breaks the law, he will be punished just like any ordinary citizen, so we cannot allow only you to appeal while not allowing ordinary people to appeal.

“So the Free State’s public and private appeals leave should be discussed together with oversight.

“As for the method of supervision, we will follow the suggestions of the civilian representatives and directly refer to the provincial supervision system of the Ming Dynasty.

"A censor was set up to accept public opinion, an inspector was set up to investigate officials, a judge was set up to judge and punish, and a royal guard was set up to be responsible for specific execution.

“This is basically the complete supervision system of the Ming Dynasty.

“The number of personnel and supporting facilities required can basically form half of the administrative agencies of a province in Ming Dynasty.

“According to the framework agreement between the Kingdom and the Free State, the cost of recruiting these personnel and preparing the corresponding facilities will need to be paid by taxes paid by the Free State.

"The situation in the Free State varies, and there is no specific accounting data yet, but it is obviously not a small number.

“So you’d better prepare in advance and adjust the public budgets of the existing official agencies in your respective free states, and increase them all by at least 50 percent.

"You will hand over this amount to the kingdom's tax department, and the kingdom's court will begin organizing the selection of the necessary personnel."

Although the noble representatives had been prepared, they still opened their mouths in shock when they heard the eldest prince's words.

Quincy almost subconsciously started to defend himself:
"Your Highness... a 50% increase in the public budget is too high. The Free State simply cannot afford this much money in such a short period of time."

Quincy knew in his heart that setting up a supervisory agency was a non-negotiable matter, and refusal would mean a head-on conflict.

However, the specific settings can definitely be negotiated.

That's the compromise.

So Quincy decisively complained at this time.

The eldest prince laughed dryly, then raised his right hand and pointed at the three noble representatives:
"Of course you can pay, but you definitely don't want to. After all, this money is used to restrain you."

The three noble representatives all looked embarrassed, and Quincy quickly continued to explain:
"It's not that we don't want to pay, we just can't afford that much. If the budget were to increase by 50% all at once, the Free State's finances would collapse and go bankrupt."

Quincy is being polite and putting the table on display, the subtext being that you can't just ask for so much directly, you have to give me a discount anyway.

We need to continue discussing this matter and slowly work out a compromise.

The eldest prince did not take the stage, but turned to the three civilian representatives and said with a very serious expression:

"The people of the Free State should be willing to pay this money, right? This is used to supervise the official institutions and personnel of the Free State, and it is beneficial to all the people."

The civilian representatives were all smart people and knew that the prince was taking them to bargain with the nobles.

Although a 50 percent increase in the fiscal budget may mean a significant increase in taxes, they will ultimately have to bear these taxes.

But at this time, the primary goal was obviously to cooperate with the prince to suppress the nobles and force them to make the greatest concessions.

Other matters should be discussed in detail after the nobles have surrendered.

Therefore, the three civilian representatives all expressed their support directly, claiming that they were willing to pay this part of the tax to the royal court to supervise the official agencies of the Free State.

At the same time, he also criticized the selfishness and tyranny of the nobles.

In this situation, the official representatives of course wanted to remain invisible. They were trying hard to reduce their presence and breathing carefully.

Unless the prince asked them directly, they would never participate in such discussion.

Of course, the noble representatives would not sit back and fight back. After listening to the civilian representatives, some of them directly said what they were unwilling to say:
"The increase in fiscal expenditure will eventually be reflected in taxes, and taxes will eventually have to be increased."

The civilian representatives responded without hesitation:
"We are happy to increase taxes, but the taxes we increase are for the royal court, not for you."

However, the noble representatives did not take such words too seriously. Little Gates even mocked the civilian representatives with a look of disgust:
"Everyone can talk big, but when the time comes to collect the money, let's see if you dare to keep talking big."

The noble representatives did not take this matter too seriously.

They naturally thought that if the civilian representatives continued to argue like this, they would have to pay 50% of the taxes.

Once this matter is finalized, the Free State will definitely increase taxes significantly.

If they resisted taxes at that time, the officials sent by the royal court would not support them, because the salaries of the royal officials also came from this tax.

Some civilian representatives have already thought of this, so they began to hesitate a little and began to consider whether 50% was too much.

The eldest prince saw that their emotions were almost brewing, and they should have considered various impacts, so he announced the next arrangements at this time:

"Since the noble representatives are unwilling to pay, but the people's representatives are willing to pay the tax, let the people pay it directly to the kingdom's dispatched agency."

When the eldest prince said this, the representatives of the three parties were stunned and the scene immediately became extremely quiet.

For a while, everyone didn't react and wondered whether this tax payment method was beneficial to them.

However, the silence did not last long. The noble representatives were the first to speak up and express their support, of course with conditions: "Your Highness, if the people sent by the Kingdom's court were to collect this tax directly from the people of the Free State, then the Free State would not have to adjust its fiscal budget, right?"

Obviously, allowing royal officials to collect taxes directly from Free State residents would certainly be dividing the Free State's most important power.

If the matter had been discussed alone, the nobles of the Free State would certainly have objected.

But the current situation is special. The Free State must now come up with a sum of money to allow the Royal Court to set up a Free State supervisory agency.

As for how much should be taken out, it requires repeated pulling to determine.

During this process, the royal court and the free state were in opposition, and were directly competing for the most practical interests.

Now that the royal court is allowed to collect taxes directly from the people, it has been pushed to the opposite side of the people and has become a potential ally of the Free State nobles.

Let the royal court and civilian representatives argue over how and when to collect the money.

The key is that someone has to collect taxes, and the Free State already has a tax collection agency, so raising taxes will only allow the relevant personnel to collect a little more in the future.

The added costs to the Free State in this process are simply to address taxpayer resistance.

The marginal cost before the tax reaches its limit is not high.

The royal court does not have a tax agency in the Free State. They need to set up a tax agency from scratch, and the required personnel and facilities are all initial costs.

How many people will they have to send to collect this tax, and how much will it cost?

But no matter what the specific cost is, the money will be taken from the taxes received, which will increase the total amount collected again.

In the end, either the unruly people could not bear it, or the royal court could not bear it, and the Free State government had to take over.

However, we also have to consider a possibility that the royal court is not after the money itself, but is providing money and manpower to control local taxation.

Therefore, the noble representatives did not make a final decision. They had to wait and see the reactions of the prince and the civilian representatives before making a final decision.

After hearing this, the eldest prince did not answer the question immediately, but waited to see the reaction of the civilian representatives.

The civilian representatives were more conflicted than the aristocratic representatives. Allowing the royal court to collect taxes directly was a good thing in itself, but raising taxes was obviously not a good thing.

There is no direct correspondence between the taxes paid by the Free States to the Crown and those paid by them.

They can definitely find ways to resist and avoid taxes.

So they could talk big to the nobles and force them to pay taxes.

But if the royal court charges them directly, they can no longer make big promises.

The civilian representatives also thought of the issues that the nobles were considering. The royal court needed to organize additional tax collectors to collect taxes.

Andrew Jackson, the representative from South Carolina, was the first to ask the princes about their attitudes:

“May I ask, Your Highness, how will the Free State branch of the Kingdom collect this tax?

"Especially if fiscal spending increases by 50%, it doesn't mean a direct increase in taxes by 50%, right?"

The official representatives seemed to want to speak, but ultimately chose to remain silent.

The eldest prince looked at the representatives of the three parties present and concluded with a smile:

"Now you all realize that directly establishing a complete local supervisory agency like the Ming Dynasty does not meet your actual needs.

“The Free State is not an official province of the Ming Dynasty. Unless it is directly transformed into a province, the supervisory institutions of the Ming Dynasty cannot be directly copied.

“So we plan to set up a local organization that is as simple as possible, whose main task is to organize the imperial examinations and manage the scholars with honors.

“This fee was also paid in the form of examination and registration fees, and the scholars could take the examination and maintain their official status with the payment voucher.

“At the same time, the Kingdom’s dispatched agencies also completed basic supervision of the Free State’s official agencies through the registered soldiers, and first found out the basic situation of the Free State.

“Through them, we can discover the problems in the Free State, and then assign people to solve them based on the specific problems.

“In this way, there is no need to recruit a large number of people at once, and there is no need to spend a lot of money immediately. Instead, the Kingdom’s dispatched agencies can be established gradually.

"Such a method should be acceptable to the nobles, officials, and people of the Free State, right?"

The representatives of the three parties at the scene thought about it for a while and realized that this was a compromise plan planned in advance by the princes.

After the previous exaggerated and extreme debate, everyone found that this arrangement is actually quite good.

The key to slowly building a suitable organization step by step is to keep costs under control.

But there was also an obvious question. After considering it for a while, Jackson, the civilian representative, raised his hand to express his doubts:

“Excuse me, Your Highness, the taxes collected through examinations and registration fees are all paid by those who take the examinations and have the titles, and ordinary people do not pay them.

“And those who take the exams and have achieved honors are usually required to pay the same taxes to the Free State as ordinary people, which is equivalent to paying an additional tax.

"The key point is that supervision is directed at all official institutions in the Free State, and the corresponding taxes should be paid by everyone, right?"

The eldest prince nodded and said with a smile:

“Indeed, in this case, the scholars have to pay an extra amount of tax, but the kingdom’s dispatched agencies will issue a receipt after collecting the tax.

"Take this receipt to the Free State tax authorities and use it to offset the tax you should have paid to the Free State."

Jackson immediately agreed:

"Thank you for your understanding, Your Highness. We can accept this arrangement."

At this time, the noble representatives were unhappy again, and Quincy Adams quickly stood up to express his different opinion:
“Your Highness, if this deduction is made, the actual tax revenue of the Free State will be reduced.

“The point is that this form of surveillance is not truly fair to all the people of the Free State.

“The early supervisory activities of official agencies were obviously only aimed at scholars.

“For matters involving scholars, the scholars can directly report them to the Kingdom’s dispatched agencies, and the Kingdom’s dispatched agencies will go to the Free State Office to resolve them.

“But for ordinary people, they don’t have the opportunity to directly seek help from dispatching agencies to solve the problem, right?
"The amount of tax that scholars should pay has not changed, but they have gained more conveniences. This is unfair to ordinary people."

The eldest prince said with a stern face as a reminder and warning:
“This is just a preliminary plan, and the Kingdom’s dispatched agencies will continue to improve it so that supervision can be truly implemented to the entire population.

“Moreover, when everyone pays the examination and registration fees, this supervision will naturally become available to all citizens of the Free State.

“As for the reduction in taxes in the Free State, this is the price you should have paid in the first place.

"Even if I don't tell you, you will find another way to collect more taxes from other ordinary people to make up for the shortfall you need, right?"

(End of this chapter)