An examination strike was still in its infancy, but it was shattered by the "progressive promotion" arranged by Prince Zhu in advance.
Following Qian Qianyi and 100 fire gun soldiers, they began to patrol around the examination shed of Jiangnan Gongyuan, and the following fire gun soldiers loudly announced that two people had been dismissed from their honors. Order in the examination room was quickly restored - this incident was really noisy at all! Instead of taking advantage of the protest to advance to the next level, two Suzhou celebrities were deprived of their honors and were even labeled as eunuch traitors!
The reputation of "eunuch traitor" is not easy to clean up! Moreover, they may be investigated by Jinyiweinan Town Fusi and may be found bankrupt!
A good man will not suffer immediate losses, and a good candidate will not suffer immediate losses. It is better to go back to the examination room and write your essay! Even if you don't pass the Jinshi exam, you still have to keep the title of Juren, but you can't use the title of Juren to do it. If there were no juren, how could we still evade taxes, hide our property, and get people to submit deceitful mail?
However, not all candidates have such negative thoughts. There are still some people who have turned a deaf ear to what is going on outside the examination room since they entered the examination room, and muster all their energy to cope with the examination.
Zhu Cihong’s senior brother Zheng Sen is one of them! He had only one purpose in participating in Enke, which was to become a Jinshi based on his ability! Yes, he is capable! Although his eight-part essay is not very good, he knows how to collect business taxes and customs duties!
He is particularly knowledgeable about this matter. He knows how Japan collects taxes, how the Dutch East India Company collects taxes, and how his father Zheng Zhilong collects money by blocking roads at sea.
So he directly wrote a lot of specific tax collection methods on the examination paper.
Regarding tariffs, his approach is to impose tariffs on "ships" rather than "cargoes".
In other words, the tax collectors don’t care what goods the merchants transport, just how many boats, how many cars, how long, wide, and high the boats are, and then they charge money based on the quantity and size.
In order to facilitate the collection of tariffs, the imperial court should also establish five trading ports including Jiangkou (Shanghai), Ningbo, Quanzhou, Guangzhou, and Dengzhou to conduct centralized trade.
In addition, tax customs should be set up on the Yangtze River, canals and other rivers with certain traffic capacity to collect taxes on passing ships. The method of collecting over-the-counter tariffs is the same as that of customs tariffs. It depends on the ship rather than the goods, but the tax rate should be lower than the customs tariff.
In addition to tariffs, Zheng Sen also proposed the concepts of "monopoly" and "municipal tax".
Among them, the main specialties are salt and wine. Now the salt industry monopoly has begun. At the Huaiyang Four Salt General Administration, Zhu Cixang contracted out the monopoly rights of Lu Salt, Zhejiang Salt, Fujian Salt and Guangdong Salt at the end of the 17th Chongzhen Period - Shandong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong Both have salt fields, but the scale cannot be compared with Huaiyan. Therefore, the value of the exclusive right is relatively low, but there is no problem that the total salt tax paid by the salt industry in the four provinces exceeds 3 million taels a year.
Among them, the 600,000 taels obtained from the Lu Salt Monopoly were all controlled by Shi Kefa, the governor of the seven provinces, while the income from Zhejiang Salt, Fujian Salt, and Guangdong Salt were all turned over to the Ministry of Accounts (deposited into the Ministry of Accounts' account at the Salt Merchant Bank). Therefore, starting from the 18th year of Chongzhen, the salt tax revenue of the Ming Dynasty will reach 8.4 million taels, which is really a huge source of wealth!
If the wine monopoly can be successfully implemented, the Ming Dynasty will have a very broad way to make money!
Municipal tax is a commercial tax levied in cities and large towns in various places, which can be divided into "pass tax" and "residence tax".
The so-called over-tax is to set up checkpoints at important intersections and river mouths to collect taxes, and collect lower taxes from passing vehicles, ships and merchants. There is no need to collect cash, but copper coins and grains are also acceptable.
The residence tax is a tax levied on shops and workshops in cities and towns, and is levied according to the area of the shops and workshops and the actual conditions of each place.
In Zheng Sen’s suggestion, unlike the three major taxes such as salt industry monopoly tax, northern and southern franchise tax, and internal and external tariffs, commercial taxes such as wine industry monopoly tax and city tax, which are more complicated to collect, should be “local taxes.” That is to say, provinces, prefectures, and counties are responsible for collecting it, and then sharing it with the court. Except for a few large cities and ports, the court does not expect to collect much from it.
However, the salaries of local officials, the expenses of local official schools, the expenses of the militia to maintain local security, the expenses of repairing the city walls, and the expenses of the official yamen all have to be pointed at these commercial taxes!
If the local officials in poor and small places insist on not collecting taxes and can withstand the investigation of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, then it is up to them. However, there are still capable officials in several large cities and trade ports to collect taxes!
"Okay! Okay!" In the Mingyuan Building, Prince Zhu put down Zheng Sen's paper and clapped his hands, "Great article! Great method! Mr. Qian, your students are pretty good!"
What’s good? Qian Qianyi, who had already recovered, was a little helpless. The imperial examination competition couldn't be like this - the papers had to be transcribed without names! How could you do this and ask the examiner to tear apart Zheng Sen's paper and read it?
And what’s so good about Zheng Sen’s article? Apart from a few specific tax collection methods, there is nothing good about it. There are no quotations from the scriptures, and the reading is not enjoyable, and there are two typos.
"Second and first place!" Zhu Cixiang asked Qian Qianyi with a smile, "Mr. Qian, what do you think?"
"This thousand-year-old master, this is the Ministry of Rites exam, not the palace exam."
"Oh." Zhu Cixiang nodded, "It's good that you have to take the exam again, but you won't be able to get a Jinshi degree from me. Mr. Qian, what kind of official position should you give me after high school?"
"If," Qian Qianyi frowned, "if he ranks second and first, then of course he will be a concubine of the Hanlin Academy. It has been the custom since the Yingmiao Temple that those who are not Hanlin will not be admitted to the cabinet."
"Ah, Mr. Qian also thinks that Senior Brother should join the cabinet!" Zhu Cixiang interrupted Qian Qianyi's words and said with a smile, "Mr. Zheng Ge is good, not bad!"
Why is he just "Zheng Ge Lao"? The son of a pirate leader can just be an admiral of the Navy. How come he is already Ge Lao?
"Isn't it wrong to be afraid?" Qian Qianyi reminded, "Damu is a relative, and his family is the overlord."
Zhu Cixiang glanced at Qian Qianyi and said in a low voice: "Then you should be the Pavilion Elder! Why not? King of Fujian?"
Ah, the prince is so wise! Qian Qianyi understood immediately that Zhu Cixiang had been thinking about cutting down the feudal clan for a long time.
"But we can't let him enter the Hanlin now," Zhu Cixiang added, "Shanghai has to use the Zheng family to let him serve in Shanghai. As for non-Hanlin not being included in the cabinet, that is not Taizu's ancestral system, and this palace does not abide by it. "
He paused, and then said to Wu Meicun who was guarding the side: "Mr. Wu, go and bring me the papers written by Huang Taichong, Luo Dagong, and Zhang Xuan."
