Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 553 Tax Reform
Ma Xiandian was in high spirits and immediately picked up Yuan Keli's words, "A few days ago, Xiong Jinglüe and I discussed a plan to have the Jinglüe Yamen issue a Jinglüe bill to all of Liao. This would allow all the cities and towns, and the government-run tax stations, to accept our bank's notes instead of cash when collecting taxes. Furthermore, local officials could cash our bank's notes for free."

Yuan Keli's mind raced. "So merchants would first take their cash to the bank and exchange it for notes. After receiving the notes, they would use them to pay taxes to the government. The government would then take the notes to the bank and cash them when they needed cash. Is that what Eunuch Ma meant?"

"Right, right, right! That's exactly what I mean!" Ma Xiandian nodded repeatedly. "This way, merchants will have silver bills, officials will have silver bills, and the market will gradually see silver bills. Aside from the slightly more laborious cashing process, no one will lose out."

"But won't those who don't have banknotes be unable to pay taxes or even do business?" Yuan Keli quickly thought of a practical problem.

"Take it slow. My idea is to use Haizhou, Gaizhou, and Guangning as the base, and then branch out to the surrounding areas one by one. As long as we give them enough time to prepare, every merchant will have our bank's banknotes in their hands." Ma Xiandian filled his glass and offered it to Xiong Tingbi and Yuan Yingtai. "I think Xiong Jinglue and Governor Yuan's proposal for a trial just now was probably based on this consideration."

"Eunuch Ma is right," Xiong Tingbi said in response, raising his glass. "Da Lai and I have indeed considered what Li Qing said."

Yuan Yingtai also nodded slightly in agreement.

"Was this idea Eunuch Ma came up with?" Yuan Keli asked.

"How dare I take credit for it? I'm just following the rules," Ma Xiandian smiled and shook his head. "This idea was suggested to me by Eunuch Hui in a letter."

"Is the eunuch Hui that eunuch Ma mentioned the same eunuch Hui Jingao?" Yuan Keli asked.

"Yes," Ma Xiandian asked, "Have you seen him?"

"I haven't had the chance to see it yet," Yuan Keli said with a look of regret. "When we passed through Shanhaiguan Fortress, we saw a three-story building with the Sun and Moon Bank sign hanging on it, but it hadn't opened yet. Upon asking around, I found out that Eunuch Hui had decided to open a new branch at the border. Now that I think about it, that new branch must be related to the silver bill tax policy."

"I guess so." Ma Xiandian's eyes moved and he nodded slightly.

"Xiong Jinglüe," Yuan Keli turned and looked at Xiong Tingbi, "Are taxes in Liaodong very high?"

"I don't remember exactly how much, but it was a lot anyway," Xiong Tingbi had already told Ma Xiandian once, so he naturally had no intention of hiding it now. "Da Lai, about a hundred thousand taels?"

Yuan Keli was shocked. There were seven currency exchange offices directly under the Ministry of Revenue in the country, but last year, only the Hushu Currency Exchange in Suzhou had earned more than 100,000 taels in tax revenue.

"I need to think about it." After a little thought, Yuan Yingtai reported a series of detailed figures: "At present, we have set up tax offices directly under the governor's office in Jinzhou, Haizhou, and Liaoyang. If I remember correctly, last year, these three tax offices collected a total of 128,652 taels, 9 qian, 7 fen, and 3 li of silver in commercial taxes." At present, it is a common phenomenon for local government offices to set up their own tax stations in order to increase fiscal revenue.

"If we add the city entry tax and store tax from the local garrisons, the total tax revenue for Liao last year was as high as 197,391 taels, 9 qian, 2 fen, and 3 li of silver. If compared with the accounts of previous years, this can be said to be an unprecedentedly high income. All this silver was used for public purposes, and every inflow and outflow was recorded clearly." As he spoke, Yuan Yingtai subconsciously glanced at Lu Wenzhao.

"Almost two hundred thousand? So much!" Yuan Keli was shocked.

This tax revenue was not only unprecedented, it was the highest in the country. If the silver tax of Liaodong was considered as a whole, then last year, Liaodong's tax revenue was close to half of the total tax revenue of the seven major customs offices in China.

"Everything is so expensive, and if taxes aren't high, there's a problem," Yuan Yingtai shrugged with a smile, his tone devoid of joy. "It's all thanks to grain prices far exceeding those inland, and the high grain prices driving up prices of all kinds of goods. Right now, Liaodong is like a golden basin covered in honey, with bees, ants, and flies swarming in from all over. The tax rate set by the governor's office is still relatively low, only six cents on goods worth one or two taels of silver. If it were ten cents, prices would have risen significantly further."

"It will definitely not be this high this year." Xiong Tingbi swallowed the wine and meat in his mouth and interrupted.

"How do you know?" Ma Xiandian's attention was immediately attracted by Xiong Tingbi's voice.

"Of course it's because of the price of grain. Didn't Dalai just say that when grain prices are high, everything else becomes expensive. This year, grain prices in Liao will definitely fall. Once grain prices fall, the prices of all kinds of commodities will inevitably fall. Merchants will make less profit, so of course taxes can't be raised." Xiong Tingbi raised his glass and responded lightly.

"That's right. Shipping has been rerouted, after all." Ma Xiandian was a little disappointed. With less tax revenue from Liaodong, his bank account was down, and with less bank account, his performance declined. As the saying goes, an old horse in the stable still aspires to run a thousand miles. Eunuch Ma still wanted to improve.

"More than that!" Xiong Tingbi was not aware of Eunuch Ma's disappointment, and said quite complacently: "Although the extremely hungry old wild boar has been running around everywhere since the beginning of spring. But thanks to the proper guarding of the generals, the old wild boar has not affected this year's spring plowing. If God is kind, this year's harvest will definitely be better than last year. With two approaches, the price of grain will inevitably fall!" As he said, Xiong Tingbi raised his glass and toasted the three town commanders and the accompanying lieutenant generals and guerrillas.

"It's all thanks to the general's good plan!" Upon hearing this, the generals raised their glasses in response and expressed their humble words.

Ma Xiandian was not annoyed, he just smiled and shook his head.

As the last glass of wine fell, Yuan Keli continued, "Xiong Jinglüe, the current price of grain is three taels and five cents, right?"

"It depends on the location," Xiong Tingbi said. He could hold his liquor quite well, and even after all this drinking, he remained relatively clear-headed. "The further north you go, the more expensive it gets. In Haigai, grain is only three taels and five cents, while in Liaoyang, it's around four taels. If someone dared to take the risk of shipping it to Shenyang, they could easily fetch five taels. Li Qing, guess where the lowest grain prices are in Liao right now?" Xiong Tingbi beamed with joy, still quite drunk.

Yuan Keli guessed, "It should be from the front guard area, right?"

Qiantunwei, whose full name is Guangning Qiantunwei, is located at the westernmost end of Liaodong. It is the intersection of the official road and the passage out of the pass. In other words, once you enter Shanhaiguan, you will reach Qiantunwei.

"No," Xiong Tingbi smiled and twitched his eyebrows. "It's Lushun. Grain prices in Lushun are even cheaper than in Qiantun. You can buy a dan of grain for about two taels."

Two liang was the price the local government paid to merchants for grain. For a long time, the Tianjin military supply department had stubbornly shipped grain to Lushun, Jinzhou, and other places, resulting in a significant grain surplus. To expedite the transportation of grain to Liaoyang, 500 miles away, the military governor Zhang Quan simply opened his warehouses to sell grain, hoping the price difference would encourage private merchants to voluntarily transport the grain to Gaizhou and resell it to the government. This allowed Zhang Quan to load the grain onto ships and transport it north with ease.

Although this policy also resulted in enormous waste, it at least made up for the lack of official transportation capacity in Liaodong, preventing precious grain from being piled up in warehouses in Lushun and Jinzhou, where it would be fed to rats. The front needed food more than silver.

It was foreseeable that once the Tianjin-Gaizhou grain transport route continued to operate for a period of time, the price of grain in Lushun would begin to rise, bucking the general trend of grain prices throughout Liaoning. Yuan Keli quickly understood the reason and nodded silently.

"Speaking of food," Xiong Tingbi said, his mind wandering as the alcohol began to dull his nerves. He suddenly asked, "Li Qing, when you get there, how are you going to transport the food for the troops?"

Yuan Keli's brain had been on edge, and upon hearing this, his scalp suddenly went numb. He instinctively glanced around, but few people paid him any special attention. Throughout the banquet, only Lu Wenzhao, constantly being forced to drink by Qi Jin, cast a wary glance.

"Just as we did before, we should do the same now. General Xiong, if I remember correctly, almost all the military rations for Zhenjiang were transferred from Shandong, right?" Yuan Keli smiled and nodded slightly, putting emphasis on the word "Zhenjiang".

"It's Shandong. It's always been Shandong." Xiong Tingbi nodded, his eyes dimming slightly. "But over 20,000 people in Zhenjiang already rely on Shandong for food. If we add another 25,000..." Xiong Tingbi didn't catch Yuan Keli's subtle hint. He simply realized that adding another 25,000 mouths to feed Shandong, a region long plagued by disaster, could cause serious problems. Just then, someone tugged at the corner of his shirt under the table.

"Governance!" This was Yuan Yingtai's voice.

"What are you doing?" Xiong Tingbi looked back.

"I know more about the military farming in Zhenjiang. Let me tell you." Yuan Yingtai opened his eyes wide and glared at Xiong Tingbi.

"What Zhenjiang? I meant to say..." Xiong Tingbi didn't understand and responded instinctively, but the words wrapped in the smell of alcohol came to his lips and suddenly sobered him up.

Xiong Tingbi's pupils shrank, and then he smiled awkwardly. "Then tell me."

"Since last year, the Governor's Office has begun to reclaim wasteland in the open areas from Zhenjiang in the east to Lushun in the south. But these fields have been left fallow for a long time and have long been hardened and overgrown with weeds, and the office is seriously short of animal power. So far, in the Zhenjiang and Lushun areas, we have only reclaimed more than 200 hectares of land, which accounts for less than 20% of the registered land. Moreover, the land in Zhenjiang and other places has always been barren, and even if there is a big harvest, there is not much yield. In other words, the land here is far from meeting the needs of the local garrison, and can only be replenished by transportation." Yuan Yingtai sighed softly.

The castles in the Zhenjiang area are indeed not short of food, but if we raise our perspective and look at Shandong across the sea, it is definitely not a good thing that Zhenjiang has no shortage of food.

"I understand," Yuan Keli frowned and took a sip of the bitter wine. "I understand."

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After the welcoming banquet, the generals dispersed, but Ma Xiandian, Yuan Keli, Lu Wenzhao, Xiong Tingbi and Yuan Yingtai went to the governor's office.

"Eunuch Ma, please take a look and see if there is anything that needs to be deleted or revised?" After writing the official letter to Zhang Quan, the drunkenness that had accumulated in Xiong Tingbi's heart and face dissipated a lot.

"That's all, just use the seal!" Ma Xiandian almost stared at Xiong Tingbi as he wrote.

"Okay!" Xiong Tingbi signed his name and put down his pen. He picked up the teacup and took another sip of sobering tea before reaching out to take the silver seal of the governor.

Ming Dynasty official seals were made of only two materials: silver and copper. Generally speaking, the higher the official's rank, the larger the seal. Therefore, knowledgeable people could easily guess the identity of the bearer simply by looking at the material and size, without even having to examine the inscription.

Since Xiong Tingbi's highest official title was Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, his official seal was a silver square, modeled after the Ministry of War's seal—three inches and two centimeters square and eight centimeters thick. The only official seal larger than this at court was the first-rank silver square seal of the Five Military Commandery, three inches and five centimeters thick.

After removing the silver seal, a vermilion mark appeared. From this moment on, this ordinary piece of paper officially became a military ticket, possessing the nature of an order.

"Come here." Xiong Tingbi waved to a clerk who was on duty in the signing room.

The clerk walked over silently and bowed silently to everyone present.

"Send this ticket to Haizhou," Xiong Tingbi said, leaning over to examine it, making sure there were no gleaming traces of wet ink before handing it to the clerk. "Tell the post station it must arrive tomorrow!"

"Yes."

"Don't bother," the clerk said, but before he could even reach out, Ma Xiandian stopped him. "I'll take it to Haizhou myself."

Xiong Tingbi smiled and waved the clerk away, then stood up and handed over the ticket with both hands. "Then go get an envelope for my father-in-law."

"Yes." The clerk turned and walked towards a cabinet, and soon came back with an empty envelope. "Eunuch Ma, let me help you pack it."

"Oh, it's not that much of a hassle." Ma Xiandian refused with a smile, "Lao Jinglie has already written it for so long, can't I just start to pretend it?"

"Haha." The clerk handed the envelope to Ma Xiandian with a smile.

After putting the ticket into his pocket, Ma Xiandian looked at Yuan Keli again. "Yuan Bingxian, when are you going to take office in Zhenjiang?"

Yuan Keli was stunned for a moment. "I'm planning to head north, first to Shenyang, and then to see the conditions in the various towns along the front lines. That way, we can better coordinate with the cameras in Liaoyang." Yuan Keli was actually speaking to Xiong Tingbi and Yuan Yingtai.

"Oh," Ma Xiandian said with a look of regret, "I was thinking of going south with Yuan Bingxian. It seems we can only part ways with regret."

(End of this chapter)