Chapter 872 Increase revenue and reduce expenditure
Gu Tingye married the first wife of a wealthy family, and it would be no surprise if he did not live a good life with his wife.
Gu Laoer's original intention in marrying his wife was not to lead a normal life. To Gu Tingye, his first wife was just a decoration.
Having a noble wife at home would help Gu Tingye not lose face in the aristocratic circle.
After marrying his first wife, Gu Tingye also had a status. He could start taking concubines normally and find a way to bring his concubine Mannian into the Hou Mansion.
Marrying into the family has accomplished most of the purpose. Of course, Gu Tingye will not waste more time on Rong Feiyan.
The couple had no relationship at all, and Gu Tingye wanted his wife to accept his extramarital affair and have an illegitimate child.
It's not necessarily the case that Gu Laoer was kicked out of the house by his wife because he wanted to let his wife in.
Sheng Hong shouldn't let Sheng Changbai take a warning, he should warn himself.
Sheng Hongcai, like Gu Tingye, was fascinated by the scheming green tea girl and was in a trance.
Or maybe Sheng Hong was worried that the Sheng family's ancestral tradition of doting on concubines and killing wives was too deep-rooted.
I am afraid that I may inherit Sheng Changbai, so I should vaccinate Sheng Changbai in advance.
After reading the letter, Sheng Changbai felt relieved when he learned that Qi Heng was engaged and Gu Tingye was married.
As long as these two people have no chance and don't worry about the Sheng family sister, the Sheng family will have no big trouble.
Reply to the old lady and Minglan and let them live in Youyang with peace of mind.
Let me remind you two that the world is not that peaceful. Pay more attention to safety. When you go out to play, don't forget to bring extra people.
I wrote back to Sheng Hong and Wang Ruofu from Bianliang to reassure them that their colleagues reminded them to be more careful about the situation in Bianliang.
At this time when the battle for the crown prince is heating up, be cautious and take good care of your family, and don't let your family get involved and be used as cannon fodder.
Last time, Sheng Hong was regarded as a soft persimmon by the old emperor, a model of authority.
If the old emperor hadn't been kind, Sheng Hong would have been relegated to some corner to eat dirt.
…
After the summer broadcast, everything came to an end for the time being, and Sheng Changbai finally had a period of leisure.
You can live a comfortable life in which you can go to the General Court every day to have a cup of tea and check in, and then skip work and go home if you have nothing to deal with.
You can truly enjoy the decadent life of some officials in feudal society.
I also have time to attend some literary gatherings, banquets for gentry, and temple fairs.
Every day I just eat, drink, watch songs, dances, and operas, and my little life is quite nourishing.
Although Xuzhou's entertainment industry is not as good as Bianliang's, it still has its own unique features.
For Sheng Changbai, who has enjoyed modern entertainment, these entertainments only have one atmosphere.
Although there are many things that Sheng Changbai can intervene in in Xuzhou City, such as urban construction, military defense, education and education, case review, market rectification, etc.
But Sheng Changbai always wanted to leave certain rights and things to do for the magistrate. Sheng Changbai had already intervened in the most important agricultural production, tax collection, and public security maintenance.
It's not good to interfere in other matters if you are not satisfied.
Huang Zhizhou is not a fool, Huang Zhizhou can handle these things well.
It cannot be said that the processing is perfect, but it is also on a good level.
"Shengjing, our state school in Xuzhou has been built for 30 to 40 years. Now the school building is in disrepair and is in a state of disrepair. Can it be repaired and expanded? If the state has plenty of money and food, will it be a subsidy for the students in the state?
Improve it?"
When Sheng Changbai was doing something, he needed to consult with Huang Zhizhou.
When Zhizhou wanted to do something, he couldn't do without Sheng Changbai, the general judge.
Unless Zhizhou doesn't need to spend money to do things, he can still do things more independently.
Whenever money needs to be spent, it has to go through Sheng Changbai, the general judge who has control over the entire state's money and food supply.
In addition to being able to directly report to the emperor, the biggest key to the Tongpan's ability to restrict the magistrates is to control financial power.
"Yes, but repairing the state school buildings and increasing subsidies for students are good deeds, but they cost a lot of money. Ming Gong can mobilize the wealthy squires and ask them to also contribute, so that some of the students from the state school pass the exam.
After becoming a Jinshi, I will remember their good deeds."
During this period of time in charge of finance in the city, Sheng Changbai understood why so many officials liked to take care of the squires and wanted to get involved with them.
Although there is a lot of money and food in the state government, if you want to do things, you have to spend money everywhere.
Compared with the various needs of the state, the financial situation of the state government is still quite difficult.
Therefore, if you want to do more things, you must plunder the wool from the big players.
Even for officials who don't want to do anything, it is necessary to have good relations with the gentry and wealthy businessmen.
When we encounter any natural or man-made disasters and need relief or compensation, we cannot do without these people.
"Sheng Pan, the nursing home and Anjifang in the city have been short of funds for a long time. The director has been asking the state government to apply for it. Is it possible to allocate some money?"
"Alternatively, let them hand over the account books for the past two years first. After the review is approved, I will appropriate the funds as appropriate."
These places are all charitable institutions belonging to the Zhou Dynasty, and they are the places where corruption is most likely to occur.
There is no way to get in or out of these places. No matter how much money is allocated, there is no bottom line. Of course, Sheng Changbai must investigate corruption first before allocating money.
There were actually quite a lot of various welfare and charity organizations in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and they basically covered all aspects.
There are Futian Yuan, which adopts beggars, disabled people and orphaned elderly people, Anjifang and Huimin Pharmacy, which provide medicine and medicine, Luzeyuan, which is responsible for burials, Juzicang, which specializes in the adoption of abandoned infants and orphans, and Salesian Hospital.
Bureau and Infant Bureau. There are Guanghui warehouse and Changping warehouse responsible for famine relief.
The benevolence and righteousness of the old Zhao emperor did not only exist in words.
It's not just because of the favor to the scholars. The scholars have the right to speak and help the emperor of the Zhao family to flatter him.
The charitable institutions of the Great Zhou Dynasty were larger and more complete than those of all previous dynasties.
Emperor Zhao's willingness to run these charitable organizations can be seen from his benevolent attitude towards the people.
But how it can be implemented at the local level depends on local finances and the specific operations of officials.
"Sheng Pan, a section of the northern city wall collapsed due to rain some time ago. It needs repairs, and a batch of money and food needs to be allocated."
"Sheng Juan, the Hunan Army still needs to allocate some more supplies, money and food."
Managing finances is still a headache, but Xuzhou's economy is actually not bad.
However, the state government has too many things to manage, and its finances are far from sufficient to meet all the needs within its jurisdiction.
Although things can be handled slowly according to priority.
However, things related to the state government are all related to people's livelihood, and it is not easy to postpone anything.
Sheng Changbai still wanted to spend a lot of money in Xuzhou, but he saw that the warehouses, money, grain, and various materials he managed were getting less and less.
Sheng Changbai's leisurely days became increasingly unsettling.
When finances are insufficient, there are only two measures: increasing revenue and reducing expenditure.
Sheng Changbai is working on cutting costs and is trying to streamline things as much as possible, but it is obvious that many places cannot be streamlined.
The most appropriate way is to open source. If the government wants to open source, the most direct way is to collect taxes.
Increasing land tax means deducting money from farmers.
Sheng Changbai had just made the farmers feel a little more relaxed during the summer tax collection. Of course, it was impossible to increase the field tax.
Miscellaneous taxes are also a temporary solution, but the Hotan tax is still the same. It deducts money from the poorest civilians and farmers, and Sheng Changbai cannot do it.
If you can use your brain, only commercial taxation has some future.
In order to prosper the economy, we cannot directly think of ways to deal with tax rates.
We can only rely on increasing the total economic output and increasing taxes.
Sheng Changbai fights against bandits and gangsters who bully the underworld. They are all making efforts in this regard.
It takes time to increase commercial tax revenue, and it won't bring much revenue for a while.
The second source of income for the government is various government-run enterprises.
After the founding of the Zhou Dynasty, it has always been surrounded by enemies on all sides, and military expenditures have been huge.
The court's tax revenue has always been in a situation where it cannot make ends meet.
In order to increase income, later emperors came up with the idea that the treasures of mountains, seas, heaven and earth, and the gathering of goods in the market should not be allowed to be profited by merchants alone, but should be returned to the state for monopoly sales to help finance the country.
As a result, a large number of government-run enterprises were established. All the most profitable products were banned and could only be monopolized by the government.
All fools know that monopoly business makes money. None of the previous emperors of the Zhao family were fools. They were all smart men who had received royal education and could stand out among their brothers in the battle for the throne.
Of course, we know that monopoly businesses make money. When the policy was first introduced, it did greatly increase the revenue of the national treasury.
But after a long time, supervision was unfavorable, and various problems were exposed.
In these enterprises, producers lack enthusiasm, poor management, serious losses and waste, overstaffing, and high operating costs. The products are of poor quality, high prices, lack of competitiveness, and unsalable backlog.
Various reasons have led to the fact that these monopoly companies have basically become money-losing companies.
Everyone understands why this situation is caused, and everyone has seen how a government-run monopoly company can lose money.
These government-owned enterprises were originally designed to increase revenue for the country, but now they are losing money if they don't make any money.
Of course the emperor couldn't stand it and wanted to make rectifications, but these enterprises had become too big to be eliminated and had too many shortcomings that were difficult to recover from.
The emperor then decided to re-contract these enterprises to private operators.
This is the most distinctive "buying and fighting" system of the Zhou Dynasty.
In the beginning of the maipu system, taxes on wine, vinegar, ponds, markets, ferries, etc. were calculated by the government and contracted by merchants. The one with the highest price won and the right to tax was sold.
In the future, the scope of buying and selling will expand, and various government-run enterprises will be handed over to private contractors after they suffer operating losses.
After private contracting, these companies began to make huge profits again, which can only be described as "miraculous".
Today, there are not many government-run enterprises in Xuzhou City, and the management rights of various monopoly businesses have been contracted out, so this approach is not feasible.
If it was to start a business to make money, Sheng Changbai might as well set up his own business and leave it to a big house to run it, so that Sheng Changbai could use the money he earned more freely.
The remaining major source of income for the government is government land, and for almost the same reason as government-owned enterprises, even after government land is leased, normal output cannot be achieved.
Even because of the official land, the government did not pay land taxes. The land taxes belonging to the official land fell on the tenants who rented the land, which was not friendly to the tenants.
The court dealt with the official land more decisively and cleanly. They did not use the contracting system and directly sold a large amount of farmland that originally belonged to the government to individual landlords.
There are not many official lands that still belong to the government in Xuzhou, including some Futian that supports the expenses of charitable organizations, salary fields that provide daily expenses for state schools and county schools, and the job fields of officials like Sheng Changbai.
Looking at the entire country, a large number of states and counties have not reserved the jobs subsidized to officials.
The government directly converts it into money and grain, and distributes the income that originally belonged to officials' "job fields" to officials.
In some cases where homes were confiscated and property was confiscated, the government would no longer retain the property and would sell it as soon as possible.
There is no official land in the hands of the government anymore, and the way to increase income from the land can be said to be directly cut off.
The government has blocked the way to increase income.
It’s no wonder that when the imperial court ran out of money, it thoughtlessly increased taxes and levies, levied excessive taxes, and exploited the people.
Sheng Changbai thought about it for three days, but he couldn't think of any good way to quickly increase the income of the state government.
Now that the government government is short of money, Sheng Changbai can only choose to kill a group of "fat pigs" to add a quick sum of money to the government government treasury.
"Liu Tao, how is the plan to lure, win over, and divide those large groups of bandits and water bandits to surrender?"
The fat pigs here in Xuzhou belong to the government, that is, some country squires, wealthy businessmen, and bandits.
Squire, wealthy businessman, Sheng Changbai has not found anyone suitable for slaughter yet.
You can't just pick on a small thing and copy someone else's whole family.
According to the laws of the Zhou Dynasty, the crimes committed by these gentry and wealthy businessmen were within the scope of the crimes that could be compensated by fines.
It may be somewhat unfair to directly confiscate someone's home.
In contrast, choosing to use the stolen money from bandits to subsidize the state government's finances is certainly not unfair to these people.
"Sir, after being sealed off for such a long time, most of the bandits in the village have been dispersed. It's almost time to start entering the stronghold to suppress the bandits, otherwise the bandit leaders may flee with their belongings. Although the escaped bandit leaders,
After leaving Xuzhou, we can be considered successful in suppressing the bandits in Xuzhou."
It is not easy for these bandits and water bandits to find a place that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. It is not easy for them to use it as their lair, but they will not escape easily.
If you lose the village, you will also lose the house you worked so hard to build, the land you cultivated, and most of the people you gathered.
Leaving the familiar Xuzhou, these people also lost the advantage of being familiar with the geographical location.
Even if he really wanted to escape, Sheng Changbai still blocked the traffic. It would not be easy for these bandit leaders to escape with their belongings. The currency of the Zhou Dynasty was still a small amount of gold and silver. Most of them used copper coins, and the currency usually weighed seven.
Eight pounds.
One thousand guan of money is equivalent to three or four tons, and it is far from convenient to carry. If these people want to escape, it basically means giving up most of the looted money.
"Needless to say, even if these ruthless bandits escaped from Xuzhou, they are unlikely to be good citizens. It would be my fault to let the bandit leaders escape and then gather people to invade other places. I arranged for the leaders to lead the archers into the mountains.
, start attacking the stronghold, and be sure not to let the bandit leader escape."
