Chapter 1417, it is difficult to collect taxes in Jiangnan
In a workshop of Caiyun Textile Factory in Beijing, Liu Jin and Wang Shouren were inspecting the production conditions of the workshop and chatting.
Both of them took the imperial examination in the same year, Liu Jin was the number one scholar, and Wang Shouren was the top pick. Now, many years later, Liu Jin has become the Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and Wang Shouren has now reached the third rank of officialdom. He is the tax governor of Jiangnan and the governor of the Jiangnan region.
tax collection matters.
The Jiangnan Tax Governor was established after Liu Jin reformed the Ming Dynasty's taxation. Because a special tax office was established, the tax office was directly under the jurisdiction of the Ming Household Department and was not subject to the jurisdiction of local officials. Therefore, some high-level tax officials were also set up accordingly.
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The Jiangnan Tax Governor is one of them, and is in charge of tax collection work in the entire Jiangnan region.
Both of them were named on the gold medal list at the same time, and they were both young and promising. They had already become important ministers of the imperial court, and they often exchanged letters.
This time, officials from all over the border areas came to Beijing to report on their work. Wang Shouren, as a third-rank official, also wanted to go to Beijing to report on his work and talk about his tax work in the Jiangnan area in the past few years.
"Old Wang, your textile factory has been doing really well in the past few years. It has now become the leader in the textile industry."
Liu Jin looked at the extremely busy workshop in front of him. Caiyun Textile Factory has always been the benchmark for the Ming Dynasty's textile industry. It was the first to be established, the first to use new textile machines and looms, the first to use steam engines, and the first to mass-produce ready-made garments.
factory.
Because ready-made clothing has gradually become more popular in recent years and has a tendency to replace the original cloth, Caiyun Textile Factory has also become the first company to take the cake. It has developed extremely rapidly and its scale is also very large.
Nowadays, there are not only large-scale factories in Beijing and Tianjin, but also branch factories in Wang Shouren's hometown of Zhejiang, as well as branches in Songhu, Xiyu, Hebei and other places.
The combined number of factories employs more than 100,000 people, the total annual production value exceeds 20 million taels of silver, and the profit exceeds 5 million taels of silver. It is definitely a hen that lays golden eggs.
At that time, it was just a textile factory established by Wang Shouren to experiment with an idea in his mind. Now it has become the most important industry in the hands of the Wang family.
In comparison, the land, houses, and shops owned by the Wang family in Zhejiang were extremely insignificant. Of course, the Wang family has also invested heavily in many new industries over the years.
Plantations in Nanyang, pastures in the Western Regions, Hezhong, and Nanyun Province, plantations, wineries, firms engaged in maritime trade and transportation, cement factories, shipyards, etc., have investments in many fields, and the scale is very large, as if
It has become one of the representatives of Ming Dynasty’s new capitalism.
But the Caiyun Textile Factory is still very important to the Wang family, because it can bring huge cash flow and considerable profits. In comparison, other industries are much inferior, and together they are not as good as the Caiyun Textile Factory.
"It is because of the prosperity of our Ming Empire that we have achieved the achievements we have today."
Wang Shouren smiled and said modestly.
He is a person who is very good at learning and thinking. To him, building such a huge textile factory seems to be a very trivial matter.
Of course, Liu Jin, who came from a later generation, knew very well how powerful the man in front of him was. Compared with his other achievements, this was really insignificant.
"How do you feel about going to Jiangnan to governor Jiangnan Taxation?"
Liu Jin smiled. When he was with Lao Wang beside him, Liu Jin always felt that he was weak and had no choice. Anyone who was with such an awesome person would be the same.
Fortunately, I have become good friends with Lao Wang over the years, and we can chat with each other very well.
"My impression is that it is difficult to collect taxes in Jiangnan!"
"It's not just difficult to collect, it's very difficult to collect. Even if the tax bureau uses force to collect taxes, it's still very difficult and the resistance is huge."
Wang Shouren sighed without even thinking about it.
"Tell me in detail~"
Liu Jin nodded slightly. It was precisely because it was difficult to collect taxes in the Jiangnan area that he sent Lao Wang there. It would be useless to send ordinary officials there, and only Lao Wang could do it.
"First of all, officials in the Jiangnan area, right up to the chief envoy, governor, etc. are unwilling to cooperate with the work of our tax yamen, and even go against our tax yamen."
"We are tax agents who arrest people. We are the servants of government offices. The agents are one step ahead of us to cause trouble. When we arrest people, they let them go."
"It has brought great obstacles and troubles to the work of our tax office."
"The second is the private schools in the Jiangnan area. There are many academies and there are many people who have studied there. Even ordinary people can tell you about the frivolous corvee and the lack of riches."
"They are very resistant to paying taxes. Coupled with the strong clan power, the deliberate propaganda of big businessmen, big gentry, officials, etc., they slandered our tax yamen as taking money from the people, so they treated the officials of our tax yamen.
The police and so on have very big prejudices.”
"So much so that sometimes our officials and police officers will have rotten eggs thrown at them when they walk on the street, they will be refused to eat in restaurants, and they will suffer pressure from many aspects."
"As a result, many tax officials, police officers, etc. chose to resign because they could not bear the pressure."
"There are also groups of tax resisters. All merchants, factories, workshops, firms, etc. in an entire county or a state capital resist taxes together and refuse to pay taxes."
"Tax evasion and tax evasion are also very serious at the port. A large number of smuggling phenomena have occurred in many places. Our tax bureau lacks maritime power and often has no way to deal with these tax evasion ships."
Wang Shouren also began to talk in detail about his tax affairs as the governor of the Jiangnan region.
The taxes in Jiangnan area are really uncomfortable.
The big families, gentry, and businessmen in the Jiangnan area who have always been accustomed to not paying taxes are full of resistance to paying taxes and have come up with various ways to refuse to pay taxes, so that there have been many incidents in Jiangnan.
People attacked the tax office.
Wang Shouren was fighting with these big families, big gentry, and big businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River, using all kinds of martial arts, seventy-two transformations and so on.
The results are also quite good. South Zhili can now turn over nearly 100 million taels of silver a year. However, compared with North Zhili, it is only half of that of North Zhili. Obviously, the gap is huge, and there are still many people who evade taxes.
Tax evasion and refusal to pay taxes.
His words also made Liu Jin fall into deep thought.
More than half of the officials in the Ming Dynasty's officialdom have always come from the Jiangnan area. Since ancient times, the Jiangnan area has been prosperous and the wealthy Jiangnan area has attached great importance to education. There are countless private schools and academies, and a large number of talented people, scholars and officials have emerged.
Their influence in the court was very great, and they always influenced the development of the Ming Dynasty.
These officials who came from the Jiangnan area were themselves from big families, big businessmen, and big gentry in the Jiangnan area, and they had inextricably linked relationships.
These big businessmen, big families, big gentry, etc. in the Jiangnan area often have extremely huge industries. In addition to a large number of fields, like in the past, the Ming Dynasty's textile industry, salt industry, tea industry, grain and many other important industries
The industry is controlled and monopolized by these people in the Jiangnan area.
Therefore, they have been firmly opposed to taxation from the beginning. The court can have no money, the treasury can starve to death, and the emperor can be extremely poor, but they must not levy business taxes and cannot touch their cake.
Once someone talks about levying commercial taxes, they will immediately be opposed and even attacked by officials from the Jiangnan region.
Ma Wensheng, the former Minister of War, felt that the border defenses were declining, military supplies could not be guaranteed, and armaments were depleted. As a result, the Tatars invaded for consecutive years, repeatedly blocking the border and plundering the border residents.
However, the Ming Dynasty's treasury was empty and there was no money to build the army, so he suggested to Emperor Hongzhi to levy commercial taxes to increase the revenue of the treasury.
However, it was immediately met with strong opposition from officials in the Jiangnan region headed by Xie Qian, and in the end it was abandoned. The Ming treasury was still out of money, the border troops were still in trouble, and the court still had to worry about border defense every year.
But the salt merchants, tea merchants, cloth merchants, grain merchants, etc. in the Jiangnan area are all very rich. The fireworks and the huge sums of money spent on them are just water for them. There are countless flower boats on the Qinhuai River, rouge and gouache.
Drifting for dozens of miles.
This is the phenomenon in the Jiangnan area, and it is also a major drawback that has always existed in the Ming Dynasty.
From the rich merchants, gentry, and big families in the Jiangnan area, it would be difficult for you to collect even a penny in taxes. The imperial court's tax revenue mainly came from poor farmers in poor areas.
Local officials do not even know how to levy taxes, because this will not only be opposed by the local gentry, making it difficult for them as officials, but they are also inextricably related to these people, and it is impossible to levy taxes.
own taxes.
Had it not been for the fact that Emperor Hongzhi severely weakened the power of scholars in the Jiangnan area through several severe attacks on officials from Jiangnan, Liu Jin's tax reform in the Ministry of Household Affairs, the introduction of commercial taxes, and the establishment of tax yamen would not have been possible.
Don't even think about it.
Even now, Emperor Hongzhi can still receive countless memorials to impeach the tax yamen, demanding that the tax yamen be abolished, commercial taxes be abolished, and the government should not compete with the people for profit.
The demise of the Ming Dynasty, analyzed from an economic perspective, was actually a matter of money.
The court had no money, so it couldn't do anything. It couldn't build up the army, and it couldn't afford disaster relief.
Rich businessmen and gentry do not have to pay taxes and cannot receive taxes from them. They live in a state of dissipation and wealth. The poor people who have no money cannot even survive, but they have to bear the huge taxes of the entire country.
Even if there is no foreign invasion, if this continues, the Ming Dynasty will perish.