This time I was really embarrassed. The minister had no prestige at all. He actually asked an official to beat an official in front of another. That's fine, since he couldn't stop him.
On the one hand, Xu Qian occupied the moral commanding heights, and on the other hand, Xu Qian's arrogant attitude and the attitude of fighting with you desperately, anyone would be scared.
As for Zhang Chun, he had become an abandoned son, and naturally he no longer had the value of exploitation. He was beaten up in public by Xu Qian and then sent to Dali Temple.
The spectators and the scholars who had been unconventional naturally left with satisfaction.
Xu Qian held his hands behind his back and ordered: "Call all officials, and I have something to explain."
This sentence seemed to have magic power, and suddenly everyone gathered in the court. He waited for Xu Qian to sit in the first place without daring to show off. Xu Qian looked around his eyes and said lightly: "From now on, Zhang Chun's responsibilities will be handed over to Lord Wu."
Wu Qian is the right minister. Now that the left minister is gone, he has become the second seat of the Ministry of Revenue in just right. However, at this time, he was not secretly happy or grateful. Instead, he had a serious expression and looked at Xu Qian carefully and said, "Yes, sir."
Xu Qian said slowly: "You will also preside over the drafting of the tax system. The Ministry of Revenue has no money now, so it is called the Ministry of Revenue. All reliefs depend on the allocation of money and grain from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. What does this mean? Therefore, the tax reform is urgent. Lord Wu has been in the Ministry of Revenue for a long time, and I think he knows the truth about this. I am waiting to see your constitution."
Wu Qian smiled bitterly in his heart. If he had the right to draft tax reforms in normal times, he didn't know how long he would be happy. But now, he was more careful and said, "What kind of virtue can the lower official do you have..." Seeing Xu Qian's face down, he didn't dare to refuse anymore, so he said, "It's just that the lower official took the liberty to ask, sir, how should he change it?"
Xu Qian said lightly: "Business tax is naturally collected, but since it is collected, it is called tax. It is used for the people. In other words, it is taken from the business. In addition to some of the usual expenses of the court, the rest must be built and paved to provide them with convenience. In addition, there are problems with the police station. These are actually secondary. Since commercial tax is collected, it is natural that local officials cannot handle it, and they cannot pass it. Otherwise, like them, taxes like levy grain, God knows what they will become. The Ministry of Revenue must prepare for the tax bureau itself, otherwise there will be chaos sooner or later."
"Of course, if you want to collect commercial tax, it is actually quite troublesome. How much money do people make and how much profit they make? After all, they produce, and they can see grain on farming at least, and how much acres of land can be roughly calculated to produce grain every year. However, there are many workshops, some produce silk, and some produce iron, and their profits are also different. How to collect is somewhat difficult."
"But..." Xu Qian said lightly: "I have some ideas. As for this tax, I will collect taxes from the source. The court does not collect taxes for workshops, but also for cotton and mulberry. These things are visible after all, and it is easier to collect taxes. For example, cotton and mulberry are collected per mu, and it has been customized. For example, 10 to 2 or 10 to 3. This is fine. When the court imposes their taxes, indirectly, they will collect taxes for silk spinning. Because the court imposes taxes on cotton and mulberry, the price of cotton on the market must increase. If silk spinning wants to collect cotton, the price will be higher. The cloth woven from silk is sold to garment workshops, and the price will also increase. After this layer, although cotton and mulberry are levied, silk spinning and garment workshops are equivalent to paying commercial taxes to the court."
"For example, industrial and mining, such as coal and iron, the court levies taxes from them, and the tax can be heavier, and almost all workshops must use coal and iron. In the end, it means that the commercial taxes formulated by the court are also borne by various workshops. What do you think?"
In this era, tax collection is a difficult problem. With the organizational ability of the Ming Dynasty, even the grain tax collection was stuttering, so it was barely able to deal with it. To talk about efficiency, that was nonsense.
As for commercial tax, it is even more complicated. The complexity of commercial tax is more than ten times more complicated than agricultural tax. After all, each workshop has different scales, different production efficiency, and different profits. If the rights are delegated and local officials can set standards, it will definitely make a mess. Since this is the case, then a one-size-fits-all approach is adopted and commercial tax is directly collected from places that can be seen and touched. Although this method is primitive, it is the most practical method in this era. In the implementation of salt and iron monopoly during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, it was actually the same method. After all, the efficiency of the government was too low and the commercial tax was too complicated. Then control the salt and iron needed by everyone, which can ensure that everyone cannot escape taxes. Otherwise, let the local governments below collect commercial taxes. The biggest possibility is to fish in the waters. The tax may not be levied. Most merchants will go bankrupt, and the only one who eats full is local officials.
Later generations had computers and an omnipresent banking system, which could not stop tax evasion, let alone this era.
When Wu Qian heard this, he roughly understood what Xu Qian meant. He was not stupid. Now he understood that there was only one adult in the Ministry of Revenue, that is Xu Qian. As for the cabinet, he probably couldn't count on it. If he wanted to not repeat Zhang Chun's mistake, he had to serve Xu Qian well and understand his intentions. So whatever Xu Qian said, he would draft his charter.
As for other doctors, the officials and the officials naturally did not dare to raise any objections. On the one hand, they may not know much more about commercial tax matters than Xu Qian. More importantly, Xu Qian's fist is bigger.
No matter how it is packaged or what kind of civilized cloak it is, it is still reasonable to say that if you don’t agree, you will kill you and then everyone will be convinced.
Although this is the Ministry of Revenue, it seems to be sacred. In fact, it is followed by such a simple truth.
but……
Xu Qian's words made people interested. They understood that Xu Butang's central idea was that the Ministry of Revenue collects taxes, and the Ministry of Revenue hosted it. The Ministry of Revenue has to establish a reading system and ensure the collection of commercial taxes. For example, the tax bureau, or the local officials are not allowed to intervene. Does this mean that the Ministry of Revenue will expand greatly in the next step?
Think about how many prefectures and counties there are in the world, and whether to assign tax officials, without the scale of thousands or even tens of thousands of people, the Ministry of Revenue cannot do such a big thing.
In addition, the Ministry of Revenue relied on these thousands of taxpayers to collect the money and held it in his hands. How to use it? It seems that the Ministry of Revenue has plans, for example, the Police Department, didn’t it say that the provinces also need to prepare for construction? They want to prepare for construction, where does the money come from? Isn’t it the Ministry of Revenue?
Nowadays, who is rich and who is the old man? Besides, do you need money for various projects? How can this money be used? According to Xu Butang's intention, it seems that local officials are unwilling to intervene. Everything is taken over by the Ministry of Revenue. So, how many people should be recruited?
If so many people are recruited, should someone supervise? The Censorate can't supervise your tax officials, right? People's eyes see the sky, but they are not interested in supervising this. So, should the Ministry of Revenue prepare to build a supervision bureau? How many people will it recruit?
This is to build the Ministry of Revenue into a yamen that has expanded to a limitless stadium. In this way, there are not tens of thousands of people, and it seems that I feel embarrassed to say hello to others.
In this way, the Ministry of Revenue will become the world's number one hall? Not only will the Ministry of Rites stand aside, but even the Ministry of Personnel is beyond the reach of fear.
But how many rights and benefits can you... gain from it?
And will the cabinet approve this tax system?
With many questions, many people are no longer panic and can't help but feel a little hope in their hearts. It seems that Xu Butang's ideas seem to be quite beneficial to them. The greater the power of the tribe, the higher the power they will naturally increase. The more money they manage, it also means that the greater their power. This is a symbiotic relationship.
For example, an ordinary doctor seems to be an extraordinary official on the surface, but to put it bluntly, it is just a big tent. You can count the money and grains you save. There is a little power, but there are only dozens of officials you can call. The ice charcoal charcoal in the province is indispensable. But in the end, most of the time, you still crouch in the ministry and count the money and grain every time.
But if the Ministry of Revenue really wants to expand, this benefit will be great. Dozens of officials are nothing, maybe hundreds or thousands of them. Moreover, when the city is built and paved with bridges and roads, it will definitely be under the name of the Qing officials. The right to disperse wealth is enough to make people jealous.
Xu Qian naturally noticed the abnormality of these people, and couldn't help but smile in his heart. In the later generations, all those who manage economics, finance and taxation were commonly known as small cabinets, with great relations and high status. What he is doing now is just to follow the trend of the times. The Ministry of Revenue... From then on, he will become a small cabinet. On the one-acre and three-point land of this small cabinet, Xu Qian naturally took the initiative to become the chief minister of this small cabinet, with one word of all.
Since Hongtu has been painted, Wu Qian thought about it and felt that it was quite beneficial to him, the minister. After all, who would think that he was powerful and that he had too much money? If he had just drafted this charter, he was just to please Xu Qian and prevent him from ending like Zhang Chun. But now, many inspirations immediately flashed through his mind, and he actually felt that following Lord Shangshu was actually not bad.