When Zhang Siwei said eight taxes and one tax, his heart was bleeding - since the Great Reform, taking advantage of the great prosperity of industry and commerce in the world and the rise of Zhang Siwei's political status, the Shanxi Merchant Group headed by Wang Chonggu made a big push into industry and commerce, and gained A large market share.
After seven or eight years of hard work, Shanxi merchants, like the traditional Huai merchants, Fujian merchants, Hui merchants, Qin merchants, Lu merchants, Su merchants, Jiangyou merchant gangs and other large merchant gangs, have become the backbone of the world's industry and commerce. strength.
These large merchant gangs originally came from traditional industries. For example, Huai merchants were mainly engaged in salt industry; Fujian merchants were mainly engaged in shipping; Qin merchants were mainly engaged in tea and horse transportation; Hui merchants and Su merchants were mainly engaged in pawn and silk production and sales; Jiangyou merchants were primarily engaged in the production and sales of pawns and silk; Business gangs mainly focus on chain hotels and so on.
As for Shanxi merchants, they made their fortune by relying on "policies" and have developed mainly in the financial and salt industries. The so-called policy rice is actually the "official business" gene that Shanxi merchants carry in their bones - "Anda tribute" is the most typical one. The Shanxi merchant group made the first pot of gold to make a fortune by monopolizing the Han-Mongolian trade.
After the Saihanba Meeting, the imperial court fully opened up the trade between Han and Mongolia, and large business gangs such as Qin merchants and Huai merchants also entered this market. Shanxi merchants suddenly fell from their monopoly position and suffered a lot of losses. Under Wang Chonggu's control, on the one hand, they consolidated their traditional positions, and on the other hand, they made aggressive inroads into inland industry and commerce, seizing the territory of Huai merchants and Hui merchants, and developing a financial industry based on banknotes—now upgraded to the banking industry.
It should be pointed out that although these big business gangs are famous, compared with the industrial and commercial groups founded by Zhu Yijun, they are like ants compared to elephants. Before the Great Reform, some business gangs, such as Lu merchants, Fujian merchants and Jiangyou merchant gangs, actively relied on the royal family's industrial and commercial groups to provide them with raw materials and logistics services, and their scale was greatly expanded.
After the Great Reform, these merchant gangs that were previously attached to the royal family were first-come-first-served, and the technology and market they obtained were much better than those of Shanxi merchants and Qin merchants. Therefore, the development of Shanxi merchants in recent years was not as good as during the Anda tribute period - Shanxi merchants He is good at "keeping money" but lacks the risk-taking gene. This is something Wang Chonggu and others have discovered long ago and are trying to reverse.
Despite the lack of risk-taking genes, Shanxi merchants have made great progress in the financial industry, mining industry, wood processing and transportation industry, salt industry and other directions in recent years. Especially after Zhang Siwei ascended to the top of Zhengshitang, the Shanxi merchant group grew rapidly like a snowball.
But now that the emperor wants to change the tax system, Zhang Siwei secretly complains. This is bad news for any big business gang, especially Shanxi merchants.
Since the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, the industrial and commercial taxes collected have been extremely low. Although the tax collection methods vary depending on the objects of the tax, all types of handicrafts have always been levied on an ad valorem basis. The tax rate is generally one-thirtieth, and the tax exemption scope is extremely wide. All items for weddings and funerals can be woven by oneself. Cloths, agricultural equipment, food and taxable items, own items transported by car and ship, as well as fish, vegetables and fruits not sold in the market are all exempt from tax.
However, for industrialists and merchants who are not members of a business gang, the so-called low tax rate is actually not low - it is the same as the tax rate for homesteaders. Before the strip law, the so-called "land tax" collected by the court was extremely low. In the early years of Wanli, the national average was 4 liters per mu. What is this concept? Based on rice fields, it’s about 2%; based on wheat fields, it’s about 4%. Compared with Japan's one-half tax rate during the Warring States Period, this is simply pitifully low.
But these regular taxes plus Ding Fu, Jun Yao, Li Cha, and Miscellaneous - these are actually considered "regular taxes". The key is the corruption and inefficiency in the collection process and layer upon layer of exploitation. The average tax per mu of farmers has suddenly dropped. It increased sharply to one-third of the yield per mu, which was about ten times the so-called "regular land tax". Therefore, in disaster years, large-scale mergers are inevitable.
The same goes for commercial taxes. As the imperial court became increasingly bloated and inefficient, governments at all levels with insufficient finances and taxes began to set up banknotes on a large scale to collect "shipping materials fees" and "carriage and horse taxes"; cities set up "door stall taxes" and various other "Miscellaneous Pai" and "Shared Pai", the former is regarded as local tax, while the latter "Miscellaneous Pai" and "Shared Pai" are almost extortion by local officials. In addition, the exploitation of tax collection is the same as the land tax. In fact, the Ming Dynasty Business taxes are not low.
Today's actual industrial and commercial tax rate is about one in ten taxes, which is close to the "eight taxes in one" proposed by Zhu Yijun. But for Shanxi merchants and other big officials and businessmen, no one dared to accept miscellaneous factions and apportionments. They only pay a small amount of fixed amounts for things like banknote customs and door stall taxes. Compared with small industrial and commercial enterprises, the tax burden of these large business gangs is only about 15 yuan or even lower.
Therefore, it is natural for Zhang Siwei to feel deeply pained by the tax rate proposed by the emperor - which is equivalent to more than doubling the regular tax rate.
For Zhu Yijun, he was a tax worker before time travel—the Ming Dynasty's tax policy, which was full of loopholes, had no secrets in his eyes. After all, this is what he does.
Zhu Yijun has been studying the taxation issues of the Ming Dynasty since the first year of Wanli. However, he did not take any action until the 14th year of Wanli's reign because he understood the fundamentals of fiscal and taxation policies: the first priority is to conserve tax sources.
Before the reform, the largest tax source in the country, apart from agricultural taxes such as land and land taxes, was the industrial and commercial consortium established by Zhu Yijun. It was meaningless to increase the industrial and commercial tax at this time, because the profits of this consortium were used by him for research and development and new innovation. Junhe helped the court go through various painful periods.
In the first few years after the reform, although various industrial and commercial enterprises were supported by capital, taxes could not be increased during the start-up stage. What Zhu Yijun needed was for them to grow wildly, create jobs, and thus promote the transformation of the entire society.
Now that it has been six years since the major reform was fully implemented, Zhu Yijun needs to use tax reform to put a new rein on the rapid growth of capital. Therefore, tax reform is timely.
The world at this time is a mixture of capital and feudalism. Zhu Yijun's judgment is that it is a semi-capitalist and semi-feudal society. In major cities, industry and commerce based on textiles, cement manufacturing, steel smelting, mining, and primary chemicals have cultivated sizable markets; in the vast rural areas, the upper class is based on productivity and clan ties based on farming and weaving. The architecture has hardly changed.
The socialized production of primary industrial products has completely destroyed the original handicraft industry in cities. The Zhangzhou civil uprising is a typical example. Zhu Yijun, who suppressed the crisis through various policies, understood that new capital urgently needs to expand the market.
Whether the emperor is willing or not, the tentacles of capital will extend to the countryside, absorbing new labor and expanding the consumer market, but the self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy cannot provide these. Because this requires a substantial increase in the consumption level of farmers, mainly homesteaders.
When it comes to such macro-economic policy adjustments, future generations of junior directors cannot help but feel as if they are walking on thin ice. But later generations of China have a ready-made experience that Zhu Yijun can directly copy - large-scale infrastructure construction. This "one force knocks down ten" type of capital-directed flood irrigation policy will quickly give birth to cities and immediately improve farmers' living standards.
Infrastructure construction requires huge amounts of funds, but it is impossible for capitalists to take the initiative to spend it. This leads to Zhu Yijun’s second motivation for tax reform—increasing tax revenue to provide funds for infrastructure construction.
The third motivation is to solve the problem of land annexation. Zhu Yijun put tax reform and "land reform" together, and what he wanted was the mutual promotion between the two. Because infrastructure construction requires not only funds, but also land. The cost of constructing facilities without land infrastructure is extremely high. For details, see the California High-Speed Rail Project - what Zhu Yijun learned in the party school.
This was the beginning of the Second Wanli Reform, which was triggered by the confrontation between the emperors and ministers of Yangxin Hall. The entire top-level design is extremely ambitious - Zhu Yijun plans to launch a major discussion across the country and gather extensive public opinion. Zhang Siwei's study conversation is just the end of Qingping.
There is also a very necessary prerequisite for the realization of this top-level design, which is that the emperor has absolute control over the national economy. Before the Great Reform, the Ming Dynasty did not have a large-scale industrial and commercial complex, and its control was not a problem, but it did not have the conditions to realize this top-level design; after the Great Reform, a large number of new capitalists have been born - big businessmen with a large number of remnants of feudal guilds Bang is a clear example.
Therefore, Zhu Yijun could not tolerate Heshengyuan, the Shanxi Merchant Bank, being out of control. The confrontation with the prime minister is not that he cares about interests, but that he does not allow the financial industry to escape the emperor's control.
The banking industry, which is close to the financial operation model of later generations, has been born with Zhu Yijun's encouragement. Unlike the independent exploration of financial capital without the guidance of time travellers, Zhu Yijun first brought the financial industry into modernization in order to better serve the development of industry and commerce. This was an extremely important decision he made after careful consideration - because the banking industry has It is closely related to economic development, and it is an industry that can be matured in advance, because this industry does not involve industrial production. The strict system and mature management will only make Zhu Yijun more comfortable in controlling the real economy.
Although the direct modernization of the financial industry has deprived capital of necessary training, Zhu Yijun's original intention was not to make capital strong and invincible in the struggle with feudal production relations. He needed to use the largest financial capital to control the country, not the other way around. Controlled by capital - Zhu Yijun, the time traveler, has left the unilateral and transparent map and entered a new historical fog with the whole world.
