After Ma Mingyuan finished speaking about the currency reform, he asked: "Gei Wang, what suggestions do you have in the world?"

Nonsense, can there be no suggestions? After the implementation of the silver dollar, it will be convenient for the central government to dismantle the silver shipped by various provinces. However, while it is convenient, it means that the fire consumption cannot be collected.

Fire consumption is one of the additional taxes in the Ming Dynasty. Originally, it refers to the natural loss in the process of casting fragmented silver into silver ingots. In the Ming Dynasty, the fine silver ingots collected were remolded into silver ingots of a certain weight and deposited into the national treasury is called kuping silver. The loss part of the melt cast is called fire consumption, also known as fire consumption silver, which is borne by the taxpayer. In the Ming Dynasty, fire consumption varies from place to place, as high as 50%, and even the round-trip cost is distributed into it.

This is a major investment for local officials. A county magistrate's fire consumption ranges from 200 to 1,000 taels per year. The more taxes your county collects, the more fire consumption. Although the emperor had already increased his salary for all officials when he was in Guangzhou, and it was also explicitly prohibited to charge fire consumption, there are policies and countermeasures at the top, and the local governments still secretly collect fire consumption for their respective interests.

Now the whole country uses silver dollars to settle accounts, collect taxes and cash dollars, and pay the finances to use silver dollars, so naturally they cannot collect fire consumption, which is like destroying the jobs of all officials across the country.

Wang Yunchang and Chen Zilong both worked step by step from the grassroots level, so they naturally knew what the situation was. When the chief assistant asked about any suggestions, their eyelids were sagging without saying a word. They knew that if they were immediately hated by officials all over the world, it was not a trivial matter.

Ma Mingyuan didn't want to offend others, but the currency reform was implemented and the basis for him to become the chief minister again. So it's okay if it doesn't work now, so he can only bite the bullet and go on.

"Okay, if you don't say anything, just think that you agree. The remarks for the abolition of silver coins for the promotion of silver coins in Mingfu, you must sign your names with your elder Wang Ge and Chen Shangshu!" Ma Mingyuan was even more amazing. Didn't you not speak? Just think you agreed and let you sign your name directly. Then let you take the blame with me.

Wang Yunchang and Chen Zilong had no choice but to sigh and sign Ma Mingyuan's memorial.

The work report of the Ministry of Finance has been completed, and the next step is the Ministry of Taxation. The tax authorities are responsible for the taxes throughout the world, and are naturally also important departments.

Fang Fengnian stood up as the supervisor and bowed and said, "Yuan Fu, Master Wang, colleagues! Everyone knows that Xiaguan has just taken over the Taxation Department for less than half a month. In the past, the work was managed by Mr. Xue and Mr. Ren. All the work was completed by the two Mr. I am just a retelling here!"

Fang Fengnian is also an old man and is proficient in the way of becoming an official. He knew that he had just arrived at a unit and had to protect his subordinates. After all, he was blinded. If his subordinates gave you some medicine at this time, the one who was unlucky in the end must be yourself. So Fang Fengnian attributed all the credit to the two ministers.

Xue and Ren were very happy to hear the Secretary of State say this. This was a meritorious in front of the Chief Secretary. It seemed that this new Secretary of State was not very annoying.

As a newly established department, the Ministry of Taxation was a separate department that divided the functions of taxation, land, etc. of the Ministry of Revenue and other functions, which was mainly responsible for the national tax collection, land measurement, and tax customs management in various places. After four or five years of construction, the entire Ministry of Taxation established a total of 15 provincial Qingguan Departments, two Land Qingguan Departments, five customs and civil service departments, and one cashguan Department. There were 2,789 officials in the country, which was funded by the central government. Other soap clothes that were self-invested, that is, there were more than 5,600 temporary workers, which was really a huge department.

Of course, this is still incomparable to the hundreds of thousands of civil servants in the tax department in later generations, but the taxes in the Ming Dynasty were not as complicated as those in later generations. In the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Juzheng implemented a whip law, such as corvee, captive tax, and land tax were changed to regular taxes, which means that they were all converted into the land and only one tax was levied. However, in the Wanli period, Liao pay was levied, and the increased anti-payment and training pay in the Chongzhen period. These all require money for land. When the tax was the heaviest, 70% of the harvest of one acre of land had to be paid.

However, Zhu Hongsan implemented a new policy in Guangdong, abolishing all three major salaries, and only levied regular taxes based on the land yellow book in the early years of Wanli, and at the same time reduced the regular tax from 30% to 10%, that is, one in ten taxes. Tax reduction means a sharp reduction in the regular tax. In the fourth year of Shenwu, the entire Southern China's regular tax, that is, the land tax, was collected by 190,000 taels of silver, which was one fifth of the third year of Chongzhen.

The reduction in the positive tax was also the main reason for Zhu Hongsan's anger. Such a large country only collected 190,000 taels of silver. Is the country poor? Is it because officials do not work? Is it because Chinese people are not hardworking? Of course not, because large tracts of land are the industries of scholars. These people either have fame or backing, so they do not have to pay taxes. The 190,000 taels of silver are paid by those self-cultivated farmers who have no power.

Zhu Hongsan can survive without land tax, but seeing that the tax that could be collected was filled by the landlord, this really made Zhu Hongsan angry. So Zhu Hongsan dismissed Ma Jiyuan and replaced Ma Mingyuan to prepare to reopen the new policy.

Ma Mingyuan is not a fool. Of course, he can't just come to power and make a big move on his new policy of "spending acres to earn acres, and officials and gentry are paying food together as a job." But although it cannot be done openly, can you make some in advance indirectly?

After listening to Fang Fengnian's report on the specific situation of the Taxation Department, Ma Mingyuan said: "Brother Shutian, your Taxation Department has a long way to go! The current land yellow book was completed in the eighth year of Wanli. More than 70 years have passed, and the land situation in various places has changed a lot. Therefore, this official requested an order to re-measure the land in the country. Your Taxation Department is the first to be the first to take the blame!"

When Fang Fengnian heard Ma Mingyuan say this, he knew that this guy was preparing to implement the new policy, and now he is just preparing for the preliminary preparations.

"Yuanfu, but the country is not unified now, and the northern provinces are still in the hands of the Qing Dynasty. It is not appropriate to clear the land at this time!"

"Shutian is not worried about this. His Majesty also knows that the land of Qingzhang is difficult, so he is preparing to carry out pilot work first in Jiangsu Province. The specific situation will be subject to Shutian and Governor Zhang!"

When Fang Fengnian heard this, he realized that Ma Mingyuan recommended that he be the Minister of Taxation with bad intentions and would offend scholars if he cleared the land. Ma Mingyuan did not use his confidant Chen Zilong to clear the land but instead used himself, just to eradicate dissidents.

Fang Fengnian and Zhang Guowei were in good condition, but he didn't want to see Zhang Guowei wade into this muddy water. He pondered for a while and said, "Yuan Fu, the Northern Expedition is imminent, and Governor Zhang is busy with military situation. Why not let the Jiangsu Governor cooperate with the subordinates?"

The governor of Jiangsu was Liu Tongsheng in the same year as Ma Mingyuan, and was the top scholar in the tenth year of Chongzhen. He was originally a Hanlin scholar of Emperor Yongli. After surrendering to Zhu Hongsan, he was recommended as the governor of Jiangsu by Ma Mingyuan.

"Shutian is right. Governor Zhang is a little inconvenient, but Governor Liu is similar. Let's do this, can you let the Jiangsu governor cooperate?"

Jiangsu Governor General? Isn’t it a vacant? Is anyone a choice? Ma Mingyuan has already taken a step back, and Fang Fengnian has nothing to say, so he had to ask: "The subordinates will naturally obey the arrangements of Yuanfu! But who is this Jiangsu Governor General?"

"This is an old acquaintance of Shutian, Zhang Taiyue's great-grandson, Zhang Tongchang!"

Fang Fengnian is from Zhejiang and worked as a scholar in Huguang. He has a good relationship with Zhang Tongchang, who also came from Huguang. However, he knew that Zhang Tongchang is now imprisoned in the imperial prison because of Emperor Yongli's problems. Why did the emperor let him go?

Fang Fengnian thought about it and did not ask Zhang Tongchang why he let it go. He bowed and sat down again.

Below is a report by Liu Guangdou, the Minister of Civil Affairs. Liu Guangdou was a Jinshi in the fifth year of Tianqi. He was also a eunuch party between Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng at that time. However, he did not have the backbone of Ma Shiying. After the Qing Dynasty occupied Nanjing, Liu Guangdou followed Qian Qianyi and others to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. Later, Zhu Hongsan came back and Liu Guangdou surrendered to Zhu Hongsan again. After seeing the division of gangs in the court, he immediately surrendered to Ma Mingyuan.

Although Liu Guangdou's character is not very good, he still has a good level. Therefore, this time he was recommended by Ma Mingyuan as the Minister of Civil Affairs, which was considered to be a clue in the revolutionary team.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs is in charge of household registration and social affairs across the country, but now the world is in chaos, and various forces have no time to manage social affairs. Therefore, Liu Guang has had a very leisurely fight in recent years. Naturally, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has nothing important to do. After hearing this, Ma Mingyuan didn't say anything. In this way, Ma Mingyuan took office and ended his first economic work conference.

Ma Mingyuan watched the officials in the conference room leave, holding a teacup and pondering. He just said that letting Zhang Tongchang serve as the governor was just a temporary idea. However, the more he thought about this idea, the better. Zhang Tongchang is the direct descendant of Zhang Juzheng. Zhang Juzheng presided over the reform to extend his life for decades in the Ming Dynasty. Now Zhang Juzheng's descendant came to Jiangsu to be responsible for measuring the land, and the local scholars could have less resistance.

However, Qu Shisi and Zhang Tongchang were very stubborn. They had been imprisoned by the emperor for three years and would never give in. This was very difficult.

Ma Mingyuan thought about the candidate to convince him, but he had to choose a good candidate. Originally, Chen Zilong, who was born in Songjiang Prefecture, Nanzhili, was a fellow villager with Qu Shisi, and had a good relationship with Zhang Tongchang. However, Chen Zilong was too upright and was not a good candidate to be a lobbyist.

Ma Mingyuan sorted out the officials he had. It would be better to be from Jiangsu Province, Nanzhili, and if the Donglin Party and Qu Shisi were related, Zhang Tongchang would be too difficult to choose. There were a few people from Nanzhili, but the Donglin Party and himself have never dealt with, so it was unrealistic to ask them to help him become lobbyists.
Chapter completed!