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Before credibility is established, it is unrealistic to immediately replace all silver with banknotes and unify the currency. Emperor Hongwu can learn from this.
The problem is that without unified currency, ordinary people will always suffer.
The whip law currently in effect levies silver per acre. However, the lower class people usually have little income and basically receive copper coins. Therefore, when paying the two taxes, they have to exchange them with merchants, and the merchants use this to raise the price of silver. , ordinary people suffered severe exploitation.
At the same time, during the period when the two taxes are levied, people need to sell a large amount of grain in exchange for money, and grain prices will fall sharply. Originally, the tax of one hundred catties of grain had to be paid, but two hundred catties of grain had to be sold at a low price to pay the tax.
Another issue is the fire consumption of tax money. When local officials levy money taxes, they will levy more money and money on the grounds of fire consumption to make up for the deficit caused by the fire consumption in the local treasury. However, the amount of fire damage has always been decided by local officials, which has become an excuse for local officials to take the opportunity to make money.
All these factors led to the One Whip Law, which was intended to reduce the burden on the people and increase the court's tax revenue, to be called the One Whip for the Disabled People in the Ming Dynasty.
In the past, the Qin State only had Jiangxi and Huguang, and the officials who had just taken office were relatively clean. In addition, Qin Mu's grain strategy stabilized grain prices to a large extent, so these problems did not become prominent in the short term.
However, as the territory expands, if these problems are not effectively solved, they will soon be exposed, causing serious harm to the people, and Da Qin, which has just become a country, will lose the support of the people.
Qin Mu asked the ministers sitting here for their opinions on these three issues. Xu Yingjie, the waiter at the Ministry of Revenue, stood up first and said: "I suggest that we increase the coverage of bank outlets and at least set up branches in every county. In this way, people in each county can go to banks to exchange money when paying taxes to prevent profiteers. Take the opportunity to drive up the price of silver and reduce the exploitation suffered by the people;
In addition, after the Banknote Law was enacted, I suggested that two million small banknotes should be printed first to replace copper coins and allow people to pay taxes with banknotes. This would also reduce the disadvantages caused by money exchange and solve a problem at the same time. The issue of fire consumption. "
One of the key reasons why Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes were resisted by the people was that the Ming court did not accept treasure banknotes in taxation at first.
Zhu Yuanzhang was born as a small farmer. He had no idea about economics, so he issued treasure banknotes with no reserves and no issuance limit. What's even more funny is that he printed the treasure and used it to buy things from the people. As a result, when collecting taxes, Baoqian was not collected. How could it be possible to establish the credibility of Baoqian
So Xu Yingjie made it clear at this time. After issuing banknotes. Allowing people to use paper copies to pay taxes will not only easily establish the credibility of Baochao, but also avoid the damage suffered by people who have to exchange money when paying taxes.
Liu Boquan, Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, Zhuge Min, and Li Yuan, both cabinet scholars, came forward one after another to express support for Xu Yingjie's proposal. The role of banks in this regard has been reflected in Jiangxi and Huguang. This not only effectively combated the damage caused by unscrupulous merchants who drove up silver prices, but also increased a large amount of revenue for the court.
With the support of these people and Qin Mu's final decision, even if the ministers sitting here have any selfish motives. I didn’t dare to come forward to object.
Things were dealt with one by one, and after solving the problem of money exchange harming the people, Bian Di, a doctor in the Ministry of Rites, came out and said about the second question: "I reported to the King of Qin that Changpingcang was built in the Song Dynasty and was collected from the tax banks of various states and counties. The corresponding amount is used for grain storage, collecting grain when the grain price is low, selling when the grain price rises, and suppressing the grain price;
Our king's previous grain strategy also played a significant role in stabilizing grain prices due to sufficient reserves. I believe that our dynasty can learn from the Changpingcang system of the Song Dynasty and improve it, which will certainly reduce the damage suffered by the people due to low food prices during the period of paying the two taxes;
In addition, the payment deadline can also be appropriately extended. In the past, people had to pay taxes immediately after collecting grain, forcing everyone to sell grain in exchange for silver during the same period. If the payment deadline is appropriately extended, it will be difficult for unscrupulous grain dealers to suppress grain prices for a long time, and people will be protected from being exploited. "
Yang Tinglin, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, who had rarely spoken all this time, couldn't help but stand up and said: "King of Qin, the first item mentioned by Mr. Bian is to establish Changping Granary to stabilize food prices. I agree. But extending the tax payment deadline is questionable. Ordinary people People's income is not abundant, and if they are not required to pay taxes immediately after harvesting, the money will be used for other purposes, and they will no longer be able to pay taxes. In this way, tax arrears will often occur, and the government will be unable to survive due to a lack of fiscal revenue. ”
This is indeed a problem. Extending the tax payment deadline can prevent people from selling a large amount of grain during the same period and being exploited by grain merchants. However, extending the tax payment deadline would easily lead to a large amount of tax arrears, making it difficult for the court to maintain itself.
Qin Mu thought for a while and said, "Ministers, let's see if this is possible. After the tax payment deadline is extended, if any household owes taxes, it will not be able to enjoy this preferential policy in the second year. It must be collected immediately after harvesting along with the tax arrears from the previous year." The amount will be paid together. Only after the tax arrears are paid can the taxpayer continue to enjoy the tax deferral policy.”
Sima An replied: "I agree with King Qin's policy, but it is difficult to predict what problems will arise when it is implemented. Therefore, I suggest that the policy of extending the tax payment period should be tried out in a few prefectures in various places to see how it works. After the results are achieved, it will be appropriate to decide whether to fully promote it.”
"Okay, let's leave Chang Pingcang to Sinong Temple to prepare for the construction. For the pilot work of extending the tax payment period, the Ministry of Revenue will select two states in each province for trial implementation to see the effects."
After the second problem was successfully solved, the problem of fire consumption finally remained.
The fire consumption is indeed high. When local governments collect taxes, they collect broken silver, and the quality is different. When it is dissolved into silver ingots and handed over to the national treasury, it will cause a certain amount of fire consumption.
If the local officials did not levy fire consumption and silver, then they would have to bear the shortfall caused by it. They would definitely not do it. Therefore, it had become the tacit approval of the imperial court to distribute the fire consumption to the people.
The problem was that the court did not explicitly stipulate how much additional fire-consuming silver would be levied because it was not part of the official tax. This provided local officials with a favorable excuse to take advantage of the opportunity to make money.
Before banknotes became the only legal currency, the problem of fire consumption always existed. It depends on how to solve it.
Gu Junen said: "King Qin, the problem of fire consumption is not difficult to solve. The court only needs to formulate a unified standard for collecting fire consumption, collect it together with the regular tax, and keep it in the vassal treasury to make up for the deficit in the vassal treasury;
However, there are deeper reasons for the problem of fire consumption. The salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty was too low. Taking the Qipin County magistrate as an example, the annual salary was 90 dan. With this salary, it could barely support it in the early Ming Dynasty. In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, due to As prices rise, most officials are no longer able to support their families with their salaries, forcing officials to engage in fraud to alleviate poverty. Official corruption is becoming increasingly legalized and open.
Therefore, I believe that in order to solve the problem of malpractice in Huohu, it is necessary to first increase the salaries of officials. Otherwise, classifying Huohu as a regular tax will only be a piece of paper, and local officials will still make clever excuses to exploit the people. "
As soon as Gu Junen finished speaking, all the ministers present looked at Qin Mu. Who wouldn't want to increase their salary
But it depends on whether Qin Mu is as stingy as Zhu Yuanzhang. If he has the same virtue as Zhu Yuanzhang, everyone should forget about it.
It's hard to say. Including Sima An, we don't know what decision Qin Mu will make. Qin Mu has always been very frugal personally, which is very similar to Zhu Yuanzhang;
But on the other hand, Qin Mu was very generous to the Qin army officers and soldiers. This stark contrast makes it difficult for everyone to determine which side he prefers.
Seeing the reaction of the ministers, Qin Mu secretly laughed in his heart. The salary in the Ming Dynasty was too low. This is a fact. From the examples of the Ming Dynasty, we can know that it is not necessarily a good thing for officials to have a salary that is too low. After corruption is legalized and made public, it will not be a good thing. hard to control.
Although the State of Qin had previously paid salaries according to the standards of the State of Qin, during the holidays, Qin Mu would reward his officials in various names, thus increasing their legal income in a disguised manner.
The salaries of officials should be increased. This was something Qin Mu was considering. Since everyone was watching dryly, Qin Mu followed suit and said, "What Gu Shilang said is not unreasonable. Then the cabinet will redraft the salary plan." The salary of the official should be planned and handed over as soon as possible. The matter of returning the fire consumption to the public will be handed over to the Ministry of Revenue to determine the amount of additional fire consumption and then submit it to the court for discussion. "
"My king is wise!"
"My King Shengming!"
"Long live my king!"
“………”
This was the first time that Qin Mu received such warm praise at a court meeting.
Qin Mu felt very uncomfortable when he heard this. Damn it, I have a lot of sage points. I have never seen you praise me so unanimously. Only if I give you a salary increase, you are shouting so loudly. You are a bunch of sycophants!
Generally speaking, the Qin State is now considered to be full of talents, and it is relatively energetic and efficient. After various policies are put forward, there are relatively few cases of stalemate with each other. Several important decisions can be negotiated in one day. Qin State Mu was still very satisfied with this. Just flatterers are just flatterers. If you want the horse to run away and the horse not to eat grass, that won't work.
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.(To be continued...)
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