On July 16, Li Zhi led the tax collectors to collect land taxes from the Jin gentry's house named Cao in Jinghai County.
By mid-July, Li Zhi had collected the tax records and fish scale albums of one prefecture, two prefectures, and twenty counties in Tianjin from major yamen, and clarified the tax relationship in Tianjin. Relying on these documents and field investigations, Li Zhi could
Taxes were collected from the gentry and farmers in Tianjin Town.
The tax system of the Ming Dynasty was very complicated. Generally speaking, land taxes were divided into summer taxes and autumn grain taxes. Generally, summer taxes could not be collected beyond August, and autumn grain taxes could not be collected beyond February of the following year. In the early Ming Dynasty, land taxes were collected mainly in kind, but also in banknotes, money,
Gold, silver, silk, cloth. The payment of wheat and rice is called the original color, and the payment of gold, silver, money, banknotes, cloth, silk and other items is called the discount. However, after the reform of the Wanli Dynasty's whip method, the land tax
The main method was to pay taxes, that is, to hand over silver as taxes and servitude. However, the one-whip law was not fully implemented, and some land taxes were still paid in the form of natural grain.
Although during the Hongwu period, the central government of the Ming Dynasty set the standard of five liters and three liters per mu per year for official land and three liters and three liters per mu per year for private land, this standard was only a minimum tax standard and was not based on areas with developed agriculture.
, but based on the level that most areas can achieve. Therefore, the subject code can be changed under the principle of "small endowment".
For areas with more developed agricultural economies, due to their higher farming technology and higher labor productivity, the grain output per mu can reach a higher level. Therefore, during actual collection, a rate higher than five liters of three combined per year will be set based on the principle of "small tax".
per mu, three liters and three combined liters per mu per year.
Tianjin's tax standard during the Wanli period was four liters of wheat per mu of land.
The actual tax levels collected by each province vary due to yield per mu and various historical reasons, but once the total tax collection of each province, state, and county is determined, it remains basically unchanged. No matter how the population and the number of fields change,
Each state and county must apportion the land taxes that need to be paid to the fields throughout the state and counties every year.
Therefore, if there are many gentry who do not pay taxes in a state or county, all taxes will fall on the common people who pay land taxes.
Li Zhi organized the tax system in Tianjin this time and put one of his cousins, Xie Liangyou, in charge. Xie Liangyou is the grandson of Li Zhi’s grandmother’s sister and is considered a distant cousin. Xie Liangyou had studied for several years and originally worked in a rice shop.
He worked as an accountant there. He had known Li Zhi since he was a child. In the eighth year of Chongzhen reign, when he saw Li Zhi's rapid rise, he took the initiative to join Li Zhi and worked as an accountant under Li Zhi. After working for six years, Xie Liangyou was already a senior official.
After several years of observation, Li Zhi found that although Xie Liangyou did not have great talents, he was very principled in doing things and was not greedy for money. This time Li Zhi was collecting land taxes in Tianjin Town and needed a reliable person to take charge, so Li Zhi recommended Xie Liangyou
Arrive at the front desk and appoint him as ambassador to the Shogunate Taxation Department.
In the past few months, Xie Liangyou led the hundreds of accountants hired by Li Zhi to fight hard through the endless tax documents, and finally clarified Tianjin's tax situation.
Li Zhi rode on his horse and asked, "Liang friend, how much is the annual land tax in Tianjin?"
Xie Liangyou suffered from chronic rhinitis that cannot be cured. He sniffed, raised his hands on his horse and said: "Uncle, there are 18.51 million acres of dry land in Tianjin, most of which are civilian fields, and only 63,000 acres."
Mu is official land. According to the practice of the Wanli Dynasty, 855,000 shi of wheat must be collected from these fields."
"Of these land taxes, 37% were handed over in original form, totaling 316,000 shi of wheat. 63% were handed over in discounted form. According to the discount of one stone of wheat in previous years, which was worth 2 taels of silver, a town in Tianjin had to levy Zeseed
One hundred and seventy-seven thousand taels of silver, gold flowers, and silver."
After the Ming Dynasty government levied taxes, they melted the collected silver into special-shaped silver ingots, called gold flower silver. Of course, there was loss in the melted silver. Therefore, when the government collected Tian Fu silver, it also levied a "fire consumption"
Money. Corrupt officials bully ordinary people with no background. Sometimes the fire fee levied can even reach several percent of the regular tax.
Now that Li Zhi has hired a tax accountant to collect taxes, he will naturally not harbor evil and allow such corruption, which has greatly reduced the burden on the common people.
Xie Liangyou added: "However, in the Wanli Dynasty and this dynasty, there were three additional rates, namely Liao rate, suppression rate and Lian rate. The largest amount was Liao rate. In the forty-sixth year of Wanli, 3.5 cents of silver per mu was added to the Liao rate.
Rates. In the forty-seventh year of Wanli, an additional three and a half cents per mu was added. In the forty-eighth year of Wanli, an additional two cents per mu was added. In the third year of Chongzhen, an additional three cents per mu was added. In total, one cent and two cents per mu was added."
"In the 10th year of Chongzhen, Yang Sichang decided to set up a net on ten sides to suppress the bandits. The court increased the levy and payment of 2.8 million taels of silver for additional land. For Tianjin's fields, an additional tax of 5 cents per acre was proposed. In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Yang Sichang proposed
Increase taxes to train troops, and increase training salary by one cent per mu."
"Together, the three rates will be increased by two cents and seven cents of silver per mu, totaling 499,000 taels of silver."
"So in total, the tax paid by a town in Tianjin is 1,577,000 taels of tax and 316,000 taels of natural tax."
Li Zhi's eyes lit up when he heard the figure of 1.5 million taels per year. The land tax in this town in Tianjin is indeed huge. If done well, it will not only reduce the burden on the people, but also generate income for themselves.
Li Zhi asked: "Good friend, of the 18.51 million acres of farmland, what percent is not taxed, and what percent is taxed?"
Xie Liangyou sniffed and said: "Uncle, according to our statistics, according to the land tax receipts over the years, 40% of these fields are completely unpaid. There is no clan king in Tianjin. These fields are not paid.
The fields mainly belong to famous gentry. Another 30% of the fields are subject to normal taxes. The remaining 30% are subject to heavy taxes."
"About half of the common people cultivate thin fields and rely on carrying water for irrigation, but they are bullied by the government servants and have to pay more than three buckets of land tax. They are miserable."
Li Zhi nodded and said: "In this way, if we increase the total tax collected by 20%, spread the tax equally to all fields, and let the tax-evading gentry pay taxes, we can not only reduce the burden on the common people, but also increase some income!
"
Xie Liangyou did the math, raised his hands and said: "Uncle Shengming. Uncle has spread the land tax equally to all the fields, and the most exploited people have benefited from this. I am afraid that these poorest people will no longer suffer from hunger."
"But by collecting taxes like this, uncle can get an additional 315,000 taels of silver and 63,000 dan of natural land tax every year. This new land tax does not need to be shipped, nor does it need to be kept in the government.
Prefectures and counties can be used by uncle for free."
Li Zhi laughed and was very happy when he heard that his new tax system could help him earn so much money.
