When he heard about the opening of the sea, Zhu Hengjia felt very strange, "Guan Qing, I have been opening the sea. Since the Gujian Kingdom, the sea ban has been relaxed. The "Forbidden Traffic Order of Foreign Domains" has been deleted from the new "Da Ming Law", and the customs
More than a dozen of them have been set up. Now the Ming Dynasty’s maritime trade is getting more and more prosperous. Why do you still let Gu open the sea?”
Guan Shouzhen said: "Jianguo, although the Ming Dynasty has actually opened the sea. However, during the Taizu period, stone tablets about the sea ban were engraved in many coastal prefectures, states, and counties. Because they were erected by Taizu, no one dared to remove them.
The people still have doubts about the opening of the sea. What I want to ask you is to order the removal of these stone monuments and formally issue a decree to encourage the opening of the sea."
Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang enacted a law that strictly prohibited private sailing, and even the construction of large ships with three masts or more was prohibited. Violators would be punished by execution, or by being banished to the army. Because this law was enacted by Taizu, although subsequent emperors sometimes relaxed the sea ban,
But they let it go secretly and never admitted it in public.
After listening to what Guan Shouzhen said, Zhu Hengjia understood that Guan Shoufu wanted him to give reassurance to the sea traders. It doesn't matter, it's a trivial matter. Isn't it just a matter of demolishing a few monuments and promulgating a law to encourage sea trading? It's too
Didn't Taizu change a few things that the ancestors were not allowed to change? If nothing else, Taizu said not to change even one word of the "Da Ming Code" alone, and it is estimated that 10,000 words have been changed.
"What Guan Qing said is very good! From today on, all coastal prefectures, states, and counties will immediately remove the monuments prohibiting the sea. There will also be a decree to encourage the opening of the sea. The name is the "Order to Encourage Traffic with Foreign Fans", which is also
Every prefecture, state, and county along the coast erected monuments and envoys heard about them."
Zhu Hengjia thought for a while and then said: "But we must let the coastal officials make it clear to the maritime merchants that we encourage them to engage in maritime trade, but they must pay the customs duties honestly, enter and leave through the customs, and smuggling is never allowed."
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After listening to what Zhu Hengjia said, the ministers secretly admired the monument erected by Taizu for more than two hundred years. No one dared to demolish it. This king was so courageous that he demolished it whenever he asked! When I thought about it, it was true, he was not Taizu in the first place.
His direct descendants are the descendants of Taizu's brother Zhu Xinglong, so naturally they don't take Taizu's words seriously.
On September 10, the twenty-fourth year of Chongzhen reign in the Ming Dynasty, King Jing ordered all coastal prefectures, prefectures, and counties to dismantle the sea-forbidden stele and erect a sea-opening stele instead. The inscription reads: "Prince Jing of the supervising state ordered all prefectures and counties along the coast to
"Overseas trade, exchange of goods and needs, actual benefit to the country and the people. Officials and people in various places must not obstruct it. Qin Zai's special edict. Supervise the country for nine months in the twenty-fourth year of Jing Chongzhen."
"Guan Qing, you said the second thing is that you want to cancel the tea introduction, but why?"
The Ming Dynasty followed the old system of the Song and Yuan Dynasties and implemented a monopoly on tea. The government set up government-run tea farms in various tea-producing states and counties. Tea dealers could only buy tea in the officialdom and pay a 10% tax, and then the government would issue a tea tax.
Using this guide to traffic tea, you can avoid paying taxes. The tea guide is similar to the three-in-one purchase certificate, tax certificate and transportation license in later generations.
"In Jianguo, tea is different from salt and is easier to produce. The number of private tea produced by the people even exceeds the number of official tea. In recent years, the tea lessons collected by the Ministry of Revenue have become less and less. During the reign of Taizu, there were six tea lessons
120,000 notes, but now only tens of thousands of taels per year. The minister believes that since it is difficult to ban private tea among the people, it is better to simply liberalize it and allow private tea makers and tea sellers to set up teahouses. After the tea monopoly is abolished, the tea produced in government-run teahouses
The tea leaves were sent to the tea and horse companies at the border, and they were directly exchanged with Gushi Khan for military horses. If you set up a private tea farm, you will be charged industrial tax. In this way, you can not only increase the fiscal revenue of the imperial court, but also get a large number of war horses."
The purpose of Taizu's tea monopoly was not to provide tea lessons. Instead, he wanted to use these tea leaves to trade war horses through the tea-horse trade, and to supplement the nine-sided army by using the method of opening up the country. "History of the Ming Dynasty·Shi Huo Zhi" records: Tea tax
In the early days of the founding of the country, the tax was one for thirty trees. Later, the tax was changed to tea trees, one for ten tea trees, and eight for ten tea trees under the jurisdiction of the Wei Suo Army. Taizu was ruthless and did not allow tea farmers to keep any private tea.
, sold to the officialdom at a low price, and although they obtained a large number of war horses, their great martial arts skills caused countless tea farmers to go bankrupt and become refugees.
Zhu Hengjia understood: Nowadays, private tea is rampant, and the tea monopoly has ceased to exist in name only. It is better to cancel the monopoly and directly levy industrial taxes on private tea merchants. After the tea-horse mutual market is restored, instead of selling tea from the government-run tea farms to tea merchants,
Instead of using the money you get to buy horses from Gushi Khan, you might as well just use the tea from the government-run tea farm to exchange horses with Gushi Khan.
"Well, Guan Qing's strategy has been successful for the country. I will do as you say. From now on, the tea monopoly will be cancelled, and industrial taxes will be levied on private tea merchants. The government-run tea farms will no longer issue tea bags, and all the tea produced will be used for tea production.
Horse trading market".
"Guan Qing, you continue to talk about the third article, why should we cancel the landing tax? How to simplify the collection of industrial tax?"
Landing tax is a kind of additional tax in addition to commercial tax. All commercial and civilian goods entering the township market, no matter how high or low they are, whether they can be sold or not, should be taxed.
Although the amount of this kind of tax is not high, it is often levied repeatedly, which greatly disturbs the business people. During the Wanli period, the trigger of the tax resistance incident in Suzhou was a melon farmer who went to the city market to sell melons. He was first arrested
A landing tax was levied once; after selling the melons, I bought four kilograms of rice. When I left the city, I was levied another city gate tax. There were only three kilograms of rice left from the four kilograms. I cried with my head in my arms and was beaten by a textile worker named Ge Cheng.
Accept the injustice.
"Jianguo, although the local tax is not very large, it is levied once in a larger city. It is collected repeatedly, which is very annoying to the people. What's even more disgusting is that this tax is levied by local governments. It is very arbitrary. It is levied up to ten liang, and the income is
The official treasury often only has one tael. The levy is small and the people are resentful. It is really an evil tax. Please supervise the state to eliminate it."
Zhu Hengjia was so angry that he slapped the imperial court: "The tax collection is small, and the people are resentful! It enriches corrupt officials, hurts the people, and stains the reputation of the court! Why should such an evil tax be used? Cancel it starting today!"
The landing tax, like the city gate tax, is a type of over-tax. Zhu Hengjia felt that the city gate tax was not conducive to the circulation of goods, so he canceled the city gate tax in the "Ming Ding Guo Shi Zhao" more than five years ago. Now it has been cancelled.
As for land tax, the only taxes left in the Ming Dynasty were customs tax, tea-horse tax (land tax), banknote tax, etc.
People still have to have some skills! Although Guan Shouzhen is not as good as Sun Jinding in flattering, he is good at managing politics. Only with this skill can he secure his position as chief minister.
At this moment, Zhu Hengjia was very pleased with Guan Shouzhen, "Guan Qing, can you tell me more about how to simplify the collection of industrial taxes?"
Zhu Hengjia gets a headache when he mentions the imposition of industrial tax.
In the "Edict of Ming Ding Guo Shi", he clearly stated that industrial development should be encouraged. New industries would be exempted from tax for three years, and after three years, an industrial tax would be levied at one-tenth of the profits. He also encouraged banks to lend money to industrial owners.
In a flash, it has been more than five years since the "Ming Ding Guo Shi Zhao" was promulgated, and the folk handicraft industry has developed rapidly. The textile industry in Guangdong and Huguang; the papermaking industry in Jiangxi; the shipbuilding industry in Guangdong and Hainan; the ceramic industry in Guangdong and Jiangxi;
, Guangxi’s mining and metallurgical industry is booming. Many large industrial owners have emerged.
But when these industrial owners are taxed, the answer they get is often losses. The current industrial tax is levied at one-tenth of the profits. Everyone has lost money, and there is no profit. How to tax them?
The Ministry of Accounts did not believe it and sent tax officials from various places to check the accounts. They could not find anything. Almost all of these industrial owners had two accounts. This era is not like the big data era in later generations, where it is clear at a glance how much is produced and how much is sold. Unless the accountant betrays
The owner, otherwise there would be no way to find out.
Guan Shou Zhen smiled: "In charge of the country, I believe that the current industrial tax is levied based on the amount of profits. Profits are difficult to define and difficult to levy. It is better to change the method and levy them in kind. It is simple and easy to do."
Zhu Hengjia became interested: "How to collect the goods in kind? Please tell me carefully."
"In supervising the country, I thought we could levy taxes just like tea taxes. Taxing tea trees, one out of ten, is simple and convenient. By analogy, for the textile industry, we can levy taxes based on the number of looms, and each loom will collect an annual tax.
The tax is three cents of silver; the ceramic industry is levied based on the number of turning carts; the papermaking industry is levied based on the number of paper slots; the shipbuilding industry is levied based on the number of ships built according to specifications??"
"Well, your method is very good, so I will create your own method."
Suddenly, Zhu Hengjia remembered the Suzhou tax resistance crisis during the Wanli period, and couldn't help but look fearful on his face, "Guan Qing, you just said that for the textile industry, the annual silver levy for each loom is three cents, isn't it too high? I remember back then.
The weaving eunuch Sun Long was driven out of Suzhou by the weavers because of the tax of three cents per loom."
The most developed handicraft industry in the Ming Dynasty was the textile industry.
In Suzhou alone, there are as many as 10,000 looms and as many as 50,000 or 60,000 craftsmen. In addition to Suzhou, Songjiang, Weitang (now Jiashan, Zhejiang), and Lu'an, Shanxi, is also a world-famous textile center. "South Songjiang,
Bei Lu'an, clothing the world".
In the 29th year of Wanli, Sun Long, the internal eunuch, served as the Suzhou tax superintendent. He ordered that in addition to the tax collected, an additional three cents of silver should be paid to each machine, and three cents of silver to each piece of silk fabrics. Thousands of weaving and dyeing craftsmen were led by Ge Cheng.
, shouting the slogan "Drive Sun Long away, kill the tax collector", and forced Sun Long out of Suzhou City.
"Jianguo, the tax of three taels of silver per year for a loom is really not high. The profit of a tax machine is at least six taels of silver a year. If it is run well, it is possible to make more than ten taels of silver a year."
"Not high? Why did it trigger a popular uprising if it was not high?"
Guan Shouzhen smiled and said: "Whether it is the Ge Cheng incident or the later incident of Yan Peiwei, Yang Nianru, Shen Yang, Ma Jie, and Zhou Wenyuan, there are shadows of the Jiangnan gentry behind them. The Jiangnan gentry is extremely powerful, and is Orido
The masters behind the scenes. The imperial court wants to levy taxes on them, so they will naturally encourage the weavers to cause trouble. The gentry in Guangdong and Huguang are far less powerful than the gentry in Jiangnan. The annual tax of three yuan per loom will not provoke a civil uprising."<
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So that’s it! Zhu Hengjia suddenly realized it, but he was still a little worried. People are like water, and kings are like boats. Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it!
"Guan Qing, look at this, let's collect a little less first and see the results. Let's do this. For each loom, we will collect two coins of silver every year. Let's see how the people react."
"I will obey the Holy Orders."
The monarch and his ministers were discussing national affairs when they suddenly heard a report from the chamberlain: "Report to the Supervisor, Jiangxi Province is urgent!"