At the beginning of the founding of the Chu Empire, especially when it was still in Huguang, its fiscal revenue mainly relied on agricultural taxes, which accounted for about 60%.
This situation not only did not improve after moving eastward and occupying the south of the Yangtze River, but further expanded, because there are many places of plenty in the Yangtze River Basin, and agricultural development is already good, so agriculture can contribute more tax revenue.
In the fourth or fifth year of Chengshun, about 70% of the financial revenue of the Dachu Empire was from agriculture, and the remaining 30% was from industry and commerce.
When the Chu Empire began to rely on the Yangtze River Basin, it began to conquer the south and north, successively occupied Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and other places in the south, and then moved north to occupy northern provinces such as Jiangbei, Anlu, Shandong, Henan and even Hebei.
It seems that the territory has expanded, but in fact the tax revenue from agriculture does not contribute much, because these places are either not land of plenty, or they have suffered severe natural and man-made disasters, and agricultural production has been greatly damaged.
At the same time, industry and commerce continued to develop at a rapid pace, which also resulted in the central fiscal revenue from industry and commerce in the Chu Empire officially exceeding agricultural taxes during the 78th year of Chengshun's reign, and became the main tax revenue of the empire.
This industrial and commercial fiscal revenue is also diverse and mainly comes from collections from enterprises, especially some medium and large enterprises. As for small enterprises, it seems that the tax laws of the Dachu Empire are very strict, but the prerequisite is that you have to supervise them in place. Due to the cost of taxation, it is actually difficult for the Dachu Empire to conduct comprehensive tax supervision on a large number of small businesses, especially small workshop-type enterprises. Especially for these small businesses, workshops and other businesses generally use cash transactions. Under such circumstances, it becomes more difficult to regulate.
In addition, it is difficult for the Da Chu Empire to collect taxes in the retail link. In the case of cash transactions, the tax department has almost no way to collect taxes based on sales in the retail link. Let alone the Da Chu Empire in the 17th century. In the 21st century, it is also difficult to collect taxes in the retail sector...
Therefore, the Da Chu Empire simply does not impose any consumption tax. At the same time, it adopts a fixed business tax system for retail stores, restaurants and other self-employed businesses. According to the industry and scale, a fixed business tax is charged, and this business tax is not high.
But it is better than nothing, and it is better than spending a lot of manpower and material resources to collect income tax, consumption tax and the like.
Therefore, the Dachu Empire's industrial and commercial taxes were mainly concentrated on medium and large enterprises, and more emphasis was placed on taxation in the mid- and upstream links of production, transportation, and wholesale channels.
This method is a very typical indirect tax in the tax system.
Ordinary people don't feel it, because when you buy something, you don't have to pay any consumption tax, and you don't have to go to the merchant to get an invoice or something.
But in fact, the retail price of the thing you buy already contains a lot of taxes, because companies are paying taxes during the process of this product from raw materials to production to transportation. These taxes are ultimately It is included in the retail price of the product.
Different types of goods have different tax-included ratios. Some may be as much as 80% to 90%, while others may be as little as 10% or 20%. Calculating it all together, tax accounts for about half of the selling price of an ordinary industrial product. about.
This is indirect taxation, and it is also the main taxation method adopted by most countries in later generations.
It is much easier to collect taxes from the business process than to ask people to collect consumption tax, personal income tax and the like.
As for corporate taxes, there are corporate income tax, value-added tax, stamp duty, and business tax.
In addition to regular corporate taxes, tariffs and several other special taxes also contribute a considerable part of the industrial and commercial industry revenue.
There are a lot of tariffs, and the Dachu Empire charges not only import tariffs, but also export tariffs, and the bulk of the tariffs also come from export tariffs.
Because many imported things, especially grain, cotton and other industrial raw materials, the Chu Empire is open to purchase and is tax-free for a long time... Only some overseas specialties, especially spices, pearls and gems and other luxury goods, are taxed. .
But there are a lot of export taxes. Almost all goods exported by the Dachu Empire are subject to export taxes, from machine-made cloth to guns and weapons.
Although there are export tax rebate policies, they are generally limited to machine-made products and must be exported to specific regions.
The prosperous overseas trade allowed the Chu Empire to collect a lot of tariffs.
Special taxes are targeted at special industries, either monopoly industries or special industries.
For example, the salt industry is a monopoly industry. Only one company, the Dachu Empire Salt Company, is allowed to operate this industry. Therefore, in addition to the regular corporate tax, the Dachu Empire Salt Company also needs to pay an additional salt tax. This salt tax That’s quite a lot!
After paying the salt tax, a large part of the remaining profits of the Dachu Empire Salt Company actually had to be handed over.
To put it bluntly, this salt company is a government monopoly on a certain industry to make money.
This is also the reason why salt companies have initially industrialized in China, and today, when salt production is no longer technically difficult, it can still create a lot of profits.
The profit level of salt does not depend on cost or output, but on whether it is a monopoly.
Of course, it is not a big problem for ordinary people. The price of salt from the Dachu Empire Salt Company is actually very low, much lower than during the Ming Dynasty. After all, the empire uses industrialized production, especially salt from the coastal salt fields. The cost is very low.
Even if the selling price is low, the profit is still very considerable.
The most important thing is that everyone has to eat this stuff...the consumption base is very large!
No matter what it is, it has a large base and it is an exclusive monopoly business, so it is very profitable.
Table salt is a typical example!
The salt industry of the Dachu Empire, the various taxes paid by its salt companies and the profits turned over to the treasury add up to more than 20 million each year.
Don’t think it’s too much. The income from the salt administration is dwarfed by the income from the salt industry in the late Qing Dynasty.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the salt tax revenue reached more than 40 million taels at its peak, and the important point is that this was only the salt tax collected by the Qing Dynasty government, and did not include the profits of the salt merchants. If the profits of the salt merchants are included, , then this number is even more terrifying.
The Da Chu Empire's salt administration revenue of more than 20 million is the sum of the salt tax and the profits of the salt administration company.
The financial burden of salt for the people under the rule of the Chu Empire was far less than that of the traditional feudal dynasty.
However, even if this is the case, it can be said that the Chu Empire contributed more than 20 million Chu yuan in revenue.
This shows how huge the profits can be from monopolizing a basic industry that everyone needs.
In addition to salt tax, there are several other special taxes, such as tea tax and raw silk tax. The reason why these two industries are separated is because these two industries are relatively special. Traditionally, there have been separate taxes for these industries. The tradition of taxation was only continued by the Chu Empire.
Various industrial and commercial tax revenues have enabled the Dachu Empire's industrial and commercial tax revenue to surpass agricultural tax revenue long ago, and now account for more than 80% of the total tax revenue.
Of the more than 260 million yuan in tax revenue, 80% of the tax revenue is industrial and commercial taxes. With this tax proportion structure, no dynasty in the past has been able to achieve this.
But the Chu Empire did it.
The increasing revenue from industrial and commercial taxes supported the Great Chu Empire's southern and northern wars; large-scale construction of various infrastructure such as flood control and irrigation roads; disaster relief and relief; basic popularization of education; and continuous investment. Support industrial development; provide more jobs for the people; provide agricultural tool subsidies that can last for more than ten years; tax exemptions for newly reclaimed land, etc.
Ultimately, it will comprehensively enhance the economic firepower of the entire society and improve people's living standards.
This is also one of the important reasons for the development of industry and commerce in the Chu Empire. Another reason is naturally for national defense!
Only with sufficient fiscal revenue can the Great Chu Empire have the confidence to engage in large-scale development of the Northeast Plains!
The huge investment of 12 million Chu yuan is almost unimaginable in other dynasties, such as the Qian Ming Dynasty... Their two years of fiscal revenue combined are not that much, you ask them to spend 1,000 yuan It is impossible for tens of thousands of people to develop some bitter and cold land.
With the development of the Northeast, policies and funds were in place, and the follow-up was naturally the time to carry out various major actions. For a time, the three provinces in the Northeast began to send a large number of surveyors to various places to conduct surveys to see where they were suitable for settlement and establishment of farms. , where there are minerals that can be developed.
After survey, it was discovered that there are large amounts of gold mines in many places in Blackwater Province.
Especially in the Mohe area, surveyors discovered traces of large-scale gold mines there. When the news was returned to Jinling City, it caused quite a stir.
After all, this is gold, and the Dachu Empire is currently searching for gold all over the world to pave the way for the establishment of a pure gold standard, so its thirst for gold is very great.
Not only do they conduct survey and development at home, but they also go to overseas territories for survey and development. A few years ago, they also circled a place in Fuso to develop gold and silver. In recent years, they have also been looking for gold mines everywhere in Southeast Asia.
After traces of a large gold mine were discovered on the Mohe side, the Mining Department of the Ministry of Industry quickly sent people to conduct careful surveys and prepare for large-scale development.
However, during the survey, it was discovered that there were still some ignorant indigenous people in the area, and traces of Russians were also found.
These Russians, like unkillable rats, took advantage of the sparse population in the area north of Heilongjiang and ran around. From time to time, they bypassed the fortress checkpoints set up by the Chu army in the vast northern area and penetrated deep into the Heilongjiang River Basin.
Now, traces of Russians have been discovered in the Mohe area.
How can I bear this!
At the same time, once the Chu Empire's Northeast Development Plan is launched, it will affect the entire area south of Heilongjiang. Naturally, it is impossible for the Chu Empire to allow Russians to flee to the Heilongjiang Basin from time to time.
For the strategic security of the Northeast Development, for the security of the Xiaobeihaifu area, and even more for the security of the entire Mobei Mongolia region.
After more than a year of preparation, the Dachu Empire finally planned to take action against the Russians.
The northern strategy has long been formulated and long-term preparations have been made. In the rear, the Chu Empire will even build a small town all the way north from Zhangjiakou, Hebei, about 20 to 30 kilometers apart.
This kind of small town on the grassland not only has traditional military functions such as garrison and supply, but also provides accommodation, food, and rest for passing business travelers. It also provides a trading place and a place for herding points for nearby herdsmen.
These small towns go all the way north, first arriving at Guihua, then Fengzhoutan, then bypassing Yinshan Mountain and heading north, entering Mobei Province, and then arriving at Urg (Kulun), the capital of Mobei Province.
Then extending northward from Urg, there were some forts one after another, and all the way north into Fuzhikul City of Xiaobeihai Prefecture.
It is more than two thousand kilometers away from Tianjin by land to Khur City, and this route is also an important supply line for the Chu army in this area.
What maintains this supply line are the towns along the route that have been established over the past decade or so.
Otherwise, the Chu Empire would not be able to maintain such a long supply line in a truly deserted place.
In the past two or three years, the Chu Empire, mainly the military, has renovated this long supply line. This renovation is mainly based on the army's strength.
The main purpose is to slightly smooth out the roads in the wasteland, build bridges in some areas across rivers, etc.
In this way, a large amount of materials starting from Tianjin can be transported all the way north by four-wheeled heavy freight carriages, transported all the way to Kur City in a relay manner, and the materials can be distributed to troops stationed in surrounding areas with Kur City as the core. .
In addition to roads, what is even more obvious is the large number of four-wheeled heavy-duty carriages. For the purpose of transporting materials, the Dachu Empire has never diminished its enthusiasm for research on carriages, and it is not only studying the carriages themselves, but also studying railways.
Nowadays, in the Da Chu Empire, there are hundreds of kilometers of railways, and all the railways run on them are horse-drawn carriages.
And every year, companies, mainly mining companies and other companies that need to transport large amounts of goods, build a large number of railways on their own.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Transport, in the 21st year of Chengshun, more than 300 kilometers of railways are expected to be built and put into operation, which will bring the total railway mileage of the Dachu Empire to more than 1,000 kilometers.
I guess future generations won't believe this... The Chu Empire didn't even have a steam train, not even a high-pressure steam engine, but the total mileage of the railways has already exceeded one thousand kilometers.
This is all due to the huge demand for material transportation, especially the widespread use of steam engines, and the widespread use of briquettes for heating and cooking by the public, which has led to a huge surge in coal demand in the market. In recent years, the coal mining companies in the Dachu Empire have been increasing year by year. Over the past year, more coal has been produced, but coal is still in short supply.
The large demand for coal was also the direct motivation for major mines, especially coal mine bosses, to use steam engines and build railways.
Because they need to increase coal production and require greater transportation capacity, they naturally conduct a lot of research on the current core tools of land transportation, railways and horse-drawn carriages.
Let’s not talk about carriages anymore, let’s talk about railways. In the Chu Empire, the railways have been updated several times in just a dozen years. Now the latest wrought iron I-shaped railway has tracks and later generations can be built on a large scale to run steam engines. The railway is actually no different.
Not to mention that the mine bosses want to do it, in fact, the military wants to do it even more. Even if they only use horse-drawn carriages to run on the railway, the transportation volume can become even greater!
But the problem is, except for mine bosses, not many people can afford railways these days.
This thing is very expensive!
Under the plain terrain, the cost per kilometer is 10,000 to 20,000 Chu Yuan.
To build a railway from Tianjin to Kurcheng would cost at least 30 to 40 million yuan.
Moreover, there are not many people in this vast and sparsely populated area. Except for the military and a few business travelers, there are not even a few people, and not many goods will use this railway.
Spending so much money just to make the four-wheeled carriage transporting army supplies run more smoothly, only a madman would do this!
Therefore, if the army wants to build a railway in the north all the way to the city of Kuhl, it is impossible. It is even less reliable than the Northwest Railway. At least the demand on the Northwest Railway is stronger.
After all, these railways are all war-ready railways in a sense and have little commercial value.
Spending tens of millions at every turn just to make the war easier, the senior officials of the Chu Empire cannot do this even if they are prodigal.
Therefore, the construction of these war-ready railways is far away!
In contrast, in places with prosperous commerce and strong land transportation of goods or people, it becomes profitable to build such railways, such as railways in major mining areas, or railways between two economically important cities.
In the spring and April of the 21st year of Chengshun, a local government submitted an application to build a commercial railway!
