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"Tax exempt?!"

After hearing Zhao Junchen's reply, Lin Yunpu's expression was a little shocked, and he subconsciously asked rhetorically.

"Yes, tax-free!" Zhao Junchen nodded, and further explained: "Once this shipping company is established, all kinds of goods carried by the cargo ships under the name of this shipping company can be tax-free on a large scale!" ”

After getting Zhao Junchen's confirmation, Lin Yunpu's expression was faintly excited, and he changed his previous restraint and calmness, and asked urgently: "I also hope that my lord, you can explain in detail, once this shipping company is established, how big is the scope of tax exemption?" What taxes are deductible? Excise duty? Ship bills? Stalls tax? Draw points? Donated? Or is it the toll tax of the yamen in various places? What kind of goods are exempt from tax? ”

*

The chaos of the tax status quo of the Ming Dynasty is fully reflected in Lin Yunpu's words, and there are so many various taxes and donations along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal!

Among them, the so-called "excise tax" is commonly known as "commercial tax". In the Ming Dynasty, the commercial tax of large cities was collected by the Ministry of Households, and the commercial tax of small and medium-sized cities was the responsibility of the provinces - a small part of which was paid to the national treasury, and most of which was reserved for local expenditure - in addition, the commercial tax of the Ming Dynasty was extremely low among the dynasties and dynasties, but only one in thirty.

As for the "ship banknote", it is the toll tax of cargo ships, which is generally taxed according to the voyage. This tax is also not high, and the bill to be paid for a 100-stone cargo ship from Nanjing to Beijing is only six or seven taels of silver, which is also collected by the household department.

There is also the "stall tax", which is the license tax for the stacking of goods, which is paid every three months. The local chamber of commerce collects the tax itself and then transfers it to the local yamen - this tax is lax because the local chamber of commerce is responsible for it. Naturally, the amount of tax will not be very large.

All three of these taxes are normal. Not only is the number small, but the proportion is not high, so it does not cause much pressure on the merchants.

It can be said that if there were only these three taxes, then the merchants of the Ming Dynasty would not have smuggled them one after another in order to avoid taxes.

In fact, for the merchants of the Ming Dynasty, several other taxes were the source of their stress.

For example, the "special commodity tax", which was originally collected by the Ministry of Industry. Special taxes on building materials such as wood, bamboo, copper, iron, and coal are not high, and the scope of the tax is not large, and it will not have much impact on merchants.

However, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the local yamen privately expanded the scope of tax collection of "points", and what goods needed to be taxed and how much tax and silver needed to be paid were all independently formulated by local tax officials, which was not only very arbitrary. Moreover, the phenomenon of double taxation in different places is also very serious.

Another example is the "toll tax", most of which are privately set up by the local yamen and the eunuchs of Huangzhuang to tax the passing caravans, although the "toll tax" is not high, but because there are too many similar tax collection stations. There are often two or three tax checkpoints between two adjacent cities, and the burden on merchants is naturally extremely heavy when they add up.

Furthermore. The central and local yamen at all levels often forcibly levy taxes on merchants for no reason. It is called "donation", such as the "relief fee" of Caoyun, and the "subsidy silver" of the army, and so on. Not only are there many patterns, but also quite frequent, which makes the merchants of the Ming Dynasty very disturbed and annoyed.

As for the local officials in the collection of taxes in the secret demand, deductions, fines, cards, forced donations, etc., it is more common, the officials exceeded, and even will tax the merchants' own grain and grass, the carts and horses that pull goods, and the clothes on their bodies, the tax situation in the Ming Dynasty is very bad, which can be seen!

All in all, although the Ming Dynasty has always pursued the policy of "low taxes to support the people", but the policy must be implemented by people, because the amount of taxes is linked to the income of local officials, the actual situation is that taxes are heavy, and the merchants and people are full of complaints! Often the goods worth 100 taels of silver, from the south of the Yangtze River to the capital need to pay two or three hundred taels of silver tax silver, not only the merchants are unprofitable, but also increase the cost of living of ordinary people, in this way, the merchants of Huizhou and Zhejiang are keen on smuggling, but also helpless.

It is precisely because of this that after Lin Yunpu heard the word "tax exemption", he changed his original intention and suddenly became interested in Zhao Junchen's proposal.

In Lin Yunpu's view, if the preferential policies given by Zhao Junchen are large enough and the scope of tax exemption is wide enough, then the shipping company proposed by Zhao Junchen is completely profitable for merchants in Huizhou and Zhejiang.

*

In fact, the scope of tax exemption envisioned by Zhao Junchen is much larger than Lin Yunpu's imagination.

After hearing Lin Yunpu's inquiry, Zhao Junchen smiled lightly and replied slowly: "Except for the most basic excise tax, ship money and door stall tax, the rest of the complicated taxes are all exempt!" In addition, following the example of the early days of our dynasty, if you transport the basic daily necessities of the people and agricultural tools, even the most basic excise tax can be exempted! ”

After a pause, Zhao Junchen continued to add: "According to my assumption, after the establishment of this shipping company, it will be because of the shares of the imperial court...... Well, if nothing else, His Majesty's Inner Treasury will also be a shareholder...... Therefore, all kinds of harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, whether it is a lottery, a toll tax, or all kinds of donations, can be completely exempted.

I have calculated before that if the merchants use this ship to transport goods, they can reduce the cost by at least 70%, and even lower than the cost of smuggling! Therefore, once this shipping company is established, it can easily monopolize the shipping business of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal! …… Boss Lin, Boss Bai, Boss Dai, all three of you are shrewd businessmen, so you naturally understand how big the profits of monopoly are! If you monopolize a prosperous waterway like the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, how much profit will it be! ”

Zhao Junchen's words were full of demagoguery, but Lin Yunpu, Bai Mingyu and Dai Fengfu were not easily confused, but they were all silent, just secretly calculating in their hearts.

And then, they had to admit it. Zhao Junchen did not deceive them, once this ship company was established. The profits are staggering!

Merchants were keen on smuggling, but they were also forced to do so. After all, there were too many taxes in the Ming Dynasty, and the merchants could only use smuggling in order not to lose money for themselves.

However, the cost of smuggling is also very high, not only need to bear risks, but also need to organize more manpower and material resources, but also have to buy off officials, officials, patrol battalions, and so on along the way. Not a small amount!

However, according to Zhao Junchen's proposal, once this shipping company is established, the goods carried only need to pay three basic taxes: excise tax, ship money, and gate tax, and the cost paid by the merchants is naturally much lower! According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, these three taxes are not high, at least not higher than the cost of smuggling!

So, it is conceivable that once this ship company is established. In order to reduce costs, merchants from all over the world will definitely abandon the means of smuggling and choose this ship to transport goods instead, so this ship company wants to monopolize the shipping business of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. It's not a difficult task!

Lin Yunpu, Bai Mingyu, and Dai Fengfu are smugglers themselves, and they are well aware of the shipping situation of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. Naturally, I understand that once the shipping business of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal is monopolized, the profits contained in it will be amazing!

Even the rich Hui and Zhejiang merchant gangs. It is impossible to remain indifferent to such business opportunities!

Although, once this boat company is established. will affect their original smuggling business; Although, the cargo ships, manpower, funds, etc. of this shipping company need to be prepared by the Huizhou and Zhejiang businessmen alone; Although the imperial court only provided some preferential policies, it had to occupy forty percent of the shares free of charge...... However, in the face of the bright future of this ship, it was all worth it!

Therefore, for the Huizhejiang Business Gang, Zhao Junchen's proposal is not only amazing, but also tempting!

However, there are too many tempting things in this world, and few can come true in the end.

Therefore, after a moment of silence, Lin Yunpu asked cautiously: "My lord, your idea is really amazing, and I am amazed by it." However, it was not difficult for the Hui and Zhejiang merchants to jointly establish a shipping company with the imperial court, whether it was cargo ships, manpower or silver, there was no shortage today. However, it's the ship's duty-free benefits that matter! Once your vision is realized, it will inevitably harm the interests of many people, so your proposal will inevitably attract opposition from many people...... In such a situation, how can you be sure that you will be able to make this offer happen? If you can't get the tax exemption for the ship, I'm afraid I'll be overjoyed. ”

Zhao Junchen smiled again and said: "How to realize this proposal, that is my business, I naturally have my own way, if I am not sure, I will not talk to you about this...... Now I just want to ask you, if I can get tax exemption for the shipping company, are you willing to send people, ships, and money to set up this shipping company together with the imperial court? ”

Lin Yunpu was silent for a moment, and then replied cautiously: "If it is just according to the contemptible people's ideas, your idea is completely feasible, and the contemptible people are also willing to devote themselves to this plan of your lord and contribute to the imperial court." However, this is only the idea of the contemptible person, and after the contemptible person returns, he still needs to consult the opinions of others...... However, if nothing else, most of the Hui Zhejiang Merchants Gang will support your proposal. ”

"In that case, you should go back and discuss first, and when Your Majesty's southern tour is over, you will naturally get relevant news from the imperial court, and I will also send someone to contact you at that time."

As he spoke, Zhao Junchen's expression was slightly colder, indicating that the conversation was over.

It's not that Zhao Junchen is unwilling to continue the in-depth talks, but the conversation has reached this point, and both sides need some practical actions.

Obviously, Lin Yunpu also understood this, so he didn't continue to entangle, and after bowing to Zhao Junchen, he led Bai Mingyu and Dai Fengfu away.

It's just that when the three of them turned around, Zhao Junchen suddenly said again: "Speaking of which, the Hui merchants and the Jin merchants are both famous merchants in our dynasty, but in recent years, the imperial court has always been extremely generous to the Jin merchants, but it has treated you Hui merchants much more harshly, which is quite a sense of prevention and suppression. Without him, the relationship between the Jin merchants and the imperial court was closer, and the interests had long been combined, while the Hui merchants relied on smuggling and smuggling salt to make money, not only did not have much connection with the imperial court, but also affected the tax situation of the imperial court, and there was a precedent of the Donglin Party interfering in politics, so it is not difficult to understand the favoritism of the imperial court. This time, my proposal is a great opportunity to reverse this situation for you Hui and Zhejiang businessmen, and I hope you will carefully consider the pros and cons, take a long-term view, and don't miss the opportunity. ”

After hearing Zhao Junchen's hint, Lin Yunpu's body paused slightly, and then said: "My lord, your deep meaning, the contemptible person will definitely explain it to others in detail, and please rest assured." ”

……

…… (To be continued......)