Chapter 258 Daming's fundamental problem is that he lost the butcher's knife!
Entering the tenth month of the lunar calendar, the weather in Beizhili is quickly approaching severe winter. At this time, it is time to pay taxes when autumn grains are stored in the warehouse.
In previous years, this time was the most troublesome and lucrative time for officials. The county magistrate who destroyed the family and the prefect who wiped out the family refer to the power of local officials when collecting taxes.
After becoming the magistrate of Xianghe County, Chen Dayou ushered in his first tax collection season, and of course the last. In the future, tax collection will be directly managed by the General Administration of Taxation of the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the local administrative offices will only need to cooperate. Of course, they also have to supervise, otherwise the expenditures allocated to local governments may not be clear.
"The county has already made a complete land tax statistics list when the working group is here. After County Magistrate Xie is finished, he can just check the tax amount according to this statistics book. This year is the last tax collection for our county government, so it must be done. Make it more beautiful." Chen Dayou took the land statistics book and discussed tax collection with the newly appointed county magistrate Xie Xiaojun.
Logically speaking, even if this matter is returned to the county government, it is not Chen Dayou's turn to interfere. He is the county magistrate, and he only manages officials but not the people. However, because the county magistrate has just arrived and is not familiar with the environment, even the magistrate and the county magistrate The division of labor was also unclear, so Chen Dayou had to work with the county magistrate to do this.
"County Lord, I don't quite understand the documents of the imperial court's tax collection! Originally, the sooner the better, the sooner the better, but this time the imperial court said that the tax items should be collected in February next year. At the same time, it was also decided Those who own less than ten acres of land can have the county government guarantee an interest-free loan from the Royal Bank to pay the tax. However, families with large acres are urged to do so. The document states that if these If a person's tax payment period has passed this year, the qualifications of his registered family members to enroll in school, become an official, or join the army will be cancelled, and the existing ones will be deported home. What do you think of the taxation attitude of these two skins? How do we define who is who? Is it a family with an area of acres? Who is a family with an area of an area?"
"Brother Xie has complicated this matter. All families with more than ten acres of land have large fields! The difference lies in whether they have any heirs working in the court, or are about to work in the court. Because we can easily control these people. The deep meaning of this document issued by the imperial court is that we cannot force the poor too much, and at the same time, we cannot use the same chicken-and-dog-like method of taxation as before!"
"Since ancient times, hasn't that taxation been a wild goose chase? No! How can a tax be levied?"
"County Magistrate, hasn't the imperial court already given us a solution? You can't be an official, you can't go to school, you can't even join the army. Isn't this a way for people to make progress? As long as the family can get through it, who doesn't want to make progress? Even if it's not possible. Don’t you need it now or in the future? Most people won’t take the risk of being unable to stand up for several generations just to make a hard buck.”
"County Lord, if you say this, it will be much easier for us to collect taxes this time?" Xie Xiaojun said innocently.
"It's definitely not easy to talk about. It's easier to say that those whose families have people working for the imperial court. Those whose families have not been exposed to the glory of the imperial court for the time being can easily become a piece of meat and have no oil and salt. Of course, there are many people who will not be able to do it for a while. I didn’t understand this truth, we need to publicize it more so that they can think things through first and then see how much meat is left on the hob.”
"The imperial court is now focusing its tax collection on wealthy households. Does this make it more difficult for those of us at the bottom?"
"Hey! Xie County Magistrate, you just came to work in the county and you have such an idea. If it had been a long time, you would not have such an idea. Rich households and poor households each have their own difficulties.
However, as long as we slap a harder face and use harsher measures, the rich will actually be more obedient than the poor."
Is this true? Xie Xiaojun half believed Chen Dayou's words.
Will rich households be more obedient than poor households? This is not only something discussed by grassroots officials such as Chen Dayou and Xie Xiaojun, but also something that important ministers in the DPRK are thinking about. Previously, the emperor said that taxing the rich would be more beneficial to the country and easier.
Zhou Yanru was particularly suspicious of the second half of this sentence.
Zhou Yanru knows very well what it is like to be a rich person. There must be a reason why a person is rich. Without an intricate network of relationships, how could he become a rich person for no reason? Because of this, these talents
It's even harder to deal with. Unlike the poor, a few government servants would be so frightened that they would tremble in their legs and dare not breathe. As long as there are such people, they will definitely be able to collect taxes.
Recently, with the progress of agricultural tax collection, some data have come from various places. These data seem to subvert Zhou Yanru's ideas. Not long after the tax collection work began, the total amount of agricultural taxes collected this year has already exceeded that of the previous year.
You must know that this is just the beginning of the official tax amount. The most puzzling thing is that the mainstream of tax payers now are wealthy households. Who makes them pay large amounts? This is more obvious in the current accounts!
Zhou Yanru can't figure out the thoughts of the rich, but Zhu Youjian can figure it out quite well. It is true that the rich have more flexible minds, more means, and more power than the poor. But one thing is that they are more afraid of losing than the poor.
The poor are more afraid of death. As long as you grasp this, you can understand the policy strategy. This characteristic of the rich is called the compromising nature of the national bourgeoisie in later generations.
Not only are they compromising, in fact, under the influence of thousands of years of imperial power, most people are compromising. In Zhu Youjian's view, all classes in the Ming Dynasty have some common attributes. To sum up, there is no bottom line when it comes to shamelessness.
There is no bottom line when it comes to compromising, it is not enough to take advantage, and it is not enough to be a grandson. When they can take advantage, they will not consider whether their ambition will burst the plate. But when the knife is placed on their neck, they can also maximize it.
compromise!
Everyone will compromise. The rich have a lot of room for compromise! How much room do the poor have? When they compromise to the point of no retreat, they will become Li Zicheng or follow Li Zicheng.
Zhu Youjian is not too worried about whether this tax reform can be implemented. What he is worried about is whether there can be a stable external environment. As long as the external environment is stable, the reform can be implemented. Because during the reform, no party will be moved.
Pushed to a dead end, while depriving them of their privileges, they also offered corresponding benefits in exchange. Some benefits were even greater than what they lost. With the minds of wealthy people, they can easily figure out which is more important and which is less important.
If a large amount of benefits are used to redeem vested interests, wouldn't the restructuring be in vain? Of course it is not in vain. The problem of the Ming Dynasty is not that the interests are expropriated by the wealthy class, but that they can expropriate the interests without going through the court. This is fatal.
Thing! If the rich do not directly seize their interests through the court, then the court will be nothing more than a shell. How can it still have the strength to solve the problem? In those days, the Emperor of Zhou could no longer share the pork, and the princes of the world dispersed and did not listen to the call. The same goes for the Ming Dynasty.
Because of this problem, the authority to divide the pork has been lost. What Zhu Youjian has to do is to find the butcher's knife and the pork again.