As Xie Qian's words fell, the entire Jinluan Palace became silent. At this point, anyone with a discerning eye knew that regarding the issue of taxation, the opinions of the Ming Dynasty's senior officials were very consistent.
It's useless no matter how much the fourth- and fifth-grade officials below you do. Even Xie Qian, who was born in the south of the Yangtze River and has always firmly opposed the imposition of commercial taxes, can't stand up to oppose it because the situation is like this.
"Hmm~"
Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly, then glanced around the ministers, focusing on Gao Yuanlong, Qian Qi and others and said, "Do you have anything else to say?"
"Your Majesty, all the saintly kings in the past dynasties have done light corvee and paid little in taxes, resting on the people, and imposing excessive taxes and expropriations by the court, which will definitely bring about disasters. This is not what a wise king would say!"
Gao Yuanlong was very stubborn and still insisted on his own opinions. He almost pointed his nose and called Emperor Hongzhi a coward.
"Yes, Your Majesty~"
"As long as the court's taxes are enough, there is no need to levy too many taxes. In the past year, the court's tax money was only three hundred taels of silver, and the Ming Dynasty was still prosperous."
"Nowadays, the imperial court's annual tax revenue exceeds 500 million taels of silver, and all expenditures are very huge. You must know that the money and materials used by the imperial court are all the people's wealth collected from the people."
"As the saying goes, water can carry a boat or capsize it. If the imperial court continues to do this, I fear that in the future the people will not be able to bear the heavy taxes and war will be everywhere."
Qian Qi also followed up and said, it seemed as if he was really thinking about the Ming Empire and the Emperor. Those who didn't know better would think that Emperor Hongzhi was really trying to plunder the people's wealth and enslave the common people at all costs.
Woolen cloth.
"Your Majesty, this is nonsense~"
Ji Zhong, the Minister of Household Affairs, couldn't help but stand up.
If the tax bureau and the new tax system were abolished, he, the Minister of Household Affairs, would not be able to continue his work.
You must know that the current expenditure of the imperial court is very huge. Not to mention other things, the salaries and benefits of officials alone have been rising again and again, several times more than before.
Calculated based on the income of seventh-grade officials, in the past, the annual salary of seventh-grade officials was only 90 shi meters, which is about 6,400 kilograms of rice. Even though rice was more expensive in the Ming Dynasty, but after conversion, it is 5 yuan.
One pound of money, based on current prices, is actually an income of 30,000 yuan this year.
A seventh-grade official is almost equivalent to the main person in charge at the county level in later generations. His income is about 30,000 yuan a year, and he has no other income other than that.
What's even more frightening is that about 40% of the rice was not available to officials at all, and was converted into silk, cotton and other odds and ends by the emperor.
It’s nice to have something. Sometimes I just give you a treasure banknote. Everyone knows that the treasure banknote is just a pile of paper, and no one has much purchasing power at all.
This shows how low the salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty was. If you were not greedy and had no one to respect you as an official, you would have trouble even supporting your own family.
However, since the tax reform and the establishment of the tax yamen, the court's tax revenue has increased significantly. Under Liu Jin's initiative, officials' salaries have also been adjusted and increased many times.
Those who should have made rice in the past continued to make rice. Now, the county magistrate of the seventh grade can get 500 shi of rice a year. And because of the bumper harvests in recent years, the food is extremely abundant. The food harvested by the court is very sufficient, so this part
Rice is distributed in full.
In addition to rice, there are also many physical items such as cloth, silk, tea, etc. Officials of the seventh grade can receive 20 pieces of cloth, 30 pieces of silk, 500 catties of tea and other physical items every year.
Thanks to the prosperous development of the Ming Dynasty and the development of capitalism and overseas colonization, these can be distributed in full. Cloth and other things are actually not valuable now, and the market price of a piece of cloth is more than 100 yuan.
In addition to these physical objects, the most important thing is of course money.
If in the past, the imperial court basically had no money to distribute to officials, it would have been a good idea to issue some treasure notes.
But now, treasure banknotes have long been withdrawn from the market, the emperor no longer prints treasure banknotes, the market has eliminated treasure banknotes, and the silver standard has been basically established.
Officials of the seventh rank can now receive an annual salary of five hundred taels a year. This income can be said to be quite high, and now that the court has money, it can pay it in full, and the money is paid by the First Bank of the Ming Dynasty.
Issued silver dollars or banknotes.
The salaries of court officials have been rising again and again, and there is nothing that can be done about it.
One is that when the court has money, it always has to find some expenses to spend the money. If it is placed in the treasury, it will be like a lump of iron and will have no effect at all.
Another thing is that the current labor cost in Ming Dynasty has increased dramatically.
With the rapid development of colonialism, the world's wealth quickly converged on the Ming Dynasty. The inflow of large amounts of silver stimulated the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty's economy, and at the same time caused the Ming Dynasty's labor force to continue to rise.
The monthly salary of ordinary workers in the Beijing-Tianjin area has basically reached 5 taels of silver. In a year, they can get more than 60 taels of silver. If it is less than 5 taels of silver a month, you will not be able to recruit people at all.
The Ming Dynasty was a vast country with a vast land, a sparse population, and a lot of wealth. How could labor not be expensive? It cost five taels of silver a month, and you had to provide food and accommodation to recruit people.
In the past, let alone five taels of silver a month, if you could only provide food and shelter, there would be a lot of people willing to do things for you. If you could give another hundred or ten taels of silver, you would definitely be a living Bodhisattva.
After all, seventh-grade officials were officially high-ranking officials in the Ming Dynasty, so their incomes could not be lower than those of ordinary people. Therefore, the incomes of court officials were also constantly rising.
After this year, there were nearly 100,000 officials in the Ming Dynasty. After this year, the salary paid to these officials, officials, government servants, etc. in the imperial court alone was almost 100 million taels of silver, which accounted for the revenue of the imperial treasury.
20% of.
If the new tax system were to be abolished, commercial taxes would not be levied, and tax bureaus would not be established as before, the imperial court would collect millions of taels of silver a year. Even if he, the Minister of Household Affairs, were sold, it would not be enough.
I went to pay salaries to officials.
What's more, the salary and benefits of these officials have been raised. It is basically impossible to lower them, and it is impossible to lower them at all, because once they are lowered, many officials will really have no way to survive.
Besides, in the past, the position of the Minister of the Ministry of Finance was a position that everyone hated. They didn’t want to be the housekeeper of the Ming Dynasty. Because there was no money in hand, you could only greet anyone who asked you for money with a bad face, so that the Minister of the Ministry of Finance often
They are all equated with iron rooster. For example, Zhou Jing, the former minister of household affairs, is known as iron rooster and Zhou Papi.
But it's different now. I hold a huge tax of 500 million taels of silver in my hands a year. It feels so good, as if I have become the God of Wealth, with endless money.
Abolition of the current tax system, abolition of commercial taxes, and abolition of tax bureaus are absolutely unacceptable!
"The taxes collected by the imperial court were basically used on major issues related to the national economy and people's livelihood. Some were used to build roads, ports, reservoirs, and dams, some were used to build schools, private schools, and some were used for disaster relief."
"The money collected every year will basically be used again, and this money will eventually flow back to the hands of the people, and it will also provide a large number of jobs for the people, and provide more jobs for factories, commercial banks, merchants, etc.
Orders, business and sales promoted the prosperity of Ming Dynasty."
"It does not mean that the money will be useless after our court collects it. This money is like the blood flowing in the Ming Empire. It needs to be continuously circulated in more areas of the Ming Dynasty, so that it can promote the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty.
."
"This is in line with the saying that taxes are taken from the people and used for the people. As important ministers of the imperial court and the pillars of the country, you don't even understand the role of taxation. Here you use clever words and wildly criticize the imperial court's taxation.
Ce, what are your intentions?"
Qian Zhong is so angry, he pointed at Gao Yuanlong, Qian Qi and others said, their beards were twisted with anger.
"You~"
"We are just discussing the matter. The money collected by the imperial court is indeed a blessing from the people."
Gao Yuanlong looked at Zhong Zhong, but he still had a tough mouth.
For people like Gao Yuanlong and Qian Qi, they are not unaware of the role of taxation, and they also know that it is necessary for the court to collect a certain amount of taxation.
However, the imperial court's imposition of commercial taxes greatly harmed the interests of the Jiangnan gentry, merchants, and big families.
In the past, because there was no business tax, the families behind these officials could quickly accumulate huge wealth through business.
Salt merchants, for example, have always been synonymous with wealth and wealth. They relied on salt, a daily necessity, to accumulate extremely huge wealth.
Another example is grain merchants, cloth merchants and tea merchants, because the land south of the Yangtze River was the most important grain-producing, cloth-producing, and tea-producing area in the Ming Dynasty. They, the great gentry and big businessmen in the Jiangnan region, would be engaged in business in related fields.
There is no need to pay taxes, and they can join forces to form a monopoly, making everyone rich.
But since the tax reform was implemented, commercial taxes were levied, and tax bureaus were established to enforce tax collection, their good days came to an end.
The salt merchants were completely wiped out and were completely wiped out by the Changlu Salt Farm under Liu Jin. In the past, these black-hearted salt merchants could sell a pound of salt for tens of yuan per pound. The key was their incomparably different salt.
A pound of salt can soak half a pound of sand into it.
Nowadays, the salt from Changlu Saltworks only costs a few cents per kilogram, and it is all high-quality snow salt. How can the salt merchants in Jiangnan compete?
As for grain merchants, tea merchants, cloth merchants, etc., commercial taxes were levied, and profits plummeted. At the same time, with the large-scale rise of factories and workshops in the Beijing-Tianjin area, cloth prices plummeted, and grains from Liaodong, Nanyang and other places flowed into the country on a large scale.
Prices plummeted, etc.
All of this suddenly made it difficult for the gentry, businessmen, and big families in the Jiangnan area, and they naturally opposed it.