Liang Xinhu came to Guangzhou as a little-known ordinary senator. Except for the staff of the municipal government’s general affairs department who was responsible for the senators’ eating, drinking and security, almost no one among the naturalized people knew him. Over the years, he has been responsible for the work of the circuit court.
He toured the land of Hainan step by step every month, and held court hearings in counties or towns.
The cases vary in size, from civil disputes caused by children peeing on a firewood pile to criminal cases of robbery and murder. The plots are not too complicated, and it is difficult for him, a law graduate with a bachelor's degree, to deal with them.
Calculation is difficult.
However, now that we have arrived in Guangzhou, the complexity of the cases has increased exponentially. The requirements of the Ministry of Justice and Liu Xiang are the same. Through case trials, the "spirit of law" of the Senate should be publicized, especially the civil and commercial law.
"Ancient Chinese law was very backward in terms of civil and commercial law," Liu Xiang said. "That's why we have so many myths about businessmen's 'faithfulness', but there is also a saying like 'No business without treachery.' As far as our social practice is concerned
Judging from the above, the businessmen in this time and space are also a complex group, neither too good nor too bad. However, generally speaking, they are quite 'rule-abiding' and have a certain degree of 'legal consciousness', which makes them relatively good in the entire society.
A group with a legal concept. However, due to the government’s suppression and plundering for many years, the disregard for the interests of businessmen and the dangerous social environment, this so-called legal concept also needs to be put in quotation marks.”
"So we need to educate them..."
"That's right." Liu Xiang nodded, "Cleaning teeth is not a big deal, not a small one. But it is in line with promoting our spirit of governing the country according to law and showing off our meticulous and effective governance techniques - and these are in the past
What the traditional feudal government couldn’t do.”
"good."
"But I also have worries. First, Ya Hang has too many bad debts, and I'm afraid that even if they ransack their homes, they won't be able to offset their debt; second, Hong merchants are taking the opportunity to retaliate or make profits and fabricate facts - Ya Hang is not a good person, and Hong merchants are not good owners either.
We cannot give citizens the idea that we are renovating for the sake of remediation."
"I completely agree with this." Liang Xinhu said, "In fact, it is not difficult. I plan to implement three principles in the entire aftermath: First, whoever makes the claim must provide evidence. If the bank owes the payment for the goods or needs to return the goods, they must file a complaint.
Sufficient evidence, no evidence does not count; secondly, the time limit can only be traced back two years, counting from the time we entered the city. More than two years will not be included, so as not to be entangled in the past; thirdly, insist that this is a civil and commercial economy
We will not engage in redress of grievances like Mr. Qingtian. If there is indeed a criminal case, hand it over to the police station for processing. We will not handle the aftermath."
"Very good." Liu Xiang nodded, "But what if we become insolvent after the liquidation?"
There is another hidden meaning in his words: the deficit is too big, and we will not be able to gain anything.
Guangzhou's financial expenditure is based on the hope of making money by looting houses.
However, this wealth must be made in a secretive way, and it must satisfy the masses, and you cannot tell lies with your eyes open - that would be too ugly.
Liang Xinhu naturally understood what he meant, and he smiled and said: "Okay, you are doing a civil servant interview. In this case, I will explain it in more detail."
The specific measures are to adhere to one case per household and not to consolidate accounts. Zhang San's debts will be paid off with Zhang San's property, and Li Si's property will not be misappropriated; for serious deficits and insolvency, a proportional payment system will be adopted; finally
, adopt an unlimited liability recovery system.
"...The Ming Dynasty did not have the concept of limited liability. Our use of unlimited liability for recovery is also in line with common law. Moreover, from the perspective of judicial practice, most businessmen in this time and space are family businesses. It is necessary to understand what is family private property and what is private property.
It is almost impossible to acquire corporate property. What’s more, their property has very little cash and is mostly converted into private real estate such as land and houses. It is too cheap for them to have limited liability. Although limited liability companies are the trend in the future, they can’t do it now.
There’s no need to do it.”
After Liang Xinhu finished speaking, he added: "I have looked at the situation these days and feel that our legal propaganda is not enough."
The biggest fear of the natives of Guangdong, especially the common gentry and businessmen, is that they are ignorant of the laws and ways of doing things of the Senate. They do not know what the Senate wants to do and why it does such things.
Even though they have known for a long time that Australians value faith and the law, they are confused about how to do it and whether they will violate taboos, which can easily cause various unnecessary misunderstandings. If a certain force is arrested while performing official duties
The people originally were not targeting this force, this group, this ethnic group, they just broke the law, but because they have no concept of equality before the law in their minds, or they don’t understand why they committed such a crime in the Ming Dynasty
I will be punished for trivial or natural things, so I think "Did the Senate want to take action on me?", "Did I offend a certain senator unintentionally?", etc., which may eventually turn into running away.
Even resistance occurs.
"A few days ago, we banned the Ya shop and arrested the leader of the attack on Haiyang Guild Hall - Director Lin. Bureau Mu also told me some situations: Chaoshan businessmen in the city are now arrogant. They are fighting with Guangfu and Hakka
There is a lot of bullying in the transactions of merchants. Obviously, Chaoshan merchants will misunderstand and think that we are going to fight against each other as we did in the past. So my opinion is that I want to explain the laws of the Senate to the natives.
The best way is to now print a batch of pamphlets similar to the "Basic Law" and distribute them at low prices or free of charge. They use the simplest and most understandable words to describe the most basic laws of the Senate. For example, any citizen under the rule of the Senate
What rights, freedoms, and benefits are enjoyed, and what things cannot be violated, such as insulting others, enslaving others, illegal imprisonment, etc. There are also the conceptual role and law enforcement methods of the police, how the Senate operates as a political system, etc., so that the indigenous people can
A general understanding of the differences between the Senate and the Ming Dynasty, as well as their practices, even if you don’t understand the laws, at least know what you can’t do, which plays an important role in stabilizing people’s hearts and implementing the national policies of the Senate.”
"What you said makes sense. I remember we compiled a similar pamphlet in Hainan..."
"It was compiled by our Law Club. But it's still too simple. Guangzhou is a big city and the situation is much more complicated. I think it should be revised and supplemented - if you agree, I will start working on it in the next few days."
"Okay, after you compile it, I will arrange for a large number of printing and distribution."
Liu Xiang discussed some specific details with Liang Xinhu before adjourning the meeting. Then Liu Xiang held a small meeting with Lin Baiguang, Zheng Shangjie and others non-stop to discuss the matter of convening the first plenary meeting of the Guangzhou Federation of Industry and Commerce.
Liu Xiang was anxious to hold the meeting, not only to find out the bottom line of Guangzhou's economic aggregate, but also to collect taxes.
At present, they have not been in the city for a long time, and there is a lot of waste waiting to be done. Administrative expenses and personnel expenses are rising steadily. At present, the city government still has two major revenue sources of "start-up fees" and "financial returns" to support it. As various projects are carried out one by one,
To expand, recruiting local public officials and solving the financial burden as soon as possible have become Liu Xiang's top priority.
To "make wealth" by attacking various old forces in the city is a temporary solution and cannot last long.
However, taxation is a systematic project. The efficient tax extraction mechanism in modern society depends on the modern social management system and sufficient statistical data. Some people comment that the origin of modern statistics is the government's desire to extract financial resources.
But now, what the Ming Dynasty left to them was only some vague and confusing statistical data. The statistical projects were not scientific, and the data contained many errors, so much so that Liu Xiang did not dare to use it as a tax basis.
As for Guangzhou’s original taxation system, it was mainly agricultural tax. Originally, as a commercial city, Guangzhou’s commercial tax should be the main source of revenue, but whether it is tax types, tax rates or collection methods, it is very backward. The burden is even more uneven.
, Generally speaking, the government's collection and management of commercial taxes is very poor. Tax types are changed in a chaotic manner and tax rates are arbitrary. Excessive taxation has caused public resentment and business travel is not possible. Private individuals have benefited, but the public has gained little. Those who can really obtain large amounts of income,
Just sea trade tariffs.
Now if Liu Xiang wants to collect local financial resources as soon as possible, he must restore taxation as soon as possible. Industrial and commercial registration is the first step. By issuing business licenses, they now have a rough idea of how many industrial and commercial households there are in Guangzhou. Through their registered industries and business projects,
The number of employees and the size of the stores provide a preliminary grasp of the scale of industry and commerce.
But this alone is not enough to establish modern taxation, because these data are only raw data and have not been summarized and organized. What's more, these industrial and commercial households do not have an accounting system that meets modern accounting standards. Furthermore, considering the Senate's own hardware level and
Due to the poor quality of personnel, it was impossible to adopt an overly modern collection model. Therefore, Liu Xiang discussed with Chen Ce from the Finance and Taxation Office and decided to walk on two legs.
One leg focuses on rectifying import and export tariffs with relatively clear items and introducing them into the tax system of the Senate. Tariffs are the bulk of commercial taxes in Guangzhou, and the benefits of rectification and standardization are huge. And it does not require too much manpower and time.
The other leg is to make use of the existing guild system in various industries - almost all larger industries in Guangzhou have "official offices", which are actually guilds. Taxes are apportioned through the guilds. In this way, taxes are collected and
The management is relatively simple. In particular, it does not require a large number of tax personnel. Although it has major side effects, it is a method that can quickly collect taxes under the current circumstances.
"In fact, there are many small tax sources that we can explore. For example, deed tax, stamp tax, etc." (~^~)