This article talks about why before the Anshi Rebellion, the salt policy reform based on the tax laws of the Middle and Tang Dynasties could never be implemented (including Liu Yan’s version of the Salt Law: civil property, official collection, commercial transportation, and commercial sales).
This article is very important and closely related to the plot. If you just want to read the fun article, you can skip this article.
For the plot of Sogdian Brocade, I checked the information for a day or two; for the salt tax, I started from the previous governor, intermittently, and checked the information alone for several months.
Go from the first floor to the second floor, and then go back to the first floor from the second floor. From no salt tax in the world, to "scientific tax collection", to no salt tax in the world.
I have gradually deepened my understanding of the salt tax over and over again. I should now be the first person among the authors of Qidian to study the salt tax. I once dreamed about how to collect the salt tax in the feudal era.
The reason why history is charming lies in its unchangeable and thought-provoking nature. It lies in the fact that it will return to its original essence in the end despite all the complicated and charming things.
Lift the veil of beauty, and the bloody essence will be revealed in front of you. This is history.
According to Shuangwen's routine, when Xiaofang grew up, he "should" have encountered the financial crisis of Datang Tianbao. Xiaofang took advantage of the situation and proposed a "scientific salt tax" to partially solve the financial problems of the prosperous Tang Dynasty. At the same time, he "strongly" seized power from the top. This should be a "reasonable" plot.
But I regret to tell you that if the subsequent plot is written like this, this book will be useless.
This is not a spoiler, but I just want to tell you readers that I, as the starting point of an in-depth study of salt tax, will not let Xiao Fang do any "salt tax that benefits the country and the people" before the chaos comes.
Why do you say this? Because the essence of taxation is that the state takes money from people's pockets and uses it where the people in power want to use it or need to use it.
Its purpose may be different, but the essence of taking money from people's pockets is not different.
The first fallacy: In the early Tang Dynasty, salt was laissez-faire. Only "very smart" time-travelers know that salt must be taxed.
Actually no, the salt tax in the early Tang Dynasty was not only not laissez-faire, but even more stringent than after the An-Shi Rebellion. And because there is no tax and the mining cost of salt is relatively low, a virtuous cycle is formed.
Because there is no tax, the price of salt is low;
And because the price of salt is low, the government has no profit from it, turning salt into a daily necessity that is far from a commodity. Grassroots officials in the salt administration are generally relatively honest.
When the job is unprofitable, promotion becomes the only benefit. This is actually a very understandable thing.
Also, because the cost of salt in social life is almost negligible, it alleviates social conflicts to a certain extent.
The country didn't know that it had to collect salt tax. Such a thing had never happened since Li Yuan was in power. It’s not that I don’t want to accept it, but I choose not to accept it for various reasons.
The social stability in the early Tang Dynasty was indispensable to the no-salt tax policy. The time traveler's proposal to "scientifically collect taxes" during the Kaiyuan or Tianbao years does not prove "outstandingness".
The second fallacy: Before the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty did not collect salt taxes at all.
Actually no, it has been operating at a "low level" since the Wu and Zhou Dynasties. Salt tax is not only collected, but also collected in a scientific and reasonable manner. The extent and method of tax collection are also different for salt mines or salt ponds of different natures.
Generally divided into three types:
1. In-kind tax: Salt households who rent salt wells for mining must pay 1 stone to the government if they mine 3 stone salt. This rock salt is put into Changping warehouse to supply military needs or to stabilize the market price of salt.
2. Labor tax: The laborers in the salt ponds and wells mined by the government use their labor to compensate for the rent.
3. Currency tax: Private salt wells or salt ponds are usually backed by powerful families.
There is well-documented information that this tax method has been implemented since the 10th year of Kaiyuan, but the tax rate is very low. The real situation is that the time for tax collection will definitely be brought forward.
The third fallacy: The Tang Dynasty court were all stupid pigs, and they didn’t know how to use the salt-cutting method.
In fact, Datang's policymakers are not only not stupid, but also know the concepts of "trial operation" and "special economic zones". Policy experiments on salt law have long been carried out.
Then they came to a conclusion that almost made them collapse:
In the economic centers of Guanzhong and Hebei, most of the Yanchi and Saltworks where salt is sourced are government-run! The salt-and-pepper method is almost impossible to implement!
Specifically, these major producing areas are Hedong Salt Pond, Hebei Changlu (Cangzhou) Salt Farm, and Liangzhou Salt Pond.
The official salt pond collects taxes for itself, so where does the money come from?
If taxes are increased, the money will still indirectly push up government procurement costs. The economic game of left-hand over right-hand has no meaning in the feudal era except increasing administrative costs.
What is the essential difference between the economy of the Tang Dynasty after the Anshi Rebellion and before the Anshi Rebellion?
That's right, Datang lost Hebei! The Changlu Salt Field, which was enough to feed millions of people, was lost. At the same time, Liangzhou was captured by the Tibetans, and Hedong was also in the flames of war.
In other words, the economic prerequisite for Liu Yan's implementation of the "Scientific Salt Questioning Law" was that Datang lost the three main salt producing areas in the north, and the large state-owned salt farms no longer existed, and had to vigorously develop private salt farms from the Jianghuai River.
Obviously, before the Anshi Rebellion, this premise did not exist.
The fourth fallacy: Before the Anshi Rebellion, using the "scientific salt discussion method" of the Mid-Tang Dynasty, it was possible to achieve large financial subsidies without harming (or less harming) people's livelihood.
This is just wishful thinking.
To understand the essence of salt tax, we must thoroughly analyze both salt and tax. Salt is the carrier of tax. Salt must have a "salt tax", but the "salt tax" does not necessarily require salt.
Once you understand this problem, the rest will be easier to understand.
The reason why the Yanyan Law could be implemented in the Mid-Tang Dynasty was actually because the original household registration system was completely disintegrated after wars in the Tang Dynasty. In other words, there are only 10 million people in the Tang Dynasty's account books who actually pay rent, but taxes are still collected as if 60 million people were paying!
In addition to those who died in the war, less than 20 million people simply disappeared from the accounting books and became invisible.
To put it more clearly, when there was absolutely no way to rebuild the household registration, the imperial court took advantage of the iron law that "people will die if they don't eat salt" and used salt tax to make up for the loss of mediocre rents, allowing those hidden households to use the salt tax. Come pay household tax and local tax.
The fundamental reason why the salt tax in the Mid-Tang Dynasty became more and more outrageous year by year is that the imperial court rebuilt the household registration system and rebuilt a new tax system with the two tax laws as the main body, but it still collected salt tax to death!
It is worth mentioning that in the 150 years after Hebei separated from the Tang Dynasty, the Salt Salt Law was implemented for a total of 4 months. Then the tooth soldiers in Hebei agreed that they were very unhappy and it was better to live alone, so the Hebei area broke away from the economic control of the Tang court and boycotted the salt law.
After the Anshi Rebellion, the people in Hebei lived a slightly better life than people in other places. The reason is probably not too clear to explain, everyone understands.
Back to the topic, what would happen if the Salt Law of the Mid-Tang Dynasty was implemented before the Anshi Rebellion?
It certainly doesn't matter to the wealthy people who take a bath in the salt pool, but what about the people at the bottom? Countless people will be ruined by this "inconspicuous" salt tax.
Since the cost of mining salt is only one-tenth of what it would be after tax increases, illegal salt production is bound to become widespread. Then the court had to form a new army (yes, think of the salt merchant Huang Chao) to combat smuggling, which would definitely increase administrative costs greatly.
People who were driven bankrupt by the salt tax would take desperate measures to sell illegal salt or join the ranks of salt merchants. Sales of taxed salt plummeted; in order to collect taxes, the court had to increase the tax rate to force more people to eat illegal salt. This vicious cycle.
There is nothing new under the sun. During the Song Dynasty, private salt could no longer be banned and accounted for more than two-thirds of the salt used by the people. Objective laws cannot be reversed by one or two time travellers.
The duck's mouth was stiff even after it died, but it still couldn't fly into the sky.
In modern times, the Republic of China government handed over the management of the Changlu Saltworks to the British. The British came up with a formula that highly overlapped with Liu Yan's ideas.
Let the government salt tax be X and the market retail price of salt be Y. Then Y=F(X), the so-called salt tax is nothing more than finding the F function.
The devil of salt tax is all in the details. Even if the bulk salt is transported in sacks, it can greatly reduce the loss of salt and increase taxes without damaging the price of salt. This example is a method that has been proven in the history of salt taxation.
The harm of high salt taxes is no less than that of rich people suffering from diabetes. This is a big topic. Since these are not the content of this article, I won’t go into details here.
Update will be sent later.
PS: If any big brother travels back to ancient times and becomes a powerful person, remember to be nice to the people.
