In addition to Bianliang Kaifeng Prefecture as the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were three other capitals, namely Beijing Daming Prefecture, Nanjing Yingtian Prefecture, and Xijing Henan Prefecture.
The three places are Daming County in Hebei Province, Shangqiu City in Henan Province, and Luoyang City in Henan Province.
As secondary capitals, Daming Prefecture, Yingtian Prefecture and Henan Prefecture enjoyed greater power than other states. For example, the various transport envoys, criminal justice envoys, and grain peace envoys (the military governors were not permanent) were basically all located in these places.
Yingtian Prefecture is connected to Huai and Zhejiang in the south, Qing and Xu in the east, and Bianliang in the west. Its transportation and trade are extremely developed, which has also given rise to more prosperous commerce than other cities.
But along with commerce, there is also oppression.
Yingtian Prefecture set up a local commercial tax office and set up checkpoints along the Bian River in Ningling, Yingtian Prefecture, and Gushu to intercept passing ships and collect high taxes. Taxes had to be paid to six points just from Yingtian Prefecture.
Moreover, it is more difficult to deal with the King of Hell than the little devils. All kinds of taxes and field affairs have to be taken care of. After all, after layers of exploitation, basically when you leave Huainan and return to Zhejiang, the taxes along the way may reach more than 20 points, which is quite serious exploitation.
Tian Chang complained bitterly about the taxes along the way.
These top businessmen are not so bad. They can bring more goods at a time, and even hide some smuggled goods in the goods occasionally. After making some arrangements, they can make a lot of money by selling at a low price but in large quantities.
But the small and medium-sized merchants suffered, as they had no connections and no capital. For a cargo worth 500 guan, including the fees paid along the way, they would have spent over 100 guan.
In addition to the large taxes of at least 20%, there are also many small taxes such as tolls, bridge tolls, docking fees, and ship fees.
If you add in the cost of renting a boat and hiring people, sometimes your goods worth 500 guan will have to increase in value to 1,000 guan by the time they reach the destination just to break even.
In this way, the end consumers are the ones who are ultimately harmed. No wonder the tea purchased for twenty or thirty cents by the Zhejiang tea farms would increase in price by two or three times by the time it reaches Bianliang.
In addition to serious tax exploitation, the business environment in Yingtian Prefecture is not very good.
As in Bianliang, the prevalence of organized crime led to the rampant growth of criminal gangs. Merchants, in addition to having to curry favor with officials, were also inevitably plundered by criminal gangs when conducting business in Yingtian Prefecture.
In addition, there are indeed many corrupt officials, who mainly occupy the various ferry crossings for the canal transportation and demand bribes. However, these people really do their work. As long as you give them money, they will ask for less tax silver from you. It can be considered a mutual benefit in a sense.
The boat drifted slowly on the canal. The caravan ahead had already left the Ningling Canal Port and was heading towards Yingtian Prefecture.
Tian Chang kept talking about tax issues along the way, and Zhao Jun just listened without saying a word.
When he had almost finished speaking, he added with a lingering feeling: "Minister, this is what I know about all the taxes along the canal route. Adding up everything, it's close to 30%."
"Um."
Zhao Jun nodded slightly and said, "This tax is indeed a bit heavy."
"Who says it isn't?"
Tian Chang added, "As a result, many people evade taxes by taking smaller roads or tributaries, or by taking the wrong route and passing through areas with fewer tax checkpoints."
"oh."
Zhao Jun responded without comment.
Tian Chang was puzzled, but seeing that Zhao Jun remained calm, he had no choice but to remain silent.
When they were still about five or six miles away from Yingtian Prefecture, and could already see the numerous villages and farmlands northwest of the city in the distance, Zhao Jun asked Tian Chang, "Master, I'm planning to go outside the city to take a look. Do you want to come with me?"
What he meant was that if something happened to Tian Chang, he could send someone to take him back to his merchant ship, which was moving slowly and was right in front.
Tian Chang had something to say, so he couldn't help but say, "Dean, I have a question."
"you say."
"The magistrate wanted to hear about the grain transport tax and the corrupt officials. I've told you about it. The exploitation along the way is so severe. Isn't the magistrate angry?"
In fact, what he asked was not something a cautious businessman would ask. In the past, Tian Chang would definitely not dare to ask.
But he had another thing in his mind, so he had to bite the bullet and ask.
Zhao Jun sighed, shook his head and said, "I am indeed angry, but there are some things that cannot be done for the time being."
"Why?"
Tian Chang asked.
"Because the exploitation was so harsh, it wasn't the local officials who were making a lot of money, but the imperial court."
Zhao Jun explained, "Local lower-level officials' salaries were low, and many even received no salary. To get money, they had to resort to manipulation, often creating false pretenses to extort taxes. The transport envoys and the Commercial Tax Bureau would take the majority of the collected taxes and hand them over to the court, while lower-level officials would take a smaller portion. This created a relationship."
Tian Chang frowned and thought.
He is a businessman and actually cannot think about the problem from the national level. He can only look at it from the perspective of the victims. He feels that the government's exploitation at all levels has made them miserable.
But the problem is that Zhao Jun looked at the problem from a national perspective, and he knew that the reason for the exploitation at all levels was not just the local government, but also the problem of government orders from above.
Commercial taxes in the Song Dynasty were very strict. There were tax offices on every road and checkpoint, and there were also heavy penalties for merchants who evaded taxes.
In addition, tax collectors and officials from the Commercial Tax Bureau were also happy to find various excuses to collect taxes.
It is not because these taxes go into their own pockets, but because after these taxes are paid, the court will distribute the money according to a certain proportion.
In other words, the tax officials and tax collectors in the Commercial Tax Bureau did not receive a salary. Their income depended on how much tax they collected that year. If the tax was high, their salary would be high, and if the tax was low, their salary would be low.
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