All the officials had been waiting there, and the officials of Guanglu Temple shouted at the top of their lungs: "In order to practice frugality, Your Majesty will not give you a Winter Solstice banquet, and instead give the ministers half a catty of dried chili peppers, two catties of peanuts, and ten catties of sweet potatoes!"
Peanuts, sweet potatoes, and corn have been gradually promoted in Gyeonggi, but it will take another two or three years to fully popularize them.
Among them, peanuts are the most popular. They can be used as a side dish with wine. A plate of fried peanuts can last for two large pots. But the price is still a bit expensive. Last year, only wealthy families could afford it. This year, more and more farmers are planting peanuts.
, a well-off family can occasionally buy it to go with wine.
As for peppers, they were originally a specialty of Huangzhuang, and Wang Yuan also planted some in his farmland.
Two or three years after its spread, the planting area is still very small. Those who like it love it to the core, while those who don't like it don't even care.
Until the beginning of this year, Tian Qiu, the right young minister of Taichang Temple, almost swallowed his tongue after eating a plate of cold dishes at Wang Shangshu's house. Tian Qiu immediately asked for the recipe for the dish, then bought dried chili peppers at a high price, and treated the guests several times.
Since then, "You La Zi" has spread throughout Beijing official circles.
The nobles asked tenant farmers to grow chili peppers, and "spicy oil" became a condiment for the nobility. The price of chili peppers was once comparable to spices!
The miscellaneous officials of Guanglu Temple led their servants to carry the reward items, and the civil and military officials lined up to claim peppers, peanuts and sweet potatoes. The petty officials were particularly happy. Most of them had no land in the capital. If they wanted to eat peppers, they had to buy them at a high price. This time the emperor was enough
That's half a catty of reward.
You can even separate out some pepper seeds and sell them, because there are people in the market who want to buy the seeds. It is estimated that the price will plummet next year, because more and more peppers are planted, and "spicy oil" will appear in restaurants and restaurants soon.
"Zhongyuan, you're in a good mood again." Zheng Yipeng said jokingly.
Tang Xun said: "Good luck will have to wait until next year. From New Year's Day, all officials in the world will have their salaries increased by three levels. By then, there will be more pepper growers, and maybe a big spoonful of spicy oil can be added to every meal."
Zheng Yipeng laughed: "Hahahaha, Zhong Yuan has lofty aspirations."
Tang Xun and Zheng Yipeng were both Jinshi and Shujishi in the same discipline, and they were also roommates. Although one was a good friend of Wang Yuan and the other was a good friend of Yang Shen, their personal relationship had always been good.
Tang Xun smiled and said: "If all the people in the country can eat spicy seeds every day, the world will be in great peace."
Both of them now rent private houses and cannot afford maids and servants, but they still have servants.
Throwing the reward to the follower, Zheng Yipeng whispered: "After the spring begins, I may be released outside."
"Tour censor?" Tang Xun asked.
Zheng Yipeng nodded and said: "It's almost ten."
Tang Xun cupped his fists and said with a smile: "Congratulations to Brother Jiuwan!"
Zheng Yipeng said: "Don't be in a hurry to congratulate me. Brother Zhongyuan will probably go out."
"New salt law?" Tang Xun asked.
Zheng Yipeng said: "Sixty percent of the imperial censors in the imperial court will be sent to the local areas to conduct inspections to investigate the implementation of the new salt affairs."
"Salt administration" is not so easy to implement. Even if you come up with the method of pitting officials against officials, there are still countless loopholes that can be exploited.
During the Zhengde period, there was no "official salt store", and the entire sales process was divided into three parts.
Part One: After domestic merchants obtain salt imports, they go to the Salt Transportation Department in the capital to purchase salt, and then transfer it to the Salt Transportation Departments in each province through water merchants. This is the end of the legal salt selling activities of the salt merchants.
The second part: Prefectures and counties fill in the number of household registrations within their jurisdiction, obtain salt quotas based on population, organize their own manpower, and transport the salt back from the provincial salt transportation department.
Part Three: Chief Lijia organizes people to transport salt to prefectures and counties, bringing it back to their respective Lijia and selling it to the people.
The final tax is also paid based on population. Chief Lijia is responsible for collecting taxes and submits it to the prefecture and county level, the prefecture and county magistrates, and then submits it to the provincial salt tax yamen. This type of salt tax based on population is called
"Salt Banknote Class" and "Salt Banknote Silver" were still in use until the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. It was not until the end of Qianlong's reign that taxes were collected based on kilograms.
Is it rough? It’s too rough!
He actually asked Chief Li Jia to distribute official salt, and also set a quota based on population. Doesn't he force the people to buy private salt? If they don't buy private salt, the official salt quota will not be enough!
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, more than two-thirds of the salt eaten by the people across the country was private salt, which did not have to pay taxes to the court.
The officials of the imperial court naturally knew that Chief Lijia was unreliable, so during the Wanli period, "official salt shops" appeared again.
People in the county can only buy salt at the official salt store. Firstly, it makes it inconvenient for the people to buy salt, because many farmers will never go to the city; secondly, the profits are transferred to the official salt merchants. At least the official Lijia is still a little leisurely, but the merchants can.
No matter whether the people live or die. The official salt dealers in the official salt stores passed off quality products and raised the price of salt, forcing the people to buy private salt. In the late Qing Dynasty, there was even a situation where the official salt stores forced the people to rebel.
However, it would be impossible not to set up an official salt store. It was too difficult for Commander Lijia to manage, so Wang Yuan had to set up one this time.
In order to avoid monopoly, each state and county must have at least ten official salt shops. The shop owners are not allowed to have relatives within the fifth generation, and there are no officials within three generations. According to the censor, this time the inspection is mainly
This is the point. Once a falsifier is discovered, he will be directly cast into a lowly position, and those who have honors will be deprived of their honors!
The official salt store business license is renewed once every ten years, and the license renewal is organized by the patrol censor. If a problem is detected once, the patrol censor involved will be downgraded to one level; if a problem is detected twice, the involved censor will be downgraded.
The censor will be dismissed immediately!
As for "salt banknotes and silver", we no longer let officials force people to hand them over.
Prefectures and counties go to the provincial salt transportation department to get goods. There will be no quota limit in the future. You can buy them with money. The provincial salt transportation department will calculate the tax on how much goods you pick up, and the "salt banknotes" will be directly calculated in the salt price. Provincial
The salt transportation department at the provincial level, the salt education department at the provincial level, and state and county officials supervise each other, and each has its own interests. It is difficult for the three parties to collude.
If you are afraid, the provincial salt transportation department will not distribute the goods and secretly sell them as private salt. This is the most important point. Once the provincial salt transportation department restricts supply, Wang Yuan's reform will completely fail.
Therefore, the patrol censor must keep an eye on the Salt Transportation Department, and the prefecture and county chiefs are the censor's eyes. Because they know the prefectures and counties, they have interests in it. If the Salt Transportation Department has goods but does not distribute them, and secretly sells them privately, they will definitely take the initiative to give them to them.
Patrol and report to the censor.
From now on, the inspection of the censor's political achievements will mainly focus on inspecting local salt affairs.
Wang Yuan even wanted to set up a patrol censor specifically in charge of salt affairs, which did not overlap with the responsibilities of the salt inspection department. The former inspected the salt affairs of prefectures and counties, focusing on the terminal; the latter inspected the salt field salt affairs, focusing on
is the starting point.
No system is perfect. Wang Yuan can only try his best to divide interest groups and let them supervise each other for their own benefit. At the same time, he strengthens central inspections and keeps a sword high at all times to control all aspects of corruption within acceptable limits.
within.
In addition, in order to make it easier for people to buy salt in the city, carrying less than five kilograms of salt is not considered smuggling - you can find a way to organize two hundred people to transport one thousand kilograms of smuggled salt. This is completely reasonable and legal. It depends on your ability.
Can’t get your money back!
After several days of intensive discussion, the cabinet accepted Wang Yuan's suggestion and worked with the Ministry of Civil Affairs to set up a salt patrol road.
The Salt Patrol, Zhibiti Xuedao, is headed by a deputy inspector, who specializes in managing state and county salt affairs.
The salt patrol has only an office, not an inspection agency. Inspection matters are carried out by the central government's full-time patrol censor. Once a problem is discovered, the salt patrol will report it to the provincial inspection department and organize personnel to investigate. If the inspection department cannot handle it properly, the inspection department will
According to the censor, the case can be reported directly to the central government, and the three departments of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Ministry of Punishment, and the Dali Temple will jointly handle the case.
Anyway, Wang Yuan is frantically dividing local interest groups and tying ropes around their necks.
This reform content alone can generate at least four to five million taels for the central government every year. It can generate at least two million taels for the prefectures, counties, governments, and chief secretaries across the country. The prefectures, counties, governments, and chief secretaries had no money to earn before.
, whatever you get in the future will be collected for free, and the central government will increase taxes on the basis of the previous ones.
This is only the tax on terminal sales of salt, and does not include the tax on private sales of residual salt. In the past, residual salt had to be sold to the government, but in fact most of it was smuggled away. The central government had no way to collect taxes. This part of the tax revenue is at least
Several million taels. Even if there is still smuggling, and even if there is still joint corruption, there is still two to three million taels left for the central government.
The above two reforms have not even started with the taxation of salt shipments. Those things will have to wait until the emperor dies before they can be changed.
In winter, the imperial court issued a new salt law and announced an increase in official salaries.