Tang and salt were too heavy for the common people to bear
This article talks about why before the Anshi Rebellion, the salt policy reform based on the tax laws of the Middle and Tang Dynasties could never be implemented (including Liu Yan's version of the salt law: civil property, official collection, commercial transportation, and commercial sales).
This article is very important and closely related to the plot. If you just want to read the fun article, you can skip this article.
For the plot of Sogdian Brocade, I checked the information for a day or two; for the salt tax, I started from the time when I was the governor, and it took me several months to check the information alone.
From the first floor to the second floor, and then from the second floor back to the first floor. From no salt tax in the world, to "scientific tax collection", to no salt tax in the world.
I have gradually deepened my understanding of the salt tax over and over again. I should now be the first person among the authors of Qidian to study the salt tax. I once dreamed about how to collect the salt tax in the feudal era.
The reason why history is charming lies in its unchangeable and thought-provoking nature. It lies in the fact that it will return to its original essence in the end after throwing away the complicated and charming things.
Lift the veil of beauty, and the bloody essence will be revealed in front of you. This is history.
According to Shuangwen's routine, when Xiaofang grew up, he "should" have encountered the financial crisis of Tianbao in the Tang Dynasty. Xiaofang took advantage of the situation and proposed a "scientific collection of salt tax" to partially solve the financial problems of the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and at the same time "strongly" take advantage of it.
Power, this should be a "reasonable" plot.
But I regret to tell you that if the subsequent plot is written like this, this book will be useless.
This is not a spoiler, but I just want to tell you readers that I, as the starting point of in-depth research on salt tax, will not let Xiao Fang do any "salt tax that benefits the country and the people" before the chaos comes.
Why do you say this? Because the essence of taxation is that the state takes money from people's pockets and uses it where the people in power want to use it or need to use it.
Its purpose may be different, but the essence of taking money from people's pockets is the same.
The first fallacy: In the early Tang Dynasty, salt was laissez-faire. Only "intelligent" time-travelers knew that salt should be taxed.
In fact, no, the salt tax in the early Tang Dynasty was not only not laissez-faire, but even more stringent than after the Anshi Rebellion. And because there was no tax and the cost of mining salt was relatively low, a virtuous circle was formed.
Because there is no tax, the price of salt is low;
And because the price of salt is low, the government has no profit from it, turning salt into a daily necessity that is far from a commodity. Grassroots officials in the salt administration are generally relatively honest.
When the job is unprofitable, promotion becomes the only benefit. This is actually a very understandable thing.
Also, because the cost of salt in social life is almost negligible, it alleviates social conflicts to a certain extent.
The country actually didn't know that it had to collect salt tax. This kind of thing has never happened since Li Yuan was in power. It's not that he doesn't want to collect it, but he chooses not to collect it for various reasons.
The social stability in the early Tang Dynasty was indispensable to the no-salt tax policy. The time-travelers proposed "scientific tax collection" during the Kaiyuan or Tianbao years, which does not prove "outstandingness".
The second fallacy: Before the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty did not collect salt tax at all.
In fact, no, it has been operating at a "low level" since the Wu and Zhou Dynasties. Salt taxes are not only being collected, but also collected in a scientific and reasonable manner. The extent and method of tax collection are also different for salt mines or salt ponds of different natures.
Generally divided into three types:
1. In-kind tax: Salt households who rent salt wells for mining must pay 1 stone to the government for mining 3 pieces of rock salt. And this 1 stone salt will enter the Changping warehouse to supply military supplies or stabilize the market salt price.
2. Labor tax: The laborers in the salt ponds and wells mined by the government use their labor to compensate for the rent.
3. Monetary tax: Private salt wells or salt ponds are usually backed by big families and powerful people.
There is well-documented information that this tax method has been implemented since the 10th year of Kaiyuan, but the tax rate is very low. The real situation is that the tax collection time will definitely be advanced.
The third fallacy: The Tang Dynasty court were all stupid pigs, and they didn’t know how to use the salt-cutting method.
In fact, the policy makers of Datang were not only not stupid, but also knew the concepts of "trial operation" and "special economic zones". They had already conducted policy experiments on the salt law.
Then they came to a conclusion that almost made them collapse:
In the economic centers of Guanzhong and Hebei, most of the Yanchi, Yanjing and Saltworks where salt is sourced are government-run! The Salt Law is almost impossible to implement!
Specifically, these major producing areas are Hedong Salt Pond, Hebei Changlu (Cangzhou) Salt Farm, and Liangzhou Salt Pond.
The official salt pond collects taxes for itself, so where does the money come from?
If taxes are raised, the money will still indirectly push up government procurement costs. The economic game of left-hand over right-hand has no meaning in the feudal era except increasing administrative costs.
What is the essential difference between the economy of the Tang Dynasty after the Anshi Rebellion and before the Anshi Rebellion?
That's right, the Tang Dynasty lost Hebei! It lost the Changlu Saltworks, which was enough to support millions of people eating salt. At the same time, Liangzhou was captured by the Tibetans, and Hedong was also in the flames of war.
In other words, the economic prerequisite for Liu Yan's implementation of the "Scientific Salt Study Law" was that Datang lost the three main salt producing areas in the north, and the large state-owned salt fields no longer existed, and had to vigorously develop private salt fields from the Jianghuai side.
Obviously, this premise did not exist before the Anshi Rebellion.
The fourth fallacy: Before the An-Shi Rebellion, using the "scientific salt discussion method" of the Mid-Tang Dynasty, it was possible to achieve a great financial boost without harming (or less harming) people's livelihood.
This is just wishful thinking.
To understand the essence of salt tax, we must thoroughly analyze both salt and tax. Salt is the carrier of tax, and salt must have a "salt tax", but "salt tax" does not necessarily require salt.
Once you understand this problem, the rest will be easier to understand.
The reason why the Salt Law was implemented in the Mid-Tang Dynasty was actually because after the war in the Tang Dynasty, the original household registration system was completely disintegrated. In other words, there were only 10 million people in the Tang Dynasty's account books who actually paid rent, but the tax collection was still
According to 60 million people, they are collecting it!
In addition to those who died in the war, less than 20 million people simply disappeared from the accounting books and became anonymous.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! To put it more clearly, when the court had no way to rebuild the household registration, it took advantage of the iron law that "people will die if they don't eat salt" to use salt tax to make up for rent.
The mediocre losses caused those hidden households to use salt tax to pay household and local taxes.
The fundamental reason why the salt tax in the Mid-Tang Dynasty became more and more outrageous year by year is that the imperial court rebuilt the household registration system and rebuilt a new tax system based on the two tax laws, but it still collected salt taxes to death!
It is worth mentioning that in the 150 years after Hebei separated from the Tang Dynasty, a total of 4 months of the salt law were implemented. Then the tooth soldiers in Hebei agreed that they were very unhappy and it would be better to live alone, so Hebei local
It also broke away from the economic control of the Tang Dynasty and resisted the Salt Law.
After the Anshi Rebellion, the people in Hebei lived a slightly better life than people in other places. The reason is probably not too clear to explain, everyone understands it.
Back to the topic, what would happen if the Salt Law of the Mid-Tang Dynasty was implemented before the Anshi Rebellion?
It certainly doesn't matter to wealthy people bathing in salt pools, but what about the people at the bottom? Countless people will be ruined by this "inconspicuous" salt tax.
Since the mining cost of salt is only one-tenth of that after tax increases, illicit salt will inevitably become rampant. Then the court will have to form a new army (yes, think of the salt merchant Huang Chao) to combat smuggling, which will definitely cause great harm
Increase administrative costs.
People who were driven bankrupt by salt taxes would take desperate measures to sell illegal salt or join the ranks of salt merchants. Sales of taxed salt plummeted; in order to collect taxes, the court had to increase the tax rate to force more people to eat illegal salt.
This vicious cycle.
There is nothing new under the sun. During the Song Dynasty, private salt could no longer be banned, accounting for more than two-thirds of the salt used by the people. The objective laws cannot be reversed by one or two time travellers.
The duck's mouth was stiff even after it died, but it still couldn't fly into the sky.
In modern times, the government of the Republic of China handed over the management of the Changlu Saltworks to the British. The British came up with a formula that highly overlapped with Liu Yan's ideas.
Let the government salt tax be set to
The devil of the salt tax is all in the details. Even if the bulk salt is transported in sacks, it can greatly reduce the loss of salt and increase taxes without damaging the price of salt. This example has been cited in the history of salt tax.
Proven method.
The harm of high salt taxes is no less than that of rich people suffering from diabetes. This is a big topic. Since these are not the content of this article, I won’t go into details here.
Update will be sent later.
PS: If any of you travel back in time and become a powerful person, remember to be nice to the people.