Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty Eight: Situ Shen Shen
Looking at Chen Yi's surprised expression, Zhu Qiyu repeated what he had just said.
He has never forgotten that the original intention of opening up mutual markets is to enrich the national treasury. Although on this basis, he also has other purposes, but they are secondary.
Years of war have overwhelmed the Ming Dynasty.
Natural disasters in the following years made matters worse.
If there is no money in the national treasury, there will be no way to build various projects and no way to organize timely disaster relief measures.
If a local area is hit by a disaster and the court is unable to provide relief, a large number of refugees will be generated, aggravating land annexation, which in turn will further worsen the court's tax revenue.
This is an almost unsolvable vicious cycle.
In his previous life, he spent eight years doing little corvee and paying little in taxes, stopping the war, slowly allowing the court to recuperate and recover slowly.
But it turns out that this is not a good way.
Just like what he said to Shen Yi, it is better to open up the flow than to reduce the source. Thinking only about how to maintain the existing tax revenue and save expenditure will only make the national treasury revenue more and more sluggish.
If you want to make the national treasury truly full, you must open source.
This mutual market was his attempt.
It is true that he left all aspects of the mutual market to be managed by Huangdian, so that he could have some free rides and enrich his internal treasury.
But this is not the main reason.
In fact, if possible, Zhu Qiyu's ideal situation is for the household department to complete all transactions instead of the imperial store.
After Zhu Qiyu learned about Longqing, how wealthy the big businessmen in Jiangnan and other places were, and their wealth was no longer enough to describe their family fortunes.
A truly big businessman in the late Ming Dynasty often owned tens of thousands of acres of fertile land and could employ tens of thousands of weavers and tenants.
Although commercial trade is at the end of the Four Peoples Period, there is no doubt that its ability to make huge profits is very powerful.
If this is the case, then why can't the court collect this huge profit?
The reason why the Ming Dynasty collapsed was largely because the national treasury could not make ends meet. Since the mutual market was to be opened, it would inevitably be accompanied by large amounts of trade.
The profits contained in this are extremely astonishing. Rather than letting it flow into the private sector, it is better to return it to the national treasury to ease the financial pressure on the court.
Of course, Zhu Qiyu also knew it in his heart.
The method of having the Ministry of Revenue run official shops and conduct mutual trade with foreigners, at least now, is absolutely unacceptable in the court.
So for the time being, the only way to do the transaction is through the imperial shop.
Even so, as the emperor, he will inevitably be criticized and seen as competing with the people for profit. But looking at the emperors of the Ming Dynasty, how many of them have a good reputation?
As long as you don't touch something completely untouchable, reputation is nothing.
Zhu Qiyu still has this responsibility.
On the other side, when Shangshu Shen heard the emperor repeating it again, he shuddered and his mind started to spin rapidly.
The commercial taxes of the Ming Dynasty were set at the founding of the country.
No matter what kind of goods, there is a tax of thirty to one.
Many people think that the Ming Dynasty suppressed merchants and commercial development, but in fact they are only half right.
It is true that the Ming Dynasty despised merchants, but it actually encouraged ordinary commercial trade.
It sounds a bit contradictory, but it is true.
To put it bluntly, Taizu was not opposed to normal trade, but he did not want to create a large number of full-time businessmen.
The reason why Taizu set a tax rate of thirty to one tax was to restore the commercial trade that was destroyed by the war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.
But even this tax rate has never been implemented.
The reason is again that many goods in the Ming Dynasty are exempt from taxes.
During the reign of Emperor Taizu, regulations were set such that all pens, inks, paper and inkstones, agricultural tools, boats and carts, silk cloth, fish, vegetables and fruits, etc., were all exempt from tax.
The reason for this is, firstly, because most of these things are scattered and small-scale trade, and it is very troublesome to collect them.
The second point is that in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, there were not many specialized businessmen.
Most of the people farmed the land, weaved cloth and grew vegetables.
You can't just pick a few baskets of vegetables to sell in the market during the off-season, and the government will still have to tax them.
This directly led to the fact that Ming Dynasty’s commercial taxes were very small, less than 1% of the entire national treasury revenue.
But what did the emperor just say?
Cloth, jewelry, and pearls and jade are subject to a tax of one per ten, and four commodities in short supply, grain, ironware, tea, and salt, are subject to a tax of one per eight.
This was not just a so-called "heavy tax". The signal revealed in it made Shen Yi a little frightened. Shen Yi asked anxiously without caring about etiquette.
"Your Majesty means that no matter what kind of goods, all goods will be taxed?"
Zhu Qiyu nodded and said.
"That's right, except for grain, ironware, tea, and salt, which are subject to eight taxes and one tax, all other goods are subject to ten taxes and one tax. No exceptions are made for any goods."
Chen Yi let out a long breath, stood up and prostrated on the ground, saying.
"Your Majesty is wise. With your Majesty's words, I will do my best to help the mutual trade pass the court discussion."
If at the beginning, Shangshu Shen was half-forced to stand with the emperor and promote mutual markets because he had no money.
Then the bargaining chip thrown by the emperor really made Shen Yi, the Minister of Household Affairs, admire the emperor's broad-mindedness.
The essence of mutual trading is actually a monopoly trade.
Many supplies needed by the grassland tribes were only available in the Ming Dynasty.
Because of this, Daming, as the only seller, actually has the power to set prices.
Under normal circumstances, spices, cloth, pearls and jade, which are not daily necessities, can often be sold at more than twice the price in the customs market.
As for urgently needed goods such as grain, ironware, salt, and tea, they can be sold for three to four times the price.
Especially ironware and tea.
A piece of tea brick on the grassland can even be worth as much as gold when it is expensive.
The same is true for ironware. When the Ming Dynasty strictly prohibited smuggling, it was very common to exchange a good horse for an iron pot on the grassland.
In contrast, horses, cattle, sheep, furs and other supplies from grassland tribes are also very popular in the customs.
Each of the five major tribes under Tuotuo Buhua is a large tribe with more than 200,000 herdsmen.
In addition, those grassland nobles like to hoard all kinds of gold and silver, and they are also eager for the fine silks and porcelain from the Central Plains.
In this context, once the mutual market is opened.
Various daily supplies needed by ordinary herdsmen, in short supply of grain, tea, salt, iron supplies, plus jewelry, silk, porcelain and other transactions favored by Mongolian nobles,
If the annual transaction volume reaches three to four million taels, I'm afraid it won't be difficult.
Originally, according to the tax rate of 30% to 1%, most of these profits would be taken away by private merchants.
Only a small part of the household tax can be saved, and most of it is only on salt and tea. The real commercial tax is pitifully small.
However, if it is a tax rate of one for ten taxes and one for eight taxes, plus the tax on all categories, the Ministry of Household Affairs can obtain nearly 400,000 taels of tax revenue from it. If the silver exchange rate of salt and tea is added, then the mutual trade will bring more benefits to the national treasury.
The income can even be close to one million taels.
This number is enough to equal one-tenth of the land tax.
It should be said that these incomes were all allocated by the emperor from the original profits of the imperial store to the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Seeing Shen Yi's excited look, Zhu Qiyu smiled and said.
"As I said, this matter has been settled. Shen Qing, the Minister of Household Affairs, will not have to worry about money for a while."
Shen Shangshu stood up, without the displeasure he had just shown, his face was a little too cheerful, and he nodded like a chicken pecking at rice.
"What your Majesty said is that in order to replenish the national treasury, your Majesty has worked hard and worked hard, and I admire you very much."
After rubbing his hands, Shen Shangshu stepped forward and said with a hint of shyness.
"It's just that, Your Majesty, forget about the other goods."
"This salt and tea are the most expensive things in the exchange market."
"As for the Salt Law, Your Majesty, you know that government-owned goods such as salt and tea have fixed prices and trading locations."
"You must be selling salt nearby, but if you take away so much salt from the same salt field at once, the court will give less to other merchants. If they go to other places to sell salt, the court will have to make up for their losses."
"And since you want to sell it in the mutual market, the imperial store will definitely not follow the price set by the imperial court."
"In that case, the discounted price of salt and tea provided by Huangdian to the Ministry of Revenue, do you think..."
Looking at Old Shen's shining eyes, Zhu Qiyu's face darkened...