Although Emperor Jianyuan didn't know why, he still took the dozens of paintings. Then he became more and more silent as he looked at them. His hands were trembling as he looked at them. Those paintings were too realistic. Even though they were still not as good as seeing them with his own eyes, they were still It was far more impactful than the description in words. Facing the people in the painting, he really couldn't say such stupid things as to suffer the people any more. His conscience that had not yet been extinguished would not allow it.
Although he reused Confucianism for certain political purposes.
At the same time, I don’t intend to follow the Confucian formula.
But there is no doubt that he recognizes some of the Confucian ideals in his heart. If he really does not recognize it at all, there is no way he would choose Confucianism as his sword. If you couldn't see it before, you can pretend it doesn't exist, just like a gentleman who is far away from the kitchen. He can't see the appearance of the animals when they are slaughtered, so he doesn't have much psychological burden when eating them. He can't see how miserable the people's lives are. .
When formulating some policies.
There is no psychological burden.
But now that his royal grandmother forced him to see it, the pressure in his heart suddenly rose.
After only seeing half of it, Emperor Jianyuan forced himself not to look down, and quickly turned over the stack of drawing papers and pressed it on the desk, then took a deep breath and said:
"Royal Grandma, if you have something to say, just say it."
"After reading those pictures, you should be able to clearly understand how difficult life is for ordinary people. They really can't withstand the slightest bit of wind and rain.
I save two or three stones of food every year.
Enough to sustain them for several more months during disaster years.
It is also enough to prevent many people from having to borrow loan sharks or sell their children or land when they encounter minor disasters.
You can survive on your own food reserves.
Only when they are stable can the world be stable. If they can survive, the country can exist. Once the number of these ordinary farmers decreases to a certain level, then the territory of Daqian will probably be filled with tyrants. So if you increase taxes on those ordinary people, you will undoubtedly force them to They sold themselves into slavery, became invisible and black households, and lost this part of their tax base.
It’s not that the Aijia won’t let you raise taxes, but you have to raise taxes in appropriate places, such as those nobles who own a lot of land but don’t pay taxes, or those who earn tens of millions a year but pay only a small amount of taxes. .
You really want to expand your territory, right?
But when you open up territory and expand territory, you can't open up territory and expand territory at the expense of population. Not only can't you sacrifice it, you have to encourage population growth and fertility. Otherwise, who will suppress and protect the territory you have opened up?
Without the people, what’s the use of those territories?
The poll tax, that is, the calculated tax and the oral tax are inherently unreasonable. The more you collect, the slower the population growth will be, and it may even lead to negative growth. If the parents cannot survive, who will be in the mood to have children?
So Aijia’s tax reform idea is.
When the people are spread into the acres, the population grows, and there is never any increase in wealth.
Calculate the money from the accrual tax and the oral tax evenly to the land. From then on, it can be set as a fixed amount. People with more land will pay more, people with less land will pay less. Those without land can just not pay it, and then cancel all the accrual tax. How about never collecting any more money from Hekoufu? "
Although this operation can be regarded as a reference to the Four Great Masters, this tax collection method is indeed more reasonable and can inhibit land annexation to a certain extent. Of course, no matter how good the policy is, it must be accurately implemented. If the implementation is not in place or the people below will mishandle the economy, If you misread it, there's nothing wrong with it.
After listening to Bai Sheng's proposal, Emperor Jianyuan's first thought was that the idea was indeed great and it sounded reasonable, but it might be difficult to implement and it would be difficult to get money from people who had little ability to resist.
It is much easier than squeezing money from the hands of Lieutenants.
If the princes and nobles really started to cause trouble, the impact would be much greater than the impact of a rebellion by a few common people.
At this time, Bai Sheng continued:
"In addition, the commercial tax setting is unreasonable. The amount of commercial tax should not be fixed. How can a person who makes a few hundred pennies a year be charged the same tax rate as someone who makes tens of millions a year? Comparing profits High-ranking businessmen must collect more taxes, but they must also pay attention to the scale.
You can't bankrupt someone. Even if you charge too much tax, you have to leave enough profit for them.
In addition, macro-control can also be carried out through commercial taxation.
For example, if you don’t want people to make more wine, then impose heavy taxes on the wine industry. If you want to encourage the development of a certain industry, then reduce taxes on that industry. If necessary, you can even exempt it from tax for a few years.
This is called stepped tax collection and national macro-control. "
Hearing this, Emperor Jianyuan was obviously more surprised than before. He was already a little surprised when he just collected taxes based on the amount of land. After all, his imperial grandmother also had a lot of land, so doing so was definitely a blow to himself. , and now we have to take action on commercial taxes.
It is even clearly stated that the more you earn, the higher the amount of tax you should pay. This knife is not just a cut on the body, but a direct cut on one's main artery.
After all, who doesn't know that the Empress Dowager has been doing business on a very large scale over the years, and the taxes she pays every year based on current standards are more than those paid by some counties.
If the more you earn, the higher the amount of business tax you pay, the first person to bear the brunt is the Queen Mother!
So after hesitating for a while, Emperor Jianyuan asked tentatively: "Are you talking about yourself? Even the commercial tax on you will be increased as you just said?"
"Of course, including it. The Aijia even suggested that it is best for all the business activities of your young master to have clear bills and pay taxes, so that the policy can be better implemented. Once you are the emperor, the Aijia Empress Dowager Everyone has to pay taxes, who in this world is qualified not to pay!"
Bai Sheng's purpose of coming here was not specifically to make money, and besides, she had no other use for saving the money. As long as she left enough money for continued development and some reserves, there was no problem paying taxes on the rest.
Hearing this, Emperor Jianyuan's emotions were quite complicated. He really didn't expect that his imperial grandmother would be so generous. Compared with his mother-in-law, the Queen Mother, his uncle and others who only asked for things from him in recent years, the Queen Mother The image of the Empress Dowager in his mind suddenly became much brighter, and he felt that he had always wronged her.
This is truly unselfish.
Serve the country and the people wholeheartedly.
However, he was moved. Soon, Emperor Jianyuan continued to calmly talk about the difficulties of doing so:
"Royal Grandma, your suggestion is good, but you are striking directly at the nobles and princes. I am afraid they will not accept it willingly, and they will definitely cause some trouble."
"What are you afraid of?
The Aijia asked the three armies to cooperate with you. In recent years, the Aijia has added more manpower. Now it can still gather an army of 100,000. Anyone who dares to resist will have their homes confiscated. "
Seeing that Liu Che would be able to open up the Silk Road in the Western Regions in a few years, Bai Sheng could no longer remain as passive as before. In order for some future plans to be carried out smoothly, she had to take action now.
