On the first day of the second week of the first year of Taihe, Zhu Yiliu urgently summoned several cabinet masters to meet with him.

Shen Shixing, Wang Xijue, and Wang Jiaping are all here.

The location is still in Donghunting Pavilion.

At this time, Yan Yongfan's two strips of paper had not yet been submitted, but Zhu Yiliu could not wait to communicate with the cabinet first.

Of course, this is also his usual practice.

It is a good name for first ventilation or discussion, but letting several cabinet masters come to ask them to nod first, and then there is no need to talk too much about the court.

Shen Shixing and the others have long been used to it.

This time they were summoned, but there was nothing else, just two issues raised by Yan Yongfan.

One currency reform, two salt administration reforms.

Both currency and salt administration have drawbacks and need to be changed, which is the main reason. However, the reason for the rush to summon Zhu Yiliu is that he considers these two reforms, which can greatly increase the national fiscal and tax revenue.

You have to make money as early as possible at any time.

As before, the disadvantages of the objects that need reform are actually clear.

Don’t the three cabinet masters know the harm of private coins? Don’t you know that banning private salt can greatly increase national fiscal revenue?

Some people came to the conclusion that if private salt could be banned, the Ming Dynasty would earn more than 10 million taels of silver a year.

The original saying goes: "After the private salt is gone, the induction can be increased tenfold, and the annual income is more than ten thousand. These three methods are simple and easy to implement, and only the practice must be strict."

If the salt industry monopoly system is strictly implemented and the salt price is appropriately raised, the income of salt alone can reach 40 million taels of silver.

Why is it said that the Ming Dynasty was actually very rich, but its wealth was not in the country or the people, and it was concentrated in the hands of powerful and powerful families?

But on the other hand, why is this happening? In fact, to put it bluntly, isn’t it because the court’s ability to control the economy is too weak?

Whether it is private coins or private salt rampant, this can be explained by the fact that the state has too weak control over private economic activities.

From the Song Dynasty, Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism began to weaken the monarchy intentionally or unintentionally. By the Ming Dynasty, the emperor's influence on court officials and the state's control over various fields were actually weakened.

This caused the Ming Dynasty to appear to be a "country of etiquette". People were all well-dressed and very gentlemanly and great country. But in fact, society has already presented the illusion of "over-democracy" (this may not be very accurate, because this can be regarded as the awakening of human beings, but it does have certain disadvantages).

As a result, when the war came, it was impossible to quickly transform into a military autocracy, so naturally it was impossible to directly collect taxes and allocate materials through military violent regimes like the Qing Dynasty, resulting in a defeat on the battlefield.

So how do you change monetary reform and salt administration?

The first thing to do is to strictly prohibit the sale of private coins and salt.

The three cabinet masters had no objection to this.

The difficult thing is policy implementation.

How to effectively implement the policies issued by the state, not just talk.

It is impossible to ban the private casting of inferior money like Emperor Jiajing, and a market strike can make the ban fall into nothing.

The reason why Emperor Wanli could not collect mineral taxes was a mess. Officials encouraged the public to beat tax collectors to death. Emperor Wanli was notorious and only collected millions of taels of silver for more than 20 years.

Regarding monetary reform, Zhu Yili thought that it was possible to permanently withdraw copper coins from the market? And instead of "money" as in later generations? The current "silver notes" in the Ming Dynasty are actually already serving this function.

As for the salt administration reform, it seems to be more complicated. The current salt administration reform cannot be separated from salt administration (the nature is still the same after hundreds of years), and salt administration is the "complex currency" with the longest history. How difficult is it to ban private salt and implement the salt industry monopoly system?

Zhu Yili and the three cabinet ministers determined the reform policy and general direction, but the specific decisions still need to be made with the court and the officials.

After conveying the main ideas, Zhu Yili continued: "The three cabinet masters went back and thought about it. If the salt administration needs to be changed, then can the tea tax, wine tax, etc. be changed to a monopoly system?"

Zhu Yiliu didn't just say it casually.

Tea is a necessary consumer product for the people, but the demand is flexible. As the saying goes, "If there is less demand, the quantity will increase the price without being abused." At the beginning of the founding of this dynasty, private tea was strictly prohibited in Nanzhili, so the tea tax revenue in Nanzhili was as high as 600,000 taels of silver.

As the population in the late Ming Dynasty increased by five times compared with the early Ming Dynasty, the consumption of tea should also increase by five times. If the tea monopoly system was strictly implemented in the late Ming Dynasty, the income from tea should be no less than 20 million taels of silver.

Let’s look at the tax on alcohol. The annual income of alcohol alone in the Northern Song Dynasty could reach a level of 14.98 million taels of silver in the late Ming Dynasty.

The population of the late Ming Dynasty was at least twice as high as the Northern Song Dynasty, and the scale of alcohol consumption might have exceeded twice as high as the scale of alcohol consumption. According to the most conservative estimate, if the Ming Dynasty implemented a strict national monopoly system like the Song Dynasty, the income of the wine could reach at least 30 million taels of silver.

Let’s take the tax system of the Song Dynasty as an example. Let’s look at how much wealth can be expanded in a small country such as the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty (relative to the Ming Dynasty).

During the Northern Song Dynasty, the two taxes accounted for 56%, but by the Southern Song Dynasty it had dropped to 20.4% and 15.3%.

At the same time, commercial tax has increased rapidly, forming the main source of government finance. In this way, non-agricultural taxes, including commercial tax, naturally occupy most of fiscal revenue.

During the Emperor's Emperor's Emperor's Emperor's Song Dynasty, the proportion of commercial tax was only about 40%. In the intersection of Shaoxing and Qiandao in the Southern Song Dynasty, tea and salt goods accounted for 49%, and together with the economic and economic money, total money, and non-agricultural tax reached 79%.

During the Chunxi and Shaoxi periods, tea, salt, wine, etc. reached 56%, plus the economics, total money, monthly pile money, and non-agricultural taxes reached 84.7%.

The territory and population of the Ming Dynasty were much larger than those of the Southern Song Dynasty. The consumption of salt, wine and tea was much larger than that of the Song Dynasty.

However, the income obtained by the Southern Song government from it was close to the value of 50 million taels of silver, while the Ming government only had less than 3 million taels.

By the Ming Dynasty, the monetary economy was much more developed than before, capitalism had already sprouted, the market was relatively prosperous, and various commercial systems were relatively complete.

The Southern Song Dynasty was a small country with a stable corner, but why, the Ming Dynasty government, could only be said to be a government, was not as rich as the Southern Song Dynasty?

Since the late Jiajing period, national finances have often encountered difficulties, and it is normal to make ends meet.

Is the military spending too much in foreign wars? Or is the reduction in the import of silver? Is the monetary system collapsed? Or is the lack of copper production? Or is the issuance of paper money causing inflation? Or is it destined to escape the three hundred-year law?

In history, there were many dynasties that were more militant than the Ming Dynasty and more dynasties that were squandering than the Ming Dynasty. How did the Ming Dynasty's financial system collapse in the end?

Zhu Yiliu was thinking that if the Ming Dynasty could increase taxes in at least salt, wine, and tea, then the wealth would be far greater than that of the Song Dynasty, and it would be much greater than that of the Qing Dynasty, which used violent state machinery to plunder.

At least during this period before the Industrial Revolution came, the Ming Dynasty should not gradually reach its end.

Of course, this is Zhu Yili's idea. Although it has been approved by the three cabinet ministers of the cabinet, it is probably still difficult to implement it in detail.

There is still a long way to go.

Because of the illusion of "over-democracy" in the Ming Dynasty (not sure, let's say that), the country's control over many areas was weak and even lost control.

...
Chapter completed!