"No additional levies are allowed!"
Hai Rui said at this time.
Ma Ziqiang was silent for a moment after hearing this, and then asked: "But what you recorded above shows that there are quite a few businessmen in Nanzhi County, and many of them have employed hundreds of workers, and even some big towns have , such as Nanxun, there are more than ten thousand households engaged in business, and there are no less than a hundred large workshops, which is far more than a city in the north!"
“Can’t we still impose a commercial tax?”
Hai Rui said: "Mr. Ge, let's take a look at the identities of these workshop owners before we speak!"
"Big workshops and large trading houses all have a powerful and noble background. They are either their slaves or their relatives. Many overseas Chinese businessmen are even members of vassals and powerful people in the capital. Although there are many businessmen, they are mainly engaged in small businesses. It’s mainly about buying and selling, and the profit is not high.”
"Although the official commercial tax revenue of the imperial court was low, local officials exploited it heavily. Therefore, there were many miscellaneous taxes, and there were also vassals, wealthy families, etc. who set up cards to illegally collect lijin."
"In addition, the powerful and right-wing people often use their monopoly on trade and their abundant financial resources to deliberately hoard and speculate on the prices of local products."
"So at the end of the year, even if some small businessmen and hawkers earn a few taels of silver, they can only make enough for the mouth of the lake!"
"What's more, after a year of hard work, the mulberry, hemp, vegetables and vegetables you planted might as well rot in the ground, because once you sell them, the gains outweigh the losses!"
"Don't look at the prosperity of Jiangnan, but this prosperity is just the prosperity of scholar-bureaucrats."
"The so-called ability to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for a courtesan on the Qinhuai River, and the ability to build gardens and pile rocks into mountains in Suzhou, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, are not something ordinary people can participate in."
"In fact, in this prosperous place of Yanliu, there are also poor families who die of hunger and cold and freeze to death."
"Even though we are from a middle-class family, we can barely make ends meet."
"A woman who works hard at weaving without rest all year round can only sell homespun cloth to meet the tax of a small amount of silver demanded by the officials, and after paying it, she has no savings."
"If you are sick, you just mop it up if you can, let alone make clothes and shoes. They can only be patched but not replaced. As the saying goes, 'A person who is covered with silk clothes is not a silkworm farmer'!"
"In addition, even if a strong family relies on the income from the wife's weaving and can pay a small amount of silver to work and farm, the income will only be enough to support the children of the family, and the savings will only be enough for one child to study."
"But now, people in the south of the Yangtze River are like crucian carp crossing the river. If a child from a small family wants to gain fame, the amount of money he spends is no less than the amount of money he pays in taxes and fees. Whether it is training or the premiums paid for exams, it is not few."
"In short, whether the common people have land in the countryside and are farmers and farmers, or they have no land and are employed as laborers in the city, most of what they and their wives earn in a year are exploited by the officials and gentry, and they provide for their children. Reading and hoping to be able to use it like a carp leaping over the dragon's gate. Those who really use their earnings for their own lives are very few, and it is nothing more than food and clothing."
“Not to mention the towns and villages.”
“People don’t have much money in their hands, and the things they can buy are limited. Therefore, in these places, merchants who open chicken-feather shops or serve as street vendors naturally cannot make huge profits. The huge profits are made by dental shops or pawn shops that can operate across provinces. earn."
"But these dental and pawn shops are the property of the subordinates of the powerful gentry!"
After Hai Rui finished speaking, Ma Ziqiang nodded and said nothing.
After a while, Ma Ziqiang said: "So, if the commercial tax is levied, unless it can be levied on these powerful gentry and subordinates, it will only further squeeze the common people and even force the people to rebel?"
“It’s not enough to impose additional levies on the powerful, gentry, and subordinates!”
"Once commercial taxes are levied, even if they are levied on the powerful, gentry, and subordinates, it will take away the benefits of the powerful, gentry, and subordinates as well as the interests of the common people, causing the two to unite against the imperial government."
"And this kind of exploitation of the common people will inevitably be more ruthless, because the powerful, wealthy, gentry, and subordinates will always look for favors on the common people, and the common people will also look for favors on the common people to persecute each other for their own livelihood."
"If this is the case, the resentment of the common people will be even greater, and the powerful gentry and subordinate officials will incite the common people to resist the government, and even deliberately breed civil uprisings."
"Cults will also take advantage of the opportunity to breed."
"Therefore, if we want to increase business taxes and make them good governance, they can only be imposed on the powerful, wealthy, gentry and subordinates!"
"Small traders should be exempted or exempted, and the imperial court should even subsidize their operations to prevent them from being exploited too much by the loan sharks of the Haoyou Buddhist Temple!"
Hai Rui replied.
Ma Ziqiang smiled bitterly: "I'm afraid it will be difficult! Let the officials in the world only levy taxes on the powerful, gentry and subordinates. Bureaucrats are fine. After all, most of the officials who serve as parents are foreign officials. But asking subordinates to do this is undoubtedly equivalent to Taking your own benefits and giving them to the imperial court without causing harm to the people means that there is no fertile ground for this government to work!"
As he said that, Ma Ziqiang sighed again: "I am from the north, and I know that it is not easy for the people in the north. I thought that the people in the rich areas south of the Yangtze River would be better off, but I didn't expect that the people in the south of the Yangtze River would also have a hard life."
"Although Jiangnan is prosperous, it has nothing to do with the people, and the court does not get much benefit. So this Jiangnan is really just the Jiangnan of scholar-bureaucrats."
As he spoke, Ma Ziqiang left the house and came to Xianxia Pass. He looked at the constant flow of Shang Gang porters on the official road outside Xianxia Pass and said to Hai Rui:
"But the total tax revenue from the seven major banknotes of the Ming Dynasty last year was only more than 200,000 taels, which is really too little!"
"It's really sad that so many businessmen can only bring so little tax revenue to the court!"
Ma Ziqiang could not say it directly. He, a cabinet minister, took bribes of 200,000 taels at a time, which was almost equal to the income of the Ming Dynasty. However, he just lamented that the income of the banknotes was indeed too small and could not compare with the powerful gentry. A power-for-money transaction.
"This has increased by tens of thousands taels compared to the time of Mu Temple, reaching at least more than 200,000."
Hai Rui said, "It's all because of the Qing Dynasty's land policy."
"Although it only clears the land, it actually forces the wealthy people not to exploit the common people. The common people no longer have to bear the extra land tax that the wealthy gentry and their subordinates squander. Therefore, the common people can still increase their savings."
“Although the common people are afraid of being a big buyer because they are worried about the changing situation, their ability to purchase goods is still much higher than before the implementation of the New Deal.”
"As a result, there are many more markets in the countryside, and it is gradually becoming like a big town. There are more merchants in Xianxia Pass, and they do not hesitate to carry goods across provinces for transactions, which also increases the tax revenue of the pass. .”
"Good!"
"It can be seen that although the interests of the world are not in the officials but in the people, if we can strive for the interests of the common people and increase the interests of the common people, we can also increase the interests of the court and officials!"
Ma Ziqiang said with a smile.
Hai Rui nodded: "Therefore, only by implementing policies that benefit the people can we enrich the country and strengthen the army!"
"Yuan Fu is very good at planning the country."
Ma Ziqiang nodded, not forgetting to be politically correct.
"There are more people engaged in business in Fujian. Mr. Ge might as well ask the Fujian people again. Is the situation similar to that in Nanzhi?"
"It just so happened that my friend Wang Runlian was planning to set up a road memorial in Yanping Mansion because she heard that my mother was old. When the time comes, Mr. Ge can ask him about this Fujianese."
Hai Rui then made a sudden suggestion.
Ma Ziqiang nodded: "That's fine! If you want to implement major national policies, you should not just ask about the situation in one place."
"Wang Yongji from Fujian has met Mr. Ge!"
When Wang Yongji saw Ma Ziqiang, he gave a big salute first, and then he was helped up by Ma Ziqiang: "Runlian doesn't have to be like this. You are not only a friend of Gangfeng, but also my friend."
As he spoke, Ma Ziqiang chatted with Wang Yongji and Hai Rui for a while, then asked Wang Yongji: "How many people are doing business in Fujian?"
"To be honest, Mr. Ge, Fujian is very mountainous. Businessmen only stop six out of ten, and most of them go to sea."
Wang Yongji replied.
"Is it profitable?"
Ma Ziqiang asked.
Wang Yongji smiled and shook his head: "If it were Li & Feng, Yuegang wouldn't have to pay only tens of thousands of taels in annual tariffs."
