Just like in the past, the Shu Palace sold lanterns with the Shu Palace logo to merchants traveling down the river in Shu to facilitate tax evasion. The Prince of Shu's government and those merchants would benefit from the cooperation, but the losses to the court would be huge. What else could this be if it wasn't a typical example of harming the public and enriching private interests? What's more, the Prince of Shu's Mansion is not the only one who does this kind of thing.
Fan Jian's family is the largest merchant in Jiangbei, but according to his words, no one levies a penny of tax on the gold and silver that flows into the Fan family every year. But although there is no need to pay the tax, it does not mean that those merchants can really save tax money. The Fan family alone has to spend 30% of its income every year to manage officials at all levels in the government from top to bottom.
Don't forget that every time the Xiangyang magistrate takes office, he must first visit the Fan family, and his attitude is extremely low. But the Fan family should pay not a penny less every year. Although the Fan family is not afraid of a fourth-grade prefect, if that guy does something secretly, it will still be a troublesome thing. Besides, for a fourth-grade official, who knows who is standing behind him?
If not caught, who would know whether the people behind those officials would cause trouble for the Fan family? Those officials are very cunning and have many tricks to punish people. Besides, who can guarantee that the people of the Fan family working outside will not be found out at all? Having money can make the world go round, and if you manage it well, you will save yourself less trouble.
The money and materials used by the Fan family to support officials every year, even according to the commercial tax standards customized by the former Tang Dynasty, were much more than the taxes that the Fan family should pay every year. In other words, it’s not that merchants don’t collect taxes, and it’s not that they can’t collect them at all. It's just that the money that should have gone into the national treasury ended up in private pockets.
There is also the Guilin County Prince's Mansion. In addition to turning over 30% of the profits from overseas trade to the court every year, the other properties under his name do not have to pay a penny in taxes. No matter whether it is land spread across Guangdong and Guangxi, tea gardens in Fujian, Jiangnan East-West Road, Huguang, several large porcelain kilns, or weaving mills all over Jiangnan, there is no need to pay a penny of tax.
Even under the banner of their Guilin County Prince's Palace, the checkpoints along the way of goods transportation are not even levied as usual. As for the 30% profit, the court has never checked the accounts, let alone how much it should collect. The court will collect as much as people say and pay every year.
Therefore, this so-called 30% profit really accounts for the Guilin County Prince's Palace. I am afraid only God knows how much the Guilin County Prince's House earns from overseas trade every year. But one thing Huang Qiong is sure of is that this money is definitely more than what the Guilin County Prince's Palace paid to the court. Because this amount has not changed for more than a hundred years since the founding of the People's Republic of China.
But the Guilin County Prince's Mansion, this property that has been owned for more than a hundred years is not considered a private property, and it is an industry that the court is not aware of yet. On the surface alone, it has more than doubled. It is impossible that the annual trade volume between it and the merchants has not increased for more than a hundred years. Therefore, Huang Qiong did not believe at all whether the 30% of the profits that the Guilin County Prince's Office turned in every year was true.
And as far as Huang Qiong knew, not only the Guilin County Prince's Palace, but also a large number of officials in the court were from families that were either wealthy merchants or large landowners. When these people become officials, it means that all the land under their family names, no matter how many hectares it is, or even if it is spread over several prefectures, is exempt from taxation.
As long as they live for a day, even if they become officials, no one will take over the shops under their names. This is an unspoken rule that everyone in the court knows. The King of Shu, a seemingly empty shell of a prince, and a string of lanterns can allow the merchant fleet from Shu to go down the river without paying a penny at various checkpoints along the way. What's more, an official who is still in office?
If law enforcement could be enforced impartially at all levels in the world, I'm afraid there would be no such thing as officials protecting each other. No one is stupid. Collecting money from properties owned by current officials is not just a job that offends people. What's more, you collect taxes from others. Wouldn't people also collect taxes from the property in your name?
When someone else becomes an official, you add insult to injury. But in the officialdom, everyone will have an official career sooner or later. No one wants the same thing they did to others to end up happening to them. In particular, the higher the official position, the more properties one has under one's name. So everyone knows it very well and no one will touch this taboo. As a result, it will be difficult to collect the little business tax.
For example, the current prime minister, who is in a stable position under the Central Government, is a famous silk merchant in the south of the Yangtze River. The family owns more than 300,000 acres of mulberry gardens, tea gardens, and fine paddy fields in Jiaxing, Pingjiang, and Zhenjiang, and is known as the largest landowner on Jiangnan East Road. Not counting the land, there are tens of thousands of silk looms in the house.
Although their silk does not dare to compete with the Guilin County Prince's market for their silk, there is a huge market in Jiangbei. When Yu Mingyuan was on the Yellow River, at least 30% of the silk-trafficking ships in the merchant fleet that he detained were in his family's name. And those merchant fleets in his name, even the Tongzhi of Hulao Pass, who was born in a noble family, did not dare to step forward to collect what they should have collected.
Even the imperial court can't really blame this kind of person, and he probably won't write a letter to collect business taxes. Not to mention the imperial court levying commercial taxes, the imperial court also wanted to collect money and food from their excess land. These officials who came from big merchants and big landowners will be the first to oppose it. The court's lack of money is the court's business and has nothing to do with them. Anyway, none of them expects a salary to live.
But if someone wants to touch his family's purse, do you think they will jump out and object? At present, the income of the imperial court is tight, and it is necessary to cut down the income and improve the income. But this open flow depends on how to open the flow. If the imperial court wanted to increase taxes, it could only increase taxes on ordinary people. It is absolutely impossible to tax families like them.
Huang Qiong thought a lot about the disaster relief after the snow. This is just a minor disaster in the capital, and even the Jingzhao Mansion cannot provide money or food for disaster relief. In addition to the inaction of some officials, I am afraid that the Jingzhao Mansion really cannot come up with much money and food. You can see the whole picture at a glance. This is the case for Jingzhao Mansion, which is the most beautiful place in the world and has accumulated almost half of the world's wealth.
What will happen to the other states and counties below? This is still a small snow disaster, as long as the snow melts, it will be fine. And although this snow is undoubtedly a disaster for the poor families in the city. But for the majority of farmers, it is still a good thing. As the saying goes, in winter, a three-layer wheat quilt will be used to sleep on one’s pillow in the coming year. But even a snowstorm can’t help, so what if there’s a major disaster?
There is no need to go too far. What if the severe drought in Longyou and Shaanxi 2nd Road this year continues next year? Huang Qiong knows that droughts are different from floods, and droughts can easily be persistent. It can take as little as two years and as many as three years. Moreover, after a drought, locust plagues are extremely likely to occur. This year is the first year of severe drought in Longyou, and it is actually the best year.
Because at least the people still have some of the food they hoarded last year in their hands. The food gap in the disaster-stricken areas may not really be that big. But once the drought continues, the next two years will actually be the most difficult to endure. If the court fails to provide disaster relief in time, it will be truly disastrous. But this year, we are faced with a small shortage of money and food, and it is so difficult to raise funds.
Even forcing the emperor to go to the clan to fight against the autumn wind. This will happen next year, if the disaster continues. Faced with an even larger food gap, I am afraid it will be even more difficult to raise funds by then. Even though this year's autumn taxes have already arrived in Beijing, Jiangnan, Hebei, and Shandong are experiencing great harvests, but most of the food is in the hands of clans, wealthy households, and gentry.
In fact, there is a huge amount of money and grain that the court can collect every year. As land annexation became more and more intense, the annual income coming to the court became less and less. Excluding expenses such as military salaries, river wages for the Huang and Huai rivers, and salaries of civil and military officials that must be guaranteed, how much surplus can be left for disaster relief?
Even if there is a severe drought in Longyou on the upper reaches of the Yellow River, the peach blossom flood next year may not be that severe. But who dares to save on this? Save money on river construction as long as nothing goes wrong. Once something goes wrong, you will really lose your head. What's more, if you don't prepare enough money for the river workers, how can the officials who manage the river workers give up?
The Chinese New Year is coming soon. The rewards for the frontier army, the Fourth Camp, and the Xijing Camp will be reissued for the part of the official salary that was not fully paid this year. The official salary will be distributed at the beginning of next year. The military salary of the armies may have just been put into the treasury. Autumn tax, there is not much left after this effort. Especially military pay, which must not be defaulted. The emperor does not want hungry soldiers. This has been a rule for thousands of years.
On the one hand, the imperial court was unable to make ends meet; on the other hand, the clan, officials, and gentry who occupied a large amount of land and were doing business were extremely wealthy. This almost became a vicious cycle. Thinking of this, Huang Qiong pinched the bridge of her nose with a headache. Thinking of going to the palace to study government affairs after the new year, I couldn't help but let out a long sigh.
With my character as an emperor, I think it must be a forced choice to snatch the food that I have eaten alone for more than a hundred years from the Guilin County Prince's Palace. But would the Guilin County Prince really be so obedient? For the sake of a false reputation that you can see through? Give up the food you have eaten alone for more than a hundred years? And to take a step back, even if they hand it over honestly.
At present, there are three provinces and six departments in the imperial court, plus there are thousands of officials of all sizes in the capital city. How many people who really have that ability can take on this job? Mingshuang, one of the imperial examinations, has been suspended for twenty years because no one applied for it. There are probably very few officials in the government who are proficient in financial management.
Most officials, except for Zhihu, or what Confucius said in his poems, probably wouldn't be able to use an abacus given to him. With such a talent pool, it can take over a shipping company. In fact, no one else needs to answer. Huang Qiong has the answers to these two questions himself. It is neither possible nor willing for the Prince of Guilin to really hand over the power of trade for the sake of the false reputation of a queen.
Even if you hand it over on the surface, I'm afraid there will be some manipulations in private. Presumably, the Guilin County Prince's Palace has accumulated talents in those merchants and in this field for more than a hundred years. It shouldn't be too easy to do some tricks in this regard so that the court can't see anything. When the time comes, I, the emperor, will probably be beaten to pieces.
And even if it is handed over, I am afraid that no one in the DPRK may be able to take over. There is no doubt that the Shipping Department has a good vacancy. When the time comes, there may not be a small number of officials who want to take over, either by self-recommendation or by tricking others into seeking connections. But there may not be any officials who are truly capable of taking over and ensuring that the court collects the tax money the court wants.
Thinking of this, Huang Qiong could only smile bitterly. What the old man did was too wishful thinking. Now if you want to fundamentally solve the problem of the court's difficulty in raising income, there are actually many ways. It's just that the resistance is even greater. If you want to steal food from those with vested interests, the difficulty is not ordinary, it can even be called pulling teeth from the tiger's mouth.
