Why did he say that if he helped Di Fat collect taxes, he would definitely be able to let go of the Pai Gang?

Wu Ning explained to Qiu Shenji.

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There are three meanings in this.

First, the trade of the Tang Dynasty was far inferior to that of the later Song Dynasty. Whether it is the scale or the degree of official attention, it cannot be compared with the two songs.

Therefore, in terms of the importance of commercial taxation and the details, it cannot be compared with the two songs.

As mentioned before, Datang's commercial tax implements a one-size-fits-all policy, collecting taxes and housing taxes, and the same is true for trough transportation.

That is to say, it doesn't matter if you come from the sea or the river, whether you are carried by a person or a horse, pay the money through the state and take the tax according to the price.

Simple and direct, relatively not developed Datang business, very in line with the people's feelings.

But, in today's parlance, the simpler the rules, the easier it is to create loopholes.

One of the main drawbacks of the tax system is that it is not truly fair.

The imperial court can set up cards on the main roads of each state and county to collect taxes, but it cannot stop boats on rivers and seas to collect taxes.

In other words, commercial goods transported by land are taxed once from state to state. From the place of departure to the destination, you have to pay taxes several times through several states, and it keeps accumulating. Finally, the cost is raised.

And what about those who take the waterway?

No matter how far you go, even if you go by sea from Guangzhou, enter the canal and transport it all the way to Chang'an City, you only need to pay taxes once in Chang'an.

It's not that the court doesn't want to overcharge, it's just that there are too many loopholes that can be exploited.

Even if it is a strict investigation, if the merchant has more eyes and buys a fake road from the government in which state along the way, then the ship from Guangzhou to Chang'an will immediately become a ship from Bianzhou and Luoyang to Chang'an, and it will pay very little tax.

The imperial court had no choice, and it didn't want to change the tax system because of the extremely small business scale, so it could only turn a blind eye and let the trough evade taxes.

I have to say that Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty hollowed out the country, and the north-south water conservancy project that was established was ruined by these holy monarchs of the Tang Dynasty. The Grand Canal and the Jianghuai Shipping Route only made them projects for the benefit of the people, but they lowered fiscal revenues.

This may also be one of the reasons why when the water and soil resources of the Loess Plateau were destroyed and the Grand Canal was blocked, it was better to move the capital eastward again and again than to dredge the canal and make it completely abandoned.

Chang'an, since the Zhou Dynasty, has gone through the Zhou, Qin, Han, and Sui dynasties, but since the Tang Dynasty, it has never been able to become the real political center of China.

Having said that, the Pai Gang now has a 2,000-mile Yangtze River route, starting from Yizhou and passing through Meishan, Leshan, Yibin, Luzhou, Yuzhou, Xiazhou, Jingzhou, and Yuezhou.

If this route collects taxes on behalf of the platoon gangs, there will be platoon gangs watching from the moment the goods are on the ship, and they will pay the taxes of several states after passing through several states, and they will not be able to escape if they want to.

Does Di Fat have a reason to refuse?

This is one of them.

Second, the platoon gang said that it was a river bandit road rage, but what is a river bandit road rage?

disobeying the king's law, confronting the imperial court, killing people and setting fires, that is called a river bandit road tyrant.

However, if the Pai gang starts to help the court collect taxes, is it still called disobeying the king's law? Do you still have to fight against the imperial court?

I'm all subject to the government's control, so you can't call me a bandit road fighter anymore, right?

Naturally, the Pai Gang was whitewashed, and Di Fatzi had no reason to exterminate the Pai Gang.

The third is related to the first point.

That is, increasing the cost of tank transportation is very beneficial to the overall economic environment.

There is no doubt that the cost of tank transportation is low. From the perspective of labor costs, it is incomparable to land transportation.

However, this low must also be limited, and it must not be too low.

Just like now, not only the labor cost is low, but also the situation of being able to escape again and again after passing taxes is actually catastrophic, and it has a destructive destruction of Datang's already meagre economic system.

For example:

Take Fangzhou as an example, there are many mountains and few fields, so Fangzhou's food supply cannot be self-sufficient.

Even in a landed village like Xiashanao, it is normal to go to the city to buy grain.

Where did the grain and rice come from in the city?

There are three routes:

First, it came from the grain-producing land of Guanlong in the north.

The second is to come from Bashu over the mountains.

Third, the grain and rice from the Jiangnan, Jianghuai, and Jinghu plains were transported to Xiangzhou by water, and then transported ashore from the Danjiang Estuary in Xiangzhou to Fangzhou.

Of these three grain routes, at first glance the most troublesome and costly should be the third. The farthest one has to come thousands of miles south of the Yangtze River, and it has to be transshipped by land.

But in reality?

Wrong! The grain sold in Fangzhou is all grain and rice from the south of the Yangtze River.

The grain from Guanlong can only be taken by land, and it has to pass through more than a dozen prefectures and counties, and one state collects a tax once, and takes one out of thirty. In more than 10 states, not counting road consumption, you have to pay 3 to 40 percent of the price of grain for tax alone.

Although the grain in the Bashu Plain does not need to wear so many states, it has to climb over the mountains, and the labor cost is too high and too high.

Only the grain in the south of the Yangtze River, even if it is thousands of miles away, the trough transportation only pays the tax once, so the cost is not a star and a half lower than that of the other two roads.

This made the grain and rice of Guanlong and Bashu unable to compete with the grain and rice in Jiangnan in Fangzhou, and the grain prices of the entire Fangzhou were controlled by Yangzhou merchants.

This is not only not a good thing for the livelihood of Fangzhou, but from another point of view, what if Guanlong rice grain has nowhere to sell except Fangzhou?

In fact, there is nowhere to sell. Guanlong grain could not go south, so it had to go east.

However, to the east is Chang'an, which has been directly reached by waterway, and it is still the world of Jiangnan rice.

Guan Lang competed, so he had to backlog or sell at a loss.

For the farmers in Guanlong, if there is a bumper harvest, there is grain but no money, or even loss of money, it is better not to plant. It is still facing bankruptcy all the time, just like the families in the barren areas.

Therefore, although the Central Plains and Northwest China are also large grain producers and have abundant resources, they have always been the areas with the most serious and rapid land annexation, and they are also the areas where peasants' lives are the most difficult and prone to peasant uprisings.

Jiangnan is different, there is grain, salt, silk tea, and most importantly, Jiangnan has a trough transportation network that reaches the world.

Since the Han Dynasty, this place has never been poor.

It's absolutely competitive, and no one can beat it.

......

In short, this third article is very vague, if Wu Laojiu hadn't been exposed to finance in his previous life and had studied this, he wouldn't have thought of it.

However, this third is much more important than the first two.

With the wisdom of the fat man, it should also be seen.

Take 10,000 steps back, even if he can't see it, he doesn't even agree to the first two points, and he is bent on killing the platoon gang.

However, once this matter reached Mrs. Wu, with Wu Zetian's foresight, she would definitely be able to see it, and she would definitely force Di Renjie to agree.

"You listen to me."

Wu Laojiu's mouth was dry, "Just based on these three points, you send someone to find Di Fatzi, he has no reason not to agree!" ”

“......”

The question mark of the owner of the hill is in his head.

Well, with his elm head, he didn't understand a word.

......

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