"Your Highness, our main financial revenue is salt tax. People use a lot of salt in autumn and winter, especially in winter. Salt tax also generates high income in autumn and winter. Now is summer, when the salt tax and wine tax revenue are at their lowest. Siku's The copper coins were exhausted, so we finally released 200,000 taels of silver and exchanged millions of copper coins from various counters to solve the urgent need."
Chen Qing picked up the tea cup and said with a smile: "You spent all your time teaching me a mid-day lesson. Just tell me clearly what your purpose is!"
Zhou Kuan was silent for a moment and said: "His Highness has brought back 45 million yuan of war profits from the Central Plains this time. He cannot put all of it into the treasury. I hope that His Highness will give half of it to the temple treasury."
"As expected, it's the Weasel who wishes the Rooster New Year greetings. He's not so kind!"
Chen Qing couldn't help laughing, pointed at Zhou Kuan and said: "After talking for a long time, you are still asking me for money, Old Zhou! You can't calculate the accounts like this. The treasury only bears the war expenses, and the normal military expenses are borne by the temple treasury. , won’t you pay the military salary if there is no war? You want to take half of the war proceeds as soon as you open your mouth. It’s so black-hearted and breaks the rules! You sell the land, but the treasury won’t get a penny.”
The essence of the temple treasury and the treasury is the division of interests between the monarch and the prime minister. Taxes and money from selling land all belong to the temple treasury. The temple treasury is responsible for non-war military expenditures.
Proceeds from the war and official and commercial income belong to the treasury, and special expenditures for the war and large-scale project support are borne by the treasury.
Zhou Kuan sighed and said: "The military salary of 400,000 troops and various military expenses are too heavy. It costs 1,500 yuan every year. Now the huge financial burden of Henan Road has been added. We have calculated it and the annual financial gap is Four million dollars, if Your Highness is willing to give half of the war dividend to the temple treasury, it can make up for the five-year financial gap, and we don’t have to work hard to mint money to make up for the shortfall."
"How many pieces of silver can be minted in a year now?"
"We can mint one million silver coins a year, and we also have 300,000 new copper coins. The silver is mainly used to pay salaries."
One silver coin is worth about 500 guan, and one million silver coins is equivalent to 500,000 guan of copper coins. Adding 300,000 guan of newly minted copper coins, 800,000 guan of newly minted copper coins a year is indeed not enough to make up for the 4 million guan. financial gap.
Chen Qing thought for a while and said: "First of all, according to the rules, the treasury will bear 70% of the 10 million yuan war expenditure this time. Secondly, the price of salt will be increased to 100 yuan per catty. Except for Henan Road, Changping in other places The store will cancel the supply of coarse salt. Thirdly, I will order the internal guards to intensify the crackdown on illegal salt and illegal liquor. In this way, the salt tax revenue will be greatly increased. If Siku still has difficulties, please discuss with us."
Zhou Kuan also knew that Chen Qing was unwilling to break the rules easily, so he gave in to the greatest extent. He nodded and said with a smile: "It's been too long, let's go back!"
When Zhou Kuan returned to the official room, Jiang Yanxian and Zhao Kai hurried over and asked, "How is it? Have you convinced His Highness?"
Zhou Kuan sighed and said: "He gave in to the land sale. He no longer interfered. He only asked to ensure that the rents of the lower class people would not increase, and the rents of small shops would not increase. The rest of the middle and upper-class houses and shops could be increased appropriately, but every year The increase cannot exceed 10%.”
Zhao Kai nodded, "This is more reasonable. One size fits all is not appropriate. So what about the 45 million war profits? Can't all go to the treasury?"
Zhou Kuan smiled bitterly and shook his head, "Don't think too much. How can he give in so easily to a principled person? He only promised to bear the war expenditure of 7 million yuan, and then tried to figure out how to increase fiscal revenue for us, and finally was vague.
By the way, if you really have financial difficulties, you can come to him."
"Only seven million strings!"
Zhao Kai was greatly disappointed, "It will take at least 9 million guan to balance this year's revenue and expenditure. There is still a gap of 2 million guan."
Jiang Yan first asked: "What move did His Highness have in mind?"
"He said that the price of salt could rise to a hundred yuan per catty, and then he would cancel the supply of coarse salt in stores in Changping everywhere except Henan Road. The third step would be to severely crack down on illicit salt and illicit liquor."
Zhao Kai was quite satisfied with this plan. He smiled and said: "What I am saying is that the salt tax is the fairest. Everyone has to pay it without exception, so it is also the mildest. It is spread very evenly, so most people can't feel it.
The pressure from the salt tax, even if it costs a hundred cents per catty, is twice as low as the court's salt price."
Jiang Yan pondered for a moment and said, "If the price rises to 100 yuan, and restrictions on private salt are added, it is estimated that this year's fiscal and tax expenditures will be balanced."
Zhao Kai nodded, "It's almost the same. Starting next year, the army's food and meat can be provided by the military camps themselves, and it can save millions of military expenditures. I estimate that the final gap will be around one million guan, which will make it much easier for us."
Already."
Chen Qing also returned to his official room. He closed the door and lay on a wide chair with his eyes closed and meditating. He also felt that he had been too impatient in the past two days and lacked concentration. The handling of the rent incident this time was not ideal. He was angry, but
One size does not apply, like those high-end restaurants, which make a lot of money but have very low rents. This is unfair to the government.
There is also the land price. I did not investigate it in detail. I blinded my vision and took it too seriously. In fact, only a very small number of people have land prices exceeding 10,000 per mu. Suburban areas and slums are dragging them down, so the price per mu cannot rise to the sky.
"Your Highness, Wang Hao, Commander of the Internal Guard, would like to see you!"
He was about to see him! Chen Qing said quickly: "Let him in!"
Wang Hao hurriedly walked in, knelt down on one knee and performed a military salute, "I'm sorry to see you, Your Highness!"
"General, please rise!"
Wang Hao stood up and presented a report to Chen Qing, "This is the situation of the Jin Kingdom spies in the past two months. We have been monitoring each other."
"You have been monitoring for so long and the other party has never noticed it once?"
"We are no longer tracking and monitoring before, but are monitoring fixedly and have not been discovered."
"Is Lu Wei still in contact with them?"
"We don't have much contact, but it seems that Lu Sima has met with them several times in the past few days, and they have been very unhappy."
"Why?"
"The other party seems to want another iron fire thunder."
Chen Qing laughed. The other party had obviously gone astray in studying Iron Fire Thunder.
"You are here at the right time today. There is an important matter for your internal defense, which is to crack down on illegal salt and moonshine. Last year you also cracked down on illegal salt and the harvest was not ideal. This year we will intensify our efforts."
Wang Hao bowed and said: "Private salt dealers are very cunning. They have bribed the local government. As soon as we show up, the private salt dealers will disappear, especially on Jinghu South Road. The private salt dealers disguise themselves very well. They are probably a philanthropic elder."
Well, currently, we have killed all the private salt dealers in Bashu because of their rebellion, and we have killed a large number of them. The trouble is that Jinghu Road and Lake Road are basically dominated by private salt dealers."
"Is it that serious?"
"Your Highness, Beizhi has actually been paying attention to the situation of the private salt. Beizhi has already grasped some clues. The water here is very deep."
"The water is deep?"
Chen Qing smiled lightly and said: "Tell me, what is a deep method?"
"Let's just say Jinghu South Road for a humble job! There is no salt production here. Private salt comes from two roads, one is Jinghu North Road and the other is Jiangnan West Road. Jiangnan West Road is controlled by several big salt lords and is the most famous.
It was Poyang Lake water thief Zhang Tai. This man started out as a fish merchant, and later started selling illicit salt. However, the court strictly investigated him, so he used heavy salt to pickle fish and used fish to transport illicit salt. He sold heavy salt for more than ten years.
Yu was finally discovered by the court, and he fled into Poyang Lake and became a water thief.
But he does not rob merchant ships, but still sells private salt, escorted by water thieves, and does not dare to be stopped by checkpoints along the way. Now his private salt accounts for 40% of the private salt on Jinghu South Road, and several other salt lords occupy 10%."
"go on!"
"There is another way to transport salt from Jinghu North Road, but Jinghu North Road does not produce salt. In fact, it is private salt transported from Jianghuai. The water on this road is deep."