"Your Majesty, after deducting all expenses this year, the national treasury still has 16 million taels of silver in reserve," said the Minister of Revenue Fang Yuegong, bowing.
Chongzhen laughed: "According to the annual deficit of 8 million taels, this money can last for two years! Great, great, you are really my good helpers!"
All the cabinet members stood there in silence.
Everyone knows it.
If the Ming Dynasty cannot achieve a balance between revenue and expenditure within the next two years, it will once again face a financial crisis.
And this is when there is no war.
Once a war breaks out, the huge military supplies will accelerate the consumption of silver deposits.
There are also pensions, rewards, etc.
By then, the already stretched national treasury will be further strained.
The cabinet fell into a fierce argument over this issue.
There are only two ways: increase revenue or reduce expenditure.
Just as Chongzhen had expected, the austerity plan was the first to be rejected.
People started discussing open source.
"I think we can increase the commercial tax. The commercial tax rate of our dynasty is 1 in 30, which is really too low!" Huang Jin, the new Minister of Rites, suggested, "Take the Southern Song Dynasty as an example. The Southern Song Dynasty, which only controlled half of the country, had an annual income of 10 million strings of coins at its peak. According to the ratio of one string of copper coins to one tael of silver, the tax revenue of the Southern Song Dynasty was five times that of the Ming Dynasty!"
"Among them, land tax accounts for 20%, customs duty accounts for 15%, and the remaining 65% is all commercial tax. The Ming Dynasty can completely follow suit."
Without waiting for Chongzhen to express his opinion, several others immediately stood up to oppose.
Especially the cabinet chief Fan Jingwen, who was the loudest voice of opposition.
"The Song Dynasty had to impose heavy commercial taxes. At that time, Song and Jin were neighbors, and it was very difficult to collect land taxes in border areas and other remote areas. Sometimes, the land taxes collected were robbed by bandits before they could be sent to the capital, causing a sharp drop in the court's land tax revenue."
"In order to make up for the losses here, the Song Dynasty court can only find another way."
"First, they raised taxes on farmers. In order to avoid civil unrest caused by excessive taxes, the Song Dynasty conscripted the strong men into the army. The remaining old, weak, sick and disabled people could not rebel even if they wanted to. On the surface, it seemed to be no problem, but in reality it led to redundant soldiers."
"Secondly, they set up more than 2,000 commercial tax offices (equivalent to tax bureaus) in the capital and local areas, which resulted in redundant officials."
"The Commercial Taxation Department has set various commercial taxes. In addition to transit tax and residence tax, there are also complicated taxes, including but not limited to rice, cloth, livestock and even eggs. Ordinary people have to pay taxes when they carry a basket of vegetables into the city to sell, and they have to pay taxes again when they leave after selling them."
"According to statistics, the highest commercial tax rate in the Southern Song Dynasty was 70% or even 80%!"
"Add to that the high prices caused by the government selling salt and iron, and ordinary people had a very hard life."
"On the contrary, wealthy gentry and merchants were hardly affected, and they could adjust the prices of their goods at any time to cope with price changes. This is one of the reasons why the literati miss the Song Dynasty."
"The ultimate victims are only the lower-class people."
"The Yuan Dynasty inherited the Song Dynasty system, and Emperor Taizu Gao suffered greatly from it, so from the beginning of the country, it was stipulated that all commercial taxes should be levied at one-thirtieth, and those who exceeded the limit would be punished for violating the order."
"In the seventh year of Hongwu, Taizu issued another decree to exempt the people from taxes on their self-woven cloth, self-raised poultry, and self-grown grain, vegetables, fruits, bamboo and grass."
"Your Majesty is not a tyrant, and you will not dare to violate the rules set by Taizu."
Fan Jingwen's last sentence was very well said. It seemed to be flattering Chongzhen, but in fact it blocked Chongzhen's way to increase commercial taxes.
Chongzhen smiled and nodded to Fan Jingwen.
He had no intention of raising commercial taxes, so he gave Fan Jingwen an expression of approval.
"The land tax cannot be increased, and neither can the commercial tax. The court has a deficit of eight million taels every year. We must find a way to solve it, right?" After the hall quieted down, Chongzhen raised the question again.
The cabinet members hesitated and had nothing to say.
There are only a few ways to increase revenue, and they have no other choice except to increase taxes.
"Since you all have no solution, how about I suggest a method?" Chongzhen used the old routine.
"Your Majesty, please enlighten us!" The ministers had no choice but to respond.
Chongzhen's mouth curled up slightly, "I plan to restart the mining tax!"
It would have been better if these two words had not been mentioned, but after they were mentioned, they caused strong opposition from the cabinet.
"In the 27th year of the Wanli reign, the tax-collecting eunuch Ma Tang set up checkpoints in Tianjin to collect taxes. He extorted money by trickery and plunder. In just one year, he destroyed 100 businesses and caused 10,000 people in Tianjin to riot!"
"During the Silk Weaver Rebellion in the 29th year of the Wanli reign, more than 2,000 weavers in Suzhou launched a riot to protest against the excessive taxation by the tax collectors."
"Tax Supervisor Liang Yong looted the imperial tombs of past dynasties while collecting taxes in Shaanxi..."
"Yang Rong, the eunuch who collected taxes in Yunnan, provoked a popular uprising and was killed..."
"And Gao Huai who caused chaos in Liao!"
Several cabinet ministers took turns to denounce the evil deeds of the tax collectors, trying to prevent Chongzhen from reinstating the mining tax.
The mining tax of the Ming Dynasty can be broken down into parts.
Mine: mining.
Mining is the process of extracting minerals. First, you find someone who is good at geomancy to find the mining site, then hire miners to mine, and then sell the minerals for money.
Theory is theory, but the actual implementation process is full of chaos.
Some eunuchs did follow the rules, honestly looking for mines and hiring miners to open mines and smelt.
In order to commit adultery, some eunuchs would first look for a wealthy family in the local area.
Then he led people to dig pits in front of the doors and yards of rich households, under the pretext of mineral exploration.
After digging the pits, they did not backfill them. Instead, they took the relevant documents and told the wealthy households that these pits were dug for the emperor to mine, and no one except them could backfill them, otherwise it would be disobeying the emperor's order!
In order to settle the matter, the rich families could only give money.
The pit was only filled after the money was packaged as mining taxes and sent to the capital.
Tax: levy of taxes.
The taxes here are mainly commercial taxes and taxes on mining and smelting.
(Smelting includes copper, iron, lead, gold, silver and other minerals)
The actual collection process was also full of chaos. In order to complete their tasks, some eunuchs collected tolls from all the people entering the city, regardless of whether they were merchants or not.
What's worse, some people falsely accused the caravan's goods of being contraband and confiscated them directly, taking a small portion and keeping the majority in their own pockets.
The tax on mining and smelting is even more terrible. If there is a mine, you have to mine it; if there is no mine, you have to pay silver.
This is exactly what the eunuch Gao Huai did when he was in Liaodong. He exploited and squeezed the local military households and civilians, causing the imperial court to lose the support of the people.
At that time, a nursery rhyme was popular in Liaodong: Liao people have no brains, so they are all dug out from Huai River; Liao people have no marrow, so they are all drawn from Huai River.
Didn’t Chongzhen know the harm of levying mining taxes?
Of course he knew it and hated it.
Therefore, he did not intend to actually collect mining taxes, but wanted to confiscate property in the name of mining taxes!
This time.
He wants to confiscate the house legally and reasonably!
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