"Fifth brother, I'm afraid I've forgotten," Zhu Biao reminded. "Last year, after discussing the issue of land annexation, my father had already changed the tax system in public in the court, requesting that from now on in the Ming Dynasty, the gentry must pay taxes as one unit.
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"We can barely support the war on both sides next year, probably because of the extra grain tax. Otherwise, even if we take east Yunnan, the remaining army will not have enough food to survive."
"Although a lot of things were wasted by collecting more taxes and grains. Fortunately, with that part of the taxes and grains, our Ming Dynasty could not follow Yuan Ting's wishes and successfully annexed Yunnan." Lao Zhu also explained
.The gentry's unified payment of grain was proposed in the court, but Wang Guangyang, who was the prime minister at the time, opposed it.
Even though Lao Zhu used the emperor's iron fist to forcefully carry out this policy to the east, there were still some officials and gentry at that time who were taking chances and delayed the transfer.
Old Zhu of Bu Nao would not tolerate my bad habits. At that time, the Jinyi Guards went out everywhere to arrest those who refused to pay taxes. If they caught people, they would be thrown into prison directly, and they would be accused of being a member of Hu Weiyong's party.
I want to know whether Hu Weiyong was convicted of treason. For those big families who call themselves "farming and reading heirs", it is the lesser of two evils. It is unlikely that they will lose their heads because of the lack of a little tax and grain. Although there are one or two
Dissatisfied, but ultimately did not give in.
Only a founding emperor like Lao Zhu could do that kind of thing. If the emperors of later generations had to pay for the food alone, they would probably have to deal with it like a big ceremony for several years without making any progress. Fortunately, there are so many more people.
Some taxes and grains allowed the Ming Dynasty to successfully take over Yunnan, allowing the Northern Yuan Dynasty to contain the Ming Dynasty, making it unable to move southward and completely bankrupt its plan.
"We have just begun to look at the integrated grain payment. If we change the tax system at this time, I'm afraid it won't work." Lao Zhu touched the Dongba and said. "And where can we squeeze out the money and grain? Do you want to ask for a tax increase? No, no, no.
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"What he said about the tax system is not the agricultural tax." Zhu Su said. "Since it is difficult to support the people, why not increase the commercial tax?"
"Business tax?" Lao Zhu's pupils shrank slightly and he touched Dongba and thought about it.
"When the country was first founded, we also thought about whether to reimpose commercial taxes," he said.
"After thinking about it, I gave up. The Northern Yuan Dynasty has been plundering for hundreds of years, and Tiandong has been devastated. The people finally have some food and clothing. It would be unkind to do some small business and then charge heavy taxes.
It is suspected of competing with the people for profit."
"Besides, it is easiest to levy commercial taxes with clever names. If the imperial court imposes heavy taxes, the tax collectors in Didong will inevitably impose excessive taxes." Zhu Biao also added.
“For example, in the Song and Yuan dynasties, there were so many names of tax collectors that were rarely seen in the ancient and Ming dynasties. When buying and selling melons and fruits, they asked for a melon and fruit tax, persimmons asked for a persimmon tax, and dates asked for a jujube tax... Even for eating and drinking, they also asked for a food tax.
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"Instead of doing this, it is better to do less corvee and less tax and leave benefits to the people. This will not lead to the good governance of the Ming Dynasty."
Zhu Su nodded, he could understand. The commercial tax in the Ming Dynasty was about thirty taxes per tax. In addition, there were city gate tax, gate tax, dental tax, deed tax, etc. Those miscellaneous taxes that are zero or zero in total are not worth doing small things.
For ordinary people who are buying and selling, this is the limit of what they can bear. After all, if everything is going to be idle tomorrow, almost every family will have no surplus food. Occasionally, ordinary people will finally save some money to start a small business. If the tax is not too heavy,
, indeed there is some neglect of cleaning.
Isn’t it... Business in China is far from being as simple as it seems. Zhu Su said: "If you don’t compete with the people for profit, then it’s not good. As you just said, because Tiandong is in decline, heavy taxes cannot be imposed...
…He disagrees with that point.”
"If Tiandong is in decline, does commerce have to be in decline? This time he went to Suzhou to cure the floods in Taihu Lake. Suzhou's wealthy merchants went so far as to stock up on grains worth tens of thousands of kilo per household. The total amount is enough to support the people of the city for more than a year!"
"I must have experienced it with our own eyes, parents. In times of disaster, rich people buy land at low prices and then sell grain at high prices."
"Except for food, when everything is in short supply during disaster years or turmoil, there will always be someone who can make a big profit. This is called 'the country is in financial difficulty.' If the country is in financial difficulty, the profits gained are often dozens of times that of a normal month."
"Dad, you think that if you don't impose heavy taxes, you won't be competing for profits with the people. But in fact, the more wealthy the family is, the more they can accumulate wealth in this lean year."
"The number of ordinary people doing business is, after all, only a minority. Those who really occupy the majority of business will not be affected by the world at all!"
"The country is in dire straits and the wealth is in jeopardy..." Lao Zhu was stunned. He once again messed with the customs and fell into a misunderstanding. He did not compete with the people for profit... Was this his original intention? But what Lao Wu said was wrong.
No matter how depressed Tiandong is, it will not affect the fortunes of those big households!
By levying light business taxes, have you protected the people and enriched the big families?
"...We were deceived." Lao Zhu suddenly gritted his teeth and his face became angry. He remembered the opinions of the officials when the policy was formulated.
At that time, Korean Gong Li Shanchang, who was the prime minister, was the first to say: "While I was in office, I thought that commercial taxes should be levied lightly. After all, the people are already in great hardship. If miscellaneous taxes were not heavy, I might be suspected of competing with the people for profit."
Behind him, hundreds of officials responded, quoting scriptures, and everyone said something but the leader disagreed.
"That bastard who is not a man's son..." What did Lao Zhu not understand at this moment? The so-called light tax on business is not enough to enrich the pockets of those officials?
But when you are serving as an official in the court, which home does not have dozens of shops and hundreds of acres of fertile land?
Those high officials are not the spokespersons of those big landlords!
The thirty-one tax was not a good government that I thought was frivolous in corvee and a small amount of tax...but it was also a bad government that was left to future generations!
"Chongba, don't be angry. Now that we know about the mistakes, let's make up for them one by one." Queen Ma advised from the side. There was also a look of coldness in her eyes. At first, she didn't think about it.
What Lao Wu said was very embarrassing.
Those officials in the imperial court were bullying them. The old Zhu family was born in a poor family and did not understand economics. They used some big words to frame their family.
Unfortunately, my husband thought that he cared about the common people, but he didn't want to enrich the pockets of the rich. Those officials didn't know how to be so complacent when they were counting money at home during the week!
"If I hadn't been reminded by Lao Wu, I would have never thought of that floor in my lifetime!" Lao Zhu was still angry with himself. "Thankfully, we originally thought we had beaten Daming to the size of an iron bucket, but now we see, there is air leakage everywhere...
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"Our descendants, even a little money and food were borrowed from the officials. Now that I think about it, it is really not our fault... Change! It must be changed! We must levy heavy commercial taxes and rip off all the big households."
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"It is not necessary to re-levy all the taxes." Zhu Su added at the right time. "We can adopt a stepped tax collection method. For example, those who earn ten taels of silver per year will not be taxed, and those who earn one hundred taels per year will be levied with one tax per ten taels. Annual income
No matter how high the tax rate is, the tax rate will be higher. The specific details need to be carefully considered. In short, we must target the high-income households with the false taxation. In this way, we can avoid competing with the people for profit."
Zhu Su proposed the method of collecting personal income tax in later generations.
"Okay, that's a good idea!" Old Zhu Zhanyan was overjoyed. "Then those bastards will join forces to scheme against us and make us lighten our business tax... Then how about taking money from our treasury?"
"We are worried about money and lose our hair, but they are all making money...it's all our money!"