"I will pay my respects to the Emperor."

"Your Majesty, please excuse me."

On the sixteenth day of the first month of the third year of the Apocalypse, after the Lantern Festival, the Ming Empire's State Council for the new year was held as scheduled.

After the monarch and his ministers greeted each other, everyone sat down, and then Zhu Youdong cleared his throat: "Let's get started, because this is the first meeting of this year, so I want to ask the Ministry of Accounts first, has last year's income and expenditure been released?"

"Your Majesty." Xu Honggang, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, stood up: "The Ministry of Revenue has only had two days off these days. Hurry up and hurry up. The general figures are out. Although the time is limited, some statistics are not very accurate, but the progress should be able to

Control it within 100,000 yuan.”

"Okay, then please ask Da Situ to report to us our income and expenditure last year."

"In compliance with the decree." Xu Honggang saluted and opened a booklet: "In the second year of Tianqi, after all the currency taxes on the national income were converted into silver dollars, the total amount was more than 64.35 million yuan. In addition to cash, there was still

There is a large amount of in-kind taxes collected on rice, wheat, fuel, carbon, fodder, etc. Among them, rice, wheat and other staple foods total more than 37 million shi."

After Xu Honggang reported such a string of numbers, all the ministers in the meeting reacted. Some were happy, some were thoughtful, and some were whispering to each other. All of a sudden, all kinds of buzzing sounds were heard in the venue.

After the ministers thought for a moment and communicated in low voices for a while, Zhu Youdong said: "Da Situ, after the end of the forty-sixth year of Wanli (Zhu Youdong ascended the throne in May of that year), what was the income for that year?

?”

"Yes." Xu Honggang cupped his hands and opened another book that looked obviously much older: "In the forty-sixth year of Wanli, the revenue of the Ministry of Household Affairs totaled 47.5 million shi of various grains.

Similar silver dollar 21.785 million yuan."

"Huh?" When Xu Honggang reported this figure, many ministers expressed surprise: Hey, it's only been two years. How come the physical tax has been reduced so much, while the monetary tax has tripled?

"I remember that the salt tax accounted for 12 million of the silver income that year, right?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. In the forty-sixth year of Wanli, the Ministry of Revenue, in accordance with the emperor's decree, changed all the in-kind taxes on silk, silk, linen, cotton, etc. levied by the royal family and the Ministry of Revenue into monetary taxes. The equivalent of silver that year was 4.53 million yuan.

Forage, horses, etc. were all converted into monetary taxes, which amounted to 2.3 million yuan in silver that year. Starting from the forty-sixth year of Wanli, corvees could also be paid in silver instead. That year, the corvées received 3.3 million yuan in silver. The rest was

It's tea tax, metallurgy tax, shipping tax, etc. Well, because of Siam and Japan's invasion of the Ming Dynasty, sea routes were cut off, so the shipping tax was the lowest after the Longqing switch, only 135,000 yuan.

Last year, of the more than 60 million yuan in revenue, the salt tax was still fixed at 12 million yuan. The tax on silk, fodder, horses, labor, etc. was stable but decreased. The main growth point came from commercial taxes.

Last year, domestic commercial taxes surged from less than 1.5 million yuan (including road usage fees) in the 46th year of Wanli to more than 31 million yuan. In addition to customs revenue and national foreign trade income of more than 12 million yuan, this amount of money, as well as tea tax

, in addition to the taxes paid by the five overseas states, the main ones are various domestic commercial taxes collected by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce newly established by the emperor."

"Hiss~" After listening to Xu Honggang's details about the surge in income last year, the ministers who attended the meeting all seemed even more surprised. After being stunned for a moment, the chief assistant Fang Congzhe stood up slowly: "Your Majesty, this

Commercial taxes have been collected so much all at once, and I don’t know what the people are saying..."

"Hahaha, Chief Assistant, the three heads of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce are also attending the meeting today. Why not let them answer your questions."

After saying this, Zhu Youdong pointed his finger, and Li Guojun, the director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, stood up: "Chief Assistant, ladies and gentlemen, since the establishment of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce at the end of the first year of Tianqi, after more than a year of operation, it has been able to operate all over the country.

The cities where provincial governments are located have fully performed their duties. Last year, the total commercial tax collected by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce was only more than 17 million yuan. According to our estimates, the national commercial tax is still only about one out of ten taxes, and there is still a lot of room for growth.

.Furthermore, with the promotion and continuous improvement of steam engines, there are more and more factories across the country. Xiaguan estimates that after the end of this year, the commercial tax revenue should exceed 25 million yuan."

"This, this is simply... Your Majesty, I am so impressed that I am so impressed."

"Hahaha, the chief minister is here. Chief minister, all ministers, I should actually let you know that this business tax is not easy to collect at all. Well, Wang Huaqin, your tax police group has been taxing you all last year

How many battles? How many people died?"

"Your Majesty, I am ashamed. Because last year was the first time that the country used a new method to collect business taxes, there were many businesses in various places that did not understand and did not accept it. There were even larger business groups armed to resist the tax. Well, last year, the tax police

The regiment participated in a total of seventy-eight battles involving more than a hundred people, and one battle involving more than a thousand people. There were countless conflicts involving a few people and dozens of people. Throughout the year, the tax police regiment lost 323 tax police officers.

More than 70 family members of tax policemen were killed in retaliation by gangster businessmen, including infants. Finally, the local governments generally supported it, and the local garrisons responded in a timely manner, so the business tax was basically collected.

Already."

Seeing all the ministers nodding solemnly, Zhu Youdong nodded to Wang Zhi again: "Please come and report other information on the collection of commercial taxes."

"According to the order." Wang Zhi, the second deputy director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, stood up: "Dear superior officials, the prerequisite for the State Administration for Industry and Commerce to collect commercial taxes is to abolish the past tolls in various places, as well as the card payment requirements at various checkpoints, and also

The black hands of officials from all over the country must also be cut off. In the forty-sixth year of Wanli, the highway built by the imperial court collected tolls of 1.35 million. In the second year of Tianqi, the mileage of the national cement highway was twice that of the forty-sixth year of Wanli.

The collection of tolls is zero. It can be said that, at least at the level of the court, the contract is effectively fulfilled.

However, local governments in various places still continue to set up checkpoints to collect taxes from businessmen. There are even a few officials, clerks and servants who seek unreasonable benefits from businessmen. In the second year of Tianqi, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce received a total of 2,077 complaints from businessmen from all over the country.

One hundred and fifty-three complaints were all caused by merchants being exploited by local government offices after paying commercial taxes in accordance with the law. As of yesterday, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce had completed the handling of a total of 2,687 complaints.

Among them, most local governments have refunded the illegally collected taxes after receiving the opinions of our State Administration for Industry and Commerce. However, there are also some officials, clerks and even servants who are stubborn and even have a bad attitude. To these people, we have no choice but to

sanctions.

In the second year of Tianqi, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce has transferred a total of 358 cases related to the Metropolitan Procuratorate and the Ministry of Punishment. As of yesterday, more than 200 officials have been removed from office and more than 70 officials with particularly egregious crimes have been dismissed.

He also handled more than 900 officials and more than 2,000 servants."

After listening to Wang Zhi's report, Zhu Youdong felt very pleased.

Over the past two hundred years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, no business tax, income tax, or property tax has been formally collected. However, the burden on businessmen is not light: because there is no clear business tax collection law, local officials have

When facing businessmen, they can do whatever they want. This results in businessmen paying less or even no business taxes in name, but at the same time, they have to use a large amount of profits to bribe officials. This leads to a deep integration between government and business, not to mention accelerating officialdom corruption.

.It also made it impossible for the Ming Dynasty to receive money, and at the same time, the exploitation suffered by ordinary people continued to increase.

Collecting commercial taxes means cutting off the gray or even black income of local governments and bringing everything to light. In this way, the administration of officials can be improved, and while the national income will increase significantly, it will have more strength to perform national duties and carry out military operations.

Construction, infrastructure construction, disaster relief and other work.

Zhu Youdong knew very well that cutting off the previous inertial income of government agencies at all levels and making everyone accept the new system was something that went against the human nature of the vested interest class. This was not particularly difficult to do.

The key here is: after paying business taxes in accordance with the law, whether businessmen can no longer be exploited by the past 'rules'. As long as this can be achieved, or the amount of being 'exploited' is greatly reduced, so that the amount is reduced.

The amount exceeds the normal commercial tax payment. Businessmen will be willing to support the court's new policy.

Therefore, the performance of local government is the key here.

At present, it seems that in the year when the collection of commercial taxes has been vigorously promoted, although there are many officials in various places who have committed crimes, most of them are out of habit. There are some who are truly crazy and commit crimes, but they are only a few.

You must know that the Ming Dynasty currently has more than 25,000 civil servants, nearly 60,000 officials, and nearly 200,000 servants. Among such a huge base, only more than 3,000 people have been dealt with, which is already a very low ratio.

Although there must be a considerable number of businessmen who have paid business taxes and are still being exploited but dare not report it, and although there must be areas that the State Administration for Industry and Commerce has not dealt with, the low proportion still makes Zhu Youdong overjoyed - he was mentally prepared.

I wanted to imitate Zhu Yuanzhang when he killed all the officials in the country. I didn't expect that when it was actually implemented, the proportion of officials who committed crimes was so low.
Chapter completed!