"Tianjin alone received more than three million taels of tax silver in one month~"
"Calculating the entire Ming Dynasty, it's not too much to collect 7 to 8 million taels of silver this month. If we calculate this, wouldn't we be able to receive 7 to 80 million taels of silver in taxes a year?"
Liu Jian, the chief assistant of the cabinet, did some rough calculations with his fingers and was immediately shocked by the numbers he calculated.
This year, the tax collection amounted to 70 to 80 million taels. What is the concept of this?
You must know that the Ming Dynasty's treasury now only pays less than 6 million taels of silver in taxes a year. This is because capitalism has sprouted in recent years. Changlu Saltworks alone has to pay 2 million taels of silver in taxes a year.
If this tax money can be collected to 70,000 to 80,000 taels of silver at once, the Ming Dynasty's treasury will be unable to hold it.
"Tax tax of 70 to 80 million taels of silver?"
When everyone heard this, everyone couldn't help but slightly widen their eyes.
It’s not that I don’t know, it’s that I’m shocked.
It would be really incredible if the imperial court could really receive 70 to 80 million taels of tax money a year.
By then, I will probably have to worry about how to spend the money.
"Seven to eighty million taels of tax silver?"
Emperor Hongzhi couldn't help but widen his eyes slightly when he heard this.
Although he is very rich now, if the court can receive 70 to 80 million taels of silver a year, many things that he wanted to do but couldn't do in the past will suddenly become easy.
Money is a good thing.
Even he, the emperor, has to admit that money is not everything, but having no money is absolutely impossible.
"Your Majesty, gentlemen, judging from my estimate, it should not be difficult for the total tax bill to reach 70 million taels this year."
Liu Jin stood up and replied with a smile.
Just for Tianjin alone, it will cost more than 30 million taels of silver this year. Ming Dynasty is very big and has many overseas territories. The fleet that went to Golden Continent last year will also come back. By then, it will definitely receive a lot of money.
A large amount of tax money, calculated, the small goal of 70 million taels is very easy.
"Seventy million taels of tax silver a year~"
"It seems that we really didn't receive any taxes before~"
Emperor Hongzhi couldn't help but smile and shook his head after hearing this.
In the past, every time the commercial tax was levied, it would be opposed by both the government and the public. The revenue of the imperial court was really pitiful. In the Ming Dynasty, the annual tax revenue was less than three million taels of silver. No one would believe it.
.
Now that Liu Jin has been re-employed, the results are immediate and a huge gap can be seen immediately.
If he could receive so much tax money in the past year, Emperor Hongzhi would have accomplished many things long ago.
"Okay, it's good to have money. It's easy to do things if you have money~"
Then Emperor Hongzhi sighed, thought for a while and said: "This year I can receive 70 to 80 million taels of tax silver. Let's talk about how to spend this money."
"Silver is kept in the treasury. It is like an iron lump and is of no use. When it is spent, it is money."
After hearing Emperor Hongzhi's words, Xie Qian suddenly felt sad.
Obviously, the memorial he just submitted was in vain. To receive so much tax money in a year, not only Emperor Hongzhi, but also all the ministers in the court would immediately shut up.
There is no doubt that the imperial court needs money.
Everything you do requires money.
As for the others, they were all slightly stunned. It seemed that such a luxurious life had never happened before.
This year we collect 70 to 80 million taels of tax money. How will we spend this money?
This problem also stumped everyone all of a sudden.
In the past, I had to live my life by scratching my head, wishing I could move one penny into two pennies to spend.
Well now, the revenue of the state treasury has increased sharply. This year there are tens of millions of taels of silver. It seems that you are here to spend it, but everyone doesn't know how to spend it?
"Your Majesty, I think we can continue to repair the Great Wall to prevent foreign enemies~"
Someone thought for a while and suggested.
Building the Great Wall was almost a compulsory task for all emperors of the Ming Dynasty. As long as conditions allowed, they would build it, mainly to defend against the attacks of the northern grassland people.
But now that the northern grasslands have been conquered by the Ming Dynasty and included in the Ming Dynasty's territory, is it too redundant to continue to build the Great Wall now?
"Your Majesty, I think we can expand the size of Tailing~"
Someone else suggested that Tailing was the mausoleum prepared by Emperor Hongzhi for himself. Emperors of all dynasties would start building mausoleums for themselves from the day they ascended the throne.
For emperors who lived a long time, the mausoleums were naturally built very luxuriously, and there were many things buried with them. As for emperors who lived short lives, they often had to be buried in a hurry.
The expenditure on building mausoleums has always been a large proportion, and it is also an important expenditure in the national treasury.
The ministers, talking to each other, began to think of ways to spend money. Such a wealthy battle had never been fought before.
Liu Jin kept listening quietly with a smile on his face.
Although these ministers proposed many ideas for spending money, they did not go to the point.
Emperor Hongzhi looked at Liu Jin and immediately saw what Liu Jin was thinking. He immediately smiled and said, "Liu Jin, tell me, how should I spend this money?"
After hearing Emperor Hongzhi's words, everyone looked at Liu Jin again, wanting to hear what new things Liu Jin could say.
"Your Majesty, gentlemen~"
"The tax money of the national treasury is taken from the people and used for the people~"
"So when it comes to how to spend the money from the national treasury, the core point should still be to use it for the people."
Liu Jin thought for a while and slowly spoke.
"General treasury expenditures, we can divide them into several categories~"
"One is the expenditures and expenditures required by government officials and daily operations. We can call this part government expenditures~"
"There is also the expenditure required to maintain the Ming Dynasty's army. We can call this part defense expenditure~"
"In addition, there are expenses for supporting the royal family and relatives. We can call this part royal expenses."
"These items are now an important part of our Ming Dynasty's treasury expenditures. National defense expenditures have now been assigned to His Majesty's internal funds, so the most important expenditures now are government expenditures and royal expenditures~"
The government expenditure of the Ming Dynasty has always been very small. Comrade Lao Zhu's salary package for Ming Dynasty officials is indeed the lowest in all dynasties. This expenditure has not changed much from the founding of the Ming Dynasty to the fall of the Ming Dynasty, and has almost never been increased.
What really accounts for an increasing proportion is royal expenses.
There are too many princes in the Lao Zhu family. Hundreds of princes are like hundreds of parasites, parasitic on Ming Dynasty. Their number is constantly expanding every year.
These princes of the old Zhu family do not need to do anything and cannot do anything, so they can only continue to create people. Every time a population increases, the Ming Dynasty's treasury must provide corresponding support.
By the end of the Ming Dynasty, this expenditure alone accounted for more than one-third of the Ming Dynasty's fiscal expenditures, like an extremely heavy burden on the already stretched Ming Dynasty's finances.
After hearing Liu Jin's words, everyone nodded slightly.
The expenditures of the Ming Dynasty's treasury are actually very small, mainly because there is little silver, and more of them are collected in kind. Therefore, officials' salaries and benefits also include in kind, such as grain, cloth, silk, tea, etc.
, seven, seven, eight, eight, all kinds of things.
Anyway, there was not much money to be seen. Even at the beginning, Comrade Lao Zhu was still trying his best to issue treasure banknotes to officials. The treasure banknotes were just paper.
In the end, the treasure money was transferred to the ordinary people of the Ming Dynasty through various means. It was the ordinary people who suffered the most. Since the word "official" was used in both words, it was naturally impossible to become an official hungry.
"I believe that the imperial court's tax expenditures should be planned in detail. For example, in terms of government expenditures, its proportion of the entire expenditure should be controlled at a certain point."
"For example, the Ming government's expenditure is 10 points, which is one-tenth. Then the tax money used for government expenditure this year should reach about seven million taels of silver."
"Seven million taels of silver are used to give everyone moon rings?"
When everyone present heard this, they all couldn't help but widen their eyes.
If these seven million taels of silver were used to give out moon rings to everyone, wouldn't the annual salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty increase dozens of times?
Although everyone does not live on the salary from the court, if they can get more salary legitimately, everyone will naturally be very happy.
"Of course, I am just giving an example. The imperial court has a lot of tax revenue, so it is reasonable to give everyone a salary increase~"
Liu Jin smiled and replied.
"Yes, yes, reasonable, very reasonable~"
When the others heard this, they nodded immediately. Who doesn't like the salary increase? Everyone likes it. No one doesn't like the salary increase.
As for Emperor Hongzhi, he smiled. If we collect tax money this year, it would be okay to increase the salaries of officials. With more money, bosses can't be too stingy, right?
"Whether it is government expenditure or royal expenditure, it is difficult to reflect that this tax is taken from the people and used for the people~"
"What really reflects this is public expenditure~"
"The so-called public expenditure includes the construction of city walls, roads and bridges, as well as the construction of river dams, reservoirs and the like. Only these can the common people feel that the taxes they pay are used for them.
on the body."
"Similarly, these expenditures can also promote the greater prosperity of our Ming Dynasty."
"For example, now that our court has money, we can build large-scale cement roads throughout the Ming Dynasty to facilitate transportation in various places. Once the roads are built, everything will be easier and simpler."
"For another example, we can open a group of public schools across the country. The imperial court will fund the construction of the schools, hire teachers, uniformly print textbooks, uniformly teach content, and charge a nominal fee, so that more people can
