Hearing this, Zhu Yunxi immediately laughed, "Those who know me love you!"
Among the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty, Zhang Yan was by no means the smartest, but he was definitely the most discerning.
It can even be said that Zhu Gaochi, Li Jinglong and others were far inferior to him. As for Li Zhigang, who was far away in Suzhou at this time, he was even worse.
Li Zhigang coveted the position of Hubu because Zhang Zhi was someone a gentleman could bully. If Zhang Zhi could not bear it anymore and wanted to fight him, he would be afraid that none of the three Li Zhigangs would be able to match him.
Zhang Yan smiled slightly and continued to think thoughtfully, "Since the emperor came to the throne, he first separated the customs offices in various places from the local chief secretaries and placed them directly under the Ministry of Household Affairs."
"Whether it is the personnel power of the customs or the power to verify pricing, it is the Ministry of Revenue that makes the decision, and the local government has no right to interfere!"
"Tariffs are also withdrawn from the local provincial taxes and become taxes paid exclusively to the national treasury."
"In addition, Your Majesty has also set up various ship taxation departments to be responsible for commercial taxes. Commercial taxes, like customs duties, belong to the central government!"
At this point, Zhang Yan raised his head and said, "Now that we are thinking about reform, I suspect that Your Majesty, you have separated the Taxation Department from the Chief Secretary and placed it directly under the Central Committee? Is that right?"
“In the past, part of the commercial tax could be retained by the local government, but will the full amount have to be paid in the future?”
Speaking of this, Zhang Yan smiled bitterly and said, "If this happens, the local government is afraid... I'm afraid there will be resentment!"
Zhu Yunxi also smiled and said bluntly, "The two offices of the Customs and Taxation Department are temporarily under the Ministry of Revenue, but they take orders directly from me!"
"In addition to the permanent departments and offices, the Ministry of Household Affairs also has a Customs Department and a General Taxation Department."
"Once the sea is opened, the previous crude and crazy taxation will not work! We need to set rules and regulations and implement them with precise figures."
Zhang Yan listened to the emperor's words and thought secretly in his heart.
From then on, the Ming Dynasty had two more high-ranking yamen.
A tariff is a tariff, and a tax is a tax, no longer confused.
The Chief Secretary collects the imperial grain and agricultural taxes, while the Taxation Department collects the world's commercial taxes! Moreover, the Taxation Department no longer obeys the jurisdiction of the Chief Secretary...
In other words, the chief tax officer of any province is lower in rank than the local feudal official, chief minister, but the latter does not have absolute jurisdiction over the former.
In this way, the division of responsibilities is clear.
If the responsibilities are clear, there will be no situation where the public and private accounts are unclear. There will be no situation where the local chief secretary, together with the officials and gentry, will play tricks on taxation.
~
"You just said that I was in a hurry!" Zhu Yunxi stood up, took two steps on the ground, and said with a smile, "Then do you understand now why I am in such a hurry?"
"Old minister, I was stupid for a moment!" Zhang Yan pondered for a moment and already had the answer in his mind, "In fact, the complete lifting of the maritime ban is part of the New Deal!"
"That's right!" Zhu Yunxi laughed, "The new policy is the cause, and the comprehensive lifting of the maritime ban is the result!"
"The original intention of the New Deal is to increase the revenue for the national treasury, to reduce the burden on the people, and to prevent local officials and gentry from becoming bigger and deceiving the superiors and the inferiors!"
"But the purpose of the New Deal is to allow more landless people to become laborers instead of tenants!"
“If we want people to get out of the land, we must create opportunities for them to make money with their hands!”
"Then we must promote industry and commerce, encourage and develop industry and commerce!"
"And our Ming Dynasty..."
Speaking of this, Zhu Yunxi suddenly sighed, "Yes, our Ming Dynasty has hundreds of millions of people, and they can be self-sufficient in anything!"
"According to some people, even if the various products of our Ming Dynasty are not sold to those overseas, our own people can digest them enough! So there is no need to open the sea!"
"What are the people of the Ming Dynasty like now? To put it bluntly, most of the people are struggling just to have enough food and clothing. The richest places like Beijing, Suzhou, Foshan, and Hankou are incomparable!"
"Except for these four places in the world, the people in other places are still facing the loess with their backs to the sky...or are they scrimping on food and clothing to barely make ends meet?"
"The people are struggling just to have enough food and clothing. They have to feed the country's millions of troops, the civil and military officials, me, the emperor, and so many idle people..."
"The burden on the common people is as heavy as Mount Tai! As for the prosperous age that some people say, ha! I am embarrassed to expose them!"
"What is a prosperous age? If the people can barely live without starving to death, then it is a prosperous age?"
~~
Zhang Yan listened silently, and suddenly felt that the emperor's tone was a little excited.
"Under such circumstances, people cannot even hope to have enough to eat. How can they have money to buy all kinds of Ming products? Ironware, porcelain, lacquerware, silk, brocade, wallpaper..."
"Who buys these things?"
"If people don't have money, they won't buy. If no one buys, no one will sell! If people don't have money, industry and commerce will definitely wither!"
"The New Deal will relieve the people...at least it will create millions of homesteaders. Their burdens will be lightened, and they will have more money in their hands!"
"So after the implementation of the New Deal, people's lives will get better and better, and Ming Dynasty will truly have huge domestic demand...Do you understand domestic demand?"
Zhang Yan said hurriedly, "I can tell you the general idea!"
"After talking about domestic demand, let's talk about export!" Zhu Yunxi added, "When domestic demand cannot keep up, you need to sell Ming's things!"
"For the same reason, the more overseas businessmen come, the better the Ming Dynasty's goods will sell! The better the business, the better the industry and commerce. The better the industry and commerce, the more manpower is needed!"
"Then there are more workshops and more items are produced. Can it be done without opening the sea?"
"Opening the sea is not just about commerce! Fishing! Shipping! Including the annual water transportation of our Ming Empire..."
Zhang Yan added in his mind, "There is still a war!"
"In the final analysis, this is a virtuous cycle! The people are freed from the land, and the country is freed from the traditional tax model that relies solely on agriculture!"
"The most fundamental purpose of the New Deal and the opening of the sea is to solve the problem of overburden on the people. It can also support me, the emperor who does nothing, and the lords all over the world through tariffs and commercial taxes!"
At this point, Zhu Yunxi's mouth went dry, so he picked up the tea cup and drank it all in one gulp.
"Many people don't understand my painstaking efforts! They feel that I have to toil all day long and don't want the officials in the world to live peacefully like all previous dynasties!"
"Zhang Aiqing, if I can all the officials in the world live a stable life, then the people in the world will live a hard life just like their ancestors for eighteen generations!"
"So you say I am in a hurry? This is sequential... If my generation cannot complete a whole set of new policies, will future generations be able to do it?"
"I ask myself whether I can compare with Emperor Taizu Gao, but the descendants...ha, I don't think there are many who are much better than me!"
Zhang Yan thought about it and whispered, "The prince is still virtuous!"
Zhu Yunxi automatically filtered out these words and continued, "In a word, lifting the maritime ban is part of the New Deal. People can have a choice and the right to make a living!"
"Promote industry and commerce through opening up the sea, and strengthen national strength through industry and commerce!"
"The most fundamental purpose is to solve stubborn problems with the New Deal, eliminate the burden on the people, and increase the revenue of the national treasury!"