Chapter 1045 1136 The Ming Dynasty’s attempt at tax reform

Chapter 1045 1136 The Ming Dynasty’s attempt at tax reform

"In this case, let Yu Dayou have full authority to handle this matter, and it will be implemented according to the old rules of Dongfan Island."

After fully listening to the opinions of the three cabinet ministers and the Minister of War, Tan Lun, the Queen Mother Chen made the final decision, "When the emperor meets with the king of Sulu, the three beloved ministers must accompany him, so as not to lose the royal family of the Ming Dynasty. Decent.”

After all, the little emperor is still underage, and the queen mother is worried that the little emperor is looked down upon.

You know, Wanli Emperor Zhu Yijun is not only young now, but after years of diagnosis and treatment by imperial doctors, his leg disease has basically been declared hopeless.

In other words, when Emperor Wanli received foreign ministers, it would be okay if he sat on the dragon throne, but when he moved around, people would notice that he was walking with a limp.

Although most of the Chinese dynasties did not explicitly stipulate that candidates should not only have outstanding literary talent but also outstanding appearance to open a subject, but in fact there are requirements in this regard.

The only exception to this was naturally the powerful Tang Dynasty.

In the Tang Dynasty, those who took the imperial examinations and were not good-looking or had strange looks were likely to lose their reputation.

According to the "Election Records" of the "New Tang Book" of the Tang Dynasty: "There are four ways to select people: one is the body, the physical appearance is magnificent; the second is the speech, the words are correct; the third is the book, the regular script is beautiful; fourth It is said that he is good at arts and science."

That is to say: first, the figure must be tall and tall, and the appearance must be handsome; second, the language expression ability must be strong and eloquent; third, the calligraphy must be neat and beautiful; third, the writing must be literary, scientific and talented.

Among these four assessment criteria, appearance overwhelms eloquence, calligraphy, writing skills and other conditions, ranking at the front, which shows the importance of appearance in exam selection.

Luo Yin, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, failed to pass in many tests because of his unsatisfactory appearance. This is known in history as "failed to pass in ten tests".

Wen Tingyun, a poet and lyricist of the same dynasty, also failed the Jinshi examination many times because of his appearance, and was depressed throughout his life.

There is also the third place in the first and third place. In fact, the titles of number one, second place and third place in the first and third place only began to appear in the Southern Song Dynasty. Before that, the Tang Dynasty already had "Tanhua Lang".

It's just that at that time, being ranked third was not synonymous with exam ranking, but a kind of honor.

Since the Tang Dynasty, every Jinshi ranking has a flower-hunting envoy, also known as a flower-tanning man.

The Tanhua Envoy is a young and handsome Jinshi who is responsible for being selected at the Qionglin Banquet, picking flowers from various famous gardens, and writing poems to welcome the number one winner, hence the name Tanhua.

At that time, the Tanhualang was not the top three, but a young, handsome boy.

The tradition was inherited into the Song Dynasty. Taizu of the Song Dynasty also stipulated that among the Jinshi, the young and beautiful ones should be selected as Tanhua envoys, who would pick flowers at the Qionglin Banquet and present them to the number one scholar, hence the name Tanhua.

It was not until the Southern Song Dynasty that the third place in the first class was called Tanhua, and the people also called Tanhualang.

It is said that at that time, Tanhualang Yi Yaoran picked flowers in famous gardens, composed poems at the Qionglin Banquet, and dedicated them to the number one scholar.

Of course, this tradition disappeared in the Ming Dynasty, so not many people know that Tanhua has this responsibility.

It can be seen that China has actually been a founding member of the Appearance Association since ancient times. Although these are only requirements for ministers, the emperor will also be affected to some extent.

Emperor Wanli later followed Jiajing's example and did not leave the palace for decades, which was partly related to his leg disease.

It's one thing for everyone to know that the emperor has leg problems, but it's another thing to see it with your own eyes.

After hearing what the Queen Mother said, the four of them nodded in unison.

Just when everyone was about to resign and exit Ciqing Palace and return to the front, Zhang Juzheng suddenly said thoughtfully: "There is another thing that Wang Shangshu of the Ministry of Finance mentioned yesterday."

"Anything else?"

Queen Mother Chen asked immediately after hearing this.

The Ministry of Household Affairs is the imperial court's purse, and anything that happens to the purse is no small matter.

The operation of the imperial court and the palace are inseparable from financial support.

“Previously, the Nanhai Navy planned Dongfan Island and left all the taxes on the southeast coast.

Later, due to the affairs in the southwest, the imperial court decided to keep all the taxes from Yunnan as a precaution. Although there is still some money left in the Ministry of Household Affairs, considering the excavation of the Jia Canal and other projects, and the military rewards for the northern frontier army, I am afraid that there will be another one this year. To make ends meet.

The little money left over from last year seems to be simply not enough. "

Zhang Juzheng opened his mouth and talked about the results of the Ministry of Household Accounting's accounting of this year's fiscal budget. It was already expected that there would be a deficit again this year.

Wang Guoguang knew that what Zhang Juzheng cared about most was actually the household department. It would be best if the household department had a surplus. If there was a deficit, he would definitely find a way to make up for it.

The current Ming Dynasty is not like the Jiajing Dynasty, and it still has Lao Ku's money to support it.

Once the current money is in short supply, it means that there is no money to support it, but there will be problems.

The essence of Zhang Juzheng's implementation of the examination method is this.

If the imperial court still suffers a deficit under the premise of implementing the examination method, Zhang Juzheng's face will not look good, and more people will definitely oppose the continued implementation of the examination method.

Therefore, after reaching the conclusion, Wang Guoguang did not dare to neglect and informed Zhang Juzheng of the budget results overnight.

At this time, everyone in Ciqing Palace who held the power of the Ming Dynasty was present, and Zhang Juzheng took advantage of the opportunity to talk about it.

Of course, it seems that the reason for the deficit is also attributed to the Ministry of War. After all, most of the money is accounted for by the Ministry of War.

Wei Guangde's responsibility seems not to be small.

Historically, in the early years of Wanli, Ming Dynasty implemented a defensive and counterattack policy externally. Whether it was Liaodong or southwest, the war was fought very restrainedly.

In fact, the essence is that Zhang Juzheng does not want to spend money. He wants to make the Ministry of Revenue have beautiful account numbers, so that people can see the remarkable results of his implementation of the performance evaluation system.

However, in this life, a soul that came hundreds of years later, under his influence, the Ming Dynasty's foreign policy has obviously changed, and some things are not for him, the Prime Minister, to decide.

"How much deficit will the Ministry of Revenue calculate?"

Empress Dowager Chen asked.

"If there is nothing in the southwest, the deficit is about one million taels of silver, mainly due to the investment in the Dongfan Island and the South China Sea Navy.

The original plan to raise 200,000 taels of silver for shipbuilding for the Denglai Navy, with the Ministry of Works contributing 100,000 taels and the Ministry of Revenue contributing 100,000 taels, is probably difficult to complete."

Zhang Juzheng said with a bow.

"Wei Ge Lao, what do you think of this?"

Zhang Juzheng has already thrown out the difficulties of the Ministry of Revenue, and the next step is to think of ways to deal with it.

Naturally, Wei Guangde is the first to bear the brunt.

After all, a large part of the deficit of the court this year was caused by him.

When Wei Guangde heard Zhang Juzheng's story just now, he was actually thinking of a way in his mind.

To make up for the deficit, it's just a matter of increasing revenue and reducing expenditure.

However, the money in and out of the court is fixed, and there is only so much income, so there is no way to reduce expenditure, so we can only find a way to increase revenue.

But once the revenue is increased, it is inevitable that the old scholars in the court and some people with ulterior motives will attack for competing with the people for profit.

Wei Guangde thought for a while, and finally he could only use that trick to deal with this matter first.

In fact, the economy of the Ming Dynasty is now highly developed. Since the opening of Yuegang Port, the industry and commerce in Jiangnan have been prosperous.

It's just that the tax system set by Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, has problems, which led to the prosperity of the private economy, but the increase in tax revenue of the court was very small.

In addition, local officials also played tricks, playing the so-called stability, and evened out the increased tax revenue.

Of course, the tax was still collected, but it was not paid to the treasury.

It is reasonable that the Ministry of Revenue cannot increase tax revenue.

For example, looms are now produced in large quantities every year and flow overseas through Yuegang.

The weaving workshops in Jiangnan all chose to increase the number of looms. The rules set by Zhu Yuanzhang were to collect taxes based on the number of looms.

No matter how much cloth a weaving workshop produces in a year, it is a hard rule that a loom must pay a certain amount of cloth in a year, and the court should see some results.

In addition, the same is true for porcelain kilns.

But in fact, the court really didn't see the increased tax revenue at that time.

Wei Guangde knew that Zhang Juzheng actually understood it, but it was not easy to intervene.

At least, before those people made mistakes, they could not directly target them.

Officials are corrupt, and the upper level cannot be unaware of it, but it has been the case in all dynasties. Only when officials make mistakes will they be dealt with, and they will not take the initiative to clean up.

Commercial tax is the biggest pitfall of the Ming Dynasty. Wei Guangde's cautious nature naturally won't touch it, so let the later generations do it, maybe they are more wise to solve this problem.

Coming from later generations, Wei Guangde naturally learned some ways to shirk responsibility.

As for the difficult problems in front of him, he had planned them. In fact, he had already had an idea long ago.

However, it was somewhat related to his own interests, so he kept dragging it out. Anyway, it had not come to that point yet, so he would lose as little as possible.

At this time, Empress Dowager Chen and Empress Dowager Li looked at him, and Zhang Juzheng, Lü Diaoyang and Tan Lun also looked at him, waiting for his answer.

Wei Guangde stepped forward, bowed to the Empress Dowager and the Emperor above, and then said: "In fact, the industry and commerce in Jiangnan have recovered very well in recent years, and it is no longer the chaos when the Japanese pirates were rampant."

Hearing Wei Guangde's opening words, the two Empress Dowagers and the little emperor were fine, but Zhang Juzheng, Lü Diaoyang and Tan Lun all changed color.

There were many politicians in the Ming Dynasty, but no one dared to think of commercial taxes. The only one who dared to do it was Wei Zhongxian, who was known as "nine thousand nine hundred years old".

But his final outcome cannot be said to be completely unrelated to this.

The old saying that money makes the devil work is really true.

It is impossible to say that Zhang Juzheng does not understand economics at all.

However, he knows that it involves too many things. Not only are there nobles involved, but also local gentry and wealthy families, who are closely connected.

Wei Guangde himself is also a beneficiary.

Otherwise, why is he so keen on doing business? In fact, as long as there are resources, doing business is definitely better than buying land and collecting rent.

"Since the opening of Yuegang Port, the trade volume has increased every year in recent years, and now the market revenue has reached nearly 200,000 taels of silver.

However, this is still very different from the prediction I made back then. Prime Minister Zhang should still have an impression."

Wei Guangde looked at Zhang Juzheng and said.

Zhang Juzheng certainly knew what Wei Guangde meant by this. At the beginning, he boasted that if the opening of the sea was done well, it would not be a problem for the court to make a net profit of one million taels of silver a year.

And now, as long as it is not a business tax, it will be fine.

If it is to increase taxes on Yuegang, it seems to be okay.

After all, if it is limited to one place, the local resistance will be much smaller.

At this time, Zhang Juzheng has breathed a sigh of relief.

In fact, if it is not necessary, he does not want to lose Wei Guangde, a good ally who supports him.

"As far as I know, the cargo shipped out of Yuegang last year was close to 6 million taels of silver, and I am afraid it will be higher this year.

In total, the income from the port will probably exceed 200,000 taels of silver this year.

But in my opinion, this is still not enough.

Since the Yi people traveled thousands of miles to engage in trade in the Ming Dynasty, it shows that the value of these goods is still huge and can bring them immeasurable wealth.

With such a profit, it is obviously not enough to just collect some money. "

When Wei Guangde said this, Lu Tiaoyang asked impatiently: "Does Mr. Wei Ge mean to collect more ships from Yuegang City?"

After hearing Lu Tiaoyang's words, Wei Guangde chuckled and shook his head: "Shibo is customized. Although the money collected is from the barbarians, it is really much more. They will bear all of it, which may cause their dissatisfaction.

Although it doesn't matter if they are dissatisfied, it is not good to spread the word and say that the Ming Dynasty is greedy and delusional.

What I mean is that if a Yaxing system is established in Yuegang, all goods entering and exiting Yuegang will be charged an additional 30% tax on entry registration. "

"Thirty percent?"

Zhang Juzheng was shocked when he heard this. Wei Guangde had said before that the annual trade volume of Yuegang was around 6 million taels, and 30% was not 1.8 million taels of silver.

Including the original shipping income, Yuegang's income would exceed two million taels of silver.

"Isn't it too high?"

Zhang Juzheng said that he would not talk nonsense about competing for profits with the people, because everything in Yuegang was for foreign trade and sold to foreigners, and had nothing to do with the people of the Ming Dynasty.

He was at least worried that taxes would be too high and scare away businessmen.

You can't kill the goose to retrieve the eggs.

He would rather collect less. It would be good to add hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every year, which is better than beating a chicken with eggs.

"The 30% tariff is estimated to be borne by the foreigners at first, and it should have an impact on trade in a short period of time.

But in my opinion, it is best for merchants and barbarians to share this tariff.

Moreover, our Ming Dynasty’s goods have no special mark. As long as the shipping in other places is strictly controlled, all exported goods through the shipping department will be levied a 30% tariff, so we don’t have to worry about them bypassing elsewhere. "

Wei Guangde is really not afraid that the barbarians will not come. As long as he wants Ming products, in addition to Yuegang, there are several shipping companies in Guangzhou and other cities.

As long as it is strictly controlled, it will be an exclusive business, and it will be difficult not to make money.

In fact, the 30% additional tariff is not too much. Compared with the profit of shipping to Europe, I don’t know how many times it will increase, but it is nothing but a big deal.

"This is also the reason why Luzon does not directly expel the Spaniards. We also need their merchants to trade with the Ming Dynasty."

Wei Guangde said finally.

In fact, raising taxes in Yuegang is only part of his plan to increase commercial taxes. Today, he is just throwing it out first to test the reaction of the court and the people.

In Wei Guangde's plan, it is a safer way to use the "official system" established by the Ming Dynasty to collect taxes during the circulation of goods.

Since Zhu Yuanzhang set the ancestral system of commercial taxation, it is a bit difficult to change it, so let's make some changes.

I don’t collect taxes during the production stage of goods, but the purpose of production is for circulation. I collect taxes during the circulation stage, which seems to be the same. (End of chapter)