travel through the past to be emperor

Chapter 159 Taxation
"What you said is very reasonable, but I feel that sometimes some old concepts need to be changed under the new situation." Zhao Fei said.

After listening to Zhao Fei's first sentence, the faces of the officials in the room were all different. Zhao Fei's words had many meanings, and different conclusions could be drawn from different perspectives, but at this moment, none of them had guessed a certain conclusion .

Sure enough, Zhao Fei went on to say: "Scholars, farmers, businessmen, these four classes are the foundation of the country. I admit that with the current power of the court, it is indeed impossible to leverage this powerful force, but this does not mean that I cannot collect commercial taxes. "

Qin Hui moved his lips, then gave up.

Judging from Zhao Fei's expression, Zhao Fei has already made up his mind that he must carry out tax reform. If he stands out at this time, he will probably be crushed to pieces.

So the old prime minister undoubtedly chose to regress.

To some extent, Qin Hui's attitude will affect the choices of many officials. At least in this room, when Qin Hui retreats, the others will also lower their heads, pretending to listen carefully to Zhao Fei's speech.

Zhao Fei doesn't care whether these people really listen to him or pretend to listen to him. He just wants to express his opinion. As for the right to choose, for a dynasty, the emperor's words are actually equal to the court's words. As long as Zhao Fei is willing, All the ministers, from the prime minister to the policeman, no one can raise any objection to Zhao Fei.

So Zhao Fei only paid a little attention to everyone's expressions, and then continued: "I know what you think, and I also know that there will be many problems after the court collects commercial taxes, but my lords, do you think the court is in this position? Are there any other options?"

Everyone silently glanced at Zhao Fei, but no one dared to answer.

The meaning of Zhao Fei's words can be understood deeply, that is, if the imperial court does not reform, it will perish. Who dares to accept what you say, and who has the courage to accept it.

"Who is the richest person in Song Dynasty now? Is it?" Zhao Fei asked himself and answered, "It is undoubtedly I, but is I really rich? Of course not, the real money belongs to this dynasty." Those big businessmen, the funds in their hands are incomparably rich."

What Zhao Fei said may seem contradictory, but it is not contradictory. Zhao Fei is indeed the richest, and you will put it in later generations. All the land and buildings on Chang'an Avenue in the Forbidden City in Beijing belong to your family, even if you own it. The last one did not, you are also the richest person in the world.

But all you have is land and various rare antiques, you really don’t have the cash, and the plate in your hand is too big, and no one can buy it for you with cash.

What Zhao Fei faced was this embarrassing situation.

Looking at the crowd, Zhao Fei said again: "I have traveled in Chang'an City in micro-services and talked with some merchants, and I found a very surprising fact, that is, although the commercial tax has been levied for many years, many merchants don't even know about the imperial court. There is such a tax, and the government has never publicized it in various stores, do you think it can collect commercial tax?"

Everyone was silent, there was no way to say anything.

Everyone knows what Zhao Fei said, but no one dares to mention it. After all, there are too many problems involved. Among the adults present, there are also businessmen who have never paid taxes. How can it be possible to ask them to pay out of money? ?

But Zhao Fei did not let them go. Obviously Zhao Fei was well prepared and ordered Anping to pass the several documents placed on the table to the adults according to the names written on the documents.

"Look carefully." Zhao Fei said.

"Yes."

All the ministers nodded one after another, and then carefully opened the document with their names written on them, and then the faces of all the ministers froze.

Everyone looked at me, and I looked at you, and each saw the shock in their own eyes.

No need to ask, everyone knows that everyone writes similar things in their documents.

"Have you finished watching?" Zhao Fei snorted, and said, "This is all about some of your businesses in Beijing and other places, mainly shops. I know that this is only a small part of your respective properties. A large part of it is due to time, and I haven't found it yet..."

"Your Majesty, the ministers are guilty, please forgive me!"

Before Zhao Fei finished speaking, all the ministers in the house knelt down on the ground one after another, shouting "Long live", pleading guilty to Zhao Fei with one voice.

Zhao Fei made a surprised face and said, "What is your crime?"

"As ministers of the imperial court, opening shops privately and competing with the people for profit is the first crime. The ministers committed such a crime but did not report it to His Majesty. This is the second crime..."

"Okay." Zhao Fei waved his hand to shut up the ministers who pleaded guilty, then snorted coldly, and asked, "Although your opening of a shop is somewhat contrary to the teachings of the saints, I don't care about it, and I don't want to. For me, I just want to know one thing, and that is, do these shops you open pay taxes?"

Everyone looked at me, I looked at you, and finally shook their heads, then lowered their heads, lying deeply on the ground, and they all stopped talking.

"Why, there is no taxpayer?" Zhao Fei sneered, then looked at Zhao Zilong and said, "Zhao Zilong, you are the Secretary of the Household Department, don't tell me, you don't know about the commercial tax in the court."

"Chen..." Zhao Zilong wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and stammered, "I will make up for it when I turn back, not only for this year, but also for last year's."

"Qin Hui, you are the prime minister, what do you say?" Zhao Fei looked at Qin Hui again.

"After the minister returns, he will go to the household department to pay all the taxes." Qin Hui smiled bitterly from the bottom of his heart, and said expressionlessly.

Without waiting for Zhao Fei to speak, the others said that after retiring from the court, they would immediately go to the household department to pay back the tax.

After everyone had finished speaking, Zhao Fei sneered again, and said, "Okay, with officials like you, why worry that I don't have people who don't pay taxes in Song Dynasty!"

What Zhao Fei said was already very serious, and everyone knelt on the ground with beads of sweat on their foreheads, but Zhao Fei pointed at Zhao Zilong and scolded: "You, Zhao Zilong, the dignified secretary of the household department, are in charge of all the money, grain and taxation of the court, how dare you?" Say you don’t know that you have to pay taxes in business? But you know but don’t pay, your behavior is much worse than those people who don’t know that you have to pay taxes.”

"Snapped!"

Zhao Zilong's body tilted, and he fell to the ground straight. Zhao Fei waved his hand, and Anping rushed forward to help Zhao Zilong up.

Zhao Zilong's face was pale, and he said, "Your Majesty, I'm guilty!"

"Of course I know that you are guilty." Zhao Fei said mercilessly: "If you hadn't thought that you have made great contributions to the court since you became an official, I would now want someone to drag you out of the Meridian Gate and behead you. "

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for not killing me." Zhao Zilong said loudly immediately. Of course he knew that since Zhao Fei said so, he would definitely not die. In order to prevent Zhao Fei from changing his mind, Zhao Zilong forced himself to suppress the fear in his heart and thanked him loudly. .

Zhao Fei could clearly see Zhao Zilong's careful thinking.

Zhao Fei didn't say anything, just looked at Zhao Zilong with a half-smile and said, "You know you're wrong."

"I know I was wrong." Zhao Zilong said with tears streaming down his face.

"Since you know you're wrong, then I'll give you a chance to make a contribution." Zhao Fei said.

"Yes, yes, yes." Zhao Zilong quickly agreed, but then Zhao Zilong regretted it. At this time, it is definitely not a good thing to commit crimes and meritorious deeds.

Sure enough, Zhao Fei said next: "Then, I will leave the business tax collection to you."

"Ah!" Zhao Zilong was stunned for a moment, and immediately wanted to quit, but under Zhao Fei's gaze, he really didn't have the guts to speak out against it.

As for the others, since ancient times, they have not had enough time to save Zhao Zilong.

"If you have no objections, then we will start from Chang'an to collect commercial tax." Zhao Fei said.

Although Zhao Fei was asking everyone if they had any opinions, judging from the tone of voice, everyone knew that they should say no opinions. After all, the emperor had a strong accent on the four words "no opinions".

Zhao Fei originally thought that no one would speak up, but there were some people who were not as good as Zhao Fei.

Liu Yong stood up.

Ignoring Zhao Fei's livid face, Liu Yong kowtowed and said, "Your Majesty wants to levy a commercial tax. I dare not disagree, but I still want to ask Your Majesty to think twice."

"What do you mean?" Zhao Fei asked with a cold face.

"Since the court law clearly stipulates that there is a commercial tax in this dynasty, there is nothing to say about taxation." Liu Yong continued: "But your majesty, what I want to say is that among the merchants, there are certainly wealthy families who can rival the country. There are people, and there are people who can barely make ends meet.”

"Well," Zhao Fei nodded, his expression relaxed, and he said, "Go on."

"Yes." Liu Yong nodded and said, "For example, the carbon in the minister's house is provided by an old man in his sixties. According to the relevant regulations of the Ministry of Household Affairs, this old man has no land and is engaged in commercial activities such as selling charcoal. He belongs to a merchant. Taxes should be levied, but Your Majesty, if the court really collects this old man's business tax, then this old man will probably die of famine the next day. Therefore, I dare to ask Your Majesty to consider the situation of these small businessmen. .”

"I understand what you said." Zhao Fei said.

Liu Yong is worthy of being a genius. He has seen from the case of the charcoal seller that taxation should take into account the income of the merchants themselves. For those small merchants with very low incomes, taxing them is likely to make the poor poorer.

The merchant class is originally something that farmers and workers who can't get along are doing. Every businessman basically belongs to the bottom and poorest people in the society at the beginning of business. A big businessman from the enemy country.

Everything about businessmen is based on their income to talk about heroes. Once taxes are collected, their income should indeed be considered.

After thinking for a while, Zhao Fei said: "The collection of commercial tax is imperative, but what Liu Yong said is also reasonable. I think there should be a set income line. Anyone who exceeds this line will have to pay taxes. Those within this line You don’t have to pay taxes.”

"Then, Your Majesty, what is the proper income line?" Zhao Zilong asked cautiously.

"Spot check the income of [-] shops in Chang'an City, and their average income is the tax line." Zhao Fei made a simple and rude one-size-fits-all.

(End of this chapter)