Qi Tai stretched out his hand and pulled Zhang Yan to sit across from him and said, "Zhao Ji, you are opposed to Han Du's establishment of a taxation department. But we want to ask you, does this have anything to do with you?"
"What does this have to do with me? I'm not the chief of the county and chief envoy departments. However, since Han Du has been against us several times, then we can't make him happy?" Zhang Yan looked matter-of-factly. .
Qi Tai looked at Zhang Yan with burning eyes and said hintly: "So who does Zhao Ji think will be the most opposed to Han Du's move?"
"Needless to say? Of course it's those..." As he said that, Zhang Yan suddenly turned around.
Looking at Qi Tai with wide eyes, he couldn't help but ask: "Shang Li means that since this matter will offend officials all over the world, let Han Du do it?"
"Hahaha, Zhao Ji is indeed very agile. He thought of it all at once." Qi Tai smiled all over his face. His eyes suddenly looked in the direction of the Han Mansion. There was a cold wind between his teeth and he said, "Han Du is so bold. He even He dares to do such a thing. When he offends the officials of the world, I want to see how he will die! Huh!"
Zhang Yan also immediately became happy, clasping his hands and laughing, "Okay, then we'll see."
...
On the other side, Han Du received Zhu Biao's decree. As soon as they returned to the Ministry of Household Affairs, they found Wang Yuanji and Zhao Yu and asked them to prepare an official letter and send it to all provinces and counties.
Wang Yuanji found Han Du with the official letter drafted by Zhao Yu.
When Han Du saw that the person coming was Wang Yuanji, he asked, "Has the official letter been drafted?"
Wang Yuanji nodded and replied in a low voice: "Sir, it's ready."
Due to the special relationship between Wang Yuanji and Han Du, he always called Han Du "Master Hou" in front of outsiders, but in private he regarded himself as a student.
"Bring it over and show it to me." Han Du reached out towards Wang Yuanji.
Wang Yuanji quickly handed over the official letter with both hands.
Han Du took it, opened it and looked at it carefully, and felt that there was nothing wrong with it.
At this time, Wang Yuanji hesitated and said, "Sir, there is a saying that students don't know whether to teach or not."
Han Du raised his head when he heard this, looked at him with a smile, nodded and said, "If you have anything to say, just say it. Is there anything else you shouldn't talk about between us?"
"Sir, isn't there something wrong with the unified tax collection of silver?"
Han Du put the official letter on the desk, picked up the teacup and took a sip before looking at Wang Yuanji. He smiled and asked, "Why is it inappropriate to collect cash?"
Wang Yuanji immediately said: "Sir, the student's family is a farmer, so he understands the life of farmers after all. The average farmer's family has almost no money, and they all barter with each other. I use three buckets of rice, Give you a chicken, like this. In the past, taxes were collected in kind. For example, the field tax was collected on grain, and other people's taxes were also collected on the basis of color. Now that they are all replaced by silver coins and treasure notes, then the people will Things like rice and chicken need to be sold first and converted into money, and then taxes can be paid.
Students are worried that when merchants buy things from the common people, they know that the common people have to use money, so they will try their best to keep the price down! "
Wang Yuanji not only knows the lives of the people well, after all, he has lived in it since he was a child, but he also served as the governor of Old Port and has rich experience. He knows very well what kind of thing merchants are, they are a bunch of useless people who can't afford to be early.
When he spoke to his husband, his tone was relatively tactful. But in his mind, once the people all need to use money to pay taxes, then the situation he mentioned will inevitably occur. Originally, Mr. Wang's move was beneficial to the people, but he was worried that it would eventually turn into harm to the people.
Han Du put down the tea cup, folded his hands in front of his stomach, and leaned back on the chair.
He looked at Wang Yuanji with a smile and said: "If you can think of this, it means that you are truly able to stand alone. You are not wrong, this will generally happen."
Wang Yuan Jiding looked at his husband. He knew that since he had also seen this and insisted on letting people pay taxes with money, it meant that he must have a deeper reason for doing this now.
Han Du raised a finger and said: "You are not talking about one question, but three questions. Let's talk about the first one first."
"Students are all ears." Wang Yuanji immediately bowed respectfully to Han Du.
Han Du waved his hand and said, "Don't be so nervous. Come on, sit down and let's talk slowly."
Wang Yuanji sat in front of Han Du obediently.
After Han Du paused, he said: "Let's talk about the first thing first, why do I want the people to pay money? You also said that all the things collected before were in kind, and except for rice and grain, other kinds of things will have discounts. Sexy, right?”
"Yes." Wang Yuanji nodded slightly.
"Then do you know what the color is?" Han Du looked at him with a smile.
Wang Yuanji replied without hesitation: "It should be 20 to 30%."
"Two or three percent?" Han Du laughed suddenly, shook his head and said to Wang Yuanji: "Do you think this is the old almanac of that year?"
"Isn't it? Students remember that before studying, students' various colors were indeed about 20%." As for after studying, his parents were afraid of disturbing Wang Yuanji's studies, so they did not deliberately talk to him about these things. Of course I don’t know. And when he came to the capital, he was in the academy, then the court, and then the old port. Now he has even taken his family to the capital and has never gone back. Naturally, he is not very clear about this.
"If it's only 20 to 30 percent, why should I bother?" Han Du then stood up, went to the bookshelf and took out a book, handed it to Wang Yuanji, and then sat back on the chair.
"I sent people to find out this at Yingtian Mansion. This is true under the emperor's feet, let alone other places?"
Wang Yuanji quickly opened it and read it word by word. When he saw the final number, his face couldn't help but change, "There are more than twice the number of folds. How can there be so many?"
When Han Du saw this figure, he couldn't believe it. What kind of person does it take to be so cruel as to more than triple the taxes paid by the people?
"Insatiable greed, insatiable desires! Are you saying that these people have just imposed such heavy taxes on the people, and they won't skin them and eat them in the future?"
Wang Yuanji read it again and again, and finally put the booklet on the desk, and said to Handu: "What we are doing now is the right thing to do. If we don't unify taxes now, I'm afraid it will really lead to no ending in the future."
Han Du nodded and continued: "Let's talk now about why I want people to pay taxes with silver money. First of all, there is an advantage to paying taxes in money, that is, it can avoid such troubles as getting wet and kicking, and the amount of money is as much as it should be. , no one can charge an extra penny."
Wang Yuanji nodded repeatedly after hearing this, and added: "Sir, students think that collecting taxes is not enough to collect money."
"Oh?" Han Du glanced at Wang Yuanji in surprise, "Then what do you think we should accept?"
"Collecting treasure banknotes!" Wang Yuanji said solemnly, "There will still be fire costs when collecting treasure banknotes. There is no fire cost when collecting treasure banknotes. No one can even think about taking a penny."
"Yes, there is progress!" Han Du gestured towards Wang Yuanji appreciatively.
But what Han Du was thinking was, Mom, why didn't I think of collecting the treasure money? I am still thinking about the cashier, and the cashier still involves the issue of fire consumption.
The reason why there is fire consumption is because the silver in the hands of the people now is of different purity, weight, new and old, different sizes, etc. Have you ever seen people carrying a pair of scissors with them when using silver? Do they use scissors to cut off the silver when they need it? Cut as much as you need.
This will cause the originally intact silver to be cut into small pieces.
After the government received such silver, it needed to be resmelted and cast into silver ingots. The smelting process will inevitably involve losses. Coupled with the charcoal and labor consumed in smelting silver, it will naturally be reasonable to charge the people for fire expenses.
But if you think that the amount of fire consumption is just what you consume, then you are too naive!
The government will always exceed the quota, or even double the quota, and charge double the excessive fire cost. As for the extra money, it naturally fell into the pockets of officials.
When Wang Yuanji saw Han Du's expected expression, he immediately thought that the gentleman was testing him. After all, Mr. Baobao was made by Mr. How could Mr. Wang forget this?
"Let's talk about the third point." Han Du took a sip and said, "You are worried that only collecting money will cause the people to suffer. Your worry is justified."
Wang Yuanji listened quietly, knowing that his husband must have something to say.
Sure enough, Han Du smiled and continued: "But don't forget, merchants don't just want to lower the price, they can lower the price."
Wang Yuanji was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head and said, "Sir, please clear up my doubts."
Han Du waved his hand and said: "You and I don't have to be so polite. If you want to know, I will tell you. If it were the early years of Hongwu, merchants could indeed easily lower the prices of the people. But since the Ming Dynasty, After the Royal Grain Industry, it is impossible for merchants to lower prices at will. The Ming Royal Grain Industry has the lowest purchase price for things such as grain, cloth, and cotton. If the merchants lower the price than the Ming Royal Grain Industry , then who will sell things to them?”
"This..." Wang Yuanji looked surprised at first, and then suddenly became discouraged. He shook his head and said with a bitter smile: "Students really didn't expect that the Ming Dynasty Royal Grain Industry would have such a huge role!"
Han Du nodded slightly and continued to explain: "People sell things to the Ming Royal Grain Industry and pay taxes with their treasure coins. The Ming Royal Grain Industry can transport some of the things to the capital without even transporting them away. Store it on site and prepare it when needed."
