After the Guogong Pi is repaired, the new irrigated fields will be used as Li Zhi's private fields and will be leased to local poor tenant farmers for farming.
Although Li Zhi has not yet equalized the land tax in Shandong, no local official dares to collect more land tax from the private fields of the Duke of Jin. Li Zhi has already informed the local officials that the annual land tax for these new fields is per mu.
Six liters of wheat. In fact, if Li Zhi equalized all the land tax in Shandong and did not increase the land tax, the land tax per mu would be about six liters per year.
In fact, even if Li Zhi did not pay the land tax, the local officials had nothing to do with Li Zhi. But Li Zhi thought about equalizing the land tax every day, so of course he had to set an example and pay the land tax, otherwise he would have to follow his example.
Li Zhi charged 30% of the land rent to the peasants who farmed their own land. Based on the average yield of one stone of wheat per mu, excluding the land tax, Li Zhi could get two buckets and four liters of income per mu of land. Two hundred and seventy thousand acres of new land.
Tian, this works out to a net income of 65,000 shi of wheat per year, worth 160,000 taels of silver.
Li Zhi did the math and asked Chao Jing Yishan: "How much labor and materials were used to develop these new fields?"
Jing Yishan was promised a reward of two hundred taels of silver by Li Zhi, but he was more cooperative than before and replied: "This Guogong Pi used 35,200 people to work for three months, cement, stone and other materials, which cost a lot of money."
Eighty-seven thousand taels of silver."
Li Zhi turned around and asked the ambassador of the shogunate's tax department, "Good friend, how much money is this?"
Xie Liangyou does tax statistics every day, and his calculation ability is very strong. He handed over his hand and said: "My lord, the labor cost plus material cost is 150,000 taels."
Li Zhi nodded. The cost of building this irrigation reservoir can be recovered with one year's land rent. By the way, when building the project, the labor cost was included in the project, allowing the people to work for relief, and also reduced the cost of disaster relief.
No matter how you look at it, developing water conservancy and reclaiming new fields is a sure-profit business.
However, this situation was only true for Li Zhi. The late Ming Dynasty was in political chaos, and local bureaucrats and gentry were eyeing him. The people were afraid that others would care about them even if they had a few acres of fertile land, let alone develop new fields through water conservancy.
If a person without power comes to organize a water conservancy project, I am afraid that before the project is completed, the new land will be divided up by landowners with various names. As for the powerful people, they will try their best to take away the good land from the people.
If you can go bankrupt and annex the people's fertile land, you can directly benefit, so why bother to engage in water conservancy in a big way? If you really create a lot of fertile land, other gentry and powerful people will come up to share a piece of the pie.
In a society with political corruption and disorder, interests are distributed based on power rather than contribution. In such an interest pattern, no one is willing to contribute, and everyone is focused on dividing the existing cake. In the end, the cake will only get bigger and bigger.
Coming smaller and smaller.
A person like Li Zhi who worked hard to make the cake bigger, armed with strong soldiers and defended it to the death, and did not try to snatch the cake from the powerless people, was just an isolated example in a society like the late Ming Dynasty.
However, the seventeenth century is no longer a closed era. The Manchus, Western colonists, and even the southwest ethnic minorities are all eyeing the decadent Han society. If the Han people do not manage their cakes well and make the country bigger and stronger, they will be enslaved by aliens.
The history must be told and staged.
Whether it is for himself or for the nation, Li Zhi must persevere as an isolated example.
Li Zhi nodded and then helped the thin young man on the ground.
Xie Liangyou thought for a while and said: "My lord, these farmers who share our new fields can harvest fourteen shi of grain per person per year, which is equivalent to thirty-five taels of silver. These people previously only had an income of eighty taels a year.
, Jiu Shi, life has suddenly changed drastically... Is the land rent we charge too low? In my opinion, even if we charge 10% more land rent, it is not an exaggeration at all."
Li Zhi said with a smile: "Thirty-five or two years of income is nothing. It only allows a family to have food and clothing, but it cannot be well-off. I am determined to let the people under my rule live a good life. In the future, I will let Tianjin
When all the people in Shandong and Shandong become rich, of course they cannot charge high land taxes. They will charge 30% of the land rent."
Xie Liangyou held up his hands and said: "My Lord is kind and virtuous, and the people of Shandong and Tianjin are blessed!"
Li Zhi inspected the construction site for a while and then asked Zheng Hui: "How many new fields can be cultivated in Shandong this year?"
Zheng Hui said: "We have planned eight projects like Guogongpi, but the scale is slightly smaller. After all are completed, we will have 1.1 million acres of new land. Excluding the land tax, the annual land rent income alone will be
More than six hundred thousand taels of silver."
More than six hundred thousand taels of silver is not a small number, and it can greatly enrich Li Zhi's finances.
Li Zhi patted Zheng Hui on the shoulder and said: "Zheng Hui, after the project in Shandong is successfully completed, I will report to the court and promote you to the rank of Marine Vice Admiral!"
When Zheng Hui heard this, his face flushed with excitement.
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On the fifth day of October, all prefectures, prefectures, counties, and Tianjin public tax offices in Shandong opened their doors one after another.
Like the tax offices in Tianjin, these tax offices are also built by purchasing and renovating houses in busy cities. The basic principle of tax offices is that merchants file their own taxes, and the tax office levies taxes according to the business volume declared by the merchants, with a tax rate of one for thirty. Of course
, businessmen often take desperate measures to evade taxes. Each tax office has a large number of tax accountants who serve as supervisors to randomly check the turnover of merchants.
Li Zhi stationed 150 tax accountants in each prefecture, 100 tax accountants in each state, and 50 tax accountants in each county. The daily job of these tax accountants is to visit vendors' business locations and verify whether the vendors' actual turnover is truthful.
declare.
If a businessman is found to be evading taxes, he will be severely punished in accordance with the principle of a fine of five for one evasion. If the tax evasion exceeds one hundred taels, the tax evader will be handed over to the Tianjin Public Court for punishment.
Li Zhi looked through the account books at the Jinan Tax Office and asked Xie Liangyou: "How much will the accounting staff spend this year?"
Xie Liangyou sniffed and said seriously: "My lord, in order to cover Shandong Province, we have hired 5,637 accountants. The monthly salary of these accountants, site maintenance expenses and various miscellaneous expenses are all.
It costs three hundred thousand taels per year."
Xie Liangyou shook his head and said: "There is a severe drought in Shandong this year. The farmers are relying on Tianjin Government's disaster relief and have no money to buy goods. Shandong's economy is very depressed. It is estimated that this year, Shandong will only receive more than 60 yuan in commercial taxes.
Wan Liang."
Li Zhi said: "Isn't that a net income of only more than 300,000 taels?"
Xie Liangyou nodded heavily and said: "My lord, this is indeed the case. But next year the farmers will have profits, and the situation will be greatly improved. It is estimated that next year, the business tax will be 1.6 million taels.
