"In fact, in Liaodong, land transfer fees have become the main income of local government agencies. Without the income from land transfer fees, local government agencies would not be able to pay out salaries."

Li Hao didn't care about Sun Xing's difficulties at all, and just talked to Li Xiao indifferently.

"Has it reached this point? Where have the local taxes gone? Could it be said that Ai Husheng can't even understand this little money?"

Li Xiao has already eaten, and the local government actually regards land transfer fees as the main income. This...

"Let Ai Shangshu tell you!" Li Hao kicked the ball directly to Ai Husheng.

Today is Li Xiao's inspection of the capital. Even Lord Cifu is following him, and naturally those ministers will also follow him.

After hearing Li Hao's order, Ai Husheng could only step out and salute Li Xiao: "Commander!"

"Tell me, what's going on?" Li Xiao asked with a cold face.

Financial issues are a major matter related to the foundation of the country. The Zhu family dynasty is where it is today because of lack of money.

The Ming Dynasty was so huge that there were hundreds of thousands of officials. Including the servants of various ministries, there were millions of subordinate officials in various yamen.

These people are the cornerstone of governing the country. But these people all eat the imperial food, but they have to be supported by the Ming Dynasty with silver coins.

"In the past, Commander-in-Chief, you have always opposed increasing taxes. Therefore, finance has relied on foreign trade.

Only by plundering in foreign wars can we maintain financial balance.

At that time, the national army only had four field divisions and some local garrisons.

The four field divisions, plus some reserve troops, amounted to no more than 300,000 people.

As for the troops in the garrison, the total number of troops in the country is only more than 600,000.

The total number of troops in the country is only one million.

Feeding millions of people, plus various research expenses. Military expenditures were already huge, but overseas trade was booming at that time.

Our trade surplus, coupled with the gold, silver and resources plundered in foreign wars, the burden on the court is not too heavy.

But three years ago, we started a war with the Europeans.

European trade routes were almost completely cut off, and the trade volume relying on smuggling was less than 10% of what it was before the war.

Coupled with the unprecedented expansion of our army after the war began, repair centers were built in Xi'an and Sanya respectively.

Various equipment factories are constantly being put into operation, and tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, aircraft, and airships are all being produced at full capacity.

Not to mention, various ammunition factories are working overtime to produce!

Commander, you are fighting on the front line. But you don’t know that in the first year of the war alone, more than 38.13 million artillery shells of various types were used on the front line.

More than 100 million bullets were used.

Commander, this is all money!

All these are filled with gold and silver.

But trade routes were cut off and customs duties plummeted.

There is no way the domestic trade volume can generate so much profit. The exploitation of Australia and India has reached its limit.

If the exploitation is intensified, it will trigger a civil uprising.

On the one hand, I have to spend money, on the other hand, I have lost my income. I... it is difficult for me to be the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs."

Ai Husheng, who already had gray hair on his temples, had tears in his eyes when he thought of the difficulties he faced back then.

"Uh...!" Ai Husheng burst into tears, and Li Xiao felt a little embarrassed.

Ai Husheng has been following him for more than twenty years. During these twenty years, no matter how big the battle is, no matter how difficult it is.

As long as he made up his mind, he never let money matters worry him.

His attitude just now was indeed a bit too much. But now in front of so many people, he can't openly admit his mistake, which makes Li Xiao a little embarrassed.

"Ai Shangshu, I know it's not easy for you. So, I will support you in whatever you do." Li Hao patted Ai Husheng on the shoulder.

“When talking about the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty, we must first mention Liaodong.

Because Liaodong is the first place to develop industry, there are many factories and workers there have high incomes. They also have more purchasing power and are willing to live in good houses.

More importantly, Liaodong has a large city scale because of its many factories.

Therefore, I ordered that 90% of the taxes in Liaodong be turned over to the national treasury. It is called national tax!

The remaining 10% is collected into the local vassal treasury and is called local tax!

Shandong, Gyeonggi, Hebei, Xi'an, and Jinling in the south of the Yangtze River all do this.

For this reason, we also issued 200 million silver dollars in war bonds, which was enough to fill the big hole in the European War.

There was a period of time in the local area where people were so poor that they could not even pay their salaries.

Even in the yamen, there was no money to buy paper. The county yamen's documents actually used bamboo slips and wooden slips.

Of course we know that the difficulties are not that difficult. These are just eye drops given by the local officials.

However, it is also true that local governments are strapped for funds and poor.

We have no choice but to delegate policies to local governments.

They were allowed to sell the land to local businessmen. Of course, we did not sell it all at once.

Instead, they sold them seventy years of use rights. Every inch of Ming territory belonged to the Ming court.

Those merchants bought land from us, built houses on the land, and then sold it to the people.

As we just said, the people in Liaodong are very wealthy. Their willingness to buy houses is also very high!

As a result, many buildings were built in various cities in Liaodong.

As a result, we found that cities with more houses were prosperous economically.

Because building a house requires masonry and cement, the masonry and cement factory is very profitable. You don’t have to worry about selling the masonry and cement produced!

For working during the day and night, the merchants gave the workers a raise in wages.

Moreover, they hired more workers.

This allows more people in the local area to have work and make money.

There are also more and more migrant workers working on construction sites.

These people farmed in the countryside when the farming was busy, and went out to work to make money during the slack time. People who were originally from ordinary families gradually became richer in a year or two.

After the house is sold, it still needs someone to decorate it. It also needs to add a lot of furniture and household items.

All told, it can support many decorators and furniture factories.

Moreover, we also found that when everyone became rich, housing prices began to rise.

Cities with large populations are not only experiencing growth, they are also experiencing huge growth.

But in cities where prices increase more, more people will buy houses.

As housing prices rise, land transfer fees also rise.

Last year, I calculated that the land transfer fee has exceeded the national tax.

In the past few years, land transfer money has been supporting the war in Europe." Li Hao slowly told Li Xiao the ins and outs of the matter.

“The government makes money by selling land, so the more expensive the house, the more expensive the land will be.

Then the local officials have the urge to drive up housing prices to the sky." Thinking of the consequences of exchanging land for money, Li Xiao shuddered.

In later generations, the high housing prices in Forty-Nine Cities made Li Xiao lack the courage to even listen. If this continues, something like that is likely to happen in this world.

Never underestimate people's greed, nor overestimate the ethics of officials.

Both of these things are extremely unreliable.

“The higher the house price, the more people will buy it.

Many people say that if you buy a house, you can buy it if it goes up or if it goes down. As long as the house price rises sharply in a place, the popularity is usually higher, and the local economy will be better.

Even taxes are much higher than before the house was built.

There are already people who are specifically buying and selling houses, and in many places, this is already a very prosperous business.

In Liaodong, the annual real estate transaction tax has reached more than 40 million silver dollars.

If this policy is promoted across the country, Commander-in-Chief, you can fight in the European War two more times without any problem."

Ai Husheng likes the current land policy very much. When Li Xiao nationalized all the land, this was a brilliant move.

Especially in places like Liaodong, whether it is building railways or roads, or demolishing and building buildings.

Because the land belongs to the imperial court, the trouble of land expropriation is much less.

High! Really brilliant!

Li Xiao has two big heads, but there is nothing he can do. A clever woman cannot make a meal without rice, and no matter how powerful Ai Husheng is, he cannot conjure money out of thin air.

During these years when I was fighting on the front line, I always asked for this or that from the rear. The rear never told Li Xiao how difficult it was financially and how difficult it was to make ends meet.

Now they have found a way to solve the problem of war funding. It will definitely be inappropriate to dispose of them if they support themselves in fighting this war.
To be continued...